Desert Island Games

I recently got into a discussion regarding video games. Suppose you’re on a desert island. You don’t have to worry about food, shelter, electricity, or anything, but you will be all alone. What ten video games will you bring with you?

Here’s my list:

1. Shining Force 2.  The best tactical RPG ever, and a game with tremendous replay value.
2. Chrono Trigger.  For my money, the best RPG ever.
3. FTL: Faster Than Light.  A great roguelike game with tremendous replay value.
4. Civilization II (Gold Edition) plus a bunch of mods.  I played hundreds of hours of Civ II growing up, and to me, this was the best of the series.  I know later versions are prettier, but this just feels right.
5. Out of the Park.  Again, a major time sink with huge replay factor.  Even with all the hours I’ve put into different versions of this game, there’s a lot I’ll never get to.
6. The Sims 3 plus all DLC.  If you’re on a desert island without people around, at least you get to make up some people.
7. X-Wing vs TIE Fighter and Balance of Power plus applicable mods.  This game really was designed for multi-player, but I studiously avoided people anyhow.
8. Some version of Madden.  I don’t have a specific year in mind because none really stands out as the best to me and I haven’t played it in a few years.  But when I did play it, the game had enough replay value that I’d want to keep it around.
9. A card game like Aisleriot or PySol. Card games kill a lot of time, and it’s nice to have some variety.
10. Stockfish.  I want a chess simulator which goes from rookie to grandmaster.  If I have all the time in the world, I want to master this game.

As a note, these aren’t necessarily my favorite games (although several of them are); instead, the common thread here is that these are games you can sink a lot of time into and play over and over.

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