Having been playing games since the 90s, there’s something so satisfying about digging into an immersive world, playing a fun arcade game, or even building my own.
Some of my favorites as a kid are Earthworm Jim, Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee, Pokémon Leaf Green, Elder Scrolls: Oblivion & Timesplitters.
So many hours spent on these games…Entire friendships have been built around them!
My own son has followed suit and loves video games too. Although I know his youth shouldn’t be spent glued to screens so I do manage his screen-time.
Right now, there are so many exceptional video games available across a variety of platforms.
I want an extra 10 hours a day to play all these games but unfortunately, time is a resource at my age. Nevertheless, I do make time to game almost every day, and I have my 10 favorite games for anyone who is interested!
In the future, I’m looking forward to Halo 6 and Total War: WARHAMMER 3.
10. Bloons Tower Defense 6
Available On: Steam | Google Play | iOS App Store | Amazon App Store
What do I think of the game?
Very fun and silly game, can either play casually for some arcadey fun or look into the in-depth strategies to beat the highest difficulties.
Offers tons of events, dozens of maps, and a huge variety of towers to play as you wish.
How experienced am I?
170 hours logged on Steam, with countless more hours on previous games, as well as the mobile version in particular.
I’ve black bordered 5 maps, black bordering is completing every single game mode for that map!
My personal favorite tower is the Wizard Monkey, with my favorite hero being the recently added Sauda.
9. Pokémon GO
Available On: Google Play | iOS App Store
What do I think of the game?
It’s pretty good, for a free mobile game!
Most mobile games have huge limitations but Pokémon GO has toned it down a bit.
Bag size and Pokémon storage do require some investment but it can all be obtained for free by keeping Pokémon in gyms, netting you up to 50 coins per day, with an upgrade costing 200.
Always plenty of Pokémon nearby for you to catch, each town or city should have tons of Pokéstops and Gyms to acquire resources.
How experienced am I?
Only level 35, don’t play it religiously but it helps to acquire Pokémon for my Shield game on the Switch.
Lockdown doesn’t help as we’re not allowed to go out. But I still try to catch nearby Pokémon and complete field research tasks whener I can!
My current 5 strongest Pokémon are:
- Slaking: 3901 CP
- Melmetal: 3516 CP
- Gyarados: 3302 CP
- Rhyperior: 3097 CP
- Espeon: 2922 CP
Want to add me on Pokémon GO? Friend code: 5883 3121 2430 🙂
8. Rust
Available On: Steam
What do I think of the game?
Rust has by far the most toxic community I’ve ever seen in any game.
Graphics are gorgeous and the performance is quite demanding, but otherwise not too bad.
As a survival game, Rust is excellent, if you’re solo. If you’re a group of good players, it’s basically a looter shooter.
I do wish the bigger groups would take the game less seriously, to stop walling off entire monuments and raiding every solo player in a 5-mile radius.
But maybe Rust would be boring if not for them?
How experienced am I?
1100 hours currently logged on Rust, with most of it coming on vanilla servers, playing solo.
Also partial to a 3x server, Battlefield server, or creative server to test things out!
The only groups I’ve played with have been new players, to say things didn’t go well, is an understatement.
Having said that, I’m not a competitive Rust player, I love the survival aspect and the difficulty to persevere in vanilla servers.
Most of my game-time is spent utilizing the crossbows, which is one of the best weapons in Rust, for me.
Having used it so much, I’m proficient in 1v2 or even 1v3 situations.
My go-to higher tier weapons are the Bolt-Action Rifle, LR-300 and Python.
I cannot for the life of me, use the AK at long-ranges, the recoil is too much.
A honeycombed 2×2 is by far the best and most affordable option for a solo player.
Get that core Armored, with Sheet Metal honeycomb, or have 2 or 3 Stone 2x2s across the map in case you get raided. Evil Wurst has an excellent guide for building it.
I like the scavenger gameplay type, solo is a hard life, and you should avoid confrontations with groups whenever possible.
Picking up the scraps leftover from fights or raids is an easy way to get loot!
I also try to be friendly whenever I can, been betrayed many times but I’ll never stop helping out nakeds, or providing blueprints for people 🙂
7. Sea of Thieves
Available On: Steam | Microsoft Store (Xbox & PC)
What do I think of the game?
By far the most immersive sea-faring experience on the market, Sea of Thieves is a perfect blend of calm and crazy game-play.
One minute you’re sailing a calm sea without a care in the world, the next you’re taking on a skeleton ship during a storm.
In terms of progression, I do wish there was more to aim for. Right now, you’re limited to character and ship skins. I want to see hide-outs, variants of ships types, and more!
How experienced am I?
