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It’s time for our annual countdown to award the very best games this year had to offer. Over the next ten days, we’ll be counting down our top 10 games of the year.
To ensure a truer reading of the victorious titles, we’ve made slight changes to our voting processes. As always, every Press Start team member sent through their top ten games of the year, weighted from #10 to #1. Games worthy of one’s top spot would be awarded the maximum of 10 points and the values would descend down to their #10 game, which would receive a single point.
Around forty individual games received votes, though only ten could make the final cut.
In an added step for this year’s countdown, the top ten was returned to the team and narrowed down to each person’s top five. The votes were then tallied up and the order fast took place. Without further adieu, let’s begin our top ten.
#10 – Halo Infinite
Kicking off this year’s countdown is Halo Infinite, a return to form for the stoic Master Chief and a much-needed win for embattled developer 343 Industries who have finally hit an oil vein with their latest outing.
This open-world take on Halo feels like a breath of fresh air and, especially once co-op arrives in a few months, feels like the perfect sandbox to get lost in and mess around with friends. Its place in the Reclaimer Saga is not yet known as Halo could go anywhere from here, but it does feel like a new beginning for the franchise.
Though it’s still in need of some fine-tuning, the multiplayer suite is the best we’ve seen in a decade and there’s no telling how big the game could get thanks to its free-to-play model and Xbox Game Pass.
In his review, Brodie gave Halo Infinite a 9/10 and said: “With an adventurous campaign, complete with a sandbox that’ll still be there when your friends can join the fight, and a multiplayer suite that feels like a note-perfect revival of the Halo of old, Halo Infinite feels like the complete blockbuster sci-fi shooter we’ve been waiting for from 343 Industries. It hasn’t happened overnight for the team, but the mantle passed to them, at last, feels earned.”
As it stands on Metacritic, Halo Infinite is currently sitting at an 87 based on 89 critic reviews.
Press Start’s 2021 GOTY List
#10 – Halo Infinite
