I feel like my “all-time favorite” changes depending on my mood, but if I had to pick just one, I’d probably go with The Witcher 3. That game just hit all the right notes—amazing story, incredible world-building, and so much stuff to do without feeling like pointless filler. Plus, the expansions were just as good, if not better than the base game.
What about you? Are you more into RPGs, shooters, or something else entirely?
Morrowind. One of the few games you can fail the main quest by going on a rampage or by selling the wrong item.
The spells in Morrowind are so creative & fun too! Levitate & recall were my favorites.
Come on, now…
- Grind to gather resources.
- Make a potion to fortify intelligence
- Make a potion to fortify alchemy
- Drink potions
- While potions are active, make another set of fortify intelligence and alchemy potions, which - as a result of your potion-enhanced intelligence and alchemy skill - now fortified even stronger and longer.
- Repeat steps 3 and 4 a few times to become the smartest god-like being around for an infinite amount of time.
Game-breaking, but I would absolutely do it in real life if I had the option. I want the brains!
Night eye is amazing. Don’t even know what time of day it is when that spell is active.
Best single game is probably Portal. The pacing, storytelling, innovation, sound, all are top notch even 20+ years later. Graphics aren’t phenomenal, but don’t need to be. The challenges and easter eggs made it a blast to 100%.
I’d say that Portal 2 even improved the first one in every aspect.
Portal felt like a very long, pretty well-done tech demo, but Portal 2 is where it’s at.
I’m on the fence about which is better. Portal 2 is an improvement, but also has its flaws.
Part of the reason I would argue Portal 1 was better is because it was so unexpected. I went in expecting “interesting puzzle game” which it is, but I did not expect to also get “excellent humor with strange horror vibes and incredibly good personality.”
If someone didn’t know what a Glados was I think the first one is better. I also recognize that many people who have never played Portal are well aware of Glados.
I guess something Portal 2 lacked was the element of surprise.
I dunno. Frankly they’re both absolutely pantheon, legendary games that deliver a near-perfect gaming experience, but I feel like Portal 1 delivered a kind of tighter package where Portal 2 meanders just a little bit, and while Wheatley is still brilliant I’m not sure I he hit the same way or struck the same tone as GlaDOS. But we’re talking about like nanometers of difference in quality here either way as both games are goddamn stellar.
I felt that Portal 2’s difficulty curve was a little off but was perfect other than that. It was too easy for most of the game and then ramped up to what I consider to be a good difficulty level later on.
The two player portion was fantastic though.
Difficulty balance is especially hard for puzzle games, I guess. You can get a good estimate with lots of testing (ha!) with many participants, but even then you or me personally can be outliers.
Not just my mood, but I have different flavors of favorite.
In terms of nostalgia and all-time enjoyment, hard to beat Ocarina of Time.
In terms of pure “this game is so good”, may have to go with Red Dead Redemption 2. Truly a masterpiece.
In terms of most hours played, Civilization 6 at over 2000 hours.
I like this way of doing it. For me:
Nostalgia and all-time enjoyment, probably Pokémon Gen 2 / Remakes (Silver / Gold / Crystal / SoulSilver / HeartGold). I consider them all one game of different “flavours”. If I had to choose one I’d probably go with SoulSilver. The remakes added some much needed modern conveniences, and having your Pokémon follow you around in the overworld was awesome.
Pure “this game is so good”, probably Elden Ring. Before the DLC I’d probably go with Dark Souls III because of Gael and Friede, but Shadow of the Erdtree blew me away.
Most hours played, Skyrim at over 5,000. HITMAN is in second place at a bit over 1,300.
Sekiro.
Only hard until you start to understand the dance moves. Then it becomes pure nirvana.
After NG+7 I had to stop playing it and give some other games a chance.
I’m still surprised how well received it was, not because I disagree, but just because of the numbers. It’s currently sitting at 95% positive ratings on Steam, and that’s with 229k reviews, for a game that plays so different from what gamers expected out of FromSoft.
I was just reading some of the reviews on Steam the other night (because it’s my favorite game), and was pleasantly surprised to see that I was not alone in that view.
People who know, know.
Even when I suck at a boss fight it feels like I learn something new every time, such a good gameplay loop
I got stuck on it and then stopped playing for so long that I feel that I need to start again. I do intend to start it again if I ever get the time to put into it.
