GAMES OF ALL TIME

Here's a list of 10 video games that I especially like. This post is titled the way it is because I'm not claiming these are the best games of all time, not even in their respective genres. I will give a mini review of sorts for each game. This is going to be another long post so strap in.

This is also not necessarily an exhaustive list of my favorites, or even the top 10. It's just a list of 10 games that I think are particularly noteworthy, fun or otherwise impactful in one way or another. The list is in order of the game's release.

One last thing is that I've kept it to one game per franchise, even though it was very difficult to do so.

Let's kick things off.

1. RIDGE RACER - 1993

Where to even start with Ridge Racer.

It's a very simple PSX arcade racing game from the 90's. I first found out about it from a friend that collects retro video game OSTs, I decided to give it a shot, found it to be too difficult and dropped it. Months later, I decided to give it another shot and something just clicked. Ever since, Ridge Racer has been one of the video games that I've played the most.

It's a very drift oriented racer, without being able to drift it's almost impossible to win from the second race onward. Once you learn how to properly drift though, the game opens up. From this point on Ridge Racer is fast, technical and so, so much fun.

Almost just as important as knowing how to drift is knowing the single track. Although you can drive reactive and still win in earlier races, track knowledge becomes very important for later ones. Knowing when to drift and when not to, where to start your turns etc. are all part of the game.

The final race against the "final boss" of the game tests your drifting, handling and track knowledge to the full extent. Many people are still unable to win this race, 30 years after the game's release.

The bright and colorful graphics of this game were amazing for their time, and IMO they still hold up to this day. Ridge City offers a beautiful track with a downtown full of high rise buildings, a nice coastal section, a mountain pass and a highway section. The varied locations on the track provide nice vistas as you drift your way to victory.

The OST is full of bangers as well, all of the tracks are high octane, upbeat and complement the gameplay amazingly. However, if what Ridge Racer has to offer in terms of music is not your cup of tea, you can swap the game disc out for a music CD after the game has been loaded and listen to your own music instead.

Overall, I love this game. I speedrun it from time to time and still discover something new about how it works every time I play it. I highly recommend Ridge Racer to anyone who likes arcade racers. I could write on and on about it, however we need to move on with the list.

2. THE SIMS - 2000

Everybody knows The Sims, it's one of the greatest simulation games out there and depending on who you ask it might just be the greatest. I'm not even going to spend time describing what the game is because it's so well known. What I'll instead talk about is why I chose the first game over the other ones in the franchise.

Of course, the first reason is nostalgia. The Sims was one of my childhood obsessions. As a child, I've played countless hours of the sims before I even knew a lick of English, and greatly enjoyed every single second of it.

Another reason is the aesthetics. I love the graphics, the sound and how they come together to create a very specific aura around them. I love the nowadays "retro" objects in the game and how it's so telling of its time. This also plays into the nostalgia aspect of course, but I think there's more to it. I think playing The Sims would show anyone how people used to do things and go about their days very accurately, regardless if they've actually lived through those times or not. Your sims need a landline, the newspaper is an important source of all sorts of information for them, your electronics will have CRT screens, you get the deal. It's a snapshot of life in the early 2000's.

The Sims is also not as sanitized as the later games, mature themes and spooky lore is all around the town. The gameplay is also more abstract compared to the later entries, letting the player fill in the gaps with imagination.

Although I don't play the game as much nowadays, it's still a joy to go back to.

3. THE ELDER SCROLLS III: MORROWIND - 2002

The Elder Scrolls, my beloved.

Simply my favorite fantasy RPG series, TES games have a special place in my heart. The absolute freedom the games give the player, the beautiful landscapes, the amazing environmental storytelling, the incredible soundtrack, the batshit insane lore, this series has it all. And in my opinion, no other game in the franchise captures the essence of it all as well as Morrowind does.

This time, my fondness doesn't stem from Nostalgia either. Believe it or not, Morrowind was the 3rd game in the TES series that I've played. My first introduction was Skyrim like many others, I loved it and played it religiously. Then I've played Daggerfall for a bit because I've only heard good things about it, although it was a good game, I haven't played it for long.

Then I played Morrowind a couple years ago and well, it quickly became my favorite in the series. The atmosphere of the game is beautiful yet alien, more so than most games I've played. The music is perfect. The story and the lore is easily the best in the franchise, and they're up there with the best in the genre. The amount of choices you'll make from your character's progression to story missions puts many more recent RPGs to shame.

The gameplay is easily the most divisive part of Morrowind, however I love it. There's definitely a learning curve, but it's well worth it. It's easily exploitable, and you absolutely should exploit it. The game is overall unforgiving, and sometimes it feels like a contest between it and you to see who can bullshit the other more, but once you get a hang of the many systems Morrowind presents you, you'll find yourself quickly becoming the demigod you were prophesied to be.

