Today, I’m going to take a break from talking about books and writing, and talk about another thing I love – video games.

I have always enjoyed video games, but I’m pretty picky about what I play. The sound of video game gunfire raises my blood pressure astronomically, so anything resembling a shooting game is out. Instead, I prefer visual novels, simulators, and roleplaying games. So here are some of my favorites!

The Sims

The first video game I ever bought myself was The Sims for Gamecube. When I bought it, I didn’t have enough money for a memory card, so I had to start over constantly, but I loved it so much that I didn’t care. I think it took me almost a year to finally beat it, because Mimi’s house was just so hard to beat. I remember the game with so much joy. I’ve bought pretty much every version of the sims since then, and I use Sims 4 as a character image creator for my writing.

 Dance Dance Revolution

Dance Dance Revolution is a game that you wouldn’t think that a pre-teen who could barely walk straight would enjoy, but DDR is one of the few active games that I fell in love with. In fact, I just brought my mats and copy of DDR Supernova from my parents’ house, and have been enjoying it as a way to blow off steam for the last few weeks.

Harvest Moon

Harvest Moon is another childhood favorite. Like the Sims, I played this over and over, and until the end of the Harvest Moon franchise, I have almost all of them, from the original Gameboy to the 3DS. These games are so soothing to play, as a mix of a dating sim and a farming sim. I love building a farm and making it successful, and learning the story of all of the characters and islands. This leads me to the next one…

Stardew Valley

If you haven’t played Stardew Valley, and you’re a Harvest Moon fan, you’re missing out. It has everything I always loved about Harvest Moon, with adorable 8-bit graphics, and just a touch of the Rune Factory combat system. It’s just delightful. I’ve sunk more than 140 hours into Stardew Valley since I bought it a year ago, and I don’t regret a single one.

Long Live the Queen

Long Live the Queen is a different sort of game. It’s a point and click visual novel that is all about strategic stats building. It’s also hard as fuck. I have only had one of the happy endings so far, and that’s even with using the wiki to get a feel for the storyline.

Don’t Starve

I’m going to be honest with y’all. I’m terrible at Don’t Starve. It’s a survival game where the goal is, obviously, not to starve. Or let the wolves eat you. Or the spiders. Usually the spiders get me. They’re little assholes, and I like to try to fight them far more than I should.

Cook, Serve, Delicious

Cook Serve Delicious, and its sequel, are a Diner Dash style game that are all about building your own restaurant, in your own fashion. Chris got me turned onto it, and it’s a wonderful way to lose yourself in something that you have to focus your entire self on – something that’s hard for me. I really love the art, and the silly descriptions of food, and just the gameplay.

Zeus

Zeus is a city builder, featuring the greek gods and their monstrous Titans. It’s like old-fashioned Sim City, with all the magic and strangeness of ancient Greece. I spent so. much. time. playing this as a teenager. It’s still one of my favorites, and I’ll be buying it on Steam very soon so I can start playing again!

Fable

Fable is one of the first roleplaying games I played, and as such, has a very special place in my heart. I love how absolutely ridiculous it is, and that for the most part, it doesn’t take itself seriously, at all. I own all three of the proper games (and pretend that The Journey doesn’t exist, cause… yikes) and still need to beat Fable 2. Somehow I have never done that. But it will happen!

Dragon Age

Last but not least is the Dragon Age series, a role playing game that has a dear dear place in my heart. The stories in these games, the character creation, the pure work they put into the backgrounds of the different races… It’s astonishing. There’s so much you can do in these games, and it’s all awesome.

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What are some of your favorite video games? Have I convinced you to try any? Let me know!