If every video game was to be destroyed but you had the chance to save five games, what would you choose to save?
Assuming the equipment was also saved so you could still play the games, and every game in existence you don’t mention gets permanently destroyed, and no new games are ever to be made.
Inspired by a video by OutsideXbox from a few years ago, I thought it would be a fun idea to see what this community would choose. You can choose to be selfish and pick games you personally want to always play, or try to figure out what games would be best chosen for humanity to save for whatever reason. I’d also love to hear why you chose your games. Do they have a special meaning to you? I want to hear your stories.
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Factorio. Not sure I'd need anything else
I really want to try it out but I’m worried it’ll ruin my life. It looks fun but I really don’t have a ton of time these days for gaming and I don’t want to get super hooked on a game I know I’ll spend way too much time on.
I recently started it with the caveat that I'm not allowed to pay without my brother. So he comes by once or twice per month and we go crazy for a few hours.
If I did it myself I'd lose my job.
I think you may have made a typo of "pay" instead of "play" :) Either that or I'm mistaken about what kinda game factorio is...
Oops!
Hope you have a lovely day! ☺️
You can play Factorio in coop? Is it good? This games looks like very personnal.
Yeah you can. For us it worked because we focus on different parts and then meet up, discuss and give feedback or help.
But you need to do it with someone you get along well with.
Yeah watch out for this one then. Especially if you get into the mods that turn a 30-50 hour campaign into 500+ hours with 20x more complexity.
That's insane. I've beaten Bob's+Angel's (with a limp to the finish line) in 123 hours. There are many hundred items and thousands of total recipes, many with byproducts in B+A. How is Pyanodons that much longer?
6 or 7 runs of Bob's and Angel's? That's crazy, why did you play it so many times? I gotta get back to attempting to build a mega base in my save :)
It is 3am, and after ~60 hours over the last two weeks I have launched my first rocket and gotten the game complete screen. I smile and slowly blink dry, crusty, tired eyes. Finally, I can rest. I have to be to the airport in four hours.
I couldn't get past the browness of the graphics. Satisfactory on the other hand...
I clearly don’t know enough about Portal 2, care to explain more? I’m definitely out of the loop.
I got you. It’s an entry in the Portal franchise, with the “2” indicating that it is the second in the series.
Oh shit I had no idea, thanks for clearing things up.
The testing elements in Portal 2's maps are technically Turing-complete, and people have made very simple "computers" with them. Here's a video from 2012 of someone building logic gates.
There's also VScript which PortalRunner on YouTube used to port an NES emulator and make a web server. Their channel is really good if you like this type of silly hacky fun.
I think this is the winning move, going for the big sandbox games with strong modding scenes. Personally, I'd pick Neverwinter Nights 2 and GZDoom over Roblox and Portal 2.
Has it's modding scene opened this much? I thought people were mostly making test chambers.
Does NWN2 have a strong modding scene?
I played a shitload of NWN and that would have been my pick, but from my recollection NWN2 multiplayer custom servers died when Obsidian put in the (insane) requirement to download terrain meshes outside of the game.
I haven't circled back to the NWN2 enhanced edition to see if that was ever reworked.
Honestly, no idea, lol. I never went beyond NWN 2's original campaign. I just figured it would have more potential than NWN 1, in a world with only 5 games.
Nothing personal but what if we save either GTA V (or VI), TF2, Arma 3 or Foxhole and let Roblox be destroyed?
Gta 5 would be fine. Its got some unique gamemodes with FiveM, and like 992526737373773 empty RP servers.
Minecraft and then just build games inside of it?
Fair enough. I haven’t played Minecraft in a while so I sort of forgot it existed when I wrote my comment but it’s definitely a great pick for here.
I’ll start the ball rolling. For me, I’d probably have to go with:
Skyrim - first off, it’s my most played game ever, and also my most purchased game too. Is it the best game ever made? No, I don’t even think it’s the best Elder Scrolls game. But there’s something so captivating about it for some reason and I can’t help but always go back to replay it all these years later. If mods are allowed to survive the video game apocalypse then it makes it a very easy choice but I’d still choose it even if it had to stay vanilla.
Pokemon Soul Silver - something for kids to play, but also my favourite Pokemon game and one of my most replayed games ever. Between having your Pokemon follow you around, the Johto region plus Kanto, and also the music, I think it’s the best Pokemon game ever made, and a game I can’t go without playing the rest of my life.
Elden Ring - I was torn between this or Dark Souls III, but I went with ER because (1) it’s more accessible, and again remember every other game is permanently destroyed so this does affect everyone, and I’d like to be at least a little nice in my choices, and (2) I find myself able to replay it a bit more, especially with the DLC. I’ve mentioned it many times before but I truly believe SotE is the best content FromSoft has ever put out, so it would be a shame to have it destroyed.
