Favorite Video Games

MINECRAFT

It's taken me years to get here, but Minecraft is the king. It's the only game I've played (somewhat) continuously since around 2016. Lots of people will say that some game is "like Minecraft but...". They're wrong; none of these games have the initial simplicity, the evolving depth, and the absolute freedom that Minecraft provides.

Minecraft is easy to jump into. From the beginning, the controls are simple, the menus are simple, the mechanics are simple, and the principle is simple: break blocks, craft stuff. It might feel a bit aimless, but the atmospheric music, the sunsets, the beauty of randomly generated biomes; these keep you around in the beginning.

Once you learn to survive, you might dream of a project. I think this is where most people drop out; survival isn't too hard in Minecraft, and the game doesn't really push you toward progression. But if you can find a project you want to work on, you'll discover more to the game. Mine was to build a giant map. This is when things got hairy for me; I ragequit at some point after dying to an unknown monster and losing all my stuff. But after quitting, I found myself thinking about Minecraft and the world I left behind, and went back.

You learn to not die, you learn the ways that one can die, and you get better at the game. Then you start to discover its depths; I didn't brew a potion for years. I didn't go to the End dimension and beat the dragon until maybe 2019. And the developers keep releasing new updates, with new features, for free.

There are just so many aspects to this game, and so many playstyles that you discover as you go on. Ultimately, it's about building things, but to do so you might learn a bit about automation. You might learn how to exploit a game mechanic. And if you like, there are servers with competitive minigames. You might try speedrunning, where the randomness keeps things fresh.

BEST GAMES EVER

Nine Sols (2d metroidvania)
A sci-fi metroidvania inspired by Chinese mythology, made by Taiwanese studio Red Candle. The main combat mechanic is a timing-based parrying. The game can be punishing; it's best to try to learn the parry mechanic vs. relying on dodging. The art is really detailed, and the story and world-building is great.

Terraria (2d action-adventure sandbox)
A retro-style two-dimensional side-scrolling sandbox game which at the same time does have a certain progression. Start out in a randomly generated world, build a house, mine for ore, fight monsters, fight bosses, upgrade your house, combine your items (one of the most satisfying aspects for me – certain useful accessories can be combined into one to save on your inventory slots). I’m too embarrassed to say how much hours I played this game.

Braid (puzzle platformer)
The puzzles aren't super hard, but the mechanic where you manipulate time is cool. I also really liked the art, music, and the ending which was truly a clever surprise.

Cave Story (adventure platformer)
A retro-style two-dimensional side-scrolling adventure/RPG game. The best of its kind, and apparently made by a Japanese office worker in his free time. The gameplay mechanics are just really well done, and I really liked the story and the world it is set in.

Baba is You (puzzle)
Puzzle game with a very simple concept. The hardest puzzle game I've played. You often spend a lot of time messing around to see how the blocks work together, or just staring at the screen trying to see the solution. The (often frustrating) execution aspect is de-emphasized thanks to an undo button.

Celeste (platformer)
Platformer with a a wide range of difficulties. You die a lot, but each time you get better at a mechanic or some timing, or start to figure out the puzzle, which keeps you going. Getting through the game is challenging but reasonable, but the difficulty ceiling is incredibly high with the strawberries, then B-sides, then C-sides, then golden strawberries (i.e. no-death runs), so as long as you want to keep getting better you can keep playing. The controls are bit more complex than the usual platformer and take a little getting used to, but very smooth and the movement feels natural. The atmosphere, art and music by Lena Raine are great.

Chrono Trigger (2d rpg)
Classic game, doesn’t require comment.

Civilization V/VI (turn-based strategy)
Generally, the Civ games all have some flaws, and they can get boring or tedious. However, the concept is still great, and this is the kind of game you'll keep coming back to.

V: I have sunk so many hours into this game. It’s not without its flaws: the AI are terrible at battle, and I while I like the improvement over IV’s stacks of doom, think the game needs some form of limited stacking.
VI: I tend to think of this as somewhere in between IV and V; there is now limited stacking and city defenses have been nerfed from V, but it's still not spammy like IV was; also city flipping is back (via loyalty). Diplomacy (with expansions) now actually works (i.e. AI doesn't just randomly hate you) but diplomatic victory is still awful and boring. Religion is still annoying -- have to spam religious units and micro too much. City districts are a great idea and addition. Biggest complaint is culture and science penalties for each addition city have been removed, so there's no reason to play tall anymore.

Factorio (logistics and management game)
You are on a planet and you need to build a spaceship. That goal is far away – for now, figure out how to automate resource mining, then automate construction of parts, then production of power, then automate research, automate defenses against aliens. The main game mechanic is to use various parts (assembly buildings, belts, trains) to design your machine. It's a super addicting game, and you'll basically want to spend all your time finishing it. Toward end game you lose some incentive to design efficiently: it becomes less work to just manually cart some things around. There's limited replay value too, though it's fun to revisit after a long break.

Stardew Valley (farming rpg)
A relaxing farming game. Your character escapes the city to farm on his grandfather’s estate. You grow and sell crops, go fishing, get married (same-sex marriages allowed – such a progressive village :P), fight monsters and mine ore, and upgrade your house. The primary gameplay mechanic is planning out our day, week or season (depending on how far out you like to plan – not too far if you are me). Eventually you'll get bored (or just run out of things to do) but it will take awhile.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath fo the Wild (adventure rpg)
Open exploration RPG where you can basically climb anything; has an actual physics engine. The scenery is beautiful; sometimes I stop to watch the sun set. Very open-ended; you explore the map at your own pace and in the order you choose. Quests guide you toward things but are never mandatory.

RimWorld
This is a space colony sim. I've spent a decent amount of time on this one, with many replays. You have to defend your base from increasingly harder enemies, grow food, et cetera. The story element of it is nice too; your colonists all have some story and get into fights and stuff. There's a bit of a learning curve but it's a big game with lots of features. With the updates, there are enough "directions" you can take your colony in to keep the game fresh through replays.

fun games

Noita (pixel-physics routelike)
This description might not help, but I think of this game as Liero crossed with Terraria, as a roguelike. There's a pixel physics engine, so fluids, smoke, steam, objects, and fire are all simulated. It's tons of fun.

Hyper Light Drifter (action rpg)
The art is beautiful in this, and the atmosphere. It's a fun game too, well-designed, difficult but not overly so. It's an overhead view adventure/RPG game.

Slay the Spire
This is a pretty fun deck building game where you try to advance through the (randomly generated) "spire" beating enemies and bosses. It's a nice game to have around for taking 1 hour breaks since you can always up the difficulty.

Detention
This is a pretty creepy horror game based on the White Terror period of Taiwanese history. The art is really great and it relies more on general creepiness than jump scares. The puzzles aren't particularly hard and you'll beat it in a few hours.

The Witness
Fun puzzle game. Ultimately not as memorable as Braid, but the puzzles are great. The story is pretentious and can be safely ignored.

Super Meat Boy
Fast paced two-dimensional retro action game. Think Super Mario where you die all the time (really, all the time, I think my deaths number in the thousands) and each level is short. It’s also nonlinear so if you get stuck, you can move on.

Town of Salem
Mafia with more roles and online. Being online allows for certain mechanics that are difficult to implement in person; for example there is a “medium” who can talk to people who have already been killed (meaning the game is not completely boring once you die). The only drawback is that you are often playing with random people on the internet who may or may not be twelve years old. If you can get enough friends together to play this, I think it would be more fun.

Undertale
This game actually made me laugh. It’s a great spin on RPG games, where you level up by killing but killing is always optional, though it’s generally harder to figure out what to do to get your “enemies” to leave you alone. Whether you kill or not, and to what degree, will change the storyline of the game. Also, Flowey rules.

Hotline Miami
Ultraviolent overhead shooter. Don’t use auto-aim, it’s much more fun that way. Does feel repetitive; the sequel doesn’t offer much new.

You Must Build A Boat
A weird “line up 3 similar blocks in a row” game where doing so makes you execute attacks. You level up your attacks too, so there’s some progression. Weird idea, but it’s addicting and fun, if a bit limited in breadth.

Limbo
A puzzle game with a haunting atmosphere. Not especially challenging.

World of Goo
A puzzle game where you connect balls of goo to make bridges.

Counter-Strike 1.5/1.6
I played this a lot when I was younger. It’s really fun to play with friends, but I don’t enjoy playing with random people on the internet as much anymore (probably because I’m not good enough).

VVVVVV
A very short adventure side scroller game with an interesting mechanic: instead of jumping you can reverse gravity.

Worms: Armageddon
Great for multiplayer. Classic game.

Faster Than Light
Was fun for awhile, but eventually felt repetitive.

FEZ
A puzzle game with a lot of riddles.

Octodad: Dadliest Catch
You use your mouse to control a dad in a suburban family, who is an octopus. Your goal is to avoid knocking too many things over due to the awkward controls, lest you be discovered as an octopus. It’s a funny premise, and it’s a funny game. The controls are frustrating, which I guess is the whole point.

Prince of Persia
Downloaded a DOS emulator to play this old game. It’s still fun.

Anodyne
It’s like Zelda, but made by someone possibly on mushrooms. I like it.