1. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One)
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The Witcher III Wild Hunt has won multiple gaming awards and has an overwhelming number of fantastic reviews.
The trailer shows the gameplay of one of the most liked games of its generation.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is set in a world full of monsters and sorcerers, and among them are a group of witchers who hunt these monsters… for a fee. But not just anyone can become a witcher; one must go through rigorous and life-threatening tests. In this game, you take on the role of Geralt, a witcher veteran on the hunt for his daughter.
You will take on contracts from civilians, but not all jobs are worth a witcher’s time. Negotiate your prices whenever there is a monster or ghost to take care of in the area. Alternatively, you could just leave the monster and/or ghost out there to ravage the land.
The Witcher 3:Wild Hunt is an action-RPG where combat is fast-paced and dangerous. As a witcher, it is important that you prepare the correct potions and antidotes and read your bestiary before each battle; otherwise, you may be defeated. You wield a silver sword for monsters and a steel sword for those foolish enough to start trouble with a witcher. Use your magic and your witcher senses to give you a greater edge.
The world is open-world; however, each place is divided into sections, and there is a small loading time whenever you want to go to another country. But don’t worry, you can get around on your trusty steed, Roach, who is always a single whistle away.
2. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PC, PS3, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox 360, Xbox One)
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The lore in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is so vast that you won't get all of it from just one playthrough. So get ready to fight dragons!
Become dragonborn, slay dragons and take their power.
Dragon’s Dogma had a dragon, but in Skyrim, you are the dragon master. also known as Dovahkiin. Skyrim lets you control and tame dragons to call to battle. How do you do this, I hear you ask? Well, you shout in the dragon language, obviously!
You begin the game as a prisoner being taken to be executed, and just as you’re about to have your head separated from your neck, a dragon lands and pandemonium erupts. You barely escape the mayhem as you are fleeing, and Hadvar, a soldier of the imperial army, and Ralof, a fellow prisoner, offer to cut your bindings free. Here, you choose one of them and start a questline to either join the Stormcloaks or the Imperial Legion. It doesn’t affect your choice to join the other side later on in the game, but it’s a nice little role-playing aspect if you already know which side you want to choose. I personally like to choose the stormcloaks because Ralof takes you to his sister’s in Helgen, where they give you supplies, but they also own the mill, and if you chop wood and sell it to Ralof’s sister’shusband, you can make bank, which always helps.
Skyrim is a first-person action-RPG, but you may switch to third-person at any moment if you prefer. Skyrim is a vast frozen land filled with game and quests to last you hundreds of hours. There are so many mountains, caves, and underwater secrets to find, and if you choose the argonian race, you can breathe underwater. Like in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, you should take your time in Skyrim and enjoy what it has to offer.
3. New World (PC)
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Discover yourself in a new world.
The official trailer showcases the New World and all of its action.
A captain is given a mysterious box to find riches in a new land, and you’re part of the crew. However, your ship crashes, and you find yourself stranded on the beach with nothing but the clothes on your back. You find the captain wounded, but he dies after a brief conversation.
This is a MMORPG where players colonize a New World called Aeternum, which is based on the Americas.
This is a third-person action role-playing game that offers a lot of crafting, refining, and gathering. There are no combat classes in New World, only core attributes that affect your equipment; you simply progress whatever you use as you use it, which ranges from a musket to a spear to a bow and more.
If you’d prefer to battle other players, then you can engage in massive siege battles to expand your territory and create settlements, but be careful because others will always invade what you’ve conquered, causing a constant fluctuation for control of territory and resources. So choose a faction and create a new, better world.
4. Black Desert (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X)
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One of the most visually stunning MMORPGs out there.
Take a look at all the epic world of Black Desert Online.
Black Desert is a MMORPG sandbox with a great and detailed character creation system and over twenty classes to choose from. Like Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen, it’s an action-based game where you do battle in real time, defending and attacking your enemies. But unlike Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen, you can have a mount, but unlike most other games of this genre, you cannot put your mount in your inventory. You’re able to do battle on mounts that you find and tame in the wild, but they must be cared for and fed or they may die. On the topic of mounts, you may breed different species to create special animals to mount. That sounds cool, right? Well, it gets better.
Black Desert doesn’t just offer action; if staying at home is more your speed, then feel free to purchase a home and raise your life skills like trading, fishing, farming, and more in this open world.
5. Dark Souls 3 (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
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Dark Souls has a reputation of being one of the most unforgiving games out there. Some have even said it's too hard to be fun.
Watch the trailer illustrating some of the story included in Dark Souls III.
Dark Souls III is about a flame that’s dwindling and about to go out, and it’s up to your character, the Ashen One, to seek out the five Lord of Cinder to their thrones and link the flame. Straight-forward, right?
Lotheric is not an open-world game but has some beautiful backdrops where you will do battle. You can join covenants too, giving you access to unique weapons and abilities that may also be helpful if you choose to go online.
Monsters can change their fighting style during gameplay, so don’t get too complacent. The game has been given much praise by many, and though the fighting mechanics are more fluid than the previous games, Dark Souls III can be unforgiving, but don’t worry, you can save your progress, rest, and repair equipment at a bonfire.