Hitman: World of Assassination - it’s sort of cheating as this was originally three separate games, but they’re all bundled together now and Steam recognizes it all as a single game in my library, so I’m including it. Plus it’s my list and my post so I say it counts. Anyway, I don’t see Hitman posted a lot on Lemmy, but it’s my second most played game ever and I really do think if you can get over the admittedly high cost to get all the content it really is a masterpiece of a game. It’s also got way more replayability than you’d initially think just looking at it, so it’s a great contender for this post. This is another Skyrim situation where I don’t think it’s a top pick for greatest game of all time but it’s just so easy to replay that I couldn’t omit it from here.
Dishonored - I really didn’t know what to put for my last choice. I was tempted to do another massive open world game like Red Dead Redemption 2 or cheat again and do another bundle game like Mass Effect Legendary Edition or Halo Master Chief Collection, but I decided to go with a game that is a bit less intensive to complete but is still really fun to jump back into and try a new style with. I feel like it’s a bit of an underrated game these days. I know it was very well received and sold well but I don’t hear about it enough when talking about modern-ish classics. This is probably my favourite game that’s not a sandbox or open world, aside from the FromSoft games. The art style is gorgeous, the story is engaging, the DLC is a great add-on, the gameplay is diverse and super fun, it’s just such a great game all around.
My list is probably going to be very different from everyone else’s, but that’s part of the fun.
Roblox, Fifa 19, Chinese malware mobile game, Fifa 23, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial for the Atari 2600.
Pure evil in human form
Too many fans of Roblox would be happy with this. Replace Roblox with Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days and the list is perfect
Replace either Roblox or FIFA with ‘Takeshi's Challenge’.
F-Zero GX is the goat, but nintendo didn't make it! It's actually made by Sega's AV (amusement vision) team, now known as ryu ga gotoku studio
Yeah ik, thats what makes it the best Nintendo game. The fact that Nintendo had nothing to do with it :3
Hmm, tough one. I'm going to maximise replayability and this assumes all DLC too
Honourable mention to several JRPGs from Squaresoft
Edit: I'm now reading the thread and second guessing everything. But gonna keep my original list
JRPGs can be annoying to play multiple times.
Civ 6 (or some other strategy game like Age of Empires) and Factorio are great choice for this though.
I'm just saving Planescape: Torment 5 times.
TitanFall 2: Its the Portal 2 engine, but better. Also runs on almost anything these days, looks good, could easily be a basis for a ton of different kind of multiplayer shooters via modding. You could basically rebuild any Source game/mod between 2000 and 2015 ish in it.
Deus Ex (the original): Lower fidelity but that means it can run on more things, is also highly moddable, also has a working multiplayer framework that it's had since almost day one that I guess everyone forgot about, could also be modded into nearly anything, including lower fidelity than TF|2 multiplayer games of basically any kind.
VintageStory: Minecraft, but better. Also highly moddable. Also networkable.
Fallout Online (2/3): Assuming the likely near apocalyptic setting accompanying this hypothetical, we're gonna want a 2.5D turn based tactics platform, FOnline is highly detailed and highly moddable, and is networked. You could also basically rebuild nearly any 2D JRPG in this, yes, even Pokemon, if you can handle 2.5D isometric sprites.
(I was originally going to say either Xenonauts 1 or 2, but then realized you could basically build X1 or X2 in Fallout Online, and FOnline is already networked.)
No Mans Sky: Beyond being essentially the most advanced procedural generation game that I am aware of, in breadth and depth, you're going to want to have all that code to be able to decompile parts of it and thus be able to rebuild other or new digital worlds with it.
I reject the concept that no new games will ever be built.
I've been using and making mods since the 90s.
There will be new games, apocalypse be damned.
Also, as much as I love some Bethesda games, their engine is a heap of broken garbage.
Rebuild FONV or Skyrim in TF|2 or Deus Ex instead.
They are entirely capable of being modded into that.
Fallout 4
Baldur’s Gate 3
Sekiro
Super Mario World
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2
Superman for the N64, E.T. for Atari, Plumbers Don't Wear Ties, Desert Bus and Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing
It's impossible to pick out just five of the most important games ever, but I'd try to pick games that have important historical significance, have some degree of genre diversity, all while still being fun and thought-provoking games you'll always want to pick back up.
