It’s been a huge year for video games. Small developers are leading a renaissance of original ideas breaking through into the mainstream. They are going up against blockbuster franchises like Call of Duty – and winning.

The 7am team debated whether we should add “games” to our “best of” features this year – but the numbers don’t lie. More than four out of five Australians game and the industry is at least three times the size of the film industry.

Games can be so many things: High art, pop art – and pure dopamine. Sometimes all at once.

Today, ABC video games critic and tech journalist Rad Yeo on her top five favourite games of the year.

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