Wonderful art direction, atmosphere, sound effects, and enemy design, DMC1 may not have the combat variety of its sequels but more than makes up for it in its opponents.

A new addition to the list. What can I say? The hype is absolutely real.

Still the GOAT. undefeated.

A completely unique experience in every way. While some surrealist games play it safe on the gameplay front, Killer7 throws conventions out the window to just start experimenting with games as a medium.

There's a lot bad you can say about Itagaki, but with games like NGB I respect his complete focus on a distinct action game vision. Best exemplified by how Sigma, a game he had no involvement with, is worse without his oversight. It's tight, brutally difficult, and mechanically dense, but satisfying in a way few games actually can be. My favorite game of all time.

The game falls apart in the final half, but for a good part of its runtime it's the most visceral, intense, and uncompromising action game experience ever put to disc.

What can I say, Team Ninja are the action game pros for a reason.

Debated between this and Orta, but man, when your dragon takes off and flies for the first time? Goddamn.

Fast-paced, dark, spooky, brutal, and just a ton of fun to play. You can't really wax poetic about Quake, it just kicks total ass.

The Stealth Game Perfected. Huge, sprawling, intricate levels packed with world-building and detail, a set of stealth mechanics that make perfect sense and simply work, and fantastic voice acting and writing. Of my top 10 this one is a perfect 5/5 no notes.

This is the first one I played so I am a little biased putting it this high. But hey, what are you gonna do? I actually enjoy the monsters and tombs, little sicko I am. Either way, this and Thief II justify the existence of video games as an art form.