The 2025 Desert Island Video Game Draft

[Capt. Factorial]

We are SO back! It looks like it has been five years since our last TDOS draft, but we've got a crew of 12 lined up to pick some video games.

As always, you're stranded on a desert island with food, water, shelter, bathroom facilities, electricity, an internet connection...and access to all the electronics necessary to play what we would culturally call a "video game". (Actually, that doesn't really sound like all that bad of a gig!) Unfortunately, your access to the games themselves is limited. You may draft them here, and any game you draft you may then play to your heart's content until your eventual rescue, probably several years down the road.

The draft will be a "snaking" draft, with 15 selections per participant. Following the completion of the draft, the participants will vote amongst themselves to rank each drafter's list of video games, after which we will hold a tournament-style public vote (open to all, including non-participants). As there are 12 participants, the top four ranked lists will get byes in the first round of voting.

I think by now most of us have a pretty good feel for what is allowed in these drafts and what is not. I will set out some guideline rules below, but as this particular topic seems to have a lot of gray area, please note that violation of the letter or the spirit of the rules is not allowed, and that I will be the final arbiter for any dispute.

How to participate

• Make your selection in its own comment. Include both the game title and the platform you will be playing it on. Include as much or as little supplementary material as you wish: write-up, personal love letter to the game, images, video of game play (OK, limit 1 video embed) - all of these are fine if you like. You should make your selection ASAP and return to edit your write-up later if you know what game you are selecting, but do not have time to complete a write-up.
• Make your selection timely. For simplicity, we will stick with the standard 24-hour clock. If you do not select in 24 hours, your time expires and the next participant is automatically on the clock. Missed picks can be made up at any time - including when other players are on the clock - but a participant who has missed one or more picks will have their turn skipped until they make up all outstanding picks.
• Send a Direct Message to the next drafter informing them that it is their turn once you have made your selection.

What is eligible

• Games on any of the following platforms are eligible:
• Console (anything that hooks to a TV/monitor)
• Arcade/standalone
• Handheld
• PC/Mac/Linux/other computer
• Online

What is not eligible

• Any game that has already been selected, regardless of platform. Reissues, knock-offs, community mods, games that are substantially the same game (even if the "levels" are different) on different platforms - all are considered the same game. (Spirit: no repeats)
• Expansions: Any game that requires the purchase of a separate, base game to play. (Exception: If you have already drafted the base game, you may use a separate pick on an expansion that relies on the base game. Note: Normal updates and patches expected with the original purchase would be included with a drafted game.)
• Multi-pack/bundled games. (Spirit: we all understand what one title is)
• Games that are merely implementations of a game that frequently is or could be played without a screen, e.g. chess, solitaire, Risk, Scrabble... (Spirit: it's a video game, not just a game that happens to be on a screen)

Draft order was randomized by an impartial third party (maybe he *wasn't* so impartial, I bet he put me last on purpose!):

1. @hrdboild
2. @Insomniacal Fan
3. @Turgenev
4. @Sluggah
5. @SLAB
6. @Warhawk
7. @Löwenherz
8. @whitechocolate
9. @Padrino
10. @Spike
11. @Tetsujin
12. @Capt. Factorial

The draft will open with @hrdboild tomorrow morning - let's call the clock to start at 8 AM PDT

 

[Capt. Factorial]

hrdboild​

1. Metal Gear Solid (PS1)
2.
3.
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15.

Insomniacal Fan​

1. Baldur's Gate 3 (PC)
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15.

Turgenev​

1. Donkey Kong Country (Super Nintendo)
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Sluggah​

1. Counter-Strike: Source (PC)
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3.
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15.

 

[Capt. Factorial]

SLAB​

1. The Last Of Us (??)
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Warhawk​

1.
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Löwenherz​

1.
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15.

whitechocolate​

1.
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[Capt. Factorial]

Padrino​

1.
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Spike​

1.
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Tetsujin​

1.
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Capt. Factorial​

1.
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15.

