25 Best Video Games Of The 2000s

18. Gears Of War 2

What is it about middle-children of franchises often being their best? Regardless, Epic took the immediately enjoyable over-shoulder combat model pioneered by Resident Evil 4 for Gears 1, added in a slew of Mortal Kombat-style finishers on downed enemies in 2 and topped it all off with a revolutionary 'Horde Mode', seeing you fight waves upon waves on enemies in various locations.

Such a mode has seen its way from Gears to Halo, Call of Duty and beyond these days, but thanks to the Unreal Engine letting you blow enemies into chunks with all sorts of almost steampunk-style weaponry, there's quite simply nothing as enjoyable when it comes to third-person combat as tossing a grenade into a pack of enemies, before running your chainsaw-mounted-gun through any survivors.

Absolute blood-drenched bliss.