Ultima IV. ::: spoiler spoiler The first RPG that wasn't a giant dungeon-crawling grindfest where you slay a wizard at the end. It has a big open world, fun NPC interactions, and fun tactical RPG gameplay for the time. Has a really good philosophical storyline that is integrated with the game mechanics, and it shows how creativity can form under constraints. Another good option would have skipped to the SNES era with Final Fantasy VI, which is slightly less retro but is more approachable and has an equally compelling story with stronger replay value and tons of mods/romhacks. :::
Resident Evil 2. ::: spoiler spoiler One of the problems with choosing only five of the most important games is that the horror genre and the point-and-click adventure genre both are important in the history of gaming, but there isn't room for both. Resident Evil 2 blends both genres exquisitely in a really compelling, but also endearing B-movie story with lovable characters. The Walking Dead would have been another option, but it doesn't really have gameplay and it strays far enough away from the adventure genre that it doesn't serve as a good example. :::
Flower. ::: spoiler spoiler The Indie Revolution was an important era of gaming history, and motion controls were really big back then. Beautiful, subtle story about overcoming depression. Roger Ebert was wrong and video games could be art. Any indie game during the Indie Revolution golden era (August 2008-September 2015) would fit here, but I picked Flower because, at the time, it challenged what people's expectations of what a video game was supposed to be. Games don't have to be challenging or about fighting to be legitimate. Doesn't have a ton of replay value, but it's the sort of game you'll always come back to during hard times. Barely beat out Stardew Valley, which is longer and has more replay value but isn't an "art game," which was very much the zeitgeist of the era, and Celeste which, in addition to having a beautiful ludonarrative story like Flower, would have also been a good mascot for speedrunning communities, but was created post-indiepocalypse and therefore isn't a good example of the era. :::
Nier Automata. ::: spoiler spoiler A really engaging action-focused game with a good story and tons of replay value. Bloodborne and Bayonetta would have also been good choices, but I ultimately went this one because you'll spend more time on it, and there's a co-op mod. It does make this list RPG-heavy, but it's hard to find a pure action game with as much replay value and attention to the plot. It's still a skills-based game and none of the RPG mechanics will save you on the hardest difficulty. :::
Baldur's Gate III. ::: spoiler spoiler I would put an open-world, choice-based game here. Even though BG3 is not a true open-world game, it has many the sandbox features open-world players like short of a fun physics system. It's the third entry in the series, but the game doesn't expect you to have played the first two games. Great mod support. I didn't choose other popular open-world/open-zone games because many have paper-thin quests that lack player agency (Daggerfall, half of Oblivion, Skyrim, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Breath of the Wild), don't work as a standalone experience (any of the Mass Effect Trilogy, the Witcher 3), are amazing but too small in scale to be good representatives (KOTOR, Dragon Age: Origins, Deus Ex), are too controversial (Grand Theft Auto, which railroads you into being a bad guy) or have a strong open world and player choices but terrible gameplay (Morrowind). I gave BG3 the edge over Cyberpunk and Fallout: New Vegas due to built-in co-op and endless replay value that would last a lifetime. :::
If this were a top 10 list, I would add Fallout: New Vegas (for a purer open-world sandbox experience), Super Mario Galaxy (a 3D platformer in a well-known franchise with a strong story), Celeste(the pinnacle of 2D platformers and speedrunners love it), Minecraft(an important social game with constructive cooperative mechanics), and Stardew Valley (best cozy game representative).
Pokemon, FF7, GTA San Andreas, Resident Evil 4, Portal
Which Pokemon game? Also portal is a great choice, I was very nearly tempted to have portal 2 as my last pick.
Pokemon Crystal
Oooo an SSS-Tier JRPG. I didn't think of that. That's a great idea.
There are plenty of other games I would love to throw on the list, but some would require a ton of mods or just didn't quite make the cut for me.
Tough. If this is all I get forever I'll go for replay over best games ever.
Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous, good 5k hours
Monster Hunter World(Iceborne), like 5-10k in that
NieR Automata, less so for the replayability and more for the music
FFX For same as above
Aaaaand hm. Oh I want some childhood. Majora's Mask.
It's crazy that there's still nothing that comes close to Garry's Mod.
I'm sure you've played The 11th Hour, but have you played The 13th Doll or The 7th Guest VR? Not as good as the OG, but worthy sequels.
Yeah those are great too! I bought my Quest 3 headset just for T7GVR and played it on release day lol.
I actually run the Lemmy community for these games ![email protected]
and the Discord community https://discord.gg/Hss5cJg
First place has to be Kerbal space program. I can't think of another game as profoundly educational as this. If you can land a craft on the Mün, then you have a better understanding of orbital mechanics than the average NASA engineer.
Second place goes to Nier: Automata. It's a selfish pick, but I struggle to think of a more flawless game.
I want at least one multiplayer PVE game and one PVP game, so third and fourth places go to Minecraft (version 1.18) and Team Fortress 2.
Lastly, for fear that it will count as a video game and otherwise be deleted, I save Lichess.org from annihilation
that's already five - which one of these shouldn't be saved?
maybe Age of Empires 2, Stellaris, or Civ V instead of Starcraft?
maybe Oblivion, Morrowind, or Fallout 3 instead of Skyrim?
maybe Terraria, Stardew Valley, or Factorio instead of Minecraft?
maybe Counter-Strike, Half-Life 2, or Insurgency instead of Team Fortress 2?
This is an awful choice, a committee would have to decide this ...
we're really going to let all these games die?
not to mention games like:
You can find more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_games_considered_the_best
this question is evil, and I hate everyone's answers.
