Moving to: m/AskMbin!

Planescape: Torment.

It had a great story that questioned good and evil (rare for a DnD style game). The graphics were great at the time. The soundtrack was (and still is) phenominal and the characters were actual characters.

Gonna have to say Warframe

I started playing in 2013 when it went open beta. I've had a couple breaks from it during the last 10 years and every time I come back its like a whole new game. At this point its like 10 different games wearing a trench coat lmao.

Unreal Tournament '99.

I spent hours playing on instagib servers and also replaying the 'campaign' as a kid. It was the first game I likely logged over 100 hours on.

Command and Conquer, it's one of the few things I can remember fondly sharing with my dad growing up. Also it has such a great soundtrack.

Freespace 2 (I’m old). Still one of the most compelling story’s I’ve enjoyed in a video game to date.

Deus Ex on PC, from the year 2000.

This game made me rethink what a game could even be. Whenever I thought of what a great game would be I'd think "It's like Deus Ex but..."

Disco Elysium

EarthBound

Age Of Empires. I still play to this day!

Mario Kart 64

Crash Bandicoot: Warped will always have a special place in my heart

This was a tough one, but I think I've finally settled on Super Mario Kart.

It's not the best game in the franchise, but I think it's still my favourite, and the game I still have the most hours put into ever.

It's been 30 years of play now, and ongoing.

Half Life 1. That game was so ground-breaking, so atmospheric, so interesting in its puzzles and its combat that it just blew my mind and made me a forever fan.

Left 4 Dead 2. It's not my favorite game, or what I think is the best game of all time, but it's definitely my most played by more than 1k hours. The game hits a sweet spot in terms of tactical gameplay that's almost chess-like in its level of complexity, balance, and replay-ability. The fact that it was released 14 years ago and still has a massive modding community and playerbase speaks to its quality. It's also on sale on Steam right now for $.99, and as it uses the Source engine, runs well on the most basic of potatoes.

The thing that made me fall in love with classic video games: SMB3 (NES)

Favorite game that got me into the next iteration: Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. With a nice helping of a Perfect Dark as a palette cleanser.

More modern: I've got about 1000 hours into Skyrim and have played Diablo 3 more than I'd like to admit.

I'm massively looking forward to Starfield.

I wouldn't live where I live if it weren't for Team Fortress 2. So I'll have to say that.

Mine are purely sentimental and I don’t expect anyone to agree, but the original monkey island, the original fallout or Baldurs Gate 1. They all have arguably better sequels but playing those games for the first time was something else.

This is a hard call, and after a lot of self-deliberation...It must be Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, the updated 3DS version. It's a moody, dark, and interesting title within the Zelda game series! The deadline before the world ends pushes the player to figure out the most efficient way to make progress to save the world. The updated Bomber Journal makes this experience so tight and compelling!

Asteroids. I shudder to think how many quarters I spent playing that game. Sometime I’ll have to see if there is some retro arcade out there where I could go play it again.

Team Fortress Classic. The game was fun but the modding community really took it to the next level.

Probably Life is Strange. It did a lot for me in my mid-late 20s.

#ArcadiaBaeNotBay

I’m probably weird when I say Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn. At first a failed game that became a labor of love by the people that took it over. It took multiple years and expansions for it to come to a “conclusion” and the once i finished it, I was very satisfied.

To me it’s similar to the Marvel project up until the conclusion of the Thanos arc. I’m not the biggest marvel fan or much of a Disney fan. I do really respect the courage it takes to throw that many years at a project and trust it almost all the way.

FFXIV feels like that. It has that final fantasy marriage of interesting yet somewhat complex story with a message that makes you think. Its an MMO but honestly you can enjoy it up until the conclusion of End Walker with a couple of friends and some queuing up for the story fights. You shouldn’t have to do any terribly difficult encounters to progress the story and experience the game unless you choose to. The. Every so often you run into a song and get blown away. The game does a great job of usually having each expansion have a visual and music theme and sticking with that without making it feel like repetitive copy paste job.

I almost never like replaying a game or heck rereading the same book. But this game is the one exception where if a friend finds interest, I’ll resub and level yet another job with them and totally enjoy all over again.

