4. The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion & Skyrim (PS3, 360)
These games would have been a lot better if there wasn't a max carry weight! Frustrating glitches, game-ending bugs, extremely long loading screens, and occasional corrupted saves - all of these happened to me throughout my playthroughs of both Skyrim and Oblivion. Nevertheless, they are two of the most fun games I've ever played, and deserve to be number four on the list. Now, I suppose that it is a bit unfair to group Oblivion and Skyrim in the same title, seeing as how they are quite different from one another, but I did it anyways, and I'll tell you why. At their core, they are exactly the same: A medieval-style, light-fantasy, RPG. Now, what I really liked about these games is, even though they prominently feature magic and dragons, they are based in realism. What I mean is that, all mods aside, your character is just a man and can live life normally. With the Hearthfire expansion pack, we were allowed to adopt children and build a custom home; it's the little things like this that make Skyrim personal. After logging in at around 300 hours (on my second playthrough that is), I have realised that the fun in the game (we're talking specifically about Skyrim now), comes solely from the player. The approach that you take to a situation is unique to each player and, much like Fallout 3, becomes a part of who you are in-game. Every game save is different because every gamer is different. I love this and hope that it translates well in the Elder Scrolls Online title releasing soon.
Best Part: Now, don't make me out to be a serial killer here, but wiping out cities of people was the most fun part of these games. Picture this; you've just gotten home from a long day of questing. You open the door to Breezehome and save your game. Now that you've done that, what do you do next? C'mon, be honest....that's right, you use a shout that you've never seen before and kill everyone before turning off the system.
3. Bioshock (1 & Infinite) (PS3, 360)
Bring us the girl and wipe away the debt. Quick Note: Bioshock 2 is not to be grouped with these two amazing games as it has no right to be under the same title as them. Despite its firm roots in the horror genre, Bioshock (one) was truly made to tell a story, and that is exactly what it did. We were literally and figuratively submerged in the world of Rapture (a once-perfect underwater city that turned to mud). Traversing the ruined utopia was good fun in of itself, but meeting its inhabitants was even better. Big Daddies, Little Sisters, Splicers and Atom were all characters you met throughout the story and made the world feel old and true. Switching over to Infinite, the sky-bound city of Columbia had a similar effect on gamers. While it wasn't as disrupted and broken as Rapture, it could certainly feel that way at times. Personally, the first opening scenes of Infinite were the most fun to play through. A quartet in 1908 singing a Beach Boys song, well, we knew we were in for quite a (bio)shock! All, jokes aside, Infinite opened beautifully. We got to see Columbia and its inhabitants before the events that caused the city to decay. Honestly, apart from the racism and civil war, I would have loved to have lived there.
Best Part: The stories. The twists in both plots were great, and trying to figure out what was happening was so much fun. Now, I can't get into details here, but that ending to Infinite! Oh man, was it great!