If you could only play 10 games for the rest of your life, which would you choose?
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.
117 replies
Stuff I had to leave out:
For me, I’d probably have to go with:
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.
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 Necrodancer
Not a perfect list, but I probably would have enough stuff to play until I die :P
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.
I love Shadowrun, but I've never played the Sega RPG. I hear a lot of people saying good stuff about it. I'll have to track it down.
No simracers here, I see.
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.
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.
since any dlc is allowed, maybe by picking Minecraft you get all the other versions with it?
Approved.
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:-)
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!:-)
Final Fantasy XWorld of Warcraft all expansions with plenty of players to guild, sorry FFX but I'll drop like 100x more time in WoWI 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
Skyrim
Civilization 5
Tears of the Kingdom
Red Dead Redemption 2
Stardew Valley
Factorio
Balatro
Ocarina of Time
Pokemon Heartgold/Soulsilver
Super Mario Odyssey
EDIT: Dead Cells, the Hollow Knights, the Hades games, and a solid deck builder like Slay The Spire would complete my lifetime list.
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.
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.
Doom
World of Warcraft
Animal Crossing
No Man's Sky
Minecraft
Just Cause 3
Legend of Zelda Link's Awakening
Legend of Zelda Minish Cap
Super Mario Maker
KPatience
This is a great list. I think I could switch mine to yours and still be happy lol
Congrats yours is the closest to mine yet!
Honorable mentions go to
lol, I was considering Tetris (tetrio tho) and balatro (I think slay the spire 2 has more replayability)
Thats absolutely fair, I've got 250 hours in balatro but have only recently picked up slay the spire 1. I'm sure I've got a lot to learn
Shattered Pixel Dungeon
Borderlands
Final Fantasy V
Terraria
Doom II
Persona 2: Eternal Punisment
Final Fantasy IX
The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
Salt & Sanctuary
Mother 3
Ooooo shattered pixel dungeon is a great choice
But how do I test them???
My list:
Hire a QA team? I’m not sure, I don’t make the rules.
Oh wait, huh. Uhhh… I sort of don’t have any experience with game dev so I didn’t think of that. Maybe you can playtest but can’t play through the whole game? Or maybe you get a QA team for free to help out on passion projects, I’m not sure. I’ll let you decide on this one maybe, I’m assuming you know more than I do with this.
Little things like picking sounds and determining timings for various actions requires a lot of trial-and-error so you have to test it as you do it. Doing all of that through a QA team would slow down development very hard. Not to mention that I'm a hobbyist game dev and I don't have money to hire anyone :D
I suppose I could always ask my friends to help me out with that... adding scheduling as another problem during development :D
Yeah, that makes sense. Okay, maybe you can playtest while you’re still developing the game, but once the game is ready to be played in full, you can’t continue to play it unless it’s for making updates or whatever. Basically you can only play it for the purposes of development, not for the sake of playing a game.
Or maybe you can’t playtest at all and you do everything blind and the end result is a chaotic mess, that could be fun too. But probably the first one.
Development hell never was so fun!
What does this and 'no making your own mods' even do for the hypothetical? I'm pretty sure most people aren't going to solo-dev (m)any additional top-10-worthy games that they'd also consistently enjoy. Maybe for some (simple) classics, but at that point I say so what?
Even accomplished solo-devs lose motivation (also constant reminder of room for improvement is sort of its own curse), if anything I'd say paying for mods to be created probably a less of a patient-gamers thing (and probably more exploitable).
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.
Since online games are a thing, honestly 10 games is a huge list for me personally:
Oof tough because Sts1 I think is the better game, but both games are great
STS1 is better right now, STS2 will be better once they finish early access.
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.
I totally forgot about ROM hacks when I chose Pokémon SoulSilver, otherwise I probably would’ve picked either Emerald or Crystal.
Minecraft
Factorio
FFXIV
Star Citizen
Stardew Valley
Slay the Spire 2
Clone Hero
Project Zomboid
Xcom 2
Skyrim
Honorable Mention: Dolphin Emulator (if the games count as dlc instead of individual games)
Do you think the rest of your life is enough time to finish Star Citizen or do you like it as it is now?
Haha hard to say, I'd hope they finish it before I'm dead but there's no guarantee there. I think they've made a lot of good progress lately though, I'm hoping that trend continues.
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.
Especially with all the modules, and the online role playing servers, this one has kept me entertained for over twenty years.
I'm going to finish this one... some day.
For nostalgia's sake
I just got started with this one, but it feels like a game I could not get tired off any time soon. It's still under development, so I hope I get the updates as well?
A fun game that I like to play with my son
A precursor to Neverwinter Nights from the early 90s. Has a huge library of modules to play.
I mainly like it as a virtual world to explore
It was either this or Fallout 2. But FNV has mods, so I guess this one will win.
Ok, I want this one too :)
I don't know enough about them yet, but I've always wanted to properly get into one. With only 10 games to play, I hope I will be able to stay focused enough to get invested in one.