Unless TES VI comes out before the heat death of the universe and somehow manages to dethrone Morrowind, it'll continue to be my favorite game in the series and one of my favorite games of all time.

4. BASTION - 2011

Bastion blew my mind with the way its narrator reacts to the player when I first played it. Although it's more common nowadays, this was novel at the time of its release as many reviewers also noted. Although the narrator is definitely not the only merit the game has.

Bastion has an amazing soundtrack, and when I say amazing I mean it. Darren Korb did such a good job at it that it's one of the very few video game soundtracks that I would listen start to finish on its own, without the context of a video game, and enjoy the music only for what it is.

Although I'd recommend it for the narrator and the music alone, Bastion also has a great art direction, fun and challenging (if you want it to be) gameplay and a very well written story. The game also has a lot of replay value with different weapon combinations to try, a lot of side objectives to try and get a better score in, a new game+ mode and a very customizable difficulty system.

Bastion is also the debut game of the studio, and a great indicator of what was then to come. Every game the studio has made since have been nothing short of great, with their most recent release Hades gaining almost universal praise and now being considered one of the best in its genre. Though to me Bastion is still their best game.

5. E.Y.E.: DIVINE CYBERMANCY - 2011

As someone who adores Morrowind, it's no surprise I love E.Y.E. It has, strangely, so much in common with the Bethesda RPG that I can't help but adore it:

Strange, complicated gameplay systems that once understood lets you do whatever you want with your character to the point of almost breaking the game.
Cryptic but unique and interesting lore (put a pin on that).
A dark, alien atmosphere.
Dated graphics compared to their contemporaries.

It would be like they're long separated twins if not for the differences. E.Y.E. is sci-fi to Morrowind's fantasy. It's FPS to Morrowind's Hack & Slash. The writing is absolutely terrible compared to the masterpiece that is Morrowind writing (another pin on this).

E.Y.E. is a very, very unique experience all throughout. It's like a Half-Life mod that has gained sentience and now it's showing you its machine-like dreams. The game is very obviously made by "amateurs", but it has so much love poured into it.

Now let's go back to those pins. The story of E.Y.E. is easily one of the best and the most memorable among all the games I've played, in my opinion. It's worth it to play just to experience the story. However it's very cryptic, the game is almost shy about it. At certain points it feels like it doesn't want to bother you with the story, and it's easy to comply because the gunplay is so much fun. Not all of this secrecy is by design though, some of it is because the writing is horrible.

Okay, it's not so much as the writing is horrible, in fact at certain points it's even great, but you'll definitely need to piece the greatness together because it all comes through the filter of what I assume is strange translations. The developers are French, and it definitely shows in the writing. Weird phrasing and strange word choices litter the script, and it makes an already hard to grasp story even harder to understand. Once deciphered though, it's one hell of a story.

I don't want to talk much more about it and possibly spoil the story, but I do recommend everyone who can stomach the somewhat steep learning curve and the dated graphics to give E.Y.E. a shot, or two, or (in my case) three until the game finally clicks with you. The gameplay is incredibly fun, the story is absolutely amazing and it's definitely a game that'll be worth your time and effort.

6. THE STANLEY PARABLE - 2013

I know I've been gushing about all the games I've mentioned so far, and that's kind of the point of this list, but if there's one game you haven't played on this list that you're willing to give a try to, make sure it's The Stanley Parable.

It's very hard to talk about this game without spoiling it so this entry will be shorter, but I can say it's a great experiment in story telling, about meta explorations of video games and the concept of "choice".

The game is insanely replayable, replays being one of the main mechanics of the game. In fact that's kind of the only mechanic in the game other than walking and looking around. It's funny, sad, crazy and heartwarming all at the same time.

Although The Stanley Parable is best enjoyed by people who are used to playing video games due to its meta commentary, in my opinion it's also one of the best games to recommend to a person who doesn't play video games much due to it's very low barrier of entry, very entertaining writing and unique nature.

7. VA-11 HALL-A - 2016

Possibly the most relaxing game on this list, VA-11 HALL-A is a visual novel with a bartending game attached to it. It takes place in a dark, dystopian cyber-punk world, however the game is cozy and heartwarming in stark contrast.

You play as a bartender in a small, run-down bar. Your task is to mix drinks for your customers according to their preferences and descriptions. Day in and day out you do the same thing, and your customers become your regulars. You get to know them, you befriend them and you learn their stories.

