Video game fans love arguing about video games as much as we like playing them. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Red Dead Redemption 2 is the best game of all time! Screw you, cultureless swine, it's actually Tetris! And then a third, enlightened party makes the argument for 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dwarf Fortress. This is what gaming is all about. We discourse about the best games of alꦉl time, the best developers to ever do it, the best consoles to own right now, and the best years in the history of the medium.

As we enter 2025, we may be on the verge of a new greatest year of all time, and that’s due to two titles in particular. One that we know is real and is targeting this year, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Grand Theft Auto 6, and one that has not been officially announced but seems realer and realer everyday, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Half-Life 3.

The Case For: 1998

A low-res model of Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid in a bare room.

If 2025 is going to claim the throne, though, there are four years it needs to beat: 1998, 2007, 2017, and 2023. 1998 gave us Half-Life, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Ocarina of Time, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Starcraft, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Resident Evil 2, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Metal Gear Solid, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Baldur's Gate, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Banjo-Kazooie, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Fallout 2, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Spyro the Dragon, and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Crash Bandicoot: Warped among many others.

If you're keeping track, that's one of the most influential shooters of all-time, Zelda's beloved first foray into 3D, the game that popularized stealth mechanics, one of the most important RTS games of all-time, and BioWare's first RPG (and the predecessor to another game we'll see on this list shortly). This was an extremely important👍 year, and we're still feeling its ramifications to this day.

The Case For: 2007

super-mario-galaxy-screenshot-mario-luma.jpg

Though 2007 isn't quite as foundational, it did kick off some of the defining franchises of the past two decades. It introduced us to 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Rock Band, BioShock, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Uncharted, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Assassin's Creed, Portal, and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Mass Effect, and boasted standout entries in the established properties with Halo 3, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Super Mario Galaxy, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:God of War 2, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Team Fortress 2, and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Half-Life 2: Episode 2. It's a solid mi♔x of classics and games, like Uncharted ꦬand AC, that laid the groundwork for future classics.

The Case For: 2017

The Legend of Zelda_ Breath of the Wild

While not as groundbreaking, 2017 is still my personal favorite. It marked the introduction of the Nintendo Switch, which came with 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Legend of Zelda: ඣBreath of the Wi𒉰ld and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Super Mario Odyssey. Developers for the other two boxes were hitting their stride, too, with the launches of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Horizon Zero Dawn, Prey, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Resident Evil 7, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:NieR: Automata, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Destiny 2, Nioh, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Wolfenstein: The New Colossus, and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice.

This is the first year on this list that was majorly bolstered by the presence of indies, too, thanks to 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:What Remains of Edith Finch, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Night in the Woods, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dream Daddy, Cuphead, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Little Nightmares, Pyre, and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Butterfly Soup.

Plus, you can't forget 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Divinity: Original Sin 2, the game that showed a mainstream audience how good Larian could be years before 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Baldur's Gate 3.

The Case For: 2023

Astarion from Baldur's Gate 3.

Speaking of Baldur's Gate 3, it's one of the key pillars on which 2023's claim to greatness stands. The year also gave us strong, new triple-A games — 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Tears of the Kingdom, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Alan Wake 2, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Marvel's Spider-Man 2, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Super Mario Bros. Wonder, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dead Island 2 — stellar remakes — 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Resident Evil 4, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dead Space, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:System Shock, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Metroid Prime Remastered — imaginative indies — Cocoon, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Sea of Stars, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Amnesia: The Bunker — and the odd double-A title that punched above its weight like 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Hi-Fi Rush.

Half-Life And GTA Are An Unbeatable Pair

As good as all four years are, the combined might of Half-Life and GTA 6 is enough to claim the crown. These are two of t𒈔he most anticipated games of all time, albeit in very different ways.

There was never any doubt that Rockstar would eventually come back to GTA. The last game in the series is the second highest-grossing game of all time, and the developer never stopped updating GTA Online in the years since its 2013 release. In the meantime, it put out Red Dead Redemption 2, which shares a lot of open-world DNA with GTA. Though the gap between entries has swelled to 12 years, 🐲there was too much money on the table for Rockstar to abandon the series for good. Its existence and the success it will soon experience was inevitable.

Half-Life 3 is a different kind of beast. It really seemed like Valve was done with the series. It announced Half-Life 2: Episode Three back in 2006, ended 2007's Episode Two with a major cliffhanger, then just… never followed it up. Over tim🤡e, anticipation for Episode Three turned to hope for a full-sized sequel.

A Screenshot From The Canceled Half-Life 2: Episode Three

Gameplay footage from the cancelled Half Life 2 Episode 3 DLC, showing a player using an ice gun against enemies

But as Valve largely abandoned single-player development in the 2010s, and key personnel like writer Marc Laidlaw departed, those hopes slowly dried up. With the release of Half-Life: Alyx, though, Valve returned to the series with an instant classic. One developer, Phil Co, said that the studio was , and it seemed like more would be on the way shortly. If 🤡Half-Life 3 comes out this year, it will have arrived — at least by modern video game standards — hot on Alyx's heels.

These games achieved near-mythical status over the years, so both arriving in 2025 would feel surreal. Other heavy-hitters that are set to arrive this year — like 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Monster Hunter Wilds, Avowed, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Outer Worlds 2, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Ghost of Yotei, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Death Stranding 2, Fable, and the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Switch 2's launch line-up — would just be icing on the cake. Of course, this depends on Half-Life 3 actually being real and actually arriving this year (it’s more likely to be 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:announced than anything). Please, Valve: 2025 needs you.

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