If you were going to be stranded on a desert island, and for some reason you could bring 5 video games with their required hardware and means to power them, what would they be? No compilations or online multiplayer if you want to be a purist about it, but I’m still interested if you have thoughts about them :)
Those would be the extremely moddable games with a good all around base set for replayability, so for me:
- Rimworld
- Mount&Blade bannerlord
- Crusader Kings 3
- Civ 6
- Luanti (and if have to choose a single game for it, Mineclonia I suppose)
As long as I can also archive some amount and variety of mods for each, of course.
If mods aren’t on the table, I think it would still look pretty much the same, except maybe civ 5 in place of 6, and in place of luanti perhaps Witcher 3, or 4 if it manages to release before this thing.
Edit: Actually hold that a bit: I need Stellaris there, especially if mods are ok. But even without. I’d skip luanti/witcher for that.
- Rimworld
- HoI4 with Mods
- Vic3 with Mods
- CP2077
- maybe Satisfactory
No Man’s Sky, but without any other players. More or less how I play it anyway 😁
Street Fighter 2: Champion Edition on the MegaDrive
Red Dead Redemption 2
EA FC/FIFA/whatever
Tetris
Do one of those minecraft modpacks with a thousand mods count as a compilation? Because you could take out over 80% of them, and create a bunch of smaller packs for variation.
Age of Empires 2 Transport Tycoon Deluxe Ufo: Enemy unknown (x-com) Might and magic vii Heroes of the might and magic 3
If I could smuggle more it would be: Starcraft, Red Alert 2, Teenagent, Master of Orion 2.
Kerbal Space Program with mods
Cities:Skylines with mods
Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition
Dota 2 (I would be playing against and programming my own bots for it)
Trackmania with all current mapsTetris, Dwarf Fortress, Quake (if I can bring tons of mods,) Portal 2 (if I can download use maps,) and probably Baldurs Gate 3 so I would finally play it.
If I can’t bring all those additions, then substitute Portal 2 with Kerbal Space Program. But I’d keep Quake.
- crawl stone soup. A classic rogue like.
- elden ring + dlc. Big masterpiece of the genre.
- the binding of Isaac (+ all the dlc). Huge rogue lite. Lots of stuff I haven’t unlocked yet.
- monster hunter (maybe world? I liked rise too though).
- if I could have online, guild wars 2. Otherwise, maybe the original doom. Especially if it comes with a map editor, fan made maps, or Oblige to randomly make maps.
Terraria
Celeste
Expedition 33
Horizon: Forbidden West
F-ZERO GX
About as much variety and quality as I could hope to fit.
Why does it have to be a desert island? I don’t like sand. It’s coarse and rough and irritating… and it gets everywhere.
Cave in mountain side then surrounded by a forest with grizzly bears.
L.A. Noire
Mafia 1-3
Master of Orion 2
- Burnout Revenge
- Age of Empires 2
- The Witcher 3
- Monster Train
- Bejeweled Ultimate/Blitz… Whatever was the last one.
- Any Monster Hunter really, but I’ll go with Monster Hunter Wilds
- Subnautica
- Fatal Frame 3
- Tetris
- Ghost of Tsushima
Shattered Pixel Dungeon
WipeOut 2097(XL)
Tetris (arcade) or Karate Champ (arcade) or Speed Rumbler(arcade)
Descent II
Simon Tatham Puzzles collection
Roguelites are the way, fam:
- Noita
- FTL: Faster Than Light
- Slice & Dice
- Death Road to Canada
- I’ve never actually played it yet, but maybe S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, or else possibly Infested Planet or RimWorld
Any time someone mentions FTL, I use it as an opportunity to let people know about the Multiverse mod. It’s been praised by the original devs and is like 4x bigger than the base game.
It’s set 20 years after the first game and adds hundreds of new ships and weapons, several new races, new sectors, thousands of new events, new win conditions, new achievements, everything. It’s essentially FTL 2.
If you liked the original FTL, seriously check out Multiverse, it’s breathed new life into the game in a way I’ve never seen another mod do.
Thanks for the rundown. My biggest problem is that the literal only copy I have is from the DRM-free Humble Bundle from way back then (I gave away the Steam key to a friend of a friend), which is on a higher version than with what Multiverse is compatible, so I’ve never been able to play it all these years even though I’ve been itching to try.
You’d better bring a copy of the Noita wiki with you so that you can decipher what half the late game stuff is/does. Or even just where it is. Although I suppose if you have basically unlimited time, you could just do your alchemy from first principles
