Welcome to this week’s gaming post! This week I’m taking a short break from talking about board games to discuss another favorite hobby of mine – video games. I recently played Dispatch, which is an interactive, narrative-focused game, similar to the Telltale games, and it was honestly one of the best gaming experiences I’ve had in some time. So, it got me thinking, what are my favorite video games of all-time? Spoiler alert, Dispatch didn’t quite make my top 10, but I absolutely recommend checking it out if you’re a fan of story-focused games. So, without further ado, let’s jump into it!
Honorable Mention: Call of Duty
Like many teenagers who grew up in the early 2000s, the Call of Duty first-person-shooter (FPS) games were quite popular among my friends. 2007’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was a genre-defining game, but it wasn’t until the sequel, Modern Warfare 2, that really pulled me into the series properly. There were many hangouts with my friends where we would stay up all night playing together, and we would even bring our own consoles and TVs to someone’s house for pseudo-LAN parties. After high school, I didn’t play much Call of Duty until Warzone came out, as it offered a way for me to connect with friends during the COVID-19 pandemic. These days I don’t play much Call of Duty anymore, but I still follow the professional scene, and there’s no denying that the series as a whole is up there among my most-played games of all-time.
10. Baldur’s Gate 3
Even a few years after its release, it’s hard to believe how big Baldur’s Gate 3 was. What should have been a fairly niche RPG game focused around Dungeons and Dragons still placed within the top 15 games on Steam for all-time peak players with over 875,000. For comparison, publisher Larian Studios’ previous game Divinity: Original Sin 2 topped out at slightly over 93,000 concurrent players. And I can absolutely understand why Baldur’s Gate 3 has been so popular. It’s a massive RPG where someone can easily spend hundreds of hours and still find new things to discover. The presentation combined with the sheer number of choices that can have drastic impacts on how your game plays out is outstanding. I’m still working through completing everything in Act 3 of my first campaign, but I’m already thinking about jumping back in to play a dark urge playthrough to see how differently the game can play out.
9. Uncharted
You may notice that based on the games on this list – I’m a sucker for single-player games with solid storylines, and the Uncharted games are no exception. With a heavy Indiana Jones influence, protagonist Nathan Drake embarks on epic adventures to search for historical treasures. All of the games, including The Lost Legacy spinoff are excellent, but my favorite game in the series is likely Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, which does an excellent job of telling a compelling story while wrapping up the Nathan Drake storyline with a satisfying ending. One iconic moment in the series is the opening scene from Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, where the player wakes up as Nathan Drake in a train car hanging off a cliff. There are so many unforgettable moments in the series, and that is just one of the many highlights.
8. God of War
The original Greek mythology-based God of War games are an action-packed, adrenaline rush, with God of War III being my favorite. However, the Norse mythology reboot takes the series to an entirely new level. A slightly slower-paced game with a greater emphasis on storytelling, 2018’s God of War and the sequel God of War: Ragnarök are easily among my favorite games of all-time. Kratos’ axe is one of the greatest implementations of a video game weapon, which feels both weighty and satisfying to wield, and the cinematography that utilizes a “one-shot” camera technique with no cuts or breaks makes the presentation that much more immersive.
7. Red Dead Redemption 2
Red Dead Redemption 2 is the prequel I didn’t realize I needed. The original 2010 game’s story, which has one of the greatest endings in a video game, might even be topped by the sequel with its set of nuanced characters and a compelling story that also tugs at your heartstrings. It also doesn’t hurt that the game looks visually incredible, and the attention to detail down to how the horses look and move is unmatched. I don’t often replay games, but it’s been long enough since the game’s original release back in 2018 that I might have to jump back in for another playthrough.
6. Grand Theft Auto 5
It’s hard to envision a world where Grand Theft Auto VI isn’t a massive success based on Rockstar Games’ history and considering the previous game, Grand Theft Auto V, was the fastest entertainment property to gross $1 billion, which it reached in its first three days after release. Grand Theft Auto V is also one of the most profitable entertainment products ever, including films, TV, and books. While I never got into Grand Theft Auto Online, I’ve replayed the main single-player story multiple times. All three main protagonists are each captivating in their own ways, and the mission variety and open-world were unmatched at the time. Let’s hope that the current release date for the next game in the series actually sticks and comes out later this year.
