As a major nerd, playing video games is a part of my life. There are times that some video games are so addicting they almost start to consume my life and let’s face it, we all have things that make us procrastinate more than we probably should, right? So, in no particular order, here are ten video games you should play right now.
1) Subnautica
This is the most recent one I’ve been playing lately and let me tell you, it is massively addicting. It’s sort of like Minecraft if you’ve ever played it but it’s not a square world. There are plenty of stunning visual scenes. Basically, you crash land on a water world and you have to gather resources to survive. The gameplay has a few different modes:
Creative – This is where you can do anything you want without dying.
Survival – This is where you have to gather resources and eat food and drink water to survive. You can die, but you will respawn
Freeform – This is where you have to gather resources and can still die and respawn but you don’t have to eat or drink to survive.
Hardcore – This is just like Survival except you only have one life. Yeah, I didn’t make it very far.
As you gather resources, you can build bases which require power so you have to create things to generate power. You do have to keep an eye on your oxygen level that’s in your tank or you drown, so don’t get lost while exploring a cave or a shipwreck – been there, done that, died from it already. Eventually, you explore wrecks where you can find parts to different ships you can build. The smallest and quickest is the Seamoth, then there’s the Prawn Suit, and last is the Cyclops which is a massive submarine.
There are lots of different creatures to encounter and various biomes scattered around the map. Each biome has a specific set of creatures that typically stay in that particular biome. Yes, there are predators and yes, many of them can eat you. Some, such as the Leviathan Reapers, are big enough to eat your Seamoth – terrified anyone?
So, if you’re a gamer and you’ve never played Subnautica, you really should. If you love games similar to Minecraft or exploratory games, you’ll love it so much.
2) Skyrim
This is an oldie but a goodie. It’s part of a franchise so many gamers love the games that came before it or after it – Elder Scrolls Online – but I haven’t played it yet, so I’m here to talk about Skyrim. This is one of those games you really have to be careful with because if you aren’t, you’ll forget reality entirely. Basically, you’re captured and nearly executed and epic stuff happens. You can customize your character however you want and it’s literally so detailed, it made me picky and now any other video game that has less to let me customize, I don’t like because Skyrim did it better. Once you make your character, you don’t even have to do the main storyline. You can literally do whatever you want. You can join other guilds, kill people, collect cheese, explore caves and ruins, fight dragons, level up, join a magic school, whatever you want. It’s medieval style game with weapons similar to that time period but it’s also high fantasy with magic and dragons and all sorts of magical creatures. Yes, things can attack and kill you, especially dragons. Bandits are set to randomly generate, so you can literally just explore and encounter random bad guys to fight. The graphics are absolutely amazing. This is the video game I literally first ever played, which is the reason why I’m so picky about the games I play now. If you love games with good storylines, open-worlds, challenging ways to level up, and fun action scenes with difficult battles, then Skyrim is a game you have to play. Right now.
3) Assassin’s Creed
This is probably one of the biggest video game franchises in existence right now. It doesn’t even matter which one in the franchise you play, just pick one and play it. It’s a hardcore action game so if you love fighting, you’ll love any Assassin’s Creed. Some of the sequences are super challenging, so if you love a challenge, then you’re going to be obsessed. If you’re a history buff, you’re going to be fangirling or fanboying about Assassin’s Creed. There is literally so much historical detail in the games that it literally taught me history better than history class but it teaches it in a fun and engaging way. Literally, in any game, if you go to a location, the scenery will be exactly as it was in history at that time period. The clothing on the characters are legit to the time period and so are their languages and accents. There is a lot of intense action where sometimes it’s you against an entire army and the majority of the action is based on stealth and sneaking.
Here is a list of the Assassin’s Creed Games available on the PlayStation and Xbox consoles:
Assassin’s Creed
Assassin’s Creed II
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
Assassin’s Creed: Revelations
Assassin’s Creed III
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
Assassin’s Creed Rogue
Assassin’s Creed Unity
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate
Assassin’s Creed Origins
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
Which ones have I played? I played from Assassin’s Creed all the way to Rogue and then didn’t have an Xbox One for several years, so when they switched to only the Xbox One Console for Unity, I didn’t play Unity or Syndicate. Just recently, my husband got his Xbox One fixed so I finished playing through Origins.