If the whole world was on Garry’s mod the content would be insane
which makes me think you could use Garry's Mod to recreate TF2, so maybe that would open up a slot ...
maybe the committee would actually look to preserve game engines first and foremost, and then count on recreating other games from that
if I had to pick I would at least try to preserve Source, Unity, and Unreal ... HPL Engine (Amnesia, Soma, etc.) is pretty unique, but it might not have enough cultural relevance - depends on whether we are prioritizing diversity in our top 5 picks, or just going based on commercial success & popularity ...
dammit, Disco Elysim! I'd be so sad if that was gone
right!? it's a terrible question, I wouldn't want to choose, and I would hate whatever anyone came up with
(I hate what I came up with!)
Selfishly?
I'm assuming there'd be no online multiplayer or modding, as they'd be outside the realm of the game - it's content made by other people (and it's more interesting if you exclude them anyway), and I'm assuming there'd be no more updates (so only current or previous patches)
So we'd be looking for replayable single player games
Based on current tastes...
Burnout Revenge- Its my comfort game. I love it.
Left 4 Dead 2- Favorite multiplayer game
Witcher 3
Diablo 2
Ages of Empires 2
Burnout Revenge was the ultimate party game. Anyone could jump right in and cause chaos without needing to be an experienced gamer. The soundtrack was colossal too.
The Burnout games are underrated!
I just downloaded Burnout Paradise again and it holds up pretty well.
Zelda Link's Awakening ... this one somehow has both the most Nostalgia and replayability for me even though I have also played the N64 Zeldas when growing up
Factorio - of course can't go without Cracktorio
Caves of Qud - really good mix of roguelike and open world RPG. Lot's of replayability as well.
Diablo 2 Resurrected - one of my favrotie games of all time. Got back into it recently on Switch and it's just soo good. Also big Nostalgia for me
Mario Kart Double Dash - need to have something I can play with my wife and Mario Kart is just the Couch Multiplayer game. Double Dash is my favorite entry of the series as well
I'd say I hit a solid ish genre mix as well with it. Pity I couldn't fit an FPS though
If I could choose, then I'd choose for humanity, games that most reasonable people would go "yeah, fair enough".
(Note, if it were just for me, I wouldn't pick any of these lol)
Yeah, fair enough
Tears of the Kingdom and Minecraft would be important to save for their infinite playability due to their physics and craft engines. Final Fantasy 6 for story. Stellaris so people could have a competitive, chess-like monster to wrap their mind around. And Bonk for TurboGrafx16 so everyone could know that game design just doesn't happen overnight.
Skewed towards my taste in gaming, but still trying to think about humanity:
OpenMW
MineCraft
GZDoom
DevilutionX
Wargus
Since all of humanity will only get the 5 games
To encourage local play with your friends we will keep the n64 versions of Mario kart, super smash brothers, and Mario party 2. These are universally enjoyable to all ages and the top 3 local experiences imo.
For people inevitably desiring a strategy game I will choose StarCraft 1. And the RPG shall be Baldurs gate 3 because it allows full custom campaign mods and people can thus create any rpg in it.
Mario kart 64
Super Smash Brothers (64)
Mario Party 2
StarCraft 1
Baldurs Gate 3
Elder scrolls Skyrim all expansions dlc
Age of empires 2 with expansions
Halo master chief collection
If it counts World of Warcraft classic as a private server
Baldurs Gate 3
Baldur's gate 3, tiny Tina's wonderlands, ff7, annnnd I'm not sure. The fourth and fifth slots are harder.
I would say pacman, but even if you gave me the arcade game for free, I don't think I could play it worth a damn now. Same with centipede (they were my favorites back in the day, but pacman I was good at).
The original Mario Kart could be in there. And I can't pretend that need for speed carbon couldn't compete for a spot either. I think I'd take Kart over Carbon though.
Yeah, fuck it, pacman and Mario kart. Those are the last two spots.
No! Wait!
Neverwinter, the mmorpg. Fuck mariokart, I'd take that one, assuming I could either have ai teammates that didn't suck, or could just keep a server for it running without cost/effort. Loved that game. Technically still love it, but when I stopped playing for a while, I got power crept and didn't want to play ptw style like it turned into. But my haste cleric? Fuck yeah!
if mmo's that stay online count I might choose 5 mmo's just for the human interaction part.
really drawing a blank on the other ~3 games. Probably some mix of old Lucas Arts adventure games (indy atlantis, day of the tentacle, the dig...), imsims (dishonored, deux ex).
Came here to make sure someone said OpenTTD! I got the original when I was about 12 in 1994 and I’ve been playing it on and off since then.
The
factorytransport network must grow!if anthologies are allowed:
Activision Anthology: Remix Edition
Atari Anthology
Sega Genesis Classics
Namco Museum Archives
Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition
I'm a novice gamer, so someone who's got more experience with retro gaming history could probably come up with a list that includes the greatest possible number of titles for preservation
could we have a link to the video you mentioned?