Interesting. No love for city builders and strategy games (RTS and TBS). Here are several, in no particular order:

• SimCity (4th is probably my favorite). Cities Skylines is the modern spiritual successor.
• Civilization series (arguably all versions were excellent for their own time)
• Starcraft (both are great)
• W40K Gladius (underappreciated gem)
• Kohan (nobody knows about that game. Kohan 2 was OK)
• Age of Wonders (3 and 4)
• Warhammer® 40,000: Dawn of War (the first one)
• Warlock - Master of the Arcane (honestly, I had more fun with that than with AoW)
• Majesty (the first one, very unique, "indirect" strategy)

The list can go on, and there were so many fantastic strategy games over the years...

Outer Wilds.

If you haven't played it, don't read anything about it, just go in blind. It's an amazing experience that I wish I could play again for the first time.

Some other favorites worth mentioning:

Minecraft
Celeste
Doom 2016
What Remains of Edith Finch
Titanfall 2

considers

I think that it'd have to be something with a lot of replayability, which doesn't lose value to me after one playthrough.

Also, it can't be a genre where the game was limited by technology. I mean, I remember Wolfenstein 3D being amazing when it came out relative to other games of the time -- walking around in a 3D world was so mind-blowing -- but the novelty of that technology has long-since worn off, and there are many more-impressive 3D games today.

I guess roguelikes are probably about the top of the heap there, and my favorite is probably Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead. I still regularly play that, which seems to me to be a good test of whether it's still at the top of my list.

Final Fantasy VII, it's the most pefect game made by human hands.

Probably Dark Souls for me, the replay value and the many different ways to take on challenges in the game haven't really been replicated, even after many attempt. If not that, then Alpha Protocol. I think they did choice and consequences the best in a game. I'll also throw Dwarf fortress in there too, since people need to play it.

The original Legend of Zelda on the NES. It fully captivated me as a child. I remember taking the game map to school with me and my friends would circle trees that could be burned or rocks that could be bombed. Such fond memories.

Hard to choose one, but maybe I'd say Kerbal Space Program 1. It had a really profound impact on the way I understood the world, space, physics, and gave me one of the best feelings of pure exploration. It was amazing to drop into progressively lower orbits around a new planet or moon before finally landing and walking around.

Burnout 3: Takedown

Jet Set Radio Future on the original Xbox.

I just love everything about it.

Final Fantasy II (which we later learned was IV) was my first "real" video game. It holds a special place in my heart because my Dad had me play it when I was learning to read, and he had me read all the lines and dialogue out loud.

For years I thought the opening screed read that Cecil and Kain were "swallowed by a deep frog." Imagine my surprise reading it years later to read fog. Hey, when the text scrolls by and you don't control the speed, it can lead to some misunderstandings!

Seeing Rydia chastise an adult was also very empowering for me, as a girl of similar age. When she came back later as a day-saving badass, it made me want to grow up to be a day-saving badass, too.

Gothic I&Ii

Witcher 3 is, for me, the best single player game I've every played. Though Ocarina of Time comes a close second - and I never even played it on release only years later when I bought an N64 at uni.

For multiplayer, however, you can't beat Halo with a load of mates round and a crate of beer.

Bloodborne for playing, Drakengard 3 for the characters and music, Tactics Ogre for the story.

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion or GTA 4. 100% nostalgia picks since these are the games that I played endlessly as a preteen into high school. I would maybe throw Pokemon R/B/Y in there too since those were the games I played endlessly until I was old enough to start detasseling and buy myself GTA 4, Oblivion, and an Xbox 360

Gotta go with Morrowind. It was a pretty formative experience during my early teenage years, and it's one of the few that I boot back up for a fresh run about once a year. Instigating the downfall of the Tribunal has become something of an autumn ritual for me. I know the world map layout of Morrowind better than I remember the layout of some of my own childhood homes.

It's a little clunky and not enjoyable for a lot of people that jumped into Elder Scrolls with Oblivion or Skyrim, but for old school fans, it's still probably the single greatest product that Bethesda has ever released. Fallout New Vegas makes a close second place on that list, but at least in my opinion, Morrowind holds the crown and given modern Bethesda's tendencies I don't expect that to change.

Tekken 3 for the sheer amount of times I beat it front to back. I had no memory card for my PS1 as a kid so I'd leave my Playstation on all weekend while I beat the game. Some days the power went out and I'd lose progress and have to beat it all over again.

halo 1 the GOAT with best weapon balance in the series and solid all around design

It's a tie between Wildermyth or Yakuza 0.

Two games that tell their stories in wildly different ways. Yet, they both got me to feel some serious emotions.