I was surprised to see I’m only 130 hours in, as I’m only 6 Merchant Alliance levels away from the esteemed Pirate Legend title.
That game time is split between solo on a sloop, playing with random Galleon crews, and the Arena.
Currently aiming for a full Ashen Dragon skin set, I’m just the cannon skin away, as well as a few musical instrument skins.
Completed world events like Fort of the Damned, Flameheart, Skull Forts, and Ashen Winds bosses many times!
I do enjoy the theme of the game a lot more than the game-play, as well as trying to form alliances with ships I encounter, instead of firing on-sight.
Overall I could definitely have achieved more in the play-time I’ve done but I’ve had tons of fun, which is the main thing.
6. League of Legends
Available On: League of Legends Website
What do I think of the game?
League of Legends faces vast changes every season and right now, it’s not for me.
Seems very snow-bally, tons of damage available to all champions (even tanks!) makes it a very punishing game to play.
On the other side, this will be a huge boon to the majority of players who enjoy fast-paced, hectic game-play. It’s just not for me.
I still play occasionally and I’ll never quit altogether, just hoping future seasons appeal to me a bit more.
How experienced am I?
My op.gg: https://euw.op.gg/summoner/userName=scouserye
Mostly an ARAM main, only really playing Summoner’s Rift to do my ranked placements for end-of-season rewards (usually ending up Silver).
Over 2000 ARAMs under my belt, with a net win-rate of 53%. I’ve played almost every champion multiple times and excel in team-fights.
ARAM does not translate well to the Rift, where I struggle with macro play. I can win lane, do well in team-fights and stuff. But when it comes to vision, rotating, objective control, etc, I severely lack any cohesion.
My 10 highest mastery champions:
- Jhin: Mastery 7 – 96,114 points
- Janna: Mastery 7 – 85,150 points
- Rek’Sai: Mastery 7 – 82,476 points
- Leona: Mastery 7 – 47,725 points
- Rakan: Mastery 7 – 46,956 points
- Vladimir: Mastery 6 – 41,445 points
- Zyra: Mastery 6 – 40,038 points
- Nautilus: Mastery 6 – 39,706 points
- Dr. Mundo: Mastery 6 – 31,235 points
- Sivir: Mastery 5 – 46,032 points
Currently prefer the support role, as Janna seems to complement my skills very well. So much so that I achieved a 67% win-rate over 18 ranked games as her, acquiring 12 wins.
Previously a Jhin main, his thematic is just incredible. Those 4th shot executions provide a ton of satisfaction and he is, in my opinion, the best-designed champion of all time.
Before all of that, I was a Rek’Sai main. Again, for thematic reasons. This was before her passive got severely nerfed, and her ultimate got changed. I understand why Riot did what they did, as she was unhealthy in the competitive scene, but it ruined her for me 🙁
Feel free to add me, I’m on EUW with the summoner name “ScouseRye”.
5. Valheim
Available On: Steam
What do I think of the game?
Big shout-out to Iron Gate Studios, a team of 5 who have created such an amazing game.
Valheim is an immersive and brutal survival game, enter the world of Norse mythology to tackle monsters, build Viking longhouses and explore vast maps with different biomes.
You can tell the team behind it, didn’t expect the game to be so big. Performance issues, connectivity problems, and a lack of content are troubling them.
But the thing is…no one cares!
The game is so exceptionally good for an Early Access game, the team have put a ton of time and effort into it already, instead of releasing a half-done pile of code.
How experienced am I?
Currently just 120 hours in, with most of that time spent building and exploring.
Only recently acquired Iron weapons and armor. Spent so much time searching for a Swamp biome containing Sunken Crypts, only to finally find one with SEVEN Sunken Crypts!
Defeated the first 2 bosses, saving up arrows to do the 3rd, Bonemass, who I’ve heard is an absolute unit.
Fair to say I’m still quite a novice, my builds come from YouTube videos, having recently built this Viking longhouse.
4. Minecraft
Available On: Minecraft Website | Google Play | iOS App Store | Microsoft Store
What do I think of the game?
Minecraft is still a staple of any gamer’s video game library, with Java edition coming with thousands of mods to change up the game-play or graphics.
How experienced am I?
Been playing Minecraft for about 8 years now, both Java and Bedrock Edition (more recently).
Hosted multiple servers, played with many friends and family, including my own son, who loves Minecraft!
Completed survival a few times, but I enjoy creative mode with WorldEdit the most.
I love to build towns, villages, and cities in various points, a few chunks apart, then connect them with paths.
Currently playing on my friend’s server, got a few towns going and working on a huge castle next to a village!
