Tildes Survey #8: What is your favorite video game? (Results)
Original post
Submit your response here!
- Direct link: https://survey.tildes.community/-/what-is-your-favorite-video-game-8/
- This survey closes on June 14, 2026 at 10:00 UTC
- The results will be published on June 14 shortly after the survey has closed. I'll edit this topic and post a comment about it!
The current plans for questions that will be asked in the coming weeks are as follows:
| Question | Survey opens | Survey closes |
|---|---|---|
| Vote for the next 4 surveys | ||
| What is your gender identity? | ||
| What's your favorite video game? | 2026-06-07 18:00 UTC | 2026-06-14 10:00 UTC |
| How optimistic are you about the future? | 2026-06-14 18:00 UTC | 2026-06-21 10:00 UTC |
| How often do you visit/read Tildes? | 2026-06-21 18:00 UTC | 2026-06-28 10:00 UTC |
I was initially thinking of doing something like kfwyre suggested where you could submit a top 5 or so, but then I thought it would be more fun if I made you decide on a definitive answer. Like how with the pineapple pizza survey there was only Yes and No as answers, you have to make a choice!
So that's what I've decided to do! Pick your ultimate favorite video game. And feel free to discuss your honorable mentions in the comments, of course. ;)
Please submit your ideas for questions here! Even if they've been submitted already by someone else. All input is valuable! You can view all submitted questions on this dashboard.
Thank you all for participating!
The survey has been closed and the results are in!
Thank you to all the 166 people that responded! Check out the dashboard for the full results!
I was initially thinking of making a custom visualization with all the game covers in a big collage together, but I ended up not having the time to do it. :'( If anyone is interested in trying to make that though, please do! I think it'd look really cool.
Thank you all again for participating! Hope to see you in the next survey! :)
Outer Wilds. I had a major existential crisis after COVID lockdown, where basic society falling out seemed to make everything feel awfully pointless. Outer Wilds genuinely felt like a religious experience in the face of that. I don't know if a piece of art, let alone a video game, will ever do that for me again. Also game-wise and narratively it's just damn good and so easy to recommend to anyone.
Shoutouts to Katawa Shoujo (which was a giant mirror I desperately needed for my own identity in assorted ways), Undertale and Deltarune (which are the best celebration of the medium itself), Melee (a monument to human folly), Ever17 + 999: Nine Persons, Nine Hours, Nine Doors (opening my head to looking at narratives in different ways), Pokémon Legends: Arceus (because you're never too old to feel like you're five again), Resident Evil Remake (which feels like Mikami put the inner workings of my frontal lobe on a GameCube disc), and Sonic Adventure 2 (my favorite most video gamey video game).
Pull out translator
SOLANUM: The universe is, and we are.
I have to say, the DLC for Outer Wilds got me properly. I do not deal well with being spooked, and I had to stop playing for a while. For anyone like me, it is worth it.
Echoes of the Eye spoilers
During gameplay, finding out it was a simulation helped a lot. I still hated it and found absolutely no joy or excitement or adrenaline in making my way to the libraries, but it did flip a switch in my mind that made it bearable.
After the game, realising that the strangers were afraid of the Eye and that's what held them back meant so much more when I was nearly held back by them. Their scan of the Eye showed both the destruction of this universe and the birth of a new one, but they were so terrified of losing everything (after having destroyed their home moon) that they blocked the signal. I could have given into that same fear and stopped playing the game, but then I would not have seen the beauty in the story being told.
I've been playing videogames since I was a little kid on my Atari 2600 and Colecovision, and I can confirm that yes, Outer Wilds is the best game that has ever been made. I'm not ashamed to say that I cried at the end when Gabro talks to you at the campfire.
I will also say that Echoes of the Eye was amazing as well, but man did I find it to be even more difficult than the base game. I couldn't even figure out how to start it once I bought it.
Ah people do like this but I couldn’t deal with the zero G sections. Just made me nauseous. I first noticed this playing Descent, but also Crackdown triggered it massively as well from a height POV. I don’t deal with heights or free form / zero G type motion
Yeah, aside from straight-up motion sickness (sorry you had that!) the zero-g navigation can be a difficult point to get over for people who don't jive with the three-axis navigation for any kinesthetic reason.
I've also had a friend who dropped it because the time limits made them anxious. I feel like they're a necessary part of the experience (and kind of ""solve"" themselves as the general conceit, at least as I take it), but I can understand not wanting to keep going. There's also a mod if that bit bugs anyone who bounces off.
If we were allowed to submit more than one title, this would've been the second game I typed. It was a phenomenal, transformative experience to play and I constantly must hunt down other people playing it to relive the experience.
The only game that ranks higher than it for me is Disco Elysium, which I believe I've said before on Tildes is my favorite piece of art bar none, so. It's stiff competition here.
Wow, those are big accolades. Did you ever try the VR mod?
I did !
As a mod, it's probably one of best, with excellent integration of the in game tools all around.
But it's also one of the few VR game that made me seasick despite me having good VR legs (there's this ninja game where you do slides and somersault ; no problem for me). It's probably the uncontrolled relative movement of the big celestial bodies that triggers it. I remember being equally in awe and being sick being on the hourglass twin and see the sun moving.
Great to hear. I have pretty well established VR legs myself, so I'm looking forward to putting them to the test, and since I'm going into this game blind, I'm pretty excited.
I struggled with the flying in Outer Wilds because I have a fear of drifting off into the vastness of space (only this game and Kerbal Space Program have triggered this fear for me) to the extent that for a portion of the game I played by having my then-partner fly the ship according to my instructions. So probably the VR version isn't for me.
If you don't mind me asking, do you appreciate or actively seek media that flirts with that phobia as a possible outcome or topic? I remember you mentioned it in a previous discussion thread! (And I find that interplay of fear and art really fascinating - forgot to mention DDLC as, tl;dr, one of my favorites...)
I don't deliberately seek out media that triggers it, but I do still appreciate stuff that incorporates it when it's otherwise got something that appeals to me (as absolutely is the case with Outer Wilds). In the case of Outer Wilds I'm much more able to interact with the flying elements now that I'm very familiar with the planets and solar system in the game, and I've watched YouTubers do the "fly as far asay as fast as you can during the time limit" thing so it's no longer a true unknown, which helps alleviate my fear. Having someone alongside to help me get to the point where I was more familiar with the game was a big help but luckily is no longer necessary for me to play the game. Kerbal Space Program's gameplay much more directly interacts with the source of this fear and lacks the time limit aspect that helps with Outer Wilds, but I suspect with help from someone who was passionate about the game to help get me back on track when the fear got triggered could help me get used to the game enough to mitigate it enough. But unlike Outer Wilds I've never really wanted to play it enough to force myself to deal with it on my own.
