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.

 

[Warhawk]

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.

Looks like fun but I never played it so it wasn't on my list!

Actually, I've never played ANY of the games you picked, now that I look at your final list.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Looks like fun but I never played it so it wasn't on my list!

Actually, I've never played ANY of the games you picked, now that I look at your final list.

I can actually say that about four people in this draft, including you.

I've watched my son play several of these games, but I don't think that counts.

 

[Warhawk]

I can actually say that about four people in this draft, including you.

I've watched my son play several of these games, but I don't think that counts.

Out of the games picked so far, I've played four on @Capt. Factorial's list (Super Mario Bros., Tetris, Myst (briefly), and Pac-Man), plus Diablo, Diablo II, Quake, Oregon Trail, Ms. Pac-Man, and Burger Time. That's it. That's 4 lists other than mine I've played at least one game of. I bet that trend holds unless some folks start picking old school stuff the last round.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

My consumption of video games pretty much became encased in amber when the PS2 became obsolete. I've played but a small handful of games that were released after 2005, the only one of which I'd even consider being stranded on a desert island with was taken by @Sluggah in the fourteenth round (I guess technically two, if you count @Spike's eighth-round selection).

 

[pdxKingsFan]

I don't really play the AAA titles any more, haven't since maybe GTA 5 came out in the final days of 360. I think that's ultimately why I elected not to participate. The only one I really got was Elden Ring. Otherwise its a handful of sports games and whatever is on Game Pass.

 

[hrdboild]

Looks like fun but I never played it so it wasn't on my list!

Actually, I've never played ANY of the games you picked, now that I look at your final list.

Given the other games you've picked, I'm a little surprised that TIE Fighter at least wasn't on your radar, but not that surprised I guess. As has been said before, there are more than enough games existing in the world for us all to have different subsets of favorites without much overlap. To a certain extent it seems like Video Games could be like albums where people of similar ages would at least have the same reference points but there's so many different formats when you count up all of the consoles and portable systems which have existed over the years and that adds an extra barrier of entry in the form of hardware requirements which doesn't exist in most other mediums.

Of the 154 games picked so far from the other 11 members in this draft I counted only 34 of them that I've played (and many of those only briefly). There are quite a few more that I've heard of and many that I would like to try but who has the time anymore? I can't even find time to watch a 2 hour movie these days much less play all the way through a game.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

I think I counted 91 but my girlfriend in the other room kept yelling at me (she has a broken foot) when I got into the 70s and no way am I counting them again.

 

[whitechocolate]

I don't really play the AAA titles any more, haven't since maybe GTA 5 came out in the final days of 360. I think that's ultimately why I elected not to participate. The only one I really got was Elden Ring. Otherwise its a handful of sports games and whatever is on Game Pass.

I think modern AAA gaming is a cesspool of unoriginal, unchallenging, pandering bloat with little to no artistic integrity. There are rare exceptions, but in general, AAA games are designed by board rooms and are certainly not passion projects. Not to mention, professional game critique is a complete facade with critics who completely lack expertise, with little sincerity, and with compromised motives. I'm still participating.

 

[Insomniacal Fan]

Picking this to try and add variety to my ensemble. Added a sports game last pick, for this one I'll add an e-sports pick (if a very early version of that)

Tribes 2 -- PC -- 2001

A Multiplayer shooter with ambition. Tribes 2 is a multiplayer (up to 128 players in 64 vs 64) team based game where players take on the role of science fiction soldier types with jetpacks. The innovative skiiing mechanic allowed players to keep picking up speed as they hit a downslope, which meant that the large arenas could be traversed quickly by bounding across the terrain. Tribes 2 also included vehicles, and custom weapon loadouts within a light-medium-heavy character class system

Hitting a fast-moving, flying target with a disc launcher is one of the best feelings in gaming.

At the time, this was probably better played in the LAN party setting ( a 128 person LAN party sounds like a quite a production) All I had at the time was dial-up internet, which limited my effectiveness. LAN parties every Thursday on my Desert Island! (Is an island with 128 people still deserted?)

 

[pdxKingsFan]

Tribes was fun!

 

[Insomniacal Fan]

I'll wait until final results are in to post my total score of games played; but I can say that everybody participating has at least one game that I would be happy to have on my own list.

 

[Capt. Factorial]

I think I counted 91 but my girlfriend in the other room kept yelling at me (she has a broken foot) when I got into the 70s and no way am I counting them again.

What kind of autist are you?

 

[pdxKingsFan]

What kind of autist are you?

Ha. I don't think I am. More of an ambivert who spent a good chunk of my introvert hours between 1979-2013 playing as many games as I could get my hands on.