20 Best Video Games Of The Last 20 Years
It's tough, but only one can come out on top...
Of all the major entertainment mediums, video games have had the most monumental and exponential advancement in all respects across the last 20 years.
Where the likes of film attempted to delve into 'revolutionary' 3D visual effects and D-Box movement (only to either fail or not be remotely necessary) and books have 'gone digital' onto the Kindles and tablets of the world, we've seen video games evolve from primitively-rendered 3D models and basic story setups, to literal worlds of content you can step into.
Bolstered by casts of characters numbering into the hundreds, showcasing graphical techniques thought impossible way back in 1996 and aided by the lessons learned and passed down from developer to developer, the gaming industry of 2016 is a completely different beast - hopefully for the better.
So, with that in mind - and in the spirit of EDGE counting down their own best 20 games - here's a question:
What's the best video game of the last 20 years?
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20. Batman: Arkham Asylum
Think of any third-person action game from the last seven years.
Got one? Good.
Chances are it's got either a directly comparable version of what we'll call 'the Batman combat', or something very similar, correct?
Yes, Arkham Asylum was just that immaculately well put together, influencing not only how to take a beloved superhero and do something fresh and innovative with their repertoire, but helping revolutionise the entire third-person action genre in the process.
From Mad Max to Shadow of Mordor, The Witcher 3 to Sleeping Dogs, everybody and their granny learned from Rocksteady back in 2009, and it's an experience that's just as fun to this day.