While above is an over-simplification of the game, the gist of it is that this is not a story about a cyberpunk dystopia, rebellions, or any number of other things most cyber-punk media concerns itself with. This is a story about individuals, and a beautiful one at that. Each character is unique, well designed and well written, nothing ever stood out to me as being put in just for the sake of it. And so throughout the game you'll find yourself attached to the bartender, the boss, the regulars or even side characters with less screen time. You'll wait for them to pop up at the bar again, so you can find out more about them.

While I can normally tolerate visual novels, I prefer them to be short and sweet. However, VA-11 HALL-A with its relaxing atmosphere, beautifully drawn pixel-art and a fitting soundtrack kept me coming for more until the end of its roughly 10 hours play time. In fact, by the end of it I felt sad that my nightly ritual of firing up the game to play for an hour or two has come to an end. I wanted more of it.

8. NO MAN'S SKY - 2016

One of the best, if not the best, redemption arcs in the history of gaming, and one of the most played games on my Steam account.

It's a vast universe filled with a lot of stuff to do. The activities will surely lose variety after some time, but there's enough to do for hundreds of hours.

The core gameplay loop is simple. You pick a goal (build a base, upgrade your freighter, unlock new technology etc.) and you grind until you have the materials. The materials are not available in your current planet/system so you explore. While you explore you find cool looking animals, plants, terrain etc. You eventually get the materials you need, realize your goal, set a new goal and repeat.

There's enough in there to break the monotony too, there are anomalous planets with strange lifeforms, solo/multiplayer quests that send you to a specific location and ask you to accomplish a certain goal, an interesting story, random encounters/events etc.

One of my favorite things is the expedition mode. It's a system where every 5-6 weeks, there's an event that requires you to start a new save file and complete certain objectives, along with a short story line and unique mechanics. Once done, they reward you with account-wide rewards. The rewards are almost completely cosmetic, the time limit is permissive for people with limited time to play video games and the unique mechanics, the storyline as well as the rewards are worth the time.

The simple game play loop, the retro-futuristic aesthetics, and the hands-off approach of setting your own goals makes the game a very relaxing experience.

9. DIVINITY: ORIGINAL SIN 2 - 2017

D:OS2 is an absolute treat. It's absolutely the closest I've felt to playing a TTRPG in any video game. It's also one of the best co-op experiences I've had. Although the game isn't flawless (I personally prefer the combat system in the first game, for example), in my opinion it comes very close.

The amount of freedom the player has in this game is staggering. Everything including the way you can approach quests, interactions with NPCs, character builds and many more aspects of the game are up to you. You can have a large party that tackles everything with increased levels of violence, you can have a single character that prefers to sneak or talk their way through conflict, you can talk to animals, you can completely break the game with barrelmancy or you can play the game in a huge variety of different ways.

The co-op is also amazing. I have played this game through with my girlfriend, and it actually managed to give both of us the same level of agency as if we were playing single player while still making sure we act as a team.

The art and sound direction also really shines throughout the game, and with the great writing and worldbuilding it really comes together as a very immersive experience overall.

Hopefully the franchise has more to come, but even if not D:OS2 has already earned its place amongst the other RPG classics in my eyes.

10. STREET FIGHTER 6 - 2023

I love the Street Fighter franchise, I've been playing them on and off since childhood. I got more serious about Street Fighter, and also fighting games overall, when I got into Street Fighter V later on in the game's lifetime. However I pretty much played all games in the series, some of them around their release, some much later. All that being said, I knew I had to include one game from the franchise in here.

Street Fighter 6 might be somewhat of a controversial inclusion over the others. After all, I could've picked SFII which catapulted FGC into the mainstream. Or I could've picked SFIV for revitalizing the scene after fighting games fell of the public eye. I could've picked SF:A3 because that's the version I've played the most growing up and it's the game that started it all for me.

I picked SF6 because I genuinely believe it's the best in the series so far. I don't think it's the honeymoon period either. I genuinely have not enjoyed any other fighting game as much as I've enjoyed SF6.

The World Tour mode is the best single player campaign I've seen in a fighting game, the training modes do a really good job of helping you improve your abilities, the netcode is immaculate, the online modes are fully featured, the newcomers are great, the balance is very fine tuned, the systems are well thought out and the artstyle is great.

There are problems of course, but nothing that cannot be fixed in small patches. I have not spotted any "fundamental" problems with the game so far and I've played quite a bit of it since launch.

It's also a great game to start with if you're new to the genre. Modern controls help newcomers focus on more important parts of the game play while not making them feel like they're missing out on the cooler, flashier parts. The training modes make everything from reading frame data to labbing combos incredibly easy.

I think SF6 is the sign of a new golden age for the FGC. I'm not saying it's going to cause it or anything like that, but it probably will help along the way. I just hope Karin is added to the cast in the near future.