This particular phobia rare enough though that it's not often I come into contact with it -- I have to both be in control (which limits this to games) and have the potential to accidentally fling myself out into the void of space, and this isn't actually common enough to often interfere.
No kidding. I'm not asking you to lie on the therapist couch here, but would you mind elaborating on where a fear like that comes from? Ocean trauma? I'm very curious!
I don't think I have any particular adverse experiences that could've caused it, and I don't have fear of the ocean or anything like that either -- there's simply a lot less nothing in the ocean, and there's bounds to hit. Being the one piloting is a big factor in this fear triggering for sure, and the endlessness/void of space is a big factor. But I don't think there's an obvious source for this fear tbh. Just a random irrational fear ig. The most similar feeling I can think of is anxiety/nervousness when driving, but that's definitely less intense and more rational.
Well, for what it's worth, water running in total darkness gives me the willies too.
Hey, at least I was born in an era where my odds of encountering the source of this fear irl are vanishingly small!
It's Factorio. For me it's the best game ever made, with probably the best DLC ever made, and a mod community which creates so much fantastic content (from small QOL mods to massive overhauls) that the game is basically endlessly replayable.
It's also a technical marvel. The devs (Wube Software) optimized the game like no other and try to fix even the tiniest bugs. And - although I only play solo - the fact that a complex and systems heavy game like Factorio allows multiplayer maps with more than 500 players just blows my mind. I understand why it works, but it's still just super impressive.
Over the past nine years I spend many sundays happily focussed on building production chains and train networks, forgetting about personal and global woes and sorrows. And I still have a great time playing. Just a very special game.
Also factorio for me. This might be hyperbole just a little bit, but I think factorio is near-perfect. Its polish and QOL features blow pretty much every other game out there out of the water. When im designing something in factorio, sometimes it feels less like playing a game and more like coding in my heavily customized neovim setup, in that building is just streamlined that much. I follow FFF's religiously in my RSS reader, and am working on getting the speedrunning achievements now.
I almost put Factorio. It's definitely currently my most played game. I think about it all the time.
But if more characters dropped for Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, I'd forget Factorio exists for a few weeks, no question.
I got my 10 year old son hooked on Factorio as of a few weeks ago, as an alternative to the games he usually begs for. Every now and then he proudly shows me some new advancement on his base - solar arrays (and the power supply graph), trains, drones, nuclear energy...
What's funny is that the first evening, as I sat with him through the tutorial and watched him play, I found myself explaining backpressure to him. (Which, funnily enough, was something I'd been discussing with a colleague just the day before.) And pointing out how his first drillers and smelters look just like functional units, and the need to probably balance them. Or how he could assemble parallel belts into busses, and the importance of physical placement and floor planning. I'm a software engineer turned chip architect at a semiconductor company these days; there's a reason I haven't actually touched Factorio myself, even though it looks like a fantastic game. :-)
That's probably very wise. 🙂
And yeah, Factorios mechanics really work like a visual representation of many programming principles. Not to mention that it even features its own logic circuits via combinators.
Your job description reminded me of this: a few months ago someone held a presentation at a hacker congress in germany, describing how they built a RISC-CPU inside Factorio. They then build an operating system and also Minesweeper and Snake with their own assembly (live-demo here).
In case you're interested:
Here's the deepl-translated youtube-description of the talk:
Factorio is a factory simulation game with a built-in logic system. This allowed me to build a CPU consisting of, among other things, a 5-stage pipeline, a forwarding logic unit, interrupt handling, and an I/O interface. Using an assembler I wrote myself, I was able to integrate my own operating system and programs like Minesweeper and Snake.
This talk aims to show you how classic computer architecture can be implemented in a completely different technical context and where surprisingly real problems in CPU development arise in the process.
Join me on this journey: From a view of the entire computer all the way down to the individual logic gates—it’s just a mouse scroll away!
Factorio is a game about factory automation—conveyor belts, steam engines, and production lines take center stage. While the game’s internal logic system (“Combinators”) is primarily designed to control the factory, it also allows for the development of complex hardware.
In this talk, I’ll share my story of how I created a complete RISC-V architecture in Factorio using only vanilla combinators:
The CPU operates with 32-bit words, has 32 general-purpose registers, 128 KB of RAM/persistent storage, a 5-stage pipeline with forwarding and hazard handling, and a logic unit for branches and interrupts. A display controller manages console output and a color display, while a keyboard controller enables input via physical in-game buttons.
On the software side, the hardware is complemented by the FactOS operating system, which provides a simple file system as well as system calls (for example, to print a string in the terminal). In addition, the operating system restricts the running user program to a fixed area of RAM, thereby preventing direct access to the hardware.
In this talk, I’d like to guide you through all layers of this architecture:
From the fundamentals of Factorio’s signal physics, through CPU design and pipeline hazards, to the toolchain and the operating system. I’ll also provide insight into how Factorio’s limitations—as well as its advantages—compared to conventional logic simulators can influence CPU design. I’ll wrap up my talk with a live demonstration of the system.
I am making the complete CPU, including the assembler source code, blueprints, and sample programs, publicly available. This allows anyone interested to load the architecture into Factorio, expand upon it, and develop their own software for it.
There will be a self-organized session where I’ll give a hands-on introduction on how to load the CPU into Factorio, how to write programs, assemble them, and integrate them into Factorio. You’re also welcome to chat with me about the project there—I look forward to all your contributions and comments :)
PhD (Philipp)
What exactly is the draw of games like Factorio for you, if you don't mind me asking?
Several things:
I think the simplest aspect is just the typical progression that many games share. Factorio has several layers of progression systems. In the beginning of a playthrough the player moves quite slow, building is a bit cumbersome, there are obstacles like cliffs, lakes and alien 'biters' that stand in the way of progress, some machines are slow, everything is just a bit basic. But over time players get access to many different tools and items that make basically all aspects of the game easier, quicker, simpler, more efficient or they open up completely new ways to design the base, and that's definitely very rewarding, especially in the bigger overhaul mods that take a long time to progress.
Factorio also gives its players a lot of freedom in the ways of building their bases. Every production chain is a small puzzle that can be solved in many ways, and all the small building blocks are simultaneously part of a larger puzzle, the question of logistics, or how we move items from one place to the next where they are needed. In parallel there's also an aspect of 'architecture', how to organize all the different production chains in the sense of space. All that gives a lot of options for creativity to build small/big or efficient/weird or spacey/crammed or organized/chaotic or just design for some kind of beauty or aesthetics. And these aspects also play a role when designing train networks or space platforms in the DLC. There are many parallels to programming in that regard.
