Grand Theft Auto V20138 factsGame page →It was the first main-series Grand Theft Auto with three switchable protagonists — Michael, Franklin and Trevor — whom the player can swap between at almost any time.en.wikipedia.orgFirst-person mode was not in the original 2013 release — it was added with the 2014 PS4/Xbox One and 2015 PC re-releases, requiring an overhaul of the animation system.blog.playstation.comGTA Online, the persistent multiplayer mode, launched on October 1, 2013 — two weeks after the main game.en.wikipedia.orgThe game features two real-world-style in-game stock markets, BAWSAQ and LCN, and Lester's assassination missions are deliberately designed to swing stock prices so players can buy low and sell high.gta.fandom.comIts score was produced by an unusual collaboration — 20+ hours of interactive music passed between Tangerine Dream and Woody Jackson and hip-hop producers The Alchemist and Oh No, then mixed by DJ Shadow.en.wikipedia.orgTangerine Dream's Edgar Froese initially turned down the job, then accepted after being flown in and shown the game's cinematic scale.en.wikipedia.orgIt set seven Guinness World Records at launch, including fastest entertainment property to gross $1 billion — reached just three days after release.guinnessworldrecords.comIt was developed primarily at Rockstar North in Edinburgh, Scotland, and was the highest-rated game of 2013 on review aggregators.en.wikipedia.orgRead 6 more facts
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt201528 factsGame page →The Witcher 3 took about three and a half years to make, with development beginning in 2011 after CD Projekt RED finished The Witcher 2.en.wikipedia.orgThe in-house team grew from roughly 150 developers to over 250, and CD Projekt RED says around 1,500 people in total contributed to the game worldwide.en.wikipedia.orgThe game runs on CD Projekt RED's in-house REDengine 3, built to render a seamless open world without loading screens between regions.en.wikipedia.orgThe script exceeds 450,000 words — roughly four times the length of an average novel — and required about 950 speaking roles.pcgamesn.comThe game was localized into 15 languages using around 500 voice actors, with the English recording alone taking over two and a half years.en.wikipedia.orgThe game world covers roughly 136 square kilometers, making it about 3.5 times larger than the map of Skyrim.dualshockers.comThe main story can resolve into 36 different world states leading to three primary endings, depending on the player's choices regarding Ciri.en.wikipedia.orgAn early prototype had a main quest estimated at up to 150 hours — about three times the shipped game — according to a 584-page modder breakdown of a development database.pcgamer.comA large cut questline codenamed 'WAR', big enough to have its own writers and designers, was removed in late 2014 because it was too rough to finish for launch.wccftech.comGeralt's horse Roach is named after a fish, not the insect — in the original Polish and Sapkowski's novels she is 'Płotka', a diminutive for the roach, a common Polish freshwater fish.screenrant.comA recurring physics bug that spawned Roach on top of rooftops became one of gaming's most beloved memes rather than an embarrassment.gamerant.comThe in-game card game Gwent became such a hit that CD Projekt RED spun it off into its own standalone title, Gwent: The Witcher Card Game.gamespot.comGwent even birthed a second spin-off, Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales (2018), a 30-hour single-player RPG originally conceived as a Gwent campaign.en.wikipedia.orgCD Projekt RED released 16 free DLC packs after launch — armor sets, alternate costumes, new quests and a New Game+ mode — all at no charge.techtimes.comCEO Marcin Iwiński framed the free DLC as a matter of principle, saying 'We owe them' because players had just paid full price.pcgamesn.comThe Blood and Wine expansion scored around 92/100 ('universal acclaim') and is widely cited as one of the best expansion packs ever made.opencritic.comThe Witcher 3 became the most awarded game of all time, racking up roughly 250+ Game of the Year awards and over 800 awards total by August 2016.attackofthefanboy.comIt held the 'most awarded game' record until January 2021, when The Last of Us Part II overtook it.gameworldobserver.comIt won Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2015, and also took top honors at the 2015 Golden Joystick Awards, the 2016 Game Developers Choice Awards and the 2016 SXSW Gaming Awards.en.wikipedia.orgIt did not sweep every ceremony — at both the 2016 DICE Awards and the 2016 BAFTA Games Awards, Fallout 4 beat it for the top prize.criticalhit.netGeralt's English voice actor Doug Cockle is actually American, and he won Best Gaming Performance at the 2016 Golden Joystick Awards for the role.en.wikipedia.orgAfter the Netflix series premiered in December 2019, U.S. physical sales of The Witcher 3 spiked 554% year-over-year, four and a half years after release.pcgamer.comIn early January 2020, riding the Netflix wave, the game hit an all-time peak of over 103,000 concurrent Steam players — the first time it broke 100,000.windowscentral.comA free next-gen update in December 2022 added ray tracing and higher-resolution textures on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S for existing owners, driving another Steam surge.gameshub.comThe reveal of The Witcher 4 at The Game Awards 2024 sent players flooding back, pushing The Witcher 3 to about 46,000 concurrent Steam players.thegamer.comBy May 2023 the game had sold over 50 million copies, making it roughly the ninth best-selling video game in history.pcgamer.comThe game's success helped make CD Projekt Poland's most valuable listed company, and in May 2020 it briefly surpassed Ubisoft as Europe's most valuable game company.videogameschronicle.comThe Polish folk band Percival, who performed on the soundtrack, took their name from the gnome character Percival Schuttenbach in Sapkowski's Witcher novels.en.wikipedia.orgRead 26 more facts
Portal 220116 factsGame page →Portal 2 adds a two-player co-op campaign starring robots Atlas and P-body, both voiced by Dee Bradley Baker.en.wikipedia.orgThe voice cast pairs returning GLaDOS actress Ellen McLain with comedian Stephen Merchant as the bumbling core Wheatley and J.K. Simmons as Aperture founder Cave Johnson.en.wikipedia.orgThe single-player credits close with 'Want You Gone', an original song written and performed by Jonathan Coulton, echoing the first game's 'Still Alive'.en.wikipedia.orgWith a Metacritic score around 95, Portal 2 is one of the best-reviewed games ever and swept Best Game, Game Design and Story at the 2012 BAFTA Games Awards.bafta.orgValve promoted the launch with the 'Potato Sack' ARG across 13 indie games, which let fans collectively unlock Portal 2 a few hours early in April 2011.en.wikipedia.orgA free 'Perpetual Testing Initiative' update (May 2012) added an in-game level editor with Steam Workshop sharing.en.wikipedia.orgRead 4 more facts
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive20123 factsGame page →The August 2013 'Arms Deal' update introduced weapon skins and loot crates — spawning one of gaming's largest virtual economies and, controversially, the skin-gambling industry.en.wikipedia.orgIt went free-to-play in December 2018 alongside the 'Danger Zone' battle-royale mode — and kept climbing for years, breaking its own concurrent-player record with ~1.4M in March 2023.en.wikipedia.orgAfter 11 years, CS:GO was retired on 27 September 2023 — overwritten in place by Counter-Strike 2 on the Source 2 engine.en.wikipedia.orgRead 1 more fact