Omg I do not see nwn in the wild often! Ive been playing on servers on and off since launch.
Nwn has such a huge amount of content to play. It’s always surprised me that none of the other rpgs have managed to fill the same niche.
Btw, love your username :)
CyberpunkOxygen is not Included!Edit: I cant believe i forgot oxygen is not included! Sorry cyberpunk.
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.
Honestly I'd be happy as a clam with just these. I'm not an adventurous gamer and I like what I like, but all of these have great re-playability.
OK, let's see if I get to 10.
Maybe some Paradox Grand Strategy instead of Flight Simulator...if I'd have to chose probably Stellaris or Europa Universalis
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:
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.
I think that's all I need lol
...don't care about the rest of the list
I couldn't find a solid 10 but...
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.
And I still have 2 games left to choose
-secret of mana -time crisis -super mario world -thps2 -morrowind -baldurs gate -gran turismo 3 or 4 -final fantasy 4 -bionic commando -duck tales
I would put Duck Tails 2, but still- why are they so dang replayable??
In no particular order:
Those are my main games and easy for me to pick.
The last 4 slots are tougher. They're likely to change the longer I think about it.
Jarvis, generate a list of games with the most replay value.
hmmm, I'll want some classic RPGs
better throw some MMOs in there
one more... I guess
Oooh sims 4 is a really good take.
will servers be guaranteed to stay on forever?
I sort of forgot online games exist when I made the post. I’d say the servers for whatever games you choose stay active forever, but there’s no guarantee a player base will always exist.
ok then. I have been contemplating and im afraid I will do to many rpgs but I like them so much. I should put in other things. So right off the bat I think I would do the cryptic mmos. champions, sto, and neverwinter. Im not even wild about neverwinter but the character customization is just to good. champions would be tough if the player base went away as the main thing is cosmics which has to have other players. Still there is plenty of content and actually im pretty confident the fen who play it would never leave if it never stopped being up. that leaves 7 more and I got to put in elden ring and cyberpunk. 5 left. gotta do baldurs gate 3 and no mans sky. woosh. 3 left. I would grab one of those suduko games with a large libraries of puzzles and clues by sam. that got me some non rpgs. one left. mmmmmm. Oh um domination the open source risk clone.
I love Clues by Sam. I wish I added that one now to mine, I didn’t even think of it.
Dark souls Bloodborne Elden Ring OSRS Death stranding series Caves of Qud Dwarf fortress Crusader Kings Anno 1800 Mechwarrior 5 mercenaries
I like your taste
Hell yeah thanks bro; holy shit I stacked those on top of one another and it just turned it into a jumbled, comma-less, mess. Lmao
Civ IV, just for the mod Fall from Heaven ][
Dwarf Fortress, natch
Minecraft
Tetris
Spelunky
MarioKart Double Dash
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
and I guess I'll save the other three for games that haven't been made yet. Actually, since I do make games, I'll pick three games I make myself.
That’s smart, saving slots for future games. I should’ve thought of that.
I love lists, so this is an easy one for me:
With your tastes (impeccable btw) you might enjoy HYPER DEMON. I think it's a little too fast and overstimulating for me but it's still on my to-do list. I've had it heavily recommended.
God Hands a great choice! I throw it on when I want something that I can engage with my whole focus on
Doom 2016 Carmageddon Battletech Deus Ex Titanfall 2 StarCraft C&C Yuri's revenge Neverwinter Nights Saint's Row 3 Mass Effect 2 or 3
I've never played it. We've agreed I'll never start. We're sure it will hook me like crack to a junkie. So all I need is this one, and I figure I'll die of thirst.
I cant think of any more.
A fellow of culture I see.
Well, since the only one you mentioned that is not on my list is zero-k, I should probably give it a try.
You're a bit more RTS focused than me, so it may not beat out my grand strategy, RPG, or SIM pics but it looks fun. (I can't leave KSP, Warhammer III, CK3/Stellaris, and Vintage Story w/mods, behind.)
Ball X Pitt, Power Wash Simulator, Vampire Survivors, RDR2. That is all.
Civ 3 is all I need really.
I'd probably want a few sandbox games too. Minecraft, Besiege, and GMod. We'll add Civ 5 just in case. And Halo 3 or Reach for online and Forge mode.
Stipulating what happens with MMO's in this timeline might be prudent. I'm assuming that live servers remain online and/or reputable vanilla like private servers are available.
Path of Exile 1
Final Fantasy XIV
Minecraft
Escape from Tarkov
Beatsaber
Elite Dangerous
Dark Souls 3
Skyrim
EVE
Mario Party (maybe 6?)
Grand theft Auto 5 (assuming FiveM remains)
My tenth spot stayed open and I didn't feel compelled to fill it with anything. I was writing out all the games which could have taken that slot and noticed that GTA V fills an important void in my original list, so for the sake of completeness I decided it deserves the last spot.
