Desert Island Video Game Draft Playoffs - Round 1 5/12

[Capt. Factorial]

Insomniacal Fan​

1. Baldur's Gate 3 (PC)
2. Red Dead Redemption II (PC)
3. The Legend of Zelda: the Wind Waker (Nintendo GameCube)
4. Subnautica (PC)
5. Factorio: Space Age (PC)
6. World of Warcraft (PC)
7. Sid Meier's Civilization IV (PC)
8. Super Smash Bros. Melee (Nintendo GameCube)
9. Dwarf Fortress (PC)
10. Satisfactory (PC)
11. X4: Foundations (PC)
12. Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor (PC)
13. Crusader Kings II (PC)
14. NFL Blitz (Arcade)
15. Tribes 2 (PC)

vs.

Turgenev/macadocious​

1. Donkey Kong Country (Super Nintendo)
2. Final Fantasy IX (PS2)
3. Stardew Valley (Android)
4. Overcooked 2 (Xbox One)
5. Football Manager 15 (PC)
6. NBA Street Vol. 2 (PS2)
7. Kingdom Rush (Android)
8. Bill Walsh College Football 95 (Sega Genesis)
9. Grand Theft Auto - Vice City (PS2)
10. NBA Jam (Arcade)
11. Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy (PS2)
12. Genshin Impact (PS4)
13. Bonk's Adventure (TurboGrafx-16)
14. Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards (IBM 386)
15. Tom Clancy's The Division (??)

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

IF only has one game on his list that I've played. And if it was literally the only game on his list, he still would have gotten my vote.

 

[whitechocolate]

I went with the list I could endlessly nerd out on.

 

[Padrino]

There are a few games that I really appreciate on the @Turgenev / @macadocious list: Donkey Kong Country, Stardew Valley, NBA Jam. But @Insomniacal Fan grabbed my vote because of his top-3 selections: Baldur's Gate 3, Red Dead Redemption II, The Legend of Zelda: the Wind Waker. His following two picks (Subnautica; Factorio) are games I have not played but would like to try.

Interestingly, I thought those early picks were going to portend a list that would be in deep competition with mine, but then @Insomniacal Fan went after a lot of strategy/management/sim games, for which I have some interest but minimal experience. That said, Red Dead Redemption II and Baldur's Gate 3 are titans of video gaming for me, so he still gets my vote.

 

[Srzly]

My word… @Insomniacal Fan ‘s list seems stacked: Civ, Factorio, WoW, Melee, BG3, Red Dead. Sheesh.

 

[SLAB]

Insomniacal’s list starts off so strong for me … then our tastes go on a massive divide after Subnautica (and even that one’s ‘not one of my favorites). I could play BGIII and RDR2 for a long long long time. Strategy games do less than nothing for me.


T&M’s list doesn’t hit the highs of those games, but (outside of the sports games) it has a deeper roster of games I would enjoy. The Division is an excellent ender. Genshin Impact is fun and an absolute time-sink if you want to dedicate the time. GTA:Vice City is a classic.

 

[Insomniacal Fan]

The games from T&M I need to talk about:

Stardew Valley is so perfect. Not only did it revive a classic SNES game (Harvest Moon) it actually lived up to the promise of what that game evoked by actually filling the game world with stuff! It has character driven stories for a diverse group of townspeople. It has an elaborate crafting system based on the huge variety of materials found by exploring the world. And the core business sim of the farm is taken to the next level with elaborate sprinkler systems and artisan goods.

It's always in my rotation for when the world seems crazy and I need to just comfy out for a bit. I'd recommend it to anyone, (and fortunately it's available to play on every flat surface!)


GTA: Vice City was a foundational game for Rockstar. To some extent GTA 3 had only been a sort of violent sandbox, the most fun in the game was in fact getting your star rating as high as possible then trying to escape. There had been voiced characters and a story, but your protagonist was silent, and the other characters were basically cartoon cutouts.

With Vice City, you start to see the storytelling ambitions of the Houser Bros. Gone is the silent protagonist, replaced with a wisecracking criminal played by Ray Liotta. The story is still a composite of crime movies, with a lot of Scarface mixed in, but the characters are around long enough, that you start to care what's happening in the plot.

I don't think you could get to a RDR2 without going through something like a Vice City