12 Last-Gen Games to Preserve in a Time Capsule

8 – The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

This one might be a little harder to justify than you’d think. I mean sure, it remains the pinnacle of the open world, Western RPG as far as single player is concerned but is that enough to earn it a ticket to immortality? On its own, no, but to build such a thick, fascinating mythos that made you feel like such a small part of such a massive whole? That changes everything. Since Dungeons and Dragons rose to prominence, RPG games have again and again taken those elements and rebuilt them within the medium, but on some fundamental level these games have always felt thematically tethered to their originator, something that isn’t a video game.

Skyrim, in my opinion, reaches aspirations above and beyond that. It’s gaming’s true answer to Middle Earth, an ingrained, unique, fantastical mythos that will continue to generate stories for years to come. Its predecessors got the ball rolling, they opened the windows, but Skyrim is the door.

 

7 – Super Mario Galaxy

This is where the franchise rule comes into play, where I find out if I can really justify a particular entry, so here goes. Has there ever been, or will there ever be a 3D platformer as good as Super Mario Galaxy? NOPE. Graphical fidelity will continue to improve, levels of epic will continue to ramp up but speaking in terms of sheer, unadulterated fun? Galaxy is the zenith, the crown jewel. Mario’s legacy is assured in either case, but that’s not why this game is being included, it’s being included because it represents the ambassador for everything that came before and everything that will come after, why do you think the only pure 3D Mario game to come out since was basically just more of the same? The box is empty, the logical conclusion has been reached.

 

6 – Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

This selection process draws an interesting line between what should be preserved as a historical artifact and what represents an essential piece of creativity. Modern Warfare is both. More than that though, what Modern Warfare in many ways is Concorde. Since it came out, the military FPS sub-genre has descended into a depressing, consumerist mediocrity. The sequels, imitators and rivals all feel soulless, they feel more like the result of necessity than of genuine artistic inspiration. Spunkgargleweewee, as Ben ‘Yahtzee’ Croshaw famously described them.

Modern Warfare on the other hand, whilst also being one of the biggest game changers there’s ever been, was also enthralling, thought provoking and deeply cynical. It actually commented on the evils and futility of war and placed you in positions that made you feel deeply uncomfortable. Slowly expiring in the wake of nuclear blast, or coldly dispatching distant glowing dots from the infrared sights of an airborne gun really blurred the lines between enjoyment and something far deeper. It’s a better cultural representation of the time we live than any other war game, for sure.

 

5 – Red Dead Redemption

If somebody asked me why I played games, I’d tell them that more than anything else I want to take some time away from this world and dive headfirst into a new one. That is a very, very difficult thing to fully achieve and I don’t think that any game has really managed to fully achieve it. Only a handful have come close and where sandboxes are concerned, and Red Dead Redemption is still leagues ahead of everything else. Just Cause 2 and GTA V are bigger, perhaps more varied but they don’t feel alive in the way Red Dead Redemption does.

It takes a misted snapshot of a bygone era and breathes new life into it, it creates an interactive relic with an eco-system, society and story that all work together to engage you. I can honestly say that if I were to list my most memorable, emotionally engaging gaming experiences, going out and finding a stallion to catch and break would be a serious contender for the top spot. The kind of immersion I felt playing through that game was more comparable to reading a novel than playing a video game, it had genuine wanderlust, something which many authors and filmmakers only dream of evoking. That, to me, is indicative of an artistic masterpiece and one that should be remembered.