 

[hrdboild]

R1.P01 (#1 Overall)
METAL GEAR SOLID

(Art source: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/yJ0q0K )​

Format: PS1
Year of Release: 1998
Developer: Konami Entertainment
Genre: Action-Adventure / Stealth
Why I picked it: Gameplay Innovation

Once I knew I would be picking first overall (and would have to watch 22 games come off the board before my next selection) there were only 2 titles I even considered taking in this spot. I'm conceding that the second one (a strong contender for best game ever made in my opinion) is almost certainly going to someone else but that's okay because it's tough to beat Hideo Kojima's pioneering masterpiece of interactive storytelling in terms of gameplay innovation, overall artistic presentation, and perhaps most importantly its expansive influence on future game design. Almost 30 years later this series is still going strong with another title slated for release later this year. This game laid out the groundwork for an entirely new genre and it's hard to even quantify how many spiritual successors and copycats have followed in its wake.

Right from the opening credits sequence, which plays out like the cold open of a Mission Impossible movie, it's clear that we're in store for something very different. Gameplay sequences are repeatedly broken up with cinematic cutscenes and animated radio conversations which are equal parts game tutorial, story exposition, and social commentary. This was the 90s and self-referential media was very much in fashion. At no point are you unaware that you're playing a game (most infamously in the Psycho Mantis boss fight which I won't spoil for anyone who hasn't already played it or read about it) but what this allows Kojima to do is tell a story about paranoid Cold War hysteria where you as the game player are challenged by the game designer to follow his directions (these are your enemies, these are your mission objectives) while simultaneously being inundated with themes that highlight the need not to blindly follow directions.

Looking back at the game's story through 2025 eyes, one clear criticism emerges. We could all tabulate the abundance of action-spy-thriller movie cliches utilized throughout because we've seen them dozens of times before and since. (Impending nuclear disaster, check. Surly masculine loner protagonist, check. Corporate greed masquerading as patriotism, check. Giant doomsday mechs... if only!) Nothing about this game is subtle. But given how Kojima has gone on to refine his artistic vision, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt here and conclude that he's leaning in to the cliches in order to find something human underneath them. The origins of the Cold War go back to the 19th century clash of empire between Great Britain and Russia for complete dominance (economic and military) of central Asia after all -- a period of history which is often referred to (both ironically and unironically) as "The Great Game". Like James Bond and Ethan Hunt before him, our hero "Solid Snake" is both all-powerful as a singular force of destruction and tragically impotent to resist the forces of global domination arrayed around him. The great game of statecraft cannot ever be won, there is always a new opponent to defeat, but it can be lost and so like our heroes on the big screen we try our best as merely a player in this drama to survive each challenge into the next.

But even if you ignore all of the heady intellectual underpinnings foregrounded in the dialog, what you're left with is that feeling which happens every time you slip up and allow an enemy to spot you. It's the feeling of seeing a little exclamation mark appear above an enemy's head, of watching your omniscient map view disappear from the screen, and then the pulse-pounding race to flee from danger while every enemy on the map triangulates toward your last known location. That feeling alone is one of the greatest moments in gaming for me and even if that's all that this game had on offer it would be worthy of a recommendation. What we have here is so much more than just one great gameplay idea though, it is the rare case where a game designer pushed themself to keep raising the bar sequence after sequence from beginning to end and it's almost unfair the extent to which Kojima succeeded. It certainly elevated my understanding of what a video game could be when I first played it and all these years later it stands out as the best example I can think of for why the cultural significance of games as art should not be ignored.




(DM has been sent to @Insomniacal Fan)

 

[Löwenherz]

R1.P01 (#1 Overall)
METAL GEAR SOLID​

That’s a decidedly more exciting Snake than I had envisioned for you.

