Well it's the holiday period and it being the end of the year, I'm usually way too free and get bored and start finding things to do. If you have followed me, you may have noticed that sometimes, I'll be so bored that I'll end up writing lists for things I like and of course, the same thing has happened this year. I didn't really get to do much during 2021 but one thing I did get to do was re-discover my enjoyment of video games.
For a few years I didn't really play much games, focusing on just trying to graduate from Univeristy and also focusing on the Pokemon TCG stuff so it's been fun to get back into it this year, trying all sorts of different games too. So I thought, well why not share my favourite games that I've played for however long I've played games for (which is probably a good 23-24 years now I'd say). Be it from the early days of PS1 or N64, to the glorious days of the PS2, the trusty reliable PC, the handheld stuff of PS Vita, PSP, Nintendo 3DS, DS and Switch and also the current favourite, the PS4.
I'm not much of a gamer to be fair, you'll see that I tend to play the same kind of games throughout the years but for me, I enjoy playing those games so why eat up more of my time and play even more stuff when I might not have the time to play it. You'll see that my choice of games will probably be quite boring, some outdated, but that's the ones I've liked.
So I thought I'd start off with a top 5 of a few genres of games I don't play much off but still, when I get the time, I'll end up getting back into it. A few of them I've only really started recently, some I've not touched in a long while as you'll see and some I still play till today (22nd Dec 2021).
My 5 Favourite Fighting Games
I'll be the first to admit, I didn't really play much fighting games for whatever reason. I'm a big Mortal Kombat fan and have played stuff like Tekken and Street Fighters but that's really all there is to it for me. Maybe I should try getting more of these games again.
Honorable mention: X-Men: Mutant Academy (GBC), a game I played back in the day during the Game Boy Colour days and it was one of the more fun fighting games. Even though I didn't mention any Street Figher games on here, I'm sure I've played a few back in the day but I honestly don't remember which ones we did have back then. The latest one on PS4 (Street Fighter V I believe), my brother does own it and I have played a bit of it but can't say enough for me to consider it on here.
5) Mortal Kombat 4 (PC - 1997) - GameRankings Rating: 72
I had to include this because along with World Cup 98 and WWF Attitude, this is probably one of the first games I personally played in my life. And for an 8 year old, I shouldn't really be playing these kinds of gory fighter stuff but I liked it right away. Who doesn't want to smash buttons on a computer keyboard next to your brother or your cousin and see who can beat the other guy up? Not the greatest fighting game but it's the one that got me started.
4) Tekken 5 (PS2 - 2005) - Metacritic Rating: 88
I didn't get to play much Tekken but for sure this was one I did play a lot of. Still the only one I've played so far honestly but from what I've read, 5 was the best of the bunch so I was lucky my brother had the right one then?
It was a little different to what I was used to but didn't take long for me to get used to. My favourite bit might be ability to freely customize any character with loads of stuff to make their alternate looks however you want it to be. Any game that gives me options to customise things is a big win for me.
3) Def Jam Fight for NY (PS2 - 2004) - Metacritic Rating: 83
I don't know how or why I got this game but I'm sure glad I did! Not sure if Def Jam counts as a fighting or a wrestling game but I'll put it here. It was a fun game because you got to fight as popular hip-hop artists like Snoop Dogg, Xzibit, Ludacris, Ice-T, even a personal favourite of mine during that time, Sean Paul!
You had a cool story mode to go with it too (and loads of customisable options, always a big win in my books like I mentioned earlier) but maybe my most favourite thing is all the smack talk at the start of the game. Hell, you even have Redman with his classic line "Imma take your tounge out and lick my ass with it", that shit was funny. I would pick him just to hear that for a good laugh and he had a jersey with 27 on it, made a fan out of me.
2) Mortal Kombat Deception (PS2 - 2004) - Metacritic Rating: 81
It had been years since I last played a Mortal Kombat game before we got this and it was nice to get back into this world. This game was really good because of the amount of stuff you could do! I have not seen a fighting game offer up so many modes to choose from and even the mini games were fun.
