My Top 10 Games of the 7th Generation of Gaming

1. Need for Speed: Most Wanted

The earliest 7th generation title on this list but my favourite nonetheless. It's my favourite Need for Speed game of the franchise and just can't stop playing it to this very day. The story is cheesy perfection, a douchebag villain, an asshole police officer and an attractive woman that helps you along the road of becoming the #1 most wanted street racer in Rockport the story is amazing Hollywood trash. The gameplay is very fun (despite the rubber-banding), the police chases can be ridiculously easy and frustrating but I love it. The progression system is so nicely done that I can play for hours on end. This remains the best-selling driving game in history and it's a shame that Need for Speed has lost its stride and I hope they get it back someday.

2. Burnout Revenge

"Unbe-fucking-lievablely addicting" is a great way to describe this game. Burnout Revenge might not be the revolution that Burnout 3 was, but in the end, it changes more than enough to make it feel like a very different game. It's a technical marvel, but more importantly than that, it's one of the most exciting racing games ever made. Unless you don't have the reflexes to handle it, Burnout Revenge is a must-own game, especially for fans of online competition.

3. Burnout Paradise

It's a big possibility that some players (especially Burnout fans) might not enjoy Burnout Paradise's big change in direction. Paradise is anything but a negative change, and while it be a disappointing experience for some, most will likely appreciate what a radical overhaul this game really is. The open-world design isn't just a lazy gimmick it's a wonderfully executed concept that doesn't rob the game of the series' most beloved act of driving fast and wrecking hard. The Burnout Paradise demo and formed a rather negative opinion of the game. But if you have any affection for the series, you really owe it to yourself to give the full game a look. The demo did little to truly represent what a superbly fun racer this game can be.

4. Forza Horizon

I was skeptical at first. I didn't know what I was walking into before I played Forza Horizon but now I know. It's one of the best driving experiences I have ever had in a video game. I was angry after playing the abomination called 'Need for Speed Most Wanted 2012'. I was just in pure disgust and heartbreak and I needed a good driving game to take the bad taste out of my mouth, so Forza Horizon came to my rescue. In my time of heartbreak Playground Games have crafted a (dare I say) almost perfect game. Everything about Forza Horizon just flowed beautifully together and they formed a wonderful spin-off franchise from the Motorsport series.

5. Tomb Raider

Tomb Raider is a mature experience featuring a young, strong woman who - armed with grit, determination, and intelligence. Lara rescues not only her friends but herself as well. Surely there’s a lesson in that for the rest of us. Rebooting Tomb Raider is the best thing that could have happened to the series. The game is full of story-wise emotions and superbly directed action scenes, and it still has a very strong human factor. I'm rarely this positive about a game. Crystal Dynamics took a risk that won't appeal to some orthodox fans, but all in all the developers have succeeded. The most important thing to know is this the new Tomb Raider is one of the best action-adventure games I have ever played and I couldn't put my controller down.

6. Grand Theft Auto V

It doesn't matter if it's your first time visiting Los Santos or if you're thinking of booking a return flight, I give Grand Theft Auto V my highest recommendation. This is simply a marvellous, beautiful and chaotic game. So good that it almost seems deceitful, like a CGI trailer of what the highest level of fun might look like except you're actually playing it instead of watching it. After 17 years, it's incredible that the series still has such power to astound and excite.

7. Sleeping Dogs

This game has been through developmental Hell and delivered. Not many games get to do that. The games make it out of there are either massively disappointing or just downright terrible. Sleeping Dogs is quite the sleeper hit, it has amazing voice acting with a great blend of english and cantonese with a great story and a badass main character, Wei Shen. The combat system is fluid and works well and the visuals (especially on PC) looks incredible. It sucks that this game was underrated (praised by critics but forgotten by the community due to being a "GTA clone") and not too many people got to experience this thrilling action roller coaster. It's such a shame that Sleeping Dogs won't get a sequel to continue the crazy, dramatic life of Wei Shen and the Hong Kong police department.

8. Portal 2

Portal 2 is a funny, charming and unique game, there really isn't too many video games like this. Sporting some great writing and voice work as well as some deviously designed puzzles (I felt smarter after playing this), Portal 2's single-player campaign is superior to its predecessor in every way.

