We all know that 2020 was a year that presented many with a great number of overwhelming challenges which have followed us into the new year. One of many is spending significantly more time within the confines of our home than we ever possibly imagined.
Coming from a fellow nerd, this has given rise of ample opportunity to immerse ourselves in worlds and lives that don’t actually exist.
Playing video games has been a popular pass-time for decades and shows no signs of stopping. Whether it’s being the final team in an all-out battle royale, or a battle privy God of War whose recent lover left them with the dying wish to help their son complete harrowing pilgrimage, the adrenaline of competition and a compelling story coupled with breath-taking quality graphics will leave us wanting more in next gen consoles.
Without further ado, here is a list of the most popular games of 2020 that should be in your library right now!
10. Doom Eternal (Playstation / Xbox One / Nintendo Switch / PC / Google Stadia)
What do you get when you cross outer space with hordes of demonic entities? Doom. Initially taking off in 1993, id Software continued this highly sought-after run-n-gun series with Doom 2, 3, and 64. In their most recent installments to such a bombastic franchise, id Software teamed up with Bethesda Softworks to make the newest additions possible.
Doom Eternal takes place 8 months after the events of Doom (2016; a soft reboot which actually stands as a sequel to Doom 64 released in 1997), where Earth has been overthrown by hellish masses. The whopping 40% of humanity that still lives has either fled Earth, or ranked up with the Armored Response Coalition.
Whatever bit of our planet that remains untouched by unprecedented and extremely evil forces is governed by an unscrupulous organization only known as the Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC).
You as the player fill into the role of The Doom Slayer, and are determined to blast every last demon back into the bowels of hell and save what little of humankind has managed to survive. What’s even neater than hours of demon slaying?
Being made to battle strategically! Doom has always pressed for its audience to tackle their fiendish nemeses aggressively through battle in order to obtain more health, as well as kick-ass weapon and armor upgrades. Hours of demon slaying equals hours of unadulterated pleasure (and a nice little break from staring at the four walls).
9. Among Us (Nintendo Switch / Apple / Android / PC)
How about a good ol’ witch hunt — also in outer space? Among Us is a multiplayer game of social deduction, where lobbies can hold up to 10 players. There are only two roles in this game — Impostors and Crewmates.
The name of the game is simple — Crewmates scramble to fulfill their tasks and uncover who among them is, or are the imposters. In any game, you can have up to 3 — so communication is important. Paranoia begins to set in however when an imposter sabotages something within the facility, causing disruption in the crewmates’ tasks and overall chaos. Friends deceive friends just for the purpose of winning!
Innersloth’s original plan for the game was to be available only on mobile devices in 2018. For a time, they were even considering putting things on the backburner. With some encouragement from a small, yet spoken playerbase, Innersloth decided to continue their work.
It wasn’t until mid-2020 that Among Us began its rise to fame. Many popular Twitch and YouTubers began streaming the game, increasing the game’s player base. For this, Among Us will be available on Xbox some time in 2021!
8. FallGuys (Playstation / PC)
Remember watching shows like Wipeout on television and thinking to yourself “Man, it would be a lot of fun to win something like that”? Me too — except with Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout, I can participate in game-show themed shenanigans from the comfort of my own home and exert only my fingers to their fullest potential!
Mediatonic used Wipeout as one of many inspirations for the concept of this game; Fall Guys throws you into a lobby with 59 other players all vying for that number spot on the podium. All you have to do is successfully win a series of ‘school-yard’ games!
As a bonus, you get to doll up your cute jelly-bean character up in various costumes, colors, and patterns. Though the game is designed for all ages through gameplay as well as visuals, don’t let those soft, vibrant colors, and cute, squishy characters fool you! The mini-games played to make it to the top only get trickier the more you progress.
The game is currently only available for Playstation and PC owners, but due to Fall Guys’ growing popularity Xbox owners will find it available in 2021!
7. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 (Playstation / Xbox One / Nintendo Switch / PC)
The next recommended game takes us on yet another stroll down memory lane. Remember when skateboarding was all the rage and you were just too clumsy for taking up the art? Me too. Thankfully, Vicarious Visions and Activision have chosen to remaster a timeless Playstation classic.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 are third-person skateboarding games, where you are given the choice of playing tours (formerly career mode), or hit local multiplayer with some friends and stick rad moves! You can also meet up with several new people in online multiplayer.