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim20118 factsGame page →Skyrim launched on 11 November 2011 — the memorable 11-11-11 date Bethesda chose deliberately as a marketing hook.en.wikipedia.orgThe game runs on Bethesda's then-new Creation Engine, built to replace the Gamebryo engine used in Oblivion and Fallout 3.en.wikipedia.orgThe player is the 'Dragonborn' (Dovahkiin), able to absorb dragon souls and cast dragon-language 'Thu'um' shouts.elderscrolls.fandom.comThe line 'I used to be an adventurer like you, then I took an arrow in the knee' became one of gaming's most enduring memes.en.wikipedia.orgSkyrim has been re-released so many times (Special, Anniversary and Legendary editions, Switch, VR and more) that 'Skyrim on everything' became a running joke.gamesradar.comAs of June 2023, Skyrim had sold more than 60 million copies, making it (then) the 7th best-selling video game of all time.nintendolife.comJeremy Soule's main theme 'Dragonborn' features a 30-person male choir recorded three times (90 voices) chanting lyrics in the invented Dragon language.en.wikipedia.orgSkyrim swept 2011-12 Game of the Year honours, including Spike VGA Game of the Year and D.I.C.E. Role-Playing Game of the Year.en.wikipedia.orgRead 6 more facts
Red Dead Redemption 2201819 factsGame page →Red Dead Redemption 2 took roughly eight years to make and, for the first time in Rockstar's history, united all of the company's studios worldwide into a single development team.en.wikipedia.orgThe game has a roughly 60-hour main story and more than 500,000 lines of dialogue, with individual background NPCs each given scripts around 80 pages long.gamesradar.comIn a famous example of the game's obsession with realism, male horses' testicles visibly shrink in cold weather and expand in warmer temperatures.pcgamesn.comHead writer Dan Houser sparked a crunch controversy by telling Vulture the team worked '100-hour weeks,' later clarifying it applied only to four senior writers during a three-week push, not the whole studio.kotaku.comRoger Clark won Best Performance at The Game Awards 2018 for his portrayal of protagonist Arthur Morgan.en.wikipedia.orgGuinness World Records lists the game as having the most collectable real-life animal species in a videogame, with 227 species, breeds and legendary varieties.guinnessworldrecords.comIt holds the Guinness World Record for the largest cast for a videogame, with 1,200 actors, all affiliated with the SAG-AFTRA union.guinnessworldrecords.comIt also holds the Guinness World Record for the most motion-capture work performed for a videogame, at 2,200 days of mocap.guinnessworldrecords.comRoughly 200 animal species were built into the world, each with unique behavior — wolves hunt in packs, possums play dead, and grizzlies bluff-charge when threatened.variety.comThe game helped popularize the 'can you pet the dog?' test as shorthand for a game's immersive detail, inspiring the famous social-media account of the same name.hyperallergic.comIt won four awards at The Game Awards 2018 (Best Narrative, Best Score/Music, Best Audio Design and Best Performance) but lost Game of the Year to God of War.gamesradar.comNPCs remember the player's past actions — shopkeepers you've robbed treat you differently on return visits — and carrying a corpse leaves blood on Arthur's clothes that passersby remark on.wccftech.comSoul singer D'Angelo recorded an original song, 'Unshaken,' exclusively for the game's climax, produced by Daniel Lanois.rollingstone.comComposer Woody Jackson wrote roughly 60 hours of music for the game, working with more than 110 musicians on the score.en.wikipedia.orgAbout five hours of finished content was cut before release, including a second love interest for Arthur Morgan and a bounty-hunter mission set on a train.en.wikipedia.orgThe game is a prequel set in 1899, taking place twelve years before the events of 2010's Red Dead Redemption.en.wikipedia.orgThe gang's stray dog, Cain, was modeled on a real dog named Einstein that belonged to one of Rockstar's senior animators.en.wikipedia.orgArthur's hair and beard grow dynamically over in-game time and can be trimmed and styled at barbers or accelerated with hair tonics.screenrant.comRob Wiethoff and Benjamin Byron Davis reprised their roles as John Marston and Dutch van der Linde from the first game, portraying younger versions of the characters in this prequel.voquent.comRead 17 more facts
Borderlands 220123 factsGame page →Borderlands 2 still had roughly one million monthly active players nearly eight years after launch — exceptional staying power that 2K itself highlighted in 2019.en.wikipedia.orgIt swept the 2012 Spike VGAs (including Best Shooter and Best Multiplayer) and won the D.I.C.E. Award for Action Game of the Year.en.wikipedia.orgHandsome Jack — introduced here — became the franchise's defining villain, and the 2019 'Commander Lilith' DLC bridged the story to Borderlands 3 seven years later.en.wikipedia.orgRead 1 more fact
Life is Strange20156 factsGame page →The central mechanic lets protagonist Max Caulfield rewind time to redo conversations and actions, making choices reversible until they cascade into a butterfly effect.en.wikipedia.orgIt was released episodically as five episodes across 2015 (Chrysalis, Out of Time, Chaos Theory, Dark Room, Polarized).en.wikipedia.orgThe final episode forces the player to choose between sacrificing Chloe or sacrificing the town of Arcadia Bay to a tornado.en.wikipedia.orgThe score was composed by Jonathan Morali, frontman of French indie band Syd Matters, alongside a licensed indie-folk soundtrack (alt-J, Mogwai, José González, Bright Eyes).life-is-strange.fandom.comIt won the BAFTA Games Award for Story (2016) and The Game Awards 'Games for Impact' (2015), and was widely praised for its LGBTQ themes.en.wikipedia.orgIt sold 1 million copies by July 2015, reached 3 million unique players by 2017 and 20 million total players by November 2023, spawning a full franchise.en.wikipedia.orgRead 4 more facts
Fallout 420156 factsGame page →It is set in a post-apocalyptic Boston and surrounding 'Commonwealth' of Massachusetts, roughly 210 years after a 2077 nuclear war.en.wikipedia.orgThe player character, the Sole Survivor, emerges from Vault 111 accompanied by the loyal dog Dogmeat, a series mainstay.en.wikipedia.orgIt was the first mainline Fallout with a fully voiced protagonist (Brian T. Delaney / Courtenay Taylor) and a new base-building settlement system, both series firsts.en.wikipedia.orgBuilt on Bethesda's Creation Engine, it became a flagship for PC and console modding.en.wikipedia.orgIt shipped roughly 12 million copies for an estimated $750M+ in its first day, one of the biggest launches in Bethesda history.forbes.comMajor post-launch expansions included Automatron, Far Harbor and Nuka-World.en.wikipedia.orgRead 4 more facts