But the thing that I really get lost in is just the growing complexity of a base, and the 'gardening' 😅, keeping it all running somehow, and just watching trains zipping, bots flying, belts moving and having the feeling of sitting inside this huge nearly organic thing that now moves millions of items around and that I build myself over dozens of hours. It's just kinda fascinating and very satisfying to 'grow' a base like that. 🙂
Divinity: Original Sin II is not the best game ever made. It is flawed, the story has only just enough momentum to get it to the finish line by the end, it is so easy to make a character build that is suboptimal (and you will be punished for it), and systems are rough around the edges. But I love it.
What D:OS2 has is character. The game focuses on both the big and the small in ways that I just love. In the grand scheme of things, the world is fucked, the Voidwoken invasion is unwinnable, and there are rumblings of future wars between powers. But at the small scale there are still people, there is hope, there is humour. D:OS2 is simultaneously a very serious game that by the end will have you feeling down because damn is its story dark, but it's also incredibly goofy at times. You'll go from killing a witch who was driven mad by the magisters who has given into the force of evil and now hurts everything around her, to a skeletal boatman who will take you across the lake of deathfog for a fee, omitting the fact that he will be sailing straight through the deathfog until you arrive on the other side. Whoops.
Your companions are a huge part of it too. They have stories that you will be going through as you play, because you kind of need to do everything to ensure you're at the right level for everything else. Their stories are so incredibly grounded in the world. Some have ties directly to the plot or side plots you'll be encountering as you play. Some even conflict with each other. And each of them have their own bits of character growth, and by the end you'll understand them. They are so well done.
Mechanically, the game holds up because the surfaces+clouds system that so many abilities are built on is actually really good as a foundation (well, all roads lead to necrofire, but otherwise it's implemented so well). Almost every ability will interact with the environment in some way, so the battlefield keeps changing. And no two fights are the same. There are many instances of an enemy type only being used a single time, and when they are used multiple times then the arena you're fighting in is different enough that it changes the feel. I'd be remiss if I didn't at least mention that Blackpits fight.
Oh, and the soundtrack. I think it is truly underappreciated. There are pieces that didn't make onto the official OST release that I think set the mood(s) of this game so damn well.
When I heard that Larian was going to be making Baldur's Gate 3, I had every confidence they would do a good job of it. And they did. I think BG3 is a better game than D:OS2. They got better at storytelling, the engine allows for fully 3d maps with layers (Moonrise Towers is them showing off what the updated engine can do, and I love it), and everything is just a little more polished. But this is a question about favourites, not best. D:OS2 was the right game at the right time for me.
I played D:OS2 a few months back, because I enjoyed BG3 so much I wanted to see what Larian had done previously with their own setting. I purchased D:OS recently but haven't gotten to it yet (working on Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth), and am looking forward to their upcoming game.
Ah, my nemesis. I don't want to think about how many times I had to try to get past that...
I'm obligated to name my favorite as Final Fantasy XIV though, since it's the MMORPG I've been playing for like eight years, and have spent a lot of time in with my fiancée and our Free Company (guild). Though, for one-and-done games that aren't an ongoing thing, D:OS2 and BG3 are very high up for sure.
There's a lot that will feel familiar, but it really is a different game. The biggest shock to me was that status effects are all chance based, rather than being blocked by physical/magic armour in D:OS2. There's also this mechanic where your two main party members will have a conversation, and the answers you choose will affect their stats. I found it interesting, but poorly implemented and some of the options just don't make sense.
I feel like the game's development was very much rushed towards the end, and a couple of end-game fights didn't feel like they were tuned quite right. But there was still something to be enjoyed in seeing what led to D:OS2.
Oh, and the story is basically completely separate. There are some allusions to it in D:OS2, but for the most part it was all left behind.
I remember starting that fight and thinking "they're going to do the thing, aren't they". When that last wave spawned I celebrated. Then died. On all future playthroughs, especially ones where I'm shepherding a friend through the game, I always respec a character into hydro before this fight.
The start of the Blackpits was where I fully fell for this game. I was really enjoying the game beforehand, but this ended up where I had the realisation that this was my favourite game, and I just sat around for a few minutes to enjoy the music before moving on and saving the family from the magisters. My love for it had been building up until this point, this is just where it tipped over.
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Control (2019) - the SCP influences, being a FPS/action hybrid, the soundtrack, the vibes, it's just immaculate. My only complaint is that they don't have an in-game method to check collectibles so I never fully bothered to 100% the game but I went as far as I could.
Can't wait for Resonant.
A perfect game. Also super excited for Control Resonant. I did 100% it, which is rare for me. I want to say it wasn't that hard to get every collectable for achievement purposes as I didn't use a guide but I don't specifically remember.
I have not submitted my answer yet, as I have a hard time picking one.
The top.of my list includes:
I think it may be time to finally take of the nostalgia glasses and have another look at Morrowind - it was unbelievable game when it came out, I still love it, I still want to play it again and again, but if I'm real, there are just better games out there.
Final Fantasy X has absolutely top notch love story I have ever experienced in a game. I simply lived the life of Tidus for those few weeks when I first played the game.
Horizon Zero Dawn has perfect execution of story - the uncovering of bits and pieces to the grand finale.
There are many games worth mentioning - Witcher 3, Stardew Valley, Talos Principle, ...
But it has to be only one and it will be one of FFX or HZD. I have to think about it for a while.
Spec Ops: The Line
If you know of it, you know why I love it.
If you don't, and if you have even a passing interest in shooter games, play it sight unseen. I know people often say to avoid spoilers when it isn't really that necessary, but for this game it is. Just play it. Trust me.
Also you might have to pirate it unless you already own it. It was delisted digitally because of licensing issues. I just had to buy the Xbox 360 disk on eBay for a friend to play.
Oof, this is a hard one. My top like five include Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, Final Fantasy VI, Final Fantasy VII, and probably Splinter Cell (at least the original trilogy). And it's those first three that kinda jointly occupy each spot in the top three, all at once. Gotta think about this one...
Chrono Trigger is such a given - even for me, a person who'd rather celebrate the under recognized. I chose something else from that era for my favourite game, but if I were honest about whether it or Chrono Trigger was the better game, CT would wind hands down. It's just too perfect.
My SNES RPG trinity is basically the same as those three except I switch out Earthbound for Lufia 2.
Lufia was pretty underrated. I love the charm that series gives off - the graphics, the music -- it had something different going for it than the other heavy hitters on the SNES.
