Related to a post I made last year, but a little different because (1) you get to choose 10 now instead of 5, and (2) other games don’t get deleted, you just aren’t able to play them, so you don’t need to think about the good of humanity or anything, purely just selfish picks because it only impacts you.
A couple notes:
- Any equipment necessary to play the games, you’re obviously allowed to have
- You can play any DLC for the games you choose
- You’re not allowed to make any games for you to play. If you make video games, either as a career or hobby, only other people are allowed to play them
- Mods are allowed, but you’re not allowed to make any for you to play. You can try to commission someone else to make them for you, though
- If there was historically a trilogy, for example, that now is sold on a major storefront (Steam, Xbox, PlayStation) as a single game (such as Mass Effect or Hitman) that counts as one game now. Game bundles, though, do not count. Basically, if it’s in one entry in your steam/xbox/ps library, it’s one game
I’m interested to see what this community chooses, and hopefully it’s different enough from my old post to warrant some good discussion here.
For me, I’d probably have to go with:
- Skyrim - my most played game of all time, and nearly endlessly moddable
- Elden Ring - probably my favourite game, if you twisted my arm and forced me to choose
- Hitman: World of Assassination - my second most played game of all time, and tons of content there. Way more replayable than a lot of people realize
- Dishonored - the best linear stealth game of all time imo
- Pokémon SoulSilver - I’ll get in occasional Pokémon moods and this is my favourite one
- Forza Motorsport 6 - maybe a weird choice, but I play this game every Christmas with my dad, and I wouldn’t want to throw that tradition away
- Halo: Master Chief Collection - CE was my first ever video game, and I played the hell out of Reach back in the day, so this is mostly a nostalgia pick, but seriously who’s gonna argue against some Halo
- Batman: Arkham City - I have such strong nostalgia for this game for some reason, way more than lots of other games I’ve played. Not too sure why, but it definitely draws me back every now and then
- NHL24 - I guess it could be any NHL game since they’re all basically the same just with updated rosters and occasionally a new feature, but 24 is the most recent I own so I’ll stick with that one. Anyway, I love hockey and this is a great game to pull out when friends come over
- GTA V - when my wife and I first got a place together, we used to play this game together (pass the controller back and forth) after work every night. We still occasionally pull it out to play together, and I wouldn’t want to put a stop to that
GTA V - when my wife and I first got a place together, we used to play this game together (pass the controller back and forth) after work every night. We still occasionally pull it out to play together, and I wouldn’t want to put a stop to that
You inspired me to see if my partner would want to share playing GTA 6 in this way. That sounds fun! Thanks :)
There’s lots of fun stupid stuff you can do, at least in 5. Obviously I can’t comment on 6.
- Set a countdown timer and you have to switch right at the timer, then right before the timer goes off drive off a cliff or jump out of a helicopter and the other person has to try and survive. Basically death swap
- Try to steal a tank or fighter jet from a military base and switch after every death
- One person exclusively controls the left half of the controller, one person exclusively controls the right half of the controller, try to complete a mission or a custom objective
- Start a timer and see who can get a five star wanted level the fastest
Basically do stupid shit and don’t take it seriously. Extra points if you both suck at the game.
Yeah my wife enjoyed watching me play the GTA v campaign and we played a bit of online together for a while but the used GPU on her PC would always start to crash out
Games with tons of replayability, where I have already spent a ton of hours:
Roguelikes:
1 - Dwarf Fortress
2 - Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead
Resource/construction based:
3 - Satisfactory (sorry, Factorio fans)
4 - Valheim
5 - Minecraft or Terraria
RPGs with deep systems
6 - Divinity: Original Sin 2 or Fallout: New Vegas + mods
7 - Baldur’s Gate 3
Classics that I want to play from time to time
8 - Dark Souls: Prepare to Die edition
9 - Bloodborne
Some skill-based game that I’m never going to get amazing at, therefore infinite playtime:
10 - Either some fighting game (Skullgirls?) or something like Crypt of the NecrodancerNot a perfect list, but I probably would have enough stuff to play until I die :P
3 - Satisfactory (sorry, Factorio fans)
Everything is are good choices. It’s surprising you made the wrong one here. Even if you like the base game of Satisfactory better, for some crazy reason, keep in mind we get mods. Factorio has a modding scene as good as Skyrim, or maybe better. There are essentially totally new games available as mods for Factorio. Also, let’s say you’re a total expert after decades of playing it. There are mods that crank up the difficulty/complexity to the point where it takes thousands of hours to complete. It’s clearly the superior choice.
