2007
Portal
Sure, it’s only about two hours long, but we’d argue that Portal is the best two hours the gaming industry’s ever produced. The game’s beautifully paced in terms of both narrative and gameplay arcs. When you first laid hands on the portal gun, it blew your mind. And, of course, you immediately fired one portal at the ground and another at the ceiling and pulled a “Look ma! No space-time laws!” infinite falling gag. By the time you were squaring off with GlaDOS one-on-multiple-insane-cortexes, though, it was like you’d learned another language. Why? Brilliant level design that gradually turned you into a master of portal gun-fu. And then there was GlaDOS herself, who threatened to make us die of laughter nearly as often as she threatened to make us die.
BioShock
“A man chooses, a slave obeys.” BioShock’s mid-game twist was one of the most brilliant gaming’s ever seen, literally calling into question your motivation for every action you’ve ever performed in an FPS. On top of that, the city of Rapture was one of the most imaginative places games have ever given us the pleasure of exploring. Equal parts beautiful and horrifying, the undersea utopia gone wrong introduced us to all manner of completely psychotic characters – from the mad artist Sander Cohen to the tyrannical yet well-intentioned Andrew Ryan to the iconic diving suit-clad Big Daddies. The game’s almost unnecessarily painful arsenal of upgradeable plasmid powers was also a highlight, although – seriously – fire and bees? We know the guy tried to kill you and all, but we’re pretty sure you just shot Hell at him.
Mass Effect
Take away BioWare’s Star Wars license and what do you get? Oh, not much – just the developer’s most in-depth and fully realized universe yet. On top of that, a streamlined conversation system made for tense, fast-paced verbal duels while combat – though slightly janky – matched trademark BioWare tactics with the action of a third-person shooter.
2008
Fallout 3
When Bethesda’s take on the storied Fallout franchise was first announced, longtime fans cried blasphemy. That, however, didn’t stop Bethesda from crafting a bombed-out husk of a world so absorbing that the prospect of nuclear apocalypse now legitimately excites us so long as Deathclaws are replaced by Super Bunnies. In Fallout 3, the world itself was the main character. Every location – from crumbling skyscrapers to secret underground cannibal societies – had its own story to tell, and every play session was its own unique adventure. Oftentimes, we’d just point our character in a random direction and walk – fully expecting to stub our irradiated toes on some excellent micro-tale we’d yet to uncover. We were rarely disappointed.
World of Goo
You wouldn’t think that helping tiny adorable blob creatures form a giant transportation Voltron would… aw, who are we kidding? World of Goo had the best premise ever. Better still, it lived up to the promise of that premise, throwing curveball after curveball at players with all manner of maniacally creative puzzles.
Left 4 Dead
Valve’s entrant into the ever-growing horde of zombie games immediately positioned itself at the head of the pack with frantic team-based play, the ever-looming threat of powerful Special Infected, and a devious AI Director that gave the strings a tug every time you even thought about taking a breather.