The list of games which could have had the spot I was writing.. Fellowship, World of Warcraft, Sea of Thieves, Civilization V, Breath of the Wild, Dark Souls 2 SOTFS, Hogwarts Legacy, Oblivion Remastered... If I think on it enough there could be more. And in fact, I'd probably rather have Hogwarts legacy in that 10th slot if it wasn't unfortunately abandoned so quickly after launch, it desperately needs and deserves a new game plus mode and further story expanding DLC.
My logic with my list is pretty simple, as there's only a handful of experiences in gaming that really compel me any more, so I just picked my favorite game for each of those categories. ARPG, sweaty ability based tab-target MMO, fantasy sandbox, sci-fi sandbox, rhythm, soulsborne, party game. EVE, Skyrim, and GTA5 don't fit into any of the categories I listed, but I don't really know how to classify them articulately.
Oof, going to have to trim my favorites (story, single-player) simply for the replay value ones.
Runner Up: Mass Effect trilogy LE. Fantastic games, and I need that space itch scratched too. Bumped for genre variety reasons.
As much as I like Timberborn, I do wonder about its replayability value. Near endgame, I kind of run out of stuff to do. Although its mod scene is definitely growing, so that should help.
For sure, I just haven't found another that i enjoy as much, and I really enjoy a good management game like that when the mood strikes. I've played some others, and this one hits my sweetspot for scale, environmental elements, and overall feel. Haven't seriously tried Oxygen Not Included, just watched some gameplay and been intrigued but not hooked. Same goes for The Wandering Village and Cult of the Lamb.
And yeah, endgame can get a bit aimless, but if I got bored I would probably just impose my own rules to keep things lively
I've also really enjoyed myself some Timberborn 🙂 glad to hear your thoughts!
I'd have to give up 13 copies of Vagrant Story.
Brain Training is in there to stop my mind from turning to mush...Crusader Kings 2
Imperator Rome
Fallout 4
Dwarf Fortress
Kenshi
Worker and Resources Soviet Republic
Disco Elysium
Fallout New Vegas
Unsure on the last two.
Open world, ending and moddable games with huge modding communities are the best bet
Minecraft Java Edition.
That’s it. Could probably mod in just about any other game I’d want to play.
For gamers looking for ways to "get a new game" while still staying under these restrictions, it seems you pick a game with a ton of mods and an easy-to-mod and/or well-documented codebase so that the modders you hire are more willing to say yes to you.
It's interesting because only a couple of these I would call my "favorites", but they're the games I can keep coming back to and enjoy. Yakuza 0 has so many games within itself that I could get so much enjoyment from just playing Outrun. Similar to Tabletop Sim where mods could keep me engaged for a long time.
In terms of games I actually play all the time, Monster Hunter & KH2 are up there. In theory I actually prefer Bloodborne, but Elden Ring offers so much more exploration and variety that it feels like the better choice for this kind of list.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who chose Hitman! It’s so under-appreciated on this site imo.
Hmm, I do make games as a hobby and developing games without playing them is pretty much impossible depending on what you count as "playing"... Anyway here's my list:
ULTRAKILL
Minecraft: Java Edition
Kerbal Space Program 1
Universe Sandbox²
DELTARUNE - i wanna play the new chapters when they release
Portal 2 - are Portal Reloaded or Portal Revolution different games from the original? They're different entries but I think they're just mods
Garry's Mod
Outer Wilds - I've never played it but I wanna play it some day so I'd put it on the list
Idk what else to pick, I'm assuming the list would only limit videogames and not stuff like UNO cards
Yeah someone else asked about playtesting too, I think the consensus was playtesting is fine but playing the game after development isn’t allowed.
As for board/card games, those are totally fine still. I love board games and wouldn’t be able to cut them out, I’d rather no video games and still be able to play board games than the other way around.
Development never ends. Playing your own game is always play-testing. You're welcome, cally.
Pocket Pool, Hide the Willy, Choke the Chicken, Pocket Pool 2: Spoogie's Return, Hide the Willy 2: Where He At Now? , Choke the Chicken: Colonel Rising, Pocket Pool Party: Everyone's Invited, Choke the Chicken: Remastered and Servant, Hide the Willy 3: Dark Caverns, and Ow My Balls!
Hummmmm. Hard one, this. I think this is my final 10, after some consideration. I break it down to three categories:
Forever games
Evergreen action games
Modding games with infinite content
EDIT: I might be persuaded to replace Fallout: New Vegas with Pokémon SoulSilver as there is some overlap between it and STALKER Anomaly/Skyrim and a Pokémon game might be worthwhile to have. Or I might replace it with a full simracing rig and iRacing. I don't own one at the moment as it's expensive as hell and I don't simrace but this sounds like a decent reason to start and probably worth the investment (I'd eat the upfront payment for the rig with the knowledge that I'd not buy any more games for the rest of my life).
1 - Skyrim 2 - Morrowind 3 - Fallout New Vegas 4 - Megaman X8 5 - Castlevania Curse of Darkness 6 - GTA San Andreas 7 - Streets of Rage 2 8 - Megaman X Collection 9 - Final Fantasy V 10 - Age of Empires II