5. The Witcher 3
Whereas I could be convinced to rearrange the previous five games in almost any order, these next five games are pretty set in stone. Starting off with my favorite open-world game – The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Even though The Witcher 3 was my jumping in point to the series, from the game’s opening minutes, I was hooked. While the main story of Geralt’s search for his adopted daughter Ciri is engaging, what really takes the game to another level is the care that went into the game’s side characters and quests. Typically, open-world games throw in a bunch of side quests that typically operate as nothing more tedious fetch-quests or collection achievements. However, whereas some side quests in The Witcher 3 might start off as a simple fetch-quest, they often deviate to create an exciting story in their own right, such as the mission to retrieve an old woman’s frying pan. In addition, most of the quests do not have an obvious morally right or wrong choice as the stories are much more nuanced. One of the most notable examples is The Bloody Baron questline offering plenty of tough decisions along with excellent storytelling. There’s a reason that most new open-world games are trying to capture the same magic as The Witcher 3.
4. The Last of Us
While The Witcher 3 is my favorite open-world game, The Last of Us is my favorite story in a video game. There’s a reason why the game spawned an award-winning HBO series. I have no idea what life would be like in a post-apocalyptic world infested by mutated humans, but the game tells a gritty story that highlights some of the best and worst characteristics in humanity. In addition, the game’s relationship between the game’s two main protagonists, Joel and Ellie, is arguably the best dynamic in a video game. I’ve replayed the first game multiple times, and there are so many scenes that I remember vividly, from the game’s opening sequence to the game’s closing lines. While the sequel wasn’t as widely universally loved, I replayed it relatively recently, and while the story doesn’t quite match up to the first game, it’s still an amazing game in its own right that makes some noticeable gameplay improvements over the first.
3. NBA 2K & NCAA Football
When I was initially coming up with games for this list, I landed on three distinct eras in my gaming journey. This first era, which actually falls in the middle of the other two in terms of my timeline, is defined by both the NBA 2K and NCAA Football games. I can’t remember which NBA 2K game was my first, but NBA 2K11 is the one that I can still distinctly recall. Michael Jordan was the cover athlete for the game, and one of the game’s highlight features was the “Jordan Challenge” mode that let you relive memorable moments from his career. You could even play as Michael Jordan in the MyPlayer mode, letting you create your own Jordan career and “what if” scenarios. In addition to NBA 2K, while the NCAA Football series was on an 11-year hiatus, I rebuilt many college football programs in NCAA Football 14’s dynasty mode. When I was college, my friends and I would create offline leagues together, letting us compete against each other with our own dynasties in both 2K and NCAA Football. I’ve sunk so many countless hours over the years in both NBA 2K and the EA Sports College Football games that a list of my favorite games wouldn’t be complete without my favorite sports simulation games. Speaking of, I currently have a dynasty going in EA Sports College Football where I’m taking on a promotion/relegation challenge akin to European soccer/football where my goal is to take a team in the bottom conference all the way to the top.
2. Football Manager
Speaking of European football, the second era in my gaming journey is also my most recent, focused around the Football Manager series. If this was a list of my most-played video games, the Football Manager games might be at the top of that list. I got into the series relatively recently with Football Manager 2017, and I’ve played almost every yearly release since with Football Manager 2021 being my most played. The Football Manager games have given me some of my favorite video game moments like taking Sporting CP in Portugal to European football dominance by winning the Champions League, to a Journeyman save that took me to many large and small clubs all over Europe, to my most recent Glory Hunter challenge to win every league and domestic cup in each of Europe’s top five leagues. I’ve already mentioned that I’m a sucker for a video game with an amazing storyline, but there’s also something special about a game that allows you to create your own incredible journeys about that generational wonderkid you signed or the team that you rebuilt. That’s what makes the Football Manager games special and have kept me to keep coming back.
1. Civilization
Moving onto the last era and the game that really got me into video gaming is the Civilization series. I can still recall playing the original Sid Meier’s Civilization game on an old PC in my parents’ basement because that was the only computer in the house that could run it. Civilization III was my go-to game growing up and is still probably my most played in the series. I touched on this in a recent post about a Civilization-themed board game, but I’ve yet to find a board game that has been able to recreate the same magic as the video games. It probably has something to do with the complexity under the hood and the length of games that make it somewhat challenging. That said, while I don’t return to the Civilization games all that often anymore, and I still have yet to play the latest game in the series, when you consider how much I played the games growing up and the overall impact they’ve had in my gaming journey, it’s hard to argue that Civilization shouldn’t be at the top of my favorite video games of all time.
With that, those are my top 10 video games of all time. What are your favorites and why? And have you played any video games recently that you particularly enjoyed? And since this is a board game blog, what are your favorite board games based on a video game IP? Let me know all of that along with any future content suggestions in the comments below. Happy gaming!
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