Quarantine Gaming Survival Guide

Hopefully while you're all actively staying the F home, rather than putting yourself at risk for the big businesses who refused to close their doors in an attempt to stimulate profits for CEOs, you have some time to get through your gaming backlog.

I've created this forum as a guide to help each other out with some game suggestions (for any and all platforms) that will keep people captivated and hopefully for a cheap price.

Please don't attack people in these comments. These times are tough enough without bashing people console choice, political leanings or anything else that may arise in this circumstance.

Support each other!

For my recommendations:

All Platforms (PC, PS4, XB1, Switch):

  • Witcher 3
    Give yourself the chance to learn the basic mechanics, don't stress too much about the bckstory and you should find yourself enjoying a 100 hour campaign

  • Doom Series
    With the recent re-releases of Doom 1, 2, 3 and 64 (hopefully we get Doom 4 through 63 soon) for modern platforms at incredibly reasonable prices, now is a great time to give the series a go for the first time. A really good introduction to the FPS genre due to the non-complicated controls and limited axis (1, 2, 64) helps make the game accessible for anyone willing to give them a go. As an added bonus, Doom 1 and 2 have up to 4 player local co-op and competitive modes.

After you've finished with the old school titles, you can then consider venturing forth to Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal (not yet available on Switch).

PlayStation 4:

  • Uncharted Series
    This is one of my favourite franchises of all time and the PS4 has 5 of the 6 entries just waiting for you to install or download them (the 6th being on the PlayStation Vita).

If you're into Tomb Raider, Indiana Jones, Adventure movies, third person shooters, charismatic characters, witty humour, cohesive story-telling or just good games in general, this is the series for you. With each game ranging from 7-15 hours to complete, there is a fair amount of time to be had in completing this series.

Xbox One:

  • Halo Series
    I know this may seem stereotypical, but the halo franchise has 6 entries on Xbox one, including multiple versions of 3, 4 and Reach.

Why I recommend Halo though, is for the multiplayer factor and the fact you'll probably want to socialise with your friends while on lockdown. If you're one of those people that likes online games for their social aspect, but also doesn't like that they're a massive time sink without an end-goal, Halo is the perfect middle-ground. 6 campaigns, fully playable in co-op over Xbox Live (or local with the exception of Halo 5).

  • Ori series
    Ori and the Blind Forest is one of the most beautiful games I have ever played. The exploration felt rewarding every single time I ventured away from the immediate recommended path and, although I finished it on Switch, I made sure I went out to get the collector's edition on Xbox One so that I had a case worthy of the franchise.

Even if you're not huge on 2d games, I can't recommend Ori enough. Might be a good change of pace from Halo or Witcher or Doom as well.

Nintendo Switch:

  • The Platinum Games "collection"
    Now, I know this isn't a cohesive series, but I highly recommend Bayonetta 1, 2 and Astral Chain on this system. Bayonetta 2 and Astral Chain are both exclusive to Nintendo with Bayonetta 3 hopefully not too far away. These games are not nearly talked about as much as the more obvious choices for Switch time-sink titles (Breath of the Wild, Mario Odyssey, Super Mario Maker, Animal Crossing, Splatoon 2, etc), but are 3 of the most enjoyable action titles I've ever played.

Bayonetta 1 and 2 will take you about 8 hours each to finish, whereas Astral Chain will run you around 24 due to the more explorative, investigative and open environment styles of gameplay on top of the pure action sequences.

PC:

I don't have a PC.

Feel free to leave your recommendations below. I could've added a lot more, but nobody would have read them 🙃

Comments

  • I’ve only got an XBOX 360 :(
    But I started another play through of Skyrim again :)

    • +2

      Hey, if you've only got a 360, you can still play Halo 3, 4 and Reach with your pals on Xbox One if they have the backwards compatible versions installed.

      Also, here's a short list of recommendations if you've yet to play them:

      Witcher 2 (pretend you're playing Witcher 3)

      LA Noire - great 30 hours of investigation and story telling

      Tomb Raider (2013) and Rise of the Tomb Raider - these are as close as you can get to a current gen experience on Xbox 360. Sure, you won't get the third game in the trilogy, but it's arguably the weakest anyway.

