Playing general is one of the exhilarating types of games. Although we’ve had RTS games for a long time, the realism and minute control afforded by games in the Total War series – mixed with strategy elements – creates an addictive, high-action and hectic game that is a modern classic of the war game genre.

Controlling hundreds of soldiers at a time, with different specializations, strengths, and weaknesses, is intricate and challenging. The simulation is such that with the right tactics on the battlefield, numbers could be overcome, just as in the real world. Creative Assembly have released many Total War games over the years, but the smooth, elegant design of Shogun 2 is extremely playable until today. The DLC Fall of the Samurai is also an essential companion that transforms this game into a sweeping epic that spans the ages.

I remember one of my college friends telling me about this game. He had spoken about it because he knew that I enjoyed reading about history a lot. He told me to try it. I asked what it was about, what you could do in it. And he said: Everything. I didn’t know what that meant, and I didn’t get to play this game until a few years later. But when I tried it, I realized that, although of course it was exaggeration that you could do anything, it was a merited one.

This historical sandbox took up hundreds of hours of my time. The most unique and exciting aspect is how you deal with characters, mostly, and not only land or objects. You control a human being that has families, friends, enemies. These relationships define your power, your struggles, and the fate of your realm—they are the catalyst for rebellions, the loyalties from which you gather your levies and taxes, and the family that eventually take over your role as leader.

Each individual has traits that affect how they act towards you and others. People can be greedy, lustful, intelligent, humble, good, evil, and so on. You and your family have these traits, too, and creating a good bloodline is essential for maintaining your power.

This game has dozens of DLCs that all add to its complexity. I had to play this for years before I got a good hold on the basics, and until now I am not confident that I truly understand everything it has to offer. Add to that the numerous mods, and the game is so rich that despite hundreds of hours I feel as though I could uncover much, much more.

Recently, Paradox released the third installment in the series, which also added Asia with its own ruling systems. Time will only tell if CK3 will be as remembered as fondly as CK2, or if it will even match up to all that CK2 had to offer.

This game is one of the games that I think stands alongside other great works of art. It is not merely enjoyable, beautiful, addictive, or fun. To call it those things would be to overlook the aspects of this work that rises further, further above these merely pleasurable aspects. It is, through its entire production, a commentary on human ambition, suffering, and the nature of mortality. It definitely builds upon and perfects everything that FromSoftware has made before, with the Dark Souls and Demon Souls games.

The game is an open world game, and I think it is much better than other examples of the genre because the entire open world is involved in the game. In some games like Red Ded Redemption 2 and Grand Theft Auto, too much of the world is set dressing. Too much of the world are twists and turns that, while pleasant to the eye, add nothing to the game that is ludological in nature. That is to say, there is nothing to play there.

However, in Elden Ring, the temple, house, building, or structure more often than not is a dungeon, play area, the hiding place of a weapon or artifact. The world, the game, and the story are meticulously, carefully, beautifully woven together. They are not simply put side by side or placed next to each other. They are integral aspects to a cohesive and organic whole.

I finished this game several times. During my first run, I picked the whole class. I tried again and my computer crashed as the game was saving. Because there are no save slots, I lost all my progress. I tried so hard to save it, even going so far as to learn how to reprogram the save file itself, but I couldn’t. They did this so that people couldn’t cheat, but that totally fucked me over. Despite that, I realized that I didn’t mean replaying it at all. The game was designed to be replayed; that’s the mechanic with the enemies respawning when you rest. After finishing it that time, I played it around five more times.

I have yet to play the DLC. I think at some point I will play the entire game again and play it with the DLC afterwards.

Like many people, one of the genres that I fell in love with during my earlier years of gaming is RPGs. The storytelling, the grand set pieces, and the characters came together to create compelling and affecting work. Later on, I came to prefer Western RPGs that emphasized freedom over Japanese RPGs that emphasized more linear storytelling, graphics, and music.

Apart from the Fallout and Elder Scrolls series, Baldur’s Gate stood out for me in terms of the sheer freedom given to the player to shape their character and narrative. The narrative of the game is also mature, well-written, and intelligent—which is particularly important to me. Many games are considered to have good writing when, in fact, they don’t, and the only reason they are thought to have it is because the people who judge them do so using other games, as opposed to the best stories available, which are in the form of novels, movies, and plays.

That being said, I think the best games engage with the themes and insights of the great works. This is what gives them their heightened meaning. Larian definitely achieves this in Baldur’s Gate 3, all the while incorporating these themes into the world of D&D.