The Citadel

What games or game series are your favourites? Starting from scratch, it would be good to get a general overview of the sort of video games you like. It'll be quite the list for most of us, I'm sure:

Civilization - used to play back in the day, got back into it with Civ VI
Crash Bandicoot - classic PS1 game from my childhood
Fallout - big fan of New Vegas and F4
Football Manager - nothing needs to be said if you're a football fan
Gran Turismo - the one that got me into cars
Grand Theft Auto - ever since GTA2 on PC
Metal Gear Solid - equally the most frustrating and brilliant series I played on PS1/PS2
Pokemon - gave up after Gen 7 but still play all the old ones I loved

Those are the main series that I like. I'm playing Hitman at the moment but I only got into it when some YouTubers I follow were playing the 2016 reboots.

Mass Effect is my favorite series by far. Nothing ever sucked me in like that and I recently played through the trilogy again and it was as good as I remembered.

Diablo II will always be a favorite however D3 and D4 were awful, but D2 will always hold a special place in my heart for nearly making me fail 7th grade math.

Crusader Kings is another series I like, the political intrigue is great and I can live out all my Viking fantasies. I have all the expansions and it's modded to the gills most of the time.

Some others I've enjoyed are Mount & Blade, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, and despite how poorly some people view it, Starfield is a favorite as well.

In terms of racing games I kind of got bored with Gran Turismo and Forza. They lost the spark they once had and I absolutely loathe playing games online. I do like BeamNG though and I had a great time playing Revhead. Looking forward to Tokyo Xtreme Racer once I get back from Utah.

I wax nostalgic about a lot of games from the past and have a hard time connecting with most newer games and franchises. I've also got this weird loyalty quirk where I turn my nose up at newer game I should try but refuse. Call me old-fashioned.

The Need for Speed was foundational for me. I played that first game on PC, and NFS 2, 3, and 4 on Playstation before I picked up GT2. NFS stuck around until Underground 2 for me.

GT supplanted NFS after that and I've been a loyalist ever since.

As a Playstation kid, Spyro is also a favorite and the remastered version makes me so happy. Ace Combat also stuck with me since AC03...wow, 1999 was a helluva drug.

I started playing SimCity in 1999 with 3000, 3K Unlimited, and 4. Absolutely definitive games and influenced my passion for infrastructure and networks as an adult. All the thousands of hours I spend as a kid in SC3KU and 4 can never be replicated, I'm convinced. I can still see the maps I created and I regularly listen to the music on my classic gaming playlist. I did play the first Sims game but it always struck me as tedious. That said, I still remember the "rosebud" cheatcode and recently figured out why it paid $1,000 after watching Citizen Kane.

As an adult, the historical Total War games took thousands of my hours, and RDR and The Last of Us have had lasting impacts. I think Manor Lords might stick around for a while, and I'm excited for Transport Fever 3.

At the very top of the totem pole for me is GT and SimCity tied for 1st with Total War in 3rd.

As for the soundstracks, NFS2, 4, GT2 and 4 (primarily the menu musics), and SC3KU are all perfect and make me sleep like a baby.

My current favorite genres are survival (more specifically survival horror) and immersive sims.

So given that, here are some games I’ve really enjoyed playing over the years:

Prey by Arkane (RIP ) - I think it’s one of my favorites of all time. Very interesting plot that throws some curveballs at you and brings up some philosophical questions like what it means to be human. Gameplay is a treat, if you like immersive sims. You have so much choice in how to approach your objectives and what abilities to use. I can’t believe they actually got it all to work and work well. Debugging it must have been a nightmare. I know the game had a rough launch, but given the scope it’s no surprise.

Last of Us Part 2: I think some people didn’t like how the story was handled and the early decision, but to me it made sense. I do think the game overstayed its welcome at the end, but overall it brought up a lot of emotions in me throughout the game and that’s always a good thing. I think I liked the game’s writing better than the HBO series to be honest, but maybe it’s because you feel more connected to it while actually playing. Gameplay here was also great, visceral, and challenging on higher difficulty, which is what I enjoy. It’s not a horror game, but it definitely is a survival one with limited resources at your disposal.

Resident Evil 7 - this game is an excellent survival horror game and it could have been one of my absolute favorites, but unfortunately the second half of the game doesn’t feel as good as the first. Still, the game keeps you on your toes, the house where majority of the game takes place is very memorable, as well as the main characters that you meet as you progress.

Alan Wake 2 - this one’s a bit more recent and I think while it’s not as good of a game as others I’ve mentioned, it has some bold creative choices that make it a very memorable piece of art. I highly recommend giving it a try, especially now that it’s coming to PS+ next month. Might not be for everyone, but many people really loved it.

Other games I’ve enjoyed over the years: Dead Space series, Heroes of Might and Magic series, Civilization games, Inside, Cyberpunk 2077, Alien Isolation, and many others.

Sticking to just the "favourites"...

Genres are limited to serious car racing games and games involving a lot of exploration (or potential to explore).

I'll always have a soft spot for PGR3 which started me on the journey through the first 4 Forzas (multiscreen), and when Turn 10 lost its way, I switched to Gran Turismo 5 and 6 (also multiscreen), Gran Turismo Sport+PSVR and loving GT7+PSVR2

To satisfy my desire for exploration, my favorites have been Oblivion, Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, Skyrim, Fallout 4 and much of the Assassins Creed series, especially AC1 and AC2, Origins, Valhalla, Shadows and most of all, Odyssey. I repeatedly return to such games expressly ignoring the main quest and simply heading off looking for adventure, adjusting any difficulty slider as the mood takes me.

In fact I took this approach from the start with AC Shadows, venturing into really dangerous territory simply aiming to steal things, kill (or simply annoy) NPCs and survive.