Shadowrun (Sega version) - one of the best RPGs of all time
Grim Dawn - I was a big Diablo 2 guy, and this is the next step up
Chronotrigger - probably my favourite RPG
Terraria - just a treasure of a game and fun for lan coop
Deus Ex - my favourite game of all time
Final Fantasy 6 - perfect example of what was good about the SNES
Sonic 3 and Knuckles - there’s a lot of excellent 8 and 16 bit platformers, this one is edging out some tough competition from Shinobi 3
KKnD - I’m going back to my PC roots in real time strategy, and I’m going with an old favourite that never lets me down when I go back to it
OpenTTD - I can (have) spent years building up a transport empire
Tyrian 2000 - the king of shmups
There’s definitely games I regret not being able to play again, but I’d be happy with this lot.
- Factorio with all mods like A&Bs
- Manor Lords and I have all the source code to mod it
- One of the total war games, maybe Warhammer because dinosaurs and jungles, ditto with source code for mods
- Dark Souls
- Elden Ring
- Ocarina of Time
- Minecraft with all mods
- Dwarf Fortress
- Final Fantasy X
- Age of Empires 2
Ocarina of Time
I am incredibly excited for the Switch 2 remake. My kiddo can experience it around the same age I did originally!
Have you played FFXIV? The story is amazing, and I’ve seen more people going from WoW to FFXIV than vice versa.
I have not… but I’m intrigued
WoW is more about my personal nostalgia than any particularly compelling game loop. I’ve got really fond memories of playing at different seasons of my life.
I’ll check out FFXIV though, I’m sure it’s a banger
You mean the source code to the full game? How’d you get it?
I assumed wishes were a part of the package of getting whatever game you wanted
- Galaga
- Burnout Paradise
- Mahjong
- Grim Dawn
- Just Cause 3
- Destiny 2
- Unreal Tournament (1999)
- Dwarf Fortress
- Star Craft 2
- Baldur’s Gate 3 (I’m assuming that community campaign mods will continue for many years to come)
No simracers here, I see.
- Assetto Corsa - wheel, pedals, tripples. Could finish the list here
- Creeper World III
- Planetside 2
- Dirt Rally 2
- Dead cells
- Deadzone rogue
- Portal
- Minecraft Java 1.8.0
- Back4blood
- F.E.A.R
Off the top of my head…
Oh, wow, F.E.A.R. now that’s a name I haven’t heard in a while!
It still absolutely holds up. You will be amazed. Phenomenal shooter.
since any dlc is allowed, maybe by picking Minecraft you get all the other versions with it?
Approved.
If Planetside 2 had offline bots, I would never touch any other shooters. I have yet to find other ones with the same type of recoil patterns and gun stats system where every different carbines and smg have personalities and traits making them something to master, besides CS which I can’t enjoy.
Out of all the reasons I love Planetside 2, it basically ruined shooters for me.
Assetto Corsa is pretty cheap right now. I saw it and it seems interesting. Would you recommend it to someone who wants something more casual? (I don’t mean arcade, but not something I need equipment and a lot of time for.) I’d probably play with a controller, but I do have a wheel with force-feedback and pedals, but I’m not sure they work on Linux (and I don’t use Windows anymore), and I’d prefer not setting it up.
Also, I think this studio has a rally game they’re working on. I’m pretty sure they’re the page I saw that. I hope it’s good, because Dirt Rally is dead sadly.
AC is like 7€. I would suggest taking it, even without the wheel. Wheel use is A LOT better though, especially for online racing. ACR is good. Still early access, getting better. Can be compared to DR easily. For me, force feedback is lacking a bit but the rest is awesome. Set up the wheel!:-)
You should opt for Richard Burns Rally instead of Dirt. Unlimited content like AC.
