You might tell me that first person platforming simply doesn't work, but in terms of the pure ludological essence of a game, I honestly don't know if this can be bettered. It's smooth, it's dynamic, it's just fucking brilliant.

And then there is the other side. From a narratological perspective, Kentucky Route Zero gave me a lot of what I have been wanting a game to do for a while: give the player credit. They spun a magical realist masterwork and made it work as an actual game. Waiting years upon years for each new part wove its way into the experience, so that when I finished that final part, I felt simultaneously empty and whole.

Top down action perfected. Every single Zelda game can eat its heart out.

My first ever favourite game, and 3D action adventure perfected. Legend of Zelda games can once again eat their heart out.

It might be becoming obvious that novelty can carry a game a long way for me. I don't mean comedy, I mean doing something nobody else has done. Killer7 beguiles me to this day, and it's unlikely we will ever see anything of its ilk released again.

Easily the best in the series, as it shapes the world as it was. You are not the answer to everyone's problems, you are a thorn in their side, and you have very little power. A spectacular achievement.

They perfected the turn based JRPG, and yet y'all are still making more? Fuck off.

I kind of feel that if I were to pretend I thought that objectivity were a thing that existed, this is clearly the best game I have ever played. It only improves the more you think about it, and is one of the most emotionally draining games you could ever hope to play.

So many hours poured into this, and I would do it again. Exploration is so fun, the quests are endlessly entertaining and the score might be the best I have ever heard.

A game I love as a game, and even more for what it meant to me outside of the game. The backdrop to one of the closest friendships I will ever have.

The multi-route romance VN perfected. Each route treats its characters with endless compassion, and looking back on each one makes me supremely nostalgic.

Local multiplayer GOAT

You don't need me to tell you this, but Lucas Pope is a genius.

Supergiant are a really, really consistent company. Their first might still be the best though. The soundtrack pops off, and it's got an incredibly emotionally potent narrative for a game that keeps its cards close to its chest.

Browser games are valid.

Potentially only lower because I am yet to finish it. Studying for a masters will do that to ya. I will return to it eventually, because it is clearly a spectacular production.

Thrilling world, perfect length. Any game with photography is alright by me.

Where Mass Effect was an incredible depiction of the world as it was, Mass Effect 3 is the world as it is. The ending was clearly botched, and I am eternally thankful to James for informing me of the best mods to use. The characters of ME2 get to actually mean something narratively in ME3, and they go some way towards making the action more interesting again.

Seems to be a game for weird otakus who love military history, but it's a really fresh feeling RPG, and I love learning more small details about your troops, as tiny as they may be, because it gives me so many more stakes in protecting everyone.

On the level of the ludus, I prefer this to its sequel, and the streets feel so very hostile. An intriguing, horrifying rabbit hole that keeps twisting further and further.

Wow, it is my joint favourite generation with the mechanics of my other joint favourite generation.

The best thing TellTale did, in a very stacked field. Endlessly charming, and nowhere near as self serious as many of their other games. 6 years later I am still yet to play Borderlands, though this game constantly makes me want to.

The value of things as, well things. There is a clear story that is told to you, and it's an excellent and necessary narrative. Most of what you will get out of Gone Home is what remains unsaid, though. The scattered objects weaving multiple narrative threads into one. To this day the gold standard for the much maligned walking simulator genre.

Closely followed by this.

All 3 seasons that were finished were genuinely really good. Season 2 is my favourite because it allowed a greater opportunity to roleplay; morality gets much blurrier when this situation becomes the norm. In the first one, if people were arseholes you could feel righteously angry at them, but now there is a feeling of some give and take. #TeamJane

Damn, the game about the cute Pokemon exploring and being friends really did make me cry.

This could have been shit and I would have eaten it up cos police procedurals are basically my favourite genre of anything, but thankfully it is also incredibly good, if slightly long.

I'm gonna need YouTube countdown makers to stop parroting the same lines of "It seems like a normal military shooter and then you realise that you are the bad guy oh no :0" because I am sick of you pretending to be intellectuals when in reality you just like playing shooters and want the social cachet of there being a better reason for it. It's also about the least interesting thing that Spec Ops does, as it lampoons just how much game devs are in bed with the US military in creating their works of interactive propaganda.

Gutwrenching stuff. I keep remembering scenes from it and entering a cold sweat.

Potentially recency bias but I finished this recently and think I want to use it as part of my PhD proposal. It identifies that what was interesting about the first one was the narrative themes of consciousnesses in different times and makes the game totally about that, rather than a late game afterthought. A bit too much of an infodump at the end but I will give it the benefit of the doubt.

Christine Love is a genius.

Go to the beach, have some beers, drop some tabs, enter a horrifying world that exposes your fear of change but reconcile your lost friendships in the process.

I started playing this when I was So Sad, and it made me So Happy.

Dear JRPG makers: I do not give a shit about whatever high fantasy nonsense you have come up with so please don't ask me to take it seriously.

More games exposing how companies would let their employees die if they could save money and get away with it pls.

Thought this would be higher, but I like more games than I thought I did. Any game with a map as its central mechanic is very good by my watch, because the greatest joy I get from a game is through spatial exploration. The physical world of the game is a necessary part in forming a good narrative, and Firewatch might just be the most spatially-focused game I have ever played.

Playing basketball with my friends :'))))

The source material is the main reason why this is as good as it is, but it's still in the holy trinity of prime TellTale. Should probably replay it cos it has been a v long time.

Yet to play V3, but I found 1 to be the better experience over 2. The genuine feeling of despair was greater with the super-confined space, and the solutions weren't as silly as they were in 2. I generally like the series a lot though and ahve just been waiting for V3 to decrease in price.