After my last post, on my lowest-reated games, it was easy to predict that I’d write this follow-up post on my favorite games.
My life-time favorite video games are Ultima III: Exodus and The Prisoner, both on the Apple II. But those games were definitely of their time (the early 80s); even though there are remakes and emulators out there, they can’t be played in the same way and with the same impact they had then.
Also high on my all-time list are Portal and Portal 2. But I never wrote a formal semi-review of them, and they require a lot of fiddling to be played on many current systems.
So I’m going to limit my list to those games that are available for a PS5 console. The primary reason is my semi-reviews only go back to 2010. I reviewed some of these games when I played them on a Playstation 3, but any game I mention is available for the PS4 or PS5.
Here’s the list, in ascending order of my fondness for them. Again, the underlined text are links to one of my blog posts.
Number 5:
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
My number 5 pick was the hardest. As I composed my list, the first four (listed below) were easy. As I thought about the rest, I found that while I liked a lot of them, there really weren’t any that stood head-and-shoulders above the others.
Finally I picked Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (the game on this list with my shortest review) because:
- The game’s publisher, Insomniac Games, actually learned something from the criticisms of the starting difficulty of Marvel’s Spider-Man on its easiest setting.
- I was able, even with my limited gaming skills, to complete all the side missions to achieve 100% of easiest difficulty level.
This was a very close call. See my list of Honorable Mentions below for games I’d place a smidge lower.
Number 4:
Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla
While my picks for number 3 and 4 were clear to me, I debated which one I’d put at each ranking. Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla‘s system was less troublesome than its competitor for number 3. I almost went with the number of hours of gameplay; ACV gave me over 400 hours of gameplay, while number 3 is up to 1700+ hours so far.
Also, ACV has a feature that I wished other video games had: although there are platforming and timed challenges, none of them are required to complete the main story or any of the side missions; they were optional tasks for trivial costume improvements.
Finally, I decided to rank ACV lower because while its story was good, it was less engaging and offered much less variation than my number 3 pick.
Number 3:
Baldur’s Gate 3
Please try to recover from the shock of this announcement.
In the unlikely event that this is first of my blog posts that you’ve ever seen, and you’re trying to parse the sarcasm in the above sentence, click on the BG3 tag on the right (if you’re reading this on a large screen) or at the bottom (if you’re reading this on a small screen).
In fact, what might stun you is that I’m rating BG3 only at number 3.
As much as I show my love for BG3 in this blog, and with all the time I’ve spent on it, it’s not the game in which I’ve spent the most time. I played World of Warcraft for 15 years. My word count for BG3 articles is far less than what I’ve written about my WoW adventures. However, those words appeared on message boards that no longer exist.
(If you see “Archived Review” in the title of a blog post, it means I managed to save it before the Deadly Cupcakes WoW message board on which it appeared was deleted.)
WoW is not on this list because, although I enjoyed it and don’t regret the time I spent with it, its distinguishing feature in my life is that I spent a lot of time playing it. That doesn’t make it one of my top favorite games.
Also, you can’t play WoW on a console, at least as far as I know.
Number 2:
Ghost of Tsushima
I’m going to let my semi-review of this game say the rest. It’s a beautiful, well-designed game.
Number 1:
Horizon: Zero Dawn
If you’ve read many of other semi-reviews, this will come as no surprise. I’ve often said how this is my favorite video game.
Again, I’ll let the semi-review give the details. I’ll only add: When I first heard “the game is about a leather-clad teenager armed with a bow and spear fighting mechanical dinosaurs”, I thought it was the stupidest idea ever. As I played the game and the story unfolded, I was stunned by how they made it work.
Honorable mentions
- God of War and God of War: Ragnarök – The only reason why these game aren’t in the number 5 slot is that there are sections that are unexpectedly difficult (because they’re end-game content).
- The Uncharted series: one, two, three, four. In terms of quality, high to low: two, four, three, one. Plus there’s a sequel that’s as fun as the rest of the series. These didn’t make number 5 because there are some platform challenges that I found difficult.
- Tomb Raider: The Definitive Edition, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider – Given my disdain for platformers, this may seem like an odd pick. But these games don’t have the same mind-numbing keypress timing of the platformers I dislike. In fact, Shadow of the Tomb Raider adjusts the platform-timing window according to difficulty level, a feature I wish more games had.
- The Last of Us and The Last of Us: Part II – These didn’t make number 5 because I’m an immature jerk-head who prefers stories with a happy ending.
- Detroit: Become Human – A great multi-branching storyline. However, I found the anti-android sentiment in the story too harsh against the backdrop of events in the real world.
- Hades – I never though I could like a rogue-lite this much.
Mid-level mention
Skyrim – It’s a big game and there’s lots to do. I’ll never forget Fus Ro Dah (no more than I’ll forget Appar Unem from Ultima III). But the game’s graphics have not aged well, and while the story has multiple branches, they all seem to smoosh together in repeated playthroughs.