Some of the different modes are our all time THSP favorites, such as HORSE, Graffiti, Trick Attack, and Tag. Free Skate mode is a new feature to show off some sick skateboarding skills! This game is sure to provide hours of fun for everyone.
6. Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo Switch)
This next game allows you to harvest items and build your own little community of cute and cuddly fur-iends in real time!
Created by the LARGEST division in Nintendo — Nintendo EPD — it’s no wonder that New Horizons exceeded expectations and sold 31 Million copies worldwide! To boot, it sold 5 million copies within a single month of its release. Let’s give a moment to Nintendo for breaking the consol game record for most digital copies in a month!
This is a game meant for days when you just want to make a burrito of yourself in the blankets. As mentioned above, the game is played in real time and even uses your location to determine in-game weather (WOW)!
You’re given an opportunity to purchase a getaway package that sends you off to a remote island. Once you arrive for your perfect vacation, you’re granted access to natural resources on the island.
You can build your own homes or farms! Love D.I.Y. projects? You can craft your own furniture! As you progress, you will eventually be able to expand on the island and make your own little anthropomorphic community!
Doing simple tasks around your island will reward you with “Nook Miles”, and Bells, the island’s currency. These will allow you to purchase premium rewards from “Nook’s Cranny”, as well as other products & services.
Another neat feature in New Horizons is the airport, “Dodo Airlines”. By purchasing tickets with Nook Miles, or through the airlines, you can visit other vacant islands for its resources. You can meet new players along your travels, who can invite you to their island, or you can invite them to yours!
When it comes to practicing safe social distancing, this game allows you to be a part of a community of your own creation!
5. Yakuza: Like A Dragon (Playstation / Xbox One / PC)
For those who love an extremely rich story coupled with Japanese culture, this next one’s for you!
Like A Dragon is the 8th game in the series, with some notable, but pleasant differences. It is the first of the main series to take Kazuma Kiryu out of the spotlight. You play the protagonist Ichiban Kusaga. Another notable change is the combat system.
Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio went into more classical roots when it came to Like A Dragon’s rich story; RPG turn-based combat. As you progress through the story, Kasuga will gain allies that can aid him in combat (up to 4). Paired with this are Jobs, much like a fighting class.
The game’s stunning graphics are remarkable in and among themselves, but Kamurocho — where the game takes place — is modeled after a red light district in Japan, Kabukichō.
Like the previous games, there are side quests, also known as sub-stories that you can complete. With main and side quests combined, that gives you 80–100 hours of fun!
4. Call of Duty: Warzone (Playstation / Xbox / PC)
This next video game calls us to the frontlines of a war in lobbies with up to 150 other players across all available platforms — and some limited lobbies offer up to 200 players!
The game’s main map, Verdansk is modeled after the real, Eastern Ukranian city of Donetsk and is also featured in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Warzone was offered as an expansion to Modern Warfare, though is not required for you to play!
There are 2 main game modes in Warzone — Battle Royale and Plunder. Occasionally, Infinity Ward and Activision will offer limited game modes with larger lobbies. In Battle Royale, you can play by yourself, in pairs, in trios, or even teams of 4. Your objective is to be the final player, or team standing.
In order to be the winner of this game mode, players are made to fight other players also competing for that chopper ride out of a city that is being engulfed in a toxic gas, indicated by a circle that intermittently grows smaller on the map.
If you are downed during battle, your teammates can revive you, if you haven’t purchased a self-revive from one of the many buy stations across the map. If you die during the match, you are sent to the Gulag.
In Gulag, you’re pitted against one other player for a chance to redeem yourself and get back in the game. Unsuccessful skirmishes result in the player spectating their team until they are bought back in through one of the many aforementioned buy stations.
Plunder is a bit easier in the sense that if you die, you redeploy shortly after death. The objective in this mode is to be the team with the highest amount of cash collected within 30 minutes.
When a team collects $1 Million before the given time, the game is kicked into overtime, where all teams have much less time to beat the top earning team. All cash collected when overtime is triggered is doubled, aiming to up the ante being the wealthiest team!
What’s more is in promoting the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, a new map was released for Warzone. Combined with Cold War content, Rebirth Island is modeled after the real Vozrozhdeniya Island and a completely reimagined Alcatraz Island. Due to its size however, lobbies on this map only hold up to 40 players.
Looking for a game of run-n-gun fun that also doubles in a lesson on communication skills? Warzone is completely free on all platforms, so what are you waiting for?!
3. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (Playstation / Xbox / PC)
Naturally, I couldn’t put Warzone without the next game in the Call of Duty: Black Ops series.
Cold War’s campaign takes us back to the 80’s during — you guessed it — the Cold War. If you weren’t paying attention in History, the Cold War was a period of time when the US had geopolitical beef with the Soviet Union.
There was no active fighting during this time, but the game itself is inspired by actual events.
You as the player fill in a customized role, where you can select your gender (hoo-rah for my fellow gamer gals), fill in your own name, and choose from a handful of quirks that best suit your playstyle! Your code name is “Bell”, given by the man you work for, Adler.
Adler, as well as you and the rest of the group are tasked with locating and neutralizing an enemy formerly thought to have been taken care of, a Soviet spy by the name of Perseus.
The name is familiar to you, given a previous encounter during the Vietnam War, where you met Adler and some of his team.
Aside from the story rich campaign, Black Ops Cold War also features a multiplayer mode with some of your favorites — Team Deathmatch, Hardpoint, Gun Game, and Gunfight! Don’t worry, zombie lovers — there is a multiplayer mode for you, with 2 maps!
One the “Dark Aether”, a continuation of the Aether storyline from Black Ops 4. Rather than playing specific characters, you’re given the choice of characters from Multiplayer — all a CIA response team titled “Requiem”.
There are new modes for zombie players, though only exclusive to Playstation. It is due for release for console and PC on November 1st, 2021.
2. Ghost of Tsushima (Playstation)
From the company that brought you the well received Infamous (Second Son, First Light) and Sly Cooper Collection, Sucker Punch Productions has released Ghost of Tsushima. This open world action adventure has 20 hours of gameplay within the main story itself.
Trust me — being that this game received a lot of commendation for stunning visuals, you’re going to wanna take this journey slowly. Bask in every moment of playing the brave and honorable protagonist, samurai Jin Sakai as he fights to save his homeland.
For lovers of games like Thief and Dishonored, Ghost of Tsushima provides its players ample opportunity to play many scenarios strategically with stealth.
What’s better than a great story with heavy historical influence? The ability to play with friends! Legends was launched at the end of 2020, giving people the option to play a series of folk-lore inspired quests with another player. Itching for slashing through waves of enemies for as long as your fingers can take it? Horde will allow just that with up to 4 players. A raid mode was implemented post-launch.
History buffs — remember how I mentioned this game was historically influenced? The story is inspired by the Yuan invasion of Tsushima (November 5, 1274).
Wanna know why this game received so much praise? Grab that controller and mount that horse (seriously, you can traverse a majority of the island on horseback)!
1. The Last of Us Part II (Playstation)
7 years, Naughty Dog. 7 long years, the developers of this game left us die-hard fans with great suspense and anticipation for The Last of Us: Part II. I suppose — speaking for the rest of the Last of Us fans — we can forgive you; Nathan Drake’s adventures in the Uncharted series are pretty awesome.
For those of you who have yet to play the first part, WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH YOUR LIFE? I know it’s not traveling across a Zombie-ruled US to deliver a prospective cure for the zombie apocalypse.
That being said, I can’t say too much about the second game without first informing that there are going to be spoilers in the next several sentences.
The second part of the series takes place 5 years after the events of the first. Ellie is still alive, which means Joel prevented the only known, no-longer-living Dr. from potentially curing the world of it’s un-deadly pandemic. It’s made clear from the start of the game that 96%(literally) of the community for which they’ve made a home in are aware of Ellie’s anomalous genetic superiority to the plague that’s changed their lives.
This is a key part in the story, which quickly becomes the reason for Ellie seeing red and making a very impulsive scheme for revenge. Personally, I think the story for the second part of a long-awaited series makes us ponder the philosophy of “An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind.”
The Last of Us is a series that was so well received by the globe, it’s getting it’s own series on HBO. No official release date nor many specifics have been provided for a televised adaptation, but has been guessed to air some time in 2022. What I can tell you is that we’ll see our favorite Mandalorian, Pedro Pascal star in the role of Joel, alongside Bella Ramsey as Ellie, who formally portrayed Lyanna Mormont in Game of Thrones.
If you hadn’t guessed by now, I’m a huge fan of games with rich stories as well as ones that give you Michael Bae vibes, and can only imagine that these titles will contribute to the growth of your already amazing game collection!
