Assuming the equipment was also saved so you could still play the games, and every game in existence you don’t mention gets permanently destroyed, and no new games are ever to be made.
Inspired by a video by OutsideXbox from a few years ago, I thought it would be a fun idea to see what this community would choose. You can choose to be selfish and pick games you personally want to always play, or try to figure out what games would be best chosen for humanity to save for whatever reason. I’d also love to hear why you chose your games. Do they have a special meaning to you? I want to hear your stories.
This might be cheating but I’m assuming mods/DLCs to a game count as part of the game.
- Factorio. Pretty much endless amount of stuff you can do with mods on top of a top-tier base game.
- Minecraft, also for the mods.
- Geometry Dash. So many user created levels and the highest skill ceiling of pretty much any game.
- Asetto Corsa, or whatever the most realistic, moddable car racing sim there is. I don’t play this game but I don’t want that genre to die.
Really struggling to think of anything else so I’m just gonna go with another fun, replayable, moddable game: Balatro.Edit: After reading other responses and me forgetting some games I think Skyrim would be a better choice here.
I’m assuming there’d be no online multiplayer or modding, as they’d be outside the realm of the game - it’s content made by other people (and it’s more interesting if you exclude them anyway), and I’m assuming there’d be no more updates (so only current or previous patches)
So we’d be looking for replayable single player games
- Minecraft. If that’s not on your list then you’re joking
- Terraria. Sandbox like minecraft, but the more legacy-focused scope of the game would be a nice change
- Factorio. This game is called cracktorio for a reason
- Monster Hunter world. Very replayable when you want to hit big monsters with big swords
- Maimai. Bet you didn’t expect a rhythm game to be here, bitch! With all other video games gone, maimai would explode in popularity, and I’d finally be able to play maimai locally instead of only in the city on the occasional day off. Yes, this list is just a place holder for the real number 1
Roblox, Fifa 19, Chinese malware mobile game, Fifa 23, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial for the Atari 2600.
Pure evil in human form
Too many fans of Roblox would be happy with this. Replace Roblox with Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days and the list is perfect
Replace either Roblox or FIFA with ‘Takeshi’s Challenge’.
- Garry’s Mod
- Starcraft
- Team Fortress 2
- Minecraft
- Skyrim
that’s already five - which one of these shouldn’t be saved?
maybe Age of Empires 2, Stellaris, or Civ V instead of Starcraft?
maybe Oblivion, Morrowind, or Fallout 3 instead of Skyrim?
maybe Terraria, Stardew Valley, or Factorio instead of Minecraft?
maybe Counter-Strike, Half-Life 2, or Insurgency instead of Team Fortress 2?
This is an awful choice, a committee would have to decide this …
we’re really going to let all these games die?
not to mention games like:
- noita
- Rimworld
- Stanley’s Parable
- Soma
- Alien: Isolation
- BioShock
- Silent Hill
- Amnesia
- Disco Elysium
- Grim Fandango
- Thief
- Beginner’s Guide
- Cuphead
- Hotline Miami
- Celeste
- Command & Conquer
- tetris
- Super Mario Brothers
- Mario Kart
- The Legend of Zelda
- Pokemon
- Animal Crossing
- The Sims
- Halo
- Battlefield games
- Call of Duty games
- Grand Theft Auto
- World of Warcraft
- Doom
- Quake
- Mortal Kombat
- Street Fighter
- Dark Souls
You can find more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_games_considered_the_best
this question is evil, and I hate everyone’s answers.
If the whole world was on Garry’s mod the content would be insane
which makes me think you could use Garry’s Mod to recreate TF2, so maybe that would open up a slot …
maybe the committee would actually look to preserve game engines first and foremost, and then count on recreating other games from that
if I had to pick I would at least try to preserve Source, Unity, and Unreal … HPL Engine (Amnesia, Soma, etc.) is pretty unique, but it might not have enough cultural relevance - depends on whether we are prioritizing diversity in our top 5 picks, or just going based on commercial success & popularity …
dammit, Disco Elysim! I’d be so sad if that was gone
right!? it’s a terrible question, I wouldn’t want to choose, and I would hate whatever anyone came up with
(I hate what I came up with!)