I'll pick 5 genre (4x/building sim/strategy, RPG, Sandbox, Sport, and maybe racing) then choose the best open source game in each genre.
A very good closed source, mod-able game will be limited on what technology exist when it was made. While an open sourced game would have a lot of possibilities. It will count as an update, not a new game.
Forsaken 64 (multiplayer does things with "4th Dimensional" space I've never seen elsewhere, else this slot would belong to Descent)
No Man's Sky (open to others for this slot, but not aware of any that check the same boxes for me)
Minecraft (Factorio mods)
Armored Core (any besides 3)
Starcraft or Dawn of War or Total War ... so long as the best of the RTS genre is represented
Wait ... no new games ever? Wtf, just kill me. ... or rather, why bother rebuilding civilization only to stagnate like so?
My list is tailored towards inspiring a re-launch of the industry. I would rather disappear into Amish society than play the same five video-games forever more.
For me I'd say...
Borderlands 2 Left4Dead 2 Destiny 2 Zombies Ate my Neighbours (SNES) Pokémon (ZA has me at the moment but I'd say keep Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire)
CO-OP shooters with single player elements are what I'd play more than anything else to avoid it being the same thing over and over, Destiny has hit hard times recently but still has a lot to give.
ZAMN is just cool.
I can lose hours shiny hunting and mucking about in the Pokémon games so easily has to be one around.
I didn't expect to see ZAMN here lol, it's a great game though
Based on my currently highest time spend in the game, in no particular order: Terraria, Dark Souls 3, Factorio + expansion, Stardew Valley.
The last one kinda depend on some caveat: Fallout 4(assuming mods also survived), Project Zomboid(if the dev will still working on it), or dying light(assuming some mods also survived). Else Prey 2017.
Edit: honestly i would put Monster Hunter 4U up there, but not sure if i can still take the early game grind, World kinda ruined a bit of 4U but it still a significantly better game.
Well, I think games that have the greatest possibility between them make the best choices. So...
Stellaris. - I want a 4x and grand strategy and this one is a bit of both. Also considering how much it's changed since 1.0, the various versions of it provide a lot of variety in themselves. Also it's got great mod support. Its core systems have also been rebuilt a couple times, so I know it has a good deal of potential and isn't locked too hard into certain mechanics.
Conan Exiles. - This is a really weird choice cause the game isn't amazing in and of itself, or even all that good, and it's pretty buggy, but it's one of the most customizable, mod supported multiplayer games I know of. Maybe there's a better choice and if I had time to research it I'd pick that one. I know there's a multiplayer mod for Skyrim, for example, but I'm not technical enough to know if that has better possibilities than Conan. Hell, maybe Minecraft has potential here? I have never liked it much. It would be absolutely necessary to me that it can be updated to decent (not blocky) graphics though.
Elite: Dangerous. - This is another choice I'd like to research a better option for. The thing is I want a flight/space game, but I don't know enough about the genre, and this is the only one that immediately comes to mind. Its kind of my one mostly unselfish pick cause I haven't played this type of game in a long time.
Baldur's Gate 3. - It's not actually my favorite rpg or even my favorite Baldur's Gate, but Larian designed it with good mod support and tools. Also it can support multiplayer very easily. Like the others on this list, it's here for future adaptability; if we're never getting new games, mods of these 5 have to be as much like new games as possible.
An MMO. - This is the toughest one to answer myself cause I don't know enough about the back end of them. The trick is choosing the one with the most broadly applicable technical side. I want as much possibility in future development as I can get, and I'd really like one that isn't inextricably linked to the target based gameplay we currently know from most of them. If required to pick without research, I would reluctantly choose Guild Wars 2, cause it at least isn't tied to tab targeting, but I have no idea if it's good with my other criteria.
Now, you'll notice I didn't pick any games without multiplayer, and that's cause if these are going to be the only 5 games left until the end of time they should all support multiplayer. No single player only need apply.
Hah, I picked Elite Dangerous too. You made the right choice — as someone who started off in the genre with Elite Dangerous and has been searching for something to match it for literally a decade I feel qualified to say there is no better option.
Do we get to save mods, too?
That's a huge factor. It'd put Rimworld and Minecraft squarely on the list for me, and I'd have to think about the others. There are some ridiculous mod communities out there though.
Not sure about 5,
but grim fandango should be one of them.
Homeworld
Binding of Isaac
Ballistic.NG
Elite Dangerous
Silksong
I feel like this list encapsulates the best of their respective genres.
Homeworld’s mechanics are excellent, as is the art direction, sound design, and story.
There are roguelikes I enjoy playing more than Isaac, but I think it’s breadth, theme, and messaging make it the best pick.
Ballistic.NG is the only racing game that always gives you room to grow without becoming played out, to me.
