A look back at 30 years of gaming 1987-2017.

I was born in 1987, and I've been playing video games since I was about four years old. That makes my gaming history go all the way back in time to 1991. I thought it would be a fun exercise to go back in time, and find a game that I've played, and enjoyed, and has shaped my personal gaming history, for each year that I have been alive, since the year I was born. Let's do this.

I did not play all of these games in the original year of their release, and there are many that should have made the cut, that didn't. I'll cover notable absences in future posts! Without further rambling, here's the list!

1987: Final Fantasy (NES)

What was meant to be Square's last title. I went back and enjoyed this, shamefully, through emulation, at some point in the late 90s, after being absolutely blown away by the 7th instalment in the series. For something that was meant to be a final celebration of an ailing developer, what a legacy it has left.

1988: Metal Gear (NES)

I owned Metal Gear as a cartridge on the original NES. I wish I still had that cartridge, because I did not fully appreciate the hide and seek mechanics at play that would later amaze me in Metal Gear Solid on the PC. (I never played it on the PlayStation!) This game was so frustrating to play as a five or six-year-old, because the difficulty curve was immense.

1989: Sim City (PC)

I think Sim City was the first game I ever truly appreciated for exactly what it was - a massive sandbox, and a world with incredible replay value, monsters, disasters, and cheats that contributed to the way that I learned how to type on a computer better. This game filled my lunch breaks during school for at least 2 years; and holds some of my fondest gaming memories.

1990: Snake's Revenge (NES)

Another masterpiece set in Hideo Kojima's world. Like the original Metal Gear, I owned this on cartridge for the NES - and to my contemporary horror, no longer have the cartridge, and again, like the original Metal Gear, would not and could not fully appreciate the title until its heyday had passed.

1991: Lemmings (PC)

This was another game that was played in the lunch room on school computers. Get adorable creatures known as Lemmings, give them temporary skills, and guide as many as possible to the exit of the level. This game was fun, because you could choose to send Lemmings to their doom in hilarious ways; and this was just as much fun as puzzle solving the main content of the game.

1992: Wolfenstein 3D (PC)

id Software. Shooter. 3D. Not much else to say. Mecha Hitler. All sorts of magic, with what I consider the birth of the first-person shooter - an incredible title that many who enjoyed simply cannot forget. Not just genre defining, genre spawning.

1993: Master of Orion (PC)

I loved the trading that you could do in Master of Orion, and the empires you could build. This was another title that I did not completely understand the complexity of at the time that I was playing the game, and only through the lens of nostalgia can truly, truly appreciate for its sense of openness, grandeur, and incredible, mind-blowing depth. A strategic masterpiece.

1994: The Need for Speed (PC)

The original Need for Speed was the first 3D racing game that I ever laid eyes on, and its supercars, arcade controls; and sense of speed as pixels zoomed by on a 15" CRT monitor were the best thrill that my PC could render. I eventually got a racing wheel to play this game with, and it goes down as one of the most fun experiences (mainly because it was new!) I've ever had with a steering wheel in a game.

1995: Mech Warrior II (PC)

Who could forget the incredible sense of power that Mech Warrior II instilled on young, teenage boys. Control massive mechanised walking tanks, and blow shit up until you got blown up - it was an incredible world, fun gameplay; and full of customisation and depth. A true "jock-style" game, in retrospect.

1996: Duke Nukem 3D (PC)

Chewing gum sales are all out. The most visceral, enjoyable, and fun video game of all time, a macho-romp as an all-powerful action hero, with only one job; save the world, kill aliens, and get all the girls. Duke Nukem was also a technological marvel.

1997: Final Fantasy VII (PS1)

The FMVs. The full motion graphics. Characters that had levers for hands in all other scenes. An immense, sprawling world; an excellent plot about how a corporation is destroying the planet, with interesting characters, great combat, grinding for those that wish to have it, an excellent score, and arguably, one of the best JRPGs to have ever been made.

1998: Baldur's Gate (PC)

1998 is a difficult year, and my shortlist consisted of six games. In the end, the one that I played closest the time period was selected. Baldur's Gate, please step up onto the stage. Role playing in a completely different style to the award winning Final Fantasy VII, and a gateway drug to the world of Dungeons and Dragons, long conversations with librarians (that's a IRL story for another day, folks), and of course, Minsc and Boo.

1999: Unreal Tournament (PC)

It may surprise you the most when I say that 1999's Unreal Tournament was my favourite PC game and I didn't even have an Internet Connection. The bots, offline mutators, and the stats engine that was written to the game's directory were enough to keep my attention for months and months on end. Whether it was the flak cannon, the rocket launcher, or the pulse rifle; with the insta-gib mutator, of course; I found so many ways to play Unreal Tournament on my own (And then play with the stats in Microsoft Excel, that I was a true, true geek.)

