1. Red Dead Redemption
Red Dead might just be the finest game ever made, not only for its perfect depiction of the Wild West in all its saloon-door-swingin, tumbleweed-rollin glory, but for instilling one of the greatest game-motivated acts of optional revenge ever put to media.
Spoiler-warning Following a very emotional endgame, its not over. Whilst the structure of the games missions replicated that of the mood protagonist John Marston found himself in, throughout his flirtation with danger and the bad side of life (in itself, a fantastic achievement, as returning to rustling cattle genuinely made you miss the dirty deeds youd done throughout the game to get back there in the first place) it feeds into the arc of his character, and those he affected along the way. As with all free-roaming Rockstar games, upon whatever revelations come your way the world does open back up post-credits, yet the twist in Red Deads tale is that there is still important work to be done. Following the brutal gunning-down of our beloved John Marston, whom weve travelled with throughout the entire game, we now cut to a younger man attending the graves of both him and his wife Abigail. The man is Jack Marston, the now fully-grown son of the couple, and with the game then giving control back to you, personally there was only one thing on my mind: hunt down lead antagonist Edgar Ross and avenge my father. Its a genius piece of game design, being that this follow-up mission is completely optional, and predicated on you collecting info on where Ross is hiding out, only to come across an aged version of him calmly fishing by the river. In one of the greatest nods to the western genre, replete with the pent-up motivation everyone who embarked on this quest now had, entering into one last quick-fire duel with Ross, only to empty the entire clip into his chest and let his body float off down the river, is one of the most impactful I did that gaming moments of all time. So what do you guys think? Games seem to finally be getting the recognition they deserve, and with such a variety of titles now available to everyone, which games or experiences would you hold up to best represent the genre? Let us know in the comments!