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Welcome to What Culture’s definitive Games of the Year list. We’ve compiled 20 of the best titles from across last 12 months, all of which we feel are worth your time for a variety of reasons ranging from fun intuitive mechanics, to just needing to have a certain narrative experience only possible through gaming. 2013 has been one hell of a year for gaming, and one that has seen a massive influx of independent games developers finally getting the recognition they deserve, as well as programs like Charlie Brooker’s ‘How Video Games Changed The World’ pioneering the sort of medium-defining thoughts we’ve always known.

From independents, to blockbuster franchises both current and next gen, 2013 will be remembered as a year when the playing field was levelled, and the likes of the Pax Indie Megabooth allowed much smaller, sometimes one-person development teams to showcase their work alongside the other titans of the industry.

There was a little-known program that aired just this Saturday night over on UK soil, called How Video Games Changed The World (you’ll have to get your Google on to find it now!). Usually shows that attempt to dissect such hyperbolic titles will swing too much in the favour of the mainstream opinion on topics us gamers are very well versed in, such as violence, sexism, and the new ‘are games art’ debates, often just fanning the fires of debate rather than controlling them.

However this show managed to wade deeply into the topics that mattered whilst also holding the mainstream’s hand to ensure they didn’t get pulled under through lack of understanding. Helped along the way by industry figureheads like Peter Molyneux, Jeff Minter, Tim Schafer and Neil Druckman alongside more well-known names such as Jonathon Ross and Dara O’Briain, the show did a fantastic...

Following the launches of the PS4 and Xbox One, the scheduling of Channel 4's gaming night this Saturday (November 30) is neatly timed. The centrepiece of the evening is Charlie Brooker's documentary How Video Games Changed The World.

Digital Spy caught up with Brooker to find out which 5 landmark games he would pick as those most defining the last 40 years.

1. Pong

"You've got to put Pong in there. Although it wasn't the first one, it was the first successful game. It went into the home and it was one of the first times that people realised that gaming was a form of entertainment where you could control what was on the screen, which is absolutely second nature to people today.

"My son is 19 months old and he's seen iPads. He goes to TV screens and tries to swipe it. He can't understand why it's not interactive. That would have...