Seventh Generation Review - The Best Games

The games being released exclusively on seventh-generation consoles are getting - unsurprisingly - more and more scarce. I know there are still some AAA titles coming on those platforms, most notably Assassin's Creed Rogue, Borderlands : The Pre-Sequel! (which I'm eagerly waiting for and is even pre-ordered) and Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD.

As far as my personal tastes and budget are concerned, only The Pre-Sequel! has a chance to make some noise in my personal "Best games of the Seventh-Generation" list. The rest of this homemade list is pretty much set in stone. For the sake of "transparency", let's look at the list of all the seventh-gen games which received a rating of 9.5 and higher on the list and the console I played them on. I won't put the exact scores next to them, as it would be useless if you know the first one has 9.9 and the last one 9.5. Keep in mind that the order is not final, since it's very possible my opinion changes during another playthrough if it ever happens. But usually it really doesn't move around that much. Also, it has to be said I'm usually not big on online multiplayer, so I put an * next to the titles I haven't played much. It doesn't mean the MP isn't good or even great, it only means I honestly didn't try it that much.

The Last of Us* (PS3) - Best Overall Game / Action-adventure Game / Survival Horror Game
Bioshock (PS3) - Best FPS

Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) - Best Platformer
Fallout 3 (PS3) - Best RPG / Open-world Game
The Elder Scrolls V : Skyrim (PS3)
Bioshock : Infinite (PS3)
The Orange Box (Half-Life 2 and Portal only) (PS3)
Portal 2 (PS3) - Best Puzzle Game
Batman : Arkham Asylum (PS3)
The Walking Dead (PS3) - Best Interactive-Adventure (??) Game
The Legend of Zelda : Skyward Sword (Wii)
Tomb Raider** (PS3)
Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii)
Uncharted 2 : Among Thieves (PS3)

Batman : Arkham City (PS3)
Call of Duty 4 : Modern Warfare (PS3)
Kirby's Epic Yarn (Wii)
Uncharted 3 : Drake's Deception** (PS3)
Mass Effect 3** (PS3)
inFamous (PS3)
Borderlands (PS3)
The Legend of Zelda : Twilight Princess (Wii)
Journey (PS3) - Best Indie Game
Battlefield : Bad Company 2 (PS3)
Borderlands 2 (PS3)
LittleBigPlanet (PS3)
Red Dead Redemption* (PS3)
Bioshock 2** (PS3)
Dishonored (PS3) - Best Stealth Game

Best Racing Game (None were 9.5 or better) : Tie between Gran Turismo 5** (PS3) and Forza Motorsports 4* (X360)

* I haven' tried those games' multiplayer component.
** Those I did, but I merely scrathed the surface (usually less than 3 hours).

Now, the first reaction might be "Holy crap there are so many games you think are 9.5 and up". Yes there are, I realize that. The way I see it, the faults of a game have to be massive in order to downgrade the score if I'm really enjoying myself playing said game.

For example, I don't think the first Borderlands and Kirby's Epic Yarn are without faults, but I enjoyed myself so much playing both those games (in fact, I went through Borderlands 3 or 4 times) that I really didn't care if Epic Yarn was really too easy and that BL's characters were almost all massively under-developed. That's why I gave them such high scores, because I freaking enjoyed them. And while I love games that give you unique experiences (see : The Last of Us and Bioshock, unsurprisingly at the top of the list), I also like - forgive me cliché - having "good ol' fun".

Anyway, we had a truly great Seventh-Generation of consoles and games. And I'm pretty damn sure I missed many gems along the way, most likely exclusives to the XBox 360, which I owned for 3 years but only played 6 or 7 games on, or to the PC, many of which I can't play because I use a MacBook with limited gaming power.