Desert Island game series

You probably know the format. What game series would you take if you were stranded on a desert island? Lets say up to 3 maximum. Doesnt have to be just on PC, you'll be able to take whatever other hardware necessary to run the games you choose. Flight sticks, wheels, CRT TV's and consoles, Gamer beds, feel free.

Different to what are your favourite games, as they have to be as replayable as possible to last the rest of your days, multiplayer is not possible because you have no internet of course. You can however take as many mods for the games you want with you to install and use whenever you want.

1. Total War

Starting with Shogun and all the way up to Warhammer 3. I only really played Shogun, and a touch of Empire before Warhammer came along, it would be fun to revisit them, and Three Kingdoms and Troy looked interesting.. But the real reason I want this series is TW Warhammer.

I don't own the third game yet, but I played a lot of the first two. Once you're done with the base games and unique race campaigns, the Immortal Empires (which fortunately released fully patched and balanced just before I was stranded) campaign is going to be huge. A quick search tells me there are 22 unique races across the 3 games and DLC's so far, all of which have unique mechanics. There must be thousands of hours of fun stuff to work through in Immortal Empires alone, on top of the Old World, Vortex and whatever the 3rd games story campaigns are called for each faction.

There's also a ton of total conversion Middle Earth/Song of Ice and Fire amongst other mods for some of the older games that would be great to get into.

2. (Dark) Souls. (I know, I know)

Once you've been bitten then they've got you, though you do have to hold your arm in its mouth and poke it for a fair while before it does. But asides from the base games and DLC's which add a ton of content, there are quite a lot of mods that change the campaigns up across the series that I havent tried. With no time constraints I'd probably just go through everything in all the games and mods, there are also a ton of weapons/spells to try out that are almost all viable to use right through the end game with upgrades in each game. I also get Elden Ring, Demons Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro because I said so.

Leaving my third slot open so I can mull it over, and maybe just steal someone else's idea instead.

What series are you taking to keep you busy?
 

Sarafan

Community Contributor
It's not an easy choice, but I would probably go with RPGs solely:

1. Baldur's Gate series

Everything was already said about the game. I've finished the series 5 times and already have desire to do this once again. There's of course plenty of mods available which can make every playthrough quite unique. Read about Big World Project people: http://www.shsforums.net/files/download/534-big-world-english/. It's modding pushed to an absurd level. Of course I'm taking Baldur's Gate 3 with me as well! :)

2. Neverwinter Nights series

These are games that were designed to be modded. Countless of community modules. And if you get bored, you can quite easily create your own and send them on a pendrive in a bottle to the world! :)

3. The Witcher series

I was considering The Elder Scrolls or Fallout series, but decided to pick this one. Not so many mods, but the games are so good, that I'll probably return to them regularly in the future. Too bad that CDPR didn't provide proper modding tools for The Witcher 3. It's even hard for me to think about the potential that could be unleashed...
 
I would probably take a Civilization game (i think my favourite is 4) as they are always great time passers and each playthrough can bring something new.

Maybe a Grand Theft Auto game. I haven't played much of 5 so I could complete the single player and spend the rest of my days playing with mods and outrunning the cops.

Lastly, I'd like a game I could learn so maybe Star Citizen. Maybe by the time I'm stranded there will be an offline version (sorry, slight cheat there).
 
I would probably take a Civilization game (i think my favourite is 4) as they are always great time passers and each playthrough can bring something new.

Maybe a Grand Theft Auto game. I haven't played much of 5 so I could complete the single player and spend the rest of my days playing with mods and outrunning the cops.

Lastly, I'd like a game I could learn so maybe Star Citizen. Maybe by the time I'm stranded there will be an offline version (sorry, slight cheat there).

You get to take the whole series, no need to settle for one of them. :)
 
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you have no internet
Necessity is the mother of invention, so…
send them on a pendrive in a bottle
…BottleNet is born! Lag, what's that?

There are probably 3 main criteria for a game series to last a lifetime—either could do alone:
A) Hugely moddable, so each game in the series can last a year or more if you like;
B) Procedural maps, so every play is different;
C) Skirmish mode.
Grab all mod and map packs before you leave—duh.

1. Civ series of course.
A+B above. Add in the large degree of customization in the base games, plus a selection of quite different victory conditions, and it's clear #1.
Make sure to download the entire CivFanatics site & forums before you leave!

2. Command & Conquer series—incl Red Alert & Generals.
Doesn't have A or B, altho there are a fair few mods—but nothing like the big mod games. Good long campaigns, but skirmish is where C&C shines—reaching its zenith in Generals ZH Generals Challenge.

3. This space reserved.
One of those huge collections of small & indie games for more relaxing times—can't be whacking Axemen or Apocalypse Tanks all the time.

I am of course assuming that the supplied lifelong-indestructible PC comes pre-loaded with all the necessary simulators—Fishing, Farming, Fire starting, Hut building, Pointy stick making, etc etc.
 

Zloth

Community Contributor
Different to what are your favourite games, as they have to be as replayable as possible to last the rest of your days...
Which, given my survival skills, will not be many. Especially in a desert. (I've often wondered if that's supposed to be "deserted," but somebody messed up long ago and now everyone says "desert"?) Maybe the geothermal power plant that's going to be needed to give my gaming platform electricity to run will have well stocked vending machines to keep me going?

Hmmmm.... Sadly, I don't see any video games that would instruct me on how to build seaworthy boats out of sand and leftover Twinkie wrappers.

Age of Wonders. The latest game has a meta-game that lets you build up your empire as you win on more planets, plus the series is a big one.