Once it clicks, there is no feeling like it. Incredible game.
I can’t beat Genichiro Ashina, but I think I’m going at him too early, but damnit I should still be able to!
He’s one of the first hard tests. You just gotta keep throwing yourself at him until it clicks. I went the other way and did Lady Butterfly which had its own pain. You have to play aggressively. Hesitation is defeat and all of that
Playing that now, just beat fake monk, next is the gorilla. Once the combat clicked for me everything made sense.
YES.
Sekiro is my favorite game ever and I wish they’d make a sequel.
It’s so good that it ruins other games for paling in comparison.
Super Mario World - just a fun game. Lots of little secrets and fun to speed run.
Titanfall - I played an absurd amount of this one and really wished there was a 3rd one. 1-2 remind me of the pattern seen in trilogys where 1 sets the stage, 2 deviaties pretty far and polarizes fans and then 3 uses the best of both while trying to feel more like 1. (Mario 1-3, Halo 1-3). My favorites in this pattern tend to be 3 so I’m disappointed I never got Titanfall 3.
Pubg - when it was new. Lost me years ago now but that first 6 months to a year was awesome. So many crazy games and absurd fun.
PUBG died the instant they introduced bots. I uninstalled immediately.
But got damn, while everyone else complained about physics and clothing on the floor, my partner and I had the BEST TIME EVER playing. One of the best games I’ve ever played for sure when it was newer.
I remember one time I was driving them on the motorbike thing with the sidecar with eight others remaining, and we hit an invisible pebble and were ROCKETED into the sky. We did a ton of flips and were laughing together about how we’re absolutely dead. We fell for ages and finally landed… no bounce. Just perfectly on our wheels. The bike was on fire. We were fine. We got out and ran away, only to die when three people were left. But we laughed sooooo hard when we landed totally fine. Insanity.
I miss it so much.
Quick edit: the first time I won in a 1v99, my heart rate hit 185 by the time my watch could calculate, so probably higher. I was vibrating. I had to lie down in bed. It was the most unique feeling a game has ever made me feel.
Yeah, no game has done to my heartrate what pubg did. Absolutely the most intense game I’ve ever played. Wish I could play that again for the first time.
I loved Titanfall 1 so much. Titanfall 2’s campaign was absolutely fantastic but I didn’t get on with the multiplayer so much.
I actually think that was a “me problem” rather than a problem with the game. I think that I had just had enough of multiplayer shooters as I’ve not played one since.
It’s easily The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.
It has everything I could ask for in a game: Sword fighting. Magic. Secrets. Dungeon crawling. An alternate dimension. Side quests. Different tools and items. There’s enough content that it feels fulfilling to complete it. Peak art. Peak music. NPCs don’t talk too much, and there are just enough of them to make the world feel alive. Bosses.
Have you tried A Link Between Worlds yet?
Unfortunately not. Is it only available on the 3DS?
Yeah, unless you emulate it of course. It’s not a direct sequal, but it’s heavily inspired by A Link to the Past
It’s a difficult question to answer. I personally barely consider Disco Elysium to be a game, more like an interactive story that uses certain game mechanics as grammar elements and punctuation in its storytelling. It’s a novel masquerading as a game. It’s three novels in a trenchcoat. But if we do count it then it is my pick, by a landslide.
Otherwise it’s probably Baldur’s Gate 2. It’s the story game I’ve replayed the most over the years and it was absolutely fundamental in my journey as a gamer, the definition of a formative experience. Even though parts of it are dated now (some clunk is to be expected from a 25-year-old game) I still prefer it to BG3. It’s got a great story, great companions and an all-time great villain. David Warner put in an incredible performance and even all these years later there aren’t many video game villains who have surpassed Irenicus in sheer aura.
I personally consider Disco Elysium very much a game (a way better role-playing gamer than most), because an “interactive story” is a game. Combat shouldn’t be a necessary condition. Planescape: Torment should have had the guts to scrap its lackluster combat and focus on its strengths.
Disco elysium is the best book I’ve ever played.
I played BG1 and 2 for the first time shortly before the release of BG3, and I just wanted to hear Irenicus talk more.
Disco Elysium, on the other hand, just did not hit for me. The only things I hear about it are praise, but my friends list is filled with people who played it for a few hours, like I did, and stopped, so maybe the dissenters just aren’t so vocal.