Not only do you have the usual Arcade mode, the Kombat mode was cool because it was an RPG style story mode, something I've not seen in a fighter game before and I sure spent a lot of time on it, but also a Chess Kombat mode and a Puzzle Kombat mode! You've even got the Krypt to unlock stuff, even movies and images you can view from Kontent. One of the underrated PS2 games in my view.
1) Mortal Kombat X (PS4 - 2015) - Metacritic Rating: 83
I know, this is probably not the one many are expecting to be in the first spot but I will say, I spent way too much time on MKX, I'll be the first to admit that. And I had good reasons too because it was really fun. And it's one of the few games where I didn't mind playing online, which is a rarity for me because of my known hatred for playing video games online.
I even took time to learn how to play certain characters properly. Of course, Liu Kang being my favourite, I'd play him loads but Cassie Cage was one of my new favourites because I for some reason knew how use her combos better than the others, CC just clicked with me for some reason. Raiden was another. The Faction War stuff was really cool, something I really did invest my time in.
And even though this is my favourite fighter game, even I know there could be one better since I still have not actually played Mortal Kombat 11 yet (my brother has it on his PS5 but not downloaded it yet onto my PS4) so this spot might change once I finally get to play it. Who knows? Whatever the case, for me, Mortal Kombat is the winner when it comes to fighter games.
My 5 Favourite Adventure Games
Now I wasn't sure what to call for this genre of games so I'm just going with Adventure. This is probably the newest kinds of games I've played, starting with Batman a few years ago and slowly but surely, I've dipped my toes into more of these open-world style of games to expand my gaming knowledge and have been enjoying the journey. I've got 4 more adventure games lined up for me to play after I'm done with my current ones (Yakuza 0, Resident Evil 2, Hitman 3 and Detroit Becoming Human), so you can tell how much of a fan I've become. Any other recommendation is always welcomed!
Honorable mention: Judgement (PS4), I've just started playing this game a few days ago actually and they've already made a fan out of me. My brother has played all the previous Yakuza series games and now I can see why. Maybe I should starting playing all of them as well since he already has it haha. I'm still only on Chapter 2 but walking around Tokyo sure gives me the feels from all my trips there. From solving crimes, beating people up, buying stores from Don Quijote in the game itself and even eating at restaurants and taking pictures of pretty much anything, I'm really enjoying the game so far. Had I played it earlier, it might have even made my top 5 list by now.
5) Hitman 2 (PS4 - 2018) - Metacritic Rating: 82
Before Judgement, Hitman 2 was the newest game I played this year and wow was I impressed. Having never played a stealth game like this before, I wasn't sure what to expect but I enjoyed every single second of it in control of Agent 47 and seeing what he was up to next.
The ability to find many different paths to eliminate your targets made me re-play each mission maybe 10 times over. I had so much fun playing the game I ended up buying the latest Hitman 3 too and I can't wait to get into it soon.
4) Rise of Tomb Raider (PS4 - 2015) - Metacritic Rating: 88
Now this was a game I randomly picked up during my stay in Tokyo, I had seen a few English games on sale and Rise of Tomb Raider was one that caught my eye. I quickly read reviews to see what it was like and was sold on it. And I'm glad I was. I hadn't played the older ones before but this game made a fan out of me right away.
Another stealth style game but with loads more weapons to choose from and an open world to explore which always makes it fun, be it hunting, climbing or even engage in combat fighting. Lara's story throughout the game was fun to follow too, including that emotional ending in the DLC. I ended up buying the next game too because of how much I enjoyed playing this one.
3) Batman Arkham City (PS3 - 2011) - Metacritic Rating: 96
So funny story here, I was already playing the PS4 during this time but there was a period where my PS4 was just dead and I couldn't play anything on it. I was so bored, I decided to play some older PS3 games and reading reviews, I stumbled upon Arkham City, bought it while waiting for my PS4 to be fixed and when it was done, I was still playing it.
Another open-world explorer with stealth mission, and me being a Batman fan, I really enjoyed this one. Who doesn't want to fly around Gotham as Batman? And since I got my hands on the GOTY edition, I got to play the bonus stuff and they were well worth buying. We need more Batman games!
