I’ve seen this bounced around the internet quite a bit the past few days this week, so I’d try and ask HMF to get in on it too, so we can appreciate and judge each others’ tastes in video gaming.
You use this website to make a 5x5 chart of games that best showcase your tastes. Or that fit your vibes. Or just your top 25 games you can think of. It’s not entirely set in stone what ‘the list’ is about, but that’s up to your interpretation! Enjoy!
There’s even modded versions and fan-games in the repository of games (the list is apparently pulled from Internet Archive) so, if you have some really obscure specific tastes, they might be on there!
This isn’t my favourite games ever, heck, it really could be longer, but I’ve themed it to fit myself!
Top Two Rows are the favourite games ever made. I could replay those forever and never get bored, they are total comfort food.
Row Three has games that I went into with little/no expectations and I’m surprised how much I ended up loving them!
Row Four are my foundational games, the ones that started me off and got me really into video games. Childhood favourites! (Okay Spy Fox was long before the other games there, but they’re all cherished for being my favourite first few games I’d ever had.)
Row Five are games that I think are overlooked and aren’t talked about or played enough. Go find them and do that because I think they’re great!
Yes, I’m sorry I’m a very modern gamer. I could use some more variety I think. But I’ll get to some classics one day, maybe!
I also have a lot of trilogies or series that I love (like Gabriel Knight, King’s Quest, etc.). I picked one out of each although I could easily have just picked all seven King’s Quest games.
Aw yeah Mad Max, the 2015 game! Greatest by-the-numbers open world game ever made. Doesn’t really do anything new. It’s mechanics are all taken from something else, but damn do they nail the desert vibes, cult-like communities, and fun arcadey car-combat. Just a solid package for a good IP.
Couldn’t be bothered to curate this more carefully: this is my Steam library by playtime. Only became a proper PC gamer when I bought my rig for the release of H1 in 2016, so my history on consoles isn’t represented which means that the likes of the Batman Arkham / Grand Theft Auto (3/VC/SA era) / Splinter Cell franchises aren’t showing up anywhere near as prominently as they figure in my history.
I don’t have 25, but it’s a good “get to know me” list.
There are more games that I like, but I made the list with a threshold, to have a good proper personal showcase.
I did try to do some radial symmetry though
Some are for the aesthetic, some for the narrative, some for the gameplay, some for the interactivity, some for the design philosophy.
It makes it also pretty visible that I did not play games from 2013 to 2019.
That would be the Urbz. Which on GBA was a direct sequel to the story of bustin out. And they are not. The games on GBA were separate entities to the mainline ones.
It was more of a social RPG/adventure game than a sims. It was surprisingly narrative/character centric. Quest line, story arc, and all.
The game played by :
directly controlling your character, getting to know the inhabitants of the town/city they just arrived in. You needed to understand their personality to decide which dialogue to choose to befriend them (though biker? some gentle ribbing insult, thrift shop owner? more empathic dialogue…). All still under the light humour of the sims.
doing some odd jobs/minigames to buy furnitures, better apartments, and taking care of your usual sims needs.
uncovering some larger plot. Something to do with real estate if I remember correctly (it’s been almost two decade). The plot was resolved by uniting the town socially, and some detective work/exploration. Surprisingly, I think there was no villain to the conflict and was not that one dimensional.
The Urbz was the same, but with the added dynamic of having social groups with their own reputation, gimmicks, systems and rivalry.
I think there was a “you got knock down and thrown in the river by the big bad, You will be for the next two hours in the bayou befriending stereotypical yet friendly hillbilies” arc.
It’s also one of my most formative game. One of my first game overall, and it gave me my usual dream of an open world social RPG.
(I was only partially joking by saying it’s a proto-Disco Elysium)
Those are some old memories you made me go back to.
Ah yes I get Bustin’ Out and Urbz mixed up all the time.
They also added The Black Eyed Peas because they really wanted to know the exact date the game came out and to ruin any chance of in being rooted in a sense of timelessness.
I often call it “The Sims if it was made by EA Big”.
Not on handheld.
Urbz handheld is still heavily dated to the mid-2000, but in a time-capsule endearing way.
Again, non-violent social rpg/adventure games. I have been looking for something like them for a long time.