Each of these games takes place in a different time place in history. The people you assassinate in-game actually died on those dates and sometimes you get to be part of real events in history. Assassin’s Creed III is my favorite because I love the Revolutionary War and the main character is a Native American which is another piece of history I love. You get to be part of some of the war’s most well-known historical events. Black Flag is awesome because you’re a pirate so that one really introduced ship battles and a lot of extra gameplay that’s super cool. Origins really drew me in because it was Ancient Egypt, so there was ancient ship battles, new mounts, – they had camels; eep! – and all sorts of new things added to the game and the gameplay itself.
So whether you love history, fight scenes, or a challenge, any of the Assassin’s Creed games would be the perfect choice for you.
4) Call of Duty
This is another franchise and it’s one I don’t know too much about but one I like. It’s a first-person shooter game always focused around the military. I have never played through the storylines on any of these so I won’t get into detail with those, but the multiplayer on them provides loads of fun when you’re playing with friends – unless you tend to get shot and die a lot, like me. Most of the games on a multiplayer have different maps you can choose from, various types of guns you can use, and different style of mini-games like capture the flag, infected, and others. Some of them also have a bonus game called Zombies which is literally where you and anyone you’re playing with have to hold out against hordes of zombies in a particular place which is unique to whichever Call of Duty game you’re playing.
5) Minecraft
If you love building or are a creative person then you’ll love it. It’s a square/block type world so sometimes it difficult to replicate things you’re trying to make, but if you give it a little thought – or Google how other people have done it – you can pretty much create whatever you want here. I’m a writer, so Minecraft is a game I use to create a lot of scenery or environments from my books – or as much as I can, anyway. They have a creative mode, which is where you have all the resources at your disposal and can do or build whatever you want. Then there’s survival mode which is where you have to eat, you can be killed, and you have to gather resources to build things with.
The fun thing about survival mode is that at night time, monsters spawn and yes, they can kill you; zombies, skeletons, spiders, and creepers are just a few of the ones they have in game now. So you can go out and fight them – and in my case that usually means I die – or you can sleep through the night to skip until morning. In the sun, most of the monsters burn up, except for creepers. I hate those things, don’t you, Minecrafters? You can tame animals so you can have pets like cats, dogs, horses to ride, donkeys, mules, and parrots.
And now they actually are adding mini-games to it. One is where you get to throw snowballs at the friends playing with you to try to knock them off a floating island. Last person standing wins. Another is basically the Hunger Games – fighting for resources and try to kill each other. Last person standing wins. Then there’s one where you put on wings and fly through a race course. With these, you can do two different game modes: either you race and the fastest time wins, or you try to fly through as many hoops as you can to win points and the player with the most points wins.
Minecraft is another one of those games that can become really addicting if you’re not watching yourself.
6) Star Wars Battlefront
Now with this, you can either play the origins that were for the Xbox or the new ones on the computer. I personally recommend the originals but I haven’t played the new ones. Basically, this is Call of Duty but its Star Wars. You have different maps and weapons, can play with others and try to fight the bad guys or in the originals, you can follow the campaign. It takes you through the story of the Clone Wars and Order 66 and then onto the Empire versus the Rebellion. You can also choose to play as any of the four factions – either the Republic as Clones and Jedi; the Separatists as droids and the Sith; the Empire as Stormtroopers and Vader, Sidious, and Boba Fett; or the Rebels as the Rebel Soldiers and the main heroes of the Rebellion. Then, you’re fighting against that particular factions opposing side – Republic against the Separatists or the Empire against the Rebellion – and you visit planets and try to take them over and sometimes you have to fight in space, which is really fun. It’s addicting and I’ve played through the storyline twice and still don’t get bored. Taking over the galaxy is also super fun and it’s a great time killer too. If you’re a Star Wars fan, then definitely give this game a try.
7) Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors
Now both of these are older games for the Xbox 360, but if you keep an open mind and give them a try, you’ll like them if you enjoy combat and Chinese/Japanese warrior fighting, battles, and warfare. It’s a really clean game and like I said, it’s a bit older so some of the things can be a bit cheesy at times. They are a franchise so they have multiple games to play either in Dynasty Warriors which is Chinese warriors or Samurai Warriors which of course, is Japanese warriors. Some of the Games are part of the main franchise and have different storylines based on the time period they’re in, so you get to play historical figures from that time period and help them win certain battles and fights they were in. Then there are also the off-set games which you can play without knowing anything of the main storyline – in fact, an off-set game is the one I started on originally. These games are where you can take over either China or Japan depending on if you’re playing Dynasty Warriors: Empires or Samurai Warriors: Empires (the Empire games are the off-set ones). Taking over the country is super fun because you can control who your generals and commanders are and try to strategize to either build up your forces, keep your people happy, pay money to build more fortifications, and deal with random scenarios that sometimes pop up. Then, the second part of the gameplay is that you can choose to attack other states within your country and then you actually get to go and fight to take them over. Another fun game we love to play is what’s called Sugeroku on Samurai Warriors: Empires. This is basically monopoly but it’s on a console, the map is Japan, the characters are the ones from the game and sometimes the chances end up with you having to play fun mini-games that are quite challenging. We’ve done this for hours before, but careful – if you’re competitive this could end with a few household fights.
8) Sims
Okay, this is yet another video game that will consume your life if you like these sort of games since it’s a bit of an acquired taste. Basically, you make a character and Sims 4 lets you customize them even better than Skyrim does. Your character gets to live in town and you can give them a personality, career, have them meet people, get married, have kids, eat and drink, sleep, etc. You basically get to control their lives and play out their lives as you go. As a writer, this is amazing for making characters to use their Sim picture as character profile pictures and it’s also fun to just make random characters and create stories based on their lives. This is a game for a particular type of gamer, though, so if you prefer storyline and action, it probably wouldn’t be too fun. But it’s a great time killer and it’s highly addicting.
9) Zoo Tycoon
Now this is far older and it has a few ones – one and two that I know of – and it started off on the computer but then branched into the Xbox 360 and Xbox One as well, I think. Basically, you get to make your own zoo. This is similar to Minecraft that you get to build things but you don’t have to gather resources to build. Instead, you have to use money so sometimes it may take a bit of time. The funny thing is, you can get yourself into a pretty bad loop if you use your money un-wisely because then you need people to visit your zoo to give you more money so you can make better attractions but people won’t visit your zoo without the better attractions and of course, you don’t have better attractions without people visiting. See the problem? You can buy animals, care for them, name them, and have to ensure they’re happy and cared for. If not, you can actually get in trouble for not taking proper care of them. They have different packs you can buy so you can even have dinosaurs and ice age creatures too – careful that the carnivore dinosaurs don’t escape and start eating people. It’s really addicting and can draw you into the game, especially if you get really caught up in making a perfect zoo.
10) Plants Versus Zombies
This one shouldn’t be as addicting as it is, but it is. Basically, you gather sun, which randomly generates during the day or from planted sunflowers, to buy plants. These plants do various things like shoot pods, or are thick like shields, freeze whatever they touch and so on. Waves of zombies try to get through your yard and you have to use the plants to stop them. If not, the zombies eat your brains and you die. It’s kid-friendly and really fun to play and it’s a really great time waster. They come up with really creative and funny plants and have all sorts of mini-games to play that give you an extra layer of fun to enjoy.
Now that you have a list of fun games for you to play right now, why don’t you try some of them? Be careful not to procrastinate too much or get so caught up in the games you forget reality… Who am I kidding? We’re gamers so that’s what we do best. I hope you enjoyed this list.
Which games are your favorites? What do you like about the games on this list if you’ve already played them? What games do you like not on this list? I’d love to know!