2) Grand Theft Auto 5 (PS4 - 2013) - Metacritic Rating: 97
Well most of you know about this game, probably the highest rated game I've owned and another one I bought in Tokyo during my short stay there along with Rise of Tomb Raider. I had played a bit of San Andreas back in the day but not much of it so it was nice to go back to that familiar setting.
Exploring the open world of Los Santos, driving around, running away from the police, having some adult fun with some hookers, flying some planes, taking the subway, what can you not do in this game? The story was top notch too. There was just way too much to do with all 3 characters. Trevor might be one of my favourite video game characters of all time. Online mode was not very good though.
1) Batman Arkham Knight (PS4 - 2015) - Metacritic Rating: 87
And we go to the thing that introduced me into the world of the open-world adventure games. The freedom to do almost anything and explore whatever you want was completely new to me outside of Pokemon games. My first time playing the game was actually because my friend had bought but was busy so he lent me the game for a few weeks. I had never played a game like this before but I was hooked right away.
I'll never get tired of seeing Batman stories played out so of course I had fun playing this one, be it the fights, flying around Gotham, driving the batmobile, trying out all the AR challenges or just seeing how the story of Batman, Jim Gordon and even the Joker play out. I still say Mark Hamill's portrayal of the Joker is my favourite of all time and it was awesome to see it in Arkham City and Knight.
This game was also the first game where I actually did decide to dip into the world of buying DLC stuff and it was fun for a while, and then those DLC didn't work when trying to put the game back into my other PS4.
My 5 Favourite FPS (First Person Shooter) Games
Now for this one, it's one of those genres I picked up during my pre-Army days, enjoyed it, played a bit more of it and completely stopped just as I got into University. And I haven't really gotten back into it. Not sure why but I just haven't found a reason to. I can't say I'm all that good at FPS games, my aiming has always been rubbish so maybe that's partly why I don't give these kinds of games another go.
5) Killzone (PS2 - 2004) - Metacritic Rating: 70
Killzone was pretty much the first FPS not named Counterstrike that I played for real and it made a fan out of me right away. It may not be the best one ever but I enjoyed it. And hey, I played every version of Killzone since then. This was the game that got me curious on the FPS genre although I will admit, Call of Duty did end up having the better games which is sad as I really liked the Killzone series.
I do wish they still did more of these titles though. The story was easy to get into as well and hey who doesn't like listening to Sgt Rico talking all kinds of shit to the "goggled-eye girl guides" haha!
4) Star Wars Battlefront (PS4 - 2015) - Metacritic Rating: 73
Well it was a Star Wars game so I had to give it a try, and I actually thought it wasn't that bad! My biggest gripe is still the fact that the game was focused mainly on online modes, and I've said before, that's not my favourite way to play.
The Heroes vs Villains feature was probably my favourite of the whole bunch, I must have played that the most out of any modes. I mean you get to either be a Jedi hero or a Sith villain and instead of weapons, most of them had lightsabers and even the use of the force to get your opponents. Battlefront 2 had more options in this area but that game was sadly a little worse.
3) Killzone 3 (PS3 - 2011) - Metacritic Rating: 84
Sure Killzone 2 was better but I didn't play it much sadly. I did at least finish Killzone 3. Killzone games have always looked amazing sadly the story wasn't all that great. Still, you got to kick some Helghast ass in their own world which was a nice twist for once.
I did like how many ways you could take opponents down, from the melee kills either by the use of a knife or just poking their goggles to even using a Ghostbuster-style gun to yeet them suckers away into another world! Multiplayer mode here was great, better than any other Killzone game.
2) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PS3 and PS4 remake - 2009) - Metacritic Rating: 94
Some say this was the best FPS released on the PS consoles and hey, they're probably right. Sadly I didn't play much of it and I know that for a fact when I played the PS4 remake and thinking to myself...wait I didn't get past this point before did I?
