The 2010s (2010 – 2019) were pretty fun for gaming in general. We saw the release of the 3DS in 2011 which brought about 3D-on-the-go to the mainstream market, followed by eight-generation consoles such as the Wii U, PS4 and Xbox One in 2012/2013. These consoles, especially the PS4 and Xbox One brought about AAA-titles and digital distribution to the forefront and more notoriously began monetising stuff such as online multiplayer.
The 2010s will also be seen as the decade for PC gaming renaissance. The rise of e-sports has a part to play in this, not to mention the PC’s lower bar in entry in terms of games development.
On the mobile phone gaming front, as a whole the decade has been pretty wild, starting with the release of the iPhone 4 in 2010 and culminating with the iPhone 11 Pro in 2019. The games have gone from indie titles, casual games and mobile-specific games to ports of triple-A titles such as X-Com: Enemy Within and ROME: Total War. Even Nintendo got in the spirit of things with titles such as Super Mario Run and Mario Kart Tour.
I’ve played plenty of games during the decade, but some titles stood out as particularly memorable ones. One good measure is to see whether a title is still installed on my Mac or PS4, both of which have free hard disk space at a premium.
Of all the titles, Fallout 4 is a standout. Released in 2015, I’ve played it right up till November 2019, only to stop playing it to concentrate on Obsidian’s The Outer Worlds which frankly takes the cake as the best game, RPG or otherwise I’ve played this year.
Burnout Paradise Remastered takes the cake as my racing game of the decade (I know, I’m not the type to go ga-ga over hyper-realistic racers). I had the pleasure of playing the original BP on the PS3 and immediately snapped up the Remastered edition for the PS4 as soon as it was released in 2018. Nothing beats the experience of driving around Paradise City looking to stir up some racing shenanigans.
On the Mac/PC, I would say that Blizzard is the publisher of the decade for me. Both StarCraft II (all three parts) and Diablo III (including its awesome expansion pack and paid DLC) are mainstays in my Mac.
What’s in store for the next decade? VR gaming seem to hold a lot of promise in the second half of the 2010s, but still it still remains to be seen whether it can reached the lofty level of hype that is has created for itself. Hardware startups already have a bad name to themselves and I’m pretty sure we’ll have to rely on the big boys such as Apple, Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft to lead the way.
