Four days is a long old stretch to spend at home – so it’s time to dust off the controllers and dive into some seriously time-consuming games. Here, we’ve picked out our selection of the best games to get lost in during self-isolation – the titles that are so addictive, absorbing or immersive that you’ll barely notice the time flying by. Remember to take regular screen breaks, and do try and go outside once a day, while you still can.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Your life under lockdown is boring. So why not spend your days completing menial tasks to pay off debts to a benevolent, capitalist racoon overlord? Were it not for the pandemic, the launch of Animal Crossing: New Horizons on the Nintendo Switch would have gone by relatively unheralded. As it happens, this has rightly become a major cultural event. The series, beloved by a loyal fanbase, has suddenly found a huge audience. The premise is simple: you are a human on an island utopia of animal friends. You build things. You catch fish and bugs. You sell fruit. You plant flowers. You smile. You meet up with friends. You repeat the same, comfortable, delightful life day in, day out. It’s about as close to normal life as you’re going to get right now, and that’s saying something for a game full of talking animals and turnip-based stock markets. JT
Fallout: New Vegas
There's no shortage of big open world games these days but if you want to sample a true classic of the genre, look no further than 2010's Fallout: New Vegas. Developed by Obsidian Entertainment as a follow-up to Fallout 3, it's widely regarded as the finest entry in the end of the world RPG series. The game's irreverent storytelling and flexible gameplay stand out. Unlike more recent games in the series, it's possible to resolve huge moments with no combat whatsoever if you invest in the right skills. If you missed it the first time around, it's available on Xbox One and PC. AV
Faster Than Light
Unlike most games on this list, Faster Than Light isn't a big open world adventure. It's a roguelike – a game where death is permanent and every playthrough is played on randomly generated levels. Here you captain a spaceship being chased through the galaxy by Brexit-supporting rebels (we assume) who don't much like any race that isn't human. Your aim is to reach the end and destroy the rebel flagship, upgrading your ship and crew as you go. The perfectly balanced combat, random encounters and huge selection of ships to unlock and play will keep you absorbed for hours. It's a tough game to beat, but you won't want to stop until you do. It's available on Windows, Mac OS and on iPad. AV
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Finished The Mandalorian on Disney+ and jonesing for more Star Wars? If so, it's time to discover (or revisit) the finest Star Wars game ever made. Published in 2003 and available to play on PC or on Xbox One via backwards compatibility, Knights of the Old Republic is an epic RPG with one of the best stories depicted in any Star Wars property. The turn-based combat is an oddity in this age of action RPGs and cover shooters, but it's perfectly balanced and full of tension. It's a truly special game that's perfect for long sessions. AV
Civilization VI
Civilization is the perfect Nintendo Switch game. And, as longtime fans will know, it’s disturbingly easy to sink days into building your perfect empire without moving, eating or washing. For the uninitiated, a primer: pick a civilisation, pick a map, tweak some other settings and turn a few mud huts in the wilderness into a sophisticated, globe-spanning empire. How you ‘win’ is up to you: nuclear apocalypse, religious war, cultural supremacy or scientific smarts. What’s great about Civilization on Switch, particularly during lockdown, is you can play it while taking a tour of all the rooms in your house. Spend a couple of hours in the garden while at war with the French; send a mission to the Moon while reclining in the bath; discover a new continent while staring blankly into middle-distance in any room you fancy. It’ll be 2am before you know where the day has gone. JT
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Trial of the Sword
Sure, you could climb every mountain and traverse every field in search of pesky Korok seeds, or you could get stuck into one of Breath of the Wild’s most ingenious challenges: The Trial of the Sword. Included in the Master Trials DLC pack, this git of a challenge is spread over 51 different levels, each more dastardly and ingenious than the one that proceeded it. Oh, and you start out in your underpants without any weapons. This is classic dungeon-based, puzzle-solving Zelda brilliance for the Switch. It’s also infuriating and best tackled in day-long, controller-flinging rage sessions. There are three rounds: 12 Beginning Trials, 16 Middle Trials, and 23 Final Trials. And you can only save at the end of each round. So if you get to trial 20 of the Final Trials and fail – too bad! Back to square one you go. You’ll love it. You’ll hate it. But, give it four days and you’ll most likely complete it. JT
