For the top spot, a game that should be held aloft above the entirety of the gaming public, Simba-style, before being proclaimed appropriately as the one true title that everyone needs to own. It's a Skyrim, a Red Dead Redemption, a GTA III. Hell, it's almost a Super Mario Bros.; CD Projekt RED not only respected their fans' wishes throughout development, keeping us abreast of any changes and later supplanting owners with free DLC for a matter of weeks, but the game itself is hands-down the most impressive open-world game every made. Protagonist Geralt affords the player just the right amount of agency and inbuilt intention, and the world itself is absolutely ridiculously detailed. NPCs and villages have their own stories to tell, creatures have a handful of written books' worth of backstory to flesh out how they came to be, the main thread that details Geralt's hunt for his faux-daughter Ciri is very well told with plenty of twists and turns - and that's without saying how much fun simply exploring feels ever time. Melee combat has a breadth of tactical options, weapons and armour combos number into the tens of thousands, being a Witcher in-world means you're encouraged to seek out the deadliest creatures and slay them - it's just one HELL of a package. Even the paid DLC, Hearts of Stone was a more worthwhile piece of content than the vast majority of full price games, and it reinforces just how much this is a confident developer firing on all cylinders, very much at the top of their game. Literally every title and developer going forward needs to learn from The Witcher 3, and I can't wait to see where we go from here. Let us know in the comments what your most important game since 2010 is, be it storyline, game mechanics, subject matter or something else entirely!
