sighence

Great pick. Obra Dinn is a masterpiece. If you end up enjoying Obra Dinn you’d probably also enjoy the Case of the Golden Idol and its recent sequel. Both scratch a very similar itch.

Thanks. Also now realizing that picking just 10 is super hard and looking back at my list there’s like 2 strong honorable mentions for every title in my list (some might even be swappable).

Just off the top of my head, a few others I’d rate as A-tier or S-tier all-time-greats in my personal list:

• Disco Elysium
• Final Fantasy 7
• Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
• Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
• Hades
• Dishonored
• Banjo Kazooie
• Doom (2016)
• Dead Space
• Psychonauts 2 (part 1 is also A-tier)
• GTA 5
• Case of the Golden Idol
• Mass Effect 2
• Paradise Killer
• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
• The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (both parts are excellent)
• Shadow of the Colossus
• Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2
• Tony Hawk’s Underground
• A Dark Room
• 999 (aka Zero Escape, aka 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors)
• edit: How the hell did I forget Portal?!

Subjectively I’d say definitely yes. I adore cerebral games with interesting stories to tell, and this one has that plus a ton of mystery at its core (mystery is maybe my favorite genre of any fiction). The art style can be a little hard for some to get behind, but if you enjoy similar themes & game elements it’s a phenomenal game that will live in your head rent-free for awhile after you’ve finished. It’s one of only maybe three games I’ve ever legitimately referred to as a masterpiece (one of the others being Outer Wilds).

Not in order:

• Outer Wilds
• Return of the Obra Dinn
• Metal Gear Solid
• Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
• Super Metroid
• Red Dead Redemption 2
• Fallout: New Vegas
• Stardew Valley
• Undertale
• Starcraft

I like it. Kinda reminds me of work by James Jean.

I really miss this place, though I should point out that this photo is dated incorrectly. 5 Pointz was sadly demolished in 2014. I grew up in New York and moved away in 2012. Coming back home to visit for the holidays in 2014 and seeing this site hollowed out from the windows of the passing 7 train was heartbreaking.

Worked with a guy once who went dressed in a big cardboard box covered in wrapping paper, with a big bow tied on the outside. There was a tag attached to the outside of the box. The tag read “To: Women, From: God”.

10 that I have enjoyed a lot:

• Kyle Kinane
• Hannibal Buress
• Patton Oswalt
• Mike Birbiglia
• Tig Notaro
• Matt Braunger
• Marc Maron
• Bo Burnham
• Jackie Kashian
• Tim Robinson
• Norm Macdonald

Outer Wilds!

If you haven’t already tried them, I had a great time with Vampire Survivors and Loop Hero. Both give the player the ability to check out a little bit, though in different ways. Loop Hero is easier to walk away from than VS, but both games require the player to do little to nothing in order to engage in combat. Loop Hero is a little more involved while VS is a bit more arcade-y. Both very fun

Echoing some other suggestions surely, but here are a few that I regularly come back to:

GAMING:

• CallMeKevin (really funny, wholesome Irish guy known for playing games kinda hilariously incorrectly )

• GameGrumps (two best friends playing games and riffing. Usually very funny and wildly inappropriate. Feels like gaming with high school buddies)

• Outside Xbox/Outside Xtra (small team of British friends with lots of quirky, easily digestible “7 things” lists over the years)

• Dungeon Dudes (pretty broad and approachable dives into all things D&D)

• Smooth McGroove (older channel with many delightful a cappella renditions of video game songs)

COOKING:

• Babish Culinary Universe (super approachable, funny, and well-edited cooking tutorials with fun themes and lots of room to be wrong)

• How to Cook That (Ann Reardon is a super knowledgeable, friendly, crazy talented baker, and she does a lot of good work to address and debunk dangerous & stupid trends on social media)

• Joshua Weissman (similar vibes to Babish, but a little more overtly comedic. Does great recreations of fast food classics)

SCIENCE & TECH:

• Technology Connections (deep dives that make mundane things in our lives seem super fascinating)

• OzTalksHw (very wholesome, budget-friendly PC builds with an emphasis on self care.)

• ZeFrank (excellent, accurate, and very funny short nature documentaries)

• NetworkChuck (friendly, well-edited tutorials on lots of IT-related things)

ENTERTAINMENT AND OTHER/MISC:

• Kitboga (fairly wholesome considering the content area. He exposes and confronts phone scammers with hilarious made up character voices and fake websites & accounts, and he teaches people what to look out for in the process. Lots of swearing and shouting from scammers that he regularly pisses off by wasting their time and getting their accounts closed)

• Watcher (Ryan and Shane do a lot of different interesting things, and their banter and chemistry are infinitely watchable. Puppet History is a particular favorite)

• Digging the Greats (really cool deep dives into the makings, origins, and fun facts about all things hip hop)