The 10 best video games to play in 2022
Video games have been with us for almost 70 years. In the 1950s, mathematician Claude Shannon wondered if those huge rooms with lights that were computers could play chess. And eight later, William Higinbotham, one of the scientists on the Manhattan project, designed the first video game in history.
A little bit of history
Then small milestones were arriving, such as Fox and Hounds or Spacewar. But the game that created the industry was, without a doubt, Pong, developed in 1972 by Atari. That year the Magnavox Odyssey was also put on sale, the first home console, with 28 games of terrible simplicity. The next 20 years are the golden age of arcades, where machines were put together in large rooms, and the division of home electronic entertainment between computers and consoles began.
Right in the ’90s comes perhaps one of the most magical moments in the world of video games: Star wars dark forces. Starting with the Sega Master System and the Nintendo Entertainment System, these two companies were in a feud during the 1980s-1990s that divided gamers between the Sega and Nintendo camps.
Sony and Microsoft into action
The fight ended the generation of 32-bit consoles when Sega failed with its Saturn and two new players entered the market: Sony and its PlayStation and Microsoft with its X-Box in 2001. Since then, Sega stopped producing consoles and Nintendo began a path of its own, with different consoles such as the Wii, the Nintendo DS, or the Switch, while leaving it to Sony and Microsoft to fight.
Also read: 10 Games that changed the graphics forever
The great chance of the second half of the 2000s was the popularization of online games. This added to the maturity and professionalization of an industry that already defies cinema in numbers and influence. Do you know: the last GTA was a $ 265 million blockbuster and about a thousand people worked on it.
The last major changes in the world of video games have been e-sports and the entry of new game publishing and distribution schemes. On the one hand, while before you had to go to a physical store, the new video game distribution platforms such as Steam or GOG allow you to have a digital game library without taking up physical space and at more affordable prices.
While in the traditional system they were companies in charge of financing, marketing, and distributing the programs, crowdfunding changed this.
Here are the best games according to me:
10. BARBARIAN (COMMODORE 64 – 1987)
A compelling reason to explain that this one-on-one fighting game marked a generation: it had a special blow that consisted of a greatsword capable of decapitating the enemy in an extremely graphic way. Pim. Pam. And without ahead. A good way to start our list.
9. NBA 2K13 (PLAYSTATION 3 – 2012)
The culmination of the NBA 2K franchise is not only a game where all the strategy and appeal of basketball are perfectly reflected with an intuitive, effective control that reveals, without going any further, its football counterparts, but it is also a real joy for fans of the North American League: There is a way in which you can embody dozens of legends of the league in their games and historical moments, and replicate the encounters that made them great. A monument to sport well understood. That’s why there is no one kicking a ball like a dog.
8. FIREWATCH (WINDOWS, OS X, PlayStation 4, XBOX ONE)
Never has something as mundane as hanging out in a forest lookout tower proved so fun, tense, and exciting. At times, this indie gem manages to be all three at once, creating a sense of constant suspense that is only enhanced by its gorgeous graphics and clever sound design. Unfortunately, we can’t tell you more: a miniature like this plays better than explained.
7. SUPERBROTHERS: SWORD & SORCERY (IOS – 2011)
Perhaps the best game we’ve seen so far on iPad. An adventure with classic roots, with an appearance that winks at the classics of the Monkey Island genre with its delicious pixelated environments, but that at the same time has an unprecedented sophistication and that takes good advantage of the tactile characteristics. Demon and subtle (he uses the iPad clock, for example, to pose puzzles that are solved according to the passage of time and real lunar cycles), he opened a path for tablet games that, unfortunately, few continued to travel.
6. COUNTER-STRIKE: SOURCE (PC – 2004)
Let’s cut the bullshit: Counter-Strike (standing since 1999, but Source is the best version) is still the mother of the lamb in terms of taking on a couple of teams of guys armed with rudimentary weaponry and their marksmanship and speed. Not high-tech, not complicated class systems: you, your rifle, and perfect, inexhaustible maps almost ten years later. And if you remember a cybercafé from five years ago, you will know that we are not exaggerating the least.
5. OVERWATCH (WINDOWS, PLAYSTATION 4, AND XBOX ONE, 2016)
An online shooter that not only made history in its year of publication but also brought us the entire ‘Fortnite’ revolution just one later. However, its mechanics, characters, explosive colors, and universe are much better: we are talking about a fascinating phenomenon that, we cannot forget, has done a lot for inclusive representation in video games. No matter if you win or lose the game, ‘Overwatch’ always offers hours of fun.
4. METROID PRIME (GAMECUBE – 2003)
A little further, we talk about Super Metroid as an essential game to understand the possibilities of adventure and exploration titles in 2D. This is the jump from the series to 3D, and … the same. Quite the opposite of an Arab killing shooter that you get involved with when your girlfriend goes out to a bachelorette party: open environments, full of secrets to discover, elegant, atmospheric, with a story that unfolds with an impeccable narrative. . and excellently designed and executed. All three Prime installments, by the way, are compiled for Wii in the Metroid Prime Trilogy. It already takes me.
3. THE WITNESS (WINDOWS, OS X, PlayStation 4, XBOX ONE)
Author’s video game where there are, The Witness is a piece of goldsmith one hundred percent Jonathan Blow. It is also, in many ways, the puzzle game that ends all puzzle games, or that takes the genre to levels unthinkable until now. Perhaps that characteristic makes it somewhat waterproof for the casual player, but anyone who accepts its rules of the game is about to discover a proposal so radical that it allows itself to function on the basis of epiphanies.
2. HORIZON ZERO DAWN (PLAYSTATION 4, 2017)
You are a hunter in a world completely taken over by machines. Your mission is, pure and simple, to discover yourself. This is the premise of one of the most majestic experiences that the present generation of consoles has provided us so far, especially in everything that has to do with the sensation of discovering a world that you can claim as yours.
1. GRIM FANDANGO (PC – 1998)
If the idea of combining the atmosphere of the 1930s film noir with characters inspired by the engravings of Guadalupe Posada and the Mexican festival of the Day of the Dead does not seem to you that alone deserves to make Grim Fandango appear in a great position in This list, wait to read the dialogues, break down the script and enjoy the puzzles of this masterpiece from one of the creators of Monkey Island. On the other hand … what is a good game concept for you then, the cinquillo?