9. Bayonetta

As someone who's never been into Devil May Cry or God of War, Bayonetta is as good as it gets when it comes to action games. The combat system is the work of masters, and the whole production is vivid, bold, imaginative and (a little bit) sexual. It's also a hugely substantial experience that sustains and encourages repeat play throughs. Bayonetta is an unique title that exhales life back into the action hack-n-slash market.

10. Halo 3

Halo was (and probably still is) my favourite shooting franchise. Great action gameplay with a high cinematic story puts this game in with along with my favourites. In substance it's nothing new, merely a magnificent, beautiful monster of an first-person shooter sequel in concept and execution. It's ODST expansion might be one of the best stories of the Halo universe. It's such a shame that this is the one of the last Halo games that I've enjoyed before 343 ruined everything.

Honourable Mentions.

Mortal Kombat

One of the greatest Mortal Kombat games in the series. This really does take you back to the original games with its 2D gameplay and gory fatalities. If you are a veteran of the series, this is a must have. The levels are greatly detailed, and the character models are pretty cool. Each character has several fatalities, and casual gameplay is rewarded by a point system generated by combos, wins, and fatalities. The game runs smooth, the online is fun, and the fatalities are gruesome. This is one of my favourite fighting games ever.

Saints Row 2

It's such a shame the this game (and it's predecessor) will be dubbed as a "GTA clone" because it's more than that. The game is also wickedly fun. pure, unadulterated fun, Saints Row 2 is in a league of its own. There are some serious technical flaws, but once you notice what this game has to offer, then you don't mind. The customisation, the lively world, the excellent gameplay, all the things you can unlock and discover.

Dead or Alive 4

The Dead or Alive franchise (despite having solid fighting games) was known to be all about huge, bouncing breasts and overly simplistic, easy to pick up gameplay. No longer. Dead or Alive shall henceforth be known for huge, bounding breasts and a refined and deep fighting system. This game is strangely addictive (not because of the boobs) but because this game is frustratingly fun. Even though I've lost a lot of fights (even on easy difficulty) I still have the urge to keep going until I won and even when I finally won I still want to continue and keep getting better. I never got that feeling of addictiveness from any other fighting games which is why Dead or Alive 4 is not only one of my favourite fighting games ever. But just one of my favourite games in general.

I’m not huge into racing games, but 5-10 are all amazing games.

Mortal Kombat coming back was nice, and that’s the best story mode in a fighting game ever.

I’m a HUGE DOA apologist. Yeah, boobs. But at the same time, grapplers are fun to use, combos flow nicely (not a fan of dial-a-combos), and the counter system is super satisfying. Level interactivity is icing on the cake. Also, I love me some tag matches and unique tag-team moves.

Most consoles have a sweet spot of a handful of years before the transition to the next, and the XBox's generation seemed to last forever. But goddamn there were some great games spread evenly throughout it's life. Oblivion and Gears in 2006, Half Life Orange Box and Bioshock the next, then Mass Effect, Dead Space, and I'll throw in Far Cry 2 and Fallout 3 by 2008 and that alone would have been a good run for any console. But then 2009-2012 gave us Uncharted 2, Far Cry 3, Red Dead Redemption, and Mass Effect 2, along with Assassin's Creed hitting its stride. It was just a generation that kept giving.

The transition wasn't really all that tough either. Lots of games like Watch Dogs and Destiny, controverisal in quality as they were, kept a tail onto it where at some point we were wondering if we would just have to take our consoles out back with a shotgun old-yeller style.

But in the end that span of time was a product of both the financial crisis putting a damper on the ideas of new, expensive consoles right around the time they should be dropping. This generation could be even longer, what with how phones have changed the way consoles might iterate. I bought an X Box One X for my new TV and it's amazing and feels like I just bought a new console and without hardly any drawbacks.

Sorry, I just saw 7th generation and a list of games and suddenly had a though that the pool to pick ten games from was massive. I doubt I could think of 10 gamecube games, despite Resident Evil 4 and Metroid Prime being two of my favorite games of all time.