I agree, but I’m also a fan of Neil Cole’s work in DR2. I suppose I could pick RBR with Neil Cole mod. Btw, just saw my RBR folder the other day…100GB:-)
Journey
GTA San Andreas
GTA V
OpenTTD / TTD
Minecraft / modded
Half Life 2
Interstate '76
Age of Empires II
Roller Coaster Tycoon
And probably Factorio for the very end
I am curious about Journey on the top. I haven’t played the game, partly because I got the impression that it’s a relatively short game with little replay value. Now I went to look again and I did find a few Steam reviews with hundreds of hours of playtime but they don’t really elaborate on why they keep playing it. Here is what one review says:
“Albeit not a long game (typically 2h long), it has a great replay value, mostly because of its anonymous multiplayer.”
I’d love to hear your take on why you’d want to keep replaying it. I am OK with spoilers if necessary.
In short: it is like a playable fine art painting. You can just kind of let it play itself. There is even an animation to sit down and meditate. Same goes für GTA V btw: let the control sit and watch what horrors unfold around you. It’s just like in real life. Think about the elder people looking out their windows in peace. Did I deliver the jist?
Thanks, I appreciate the answer, yes I think I see what you are getting at. I guess what I am missing is a sense of the sort of stuff I’d see when I look through that “window”. I will probably have to try it myself to fully get it.
- Minecraft, obviously.
- Skyrim, obviously again.
- No Man’s Sky.
- Elden Ring.
- Wii Party, for local multiplayer.
- Deadlock, for PvP multiplayer.
- Gary’s Mod, for variety.
- Roblox, for variety again.
- Terraria.
- Project Zomboid.
Can you tell I’m almost only into sandbox / open world games ? x)
I could be convinced to replace Roblox as a variety game with Diablo II.
Ironically I’m probably not going to choose my favourite games because those are usually just very simple story based games, and can be just as enjoyable to read as a book instead.
The games which instead give the most fun-value and replayability:
- Balatro (my go-to “I’m bored and don’t know what to do with myself” game.)
- Stardew Valley. Super good, something is so satisfying in the art, animations and little gameplay loops. I replayed it to death earlier this year and now I’ll try not to think about it again until that time next year.
- “The Sims Medieval” is one I keep on coming back to, so I’ll definitely add that.
- Shattered Pixel Dungeon (don’t think this counts as a mod.) Super good replayability, I’ve been playing it intermittently for about 11 years now.
- Anno 117. Gotta have some strategy games - I’m kind of boring in that I only do anno and not more complicated stuff like city skylines.
- Fields of Mistria is a new farming sim that I have high hopes for.
- Pentiment has a lot of replayability despite only being a linear story game.
That gives me enough time to add 8. Minecraft, which I don’t play anymore but it’s a great boredom buster, and 9. Life and Suffering of Sir Brante and 10. Life and Suffering of Prince Jerian - afforementioned visual novel stories which are also fine to enjoy in book form.
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minecraft
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slay the spire 2
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risk of rain 2
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osu (since it has 4k and taiko with it)
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silksong (or hk depending on if you get future dlc)
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bloons td 6
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tf2 (Titanfall and team fortress both ok)
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mindustry (haven’t played factorio like everyone else here apparently)
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super smash Bros melee (with slippi mod for online play)
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guess I’ll take ufo50 even though I haven’t played it yet
Congrats yours is the closest to mine yet!
- Minecraft
- Melee (slippi) or rivals 2
- Osu
- Mario kart wii, (retro rewind or modded online)
- TF2
- Risk of rain 2
- Balatro
- Tetris (in any capacity but jstris has been my current pick)
- Deadlock (new but I see myself dumping so much time into this)
- Path of exile (1 or 2)
Honorable mentions go to
- Celeste
- Trackmania
- guitar/cloneclone
- Olli olli world or skate 3
- quake (1 or live)
- Elden ring/Bloodborne/Sekiro
lol, I was considering Tetris (tetrio tho) and balatro (I think slay the spire 2 has more replayability)
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This was really thought-provoking as my “choose 10 forever” list is much different than my top 10 games list. My goal here was choosing games that provided variety and depth, while typically also being great narrative experiences as well.
