In this time of shelter in place, I have found myself with the time to finally get through the backlog of video games that I have been meaning to play. I know that there are many that are in this similar situation, so here is a guide on what to consider playing when there is nothing else going on. 

My favorite game genre is the open-world adventure. I love having a giant map, allowing me to go wherever I want, building up skills and gaining new abilities along the way. Red Dead Redemption 2 was recently on sale, and it’s the game that I have been spending the most time playing since coming home. The world the game throws you into is not only beautiful to look at, but makes you feel like you are really in the dying old west. That’s what I love about this genre of games. Some other games I’d recommend from this genre: Assassins Creed (Origins, Odyssey, Black Flag), Grand Theft Auto and any of the Batman: Arkham games. 

A great way to still interact with people when you have to be apart is through online multiplayer games. None may do it better than the battle royale genre. Now, I don’t need to tell you how popular Fortnite is;you probably already know that. All I know is once you find a real squad to play with and a game that suits you, you will be left with endless fun. While I have fallen out of playing Fortnite these days, the boys and I have been playing a lot of Call of Duty: Warzone. It combines everything I love about Call of Duty (the gunplay, namely) and smashes it with the last-man-standing formula of battle royale. I’m proud to say that our efforts have not been fruitless and we have gotten several victories (mostly past 2 a.m.). 

When my internet connection is spotty and it makes it difficult to play online games, I love to play a story based linear game. Story-based games are  different from the open world games,in that the story takes place while you are moving from point a to point b. There may be some choice in the direction the player can go, but generally speaking the game is pointing you in the direction it wants you to go. My favorite example of this is the Bioshock series. In each game you are thrown into a new world with a simple goal in mind: escape the city. 

But what makes these types of games great is the ability to tell its story through exploration. You might find audio diaries of characters you interact with that tell you how they got there and what their motivations are. The scenery around you tells you how people lived their daily lives. It’s things that you can’t do in a movie or a book that allow the player to feel like they are participating in the story. Some other games from this genre that I’d recommend are The Uncharted Series, The Last of Us and God of War (2018). 

As a sport management major, the lack of sports has had a deep effect on what I consume for entertainment. In 2020, sports games are more realistic than ever and offer the most in terms of gameplay experience. Want to build a team of the greatest players from around the league? Play the game’s ultimate team mode. Maybe you want to start out as a rookie and try to become a Hall of Famer? Try out the games player creation mode. Perhaps you simply want to play a regular exhibition game between a current roster and one of the legendary ones. This is all possible in modern sports games. While I play mostly MLB The Show 20, you can’t go wrong with Madden, NBA 2K20, and NHL 20.