Like I said, the game itself on its store page claims to be a “detective game RPG” while in reality I would argue it’s barely any of those things. So a lot of people probably come into it with the wrong expectations. It’s more like a novel about love and loss, about addiction, depression and the past looming over the present like a grey ghost. It’s a story about finding hope in the midst of overwhelming nihilism. As someone who has struggled with all those things it hit incredibly close to home, and was the most meaningful experience I’ve ever had playing a video game.
I don’t think I came to it with many expectations other than that people praised it for the writing, but I found the characters to nearly universally be abrasive and the story delivered via info dumps.
That’s not an inaccurate description. Though context is important - most of the characters know yours through behavior and actions that neither you or the character remember. A lot of the game is playing with how you handle that.
True, but I hated the player character too, and I’d have appreciated a more elegant introduction to the world.
I can sympathize with that. The whole game is intentionally bleak and rough, which can be pretty off putting (though it does make the few nice parts exceptionally nice). The devs made a pretty overt choice to focus more on being fairly confrontational art rather than being particularly accommodating to the player.
I think that’s another thing as well, a lot of people go in with the idea that you can to some extent “play as yourself” like you do in many RPGs. And they get frustrated when they’re only given stupid or horrible dialogue options like “why would I ever say any of these things?!”. Because the game is actually rather restrictive in terms of roleplay: yes you can choose your flavour and variety of crazy but at the end of the day you’re always Harry, you’re always insane and damaged and you can’t change that.
For me personally, I’m also an utter failure and I hate myself deeply, so maybe that’s why I easily resonated with the protagonist. And in the end, much of the actual story is about dealing with failure, about finding hope amidst despair and about overcoming and letting go of the past.
I’m totally fine with playing a character who is always a shitty person, but when the world was littered with those characters, it was undesirable to spend any more time in it, especially considering my issues with the story’s delivery as well.
For me Disco Elysium is definitely my favorite of all time if we count it.
If we don’t for some reason, then Hi-Fi Rush is an absolute joy of a game and I’ve loved every second of it. Very obviously a labor of love and far more gamified than Disco Elysium.
Any of those three
- Disco Elysium
- Death Stranding
- Outer Wilds
Great list. But I love reading trough the reasoning behind the picks. What are yours?
Personally I think outer wilds is a one of a kind game which represents am artistic message about existence that cannot be conveyed the same way in any other medium.
I think the common denominator is a strong / immersive story and universe that appeals to me (big fan of sf), interesting mechanics and gameplay in a way that makes the game unique in its own way, and the artistic approach behind the game, so for each of those :
- Outer Wilds was a fantastic experience that you can only live once, the freedom of exploration is crazy, the feelings you can go through in the span of a single minute make it so memorable, I connected with this game like no other
- Death Stranding I played during one of the lockdowns, and after hiking in Iceland, it was a continuity of these two experiences that felt very personal. It was also my introduction to Kojima games. I found it to be such a premium experience and statement about video games, I loved the insanity of the plot, and once you dug deeper, you find all the artistic inspiration and process that went behind the game, it’s an insane work of interactive art
- Disco Elysium I was already fully on board just learning about the game, I sympathise with the authors, the fact that it started as an rpg campaign, with immense lore behind it, love the art style, the narration, the story and its themes, I haven’t lived in post USSR Europe but the game make me nostalgic/melancholic for a time, aesthetic, struggles I didn’t know
They’re my absolute favourite but some games come close, Inscryption, Pyre, Spiritfarer…
Great points. One think I love about disco is how much expression it gives to the mundane. It’s not about firebreathing dragons but about trashcans. My most intense interaction I’ve had in this game was with a malfunctioning speaker on a office building.
I wish more people would play The Hex. I got more playtime out of Inscryption and loved it, but I played The Hex later on and I did not expect to like it more, but it’s fucking genius. I think it’s a legitimately better game.
I am so psyched for Pony Island 2.
Prey, I forgot Prey, but I haven’t finished it yet, also Dishonored
Based list. Outer Wilds in particular chef’s kiss.
StarCraft: Brood War
Dark Souls.
It fundamentally changed me as a person. All of the other fromsoft games are great but none of them really encapsulates the experience that is the first Dark Souls game.
