3. Red Dead Redemption
One of the iconic characters of world history: the cowboy. From Clint Eastwoods man with no name to the classic John Wayne films, few anti-heroes have been remembered quite so fondly by modern culture. It was always surprising then that the gaming industry had never managed to produce a great western of its own. That was until Red Dead Redemption. The American west and Mexico were summed up in one brilliant game. As John Marston, we explored and lassoed our way around a land and a culture which was being transformed by the modern world. Industrialisation was coming and the age of the cowboy was drawing to a close. Marston was once the ultimate cowboy, but now he faces redemption or risks never seeing his family again. Rockstar did a great job at creating a vast and solitary vision that made so many westerns classics. Between those moments riding through the sand, we were inundated with tasks and missions that reflected the same dangers that must have faced those trying to make a living back then. The ending was the perfect farewell for Marston. Finally faced by the full power of the law, with no means of escape, the anti-hero goes down fighting, taking down every last officer he can. Rockstar finally gave us a western game worth playing. They took the attitude and storytelling that GTA is famed for and applied it to the era of the cowboy.