What are the best games of all time? It's a contentious conversation by design, one that we thought we'd take on in celebration of the video game industry turning 50 years old.
With millions of titles to choose between, we came to our final shortlist after considering influence, innovation, legacy, social impact, critical reception, and enduring playability. The result is a list of the best video games that spans eras and genres; a selection that respects the games that defined the past and those that we believe will be consequential to the industry's future.
RestedXP
RestedXP is the fastest World of Warcraft Classic leveling guide, created by the best speedrunners of the community. The guides are tailored specifically to every class and can be used within an free, interactive and modern in-game addon.
Experience the fastest leveling available in Wrath of the Lich King. RestedXP navigates you quickly and efficiently through the best routes in Northrend up to level 80 at record speed.
RestedXP are looking for skilled players who are willing to work side-by-side with the RXP team to provide in-depth feedback and improvements to our guides and products.
Super Mario World
Super Mario World is a relatively simple game to describe. It’s a Super Mario game, and we all know what that means: Mushrooms; perfect running and jumping action; and a giant world to explore, crammed with secrets. But what sets Super Mario World apart from other 2D Mario games is its irresistible complexity.
Subsequent Super Mario games, like the New Super Mario Bros. series, simplified the overworld, trading Super Mario World’s cool hidden paths for linear tracks, largely abandoned the skies and treetops of Super Mario World’s vertical levels for ground-based obstacle courses, and did away with flying almost entirely (capes rule, helicopter hats drool!).
Super Mario World is the crescendo to the slow build in technology and game design that started with Super Mario Bros. Let Super Mario World’s placement on this list be a challenge to future game developers.
Dark Souls
From cult classic, to sleeping giant, to one of the most influential action-RPGs of a generation, Dark Souls' path to mainstream recognition was as twisted as the beasts lurking in Demon Ruins.
Often billed as one of the most punishing games you'll ever play, FromSoftware's indirect follow-up to 2009's Demon's Souls is hardly a walk in the park, but, scratch beneath its difficulty, and discover a wonderful, open-lored and expertly-designed fantasy role-player, with larger than life enemies, mysterious NPCs, and epic boss battles that will leave the words 'YOU DIED' etched into your mind via the tip of a Dragonslayer Spear.
10 years since release, so many games owe their existence to Dark Souls, and, thanks to its 2011 hit, developer FromSoftware is now a household name.
Half-Life 2
It's hard to believe Half-Life 2 is almost 20 years old, because Valve's seminal first-person shooter still looks gorgeous today. The term 'game-changer' is sometimes overused in modern video games discourse, but Gordon Freeman's second outing really was just that when it launched towards the end of 2004, setting a new, remarkably higher standard for all narrative FPS games moving forward in the process.
Few have come close in the intervening years, which is testament to the game's tight combat mechanics, astute puzzle set-pieces, and engrossing storytelling – all of which were carried into episodic sequels, Episode One and Episode Two. Hugely critical and commercially successful, Half-Life 2 shares the Metacritic top spot (96/100) with its series forerunner Half-Life and GTA 5.
Grand Theft Auto IV
[Metacritic's 2008 PS3 Game of the Year; Also known as "GTA IV"] What does the American Dream mean today? For Niko Belic, fresh off the boat from Europe. It's the hope he can escape his past. For his cousin, Roman, it is the vision that together they can find fortune in Liberty City, gateway to the land of opportunity.
As they slip into debt and are dragged into a criminal underworld by a series of shysters, thieves and sociopaths, they discover that the reality is very different from the dream in a city that worships money and status, and is heaven for those who have them an a living nightmare for those who don't.
Metal Gear Solid V
Following the prologue Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain concludes the Metal Gear Solid V experience by following the story of the protagonist of the series, Big Boss (a.k.a. Snake). The Metal Gear Solid V experience is Creator and Director Hideo Kojima's first time incorporating open world gameplay to the groundbreaking Metal Gear franchise.
World of Goo
World of Goo is a physics based puzzle / construction game. The millions of Goo Balls that live in the beautiful 'World of Goo' don't know that they are in a game, or that they are extremely delicious.
