3. Project Gotham Racing
You can totally make a case that Microsoft don't need PGR any more, now that Forza's branched out from its main instalments and into the likes of Forza Horizon; the offshoot that delves into more Burnout-style presentation, sporting a travelling festival for racers that reeks of Criterion's work on Burnout: Paradise. For many though PGR just had that perfect mix of arcade scoring alongside cars that handled just right - not too sluggishly realistic and not too arcadey, it had that quintessentially indescribable spot-on 'feel'. It was mainly down to the fiendishly-addictive Kudos system, something that gave points to everything from getting airborne to drifting round corners and zipping through incredibly tight spaces to snatch victory at the last minute. A fantastically simple idea on paper, Microsoft head Phil Spencer has since
referred to it as "the secret sauce", as combined with a physics engine that really let you hurtle round corners at breakneck speeds, PGR could be the everyman's driving game alongside ticking boxes for the diehards too.