10 best games you may have missed from the past few years

With so many great games coming out all the time, it's easy for things to get lost in the shuffle. Many of the biggest game releases these days ask players to spend dozens (if not hundreds) of hours with them, so there just isn't enough time to see everything.

Thankfully, games go on sale all the time. If you check the storefronts on Steam, PlayStation 4, or Xbox One every week, you're sure to find that a great game from two years ago has gone down to $15. Here are the best recent games that you should play if you haven't:

"The Witcher III: Wild Hunt"

This obviously isn't some obscure indie game. "The Witcher III" won several Game of the Year awards in 2015, but plenty of people (myself included) skipped it when it came out.

Maybe we felt we wouldn't like it because we hadn't played its predecessors, or maybe we didn't have time to dive into a huge open-world RPG when it came out. If you skipped it for any reason, fix that as soon as possible. "The Witcher III" is a genuine achievement in video game writing.

Imagine if every random side quest in "Skyrim" had the same level of care put into it as the main story. That's "The Witcher III," a game in which something as innocuous as finding materials for an armorsmith can turn into a multihour journey with emotional twists and turns.

The main game can be found on sale for about $30 or less pretty often, and a complete edition with all of the downloadable add-ons is launching on August 31 for $50.

Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC

"Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor"

Again, this was a Game of the Year contender back in 2014, but the "Lord of the Rings" connection and generic-looking main character may have turned some people off of what is a pretty fantastic action game.

You don't need to know or care about Tolkien's fantasy universe to enjoy this. It's an open-world game that plays a lot like "Assassin's Creed," meaning you can take on Orc encampments with acrobatics and stealth, and it plays like a dream.

It's super fun to just run around the world killing Orcs, which is great because the story is inconsequential. The Nemesis System ensures that you'll build rivalries with Orcs that you kill (and Orcs that kill you), so the game kind of generates little stores for you. It's really cool.

Most important, I got it for $10 earlier this year. It's on sale constantly.

Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3, PC

"Wolfenstein: The New Order"

1992's "Wolfenstein 3D" is widely thought of as the granddaddy of all first-person shooters, but its sequels (while good) have largely failed to make the same impact on video games.

2014's "Wolfenstein: The New Order" isn't revolutionary in any sense, but it is one of the best shooters in recent memory. Set in an alternate 1960s in which the Nazis won World War II and rule the world with robotic dogs, you can use stealth or dual wield shotguns and assault rifles to mow down the Nazi scum who stand in your way.

It also has a strangely personal, introspective story with some excellent characters, making it refreshing among other hyperviolent shooters.

You can find this one on sale for $30 or less fairly often.

Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC