Paul’s Current Top 3 PC Games
Enough Thinking: Balancing Triggers and Tactics
In my last post, I talked a lot about the heavy mental lifting involved in games like Civilization. I love that stuff—it keeps the mind sharp. But I can’t run on critical thinking alone.
Sometimes the “software engineer” brain needs a break, and the “20-year Army vet” brain just wants to rely on muscle memory. To keep that balance, my current gaming rotation is split between pure reflex and calculated strategy.
Here is the breakdown of what I’m playing right now, how I play it, and how much time I’m sinking into it.
The Daily Driver: Battlefield 6
This is my bread and butter. Battlefield is the one game I can launch regardless of who is online. It serves as my primary stress relief after a day of coding.
- Play Pattern:Hybrid (Solo & Squad)
- Solo: If I’m by myself, I treat it as a sandbox. I jump into a match just to grind weapon attachments, test vehicle loadouts, or mess around with the mechanics. It’s chaotic, loud, and low-pressure.
- Squad: When the guys are online, the dynamic shifts. We lock in, call targets, and play the objective. But the beauty of BF6 is that I don’t need the squad to enjoy it.
- Time Invested:Consistent (5–10 Hours / Week)
- This is the “steady drip” game. I’m consistently clocking in about 5 to 10 hours a week. It’s not a marathon session game; it’s the reliable hour or two I grab whenever I have a gap in the schedule.
The Squad Requirement: ARC Raiders
ARC Raiders is a different beast entirely. It’s high-stakes extraction, and it demands total attention.
- Play Pattern:Strictly Co-op (Duo/Trio Only)
- I have a strict rule for this one: I do not play this solo. The extraction mechanics and PvPvE threat mean communication is non-negotiable. Unless I have a duo or a full trio of friends in Discord ready to watch my back, I won’t even click the icon. If Battlefield is for chaos, ARC Raiders is for coordinated survival.
- Time Invested:Appointment Only (Beta/Event Intervals)
- Because of the strict squad requirement, my hours here are lower but much more intense. I treat this like “appointment gaming”—I’m not idling in the menu; when we play, we are 100% focused for that specific session.
The Strategic Anchor: WARNO
When I’m done with the shooters but not quite ready to log off, I switch to Warno. It is currently my top non-shooter, serving as the bridge between adrenaline and strategy.
- Play Pattern:Solo Campaign (Army General)
- I almost exclusively play the Army General campaigns. The persistent Risk-style map forces me to care about logistics and “Defense in Depth.” My friends have pointed out that I naturally apply tactics like feints and probing attacks—instincts honed over two decades of service. It’s the one game where those skills transfer directly to the screen.
- Time Invested:Heavy (Nightly Sessions)
- Since building the new rig (COVEFEFEMKIII), this has become my nightly ritual. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D handles the unit simulation effortlessly, and the Alienware Ultrawide lets me manage the entire frontline at once. I’m easily sinking the majority of my free time here, often losing track of hours as I plan the next operational turn.
The Verdict
For me, this rotation is perfect. Battlefield provides the consistent release, ARC Raiders offers the social thrill, and Warno engages the tactical mind without burning me out. It’s enough thinking to be rewarding, but enough action to be fun.
Paul’s Top Five PC Games of All Time
My Top 5: What My Favorite Games Say About Me
If you want to know how someone thinks, look at what they play. As I transition from 20 years in the Army to a career in software engineering, I’ve realized my gaming library isn’t just entertainment—it’s a reflection of my personality. Whether it’s managing logistics or executing a feint, these are the five games that shaped my gaming DNA.
1. Civilization VI
I almost exclusively play Civilization VI on a Terra map that resembles Earth because it appeals to the big-picture planner in me. I don’t want a random, procedurally generated blob; I crave the context of the real world. Starting from nothing and orchestrating the rise of a global superpower on a map that feels familiar satisfies my deep desire to see long-term plans come to fruition in a grounded, tangible way.
2. Battlefield 2
Long before I ever put on a real uniform, I sank an embarrassing amount of hours into Battlefield 2, marking the first time I played daily with a dedicated clan. This was my “teammate” origin story. It taught me the value of the squad—communication, defined roles, and showing up for the guy next to you—proving to be a sort of digital basic training before I even enlisted.
3. XCOM 2 (with Long War Mod)
XCOM 2 with the “Long War” mod hits the engineer and optimizer side of my brain hard. I absolutely loved the concept of the mobile base—the agility of it—and the ability to fine-tune every single super soldier and psychic to perfection. The mod turns the game into a grueling marathon of resource management and logistics, feeling less like a game and more like high-stakes project management with aliens.