 

[Insomniacal Fan]

Baldur's Gate 3 (2023) - PC

Let me set the stage for this one. It's been almost 20 years since this board last explored video games in the desert island draft (2008). A lot has happened in that time. At that point in 2008, Video games were coming off of a fresh Supreme Court win that gave video games the same free speech protections that movies possessed. This set up a stable environment for the development and marketing of games that tried to appeal to adults; which led to games starting to have a major impact on pop culture.

At the same time, Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) was about to enter a period of decline. A new edition of the rules doesn't sell as well as expected. This leads to the closing up of the novel lines, (including the previously very successful Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance series) and the space going fairly quiet for a while. What eventually saves D&D in the late 2010s is social media, with it's insatiable need for inexpensive content, and a target audience of adults raised on young adult fantasy novels and cringe comedy sitcoms, making them particularly suited to tolerating improvisational storytelling. And finally (in 2023) the stage is set for the first mainstream adaptation of D&D to high production value video games since 2006. Baldur's Gate 3 (BG3)

How do you adapt a tabletop RPG in 2023? Well, pretty much the same way you did in 2006. At the core of the game is the combat engine, where BG3 is rare among big budget games in that it is turn based. It rewards players for deep knowledge of probabilities and edge cases that fall out of the relatively simplified current edition of the tabletop rules. The combats are challenging and varied (if you find your favorite difficulty setting) And new character abilities keep the game fresh as you proceed through the plot.

The plot works the same ways as previous RPGs, a series of dialogue trees, an exploration of large (if not open worlds.) along with banter and character development. What makes BG3 special isn't the form of the game though, it is the quantity and quality. The entire game has mounds of voice acting, and even the humblest NPC sells their place in the story. The main voice cast of the adventuring party are asked to deliver a range of emotions, from quiet to bold to tragic, and it all works.

With the writing, quantity has a quality all of its own. There are always several ways around every encounter, and often those lead to genuine unique paths that must have taken real development resources to implement. When you multiply the number of routes through the game by the amount of full voice acting, you have a 80 hour RPG that is actually worth playing more than once through.

BG3 wasn't innovative in form, but through sheer production quality it cleared its orbit and became an instant classic. I don't know how anybody's going to make another game like it. It seems like magic

(DM has been sent to @Turgenev )

 

[Turgenev]

Donkey Kong Country. Super Nintendo. 1994.

I remember my mum walking me home from school one day. We were about halfway home when she said 'oh your sister bought a Nintendo. She was playing a game with monkeys on it'. A nice memory to connect with during a period of a conflict with my sister.

 

[hrdboild]

That’s a decidedly more exciting Snake than I had envisioned for you.

View attachment 13664

Don't give people any ideas!


Turns out I was mistakenly under the impression this was a movie character draft...

but I was able to pivot at the last minute and salvage the situation. AI helped.

 

[Löwenherz]

c

Don't give people any ideas!


Turns out I was mistakenly under the impression this was a movie character draft...

but I was able to pivot at the last minute and salvage the situation. AI helped.

Wow, I thought he was dead.

 

[Padrino]

Donkey Kong Country. Super Nintendo. 1994.

I remember my mum walking me home from school one day. We were about halfway home when she said 'oh your sister bought a Nintendo. She was playing a game with monkeys on it'. A nice memory to connect with during a period of a conflict with my sister.

Man... this game (and its immediate sequel) were such a revelation for me. Though there was a lot of shared DNA with other immensely popular Nintendo platformers, it just looked and played so differently. Nice pick.

 

[Padrino]

Baldur's Gate 3 (2023) - PC

Let me set the stage for this one. It's been almost 20 years since this board last explored video games in the desert island draft (2008). A lot has happened in that time. At that point in 2008, Video games were coming off of a fresh Supreme Court win that gave video games the same free speech protections that movies possessed. This set up a stable environment for the development and marketing of games that tried to appeal to adults; which led to games starting to have a major impact on pop culture.