Super Mario RPG
It was my first experience with that jrpg style of game and honestly I was worried that if I ever played it again I'd hate it. Nope got the rerelease for the switch and got six of seven stars in one weekend.
That's definitely my favorite SNES game, and I had basically the same experience when I revisited it on the Steam Deck. "This is going to be so lame; I'm falling victim to nostalgia" ... "Nah, this game fuckin' rocks."
And I finally had the patience to collect all the Frog Coins needed to buy out the shop run by Frogfucius' student. I crossed the Sky Bridge in Land's End soooo many times for Frog Coins. I definitely didn't have the resolve to accomplish that when I played it in grade school.
Yeah replaying it was an absolute blast. And young me was at such a loss for any other game like it. Nintendo-wise Paper Mario scratched that itch a bit, but I didn't really ever get into the more typical jrpgs because I didn't understand the genre beyond the gameplay style. And I knew and liked the Mario story
I still find myself randomly whistling bits of Happy Parade, Delightful Parade all these mumble mumble years later. I consider it easily one of, if not the, most infectiously happy pieces of video game music ever! Listening to it's always good whenever I need a pick-me-up. (And I'm so glad they got the original composer back for the remake.)
It's just so charming. The fact that Booster didn't see his own Mario Kart is an injustice for everyone who wants more weird unibrow perverts in their racing games.
You're right it's a damn shame! Justice for .....Booster? (Not too much)
Nintendo's mascot games are full up on princess kidnappers anyway.
There are a lot of those. It's hard to be the princess
I kind of have eras that don’t really overlap. Like my favourite childhood game was final fantasy 1, which I don’t know how you would even compare with fallout 4, which is probably my favourite game of adulthood.
There's a solid handful that come to mind, but being limited to one, Halo 2 will always be the crown jewel of my heart. Not just for the exceptional gameplay, soundtrack, and multiplayer, but the memories of being the age I was, as well.
The survey has been closed and the results are in!
Thank you to all the 166 people that responded! Check out the dashboard for the full results!
I was initially thinking of making a custom visualization with all the game covers in a big collage together, but I ended up not having the time to do it. :'( If anyone is interested in trying to make that though, please do! I think it'd look really cool.
Thank you all again for participating! Hope to see you in the next survey! :)
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Wow, the shade!1! I answered "gooning" and you just removed it!! :((
It's still in the ZIP data, along with the other unknowns. ;)
I can't get the website to load, but all I really had to add so far is +1 to the "cishet white dude from the USA" demographic. Now I wanna answer though!
Kerbal Space Program by far and away. I credit the game with my ability to think. Up until I played it, I was under the impression that rockets just go up until they're in space, and then there's no more gravity in space, which is an alarmingly common misconception even among adults today. I'm some kind of dumbass about a lot of things, but I have a pretty good grasp on basic physics thanks specifically to this game.
Objectively, I think the best game I've ever played in terms of gameplay, story, and music was Nier: Automata.
Hi-Fi Rush takes third place. If you like earnestness and sincerity, this is your game. I was fully expecting someone to lampshade the corniness of the "I am a rock star" line, but the game plays it perfectly straight and is made infinitely better for it. Plus the soundtrack! You got the Black Keys, Nine Inch Nails, The Prodigy, The Joy Formidable, it's incredible
I haven't played Hi-Fi Rush, but sometime around 2007 I came up with a very similar concept for a game - an action platformer where you get points for doing stuff in time with the music. Mine was called "Assault Shaker", and instead of the collectibles being coins or rings they were salt shakers, haha. Well now that's out in the world so I can finally let it go, do with it what you will!
What response are you getting from the website? Just doesn't load at all?
Yeah, connection just times out. I've tried turning off both DDG's tracking protection and adguard DNS, and it seems neither of them is responsible. May be a problem with android?
Worked on Android for me with uBlock on Firefox mobile
Did a little investigating and it could possibly be an IPv6 issue, looks like the server for whatever reason doesn't like IPv6 traffic (DNS AAAA is set and Caddy is listening on
:::80and:::443though so must be a network interface thing). I'll see if I can fix that somewhere this weekend.For somebody who adored Jet Set Radio back in the day, would you say that Hi Fi Rush iterates, expands or completely reinvents what that series started?
Not sure, I never played Jet Set Radio. It's aesthetically similar, but I'd liken it more to Bayonetta or DMC in terms of gameplay
No kidding, and here I thought it was a spiritual successor.
This one was hard to pick my ultimate favorite game.
At least my top 5 would be:
Nice to see Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic mentioned here. It is great SW game!
Im torn between Final Fantasy X and Golden Sun.
Golden Sun is the peak of what was possible on the GBA. The spritework seemed remarkably detailed for its time, the worldbuilding made each new city feel like a distant land, and the music had some absolute bangers in the soundtrack.
FFX on the other hand has some of my favorite game mechanic design in an RPG. Playing through the game normally is fun enough, but when you start getting into no sphere grid runs and you have to learn to exploit every aspect of the combat system, it gives you a broader appreciation of how well it all works. Weapons can feel powerful without needing big numbers and status effects can completely change the flow of a battle. Not to mention the music is amazing in this game too.
I want to say "Ocarina of Time" or "KOTOR" or "Pokemon" as they're all games I adore, but in terms of games I enjoy so much that I keep returning to them without ever getting bored (which my basis for "favorite", here), it's gotta be World of Warcraft.
Admittedly there may be some recency bias as I'm currently playing a lot of Hardcore Classic. But TBC and Wrath dominated my college years and between always checking in for a new expansion (even if only to hit level cap) and being a huge fan of Classic, Season of Discovery, and now hardcore, I'm still finding new ways to enjoy the game.
I loved all the other questions, but this one I find so awkward. What does "favorite" mean? How can you choose one? How will the data be useful?
I know it's for fun, but we had so many other good questions on the list! Maybe we'll get around to them lol.
I put down Return of the Obra Dinn. It always comes to mind when I think of "favorite game" because it's such a neat package. It's not too long, it's unique, it tells a wonderful story, it's got really cool mechanics and it's awesome to talk about.
I spent hours after playing discussing with other people who played it how they solved certain parts of the game and it's completely mind blowing how everyone solves it. Some struggle where others breeze past it. It's a complete must play for anyone who enjoys any kind of problem solving and/or puzzles.
For as much as I gushed about Chrono Trigger previously, it didn't take much consideration to pick a different game as my favorite: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.
