Video game fans love arguing about video games as much as we like playing them. Red Dead Redemption 2 is the best game of all time! Screw you, cultureless swine, it’s actually Tetris! And then a third, enlightened party makes the argument for Dwarf Fortress. This is what gaming is all about. We discourse about the best games of all time, the best developers to ever do it, the best consoles to own right now, and the best years in the history of the medium.
As we enter 2025, we may be on the verge of a new greatest year of all time, and that’s due to two titles in particular. One that we know is real and is targeting this year, Grand Theft Auto 6, and one that has not been officially announced but seems realer and realer everyday, Half-Life 3.
The Case For: 1998
If 2025 is going to claim the throne, though, there are four years it needs to beat: 1998, 2007, 2017, and 2023. 1998 gave us Half-Life, Ocarina of Time, Starcraft, Resident Evil 2, Metal Gear Solid, Baldur’s Gate, Banjo-Kazooie, Fallout 2, Spyro the Dragon, and Crash Bandicoot: Warped among many others.
If you’re keeping track, that’s one of the most influential shooters of all-time, Zelda’s beloved first foray into 3D, the game that popularized stealth mechanics, one of the most important RTS games of all-time, and BioWare’s first RPG (and the predecessor to another game we’ll see on this list shortly). This was an extremely important year, and we’re still feeling its ramifications to this day.
The Case For: 2007
Though 2007 isn’t quite as foundational, it did kick off some of the defining franchises of the past two decades. It introduced us to Rock Band, BioShock, Uncharted, Assassin’s Creed, Portal, and Mass Effect, and boasted standout entries in the established properties with Halo 3, Super Mario Galaxy, God of War 2, Team Fortress 2, and Half-Life 2: Episode 2. It’s a solid mix of classics and games, like Uncharted and AC, that laid the groundwork for future classics.
The Case For: 2017
While not as groundbreaking, 2017 is still my personal favorite. It marked the introduction of the Nintendo Switch, which came with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey. Developers for the other two boxes were hitting their stride, too, with the launches of Horizon Zero Dawn, Prey, Resident Evil 7, NieR: Automata, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, Destiny 2, Nioh, Wolfenstein: The New Colossus, and Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice.
This is the first year on this list that was majorly bolstered by the presence of indies, too, thanks to What Remains of Edith Finch, Night in the Woods, Dream Daddy, Cuphead, Little Nightmares, Pyre, and Butterfly Soup.
The Case For: 2023
Speaking of Baldur’s Gate 3, it’s one of the key pillars on which 2023’s claim to greatness stands. The year also gave us strong, new triple-A games — Tears of the Kingdom, Alan Wake 2, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Dead Island 2 — stellar remakes — Resident Evil 4, Dead Space, System Shock, Metroid Prime Remastered — imaginative indies — Cocoon, Sea of Stars, Amnesia: The Bunker — and the odd double-A title that punched above its weight like Hi-Fi Rush.
Half-Life And GTA Are An Unbeatable Pair
As good as all four years are, the combined might of Half-Life and GTA 6 is enough to claim the crown. These are two of the most anticipated games of all time, albeit in very different ways.
There was never any doubt that Rockstar would eventually come back to GTA. The last game in the series is the second highest-grossing game of all time, and the developer never stopped updating GTA Online in the years since its 2013 release. In the meantime, it put out Red Dead Redemption 2, which shares a lot of open-world DNA with GTA. Though the gap between entries has swelled to 12 years, there was too much money on the table for Rockstar to abandon the series for good. Its existence and the success it will soon experience was inevitable.
Half-Life 3 is a different kind of beast. It really seemed like Valve was done with the series. It announced Half-Life 2: Episode Three back in 2006, ended 2007’s Episode Two with a major cliffhanger, then just… never followed it up. Over time, anticipation for Episode Three turned to hope for a full-sized sequel.
A Screenshot From The Canceled Half-Life 2: Episode Three
But as Valve largely abandoned single-player development in the 2010s, and key personnel like writer Marc Laidlaw departed, those hopes slowly dried up. With the release of Half-Life: Alyx, though, Valve returned to the series with an instant classic. One developer, Phil Co, said that the studio was no longer afraid of the series, and it seemed like more would be on the way shortly. If Half-Life 3 comes out this year, it will have arrived — at least by modern video game standards — hot on Alyx’s heels.
These games achieved near-mythical status over the years, so both arriving in 2025 would feel surreal. Other heavy-hitters that are set to arrive this year — like Monster Hunter Wilds, Avowed, The Outer Worlds 2, Ghost of Yotei, Death Stranding 2, Fable, and the Switch 2’s launch line-up — would just be icing on the cake. Of course, this depends on Half-Life 3 actually being real and actually arriving this year (it’s more likely to be announced than anything). Please, Valve: 2025 needs you.
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