Elite literally has the whole galaxy to explore, and like Ballistic.NG it has a very rewarding skill curve.
Silksong is a work of art; a Metroidvania so sprawling in its ambition, flawless in its execution, and so punishing in its difficulty that a game-starved society would surely come to view it as a scripture of sorts.
I loove ballistic.ng, I think there's also a Lemmy comm
I agree with Elite but I also want to point out it gets real boring in the end unless you enjoy “sitting and waiting simulator.”
I admittedly for 400+ hours out of it, but that was with VR and family playing alongside. I don’t know that I could ever get back into it these days unless something major changed.
I’ve been playing it for 10 years off and on with no VR. It is very slow paced but I take that as a pro and not a con. In my opinion it makes sense that flying between bodies takes time.
Hey I’m not disagreeing, I just really wish they’d add something fast paced to do between the slow, that would draw me back in. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Minecraft, Terraria, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Super Mario Odyssey, Portal 2
Nah just destroy them all, maybe I can get my friends to learn Bridge with me. If not, Canasta will suffice.
Chrono Trigger
GTA V
Dragon Quest XI
Tetris (NES)
Capcom Vs SNK 2 Mark of the Millenium 2001
Can't say Mass Effect cause I would need the trilogy :(
All games for replayability!
Stardew I can play with friends.
Sims 4 and Sim City 4 are about building a life/world, so it's hard to get bored.
Skyrim is Skyrim- as much as i've played it I havent finished all storylines.
The Arcana has so many dating options with 2 different routes for each. The art is amazing.
Logically, these must be hell of a repayable ones.
::: spoiler Not necessarily my favorites, but a really nice list imo Minecraft The Binding of Isaac Afterbirth+ Skyrim Diablo 2 HD Warcraft 3 TFT +tons of custom maps :::
::: spoiler My personal must-haves Psychonauts (though choice between 1 and 2, but I feel that 1 is more cult classic) NFS Most Wanted 2005 Minecraft (with a juicy mod like TPPI or the 1.12.1 pack) GTA SA (even tho VC is my fav, SA has more stuff to do) WoW WotLK Azerothcore Single player. :::
Bad Rats five times.
Id pick 5 games that have infinite replayability like dwarf fortress or other roguelikes
Dwarf Fortress is my desert island game.
Its made with superior dwarf craftsmanship afterall
Mass Effect 2 because it's one of my favourite games. The only issue is I don't know how enjoyable it'll be without the first and third game.
Red Dead Redemption 2 because it's one of the finest pieces of media, period.
What Remains of Edith Finch because it's a shining example of how creative and immersive "walking sims" can be.
Bioshock because the first time you experience the moment is indelibly inked into my brain.
::: spoiler Spoiler for Bioshock "Would You Kindly" :::
Civilization 4 because it's timeless and the moment you boot it up to hear Baba Yetu, it feels magical and special.
Great picks. ME2, RDR2 and BioShock were all games I contemplated for my list. I omitted ME2 for the reason you mentioned, and BioShock didn’t make it because while it’s absolutely a fantastic game, I don’t find it to have the same replayability as Dishonored, which I chose for my last pick. RDR2 would’ve been my sixth pick.
Do I get the mods, too (because, realistically, who plays games only unmodded? Children? Console gamers?)?
So, if yes, half life and half life 2.
If not....
Minecraft - this feels like a no brainer. Also needs to have some mod packs. I would choose some fat as fuck packs. But if I only was allowed to choose one, I would choose one of the biggest mod packs that has the most mods in it.
Counter-Strike: Source - has to have all custom maps currently available. There's nearly an infinite amount of content there. But even without custom content, I still think a core pvp FPS is necessary to this list.
Some kind of an mmo. One that has instances of large quantity of player content that can be saved. Social games are incredibly important, to at least me. I don't love WoW. I don't really play MMOs, either, except for one, and it's largely because my partner loves it. So, maybe Guild Wars 2.
A co-op dungeon crawler that can be used for role playing. So, maybe like.... Neverwinter Nights? Or maybe Phantasy Star online...2? Diablo.....?nahhh... PoE maybe.
Some kind of very simmy racing game with simulation physics. Beam.Ng?
The "no new games will ever be made" is a hard one, because I instinctually want to save games that could be used as inspirational "seed" games for people to use as ideas to make new games.
My instinct is to treat this as a "all games are dying. What games would you take to restart?" But in reality, this is "what are your favorite games?" There's a lot of nuance between those two questions, and the lists would be extremely different. So, my list is kind of trying to merge those two concepts.
A lot of people...
Definitely. There are lots of children and console gamers. Also, lots of games also either don't need, don't have, or wouldn't benefit from mods.
I'd probably go for historic impact if there's no more games I'd want a good selection of what people considered major titles of video game history. Maybe one classic, one old console, one arcade fighter, one modern PC, and one online shooter.
