Elden Ring (エルデンリング)

Elden Ring applies the Souls grammar to an open world by removing everything the genre had got used to adding: no icons on the map, no objective list, no quest markers. You find things because you look at the horizon, and half the content can be missed without ever knowing it was there.

George R. R. Martin wrote the world's ancient history — the gods, the wars, the bloodlines — which the game never narrates directly. Released in 2022, it passed thirty million copies, won most game of the year awards and proved a game could respect the player's intelligence to the point of explaining nothing.