Homeschooled316

All the usual problems you expect with lists like these.

• Franchises represented by their first or most ubiquitous game rather than their best (or better yet, all of them that deserve it making the list)
• Recency bias toward games that likely won’t be recognized as this good 5 years from now.
• Missing entries so egregious that almost anyone would agree they belong on the list (see the lack of Symphony of the Night, for example).
• Arguably too much weight put on storytelling.
• (most importantly) The items above being applied randomly and inconsistently.

Arkham City was for a long while considered the best, but age has arguably been kinder to Asylum (thanks to storytelling) and Knight (thanks to streamlining/modernization).

I don’t think there is any question on how to answer the literal post, though. If you could only get one of them, it’s Asylum.

Also, I would not recommend binging these games unless you are REALLY feeling it when you finish Asylum. The chief complaint about them was always that they did not change the formula around enough between games. I have to think playing them back to back exacerbates that.

In support of this suggestion, most dining tables are already too tall to comfortably play a board game where you want to see behind standing pieces. That’s why board game tables tend to use leaves that indent downward. All solutions that add height to the table make the problem worse, especially for members of your playgroup with lower sitting height. So I’m a big proponent of the playmat solution

Age of Empires 2 skirmish maps are procedurally generated, in contrast to other competitive RTS games of that style. It’s done quite well and makes scouting meaningful for reasons other than rock-paper-scissoring your opponent.

I have a cool idea to prevent hardcore disconnect deaths: Let people play single player games offline. But that would hinder their ability to retroactively ruin their game 5 years from now.

MetalFX upscaling is a nice gesture, but turned out to be a lousy performance-quality tradeoff comparable to FSR 1.0. Apple Arcade had some nice gems like fantasian, but also ended up a recycling bin for failed f2p games. We can only assume the monkey’s paw will curl some way or other for this, too. Apple’s attempts to get gamers to buy their stuff is always a little half-assed.

Seconding slipways. It is peerless.

My experience on PS5 with my wife has been beyond exceptional. Best local coop I have seen in a terribly long time, basically since the end of that bygone era.