At the same time, Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) was about to enter a period of decline. A new edition of the rules doesn't sell as well as expected. This leads to the closing up of the novel lines, (including the previously very successful Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance series) and the space going fairly quiet for a while. What eventually saves D&D in the late 2010s is social media, with it's insatiable need for inexpensive content, and a target audience of adults raised on young adult fantasy novels and cringe comedy sitcoms, making them particularly suited to tolerating improvisational storytelling. And finally (in 2023) the stage is set for the first mainstream adaptation of D&D to high production value video games since 2006. Baldur's Gate 3 (BG3)

How do you adapt a tabletop RPG in 2023? Well, pretty much the same way you did in 2006. At the core of the game is the combat engine, where BG3 is rare among big budget games in that it is turn based. It rewards players for deep knowledge of probabilities and edge cases that fall out of the relatively simplified current edition of the tabletop rules. The combats are challenging and varied (if you find your favorite difficulty setting) And new character abilities keep the game fresh as you proceed through the plot.

The plot works the same ways as previous RPGs, a series of dialogue trees, an exploration of large (if not open worlds.) along with banter and character development. What makes BG3 special isn't the form of the game though, it is the quantity and quality. The entire game has mounds of voice acting, and even the humblest NPC sells their place in the story. The main voice cast of the adventuring party are asked to deliver a range of emotions, from quiet to bold to tragic, and it all works.

With the writing, quantity has a quality all of its own. There are always several ways around every encounter, and often those lead to genuine unique paths that must have taken real development resources to implement. When you multiply the number of routes through the game by the amount of full voice acting, you have a 80 hour RPG that is actually worth playing more than once through.

BG3 wasn't innovative in form, but through sheer production quality it cleared its orbit and became an instant classic. I don't know how anybody's going to make another game like it. It seems like magic

(DM has been sent to @Turgenev )

Excellent pick! I bought this game right after moving from Sacramento to Northern Virginia in August of 2023. The journey out here was... challenging. I've not told this story at KF.com, as I'm generally a pretty private individual, but now feels like the right context for sharing. I caught COVID (for the first time!) on my second day of driving a moving truck solo across the country. My wife was going to join me later in the year after wrapping up her professional commitments, so it was just me out there on the road, coughing my guts up while hauling the vast majority of our earthly possessions from state to state, sleeping in sh*tty little highway-side motels and dining on lozenges for relief. Then, just one day before arriving in Virginia, as I was passing through Indiana, I got a phone call from the property management company that oversaw the rental we were moving into. A pipe had burst on the upper floor of our three-level townhouse, flooding the entire unit and collapsing both of the lower ceilings.

The rental was toast. We were given an off-ramp out of the lease, but I still had nowhere to go. I was effectively homeless upon arriving in the region that was meant to become my new home. I did not know anybody and I had no recourse. So I booked a hotel room for temporary accommodation, then booked a storage unit and unloaded all of our possessions by myself, still coughing my guts up. After a couple of days on the mend, I needed less expensive and more flexible lodging, so I booked long-term accommodations at a sh*tty little Extended Stay, where I lived for two months while adjusting to a new job and a new state, and searched for a new rental.

In that two-month span entered Baldur's Gate III. I was in desperate need of a worthy distraction as I managed the fallout of our failed attempt at a smooth transition to Northern Virginia. I adore the job that brought me out here in the first place, and my colleagues are wonderful, but it's tough being in a new place by yourself with no friends nor family nearby to offer a helping hand. So instead, I had Kryssak (my Dragonborn paladin), Shadowheart, Astarion, Karlach, Lae'zel, Gale, and Wyll to keep me company. It's a tremendous game, and affords the player tremendous freedom, and living inside the stories I created with those characters every day really got me through an extremely challenging period of my life.

