Top Three Desert Island Video Games

Sorry, I fooled you. This isn't a list of the top three games set on desert islands. Made you wonder, though didn't I?

No, this is the perennial "If you were stuck on a deserted island and could only have three games...?" hypothetical we geeks traditionally torture ourselves with. I'm curious to know what yours are, and you're more than welcome to tell me in the comments below, but first, let's set down some ground rules.

1. You're only allowed to pick three games. Not two. Not four. Five is right out. Don't make me come over there and school you on basic mathematics.

2. Computer, console, and handheld games are all on the table. Don't worry about having the right hardware, or the availability of power supplies, or any of that. Assume you're able to pack everything you'd need to permit you to play any of your three titles for a full year, after which time you're rescued, win all the money, etc...

3. It's a deserted island with no internet. Sorry, that means no MMOs like World of Warcraft. Offline games only.

4. Don't cheese the three game limit. The idea is to seriously consider and ruthlessly pare down, not bend the rules so you wind up with more than the question allows. Compilation titles like Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection, Midway Arcade Treasures, Capcom Classics, and The Orange Box (to name a few) are not in the spirit of the question, so they aren't allowed. They're the "wishing for more wishes" loophole, and I'm closing it. Pick Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistance because it's a game you enjoy, not because there's an unlockable MSX version of Metal Gear 2 on the disc.

With those rules in mind, let's get to the real reason you clicked on this post.

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3) The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind - Game of the Year Edition (PC)

Morrowind is one of the best RPGs of all time, and it's not for sissies. Long-time Elder Scrolls fans complained with each new iteration as Bethesda dumbed down the experience to attract more casual gamers, paring down the skills tree and adding themarkers on your mini-map so you knew right where to go for Oblivion, then eradicating the skill tree all together for Skyrim so you can create a jack of all trades, but Morrowind? Morrowind is ECW levels of hard-core: we're talking skill trees, classes, a quest system that doesn't hold your hand, a lack of fast-travel except via Mage Guild or Silt Strider, and no object markers on the map--you better get good at following signs, listening to directions, and identifying landmarks if you want to survive. There are a ridiculous number of factions to join or piss off, the chance to construct and furnish your own stronghold, a storyline with twists and double-crosses you'll never see coming, branching paths, unique quests, easter eggs, and a combat system more in line with D&D where even if you're right on top of a dude you still need to make your roll 'to-hit'. There's nothing grognards love more than THAC0, amiright?

Gamers so loved Morrowind that Bethesda took us back there for Skyrim's Dragonborn DLC, showing us how the place had changed in the years since Nerevar's rebirth and confrontation with the Sixth House. Granted it takes place on Solstheim, the island where Morrowind's Bloodmoon expansion took place, and not the mainland of Vvardenfell itself, but it was still a nice tip of the hat to gamers who could see how the little outpost/fort/settlement they built a decade of real-time earlier had come along in the virtual years since. There's so much to see and do in Morrowind that I've clocked more hours playing it than I have every single other Elder Scrolls game combined, and that's not hyperbole. It's the very definition of the perfect deserted island game, filled with an insane replay value, a phenomenal story yet to be equaled by its successors, and enough dangling plot threads that people today still argue over, discuss, and dissect the lore. Actually, I could survive being stranded with just Morrowind: GOTY, but in the spirit of the question, I'll fill in the other two.

2) Everblue 2 (PS2)

Speaking of games one could play forever... Everblue 2 is the sequel to Everblue, a game only released in Japan and Europe, but never in North America. For some reason Capcom published the sequel in the US though, and I'm glad they did, because Everblue 2 is a thing of beauty. It casts the player as Leo, a shipwrecked diver and treasure-hunter who washes up on the beach of a thankfully-inhabited Valencia Island, where he's taken in by a gang of rag-tag amateur salvagers and divers called 'The Amigos'. The seas around this Caribbean paradise are filled with all kinds of goodies, which Leo sees as the perfect way to earn enough money to repair his smashed boat. Diving for simple trinkets in the waters just off-shore is fun, as is photographing the local wildlife, but true large-scale salvage ops are where it's at, and as the game's story progresses and Leo earns better diving gear, players dig through a sunken ferry, a downed airplane, the remains of a cruise ship, a crashed submarine, a twisty labyrinth of underwater caves, a full-fledged pirate galleon, the remains of an abandoned fort, and even a sacred underwater city in search of a legendary treasure known as Erebos. What's more, Leo and his friends aren't the only ones searching; the evil SeaDross corporation has its eyes and fortunes set on recovering Erebos at all costs, and if they find it first, the oceans may never be the same.