Egosoft's X series would be good. Lots of games that I very much enjoy and each one is rather huge. I've already played them for maybe 1500 hours but, with decades with nothing to do but play games and break into vending machines, that's going to be a drop in the bucket. X3 has some incredible mods, too.

Kerbal Space Program. Maybe I can figure out how to build a rocket that will let me send a message to civilization. Beats bottles any day.
 
My first pick is definitely the Elder Scrolls series. I have hundreds of hours in Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim combined and have hardly used any mods so far. I haven't even played The Shivering Isles DLC yet.

Second pick I was considering either Total War or Civilization. Total War has more games, but I think Civilization might win on replayability, as the games within the series are more varied than the Total War games. Plus they are better polished.

I'm going to think a bit more about the third pick. I'm considering Dwarf Fortress, but maybe I should have something more action focused or at least a bigger series for more options.
 
If every Zelda game is part of the same series, is every Mario game part of the same series as well? I don't even care that much about Mario games, but just having 200+ games available to play in between Civilization and Elder Scrolls would be really nice.
Haha. I guess we're making our own rules, so why not? If you want all Mario games to be a series, then why not? :D

Kaamos_Llama might have something to say about that, though. My personal thought on that is that Zelda fans have actually tried to figure out a real timeline of how the Zelda games fit together. I'm not sure that the Mario games have a timeline. But I'd probably still call it a series. But maybe there are different Mario series. Like the early 2D, the Galaxy games, the "New Super Mario" series... I'm not sure how you'd figure it out.
 
Yea I was considering saying Mario, that way you get a million 2d and 3d platformers, kart racing, Golf, tennis, puzzle and probably loads of other stuff I cant think of. I thought Odyssey was brilliant, loads of fun and really inventive, nothing else quite like it. Havent really played a lot of the others except a bit of 64, so they would be fun to try.

Feel like I'd want as much variety as possible as well as lastability, Mario would fit well with that. Of course Zelda is a series, though about that too. Thing is I think in a couple thousand hours or so I'd have gone through them all, not sure how replayable they are as there arent many reasons to replay once your done afaik, youre always Link, always get the same stuff pretty much in each playthrough?

@BrianBoru I could definitely see Civ, only thing that stopped me putting it was that I probably wouldnt play them all, I'd probably get stuck on Civ 4 and the others wouldnt hold as much appeal, I'm sure theres a ton of mods though to keep things interesting.

@Sarafan Nice choices, surely a lot of hours there. Hadnt heard of the big world project, would be fun if I had the time for it.

@Zloth Definitely if I had taht much time I'd look to get into X3 or 4 those games seem huge. I always like the idea of space games, but when I've tried in teh past I run out of steam with it after a few hours though. maybe with nothing else to think about I could get into them. Age of Wonders too.

@Pifanjr Sorry mised you off! Elder scrolls with all the mods is a good option. Never played the early ones but wasnt Daggerfall proc-gen as well. Remember it was huge.
 
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I've been trying to think of another series that has anything close to the amount of variety Mario has, because while there's quite a lot of genres in the Mario series, most of them I don't like very much.

However, as far as I can find there isn't any other series with so much variety and high quality games. I think you'd get the closest with the Zelda or Final Fantasy series. Minecraft with all of the mods would give a ton of content as well.
 
I've been trying to think of another series that has anything close to the amount of variety Mario has, because while there's quite a lot of genres in the Mario series, most of them I don't like very much.

However, as far as I can find there isn't any other series with so much variety and high quality games. I think you'd get the closest with the Zelda or Final Fantasy series. Minecraft with all of the mods would give a ton of content as well.
Yeah, Minecraft might be a good choice. I wonder if Minecraft Dungeons would count as being part of the "series." A ton of replayability, though.

I'll tell you another possible good choice. Would all of the LEGO games count as one series? There is a ton of gaming there, especially if you get LEGO City Undercover with it, and also LEGO Worlds.
 
Yeah, Minecraft might be a good choice. I wonder if Minecraft Dungeons would count as being part of the "series." A ton of replayability, though.

I'll tell you another possible good choice. Would all of the LEGO games count as one series? There is a ton of gaming there, especially if you get LEGO City Undercover with it, and also LEGO Worlds.

If we use "franchise" instead of "series" I think all LEGO games should count. But then that also opens up the possibility of choosing all Star Wars games.
 
If we use "franchise" instead of "series" I think all LEGO games should count. But then that also opens up the possibility of choosing all Star Wars games.
If we're talking about series and not franchises, then I think Zelda could technically count, since there is a timeline, but Mario would not count. I think Mario is more of a franchise than series. But you might be able to consider smaller Mario series, like the Galaxies, and maybe Paper Mario.
 
If its kind of related I guess it counts, hadn't though too deep on it. Star Wars would count sure. A Mario game is a Mario game, Minecraft is Minecraft as far as I'm concerned. Go nuts :)

Probably should have just said franchise anyway. If I say I'm taking Mario I dont just want the platformers, I'll have the RPGs and everything. Then again Star Wars does give you quite a wide range of genres
 
If its kind of related I guess it counts, hadn't though too deep on it. Star Wars would count sure. A Mario game is a Mario game, Minecraft is Minecraft as far as I'm concerned. Go nuts :)

Probably should have just said franchise anyway. If I say I'm taking Mario I dont just want the platformers, I'll have the RPGs and everything. Then again Star Wars does give you quite a wide range of genres
You're being very generous. Lol. So we get to take 3 franchises with us?
 
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