Half-Life

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These are the games that did not just sell, they changed everything that came after. The genre originators, the technical leaps, the cultural earthquakes. From a bat-and-ball in 1972 to the battle royale that swallowed pop culture, every game here moved the entire medium forward and left the rulebook a little different. Listed in order of release so you can trace the whole story, from the arcade to the open world to the online universe. This is not a best-of list, it is a how-we-got-here list. Required reading for anyone who loves games.

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The big one. A lifetime of gaming distilled into 150 essential experiences, the games everyone should play at least once in their life. Ordered from 1978 (year before I was born) to today, this is a guided tour through the entire history of the medium, from the arcade cabinets I used to pump hundreds of 10p pieces into through to the modern masterpieces still being made. Every genre, every era, every must-play. You will not agree with all of it, and that is half the fun. Pick one, start playing, and work your way through a lifetime of greatness.

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The cream of the crop, the games critics simply could not fault. Ranked by Metacritic score, this is the all-time critical elite, every single one sitting at 95 or higher. At the very top, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and its near-perfect 99, a record that has stood for over two decades. Below it, a roll call of Nintendo classics, genre-defining shooters and generation-defining RPGs. If you want a reading list of the finest games ever made, start here and work your way down. There is not a dud in sight.