I had a moment to think about why I like certain games, and I have figured out some criteria for myself,
- Vibrant colours
- Simple/Cartoon-ish looks
- Mid/High level of complexity in mechanics
That’s why my current favourite game is Splatoon 3, followed by Minecraft, and the list consists mostly of Nintendo games.
What’s your criteria?
The first thing I check for is if a game is Terraria. If it isn’t, I play Terraria instead.
All kidding aside, I tend to enjoy games that involve exploration, character development, and pleasent visuals. Good sound design is also a must, and I prefer games to be at least somewhat action oriented.
None of these things are hard and fast rules for me, of course. I like a lot of different games.
As I’ve gotten older and had more sporadic time windows to play games (kids, work, life), I’ve gravitated more and more to rogue-like/lites and soulsborne style games. Having games that have a core gameplay loop that is 20 minutes to an hour is perfect for me, and I can kind of pick up and put down whenever I want without losing my place in a grand overwhelming open world that is miles wide, but inches deep (Starfield, I’m looking at you…).
With the rogue-like/lites, I can do a run and just go to bed and say “I’ll get further next time”, while with soulsborne games I can clear out an area and do a boss, then come back to do the next area/boss another time. If the lore seems interesting, vatividya will probably have a video on it some point to catch me up on whatever I missed.
The Factory. Must. Grow.
I’m really into Factory games atm. Factorio, Dyson Sphere Program, Astro Colony…
The Crust https://youtu.be/6TH6JAz2nNA
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- zombies
- shooter
- wasteland
-> fallout3
I like shooters and other combat sims that have matchmaking and allow me to enter a flow state.
I’ve got a twitch channel with exactly one fan. No idea who it is. They seem to like Mechwarrior 5 (ie they show up quick whenever I play) so I’ve been playing a lot of that.
It’s so fun because it’s actually kind of a slow-paced game. But it does have a flow. Something so satisfying about locking onto enemy after enemy and dispatching them according to the rhythm of my recharging weapons.
Also it’s a pleasant surprise that Mechwarrior (this is the first MW game Ive played) is the board game Battletech, which I used to play in the 90s. I never realized these were the same game with all the same rules.
I can stand in forest to make shots miss me, I can use my lasers to cut down trees, I have LRMs and autocannons, I can stand it water to dissipate heat faster.
It’s my fortune to have an eidetic memory, so I remember Battletech as clear as day despite not playing it since the 90s. It’s kind of fun to load up my personality from when I was 9 and show him the video games of the future, where I’m playing that same board game but in real time.
