I post the occasional game review on my blog and no commentary gameplay videos on my YouTube channel.
My gameplay videos are without commentary because I want to show you the actual experience that you will have with the game, from the loading time to the first minutes or hour (and sometimes even hours) of real gameplay. I’m not making these clips to influence you or sell you anything, I upload those videos so that you can form your own opinion. And I have bought all the games that I show you with my own money (and I usually even buy Game Pass titles when I really like the games).
I prefer playing on a console over playing on a PC: The experience simply is better. Consoles “just work” and don’t come with technical hassles like compatibility issues or DRM that gets in your way. Also, the games are nowadays optimized for consoles and not for PCs, and that can be felt while playing them.
I own a Nintendo Switch (and pre-ordered the Switch 2) and before the flood of 2021 I also owned a PS4, but my console platform of choice is Microsoft’s Xbox and my personal catalog of games goes back to the original Xbox. I own an Xbox Series X and an Xbox Series S and I usually capture games from the smaller Series S. Yes, the Series X is more powerful, but considering its extremely low price point and what you get for your buck, I am much more impressed by the Series S.
Like most (older) gamers, however, I suffer from some kind of gaming fatigue and can no longer relate to most of the games that have been released in recent years. It has gotten very hard for me to become interested in new games – they’re just not for me anymore. And I also absolutely despise games that come with what “the critical drinker” describes as “the message”. I hate it when games try to shove a political or woke message down your throat. Games are meant to be an escape, they’re not supposed to be a vessel for ideological indoctrination.
That being said, here’s an (incomplete) list of my favorite games of all time (mind you that I didn’t say greatest or best games of all time – I only said that they are my personal favorites):
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- Half-Life
- Gears of War
- AC Odyssey (playing as Kassandra!)
- Uncharted 4
- Mutant Year Zero
- The Lamplighters League
Honorable mentions:
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- Redfall
- Dying Light
- Frostpunk
- Prey (The 2017 Arkane game)
- Dishonored I and II
- Alien: Isolation
- Portal I and II
- XCOM: Enemy Within
- Carrion
- Dredge
- The Thing
- Zombie Night Terror
- Plague Inc. (Android)
- Luigi’s Mansion 3
- The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (both the original version and the remaster)
Forgotten games from the past:
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- The Lurking Horror
- Trinity
- Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
- Lode Runner (Apple II)
- Microbe (Apple II)
- Wolfenstein I and II (Apple II)
- Asteroids (Atari 2600)
- Haunted House (Atari 2600)
- Conan (Apple II)
- Wing Commander Privateer
- Diablo I
- Fallout I
- Baldur’s Gate I
- Zombie Trailer Park (Flash)
Games that I played to Death and simply cannot play anymore regardless of how great they are and that I still list some of them as my personal favorites of all time:
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- Doom I and II
- Quake II
- Return to Castle Wolfenstein
- Civilization I and IV
- Half-Life
- AC Odyssey (I actually 100%ed it and all its DLCs in over 220 hours of net playtime on an Xbox One X)
Some comments
Redfall had a catastrophic launch, but after the Final Patch, it became a really good game with a wonderfully creepy atmosphere – and it’s one of the few games that I immediately fully played through again after I had finished it for the first time.
The Lamplighters League also suffered from a catastrophic launch and also would have needed more polish; even after the final patch, the console version still would require more love and work – although the console version is less buggy than the PC version, it looks graphically awful compared to the PC port. But it has the greatest soundtrack that was ever composed for a game and it has this nice alternate history 1930s setting and a set of great characters that are fun to play. It never gets old to hear Eddie Sawyer say “I gotta go talk to some Whisky about this.”
Dying Light might not have a story worth writing home about, but it has by far the best mechanics (including an amazing parkour system) of any open world first person shooter out there – and that alone makes it the best zombie apocalypse game of all time. Its sequel, unfortunately, completely dropped the ball – I suggest playing its predecessors Dead Island and Dead Island: Riptide instead.
I never liked XCOM 2 and I firmly believe that XCOM: Enemy Within is a much better game than its sequel; it is almost bug free, it does not break under the weight of its features and complexity and it also has the better atmosphere.
The Uncharted franchise was the reason why I bought a PS4 back in the day. Now that Uncharted 4 is also available on PC, the only reason for me to buy a Playstation again would be Uncharted 1 – 3 – there are literally no other PS-exclusive titles out there that interest me.
Why do I like The Thing so much? In case you don’t know, The Thing takes place in Antarctica, during a deep and stormy arctic winter, and I played it back in 2003 during hot summer nights on Lanzarote island – and I could still feel the cold and creepy arctic atmosphere. Besides, I’m a huge fan of the John Carpenter movie since I first watched it back in the early 1980s, and this game is as close to an official sequel as we might ever get one.
For similar reasons I fondly remember my time with Diablo I, Baldur’s Gate I and Fallout I: I played them during my time in Colorado back in 1999/2000.
Doom I was the first game that I ever played “over the network” – or rather: We connected the serial ports of two PCs with a null-modem cable and started shooting each other. Doom II continued the chaos on a larger scale.
Luigi’s Mansion 3 was the reason why I bought a Switch. This game can make you feel like a kid again, and that alone justifies buying a Switch. Original Nintendo games, especially those from the Super Mario universe, come with a built-in feeling of childish innocence and happiness.
I was able to preorder a Nintendo Switch 2 and will cover that console right from day one. And the Switch 2 version of Cyberpunk 2077 will be the first game that I will be giving a try on the new console – not because I am a fan of the game, but if that game runs good enough on that small device, then the Switch 2 itself will be more than good enough for any other major AAA game that will be released within the next half decade. Maybe you’re old enough to remember the time when the phrase/meme “But can it run Crysis?” was coined. Cyberpunk 2077 has taken over that job, so think of it as a platform viability benchmark.