The game looked amazing and it was one I didn't mind playing online, before I get annoyed as usual but it is the best multiplayer setting for an FPS I've played. From Team Deatmatch, Free-For-All, Domination, Ground War, Demolition and Sabotage, you were spoilt for choice on what to play. Story was a bit short sadly.
1) Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PS3 and PS4 remake - 2007) - Metacritic Rating: 94
Easily my favourite FPS game. Also the only one where I do physically own the original and the remake version. This was my first time trying the Call of Duty games and wow I was impressed. The story mode was awesome, you play either as a British SAS solider or an American Marnie. Arcade mode was fun.
I did play off-line multiplayer a lot here, especially whenever I'm in the USA visiting my cousins, we'd all just play that to kill time whenever we're bored. Loads of memories of just back-stabbing each other in these games haha.
Multiplayer was awesome, I mean you had 16 maps to choose from! You've got lots of options from Deathmatches, Team Deathmatches, Capture the Flag, you can even choose to go Hardcore Mode with no HUD, or even stuff like one shot-one kill. Kill-streak was apparently a new thing on here too so that was neat. And you can continue upgrading your weapons which is something I hadn't seen yet. Loved this game, one of my all time favourites.
My 5 Favourite Management Games
Now we're going back to the classics! I'm a sucker for Manager games, be it for Football, WWE (as in GM Mode) or even Racing (with one game mentioned here), I've always liked playing these kinds of games. Most might probably find it boring not being in the action itself but I'm ok with it. I like the idea of building up your own team, getting all the pieces together, get in the right players or drivers for your team, build up the next superstars and watch your teams fight for glory. And I've played these management games for a long time, as far back as 1999 even for the classic Championship Manager games.
Honorable mention: Football Manager 2012 (PC), mostly for the fact that this was the game that gave us the 3D view for watching games, which makes watching the games way more fun than watching dots run after balls.
5) Football Manager 2005 (PC - 2004) - Metacritic Rating: 89
The first big time was the 2D-match engine which blew my mind, something I wasn't used to seeing at that time in a Manager game. Seeing coach reports on teams was a super helpful new feature, and they made loaning out players even more easier, big win for me. There were a lot more features included in this game that was a first and made such an impression on me that I kept getting FM games after it. CM 01/02 started the addiction, FM05 helped to fuel the addiction in it some ways. And the next game may have re-kindled the interest for me.
4) Football Manager 2021 (PC and Nintendo Switch - 2020) - Metacritic Rating: 85
For a while I hadn't actually played an FM game, the last one being 2017 which was a good one, I just didn't have the time to play it all that much, only played 96 hours of it and if you're an FM guy, you know that's really not much. So in came the pandemic, we're all stuck at home and for a while I didn't have a PS4 to play and I was getting bored of just playing Pokemon TCG Online, that's where FM 21 came to the rescue.
I tried the beta and liked it so much, I decided to buy the game on both the PC and Switch (it was on sale anyway) and granted I haven't played the Switch one much, I sure have played a lot more on the PC. There were a lot of new stuff I had to get used to, and still learning about it honestly. Not sure when the create a team option came up but it's one addition I really liked, as my current save file is a team I created and trying to bring it from the lowest league of England to the Premier League (as we speak, my team is leading in League 2 with 10 games to go). Also, In-Game Editor is my favourite new thing in current day FM. The many things you can do to make the game the way you want it is just fun. Like I said, anything with lots of customization is a winner to me.
3) Motorsports Manager (PC and Nintendo Switch - 2015) - Metacritic Rating: 81
The non-football entry on this list and this was the game I had been looking for a good 10+ years ever since I heard about an F1 Manager game back in the day. I never did get my hands on it and I always did wonder, what would it be like to have a racing based manager game that is similar to Football Manager. And the awesome folks at SEGA answered my prayers with Motorsport Manager.
This game was so much fun. You take charge of a team from any discipline, build them up, bring them up to the next tier, get the right drivers, work on set-ups, work on strategies, and watch the race unfold and be prepared to make any decisions for any situation that might be thrown at you. Even though I only got it a few years ago, I can't help but keep going back into it after a while away to try even more things out to discover what else I could do in the game.