Limbo20109 factsGame page →Limbo follows a nameless boy who wakes in a forest and journeys through a hazardous monochrome world in search of his sister.en.wikipedia.orgThe game was conceived in 2004 by Arnt Jensen, then a concept artist at IO Interactive, and reached release in 2010 — roughly six years later.en.wikipedia.orgJensen built a 2006 recruitment trailer to attract collaborators; its buzz helped lead to founding Playdead with Dino Patti to finish the game.en.wikipedia.orgIts aesthetic draws on film noir and German Expressionism, and the design was nicknamed 'trial and death' for its lethal, learn-by-dying puzzles.en.wikipedia.orgSound designer Martin Stig Andersen used acousmatic / musique-concrète techniques — distorted, source-less sounds rather than conventional music loops.en.wikipedia.orgRoughly 70% of developed content was cut for not fitting the game's tone.en.wikipedia.orgIt was one of the best-selling Xbox Live Arcade titles — ~527,000 copies and ~$7.5M in its first year — and passed 3 million across all platforms by June 2013.en.wikipedia.orgOriginally an Xbox Live Arcade exclusive (Summer of Arcade 2010), it was later ported to PC, PS3, Mac, Linux, iOS/Android, PS Vita and Switch.en.wikipedia.orgPlaydead's 2016 game Inside is regarded as Limbo's spiritual successor and reuses some ideas cut from Limbo.en.wikipedia.orgRead 7 more facts
Terraria20115 factsGame page →Terraria is frequently described as '2D Minecraft'; creator Andrew 'Redigit' Spinks has said wanting more purpose out of Minecraft drove him to make it.pcgamesn.comRe-Logic began as just two people — Andrew Spinks wrote the code and his wife Whitney 'Cenx' Spinks made the art — working remotely from their living room.en.wikipedia.orgTerraria has sold over 70 million copies lifetime as of its 15th anniversary in May 2026, making it one of the best-selling video games ever.en.wikipedia.orgThe 1.4 'Journey's End' update (2020) was billed as the grand finale, but Re-Logic has kept shipping major free content updates well beyond it.gamesradar.comIts large modding community runs on tModLoader, an officially endorsed mod loader distributed free on Steam.store.steampowered.comRead 3 more facts
Dota 220134 factsGame page →Dota 2 was the first shipping Source 2 game — the 'Reborn' update ported the entire live game to Valve's new engine in September 2015.gamespot.comLead designer IceFrog may be gaming's most famous anonymous developer — he has led DotA and Dota 2 for two decades while keeping his identity hidden; a 2017 court filing referenced the name Abdul Ismail.esports.ggThe International's crowdfunded prize pools rewrote esports economics: from $2.87M at TI3 (2013) to $40.02M at TI10 (2021) — still the largest esports prize pool ever.liquipedia.netIt was named 2013's Esports Game of the Year (onGamers awards) — two years before The Game Awards even had an esports category.gamespot.comRead 2 more facts
Warframe20133 factsGame page →Warframe is a resurrected rejection: publishers turned down the original sci-fi 'Dark Sector' pitch in 2004 (forcing DE to ship a very different Dark Sector in 2008) — and rejected the revived concept AGAIN in 2012, so Digital Extremes self-published it.pcgamer.comRebecca Ford — the voice of the Lotus, community-nicknamed 'Space Mom' — rose from community manager to Creative Director of the whole game in 2022, succeeding co-creator Steve Sinclair when he became DE's CEO.digitalextremes.comIt has its own annual convention: TennoCon, first held in July 2016 in DE's hometown of London, Ontario — with first-year ticket proceeds donated to charity.wiki.warframe.comRead 1 more fact
Rocket League20156 factsGame page →Rocket League is a direct sequel to Psyonix's obscure 2008 PlayStation 3 title Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars, which sold poorly but built the car-soccer formula.en.wikipedia.orgAt its July 2015 launch it was a free PlayStation Plus title; demand exceeded Psyonix's servers within a week (183,000+ concurrent players) and drove an estimated six million downloads.en.wikipedia.orgThe game went free-to-play on 23 September 2020, roughly a year after Epic Games acquired Psyonix in May 2019.en.wikipedia.orgThe Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS) esports league launched in 2016 and grew into one of the biggest console esports circuits.en.wikipedia.orgIt was an early champion of cross-platform play, connecting PC, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and (from Feb 2019) PlayStation 4 players.en.wikipedia.orgPlayer counts snowballed from 25 million (Jan 2017) to over 57 million by the 2019 Epic acquisition, then tens of millions more after going free-to-play.en.wikipedia.orgRead 4 more facts
Horizon Zero Dawn201714 factsGame page →Horizon was born from an internal pitch contest: in late 2010 Guerrilla asked the whole studio for new-game ideas and received about 40 concepts. Art director Jan-Bart van Beek's Horizon pitch won — even though game director Mathijs de Jonge called it "the most risky" of them all.en.wikipedia.orgIt was Guerrilla Games' first non-Killzone title since Shellshock: Nam '67 (2004) and the studio's first-ever open-world action RPG — a deliberate break from more than a decade of gritty first-person shooters.en.wikipedia.orgWith a reported budget of over €45 million, Dutch media called Horizon Zero Dawn the most expensive Dutch media production ever made — more than double the €18M budget of the film Black Book.pushsquare.comGuerrilla's in-house engine had no public name until Hideo Kojima adopted it for Death Stranding. Kojima Productions christened it "Decima" after Dejima, the artificial island that served as the Dutch trading post in Edo-era Japan — a nod to the Dutch-Japanese partnership.en.wikipedia.orgHorizon Zero Dawn launched on 28 February 2017 — just three days before The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and the Nintendo Switch. The two open-world landmarks are still compared, and many outlets argued HZD's innovations were overshadowed by Zelda's hype.vice.comAloy is a composite of two performers: Ashly Burch provides her voice (winning the 2017 Golden Joystick Award for Best Performance) while Dutch actress Hannah Hoekstra provides her facial likeness.en.wikipedia.orgThe late Lance Reddick (The Wire, John Wick) voiced the enigmatic Sylens. After his death in 2023, the role was recast with Tim Russ for LEGO Horizon Adventures.en.wikipedia.orgEvery machine is grounded in real animal movement so its behavior reads intuitively: Tallnecks move like giraffes, Stalkers like maned wolves, Longlegs like terror birds and Watchers like meerkats. Early scorpion-like machine concepts were dropped partly because their thin legs were unsatisfying to shoot.blog.playstation.comThe game sold 2.6 million copies in its first two weeks — at the time the best-selling new first-party IP launch in PS4 history, a record later broken by Ghost of Tsushima in 2020.sonyinteractive.comBy the time sales passed 20 million copies in late 2021, players had spent over one billion hours in Horizon Zero Dawn's world.pushsquare.comAloy became a cross-game PlayStation ambassador: she was added to Fortnite in April 2021 and joined Genshin Impact as a free five-star Cryo archer in version 2.1 (September 2021) — Genshin's first-ever crossover character from another game.guerrilla-games.comA Netflix live-action Horizon series (showrunner Steve Blackman) was in development but was reported dead in July 2024; a Horizon feature film from PlayStation Productions and Columbia Pictures was subsequently reported in early 2025.forbes.comThe Frozen Wilds (November 2017), the game's only expansion, added the snowy Cut region inspired by Yellowstone, the Banuk tribe, a level-cap raise from 50 to 60, and new dynamic snow-deformation technology.en.wikipedia.orgThe Horizon franchise had sold more than 38 million units worldwide by July 2025, spanning Zero Dawn (~24.3M alone), Forbidden West, the 2024 Remastered edition, Call of the Mountain and LEGO Horizon Adventures.pushsquare.comRead 12 more facts