If you want to join, here’s the IP: magworld.serveminecraft.net
3. Teamfight Tactics
Available On: League of Legends Website (comes with the League of Legends launcher)
What do I think of the game?
Auto-battler games are surprisingly fun, Teamfight Tactics is by far the best one available.
It’s completely free, with absolutely zero advantages to be gained from paying money.
Set 4 introduced the Chosen mechanic, which I’m actually not the biggest fan of. You can be at a big disadvantage if you keep seeing bad chosens.
Having said that, TFT is renowned for its flexibility and if you have enough game sense, you can achieve top 4 (still counts as a “win”) when the game seems to hate you.
How experienced am I?
I finished Platinum in every set, up until set 4 where I finally reached Diamond!
Not the kind of player to copy the comps of whatever is doing best for that patch, prefer to create my own comps.
Same for strategies, I don’t follow the “level at this stage, roll at this stage”, I look at the board state of all players, every game, and decide what to do for each situation.
As you can tell, I’m not a serious competitive player. Could probably hit Masters if I was, but I’m happy with Diamond!
2. Overwatch
Available On: Playstation Store | battle.net | Nintendo Store | Microsoft Store
What do I think of the game?
A fun first-person shooter, plenty of game modes to choose from, and the variety of heroes is awesome.
Every single hero has a high skill cap, with most of them being easy to use from the get-go. No matter which heroes you decide to play, all of them can be effective.
If you play solo, don’t take it too seriously. Solo ranked play is extremely team/matchmaking based, I see a lot of people get frustrated that they get “bad teams”, it’ll always happen, just play to have fun.
How experienced am I?
240 hours of total gametime.
Back when I used to play competitively, I’d finish each season in Platinum. Nowadays, I do placements to get currency for gold weapons and end up in Gold.
At the moment, I have gold weapons for the following heroes:
- Reinhardt
- Hanzo
- Tracer
Most played heroes are:
- Reinhardt: 24 hours
- Tracer: 17 hours
- Moira: 14 hours
- Hanzo: 14 hours
- Lucio: 13 hours
Reinhardt is my favorite, it’s so epic getting 40k damage blocked, as well as topping the charts for damage done, eliminations, and objective time. Plus, it’s really easy to get Play of the Game 😛
Of the 1651 games I’ve played, I’ve won 854 of them.
Moira is my go-to healer, as she has the ability to take on enemy heroes, which is invaluable when you’ve got a team which isn’t so good.
1. Total War: WARHAMMER 2
Available On: Steam
What do I think of the game?
Incredible game, with the perfect balance of graphics, immersion, and gameplay.
Any fan of fantasy worlds and strategy games HAS to play Total War: WARHAMMER.
Every race, and every faction, have their strengths and weaknesses, yet are all fun to play and thematically brilliant.
How experienced am I?
Nearly 800 hours of the two WARHAMMER games, with these variants being my first entries to the Total War series.
I rarely play competitive multi-player as I prefer the campaign but I regularly watch channels like milkandcookiesTW, Turin, and HeirofCarthage. LegendofTotalWar is another great channel!
Few games leave you satisfying after an 8-hour gaming session, with WARHAMMER being the best for a relaxing day of gaming.
Plenty of mods are available to tailor your experience to suit you, and the vast majority of them don’t alter achievements.
As for favorite factions, it has to go to the Greenskins, Dwarfs, and Empire.
Greenskins have a varied roster with an aggressive play-style, can be susceptible to mass routing but if you micro your rallying units well, it’s not too much of a problem.
Dwarfs are one of the easiest races to use, with plenty of armor and fire-power. Their starting positions are fairly difficult, though, apart from Karak Kadrin.
Empire is the race that resonates with me the most, as I love human factions.
I prefer the vanilla experience, with mods to make the campaign a lot more enjoyable, here are my best mod recommendations:
Adds additional Legendary Lords to CPU factions, just gives those sub-factions (like Wissenland) a bit more room to succeed.
Kinda sucks to see huge cities like Altdorf and Lothern have the same boring city art, this mod gives them completely unique aesthetics.
Adds far more variants for individual models in a unit, so they don’t all look the same.
Makes the borders of each province stand out a lot more.
Default camera leaves a lot to be desired, Better Camera Mod gives you a better view of battles and units.
Gives you the option to automatically disable any diplomacy requests during the end-turn timer. Great if you’re semi-afk.
Also known as Supply Lines, this mod prevents your armies from costing more, depending on how many armies you have.
I don’t have a particular problem with Supply Lines, I just hate not knowing exactly how it’ll affect my income until I recruit that extra lord.
Arrow trails in the base game are far longer than they should be, this mod adds a sense of realism and makes it much easier to survey the battlefield.