#i love starbound sooooooooooo SO much

[everythingeverything2]

sloppily used my own list format to make my top games of the decade list! meanings for each game under the cut. (couldn’t decide between BL2 and starbound)

1. MINECRAFT - Growing up, I adored playing Minecraft. I put hundreds of hours into my own small singleplayer world, building huge city complexes and tanks and farms and helicopters, skyscrapers and zoos, floating signs in the sky that cheered me up when I logged on. I fell in love with the freedom, the utility, the versatility and complete control at my fingertips. I joined a couple online servers when I turned 10 - HouseCraft (a Czechian/English survival server where I got scammed frequently, but loved it for its low-key atmosphere and homey feel) and FinalDawn (a warrior cats roleplay server - this is where I ended up spending most of my time). I met some of my closest friends there, I was traumatized as a result of that server, I became the messiest person I ever knew on that server, I grew and changed and I realized I was a lesbian because of that server. Without it, I never would’ve become the person I am now. Because of Minecraft, I’ve flourished so much, and I will always look upon this game with the utmost love, adoration, and respect. 2. MGS3: SNAKE EATER - This one’s fairly recent (I got my PS3 in the summer and only managed one run of the game before returning to school), but it’s my favorite all-time game in the Metal Gear series. Its complexities, its themes, its characters and its storyline, it all seemed so beautiful to me. I held it very close to my heart then, and I still do now. It’s an amazing game that everyone should play - and finish - at least once, to truly understand how beautiful and ridiculous a game can be. 3. LISA: THE PAINFUL - This was my very first take on a game requiring critical analysis and serious, complex thought. Hbomberguy introduced me to it with his LISA: The Analysis video, and I’ll always be grateful to him for it. I poured many hours into this one - played it twice over, and now I’m starting up a fresh save. It’s a truly complicated game, with its many flaws, and its takes on trauma, abuse, and how exactly an apocalypse can twist the very core of humanity, are beautiful to me (the theories on how the apocalypse itself started, what exactly happened to the earth, and various unfinished sidelines are a whole rabbit hole in and of themselves). Be warned, though: this game has VERY HEAVY focuses on child abuse, drug addiction/alcoholism, and general gore/sexual assault. It gave me nightmares because I played it too much.

4. TLOZ: BREATH OF THE WILD - My first switch game, and my first Zelda game. I was immediately smitten with this game: I started crying during the intro (when the camera pans away from Link on the mountainside) because it was just so beautiful, because I was finally playing the game I’d wanted for years. Every time the music swelled and melted into the LOZ theme, every time I came across a new, beautiful, amazing spot, I teared up or just started crying. Everything about this game was, and is, just so perfect to me. I love you, BOTW.

5. STARDEW VALLEY - I’ll be honest; when I first got this game, I had pretty strong doubts. I didn’t like the visual style all that much, I thought it would be a bland indie game I’d be wasting my money on. But I bought it, because I had a lot of cash on Steam at the time (Christmas money, really). Suffice to say, I got addicted to it. Stayed up til 4AM on school nights, dedicated every waking hour I had to Stardew Valley, racked up a hundred hours in a month and 30-40hrs per week. I pored over wiki pages, to the point where my entire PC started dying whenever I’d open up my browser because of the sheer amount of tabs. I love this game so, so much, despite its flaws. 6. YAKUZA 0 - This was another huge timesink. It was my first Yakuza game ever, and I was super excited to play it (preordered it, sat for hours in my sweltering room waiting for it to finish install). At first, it was a buggy mess, and I absolutely hated it. Then patches came out, and I booted it up again, and I fell in love. I streamed it for my friends, I played it on my own, I snuck around parental locks to get on and play it in the middle of the night - landing 70 hours in a week, at one point. It’s not that outstanding of a story, and its graphics - compared to the rest of the recent games - aren’t the most stunning in the world, but it’s still an amazing game. Fair warning for gore and some transmisogyny, though.

7. NIGHT IN THE WOODS - This was one of my first ever Steam games! I hold it very near to my heart, as I somehow managed to play it 4 times over and get almost every single achievement. And played all the other games. And gushed about it to everyone I knew. I loved this game so, so much, and I still do. I should play it again!

8. BORDERLANDS 2 - This was a very finnicky game for me. I had huge on/off spells with BL2, getting addicted to it one moment, falling off it for months another moment. I still loved it, still loved its characters, its storylines, and unfortunately got traumatized by some folks who loved some of the worse characters, but I still adore booting this up when I can. 

8. STARBOUND - I adored this game. It was a slow start, but once I was able to kick this off with some school friends, it became a massive timesink. I spent so, so much time on this, decorating my ship, exploring various planets, connecting with so many different societies and NPCs. Please, please buy and play this game. It’s utterly astounding.

9. POKEMON WHITE - My first DS game! Again, a finnicky one, got huge on/off spells, but it was the first Pokemon game I managed to play all the way through. And I was pretty damn proud of that: every other game I pirated, etc, I never ever finished (I hate repetitive grinding).