Cities: Skylines
Basically the hipster version of Sim City, Cities: Skylines hides staggering levels of complexity and customisation behind its seemingly simple interface. It’s your classic city building game – you start by choosing a plot of land, and then build a city from scratch: laying out roads, zoning districts, setting up public transport networks, and balancing the needs of the populace with environmental and financial concerns. There are loads of expansion packs and add-ons, and it’s a totally immersive, addictive experience for Mac and PC. AK
Football Manager
Adult life and Football Manager are essentially incompatible – it was, until recently, very hard to justify spending four straight days trying to get Leigh RMI to the Champions League final, as this writer did in that heady summer between GCSEs and A-Levels. Now, everything’s changed – and the latest entry in the Football Manager series offers both insane amounts of detail, and slightly less time-intensive game modes as well for Mac, PC and tablets and phones. Otherwise there’s always the option of installing Championship Manager 01-02 with modern squads for that text-based ride to glory. AK
No Man's Sky
The infinite procedurally generated universe of No Man’s Sky suddenly looks very attractive – you’ll certainly never be able to explore each of its 18 quintillion planets, each with their own ecosystems and unique forms of flora and fauna. The open-world game is available on PC, Xbox One and PS4, and is built around the pillars of exploration, survival, combat, and trading, and players are free to specialise. The world is constantly expanding – the latest update includes giant robot mechs that players can stomp around in – and it’s all set to a killer soundtrack from 65daysofstatic. AK
Persona 5 Royal
One of the oft-noted characteristics of video games is how similar they are to work. Well, in these locked down times, Persona lets you enjoy many of the mundane tasks you now cannot. Travel around a gloriously animated version of contemporary Tokyo – attending school, getting a part time job, reading books, doing homework, and invading the minds of adults to change their evil ways using Pokemon-style combat. Just like real life. Persona 5 Royal is a new and improved version of 2017’s Persona 5, which is still considered one of the best games in the PS4’s history. WB
Monster Hunter World
One of the main reasons people have got back into games is that they finally have some spare time, and that many modern games require you to spend hundred of hours with them in order to achieve satisfactory progress. Monster Hunter is one of those games. But if you now find yourself with lots of spare time, this is a good place to spend it – on a magical island filled with dinosaur-like creatures that you must kill or trap. Dark Souls fans particularly will find lots to love here. It’s available on PS4, Xbox One and Windows. WB
Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition
What better way to brave our apocalyptic moment than a game focused on the rise and fall of empires? Age of Empires II was a stone cold classic, released on PC back in 1999, when the only thing we had to fear was impending societal collapse of Y2K. This is a gorgeous graphical update. It’s a real time strategy game, meaning that you pilot large swathes of units to their death while trying to keep an economy running. It’s without a doubt the most challenging of video game genres – Google trained an AI specifically to beat Starcraft players – so now is the perfect time to git gud. Or, if you’re tired of getting your ass handed to you by the 20-year-old Age of Empires II community, there are now hundreds of cool historical campaigns to play against the computer. WB
Stardew Valley
For those who don’t have a Switch, Stardew Valley is the PC’s answer to Animal Crossing. Grow a farm and tend to it forever, or at least until the government devises an exit strategy from lockdown (in real life, not in the game). In Stardew Valley you play as a girl or boy who takes over their dead grandfather’s rundown farm, growing crops, raising livestock, crafting goods, mining for ores, selling produce, and socializing and romancing the townsfolk. The whole game can be played online with three friends, so you can all live an entire lifetime from behind the comfort of your laptop. WB
Skyrim Special Edition
You know what you’re going to get from an Elder Scrolls game – great gameplay, horrendous bugs and cookie cutter fantasy dialogue played out in an intensely gorgeous natural landscape. In the Special Edition, released in 2016 on PS4 and Xbox One, the bugs are less horrendous and the landscape more intensely gorgeous as the game is given a complete graphical makeover. Even if you’re not a big fan of orc, elf and dragon slaying, Skyrim’s running rivers, summer grass and snowy peaks are particularly beguiling for people stuck inside all day. WB
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This article was originally published by WIRED UK