Metro 203320108 factsGame page →The game is based on Metro 2033, the 2005 post-apocalyptic novel by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky, who co-wrote the game's script.en.wikipedia.orgDeveloper 4A Games was founded around 2005 by former GSC Game World staff — including director Andrew Prokhorov and engine programmers Oles Shishkovtsov and Oleksandr Maksimchuk — who had worked on S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl.en.wikipedia.orgIt runs on 4A Games' proprietary 4A Engine, built by ex-STALKER programmers who had previously developed the X-Ray engine.en.wikipedia.orgA hidden morality system silently tracks player actions — eavesdropping, exploration, stealth, sparing enemies — across the campaign and decides which of two endings you get: the darker 'Ranger' ending or the redemptive 'Enlightened' ending.en.wikipedia.orgPre-war 'military-grade' bullets double as the in-game currency — you can spend them on gear or load and fire them as premium high-damage ammunition.en.wikipedia.orgIt was originally announced in 2006 as 'Metro 2033: The Last Refuge'; THQ signed on as publisher and unveiled the retitled Metro 2033 in October 2009.en.wikipedia.orgA rebuilt version, Metro 2033 Redux, was released in 2014 on the newer 4A Engine developed for Metro: Last Light.en.wikipedia.orgBy June 2012 the original Metro 2033 had sold more than 1.5 million copies, which THQ described as 'very profitable'.en.wikipedia.orgRead 6 more facts
Rise of the Tomb Raider20156 factsGame page →Rise of the Tomb Raider is the sequel to the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot and the second entry in Crystal Dynamics' 'survivor' origin trilogy.en.wikipedia.orgThe story follows Lara Croft to Siberia in search of the lost city of Kitezh and the Divine Source, a relic said to grant immortality, opposing the paramilitary order Trinity.en.wikipedia.orgIt launched as a timed Xbox One / Xbox 360 exclusive on 10 November 2015; the Windows PC version followed in January 2016 and the PS4 '20 Year Celebration' edition in October 2016.en.wikipedia.orgThe '20 Year Celebration' edition (marking Tomb Raider's 20th anniversary) added the Blood Ties story chapter, playable in PlayStation VR.en.wikipedia.orgIt runs on Crystal Dynamics' in-house Foundation engine.en.wikipedia.orgCamilla Luddington returned to voice and performance-capture Lara Croft, a role that earned her a The Game Awards 2015 Best Performance nomination.en.wikipedia.orgRead 4 more facts
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain20156 factsGame page →It was the first open-world mainline Metal Gear, built on Kojima Productions' in-house Fox Engine.en.wikipedia.orgKiefer Sutherland replaced longtime English Snake voice David Hayter as Big Boss / Venom Snake; Kojima wanted a subtler facial and vocal performance.en.wikipedia.orgAmid the March 2015 Kojima-Konami split, Kojima's name and 'A Hideo Kojima Game' were stripped from the box, marketing and paraphernalia.en.wikipedia.orgA third act was cut: Episode 51 'Kingdom of the Flies' shipped only as unfinished cinematics and concept art on the Collector's Edition disc.en.wikipedia.orgA secret 'nuclear disarmament' ending unlocks only when all player-built nukes on a server platform are dismantled.en.wikipedia.orgA late twist reveals the player-character is a body double ('the medic'), not the real Big Boss.en.wikipedia.orgRead 4 more facts
The Walking Dead20123 factsGame page →Robert Kirkman gave Telltale creative freedom with one condition — no Rick Grimes, who was reserved for the comics; after seeing a near-final build he told the team 'Holy shit guys, you did it.'en.wikipedia.orgIt swept 2012's Game of the Year season with 90+ GOTY awards — including the Spike VGA Game of the Year, two BAFTAs, four D.I.C.E. awards and GDC Best Narrative — legitimizing episodic adventure games overnight.en.wikipedia.orgClementine was engineered as the story's moral compass — the team's explicit design goal was to keep her from ever feeling annoying — and she went on to carry the entire four-season franchise.en.wikipedia.orgRead 1 more fact
BioShock 2201010 factsGame page →BioShock 2 is the first game in the series to let players control a Big Daddy — the protagonist is Subject Delta, a prototype Big Daddy searching Rapture for his bonded Little Sister, Eleanor.en.wikipedia.orgThe game was made by 2K Marin, a studio spun up in late 2007 for the sequel; a core team of eight grew to a peak of roughly 86 people, with work spread across five countries and time zones (2K Australia, 2K China and Arkane Studios all contributed).en.wikipedia.orgCreative director Jordan Thomas had designed the acclaimed 'Fort Frolic' level in the original BioShock before leading the sequel.engadget.comThe competitive multiplayer mode 'Fall of Rapture' was co-developed by Digital Extremes and serves as a prequel — players are plasmid test subjects for Sinclair Solutions during Rapture's 1959 civil war, before the events of the first game.gamespot.comThe single-player DLC 'Minerva's Den' was built by a small team within 2K Marin led by Steve Gaynor (who later co-founded Fullbright and made Gone Home) and is frequently cited as one of gaming's greatest story expansions.en.wikipedia.orgWhere the first game dramatized Ayn Rand-style Objectivism through Andrew Ryan, BioShock 2 flips the theme, pitting the player against Sofia Lamb, a psychiatrist who rules Rapture with a collectivist/altruist cult ideology.en.wikipedia.orgComposer Garry Schyman returned from the first game and recorded the score with a 60-piece Hollywood Studio Symphony ensemble at Capitol Studios, expanding the sound with more blues and religious music.en.wikipedia.orgBioShock 2 was preceded by an elaborate alternate-reality marketing game, 'There's Something in the Sea', launched in March 2009; its site drew over 700,000 unique hits on day one and its Mark Meltzer storyline was woven into the finished game.bioshock.fandom.comThe sequel sold more than 3 million copies within roughly a month of release, but Take-Two considered this disappointing — the chairman had expected around 5 million.en.wikipedia.orgBefore its final name, BioShock 2 was first teased under the working subtitle 'Sea of Dreams'.en.wikipedia.orgRead 8 more facts
Dark Souls III20166 factsGame page →It is the third and final entry in the Dark Souls trilogy, directed by series creator Hidetaka Miyazaki.en.wikipedia.orgSet in the decaying kingdom of Lothric, the Ashen One must rekindle the fading First Flame to stave off an age of dark.en.wikipedia.orgIts combat is faster and more aggressive than earlier Dark Souls, a pace Miyazaki carried over from his work on Bloodborne.en.wikipedia.orgIt was supported by two DLC expansions — Ashes of Ariandel (2016) and The Ringed City (2017), which closed out the trilogy.en.wikipedia.orgAt launch it was the fastest-selling title in Bandai Namco America's history, a record later broken by Elden Ring.en.wikipedia.orgThe orchestral score was written chiefly by Yuka Kitamura and performed by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra.en.wikipedia.orgRead 4 more facts
