At this point, you could spend your entire life playing the vast library of incredible video games on the market. I have definitely spent my fair share of time on the controller and keyboard, and a handful of games have stood the test of time as my favorite games. I’ve limited myself to three sentences per game to describe why I love it, mainly because I’m sure I could write for hours about the different skills in FIFA 12 and how to do them… I can’t imagine what precious childhood memories that info has replaced in my brain.
Age of Mythology
Although I think Age of Empires II is a better strategy game, Age of Mythology holds a very warm place in my heart. The game has a great campaign, introduces a surprising amount of mythology from around the world, and the fact that it ran on our early 2000’s home PC was maybe its best feature. Plus it had one of the best trailers of the time (picture this trailer in 144p for full immersion):
Halo 3
The soundtrack, the gameplay, the forge (technically not a sentence because there is no verb). I spent 100’s of hours playing ranked Slayer matches, custom Forge maps, and local multiplayer in Halo 3. There’s not much I can add to the extensive coverage of the game other than to say I loved it, and I still sing the Gregorian-chant theme song to myself every once in a while.
FIFA 12
Throughout middle school and high school, the FIFA series was the go-to game for my friend group. FIFA 12 stands out because of the memorable soundtrack, the fact that Chelsea won the Champion’s League that year, and I think it was one of the FIFA titles that struck the best balance between arcade game and soccer simulation– while more modern titles lean more towards sim. I also love how this game looked so real when it came out, and all the random catch-phrases for the new features that sound like they’ve been put through a random sports-word generator:
League of Legends
My love for League of Legends has waxed and waned over the years after being introduced to it freshman year of college. It introduced me to the world of esports, brought me stress through ranked games, and a ton of stupid fun during ARAM’s. At the end of the day, I would guess that I have spent more time playing League than any other video game— to me it is pure comfort food, and still has some of the best cinematics of any game ever:
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is not the most polished, best-written, or most detailed video game (maybe even amongst the Assassin’s Creed franchise). However, it is incredibly easy to get lost in this world— it’s absolutely stunning, the core cast of characters are compelling, the gameplay loops are fun, the twists on traditional Greek myth are exciting, and there’s truly nothing better than feeling like Wonder Woman and obliterating a fort full of 50+ enemies. I absolutely binged this game.
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