Pong
The legend of Zelda
Tekken 3
World of Warcraft classic
Team fortress 2
factorio, noita, some random tower defense game, city of heroes, and Minecraft..
how could I forget noita
Noita is great but damn that game makes me hate myself.
why!? I'm not sure that game makes me hate myself as much as it makes me hate the game - most of the time it's just bad luck when I die ... once I git gud it's like slowly accumulating power until I'm god, and then it's just so delightful and satisfying - that game is just so psychologically brilliant that way
A lot of my deaths come from accidentally exploding, electrifying, cremating, or goring myself. I love the game for it. A telltale sign of a well-designed game is when failure causes the player to blame themselves and not the game.
I feel this. I'm 300 deaths in. 140 hours. 0 wins.
99% of my deaths now are unavoidable stuff like a worm shooting out of the side of the screen right into me. But I still have never built a really good wand. Some chainsaw sparks, and a few bouncy machine guns. The youtube vids where a streamer builds an amazing wand by the third level just seems faked at this point.
Will I keep trying? Yup. Because I enjoy it? I don't know... I keep opening the damn thing.
Half-Life 2
Halo CE (MCC version I guess)
F.E.A.R. + Extraction Point DLC (Perseus Mandate and F.E.A.R 2/3 were dogshit)
Metro 2033 (Redux I guess since that's the only way I can get good HDR)
SOMA
I think collections are cheating and that this list doesn't cheat hard enough
Nintendo has to have released a classic Mario collection right?
What do you mean collections? Are you talking about the MCC? I was saying that I would save JUST Halo CE but that likely it would have to be the MCC version, but my answer is simply "Halo CE" regardless of if its part of a bundle. Just Halo CE. Ignore the MCC part.
Skyrim
Fallout 4
Ratchet & Clank
Morrowind
The Witcher 3
My man
(currently re-playing Up Your Arsenal on PS2)
Damn… I gotta try and be diverse… as much as my narrow taste allows anyway:
God hand, what a wonderful choice! Nothing really comes close to the ass-slapping action of that title. And the clunky controls actually make it feel more fun and unique.
3Reforger (war and life sim sandbox)Skyrim (heavily mod-able medieval RPG)Kingdom Come Deliverance 2Luanti (voxel foss sandbox with potential)No Man’s Sky 2025Edit: The focus here was on replayability and modding. Garry's Mod, Arma 3 and GTA cover car racing, shooting, partying and roleplaying. KCD is for history and single-player. I can't wait to play it! No sports games made it into my list. Maybe people can rebuild Wii Sports or something in Garry's Mod, I don't know. Last minuted, I switched to No Man's Sky 2025 over Luanti. Go explore the vast universe y'all! It's a completely different experience compared to my other picks. I've heard it's good now, so I'll go for it blindly.
Pong, Tetris, Pac-Man, Minecraft, and petcii robots.
Nice try 8-bit guy! We're on to you ;)
Haha sorry I'm not David! Been following his work for a while, great channel.
I could only come up with three for now because it's no small task!
Squarez Deluxe
TormentorXPunisher
Quake IIx
I didn't choose anything with crafting or making, because I can still craft and make things in real life. I chose games that provide something that I could never get anywhere else, and also games that for me are infinitely replayable. I would never pick a story driven anything because if that's the only game I can play for the rest of my days, I don't want to hear/play the same story 70 times, and RPG combat systems are easy to figure out and game after a while
Squarez Deluxe to me is the greatest shape packing game ever made, it makes Tetris look like Tinker Toys idc fite me. It's probably three decades old by now and it's DOS freeware and I still play it. Extreme mode only, my peeps
TormentorXPunisher is the best twin stick shooter I have ever played, and I have played hundreds of them. It has an infinite skill ceiling. I play every day and have done so for about 7 years. I was number two WR on hard mode until my protegé took me down, but I recently ascended on regular mode by 14 ranks. I'm so invested in this game I actually developed a friendly acquaintanceship with the sound engineer Joonas Turner
Quake 2 is just a granddaddy of all amazing FPS with again, an infinite skill ceiling esp in movement. I actually enjoy the movement of Q1 better, but the mod support of Q2 and upgraded engine makes it a game that goes on forever. Team CTF, rocket arena, etc
X-Com, Smash Brothers, Halo, Civilization, StarCraft
Well let's see...there's Pong, of course, then Asteroids, Pac Man, Poker and Tic Tac Toe. Yeah, that ought to do.
Man.... tough choices.
I'm saving Dark Souls 1. It's a beautiful game, great replay value I've barely begun to tap into, and really cool multiplayer features. Also a game I'd love to introduce more people to.
I'm also saving Hollow Knight. Trying to beat Pantheon of Hallownest, or Steel Soul mode, may just keep me busy until I die single-handedly.
I'm also saving Silksong. Screw it, same reasons as Hollow Knight, selfishly I want em both. I would go just Silksong, but it lacks the updates and endgame content that Hollow Knight has been fleshed out with.