4. Rise of Nations
The global Risk-style campaigns in Rise of Nations were incredible, appealing directly to the patriot and historian in me. My favorite memory is conquering the world as America in the Cold War scenario; it didn’t just feel like a game, but like navigating high-tension geopolitical tides where I could personally ensure the outcome favored the stars and stripes.
5. Warno
Warno is for the realist tactician in me, specifically because of the unmatched Army General scenarios where battalions persist between battles. If I lose tanks in one fight, they don’t magically reappear in the next, which forces me to apply the “Defense in Depth” and probing tactics my Army friends noticed I use naturally. The combination of a “Risk board” strategic layer and real-time battles creates actual stakes, rewarding conservation of force over blindly rushing the objective.
Paul’s Favorite PC Gaming Genre
From Command & Conquer to Critical Thinking: Why I Stick to Strategy
When I look at my gaming library, there’s a clear pattern. Sure, I enjoy a good shooter now and then, but my favorite genre has always been strategy. It’s not just about winning matches; it’s about the mental puzzle.
The Origin Story
My journey started with the classics. The very first strategy game to hook me was Command & Conquer. There was something addictive about building a base and managing resources while fending off attacks. That led me straight into Age of Empires, where the scope got bigger and the history got richer.
Then came my introduction to turn-based strategy with Civilization 1. That was the game that truly locked me in. It wasn’t just about reaction speed anymore; it was about long-term planning and consequences. I fell in love with the genre right then and there.
Accidental Tactics
What keeps me coming back is the critical thinking required. I love the challenge of outsmarting an opponent rather than just out-clicking them.
It’s funny—some of my combat arms friends have watched me play and pointed out that I naturally apply real-world military concepts. I’d be setting up what I thought were just “traps” or “tests,” and they’d identify them as feints, probing attacks, and defense in depth.
I didn’t know these tactics had formal names at the time; they just came from experimentation. I was just trying to survive and win. But it turns out, the critical thinking skills you sharpen in a game like Civilization or Warno translate pretty well to understanding the battlefield.
For me, that’s the ultimate hook. It’s enough thinking to keep my brain sharp, and enough chaos to keep it fun.
Paul’s Current Build
Meet COVEFEFEMKIII: The Ultimate Retirement Station
They say retirement is about slowing down, but my new workstation didn’t get the memo. As I transition from 20 years in the Army to full-time software engineering, I needed a machine that could handle heavy compilation, Docker containers, and virtual machines by day—and crush Warno and Battlefield by night.
What started as a standard high-end build turned into a monster. This is COVEFEFEMKIII, my new daily driver designed for serious development and serious gaming.
The Heart of the Build
This rig is built to balance multi-threaded developer workloads with top-tier gaming performance.
- The Brains: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3DWith 8 cores clocking around 4.7GHz and AMD’s legendary 3D V-Cache, this is arguably the best gaming CPU on the planet. It handles the complex logic of RTS games like Wargame: Red Dragon without breaking a sweat.
- The Graphics: MSI GeForce RTX™ 5080I skipped the 40-series and went straight for the new silicon. The MSI 5080 powers through compile times and renders environments in Battlefield with zero compromise.
- The Muscle: 96GB DDR5 RAMFor a Full-Stack Engineer, RAM is oxygen. I’m running 96GB, which lets me keep my entire dev environment (databases, backend services, frontend servers) active while still having enough overhead to run local LLMs or keep a few hundred Chrome tabs open.
- The Vault: 4TB Samsung 990 EVO Plus (Gen 5)Storage isn’t just about capacity; it’s about speed. This Gen 5 NVMe upgrade ensures that asset loading and large project builds are instantaneous.
The Visual Experience: Dual QD-OLED
A rig this powerful needs glass that can keep up. I’m running a dual-monitor setup that covers every base:
- Alienware AW3225QF (4K QD-OLED): This is my primary driver for 4K gaming and crisp text rendering while coding. The pixel density is perfect for code editors.
- Alienware AW3423DW (Ultrawide QD-OLED): The ultrawide aspect ratio is a game-changer for timeline editing and immersive strategy gaming—seeing the entire battlefield in Warno on this panel is an unfair advantage.
Why This Build?
COVEFEFEMKIII isn’t just a toy; it’s a workspace. The 96GB of RAM and Gen 5 storage allow for seamless multitasking between development and virtualization, while the 5080 and QD-OLED panels ensure that when I clock out, the experience is second to none.
Whether I’m pushing code or pushing the frontline in Europe, this machine is ready for duty.