My personal story has a happy ending, though. The rental we ultimately ended up moving into was more expensive than the one that flooded, but it was in an absolutely beautiful neighborhood with immediate access to a massive trail system. My wife and I are very outdoorsy, and we absolutely love it here, so much so that we just bought our very first home back in March. It's a fixer-upper in the same exact neighborhood, right around the corner from our previous rental, and we spent the last two-and-a-half months renovating it to suit our tastes. We just officially moved in last week, and as of yesterday, we have officially closed the book on our lives as renters, which also feels like closing the book on Chapter 1 of our time in Northern Virginia. Now we begin a new chapter, but Baldur's Gate III will always stand out in my mind as the necessary salve for a difficult transition, and I will always love it for that place it holds in my memory.

 

[Sluggah]

Title: Counter-Strike: Source
Format: PC
Year of Release: 2004
Developer: Valve (and others)

Counter-Strike: Source is a team-based tactical first-person shooter, a remake of a mod of another draft-worthy game, and one of two that I’ve played competitively (technically CS 1.6, but don’t want to open up that can of worms).

Diffuse the bomb…rescue the hostages…kill the other team. The no-respawn round based gameplay lent itself to a lot of exciting heroics or crushing failures. AK and desert eagle for life.

I could look up the amount of hours played on Steam, but it would probably be a bad look for me. Was hard to go to class when I could spend all day being accused of hacking as random dudes rage quit.

 

[SLAB]

Pick 1: The Last of Us

Going back and forth between two games here. Went with the pure emotion/feels and top-level storytelling over my other choice. This game evokes more emotion in me than any other game I’ve played. I remember being skeptical going in, but had tears in my eyes within the first hour. I can feel the same feels I felt when I originally played this when I simply think about story beats. It sticks with you.

Ups. Downs. Action. Stealth. Absolutely beautiful in its latest release form.

Pick 1: The Last of Us.

 

[Capt. Factorial]

View attachment 13670

Pick 1: The Last of Us

Going back and forth between two games here. Went with the pure emotion/feels and top-level storytelling over my other choice. This game evokes more emotion in me than any other game I’ve played. I remember being skeptical going in, but had tears in my eyes within the first hour. I can feel the same feels I felt when I originally played this when I simply think about story beats. It sticks with you.

Ups. Downs. Action. Stealth. Absolutely beautiful in its latest release form.

Pick 1: The Last of Us.

Which platform?

 

[Warhawk]

Portal
Developer: Valve
Year: 2007
Platform: PC (Steam)

This game is short, fairly simple to understand, and basically consists of a first-person shooter where you don't "shoot" anything. But oh, my goodness, did it grab me when it came out.

Portal is basically a puzzle game wrapped up in a beautiful package of slightly dystopian "research facility" being controlled by the quirky GLaDOS, an AI operating system that took over the facility and killed everyone in it. Your challenge is to work your way through training areas in an attempt to escape.

The most beautiful part about the game is both its simplicity and approach. The only "weapon" you have is the "Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device" (the "portal gun") that only makes "portals". Portals are intra-dimensional openings between two flat surfaces. If you walk through one portal you instantly come out the other. The cool part is when you start playing with physics using the portals. You can use conservation of momentum to fling yourself across maps, over barriers, etc. (per the blatantly stolen graphic from Wikipedia below). Per GLaDOS: "In layman's terms: speedy thing goes in, speedy thing comes out." Also, you can use them to move, drop, or otherwise eliminate enemies, etc.



Valve cooked up a dark atmosphere for the game, but the hilarity of the malfunctioning GLaDOS, the presence of the totally inert (yet compellingly heartwarming) Weighted Companion Cube (typically used to hold down floor plate switches or help you climb into inaccessible areas), and the cute but fatal sentry guns you have to work around suck you into the game and don't let go as you progress through increasingly difficult challenges in your escape. Seriously, I found myself laughing through large portions of the game at the stuff GLaDOS says at you. Dark comedy and satire permeate the dialoge.

The gameplay may sound a bit boring, but it was so immersive and groundbreaking when released it is widely recognized as one of the best games ever made. The writing is absolutely fantastic. The initial levels are quite easy. They obviously progress in difficulty as you play.







The video has spoilers - just FYI.

DM sent.