And the best part, you can easily add in mods into the game and I've been playing with the F1 mods to make it feel like I'm playing an actual F1 manager game, highly recommend this game. I liked it so much I even bought the Switch version for it!
2) Football Manager 2014 (PC and PS Vita - 2013) - Metacritic Rating: 85
I spent way too much time playing this game haha. And I know that for a fact as I have a save file on Newcastle United with me managing them for 16 years. Yes, 16 years! I never last that long with one save file, let alone one team too. 2012 brought along the 3D match view so that was nice and they made some updates in this one. Transfers were made more realistic here which was cool, because I now understood what all the clauses meant having heard about it in the real world but not fully understanding it.
The one thing I do like about Football Manager games from latter years is that now we've got feeder teams to send our players to gain first team action which was always a big thing for me as I always looked to build younger players up and get them ready to play in my first team squad. I bought the PS Vita version as well which was just a classic mode which I really liked, and it's still the only PS Vita game I own funnily enough.
1) Championship Manager 2001/02 (PC - 2001) - IMDb Rating: 89
It had to be CM 01/02, you know I had to go with this. No football manager game can ever top this for me and probably none ever will. I had played this for a few years before 01 and it wasn't that hard to get into it thankfully.
It is much simpler compared to Football Manager these days with all the details you can play with but call me a simple man, I always preferred having less stuff to do which is why I always liked CM 01/02. At least on here I didn't have to keep talking to the media or worry about players wanting a new contract or force a move out. I played many saves on here, from leading Manchester United to 5 straight EPL titles to getting Monza into the top Italian league to leading Ajax to a treble win and even getting Woking almost into the Premier League. You can tell how much fund I had with this.
And the best part of all of this? CM 01/02 has been made a free to play game from a few sites. I did get it running for a short while last year and it brought back great memories, so much so I'm trying to get it working again since I messed around with a few stuff that made the game unplayable sadly. Honestly if you gave me an option to go back to playing FM 14, FM21 or CM01/02, I'll take CM01/02 any day. It's what started my Football Manager addiction anyway!
My 5 Favourite Football/Soccer Games
The old favourite. I say that with some sadness because if you may notice, I haven't really played a football game or invest time with it since FIFA 18. And even then, I was already losing interest after playing FIFA 16. Which is kinda sad because if you ask a 16 year old Kash, could he name a top 10 FIFA games 15 years later, he could easily do it.
I used to buy FIFA quite regularly and since the 10s, it's slowly stopped. It's really sad to think since football games (and wrestling) are what got me into video games in the first place. I can confidently say the first game I owned on a PC that wasn't for educational purposes was a FIFA game. Back then it was really fun and I enjoyed it, played it way too much sometimes. I would get my friends over and we'd play it together. Be it FIFA or even PES, those were fun times.
Can't say I enjoy the last few ones, I've tried them and I just can't really get into it. The game feels different and I'm honestly not a fan of the whole Ultimate Team nonsense, that's what killed my interest in playing football games. I even picked up FIFA 18 when I was in Japan just to try out the Mr Journey story mode, finished it, played some modes not named FUT just to mess around, played a bit of career mode and I was done. Never played it again. Didn't really enjoy playing it either sadly. But here we go, let's get back to the fun times when FIFA was good.
Honorable mention: FIFA 2000 (PC) - The period where I was just getting my fix of video games and the third year in a row I had a FIFA game with World Cup 98, FIFA 99 and FIFA 00. The big thing this game gave us the ability to play consecutive seasons which was big! So of course I played multiple years with a certain team to keep them up and get into the European spots. Plus, FIFA 2000 had some of the better soundtracks too. "Stop The Rock", "It's Only Us", "Crossfader Dominator", "Sell Out" and "Joy!", true classics!
5) World Cup 98 (PC - 1998) - GameRankings Rating: 76
Sure, this isn't the best FIFA game ever played but World Cup 98 will always have a special place in my heart because it's the FIRST game I ever played. As an 8-year old kid with no gaming device or any of those things, it was a complete new world for me and I would plays hours and hours of WC 98.
