Top Shelf: Video Games

There’s a lot that goes into making a great video game. I wouldn’t know from experience, but when compared to writing songs, which can be done in a matter of minutes, or writing books, which really only takes determination, imagination (or experience) and time, creating a video game from nothing is a process that I can scarcely imagine. Over the course of the nearly 40-year history of video gaming, the industry has come a long way; from bouncing square balls to shooting down gunships in hyper-realistic HD, no entertainment industry has changed as drastically in such a short span of time. Listed below are the ones that have impressed me the most listed by order of release.

Final Fantasy VI (1994)

Final Fantasy VII (1997)

Final Fantasy IX (2000)

Kingdom Hearts (2002)

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003)

Shadow of the Colossus (2005)

Mass Effect (2007)

Halo: Reach (2010)

Heavy Rain (2010)

Mass Effect 2 (2010)

To the Moon (2011)

Journey (2012)

The Last of Us (2013)

Bloodborne (2015)

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015)

Pokemon Sun and Moon (2016)

Final Fantasy XV (2016)

Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018)

Final Fantasy VII Remake (2020)

The Last of Us Part II (2020)