Stardew Valley20166 factsGame page →Stardew Valley was made almost entirely by one person — Eric Barone (ConcernedApe) — who created the art, code, music and design himself over roughly 4.5 years.en.wikipedia.orgIt is heavily inspired by the Harvest Moon series; Barone built it because he felt later entries had declined.en.wikipedia.orgIt has sold over 41 million copies (as of the end of 2024), one of the best-selling indie games of all time.gamedeveloper.comBarone taught himself pixel art on the job, repeatedly redrawing the game's assets to improve them over development.en.wikipedia.orgIt received large free content updates post-launch (1.1 through 1.6), including free multiplayer.en.wikipedia.orgOriginally published by Chucklefish, Barone later regained the rights and now self-publishes as ConcernedApe.en.wikipedia.orgRead 4 more facts
Hotline Miami20123 factsGame page →Dennaton auditioned roughly 2,000 Bandcamp tracks to assemble the now-iconic synthwave soundtrack — which arguably launched the genre's gaming renaissance.daily.bandcamp.comCreator Jonatan Söderström personally patched pirated copies of the game so that even pirates could play the finished, bug-fixed experience.en.wikipedia.orgA launch bug crashed the game if certain printers were connected to the PC — one of gaming's strangest compatibility issues.en.wikipedia.orgRead 1 more fact
Hitman20165 factsGame page →Hitman was released episodically from March to October 2016, with seven locations (a prologue plus Paris, Sapienza, Marrakesh, Bangkok, Colorado and Hokkaido); the episodic model was divisive even as critics praised the level design.en.wikipedia.orgIt launched the 'World of Assassination' trilogy (followed by Hitman 2 in 2018 and Hitman 3 in 2021); in January 2023 all three were merged and rebranded as HITMAN World of Assassination.en.wikipedia.orgIt runs on IO Interactive's in-house Glacier 2 engine and returned to the open-ended sandbox assassination formula of Hitman: Blood Money after the more linear Absolution.en.wikipedia.orgDavid Bateson reprised his long-running role as the voice of Agent 47.en.wikipedia.orgA retail 'Game of the Year Edition' followed in November 2017, bundling the season with the new 'Patient Zero' bonus campaign.en.wikipedia.orgRead 3 more facts
Far Cry 320123 factsGame page →Vaas didn't exist in the original design — the villain was a hulking brute called 'Bull' until Michael Mando auditioned for a different role and Ubisoft rebuilt the antagonist around him; Mando considers himself the character's co-creator.en.wikipedia.orgMando performed the famous 'definition of insanity' monologue to a tennis ball standing in for the player — the scene won Best Gaming Moment at the 2013 Golden Joystick Awards.en.wikipedia.orgIt won the BAFTA in the Action category, GDC's Best Technology award and two Game Audio Network Guild awards — and Vaas took Best New Character at the Canadian Videogame Awards.en.wikipedia.orgRead 1 more fact
Alan Wake20109 factsGame page →The game opens with a Stephen King epigraph: 'Nightmares exist outside of logic, and there's little fun to be had in explanations; they're antithetical to the poetry of fear.'en.wikipedia.orgIts core combat uses light as a weapon: enemies called 'the Taken' must have their shield of darkness burned away with a flashlight or light source before conventional weapons can hurt them.en.wikipedia.orgThe story is structured like a TV series, split into 'episodes' that each open with a 'Previously on Alan Wake…' recap.en.wikipedia.orgIt spent roughly five years in troubled development; originally conceived as an open-world sandbox with dynamic weather before Remedy abandoned the open world for a linear, narrative-driven structure.en.wikipedia.orgTo design the setting, a Remedy team road-tripped about 2,000 miles across Oregon, Washington and British Columbia over two weeks, returning with more than 6,000 photos and videos.en.wikipedia.orgBright Falls and its small-town mood are heavily inspired by David Lynch's Twin Peaks, while the bird-swarm enemy sequences nod to Hitchcock's The Birds.en.wikipedia.orgThe in-game rock band 'Old Gods of Asgard' is voiced and performed by the Finnish band Poets of the Fall, fellow Finns to developer Remedy.alanwake.fandom.comA Windows PC port arrived on 16 February 2012, nearly two years after the Xbox 360 exclusive; Remedy said the PC version recouped its development and marketing costs in about 48 hours.en.wikipedia.orgAlan Wake was later folded into the Remedy Connected Universe, tying it to Control (2019) and Alan Wake 2 (2023).en.wikipedia.orgRead 7 more facts
Marvel's Spider-Man20188 factsGame page →It tells an original story rather than adapting a film or existing comic arc — Marvel let Insomniac create a new narrative in its own continuity (Earth-1048).en.wikipedia.orgIts Peter Parker is 23 and an experienced, ~8-year veteran Spider-Man — the game skips the origin story.screenrant.comThe "Advanced Suit" with its white-spider emblem is an original costume created by Insomniac to modernize Spider-Man's look; it became the game's signature design.blog.playstation.comJ. Jonah Jameson hosts an in-game podcast, "Just the Facts," with dozens of episodes ranting about Spider-Man that you overhear while web-swinging.marvels-spider-man.fandom.comStan Lee makes a cameo as the owner/cook of Peter and MJ's favorite diner — one of his final video-game cameos before his death in November 2018.cbr.comA hidden marriage-proposal Easter egg (a fan's proposal on a cinema marquee) made it into the game, but the couple broke up before launch; Insomniac re-dedicated the marquee to the fan's late grandmother.variety.comPeter Parker is voiced by Yuri Lowenthal, whose performance earned a Game Awards Best Performance nomination.en.wikipedia.orgIts success spawned Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales (2020) and Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (2023), plus a PS5 remaster and a 2022 PC port.en.wikipedia.orgRead 6 more facts
Amnesia: The Dark Descent20109 factsGame page →The player character has no weapons and cannot fight; survival depends entirely on hiding from and fleeing the monsters.en.wikipedia.orgA signature Sanity mechanic drains the protagonist's mind when he stares at monsters or lingers in darkness, distorting vision and audio — forcing players to balance safety in the dark against the need for light.en.wikipedia.orgYou play as Daniel, who wakes with amnesia inside the Prussian Brennenburg Castle in 1839 and must piece together his past.en.wikipedia.orgIt was built on Frictional Games' in-house HPL Engine 2.en.wikipedia.orgThe studio suffered severe financial problems during development and was near bankruptcy; the game recouped its costs within about a month of its September 2010 launch.en.wikipedia.orgIt is widely credited with helping fuel the rise of Let's Play and reaction-horror videos on YouTube, spreading through creators such as PewDiePie.en.wikipedia.orgThe free 2011 DLC 'Justine' included Portal 2 crossover promotional content.en.wikipedia.orgIt was followed by the 2013 sequel 'Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs', developed by The Chinese Room rather than Frictional itself.en.wikipedia.orgFrictional Games released the game's source code as open source in September 2020.en.wikipedia.orgRead 7 more facts
