GAMINGbible’s Top 10 Video Games Of 2020… So Far – LADbible

It might feel that 2020 is already up to its, what, 21st or 22nd month, by now? But the quite unbelievable truth is that we’re only halfway through the year. Six months down, another six to go. We know. We know.

Because we’re halfway through the year, we’re duty bound to post a list of the best games of 2020, so far. And that’s precisely what we have, right here: a top ten of the year so far’s very best new video games.

Something to note: this is based on votes from the GAMINGbible team – individual top five lists can be seen at the bottom of this page – rather than what individual reviewers have scored the games in question (before anyone thinks it odd that we have a game that we scored a 7 ahead of one we scored a 10). Okay, let’s do this.

It can’t be overstated that Streets of Rage 4 is an experience that won’t be as rich, as rewarding, as exciting to younger players as it will be to those who were raised on the Mega Drive. But for anyone with fond memories of this genre at its peak, on home consoles and in arcades throughout the 1990s, it’s unlikely you’ll play a better game of its kind than Streets of Rage 4 in 2020. (Review)

With Persona 5 Royal, P-Studio have managed to take a near-perfect game in Persona 5 and elevated it to another level. It gets in your head like never before thanks to its refined blend of dungeon-crawling RPG action and satisfying high school simulator mechanics. In short, Persona 5 Royal has reached a new height for the series, and arguably for the entire JRPG genre. (Review)

In every way, DOOM Eternal is bigger than its predecessor, more developed, more thought out. On paper it’s a much richer game than 2016’s DOOM comeback, but it’s one that interrupts you, stopping your flow too often. The first few hours of the game see frequent pauses for tutorial messages and cutscenes – and these interruptions make for a poor introduction. Especially considering the last game dropped you into the action immediately and didn’t let up until you’d completed the campaign. (Review)

it’s going to be hard for anyone to play through Coffee Talk and not recognise something of themselves, or something about someone they know, in its narrative. Even with all the spiky ears going on. Coffee Talk isn’t a complicated game, but it’s a surprisingly deep one – one to get a little lost in, a single serving at a time. So if you’re craving something to sit down quietly and chill out with, and maybe even learn something from, step inside and take a load off. (ICYMI)

Final Fantasy VII Remake can be enjoyed as a very pretty, albeit extremely linear retelling of a part of an all-time classic. It can be funny, it can be sweet, and it can be exhausting, often all in the same half-hour of play. But it’s not on a level with what role-playing games have become in the previous two console generations – and that’s clear whenever you take a moment to consider how little of consequence there is to do outside of the combat and running from A to B down straight-shot passages. (Review)

Ori And The Will Of The Wisps is a game that’s wholeheartedly recommended to all of you. Whether or not you’ve played the original game, picking up this new adventure should be a no-brainer. Moon Studios has gone bigger and better in every conceivable way, crafting an epic, emotional adventure that borrows from some of the best games out there and smartly remixes various genres and ideas in thrilling, unexpected ways. There really is no other way to say it: this was 2020’s first “must-play” title. (Review)

Resident Evil 3 knows what it is and is unashamed in its delivery of a more Hollywood-style telling of the Raccoon City incident. While Nemesis undeniably has his flaws, and a more open approach to traversal would have been nice with the grander scale, there’s still a lot to love about the game even if it isn’t breaking new boundaries like Resident Evil 2 did last year. It’s a faithful and thoroughly entertaining retelling of one of the most fondly remembered zombie games ever made. (Review)

The Last Of Us Part II is a conflicting experience. It’s a game of several fundamental improvements – breath-taking graphics, mechanics that are a joy, outstanding performances across the board, and the sense of a deeper world having been built upon. But there’s still the glaringly obvious issue of the story’s wonky pacing, and what you actually do to advance it. As a video game sequel it ticks all the boxes of being bigger and better with more to say. But as a story, as an experience following one of the most critically acclaimed tales ever told in this medium, it sits uncomfortably on a knife’s edge, waiting for the passage of time to pull it one way or the other. (Review)

Warzone brings the fast-paced, addictive gameplay of Modern Warfare‘s multiplayer to the battle royale genre. The introduction of features such as the Gulag and being able to buy your own loadout make Warzone unique in a saturated market. Jump into Verdansk with a group of friends and the hours will fly by. Getting the dub has never felt as satisfying. (Second Opinion)

New Horizons – the first new Animal Crossing in nearly a decade, if we don’t count spinoffs – is really, properly brilliant. It’s a charming, rewarding, immensely relaxing game, one whose slower pace offers a welcome alternative to the more intensive AAA releases of the last year or so.

It’s fair to say 2020 has heaped quite a bit of misery on us. Yet into this schoolyard bully of a year stepped Animal Crossing: New Horizons, a game so pure and wholesome that it has taken the world by storm and brought joy to millions. It may not be the most action packed or story driven title on this list, but it sure shone a bright light in a world that really needed it. (Review)

The above list was created by scoring individual top 5s and/or top 10s, with more points awarded based on how high a game was placed – which is why you don’t see our highest-rated (in terms of an out-of-ten score) game, Persona 5 Royal, at number one.

Dan Wilson
1: Animal Crossing: New Horizons
2: The Last of Us Part II
3: Streets of Rage 4
4: Call of Duty: Warzone
5: Resident Evil 3

Ewan Moore
1: Ori and the Will of the Wisps
2: The Last of Us Part II
3: Animal Crossing: New Horizons
4: Final Fantasy VII Remake
5: DOOM Eternal

James Daly
1: Persona 5 Royal
2: Resident Evil 3
3: Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot
4: Coffee Talk
5: Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore

Julian Benson
1: Call of Duty: Warzone
2: Hardspace: Shipbreaker
3: XCOM: Chimera Squad
4: Command & Conquer: Remastered
5: Gears Tactics

Mark Foster
1: Animal Crossing: New Horizons
2: Call of Duty: Warzone
3: Resident Evil 3
4: The Last of Us Part II
5: Mark’s been too busy to play five new games

Mike Diver
1: Animal Crossing: New Horizons
2: Streets of Rage 4
3: Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition
4: Persona 5 Royal
5: Final Fantasy VII Remake

Phil Boon
1: The Last of Us Part II
2: Animal Crossing: New Horizons
3: Call of Duty: Warzone
4: Resident Evil 3
5: DOOM Eternal

Tom Ryan-Smith
1: Animal Crossing: New Horizons
2: Final Fantasy VII Remake
3: The Last of Us Part II
4: Minecraft Dungeons
5: Call of Duty: Warzone

Vikki Blake
1: Animal Crossing: New Horizons
2: Journey to the Savage Planet
3: Ori and the Will of the Wisps
4: Half-Life: Alyx
5: Resident Evil 3

Will McCue
1: Ori and the Will of the Wisps
2: Call of Duty: Warzone
3: Minecraft Dungeons
4: Valorant
5: Resident Evil 3