The 2025 Desert Island Video Game Draft

[pdxKingsFan]

I was going to take this game in round 7 originally, had the write-up and pictures ready to go and everything... but I bumped it to take Riven after @Capt. Factorial picked Myst and then I just kept pushing it back for other games that seemed more likely to be drafted by others (or games for which I had no acceptable substitute). I was sweating every time @Warhawk came up in the order though since we seem to be operating in similar lanes with our choices. I guess it worked out in my favor that you chose not to participate in this one, though I don't think I would have minded terribly if more of my favorites had gotten picked by others. It's also fun when other people share the same taste.

As it was, I managed to get 14 of my top 15 ranked games in this draft (#15 was Final Fantasy VI drafted by @SLAB ). If I were to re-rank my picks based on my preferences they would go in this order:

(1) Interstate '76 (2) Deus Ex (3) Metal Gear Solid (4) Final Fantasy VII (5) Uncharted 4
(6) The Dig (7) Fallout (8) TIE Fighter (9) RollerCoaster Tycoon (10) Alien: Isolation
(11) Riven (12) Xenogears (13) Bushido Blade (14) The Settlers II (15) AC4: Black Flag

I had another game ranked in there at 12 pre-draft (also undrafted so I won't say what it is now) but I changed my rankings a bit when I remembered that Xenogears exists and I also decided that I'm less excited about re-playing that other game in 2025. I have it in my Steam collection, bought it a year ago on sale and haven't touched it, so that's more of a gaming memory than a Desert Island pick. This list doubles as my top 14 games... plus Assassin's Creed: Black Flag which I ranked #27 but it filled a niche that I wanted filled for Desert Island purposes. Most of the games I have ranked from 16 to 26 are adventure games and I already have a few of those.

There was another game I was playing when Tie Fighter came out (which oddly not my favorite of that series) and I had both on my list of unpicked games so far. Tie Fighter is the only one I would figure gets drafted but will discuss when this is over.

Honestly (and I know you grabbed the deluxe super special edition but this point stands) I don't understand how they didn't manage to improve on Tie Fighter after this, they just leaned into arcadey space combat afterwards.

 

[hrdboild]

There was another game I was playing when Tie Fighter came out (which oddly not my favorite of that series) and I had both on my list of unpicked games so far. Tie Fighter is the only one I would figure gets drafted but will discuss when this is over.

Honestly (and I know you grabbed the deluxe super special edition but this point stands) I don't understand how they didn't manage to improve on Tie Fighter after this, they just leaned into arcadey space combat afterwards.

Yeah, I don't get that either. You'd think when a company develops a game where pretty much everyone gives it a perfect score and proclaims it a classic in its genre that you would continue to refine it and update it. LucasArts did make two attempts to do that actually, now that I think about it, but both lost as much as they gained in development as other aspects of the design were prioritized so I guess its not always easy to pinpoint why a game is successful.

Now LucasArts is no more and Star Wars titles are all outsourced to other developers. Simulation style flying games do still have an audience but maybe not the size of audience that is targeted for major IP titles these days so I'm not real optimistic that we'll ever get the true sequel that some of us want.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

Yeah, I don't get that either. You'd think when a company develops a game where pretty much everyone gives it a perfect score and proclaims it a classic in its genre that you would continue to refine it and update it. LucasArts did make two attempts to do that actually, now that I think about it, but both lost as much as they gained in development as other aspects of the design were prioritized so I guess its not always easy to pinpoint why a game is successful.

Now LucasArts is no more and Star Wars titles are all outsourced to other developers. Simulation style flying games do still have an audience but maybe not the size of audience that is targeted for major IP titles these days so I'm not real optimistic that we'll ever get the true sequel that some of us want.

I only remember that the next one was an online only game that scrapped the campaigns, which was also one of the main reasons that Tie Fighter blew its predecessor out of the water.