Saints Row: The Third20115 factsGame page →This is where the series fully embraced over-the-top absurdist comedy, set in the new city of Steelport under Volition's design mantra 'Embrace the Crazy; Fun Trumps All.'en.wikipedia.orgThe star voice cast includes wrestler Hulk Hogan (Angel De LaMuerte), adult-film actress Sasha Grey (Viola DeWynter) and Burt Reynolds as the Mayor of Steelport.en.wikipedia.orgIts signature melee weapon, the 'Penetrator' (a giant purple bat), became emblematic of the series' irreverence and was censored for the Japanese release.en.wikipedia.orgProfessor Genki's Super Ethical Reality Climax is an in-game lethal game-show activity hosted by a man in a cat mascot suit.en.wikipedia.orgIt sold 5.5 million copies by the end of 2012 and was later rebuilt as Saints Row: The Third Remastered (2020) with remodeled assets and all DLC.gamespot.comRead 3 more facts
Fallout: New Vegas20107 factsGame page →It was developed by Obsidian Entertainment, co-founded by former Black Isle/Interplay staff — many of the same people behind the original Fallout and Fallout 2.en.wikipedia.orgIt was built on the Gamebryo engine reused from Fallout 3, letting Obsidian reuse assets and tools.en.wikipedia.orgBethesda gave Obsidian roughly 18 months to develop the game.en.wikipedia.orgIt launched notoriously buggy — crashes, corrupted saves and frame-rate problems — with fixes patched in over the following months.en.wikipedia.orgObsidian's contract included a bonus only if the game hit 85 on Metacritic; it scored 84, so the studio missed the bonus by a single point.gamedeveloper.comYou play Courier Six, left for dead in the Mojave Wasteland, amid warring factions vying for control of New Vegas — driven by a faction-reputation system and multiple endings.en.wikipedia.orgIt was supported by four story add-ons — Dead Money, Honest Hearts, Old World Blues and Lonesome Road — later bundled with the base game as the Ultimate Edition.en.wikipedia.orgRead 5 more facts
Dishonored 220166 factsGame page →Players choose to play as either the deposed Empress Emily Kaldwin or her father, the Royal Protector Corvo Attano, each with a distinct set of supernatural powers, across the sun-baked coastal city of Karnaca.en.wikipedia.orgIt runs on Arkane's Void Engine, which is based on id Tech 5 but had the majority of the original engine rewritten.en.wikipedia.orgThe acclaimed mission 'A Crack in the Slab' lets players shift between two time periods at will, built with two duplicate stacked maps.en.wikipedia.orgThe 'Clockwork Mansion' level features rooms that physically reconfigure via levers, a showcase of the game's immersive-sim, chaos/stealth freedom.en.wikipedia.orgAt PC launch, players reported performance problems including frame-rate drops and crashes.en.wikipedia.orgThe score was written by Daniel Licht (composer of Showtime's Dexter), who died of cancer in August 2017 — making Dishonored 2 and its expansion among his final works.variety.comRead 4 more facts
Dishonored20123 factsGame page →Dishonored won the 2013 BAFTA for Best Game — beating Journey and The Walking Dead in one of the strongest GOTY fields ever.en.wikipedia.orgIts Chaos system reshapes the world based on how violently you play — dialogue, plague-rat density and even the ending shift without any explicit morality meter.en.wikipedia.orgArkane deliberately left ability-combo exploits unpatched — the designers preferred emergent player creativity over balance purity.en.wikipedia.orgRead 1 more fact
Company of Heroes 220133 factsGame page →It's the game that survived its publisher's death: THQ went bankrupt in December 2012 mid-development, and Sega bought Relic at the bankruptcy auction for $26.6M just five months before launch.en.wikipedia.orgRussian distributor 1C-SoftClub pulled it from sale in Russia in July 2013 after a player petition over its portrayal of Red Army brutality — a distributor withdrawal, not a state ban.destructoid.comTrueSight replaced the genre's classic radial fog-of-war: units only see what they could actually see, making smoke, buildings and hedgerows genuine tactical tools.en.wikipedia.orgRead 1 more fact
Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag201313 factsGame page →You play Edward Kenway, a Welsh privateer-turned-pirate who is the father of Haytham Kenway and grandfather of Connor (Ratonhnhaké:ton) from Assassin's Creed III.en.wikipedia.orgThe open-sea ship gameplay grew out of Assassin's Creed III's well-received but linear naval missions, here turned into a seamless free-roam world you can sail, fight or explore at will.assassinscreed.fandom.comMany characters are historically real Golden Age pirates, including Blackbeard (Edward Thatch), Charles Vane, Benjamin Hornigold, Anne Bonny, Mary Read and 'Calico Jack' Rackham.en.wikipedia.orgTo sound like real drunken sailors, the sea-shanty singers were directed to sing progressively worse with each take; the music supervisor said it 'didn't sound real until we had the bad singers and the drunks in the tracks.'yourclassical.orgThe shanties were genuine researched period songs — McGill University's David Gossage sourced authentic historical shanties and adjusted lyrics to fit the 1715–1722 setting, sung by four classically trained vocalists.yourclassical.orgBlack Flag is widely cited as the best-selling entry in the entire Assassin's Creed franchise (around 15 million copies).en.wikipedia.orgThe West Indies open world centers on three major cities — Havana, Nassau and Kingston — plus dozens of smaller islands and locations.en.wikipedia.orgIn the present day you play a research analyst at Abstergo Entertainment, a Templar-owned game studio — a satirical, self-referential jab at Ubisoft itself.assassinscreed.fandom.comAt launch PlayStation (and later PC) versions included exclusive DLC starring Aveline de Grandpré, the protagonist of Assassin's Creed III: Liberation.en.wikipedia.orgThe Freedom Cry expansion follows Edward's former quartermaster Adéwalé as an Assassin fighting slavery in Saint-Domingue; its score by Olivier Deriviere used the Haitian ensemble La Troupe Makandal.en.wikipedia.orgIt straddled two console generations — launching October 2013 on PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii U, then becoming a launch-window title for the PS4 and Xbox One that November.en.wikipedia.orgIt won Best Action/Adventure Game at Spike VGX 2013 and multiple Golden Joystick Awards (Best Visual Design, Best Audio, Studio of the Year), with Metacritic scores in the high 80s.metacritic.comThe game's sea shanties became a cultural phenomenon and were later re-recorded (including by Woodkid) for the 2026 remake 'Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced.'nme.comRead 11 more facts
Hitman: Absolution20123 factsGame page →Absolution was the first Hitman built on IO's Glacier 2 engine and the first mainline entry without composer Jesper Kyd — both breaks from a decade of series tradition.en.wikipedia.orgIt introduced Contracts mode — player-created, shareable hit contracts — which became a series staple carried into the World of Assassination trilogy.en.wikipedia.orgA 2012 trailer showing Agent 47 killing latex-clad 'assassin nuns' drew industry-wide backlash for sexism — IO apologized, and a 'hit your Facebook friends' marketing app was also pulled after criticism.en.wikipedia.orgRead 1 more fact