Mario Odyssey? I got really into speedrunning this for a while, and it was a blast. I could get back into that, and push it a lot further with all the free time I'd have now that I'm not playing much else.
There really should be a multiplayer game on this list.... I'm tempted by UFO 50, but that feels like cheating, so... Mario Kart World? The online is kinda trash, because they push the intermission courses too hard, but local multiplayer isn't so affected, and mechanically the rail and wall grinding is deep mechanically, and I could sink a lot more solo playtime time into mastering all the time trials, which I loved dabbling with.
Really, this whole list is defined by games I could speedrun and otherwise try to get thousands of hours of playtime and challenges out of them.
People should check out the 1 upsmanship podcast where a couple guys discuss which games are worthy of being uploaded to a "celestial hard drive" for preservation. It went patreon exclusive a couple years ago but there are still a lot of eps posted
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-1upsmanship-97574019/
Path of exile, dota2, cs2, minecraft and Mario cart
Gotta have repayable games if no new ones are made
If replayable is what we want, I'd save csgo instead of cs2
Which?
1 obviously :)
The Kingdom of Loathing it's funny, it's free by you get great stuff when you donate, the writing is great and it's balanced as hell.
Thief the Dark Project, because I like it even though it's old.
Bioshock, because it's the best "game as art" example out there
Gary's Mod for shitposting
And even though I'm not that into Minecraft, I'll pick that one because you can make video games on it with Redstone so pretty sure that's a loophole to make Doom or whatever
If an .GameImage can be considered one game, I would have chosen those. On Linux you can create a single one-click package containing multiple games. Made a couple of those you see 😁
Immortal gates of pyre: my favorite game of all time is starcraft II and this is a spiritual successor that i desperately want to have all the current funding for RTS to go to
Portal 2, it's a given
Rushdown revolt, similar situation to immortal, smash but better designed but not nearly enough resources
Mass effect legendary edition, nothing needs to be said
deltarune
I chose mostly based on future potential and design decisions because if these became the only 5 everyone would flock to them and they'd suddenly have all the resources they need to succeed
Disco Elysium, Persona 5 Royal, Portal 2, Minecraft, and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time :)
For the good of humanity but also to try give the widest variety:
Super mario world - platformer
Final fantasy (which one i am not sure, not my expertise) - storyline rpg
Starcraft 2 - RTS
Need for speed - racing
Minecraft - creative
For me? The legend of zelda ALTTP
Donkey kong country 2
Pokemon Leaf Green
Super mariokart 64
Borderlands 2 (inc DLC)
1. Bioshock - It's essentially perfect, the only downside is I can never play it for the first time again.
2. Inscryption - It's an odd choice, since it's pretty meta, but it's a game that I think about too much to live without.
3. Doom - Purely for historical relevance, which cannot be overstated in this case
4. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - I spent an embarrassingly long amount of time going back and forth between this and LTTP, but Ocarina also represents maybe the best year in game development history so it gets the edge.
5. Slay the Spire - Basically the same argument as Doom - this game is a fork point in all development trends for at least 5, maybe 10 years after its release.
Wasn't Slay the spire released in 2019? Great choice though, there is also a multiplayer mod which works suprisingly well
Inscryption is really a good showcase of what makes games fun, and packed with so many things to discover and hidden things.
Yeah, I wasn't really clear in my language. I was saying that STS has steered the last 5 years, and might continue to steer it for another 5. I wouldn't say we done with STS still influencing pretty much every other indie title released right now.
Yeah, I've seen so many games drawing inspiration (or even very closely copying) slay the spire. Just shows how good it really is.
This might be cheating but I'm assuming mods/DLCs to a game count as part of the game.
Really struggling to think of anything else so I'm just gonna go with another fun, replayable, moddable game: Balatro.Edit: After reading other responses and me forgetting some games I think Skyrim would be a better choice here.Dota 2.
Mandatory for every gamer.
That can only end up great.
Okay there Satan, want to start world war 3 do we?
MOBAs have an ability to draw out my rage like nothing else 😄
I swear I would punch one of my best friends if he was in the same room with me when we played together.
All he had to do was the bare minimum, and he still fucked up while acting like he doesn't care. Made me furious.
If mods are allowed, the first 2 are truly endless games. ME2 is super replayable. MGS2 gives me a shooter with a fun story. Tactics Ogre is seriously the best tactics game ever made. It puts FFT to bed pretty easily.
It would take me long to decide which 2 of those not to preserve (probably the non-replayables):
Dead Cells
Hollow Knight
Hades
Dredge
SOMA
Witness
Outer Wilds
Dark Souls series, then will pretend all the games were that hard and every gamer was total badass.
FF7 (original) FF8 Fallout NV Crusader Kings 2 (with dlc and mods) Rimworld (with mods)
Minecraft
Terraria
The game i am working on that will definitely release
Maybe celeste?
Maybe vivid/stasis? I play like 6 games in total