You can’t say something like that without elaborating! How did it change you?
So I first played Dark Souls when I was 17. As a kid that was going into my senior year of high school, completely obsessed with games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Uncharted 2 - Dark Souls was such a drastic change in how you interacted with a game. No constant ADHD flick shots in a cod game, no mindless story based progression with a complete lack of difficulty.
Dark Souls taught me three things: Slow down, think critically, and never give up.
Looking back on it, it’s some real basic knowledge to impart on someone. But I feel like they apply to everything in life and nobody around me seems to think the same.
It kinda blows my mind when you look at YouTube and see the absurd amount of videos there are of people describing how dark souls made them a better person mentally. The game is clearly special in a way no other game is to a lot of people and not to mention it popularized a whole new genre.
If anyone reading this hasn’t tried Dark Souls or has tried it once and bounced off of it quickly. I really recommended giving it a(nother) shot.
Shadow of the Colossus was barely even a game, it was art. I don’t think I even played it for more than 20 hours total but just a simple masterpiece.
Fallout 2 is probably one of my favourite games of all time. Absolutely amazing game, if a bit sprawly. I’ve played through it many times and expect I will do again.
Red Alert 2 - the pinnacle of the isometric RTS genre. Bordering on too silly but without tipping into absolute farce. Mechanically very strong, the art is lovely, and even has nostalgia for me.
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth. Massive game but a run can be completed relatively quickly. I always disable the music because I don’t like games that try to scare and intimidate me. I’m pretty good at the game so it tends to be pretty relaxing for me, if a bit fugue-state-y.
Battlefield: Bad Company 2: the apex of the Battlefield multiplayer games for me. The others have plenty going for them, but BFBC2 was the best compromise between destructibility, player counts, etc. for my tastes. Sniping took significant skill and one couldn’t go prone - it meant that open areas didn’t feel like a death sentence (looking at you, later BF games!).
Assassin’s Creed: Origins/Odyssey two open world games with beautiful maps and locations to explore. I think I preferred the setting of Origins but the story of Odyssey. A bit of escapist fantasy, I suppose. I loved the Ezio trilogy too, mind you.
Fallout 2 is absolutely stellar. I get the arguments some old-heads levy against in when they prefer Fallout 1, but I think I just played FO2 at the perfect time. The wackiness and pop culture references and humour hit with me when I first played it. It is sprawly, but it is also amazing for how big it is and how much there is to do in it.
Did you ever play it modded? The Restoration Project, Updated has two amazing addons that add more talking heads and more voice acting and they’re both of phenomenal, basically seamless quality. It’s really like putting on a fresh coat of paint on the old thing.
I agree that the original is tighter, but I love the free-form adventure of 2.
Did you ever play it modded? The Restoration Project, Updated has two amazing addons that add more talking heads and more voice acting and they’re both of phenomenal, basically seamless quality. It’s really like putting on a fresh coat of paint on the old thing.
Played it? I voiced a talking dog in it!
I agree that the original is tighter, but I love the free-form adventure of 2.
While that is also true, what I hear most about is the tone. Fallout 1 is really rather dark, grim and gritty. It leans more into the heavy side of a post-apocalyptic setting and some people really liked that, and were disappointed when FO2 came out and leaned noticeably more into the wacky side of things.
Played it? I voiced a talking dog in it!
Wait, really? That’s so cool! Do you know the current status of the project? The last update was over two years ago…
The Witcher 3, followed by the Mass Effect trilogy (I consider it as a whole)
And honestly, Cyberpunk 2077 could complete the top 3
But if I have to consider multiplayer games, with 3000+ hours on Warframe (considering I haven’t touched it for years), I guess it could also be considered my favorite (I think I also spent 1000h on ME3 multi)
Minecraft
There are so many things you can do in the game, especially using mods
The mod packs just keep coming and there has been a number of interesting packs since 1.20 was released.
Its got a billion accounts its the most played game in the world ever so its surprising to find it so far down this list.
World of Warcraft!
I know people like to look down on it here but it’s trully an amazing theme park metaverse experience.
I don’t have much time for it these days but just playing couple of hours every week is such a joyful experience. There’s just so much to do in the game, great writing, legendary characters, great people playing it. True metaverse experience everyone has been chasing lately.