Sid Meier's Civilization V20108 factsGame page →It replaced the series' traditional square-tile map with a hexagonal grid.en.wikipedia.orgIt introduced one-unit-per-tile (1UPT), ending the earlier games' 'stacks of doom' and making combat far more tactical.en.wikipedia.orgIt was directed and lead-designed by Jon Shafer, who had joined the series as a modder.en.wikipedia.orgIt added city-states — minor, non-player civilizations that players court through diplomacy.en.wikipedia.orgIts narration — tech quotes, wonders and the intro — was voiced by actor W. Morgan Sheppard.en.wikipedia.orgIt received two major expansions: Gods & Kings (2012) and Brave New World (2013).en.wikipedia.orgIt won the 2011 BAFTA Games Award for Best Strategy Game.bafta.orgIt sold roughly 8 million copies, the best-selling entry in the series until Civilization VI.levvvel.comRead 6 more facts
L.A. Noire20116 factsGame page →L.A. Noire pioneered MotionScan facial-capture technology, developed by Team Bondi sister studio Depth Analysis: actors were filmed by 32 surrounding cameras at 1,000 frames per second to reproduce full facial performances, central to the interrogation gameplay.en.wikipedia.orgIt was the first video game honoured as an official selection at the Tribeca Film Festival, screened in April 2011.en.wikipedia.orgInterrogations use a three-way choice — believe the suspect, doubt them, or accuse them of lying (an accusation must be backed by evidence from the notebook).en.wikipedia.orgDevelopment ran roughly seven years and became infamous for a crunch/working-conditions scandal at Team Bondi; the studio effectively collapsed soon after release.en.wikipedia.orgSet in 1947 Los Angeles, it follows LAPD officer Cole Phelps, with cases drawn from real crimes reported by the 1947 L.A. media.en.wikipedia.orgIt shipped ~4 million units in its first month and about 7.5 million by September 2017, and was later remastered for Switch, PS4 and Xbox One (2017) plus a VR edition.en.wikipedia.orgRead 4 more facts
Super Meat Boy20107 factsGame page →Super Meat Boy is a full retail expansion of 'Meat Boy', a free Flash game Edmund McMillen and Jonathan McEntee made in 2008 in about three weeks.en.wikipedia.orgIts troubled, near-bankrupt development is chronicled in the 2012 documentary Indie Game: The Movie, which followed Team Meat's Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes.en.wikipedia.orgIts roster of unlockable guest characters is a who's-who of indie gaming — Commander Video (BIT.TRIP), Tim (Braid), Ogmo (Jumper), Gish, Alien Hominid and Jill (Mighty Jill Off) — each with unique abilities.supermeatboy.fandom.comAfter you clear a level, the 'replay' feature runs every one of your death-filled attempts simultaneously — made possible by instant, load-free respawns built for split-second precision.en.wikipedia.orgThe chiptune-rock score was composed by Danny Baranowsky; a later licensing dispute meant his music was replaced by other composers in the console ports.en.wikipedia.orgIt launched first on Xbox Live Arcade on 20 October 2010 as part of Microsoft's 'Game Feast' promotion before reaching PC/Steam in November 2010.en.wikipedia.orgMcMillen called the game a deliberate tribute to Shigeru Miyamoto and NES-era classics like Super Mario Bros., Mega Man and Ghosts 'n Goblins.en.wikipedia.orgRead 5 more facts
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End20166 factsGame page →Uncharted 4 is Nathan Drake's final adventure; retired, he is pulled back in by his presumed-dead brother Samuel to hunt the lost treasure of 17th-century pirate Henry Avery and the fabled pirate utopia Libertalia.en.wikipedia.orgNeil Druckmann and Bruce Straley took over as creative director and game director in 2014 after original director Amy Hennig left Naughty Dog; they scrapped roughly eight months of her story work.en.wikipedia.orgIt was the first Naughty Dog game built specifically for PS4, with textures about 4× the resolution of Uncharted 3, far larger explorable spaces and a new grappling hook.en.wikipedia.orgAs an Indiana Jones homage, the grappling-hook sound effect was recorded from a bullwhip made by David Morgan, the craftsman behind the whips used in the Indiana Jones films.en.wikipedia.orgIt sold 2.7 million copies in its first week, 8.7 million by December 2016, and over 15 million by May 2019.forbes.comIt won Best Game at the 2017 BAFTA Games Awards and, at The Game Awards 2016, Best Narrative and Best Performance (Nolan North as Nathan Drake), among many 2016 Game-of-the-Year honors.gamespot.comRead 4 more facts
Mass Effect 2201012 factsGame page →Every squadmate — and Shepard — can permanently die in the climactic 'Suicide Mission', with survival determined by loyalty, upgrades and role assignments; an unusually consequential design for a AAA game of its era.en.wikipedia.orgThe plot was modeled on the 1967 war film The Dirty Dozen: a resurrected, Cerberus-backed Shepard travels the galaxy recruiting dangerous specialists for a mission they may not return from.goonhammer.comWest Wing star Martin Sheen voiced the Illusive Man; reviewers repeatedly singled out his performance as stealing the show.en.wikipedia.orgThe game used roughly 90 voice actors performing 546 characters and more than 25,000 lines of dialogue — about twice the voice-recording effort of the original Mass Effect.en.wikipedia.orgNew copies included a one-time 'Cerberus Network' code for free bonus content while used-copy buyers had to pay separately — an early 'online pass' anti-used-game model.en.wikipedia.orgPlayers could import a completed Mass Effect save so earlier choices — including which characters lived or died — carried into the sequel and granted starting bonuses.en.wikipedia.orgBecause the first game never released on PlayStation 3, the PS3 version arrived a year later (Jan 2011) bundled with 'Mass Effect: Genesis', a Dark Horse-produced interactive backstory comic.masseffect.fandom.comTwo squadmates, Zaeed Massani and Kasumi Goto, were cut from the main roster during development and reintroduced as downloadable characters.thegamer.comJack Wall's score drew on Blade Runner, Tangerine Dream and Wendy Carlos's Tron soundtrack, producing roughly 180 minutes of music across 700+ audio assets.en.wikipedia.orgDevelopment overlapped the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic, which sickened team members in the final months, yet the game shipped on time and was later described by developers as the trilogy's least crunch-heavy project.gamesradar.comMass Effect 2 was one of the most-awarded titles of its year, winning Game of the Year at the D.I.C.E. (Interactive Achievement) Awards and Best Game at the BAFTA Games Awards.en.wikipedia.orgIt was conceived as the middle chapter of a planned trilogy from the outset; work on it began shortly before the first Mass Effect even released.en.wikipedia.orgRead 10 more facts