-
Minecraft (A comfortable home away from home).
-
Wii Sports (The one video game literally made for everyone).
-
Bioshock (I may not play it again myself, but everyone should experience “Would you kindly” at least once in their lives).
-
PlayStation Dreams (This one is kinda like wishing for infinite wishes).
-
Bomberman Ultra (A stupidly fun couch-play game that my entire family has played together for more than 10+ years now. I have never NOT smiled when booting up this silly game).
And then the games I’d forever regret not saving for myself: SuperGlob (Arcade), Tempest (Arcade), Uncharted 4, Bayonetta, StarCraft, Resident Evil 4, Portal and Heavy Rain (A brutal punch in the gut that I loved dearly but never want to play again).
-
Damn… I gotta try and be diverse… as much as my narrow taste allows anyway:
- The Wonderful 101: my choice for a PlatinumGames ambassador.
- God Hand: beat’em up representation.
- Ninja Gaiden 2: nonstop action and my favorite Team Ninja game.
- Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R: my favorite fighting game.
- Hellsinker: infinitely replayable shmup.
God hand, what a wonderful choice! Nothing really comes close to the ass-slapping action of that title. And the clunky controls actually make it feel more fun and unique.
If I could choose, then I’d choose for humanity, games that most reasonable people would go “yeah, fair enough”.
(Note, if it were just for me, I wouldn’t pick any of these lol)
- Portal + 2
- Stardew Valley
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Elden Ring
- Final Fantasy VII (or X)
Yeah, fair enough
It’s impossible to pick out just five of the most important games ever, but I’d try to pick games that have important historical significance, have some degree of genre diversity, all while still being fun and thought-provoking games you’ll always want to pick back up.
- Ultima IV.
spoiler
The first RPG that wasn’t a giant dungeon-crawling grindfest where you slay a wizard at the end. It has a big open world, fun NPC interactions, and fun tactical RPG gameplay for the time. Has a really good philosophical storyline that is integrated with the game mechanics, and it shows how creativity can form under constraints. Another good option would have skipped to the SNES era with Final Fantasy VI, which is slightly less retro but is more approachable and has an equally compelling story with stronger replay value and tons of mods/romhacks.
- Resident Evil 2.
spoiler
One of the problems with choosing only five of the most important games is that the horror genre and the point-and-click adventure genre both are important in the history of gaming, but there isn’t room for both. Resident Evil 2 blends both genres exquisitely in a really compelling, but also endearing B-movie story with lovable characters. The Walking Dead would have been another option, but it doesn’t really have gameplay and it strays far enough away from the adventure genre that it doesn’t serve as a good example.
- Flower.
spoiler
The Indie Revolution was an important era of gaming history, and motion controls were really big back then. Beautiful, subtle story about overcoming depression. Roger Ebert was wrong and video games could be art. Any indie game during the Indie Revolution golden era (August 2008-September 2015) would fit here, but I picked Flower because, at the time, it challenged what people’s expectations of what a video game was supposed to be. Games don’t have to be challenging or about fighting to be legitimate. Doesn’t have a ton of replay value, but it’s the sort of game you’ll always come back to during hard times. Barely beat out Stardew Valley, which is longer and has more replay value but isn’t an “art game,” which was very much the zeitgeist of the era, and Celeste which, in addition to having a beautiful ludonarrative story like Flower, would have also been a good mascot for speedrunning communities, but was created post-indiepocalypse and therefore isn’t a good example of the era.
- Nier Automata.
spoiler
A really engaging action-focused game with a good story and tons of replay value. Bloodborne and Bayonetta would have also been good choices, but I ultimately went this one because you’ll spend more time on it, and there’s a co-op mod. It does make this list RPG-heavy, but it’s hard to find a pure action game with as much replay value and attention to the plot. It’s still a skills-based game and none of the RPG mechanics will save you on the hardest difficulty.
