In a comment on my last post, Stacey asked what video games I liked.

In general, I like video games with strong stories and stronger gameplay. I like games that challenge me physically and games that require me to learn new skills. I like to fail before I succeed, as long as the failure is fair and due to my own incompetence. I like the freedom to explore, especially in varied environments. I like the freedom to make my own choices, and to have those choices affect things in the world. 

These general rules generally shove me in the direction of action-oriented role-playing games. Unfortunately, most of the mainstream games made for a Western audience do not hold my interest. With these titles I will quickly acquire the dexterity needed for basic gameplay, and then find that my in-game progression is gated by the skills my character has rather than my own skills. At this point the game's essence has become an Excel spreadsheet. 

It's not a hard and fast rule; I'm willing to juggle numbers for a while if a game has a great story or an intriguing setting. But it isn't really why I'm holding a controller. Great stories can be found in movies, books, and on stage. Great video games to me, on the other hand, are great games first, with everything else supporting that.

And yeah, I get that not everyone wants to be doing precisely timed button mashing on their day off. It's cool, really. The question is "what do I like" and so I'm saying that when I choose to play, I usually choose to play something that will challenge me in ways that no other form of entertainment can.

So here's my top three. 

Dark Souls, Fromsoftware; PS3, 360, PC. I have played this game more than any other game, because it not only challenges me physically, but because it brilliantly tells a compelling story in an intriguing world where actions matter -- almost without telling the player anything at all. There are almost no cutscenes. Just a few hundred lines of dialogue scattered among dozens of NPCs. Everything you learn, you'll learn by picking up little tidbits of information here and there on weapons and other items you find, and by thinking about the structure of the world and why it's arranged the way it is. Dark Souls has some faults, but if you can muster the skill and determination to get through it -- because it is hard as hell -- it is immensely rewarding physically, intellectually and emotionally. If you want to imagine the storytelling in most games as someone sitting you down to read you a biography, then in maybe in Dark Souls you've walked into the house of someone's who's died and over the course of looking into every corner and reading every scrap of paper you come to an understanding of who they were.  

Demon's Souls, Fromsoftware; PS3 only. The predecessor to Dark Souls. The combat isn't quite as tight, the story isn't quite as compelling, some of the bosses are kind of cheesy, but the level design is the best I've seen bar nothing. And there's one boss fight in particular that will probably make you scream or cry that it's it's just so fucking unfair that good people nevertheless come to bad ends. It's just as hard as Dark Souls, in some ways even harder. If you play one of these games, probably play Demon's Souls first because it's a little more accessible from a storytelling point of view -- there's a definite arc and progression. Where Dark Souls almost propels you forward due to curiosity and level design, Demon's Souls is a more contemplative game, encouraging you to explore each area thoroughly so you don't miss anything.

And then there's a fairly wide gap in preference and we come to...

Dragon's Dogma Dark Arisen, Capcom; PS3, 360. A wide-open-world RPG with intriguing quests, enormously varied foes and some really brilliant battle and gameplay mechanics. It does have the flaw of being a little "spreadsheety" in that equipment configuration matters more that I'd like; it's too easy to get to the "press X to win" level of power; but that didn't stop me from playing through it half a dozen times at many hours each in a particular mode of play called "Bitterblack Challenge" where you eschew the main storyline at level 1 and go right to the DLC, which is suggested for players level 20 and up. I must also say the music for Dragon's Dogma is among the best video game music I've ever heard, easily on a par with the best movie soundtracks, and the enemy AI is at times startlingly realistic. The main storyline is pretty good, and your decisions do matter somewhat in the course of the world's unfolding.

I have several thousand hours in these three games.

After these three another wide gap where we find all other games I've played through to the end at least once, like the various Final Fantasy epics, Mass Effect(s), Journey, Dragon Quest(s), and so on. Bard's Tale on the iPad was fairly enjoyable, but still too equipment-centric. I'm currently playing Bayonetta which is much more like a combo-centric arcade fighting game than an action RPG, but I'm still enjoying it.

There are also a lot of action/rpg games which probably fit the style of play I like but that I flat-out refuse to engage with beacuse of overt misogyny. That's why I haven't mentioned titles like Red Dead Redemption or GTA or Saint's Row or God of War or Hitman or ... whatever, the list goes on. There are many, many games that I might like but will never play. I also prefer RPGs where I can customise my avatar, and haven't much tolerance for games which force me to one face or one gender.​