6. The Elder Scrolls Online (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
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The battle between each alliance rages onwards.
This game is similar to Skyrim but differs in that it allows you to play online! But you also get to explore all of Tamriel, including the land of the dovahkiin, Skyrim.
ESO lets you choose one of the nine races, which will affect where you begin after you escape the obligatory training area. But more importantly, the race you choose will affect your faction.
The Daggerfall Covenant, Ebonheart Pact, and the Aldmeri Dominion are the three factions in the game, each containing three races that are at war with one another. This is where PvP comes into play, because if you see another player in the wild, then draw your sword. In addition, the PvP area, Cyrodil, is a land where you can find other factions for land, so invest in siege weapons and reclaim your castle!
ESO is a third-person action-RPG, but you can switch to first-person mode at any time.This action is fast-paced and takes place in the vast and different lands of Tamriel about a thousand years before the events of Skyrim. Cool, right?
7. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Xbox 360, Xbox One)
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Good old-fashioned monsters and sword-wielding warriors is all a gamer needs sometimes.
Take a look at some of the action.
In this game, you play the role of the Fateless One, who died before the game started. You reawaken in a place called the Well of Souls.When you escape this hellish graveyard, you enter the world of the Faelands, where your adventure begins.
The combat system is similar to Dragon’s Dogma:Dark Arisen in that it’s an action role-playing game but differs because quicktime events happen from time to time and you can’t scale massive monsters. You can build your abilities in a unique skill-tree, and during combat, you can build up ‘‘'fate points’’ where you can ultimately enter the ‘‘Reckoning Mode’’ which is effectively a slow motion mode for you to show off your skills and defeat your enemies.
8. Shadow of the Colossus (PS2, PS3, PS4)
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One of the most unique games out there.
Jump into the vast world to take on giants.
This game is about a boy and his horse. It’s about love. It’s about conquering fear. It’s about…well, it’s not really known exactly what it’s about, to be honest. There is little to no dialogue in this game, but if you love scaling huge monsters to slay them, they don’t get much bigger than the creatures in Shadow of the Colossus, let me tell you.
You take on the role of Wander, roaming a vast land of greenery, mountains, and forests atop his trusty steed, Agro. In this land, you have a literal guiding light to follow towards the next colossus, which you summon with your sunlight in the sun’s reflection.
Now, defeating a colossus is possible, but by no means easy because you have to find each one’s weak spot(s) to take it down. But telling you any more than that would spoil the fun. All you need to know is that you should believe in yourself, your horse, your surroundings, and your trusty sword.
9. Monster Hunter World (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
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Slay the creatures of this land and use their hide, teeth, or fur to improve your equipment.
Team up with others to slay dinosuars, beasts, and monsters.
It’s a new world—well, not the game but literally—and a new place has been founded, and you, as part of the Fifth Fleet, are sailing toward the new world. The Research Commission asked for volunteers to support the New World, which is why you find a host of characters in the first settlement you find, which is called Astera.
In this game, you battle giant monsters and use their hides as materials to use for armor and weapons.
You select one of fourteen weapons to determine your play style, which varies greatly. Don't worry, you can switch between them at home and practice with each weapon for as long as you want. When you’re ready, go upstairs to the canteen and see the pirate-looking palicoes (cat-like beings) for some grub. The animation of the palicoes cooking your meal never gets old to me, and you can get some helpful bonuses if you eat before venturing out into the world.
Once in the world, you can explore the lands and find dinosaur-type creatures and giant beasts with your very own palicoe, which you get to customize at the start of the game and build equipment for too. Treat your palicoe well, as they will help you in battle.
10. Dragon’s Age Inquisition (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
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Take your team through this epic journey.
Witness the power you may wield in Dragon Age: Inquisition.
This is a semi-open world where players are able to explore each region whenever they choose, but be careful as enemies don’t scale, meaning that a player may be too weak to defeat their foes.
At the start, you create your character by choosing a race among a dwarf, a human, an elf, or a qunari, and you’ll be able to customize many aspects of your character to your liking.
This is an action-based RPG that gives you a third-person view to defeat your enemies, and you can control any of your party members at any moment during the battle, giving the AI control of your Inquisitor and party members.
The unique feature of this game is that you may enter Tactical View, which pauses the game and allows you to place your team members into position and decide who you would like them to focus on. This gives the game an element of turn-based combat, if you’re into that kind of thing.
11. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One)
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It's finally time to live the dream and take the epic journey through Middle-earth.
Learn more about Talion's tragic story.
Middle-earth is a third-person action adventure that takes place in, you guessed it, Middle-earth. You take on the role of Talion, who seeks revenge on Sauron after his family is murdered. Talion is a ranger, but how you choose to engage, whether it be straightforward combat, at range, or stealthily, is up to you. What makes combat unique in this game is the Nemesis System, which allows you to track Uruks, which are like orcs but worse. Whenever an Uruk survives an encounter with you or kills you, they will be promoted and subsequently be more difficult to defeat the next time. Also, you can collect runes, which give you the ability to brand Uruks and bring them over to your side to betray Sauron. Though it may not be canon, adventuring throughout Middle-earth hasn’t felt so good.