If you suffer from video game OCD, where you absolutely, positively must acquire one of everything on offer, Everblue 2 will be your undoing: there are seventy species of fish to photograph, sixty-one titles to earn (think of them as the trophies of modern-day consoles), dozens of shells to collect from the island inhabitants (basically rewards for completing 'quests'), and over five hundred unique items to hoard from your salvage operation. While there are only a half-dozen or so specific areas to explore, the story offers multiple opportunities to return to them as you buy or find better oxygen tanks for your rebreather, better-insulated dive suits that allow you to go deeper without suffering hypothermia, fins that allow faster and more precise movement, bags that allow you to pick up heavier loot, and a variety of accessories that do everything from decreasing your air consumption to increasing your pick-up distance or improving the brightness of your dive light. While your salvage at the start will be limited to smaller things like wood planks, rusted dog tags, metal screws, and other lightweight objects you'll find free-diving, you'll eventually acquire the bags and accessories necessary to salvage furniture, ship fixtures and instruments, statues, and even whole cars and trucks from a sunken ferry's cargo hold. The game is heavy on adventure elements too, so islanders will task you with recovering specific objects, challenge you to bring back heavy items from the depths, and even request your help in completing their own personal collections of artwork, musical instruments, weaponry, and other things. There's even an auction house where you can bid on random items or sell pieces you no longer need once per day (forty items in the game can only be acquired via the auction house, so collectors take note), a daily dive competition (again, more unique items can only be found here), an aquarium you can populate with the aquatic life you've photographed, and so much more. Most enchanting about Everblue 2 though is its pacing. Above-water, the island is sunny, bubbly, and bucolic with a gorgeous soundtrack filled with steel drums and Caribbean influences. Below the surface though, there's just you and your rebreather. Inhale...exhale... Inhale...exhale... The atmosphere of loneliness and solitude this invokes is unreal, utterly unlike anything I've ever experienced in a video game outside of Super Metroid's Maridia section, broken only when the game plays a low-key musical track to warn you of sharks or other dangerous sea life. Learning your limits, weighing the risk of hauling more loot against your ever-decreasing health meter, and the adrenaline-inducing panic of realizing you've crossed your point of no return, prompting a frantic push towards the nearest exit at top speed: Everblue 2 is that rarest of breeds, a title that crosses the line from 'game' to 'experience'. Even beating the game doesn't mean it's over, as that just unlocks more to explore, more treasure to find, and more items to help you go deeper in your quest to obtain everything. If I'm on a deserted island, I might as well enjoy some scuba diving in my spare time, right?

1) Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable (PSP)

I assume at some point I'd get tired of living in a fantasy world or searching for sunken treasure. My thirst for the real world could thus be slaked by playing a game set in modern-times, and if I'm going for a modern-day game with plenty of replay value, it's hard to argue with the Persona series. While almost any Shin Megami Tensei title could fill the void nicely, my favorite has always been Persona 3, and while the PSP version strips out some of the voices and FMV for the sake of the UMD's storage capacity, it offers the most in terms of in-game content, up to and including the ability to play the game a second time as a female protagonist.

Like many Japanese RPGs, Persona 3 Portable has a replay value that approaches infinity thanks to all the combinations, social links, storylines, side-quests, and adventure elements offered to the player. Due to all these possibilities plus the randomized elements thrown in for good measure, no Persona game is ever the same. Even following the exact same steps towards your final destination can result in any number of deviations, alterations, and frustrations different from earlier attempts. Shin Megami Tensei games always deal with some fantastical elements, but the one in Persona 3 is by far the most intriguing: the presence of a mysterious 'twenty-fifth hour' of the night that only the extremely gifted (or extremely unlucky) experience, and the nightmares that unfold for those unfortunate enough to be awake during that sixty-minute period. Finding out what's going on and defending our realm from outworldly incursion is the base of Persona 3's storyline, but it goes so far beyond this it's impossible to relate without devolving into monstrous spoilers, and I refuse to do that out of respect to my readers even though the original North American PS2 release is a decade old.

Medieval fantasy, scuba-diving treasure-hunting adventure, and a modern-day Japanese RPG. I think I could survive with only these three titles to keep me company for a year before getting bored. What say you, dear readers? Drop your favorite 'desert island' games in the comments, and don't forget to jam on that upvote button if you'd like to see more stuff like this!