25 Best Video Games Of The 2000s

This might just be the greatest decade in gaming history.

For any gamer in their twenties, the 2000s were your jam.

Sure the 90s themselves made have given you everything from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 to Metal Gear Solid and Ocarina of Time, but it was the 2000s that would span multiple console generations, going from the astonishingly popular PS2 through both Xboxs, the advent of two "next generation" reveals of technology and all the uber-shiny graphical capabilities that went alongside. It meant within just 10 years we'd go from marvelling at the likes of Tekken Tag Tournament or Halo: Combat Evolved running on their revolutionary new machines, to doing the exact same all over again when the likes of Uncharted, Gears of War or Call of Duty showed up.

The games included here span hidden gems to unabashed classics, legendary titles that spawned a string of sequels and one-offs that always deserved the spotlight more than the rest. Every decade has within it some of the greatest gaming creations known to man, but only one can reign supreme - something that should take into account graphical showboating, animation fidelity, character portrayals, replayability, story impact and everything in between.

Note: Just for fun, only one game from its respective franchise has taken a slot, to avoid things like GTA or Metal Gear taking up chunks of the list. Debate it out in the comments if I got the best choices for each one!

Gaming Editor
Gaming Editor

WhatCulture's Head of Gaming.