- Baldur’s Gate III.
spoiler
I would put an open-world, choice-based game here. Even though BG3 is not a true open-world game, it has many the sandbox features open-world players like short of a fun physics system. It’s the third entry in the series, but the game doesn’t expect you to have played the first two games. Great mod support. I didn’t choose other popular open-world/open-zone games because many have paper-thin quests that lack player agency (Daggerfall, half of Oblivion, Skyrim, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Breath of the Wild), don’t work as a standalone experience (any of the Mass Effect Trilogy, the Witcher 3), are amazing but too small in scale to be good representatives (KOTOR, Dragon Age: Origins, Deus Ex), are too controversial (Grand Theft Auto, which railroads you into being a bad guy) or have a strong open world and player choices but terrible gameplay (Morrowind). I gave BG3 the edge over Cyberpunk and Fallout: New Vegas due to built-in co-op and endless replay value that would last a lifetime.
If this were a top 10 list, I would add Fallout: New Vegas (for a purer open-world sandbox experience), Super Mario Galaxy (a 3D platformer in a well-known franchise with a strong story), Celeste(the pinnacle of 2D platformers and speedrunners love it), Minecraft(an important social game with constructive cooperative mechanics), and Stardew Valley (best cozy game representative).
First place has to be Kerbal space program. I can’t think of another game as profoundly educational as this. If you can land a craft on the Mün, then you have a better understanding of orbital mechanics than the average NASA engineer.
Second place goes to Nier: Automata. It’s a selfish pick, but I struggle to think of a more flawless game.
I want at least one multiplayer PVE game and one PVP game, so third and fourth places go to Minecraft (version 1.18) and Team Fortress 2.
Lastly, for fear that it will count as a video game and otherwise be deleted, I save Lichess.org from annihilation
I’m just saving Planescape: Torment 5 times.
Superman for the N64, E.T. for Atari, Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties, Desert Bus and Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing
TitanFall 2: Its the Portal 2 engine, but better. Also runs on almost anything these days, looks good, could easily be a basis for a ton of different kind of multiplayer shooters via modding. You could basically rebuild any Source game/mod between 2000 and 2015 ish in it.
Deus Ex (the original): Lower fidelity but that means it can run on more things, is also highly moddable, also has a working multiplayer framework that it’s had since almost day one that I guess everyone forgot about, could also be modded into nearly anything, including lower fidelity than TF|2 multiplayer games of basically any kind.
VintageStory: Minecraft, but better. Also highly moddable. Also networkable.
Fallout Online (2/3): Assuming the likely near apocalyptic setting accompanying this hypothetical, we’re gonna want a 2.5D turn based tactics platform, FOnline is highly detailed and highly moddable, and is networked. You could also basically rebuild nearly any 2D JRPG in this, yes, even Pokemon, if you can handle 2.5D isometric sprites.
(I was originally going to say either Xenonauts 1 or 2, but then realized you could basically build X1 or X2 in Fallout Online, and FOnline is already networked.)
No Mans Sky: Beyond being essentially the most advanced procedural generation game that I am aware of, in breadth and depth, you’re going to want to have all that code to be able to decompile parts of it and thus be able to rebuild other or new digital worlds with it.
I reject the concept that no new games will ever be built.
I’ve been using and making mods since the 90s.
There will be new games, apocalypse be damned.
Also, as much as I love some Bethesda games, their engine is a heap of broken garbage.
Rebuild FONV or Skyrim in TF|2 or Deus Ex instead.
They are entirely capable of being modded into that.
Hmm, tough one. I’m going to maximise replayability and this assumes all DLC too
- RimWorld
- Factorio
- Balatro
- FTL or Slay the Spire
- Civ 6 or Cities Skylines
Honourable mention to several JRPGs from Squaresoft
Edit: I’m now reading the thread and second guessing everything. But gonna keep my original list
JRPGs can be annoying to play multiple times.
Civ 6 (or some other strategy game like Age of Empires) and Factorio are great choice for this though.
Fallout 4
Baldur’s Gate 3
Sekiro
Super Mario World
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2
Bad Rats five times.