- Final Fantasy XIII trilogy. Since trilogies count as one. They’re all JRPGs with deep mechanics that I could master over my lifetime. XIII-2 provides replay value with side content and catchable monsters, and Lightning Returns is nonlinear. XIII has the amazing story that would always remind me our fates aren’t written in stone.
- Bloodborne. An action RPG with a great setting and atmosphere and endless replay value.
- Stardew Valley. I’m not a big cozy game person because of my backlog, but if I could only play 10 games, I’d finally have time to sink into this game, making different characters and romancing everyone and transforming the game with mods.
- Final Fantasy XIV. This would be my big damn fantasy RPG with a beautiful world I wouldn’t mind living in.
- Dance Dance Revolution. Specifically Stepmania so I can play all the songs, but if I had to choose an official game, it would be Ultramix 2. I need at least one fitness game here. I’ve been playing for years and am still nowhere close to mastering the game. For longevity, I probably should pick Ring Fit Adventure, Just Dance, or Wii Fit, but DDR is just too nostalgic, even if my list of 10 would eventually turn into nine as I age.
- Pokemon Crystal. Black 2 has the most vanilla content and replayability, but Crystal is compatible with the Pokemon Pikachu 2 pedometer, which would get me moving. Since mods are allowed, I could also have access to Pokemon Prism, Crystal Clear or any other hack for additional replay value.
- Flower. Flower has a way of always coming back to me when I need it most. It’s a great way to decompress and meditate.
- Darkest Dungeon. Rolls roguelikes, dungeon crawlers and survival horror games into one demoralizing package. It’s a long game, and every playthrough is different due to the depth of randomization at play.
- Shovel Knight. Really fun gameplay both as an action game and as a platformer with tons of DLC and side content without falling into the Metroidvania trap of having repetitive scenery.
- Cyberpunk 2077. I need an FPS to round out the list, and since I’m not a PVP type of person, I need to get replay value by other means, so an open-world RPG shooter will be perfect.
I totally forgot about ROM hacks when I chose Pokémon SoulSilver, otherwise I probably would’ve picked either Emerald or Crystal.
Nightreign - hundreds of hours in and I can’t get enough. The gameplay loop is so satisfying. I think they made this game just for me.
Noita - infinite wand tinkering Bloodborne - greatest game ever, and I will die on this hill Elden Ring - obvious masterpiece and widely replayable Hades - perfection of the genre, great storytelling, masterful voice acting Crusader Kings 2 - always lose a hundred hours to this when I dip my toe back in Half Life Alyx - another perfecting of the genre Morrowind - dated but truly the best of the series Mario Kart - loved each iteration and I’d need something a little more lighthearted in my ten games Terraria - another one I end up spending dozens of hours in when I start it back up. i always loved crafting and building in this more than similar 3d games.
Which Mario Kart?
I guess the Switch version just because there’s so much to do, but I’d take any. I cut my teeth on the SNES version way back in the day. Haven’t played the newest one yet tho.
I think 8 Deluxe is the best choice here.
- Terraria
- Nier: Automata
- X4: Foundations
- Deep Rock Galactic
- Beat Saber
- Baldur’s Gate 3
- Stellaris
- Witcher 3
And I still have 2 games left to choose
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For number 10, I know that exists for Crystal so I don’t see why not for Emerald. Hacked Crystal is the only way I play Gen 2 these days.
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Upon looking into it, it seems like Emerald Final is another ROM hack that seems more in depth, so I might give that one a shot at some point. I may try both though just to see what’s up.
I couldn’t find a solid 10 but…
- Minecraft for sure; the mod packs are insane and just GTNH could last me months.
- rimworld - I suck at it but… I have time to learn
- Oxygen not included - i have to be in the mood for this but it can hook me for hours
- fallout 3 - ive never actually finished this because I’ve always got distracted by mods
- Car mechanic simulator 21- I love the car mechanic games, I have hours in each even though ive basically finished them
- Mass effect trilogy(I’ve never finished the series and the fact they all interweave means its defo on my bucket list)
- If multiplayer is allowed: Ark survival evolved or ascended.
- elden ring with randomizers.
I so agree on oxygen. I have to be in the mood for it, but when i am, that game destroys my social life for weeks.