While not my first video game it was among the early ones and it's the game I've replayed the most times start to finish. A lot of other games I've put more time into could more precisely represent specific phases of my life (off the top of my head there's Ocarina of Time, Unreal Tournament 2004, Team Fortress 2, and Minecraft), but this is the one that's been persistent throughout and I always enjoy revisiting it from time to time. I don't think it's even the best game in the Zelda franchise, but it's the equivalent of comfort food for me.
Yes! ALttP is such a comfort game! It always feels like the perfect length to me whenever I replay it. It's big enough to have plenty to do, but small enough that I can roughly remember where everything important is and what a fun order to do things is. It's also fun when I hazily remember some minor detail or that there's something important about some spot, check it out, and then discover that I remembered correctly.
Anyway, I'm hosting it for CGA this August, and I hope you'll be able to join us. As part of that, I'm planning to roll and share a seed on the randomizer for those of us who have already played it many times. I've never tried the randomizer before, but I think it could be fun to mix things up and have a laugh at it as a group.
I do think it's the best Zelda game, and I think for all Nintendo's squeezing their back catalog for every penny they can, they are nuts for not remaking it in that 3d-ish style of the Link's Awakening remake. I have basically stopped using my Switch and have no interest in a Switch 2, but I can't think of a release that would pull me in quite like a LTTP remake.
For me it's got to be Oblivion. Between the pirated version I played in and after college, the XBox 360 version I was playing around 2016, the Steam version I went to off and on, and finally the remake, it's hard to say how many hours I put into it, but it was probably about 1000. You could say that I basically failed out my freshman year due to Oblivion, but it would be more accurate to say I failed out due to my extremely poor mental health, and Oblivion was my life raft. Or maybe my poor substitute for therapy. Skyrim was good too, and Fallout 3 and Starfield, but they never hit the same as Oblivion.
A close second would be RimWorld - 500+ hours per Steam, a more modern obsession for me.
Notable runners-up:
It's a hard question, if I'm going by hours played then it's definitely Heroes of the Storm; hots is the one I keep coming back to. The other top picks would be Brood War or StarCraft 2, because I spent so many hours playing both and they significantly shaped who I was growing up.
If I was to pick the best overall video game, I think my vote would go towards Portal (and Portal 2). Everything about Portal is perfect for me: the game doesn't drag out for too long and all of the elements come together perfectly.
If I had to give an honorable mention it would be Super Mario World for the SNES. I think this is was the peak of side-scrollers. It was my first game and it just perfected the genre across all dimensions for me.
I have already replied here, but after giving it some more thought, the question ultimately says "What is your favorite video game?" not "Whyt is the best video game?"
This emerges completely new set of games for me to pick from:
I have to think this one through. It won't be the best game for sure, as it should be favorite game. We'll see.
EDIT: I have to add one more game that might actually be the one:
EDIT2: Why limit ourselves to just PC gaming?
Yaes. 10/10 ambience in this game. Best RTS ever. Even the story (even though paper-thin in some sense) is kind of perfect.
I bought it original in brick-and-mortar store on CDs for 2€. It was cheaper than buying two blank CDs to have it burned (pirated) on them at the time. I also got it from a videogame magazine (base game only).
What a great game! Big Bertha FTW! - Or actually the Core counterpart which has longer range but doesn't look that good in my opinion. Or if you have the energy, go for Vulcan, yay!
This is 100% my favorite game of all time. I've been playing AOE games for over a quarter century, and AOE games are the only thing I play today with any regularity. It's also the only game series that I watch professionals play.
Do you play AOE2DE? They've done a bang-up job modernizing the game. I play on Steam with my son now - livin the dream.
I play HD version. I hate leaving it when I have just a few achievements done. I don't want one game to drag down the average (although I have many such games).
I own AoE2DE and I will definitely play it at some time. I know it is great.
I get it. I've been playing DE for a while, but I was still booting up HD regularly until about 6 months ago because that was the version I played with my son. It just ran much better on the old laptop he was using to play and is still a great game with a lot of improvements over the original releases. I bought a used gaming PC since then, and now we both play DE together.
Obviously it's always hard picking a favorite for a question like this, but Psychonauts consistently floats to the top of my mind every time I confront this question. I still find it so delightful and charming and really liked the sequel.
Portal 2 takes a close second, but they're two of the only games I've ever completely played through a second time. I played both as a teenager and they both left deep impressions and kind of set that bar for what I like in a video game.
Minecraft is the game I've played the longest and I still boot it up with friends from time to time, but it's hard to say it's my favorite. Definitely one of the GOATs though.
Golden Sun (2001) on the GameBoy Advance. It came out at the perfect time in my life, I think I was 10 or 11, it had all the RPG mechanics that I wanted, beautiful sprite work, fun collecting and experimentation, puzzles, and fun characters that I really loved. The music was really cool too! I think the second game is “better” but the first one got me hooked. It also got me into learning Photoshop (to customize sprites and make forum signature banners — I don’t recall the proper name for these) and HTML/CSS as I was online-friends with someone who created one of the go-to Golden Sun fan site of the era (holy shit, it’s still online) and wanted to make my own website (one of a million half-baked Geocities websites). Ive played both of the originals so many times over the years and now that I’m thinking about it, I want to play it again! I missed when the last one came out and only played that maybe 5 years ago and while it wasn’t as great as the originals, I still loved it. I really do think there’s never been a better time to revisit the series and have been holding out hope for so many years at this point. A Nintendo Switch 2 remake or even a 4th entry would be amazing. While it would likely never happen, doing a remake to the scale of FF7 would be amazing for me, personally.
Honorable mention would be Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade. This was my introduction to Fire Emblem games that are now my favorite series of video games. It came out 3 (?) years after Golden Sun and helped me get even further with learning HTML/CSS and learning new software that eventually lead to a lifetime of side-gigs and hobby web design. They were the first game I ever played with permadeath and actually caring about how I “won.” It was when I first starting learning about animation because of how cool the thief/assassin animations were.
Also, Super Smash Bros Melee for the GameCube — similar as the previous two games mentioned. I loved the game so much that I made graphics, websites, videos, etc. I think I actually might have the oldest or one of the oldest videos of a recorded Smash match on YouTube (everything about it is bad but its a cool time capsule) but I’ve never tried to verify (also still up somehow I just ruined it with copyrighted music before they cared about that. Learned about capture cards and video software. Anyway, I played that game off and on until the Switch game came out, so that’s got longevity!
It’s interesting looking back now and seeing that video games were the reason I got into seemingly unrelated other things that lead to my eventual career. Maybe that’s normal but I’ve never actually made the connection until now. I do audio/video editing and freelance web design and graphic design and all of that is because of video games in some way. Fun!
