25 Best Video Games Of The 2000s

9. Fallout 3

From eastern RPG design to the west, and Bethesda's crowning 2000s-based achievement Fallout 3, a game that to this day fans are still replaying to explore every polygon of detail around every corner.

Acquiring the rights from Black Isle Studios, it's pretty crazy to note this was actually the team's first foray into the world of Fallout, and although many fans point to New Vegas as the best of the two last-gen instalments (thanks to members of Black Isle being on development again), it's the absolutely unrestrained freedom and push towards exploration here that established an unmatched sense of world-building.

Throw in the V.A.T.S. system of pausing action to allocate where you'd like to target enemies, and it was the perfect combination of the older games' turn-taking nature, with that of satisfying modern-day head-popping fun. It might have that trademark level of Bethesda-jank when it comes to world glitches and certain NPCs disappearing through the floor (something Fallout 4 is finally looking to remedy), but when the city of Boston itself is so expansive, the options for your combat so varied and the moral quandaries you'll come across so impactful, it makes for one hell of a franchise debut from one of the greatest studios of all time.