2000: Deus Ex (PC)

Gaming's coming of age tale. Deus Ex combined a masterful plot, a truly open sandbox for you to achieve various objectives within the game world, excellent visuals, an atmospheric sound-track, and memorable moments that are different to every single person who played the game. I am sorry in advance for the classic line of "Mention Deus Ex, and someone, somewhere around the world reinstalls it."

2001: Advance Wars (GBA)

Advance Wars was a complete surprise when I had a Gameboy Advance System. It had an enormous amount of content; great, intelligent gameplay, and a story that was compelling enough to keep you going throughout the title. It was also portable, which was important at this point in my life; where I was doing lots of travelling about the place, and wanted a gaming fix everywhere that I went. I remember the luxury of being sprawled out on the carpet in my parent's front room, the sun shining in through the window, and losing entire afternoons to Advance Wars, until the non-backlit screen of my console was too dark to see.

2002: Neverwinter Nights (PC)

Neverwinter Nights was a game that I played literally 15 minutes at time, start to end - because during my time with the game; I was suffering from a medical condition that saw me literally glued to a toilet seat. My own stubbornness meant that this ended me up in hospital, computer less, and gaming-less until I was back to health. Once I was healthy again, and back home; Neverwinter Nights again occupied almost every waking moment, and boy, the story, the characters, the artwork, and the modding tools dragged me in for hours and hours. Eventually, I would use the Neverwinter Nights engine to make a video game mod which I presented as an assignment at university. This game had an enormous influence on my gaming tastes.

2003: Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne

Another game that made me realise that gaming is more than just spending time seeing a story unfold. Max Payne 2 built upon the excellent storytelling that was featured in the first title, and went overboard with the noir setting, nailing the atmosphere, mood, and plot perfectly. Some people will say its inferior to the first, but it is my favourite game released in 2003.

2004: Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines (PC)

Bloodlines took gaming maturity to an all new level. Yes, upon release, it was a buggy piece of shit that you couldn't finish without a patch that was released just before the studio closed its doors forever. It is a masterpiece, albeit flawed, and maintains, to this day, thirteen years later, a vibrant scene of people making unofficial patches for the game to iron out all the bugs.

The sheer amount of freedom that Bloodlines bestowed upon players I believe is unsurpassed, and the fact that the game felt different based on the type of Vampire you chose to play makes this quite possibly my favourite game of all time.

2005: Guild Wars (PC)

The first (and only) MMORPG that I played. It wasn't just Guild Wars, the original title, however; it was also Guild Wars: all of its expansions - I played many different characters and was involved in many different guilds. There was a massive and incredibly open world; tons of things to do, seasonal events, and everything else a MMO game needs. I even enjoyed the PVP immensely.

2006: Dungeon Siege: Throne of Agony (PSP)

Most people know of the Dungeon Siege series through its loot dropping, Diablo inspired action RPG stylings. Not many people know about the Throne of Agony spinoff, which was released to the PlayStation Portable. It took the tropes of Dungeon Siege (and to some extent Diablo); and dumbed them down just enough for a handheld platform. I spent countless hours and hours on Throne of Agony, merely grinding and trying to find better loot, not because I wanted to impress my friends, or needed to in order to take down a boss, but because it was fun.

2007: World in Conflict (PC)

World in Conflict changed my life. It was the first game that I was involved with from an alpha, beta, and final release level, all the way through to its online server demise. I was engaged in the competitive community, and the game even game me a job - first as a community manager, secondly (later on) as a video game journalist, and then, thirdly, as an "almost" pro player. I played with the best gamers in the world at the time, and met people that I travelled half-way around the world to meet face to face. A game of sheer brilliance. It was a strategy game, and one of the best - a real time tactics game where anything could happen.

2008: Mass Effect (PC)

At first, I hated Mass Effect. The plot was slow, the action wasn't the best I'd ever experienced, and I kept wanting to sacrifice small children every time I had to run back and forth to the citadel. Mass Effect slowly grew; and the plot accelerated rapidly. Then, I hated the game again, as I noticed that it borrows almost verbatim from the tv series Babylon 5 for its plot. Then, I loved it again, as I saw it as a game adaptation that I'd never ever receive for my beloved TV show, then I hated it again, but still, I play this title, because it is a true love / hate relationship.

2009: Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II (PC)

Dawn of War II was Diablo with guns, and the co-op campaign was a welcome, unforced addition to the strategy genre, blending it with RPG elements, a great campaign, and even better multiplayer, which formed an early precursor to a lot of the MOBA style games that are around today; if you ignore the existence of the original DOTA mod for Warcraft. This is quite possibly the best game Relic Entertainment have put together, a logical step forward from Company of Heroes, and just the correct level of over the top-ness.