I picked Golden Sun as one of my favorites too. My favorite part was exploring the Eastern Sea in the second game.
This is basically an impossible question to answer because I've played a ton of games over the years and a lot of them have had different kinds of impact on me, but it's hard to pick one as a favorite or best.
Maplestory (2005) would be the easiest answer I guess, since it was a big part of my childhood and I still listen to the soundtrack while working even now.
Minecraft (2010) was a really fun and unique experience, especially back in the alpha days, and then playing with friends on a server with a ton of mods.
TERA (2011) was another MMORPG I sunk years into and did a lot of dungeoning and chilling with the small guild I joined there. Might be the closest I've been with an online guild.
Black Desert Online (2016) I only put 2 years into shortly after it released, but it was by far the most immersive experience I've ever had in an MMORPG. Met some fun people in that one too, we still chat and share things on discord.
Payday 2 (2013) still might be the most fun co-op shooter I've played with friends, not for just gameplay but how much we were clowning around in it.
Planetside 2 (2012) was a truly unique multiplayer experience and I loved being a small participant in actually large scale battles. I also joined a gaming community through this game back in 2019 and I'm probably one of the most active people in it now, at least if you're going off of discord posts. Shoutout to Voodoo Shipping Company, best NC outfit on the east coast bar none.
Monster Hunter: World (2018) was my first Monster Hunter game and it just blew me away. The graphics, the open world, the weight of the weapons, the music, the melodrama, the monsters? An absolutely perfect package (plus awful performance and a bunch of bugs on release but not enough to ruin the experience). Had a lot of fun going on hunts both solo and with friends, they weren't as into Wilds unfortunately.
Some notable PSP titles since that was definitely my favorite handheld, incredible little machine.
Ace Combat X (2006) was my introduction to the Ace Combat series and I still remember the music and missions pretty clearly, listening to some of the mission tracks sends a shiver down my spine even now.
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (2010) wasn't my first MGS game (that goes to Portable Ops, also on the PSP but a bit of a mess), but it was definitely the one that got me into MGS and Kojima's games in general.
Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core (2008) was my first Final Fantasy game though not my first exposure to FF7, which would be the Advent Children movie. That said though, playing this game first made me like Zack more than Cloud, even after I've played through the two recent FF7 remake games. This might also be one of the only times a game moved me enough to make me tear up, damn that cutscene was powerful.
Honorable mentions: Battletech (2018), Frostpunk (2018), Advance Wars: Dual Strike (2005), Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 (2007), Hunt: Showdown (2018), Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale (2007), STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl (2007), and many other games that I no longer recall and can't just check my steam library to remember.
In case you were unaware, they did re-release Crisis Core a few years back with updated graphics and content. I played it on PS5 and quite enjoyed the replay.
Oh I am aware, I went and watched the remade version of the cutscene that got me to tear up. It was good to see it in HD but they changed the voice actors for Zack and Cloud, and the original ones just cut deeper for me.
This is impossible to nail down to a single game. Even now thinking about it I can't do it, so I'm just going to go with my first thought even though it isn't my preferred genre of games these days:
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
It is essentially a sequel to the original Civilization games and treats the "Space Race" winning condition as the canonical event as you send a ship to colonize Alpha Centauri. In the game the colonists split into factions and land on an alien planet and you essentially have the Civ formula in a new and ahem alien setting. There is futuristic tech trees, secret projects (aka wonders) and new cool game mechanics that I think should have been brought into the main Civ games released later.
I consider that game peak 4X and no Civ game released since has done better IMO. Civ 4 with all the expansions is probably the next best game.
I sort of hate picking favorites because it's so difficult! And I always feel like my picks are too recent and not established enough. There's that voice in the back of my head always telling me I'm childish or a trend follower for thinking of "new" games that released less than 20 years ago instead of some ancient SNES JRPG or the like. I realize how irrational it is, especially seeing the kind of titles people are naming here. But man, I never totally left that time when I was browsing forums in 2009 when I was way too young for it and seeing everyone talk about retro titles when all I had was a DS!
It's always a hard question, but now, I tend to say Minecraft. It's probably the most important game to my development : my first 'proper' PC game, the one I made my first long-time friends on, one of the games I've played the most (possibly the most, but much of my tracked playtime is lost). It's a beautifully designed game and one well worth loving, one that still impresses me years later. I frequently go back to it. None of its many descendants can quite capture what makes its appeal special.
The funny thing about Minecraft, also, is that it's the only game where I feel like a veteran. Since it's a big modding version, I've heard that players sometimes see 1.12.1 as a cut-off point between classic and modern Minecraft today. I started playing with beta 1.7, back in 2011 ; anything after 1.0 feels new to me! I still think of ocelots as a newer feature and they're not even in the game anymore.
No answer to this question is ever going to be 100% honest from me, since this is just not how I function. I estimate I could produce at least 20 videogames that are all equally my favorite, probably even more.
But today I chose to answer Psychonauts. It came at a time when I was disillusioned with the state of the industry, and not playing a lot of games. I didn't play it right away, but neither did I the early indies (Braid and so on); at the time I was focusing on a handful of retro games and social online games. Psychonauts arrived as a breath of fresh air with its winning combination of daring art style, loads of voice acted humorous dialogue (so much that some of it has certainly never even been heard by most players), fun platforming and fairly extreme level design creativity. I never expected a game would (or even could) go in so many directions at the same time. The package is tied together by the way the various psychic abilities are leveraged for the gameplay mechanics.
Sure, it's not a perfect game. The pacing is all over the place, and the collectathon aspects might bore people. Some of the platforming is a little janky and the 3D is dated. There were a bunch of bugs fixed over the years. In a world where everyone just expected more FPS and RPG sequels, it was confusing and out of place, and barely anyone played it on release. But there's a reason this game ended up so incredibly beloved, to the point of topping many people's lists of best games of all time for years. And it set up a sequel that improved the formula in many ways, too. Thank you, Psychonauts!
Elden Ring is my favourite if I could only pick one: it has been the one that's genuinely changed how I looked at things nowadays. But my other favourites include Borderlands 2 (that was the first proper game that I played when I started university) and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
I always felt that the only gacha game I ever had a sense of completeness and depth was Arknights. Sticking through it the full 5 years was an incredible time that tested me and rewarded me with mechanics that felt intrinsically cohesive with the core tower "offense" niche the game carves out. I think it personally has among the best world building in the gacha niche
Still, it feels a bit cheap to place a game that people won't get to experience forever as my favorite game, so I think the honor belongs to another game, that being Fire Emblem Awakening. I love games that situate self-expression in a meaningful and interesting environment(this places games like Engage out of the running. Being a sandbox loses meaning if anyone can be turned into literally anything). Most fire emblem games are inherently replayable, and this one gives us a world that can bear some coherence with its gameplay systems(no cryogenic baby dimensions). TRPGs are a wonderful genre, and I believe Fire Emblem is series that gives the most thematic weight to the stakes of the TRPG gameplay. Sure, some units easily snowball to behemoths, but the game provides a decent(maybe even unfair) match for the tools we're afforded.