Just Cause 320155 factsGame page →Players control mercenary Rico Rodriguez, who returns to his Mediterranean homeland — the 400-plus-square-mile island nation of Medici — to topple the brutal dictator General Sebastiano Di Ravello.en.wikipedia.orgRico's signature toolkit combines an upgradeable grappling hook, an infinitely reusable parachute and a new wingsuit; the grappling hook can tether multiple objects together to rig chain-reaction, physics-driven explosions.en.wikipedia.orgThe game runs on Avalanche Studios' proprietary Apex (Avalanche Open World) Engine, built for large-scale open worlds and advanced destruction/physics simulation.pcgamingwiki.comDespite praise for its chaotic sandbox, Just Cause 3 was widely criticized for performance problems and long loading times, particularly on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions.en.wikipedia.orgBy 2019 the wider Just Cause franchise had shipped over 26 million copies worldwide.en.wikipedia.orgRead 3 more facts
Mortal Kombat X20155 factsGame page →Set 25 years after Mortal Kombat (2011), the story introduces a new generation of fighters, including Cassie Cage — daughter of Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade — while spanning multiple eras.en.wikipedia.orgMKX debuted a character 'variation' system giving each fighter three distinct combat styles, and revived brutal finishers with gruesome slow-motion X-ray attacks and the return of Brutalities.en.wikipedia.orgHorror-cinema icons joined the roster as guest DLC fighters: Jason Voorhees, the Predator, the Xenomorph (Alien) and Leatherface.en.wikipedia.orgBuilt on Unreal Engine 3, MKX became the fastest-selling game in the franchise, surpassing 12 million copies sold worldwide by March 2019.en.wikipedia.orgA free-to-play mobile companion (a fighting/card-battler hybrid) launched alongside the console game and surpassed 50 million downloads.en.wikipedia.orgRead 3 more facts
Just Cause 220108 factsGame page →Players control agent Rico Rodriguez, whose signature grappling hook and infinite parachute can be chained together to traverse the world and trigger chaos.en.wikipedia.orgIt is set on the fictional Southeast-Asian island nation of Panau, roughly 1,000 km² (390 sq mi) with over three hundred settlements — one of the largest open worlds of its generation.en.wikipedia.orgIt was built on Avalanche Studios' proprietary Avalanche Engine 2.0, with the PC version requiring DirectX 10 hardware.en.wikipedia.orgThe demo, released 4 March 2010, attracted more than two million players.en.wikipedia.orgThe fan-made 'Just Cause 2: Multiplayer Mod' (JC2-MP), begun by modders Jaxm and Trix, launched free on Steam on 17 December 2013 and revived the game's player base.store.steampowered.comIt sold more than 6 million copies by February 2014 against an original 2.2M projection, and was the UK's best-selling retail game at launch.en.wikipedia.orgThe 'Mile High Club' is an iconic airborne nightclub built atop an airship, a fan-favourite location and stunt spot.justcause.fandom.comIt was nominated for Best Action Game at the 28th Golden Joystick Awards (2010), losing to Assassin's Creed II.en.wikipedia.orgRead 6 more facts
Bastion20116 factsGame page →Bastion was the debut game from Supergiant Games, built in about two years by a seven-person team of ex-Electronic Arts developers who self-funded the project.en.wikipedia.orgThe game is narrated by Rucks, an old survivor voiced by Logan Cunningham, whose reactive commentary describes the player's actions in real time; Cunningham recorded more than 3,000 lines.en.wikipedia.orgIts world is hand-painted in an isometric style and dramatically rebuilds itself beneath the player's feet as floating landmass fragments snap into place while you walk.en.wikipedia.orgThe story is set after 'the Calamity', an apocalyptic event that shattered the city of Caelondia into floating pieces and reduced most of its people to ash.en.wikipedia.orgDarren Korb wrote the acclaimed score — which he called 'acoustic frontier trip-hop' — recording it and all narration in the closet of his New York City apartment.en.wikipedia.orgBastion sold over 500,000 copies in its 2011 launch year and surpassed 3 million units by January 2015.gamespot.comRead 4 more facts
Titanfall 220164 factsGame page →It was acclaimed for a single-player campaign added late in development to widen the audience — following rookie pilot Jack Cooper and his Titan BT-7274, and famous for the 'Effect and Cause' level where players time-travel between past and present.en.wikipedia.orgIt was built on a heavily modified version of Valve's Source engine (the same lineage as Portal 2), carried over and extended from the first Titanfall.developer.valvesoftware.comIt launched on 28 October 2016 in a crowded window sandwiched between Battlefield 1 and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, which hurt sales despite strong reviews.en.wikipedia.orgMade by Respawn Entertainment (founded by former Call of Duty / Infinity Ward developers), its fast wall-running movement drew a devoted cult following and a notable player resurgence years after launch.en.wikipedia.orgRead 2 more facts
Bloodborne20156 factsGame page →Bloodborne began under the working title 'Project Beast' and was directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki as a brand-new IP rather than a Souls sequel, trading medieval fantasy for a Gothic-Victorian, Lovecraftian city called Yharnam.en.wikipedia.orgIts combat rewards aggression through the 'Rally' (regain) system, letting players recover recently lost health by striking back, paired with transforming 'trick weapons' that shift between two forms mid-combo.en.wikipedia.orgThe optional, procedurally generated Chalice Dungeons offer randomized, replayable underground labyrinths — a first for a FromSoftware Souls-style game.en.wikipedia.orgThe orchestral score was performed by a 65-piece orchestra and 32-member choir recorded at London's AIR Studios, deliberately dissonant to evoke cosmic dread.blog.playstation.comBloodborne remains a PlayStation 4 exclusive that has never received a PC port; it sold over 1 million units within 12 days of launch.en.wikipedia.orgIts sole expansion, The Old Hunters (November 2015), adds a nightmare realm imprisoning hunters of the past, along with new trick weapons, attire and bosses.en.wikipedia.orgRead 4 more facts
Cities: Skylines20155 factsGame page →It was built by Colossal Order, a thirteen-person Finnish studio; the project was originally pitched with just nine people.en.wikipedia.orgIt filled the void left by the poorly received, always-online SimCity (2013); its trailer's emphasis on offline play was read as a jab at EA.en.wikipedia.orgDeep Steam Workshop modding is core to its success — over 20,000 assets were created within a month of release, and 200,000+ user items by February 2020.en.wikipedia.orgIt became the best-selling Finnish game ever, selling 250,000 copies in 24 hours (a Paradox record) and topping 12 million by June 2022.paradoxinteractive.comBuilt on the Unity engine, it simulates every citizen and vehicle as an individual agent, which drives its district and traffic systems.en.wikipedia.orgRead 3 more facts
Journey20123 factsGame page →Austin Wintory's score earned the first Grammy nomination ever given to a video game soundtrack — and charted higher on Billboard than any game score before it.forbes.comMultiplayer is anonymous by design: no names, no chat — strangers can only communicate through musical chimes, and companions' identities are revealed only after the credits.en.wikipedia.orgJenova Chen later revealed the game bankrupted thatgamecompany in its final months, with some developers going unpaid — before it swept 8 D.I.C.E. Awards including Game of the Year and 5 BAFTAs.en.wikipedia.orgRead 1 more fact