2010: Civilization V (PC)

This game nearly derailed my university thesis in its entirety. I purchased it as a gift to myself for successfully completing an early first draft. About 90 hours in, after two weeks of owning the game, and the realisation that I would have to go back and do more work on my thesis was nearly enough to make me want to go and jump off the nearest platform into a concrete abyss.

Well, maybe not that bad, but Civ 5 took that 'just one more turn' mentality to a completely new level for me, even after having spent several hundred (maybe thousand) hours with Civ IV and all its expansions. Best with a friend, a Skype phone call, and some AI to crush.

2011: The 3rd Birthday (PSP)

Even though I never played the Parasite Eve series, I thoroughly enjoyed The 3rd Birthday, a spiritual successor to these earlier titles. It was very similar to Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, in terms of gameplay; however, pushed the boundaries of what was possible with the PSP. The gameplay, the grinding, the extras, and the plot along with the visuals, soundtrack all came together in a fantastic way that leave the 3rd Birthday a little-known cult hit, but one of my favourite titles.

2012: Diablo III (PC)

The first Blizzard game to make my list, Diablo III is a title that divides fans of the series, and is one that I have revisited several times since its initial release on the PC. There's loot galore, regular releases of new content for single player, and when I was playing, the controversial real-world money auction house, which I will admit, increased the appeal of the game for me personally, after being sad that I wasn't able to take real world financial advantage from the excellent trading I had recently completed in EA's little-known Trading card game: Battleforge.

Diablo III had something for everyone: plot, accessibility, and even hardcore level raids via the rift system that was later introduced. I'm yet to play with the Necromancer expansion, but I have it purchased, and can't wait to sit back and enjoy the game again.

2013: BioShock Infinite (PC)

BioShock Infinite is like a Disney movie. You enter the game, and its timeless art style, and expect to experience art. It is the closest title on this list to something that I would consider a wholistic piece of art, from the visual styling, the score, the themes the game it explores, and eventually, in the DLC; the extreme lengths the game takes the first person view to. There were annoying bits, like the zip lines, but this did not detract from BioShock Infinite enrapturing me, and much of hte gaming world.

2014: The Last of Us: Remastered (PS4)

Skipped the original release on the PS3, picked up the remastered version of the title when I got my PS4 to play Until Dawn on. I still have mixed feelings about The Last of Us as a game; but it is one thing - good, which is made of many other things - compelling plot, atmosphere, character design, audio, and visuals are all top notch. It leverages the console well, and does an excellent job at keeping even observers engaged in the game.

2015: The Beginner's Guide (PC)

Something that isn't just a game, but an experience. The Beginner's Guide is a series of games, within a game, that are narrated, lovingly crafted. You learn about game design, friendship, and iterative creativity. You learn about genius.

The Beginner's Guide is something that I can't describe all too well with words. It is something that has to be experienced, and is a masterful piece of storytelling.

2016: Pokemon Go (Mobile)

The game that made me purcahse multiple power packs for my mobile, wore out several pairs of shoes, and interact with complete strangers. Pokemon Go left me no time to play any other game that was released in 2016. I took walks because I wanted to progress further in the game, I absorbed myself in calculators, spreadsheets, and a fever that was cured only when I moved to an area that had little in the way of Pokemon Go attractions; and I started to realise all the other things I could do while being outside.

2017: Horizon: Zero Dawn (PS4)

Finally, we come to my pick for Game of the Year, 2017. Horizon: Zero Dawn wins on the basis that there's not much else that I have played this year that is truly a complete, unique, enduring package which represents a paradigm shift in the presentation of a game. There are moments in Horizon: Zero Dawn, where you are completely awed by the environment.

There's unscripted moments, there's tons of stuff to do; and beyond that; there's the DLC which recently was released, which by all accounts, adds a significant amount of material into the game's world. We have a unique character, setting; and gameplay, which is ambitious in this generation of sequels, paid-for bonus content, and cosmetic upgrades that take potentially hundreds of hours to grind for.

We made it!

Thank you for coming along on this thirty year gaming journey with me. This post was an absolute blast to put together, and painful, too. 1998 in particular was a tough year, and I could do a standalone post on that year alone!

There's several titles that I am surprised that didn't make it through to my list, and these include Jagged Alliance, Heroes of Might and Magic (any of them!), KOTOR, the Half-Life series, Metal Gear Solid, and some of the later Final Fantasy titles (FFX was one of my favourites).

Beyond this, there are other games that I have probably forgotten about completely, but the titles I've listed above are games that I would be happy to play again in a heart beat. They're not the sorts of games that I'll pull out every single year, but they are the benchmarks that I measure other games against.

This exercise has also made me reflect upon my prior ownership of games and consoles, and has ignited the collector within, as I no longer own physical copies of a lot of these games, with the majority owned on Steam, GOG, or another digital distribution service.