      • Thanks. I haven’t played Witcher or Tomb Raider yet.

  • Quarantine Gaming Survival Guide

    Oh good. Wait, why aren't I seeing games like Half-Life or Civ on here?

    I don't have a PC.

    Talk about burying the lede…


    Nah, all jokes aside, good list. Especially seconding the Halo series for online cooperative multiplayer.

    • +1

      Thanks! I thought about adding online-only games (especially the cross-play titles) like Fortnite and Rocket League for the social aspect, but gathered people would be pretty aware of them by now. Halo felt like the right choice here.

  • If you have a PC try Civilization 5/6 or Football Manager.

    You'll still be happily playing when we all get released from lockdown in a few months.

    • Also worth noting, I believe Civ 6 and Football manager are available on Consoles (I know they're both available on Switch for example)

  • +2

    RPG's are a godsend in this environment, mostly because they can take 10's if not 100's of hours to complete.

    Final Fantasy series, Baldur's Gate new releases, Dragon Age series etc. etc. - highly recommended.

    • Oh speaking of RPGs, for anyone with a Switch, Zelda: Breath of the Wild is rated one of the best RPGs of all time and will make 14 (or 40) days go by in a flash.

      • Zelda BOTW is in my top 3 games of all time, but is it really an RPG? You don't level up or anything.

        I'd say it's just an open world action-adventure with a fantasy setting.

        Regardless, your point is still valid about the time commitment.

    • If you like JRPGs, then Dragon Quest is also great. I've put many hours into the most recent one.

      Also Final Fantasy 7 remake comes out on April 10th!

  • +1

    Xbox one and gamespass is all you need.

  • Nek Minit, no interwebs.

    • Hence I made sure to list a lot of single player experiences.

      • Lol. Make sure you can actually play them without having to verify online first.

        • What single player games require that?

          • @Faro: Diablo 3 comes to mind.

            • @[Deactivated]: On consoles? Or just PC?

              • @Faro: Oh, PC. I'm a master race.

  • +1

    No mention of CoD Warzone? C'mon, mate. It's a bloody ripper of a game.

    Uncharted 4 and Rally Dirt 2.0 are included in April's Playstation Plus membership, as well. Heck yea

    • As far as I'm aware, CoD Warzone is a multiplayer only game.

      I avoided listing any multiplayer-only titles as I assumed these were already well known and rely on a constant internet access, have no endgame and are best enjoyed with friends (which you may not have control over).

      If I were to list out multiplayer experiences I would have also included things like Rocket League and Fortnite, but decided single player experiences would be more broadly applicable.

      • Fair enough

  • I spent +150 hours on Witcher 3 (inc. DLC) on PC.
    That is most hours I spend on a single game.

  • Super Meat Boy
    Hotline Miami

    If you wanna expel some anger and frustration. Just like, be careful, it could make it worse.

  • +1

    Binding of Isaac is a great rouge like I've put over 1000 hours into. Puzzle quest is a fun match three style game with RPG elements.
    Risk of rain is a platformer rougelike.
    Stardew valley is a farming sim. Don't knock it til you try it. They're addictive and have been made since early 90s. This is the best one at the moment.
    Two point hospital just came out on console it's a lot like theme hospital. A hospital management SIM. Also addictive.
    Any civilization game is going to be good. 6 is the current one but can be demanding on PC. Anno games are civs counterpart and may run better on your PC. Tropico is just okay.
    Witcher was my favourite RPG of the last 5 years. Give spyro a go if you like crash and Jack and daxter. Rachet and clank is a good one too.
    World of Warcraft is the leading online mmo. You can get a free trial of it still I believe (gave up a while back,but had a good 10 years stint).
    Yu-Gi-Oh games are great card games the AI fights are challenging and there's many games.
    Digimon world was my favourite game as a kidm Digimon world next order is it's next one. You get a Digimon that you raise like a tamigotchi and have to battle and do RPG things. Digimon world 2 and 3 are terrible.

    Coma is a great interactive novel. So is 9 hours 9 days 9 doors.

    Gravity rush is an odd one where you kind of park hor(sp?) with flying elements. Kind of fun.
    Don't forget older games. Most emulators can run on anything. Relive your childhood!

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