Recency bias though it may be, I've sunk so so so many hours into Endless Sky recently, and would like to give it a special mention. The freedom of exploring galaxies at my leisure and living out what could be the path I choose to forge on the great frontiers of outer space. Whether it be proliferating democracy, being a space pirate or smuggling insurrectionist propaganda; I am given the agency to go about it in a way that slowly unravels the fragile dichotomy of seeing through what each side sees as worth fighting for. It's also fully operational without a mouse! Wonderful stuff.
I feel like this is one where we can't easily aggregate answers for, and so maybe the discussion will be more interesting than the survey results. Maybe we could glean some info on why something is a favourite according to comments, even if two people are talking about two completely different games from different eras. Eg, "because it was my favourite JRPG" or "because it got me through a significant period of my life" or "best music" or "best challenging mechanics" etc
I've been staring at the Survey screen since yesterday, because it's just damn challenging to come up with an answer. Not because I don't have a favorite game, but because there are quite a few I love very strongly and it's hard to put one over the other.
But the first ones that come to mind are the following:
Pentiment
Deus Ex
Kingdom Come: Deliverance
System Shock
Skald: Against the Black Priory
There are numerous other games, but these ones are very much at the top of my list. I'm not sure how I'll answer the survey.
I guess my favorite changes depending on how I'm feeling at any particular moment.
I've got Pentiment in my Steam backlog. This is a good reminder that I really should give it a go.
Easy answer for me: The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth (with all its DLC if thats allowed). It's flash predecessor was my introduction to roguelikes as a genre, which is now my favorite genre by a mile. And while I've played a ton of amazing roguelikes since, Isaac is the only one that I still regularly come back to.
For me, it's a combination of two things: the real-time action component, and the simplicity and focus on mechanics.
The real-time action component is a crucially underappreciated factor in the modern roguelike landscape imo. I love a turn-based or deck builder (shout-out STS2, Mewgenics, Monster Train), but what I really like about real-time is that player skill is not just based on knowledge, but can also be developed as a physical skill. Plus, turn-based games kind of have to rely on stats by design, meaning unfortunate rolls of RNG can put you in unwinnable positions, whereas even the unluckiest Isaac run can still be won with enough ducking and dodging.
The simplicity is probably what keeps me coming back. Note when I say simple, I don't mean that there's not a lot going on (800+ items, 34 characters, many branching paths/bosses/etc). What I mean is the game is about the game, and the mechanics, and everything else is just dressing.
My counter example would be Hades and Hades 2 (which I also love and would highly recommend btw): they both have amazing art and voice acting and cool stories which add a ton to the experience. But the problem there is eventually (after 100-200 hours mind) the story runs out, and you're left with just the game, which is still good but doesn't reach those same heights, and makes coming back to play the occasional run or two less satisfying for me.
Isaac skirted around this by barely having a story, so there's nothing to run out of. The appeal is focused entirely on the gameplay, so even after you've unlocked everything and seen the final cutscene a new run doesn't feel like it's lacking anything.
Also want to praise the game for its reasonable run lengths (usually 30-45 mins, easy to fit in to a schedule). And this is a preference, but I really appreciate the lack of a meta-progression based on currency or whatnot; the unlocks are almost all based on achieving victories, and there's no dust or shards or whatever to bring to a vendor to get an extra few % of a stat. Which ties into the above, where the only main way to improve is to improve your own gameplay, which is satisfying.
I've got over 1000 hours, and while I don't mainline it anymore, I do still come back every few months for some runs. Really an evergreen title for me
I have 1400 hrs combined between the flash version and rebirth. One thing that neat with Isaac (and definitely help with my playtime stats) is that it's a good game to play along some podcast or YouTube video.
The item description mod or similar (does platinum god still exists?) is (was?) a must have though.
Item description mod still exists and is still wonderful. Thankfully tho with the (still technically-in-beta) free DLC Repentance+ they finally added in-game item descriptions, unlocked after beating Mom once. I haven't used it (as I still like the mod for all the extra info it gives like transformation and synergy info), but I'm glad there's finally a built-in solution.
It is true though that this is a game with secrets, and I can't imagine 100%'ing it using just your own discovery alone. Some secrets are so specific I can't imagine them being discovered solo (like the unlock method for The Forgotten). Granted, the game was designed with the idea of community exploration and discovery specifically in mind (the original unlock ARG for The Lost comes to mind), but something to be aware of going in. (Although the venn diagram of people who want to 100% a game and people who don't want to engage with any community content about that game has to be incredibly tiny I imagine).
I've written at length about Tetris the Grand Master here on Tildes (you can start here and go deeper and deeper by following the links), but the tldr is:
It's gotta be Homeworld for me. I'm not even a massive RTS guy. The most RTS gaming I ever did was a bit of laddering on StarCraft 2 when it came out for about six months.
I don't mind the genre, but 1v1 is some of the most stressful gameplay in the world for me, and I'm really quite bad at multitasking, so it's not something I'm particularly great at.
Particularly, RTS campaigns really tend to bore me. Their stories are usually just "you're a commander fighting this war", and the levels feel mostly contrived and handicapped for no reason (oh, you know that huge army you built on the last mission? Yeah, it's gone. You're now one guy and a few other disposable guys trying to infiltrate a base for some reason.)
Homeworld managed to convey one of the most emotional, powerful stories in a game I've ever played, and it did it without showing a single human face.
For those that don't know, the game is about a fledgling race taking their first steps from a desert world, who slowly realize that they're not actually native to that world, and find evidence of where their actual origin is. The issue is that it's across the galaxy. Luckily they also find an ancient hyperdrive, so they jumpstart their entire world economy over decades to launch the greatest expedition they've ever attempted, sending 200,000 people to find their Homeworld. Diaster ensues en route, and the success of their expedition becomes much more important.
One of the great things about the game that I wish more RTS campaigns did, is that you play as a ragtag fleet. There's no "high command", there's no backup, there's no other theaters of this war. It's just your fleet, your journey, and what you can build, salvage and research on the way.