I really enjoyed it and because of it, I would end up getting FIFA 99 and FIFA 2000, another of my old favourites. Sometimes I honestly wish I could find a way to play any of those games just to get that feeling of playing football and it being fun again. I can still remember the classic sounds from the game too, from "Soul Beat Runna" to "Absurd" and of the classic intro of "Tubthumping". So if you ever wanted to know where my love for gaming came from, you can thank World Cup 98 for it.
4) Winning Eleven 7/Pro Evolution Soccer 3 (PS2 - 2003) - Metacritic Rating: 93
As you may or may not know, I've always been a FIFA fan, I never really knew much about PES/W11 until we owned a PS2 for ourselves and even then I didn't pay much attention to it. That all changed when I started reading PS Magazines and kept reading about this other football game that people were saying was better than FIFA.
So I gave it a try and after a few games, I was sold. It felt weird playing with different buttons but it was really good. Didn't realise that the alternative to FIFA could be quite fun and I put in a lot of hours in WE7. Shame this was the best of their offerings because this was easily the best PES game ever released in my own view. I played the next few ones but they just didn't quite measure up to WE7 and before you know it, I stopped and FIFA was my sole focus again.
3) FIFA 10 (PS3 - 2009) - Metacritic Rating: 91
Apparently FIFA 10 is the highest rated FIFA game on Metacritic and I can see why. Strangely enough it was the only PS3 game on FIFA I owned at this timing but it was easily better than anything else I had played since the PS2 days. It was FIFA at it's best thanks to the new 360-degree control of the players which was a big winner, it's just a shame I didn't get to play games all that much during this period as it was just before my Army training started so I never did get to play it as much as I would have liked.
The Manager Mode was probably my favourite new inclusion on the game, I probably spent most of my time on it. I hadn't seen a FIFA game go into this much depth to put you into the shoes of the managers, even upgrading stuff like training facilities, staff and even keep an eye on player's growth. In my 1-2 career mode I did get Manchester United back to winning the league and the Champions League. Makes you wonder why current FIFA games aren't as good eh?
2) FIFA 2005 (PS2 - 2004) - Metacritic Rating: 81
I probably played FIFA the most during my PS2 days with 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007! Yes, 4 years back to back, which is something I have not done for FIFA in a long time, and before that, the longest streak was 1998 to 2000! Now I don't even get back to back FIFA games, or any at all! But 2005 was probably my favourite of the bunch even though I'd say 2004 was better, but 2005 gets the nod more for the career mode.
Not only could you do a create-a-player for once but a 15-year career mode? Sign me up! It's also the first time you could do tricks during a game which was neat. But as I mentioned, anything that allows me to customise and make stuff up, I'll end up spending loads of time on it and sure enough the same can be said for 2005. I had my character in to see how far I could take Newcastle United and we did get to the finals of the Champions League at one point, that's not too bad right?
1) FIFA 14 (PS4 - 2013) - Metacritic Rating: 87
While I may have played FIFA the most during the 00's, if I were to say which FIFA I played more than any other game, it can only be either FIFA 1999 or 2000 back in the old PC days or FIFA 2014 on the PS4. And I had to give 14 the nod here as it was one of the best FIFA games I've played which is impressive to think that it was the first one out on the PS4!
This was the most realistic FIFA I had played up till this point, moving the ball around felt right for once, the AI on both sides were much better, it felt the closest to playing the game for real, something I hadn't felt since playing this game actually since the next few ones weren't as good as this.
Career mode was just as fun, especially with the new Global Scouting Network feature which made it more fun to discover new players. I probably played a good 5-7 years of career mode on here which is longer than most, just shows you how much I enjoyed playing FIFA 14. I also did give the solo career mode a try, I started out as myself with a smaller team (going on loan to an Norwegian team too) just to see how far I'd go and I stopped as a star player for West Ham in the Premier League, not too bad then! If FIFA went back to this, I might start playing the games again.
Hope you enjoyed reading the stories and why I picked those games as my favourites from those genre and have a good day!
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