Ultrakill

Ultrakill is a ridiculously fast shooter game, where you heal by literally drinking the blood of your enemies.

This is a game where you will start out being terrible - I certainly did! However, getting better at it is exceptionally satisfying, especially as it rewards skillful play with style points and extra in-game levels. The craziest part is that despite having hundreds of hours, the game is still in early access! However, it already has more content then many games will, so it is still worth your time.

Satisfactory

This game is pure crack.

Satisfactory is a 3d factory-building game with a sci-fi asthetic. And like all factory games, it is highly addicting too - you can start a "quick session", then look at the clock and realize it is now 12 hours later. While I still recommend this game, be warned that it will consume your life :3

Hollow Knight Silksong

So imagine for a second that you are the developer of one of the best metroidvania games of all time. The game is packed with content, and has an active playerbase to this day. You would be insane to try and make another project of this scale!

So of course, you decide to make a game that is somehow even better.

The content density of Silksong is genuinely astonishing. The world is massive, and yet every single area is finely tuned down to the last minute details. I was still encountering new areas even after beating Act 2! This game has not only hit its ridiculously high expectations, but exceeded them, and was well worth the several year long wait.

Pokemon Emerald (with hacks)

Pokemon is kinda a guilty pleasure of mine. I am conciously aware that the games suck ass, and that the Pokemon company is comically evil. But I just love these little guys anyways.

Fortunately, the fans have stepped in to make actually good games using these characters. This is why Pokemon Emerald is on this list, and not the games I grew up with (BW, ORAS, and USUM). Emerald isn't my favorite vanilla Pokemon game, not by a long shot, but it serves as a template that can be used to create some of the best Pokemon games of all time.

Modded Minecraft

I can't create a favorite games list without mentioning Modded Minecraft! Minecraft modding is genuinely the reason why I got into programming in the first place - so I could make datapacks, modpacks, and eventually mods of my own. The image I used here is actually a screenshot of one of the mods I made! Minecraft modding changed my life, and I'm not even exxagerating.

Also fuck Lexforge, all my homies hate Lexforge, Neoforge 1.21.1 FTW and I will die on this hill.