Importantly, that means that the army you finished one mission with is the army you start the next mission with. This can massively throw off the balance of the game. If you're obsessive and salvage enemy ships and strip mine the whole level, you'll have a huge fleet that snowballs into huger fleets. The enemy fleets adapt to that, but it still makes the game easy, which I actually appreciate, because it makes it feel like the choices you make matter.
The gameplay is so satisfying, the score is so emotionally powerful, the voice acting conveys so much in a clipped, military manner.
I love the game so much, and still play through the campaign every few years. It may be the only game that ever made me cry.
Suikoden 1
There was something so special about playing it as a 12 year old. Building a castle, recruiting 108 characters, side games, great battle mechanics, fantastic music. I still replay it now and again.
This is gonna get some weird results. I hardly saw any game mentioned twice. Too many to pick from.
Nethack is pretty great, although I haven't played that in a while. It's still being developed.
I'm trying to add a couple of one that were not mentioned :
If we're talking about most hours played, Tetris by a long shot. It's basically the perfect video game - infinite replayability, no two plays are alike, lots of variations, easy enough to understand and play but with a great difficulty curve, and an insane challenge mode if you're willing to try out Master Mode in Tetris Effect.
For a story-based game, Nier Automata. I don't think I've ever cried so long for any story, no matter what the medium.
It's a toss up, but if if I'm reaching way back, Phantasy Star IV and the broader Phantasy Star series are my answer.
Back then, RPGs didn't tell a continuous story across multiple games, and especially not with the depth and maturity that Phantasy Star did. Additionally, the sci-fi story, female protagonist and unique gameplay elements really made it shine.
They were my first RPGs as a kid and I spent more than my share of time reading fanfiction that speculated on how poor translation and plot holes could come together. Early internet webrings, message boards and my youth are bound up in this series and Sega's unabashed creativity at the time, so it's fair to say that these titles were a big part of my formative years.
In an era of reboots and revisions, it's also kind of special to me that this series has been left alone. Most people wouldn't remember Sega's pre-Sonic flagship RPG series, and now that the creators have passed or moved on, it's sort of lost to history -- a fitting narrative for a game whose plot is all about the loss if generational memory.
I chose Minecraft for my favorite game because there really isn't any comparison. I've had so many meaningful moments over the years and through the updates (including modpacks).. Some of them are related to the game itself, and others related to the real life relationships that the game fosters. I feel closer to my kids thanks to Minecraft. Everything else is a distant second. That being said, here are my honorable mentions (in no particular order):
I love games, and my list of loved games could easily be 10x this size. But the thing the above list shares is that I love these games completely as they are. With most games I have little nitpicks or things I wish would change, but these games I accepted completely as is and had a great time all the way through.
Very difficult to choose a single game. Before voting I'm going to work through some of the most significant games of my modest career and hopefully the proper answer will illuminate itself along the way.
Super Mario World (1990)
My first console was a SNES and with it came a 'Super Mario Allstars + Super Mario World' cartridge, and that was all I needed to get going and start levelling up my skills properly. It really was 2D platforming perfection, and even years later I was still finding secrets and techniques that had eluded me as a child.
Pokemon Red (1996)
One of my most cherished gaming memories is picking this up on the way to a weekend in my grandparent's house, getting there, promptly plopping myself down on the sitting room carpet with my trusty OG Gameboy, and getting sucked into a magical world for the next several hours. Then there was all the fun and feuding of trading with friends in the school yard, and the great sense of achievement when I finally caught all 150.
Final Fantasy VII (1997)
This one opened my eyes to the amazing cinematic-scale potential of narrative and score in videogames. While most folks tend to focus on the big famous character death late in the story, it was the deaths that happen midway through disc 1 that really rocked me and made my 8/9yo self put down the controller in shock for the first time.
Tony Hawk's Skateboarding (1999) / Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 (2001) / Tony Hawk's Underground (2003)
This a hard toss-up as the first one arrived with perfect timing as I was just getting into skateboarding and deeper into rock music, and took up an ungodly amount of hours of my time. The third one upped the ante on absolutely every aspect, and took up an ungodly amount of hours of my time. And then THUG introduced a story (!) which I still replay every few years, and so, has took up an ungodly amount of hours of my time.
Deus Ex (2000)
I had played straight-up 'Puzzle' games before but had never considered the possibility that a level's design may work as a puzzle in itself, nor that there may be multiple ways to approach a solution and that it was totally down to my own imagination to do so. Coupled with the super cool Matrix-esque visuals and conspiracy-laden story, this was another one of those major gaming-as-artform mind-expanders for me.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002)
The story, the gameplay, the vibes, the killer soundtrack, and the sandbox with endless opportunities for fucking around to my much-too-young heart's content. It has been surpassed in almost all regards by its various sequels but this one still holds an unbeatable 'time and place' factor for me.
Mass Effect (2007)
Not the most innovative in the list but this just ticked every box for my sci-fi loving self, and has held up to multiple replays over the years. The sequels get a lot of praise for upping the action and spectacle but I keep coming back to the original for the vibe and mystery (plus I'm pretty sick of cover shooters at this stage). Having said that, my best experience with the series was a complete back-to-back replay I did a few years ago; this also happened to be my first time playing the ME3 DLCs which I absolutely adored (for different reasons) in the context of this playthrough.
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings (2011)
I got this for free from Xbox Live just as I was going on a week or so of work leave with no plan in mind. Somewhere in act 2 I got absolutely hooked and ploughed right through to the end of the Roche path, and then immediately returned to a chapter 1 save to blast through the Iorveth path, all side quests included. Shortly after this I tore through all the Witcher books and it remains one of my favourite fantasy series to this day (despite the best attempts of the Netflix creatives to dissuade me).
The Talos Principle (2014)
I never expected the team who released the riotous action-fest of Serious Sam to deliver a gorgeous philosophical adventure of this calibre, nor to build it on such an addictive backbone of puzzles and meta-puzzles that range from tinglers to outright melters. The meaty DLC is also essential to the experience, and the sequel is an even grander experience.
Outer Wilds (2019)
The journey of discovery this game takes you on is incredible, and particularly special in how it hinges progression entirely on your own curiosity with compounding 'a-ha' moments as it works towards its beautiful ending.
Some honourable mentions: Half Life (1998), Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001), Hitman 2: Silent Assassin (2002), Half Life 2 (2004), Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (2005), Alpha Protocol (2010), Portal 2 (2011), The Last of Us (2013), Pillars of Eternity (2015), Disco Elysium (2019), Cyberpunk 2077 (2020), Elden Ring (2022), Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (2025)
Caves of Qud. It's just such an endless beautiful world, I could and have got lost in it for hours at a time.