Games

Factorio.

What do you mean, there are other games? No time for those. The factory must grow!

Megaman 2, Chrono Trigger, Zelda A Link to the Past and a special mention to Duke Nukem 3D and Star Wars X-Wing on MS DOS.

Minecraft

~~Apex Legends~~

Factorio

Subnautica

Edit: I misread this as the most you’ve played. I’m high and stupid

Doom, Portal, and Half Life 2.

Mario 3

Chrono Trigger

Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)

I consider these my top 3 not because they're the best, but what they meant to me when they released. Each game was so important to me when they came out. Mario 3 and Sonic were so influential because of the gameplay and presentation. Chrono Trigger was my first JRPG and was the first game soundtrack I became obsessed with.

There are a lot more but others include Halo 2, Unreal Tournament, Team Fortress 2, StarCraft, Age of Empires II, SimCity 2000, Link's Awakening, Wind Waker, Super Mario World, Super Metroid, and Metroid Prime.

Shadow of the Colossus

Hollow Knight

Sekiro

The Outer Wilds

Factorio (which who really needs another game after this one? Once you're done with vanilla you just install an overhaul and start again.)

Dwarf Fortress

Kerbal Space Program

If I had to pick one moment in all of gaming that felt like a real achievement, landing on the Mun for the first time was is something I'll never forget.

Doom 1993

Sure there was Wolfenstein, but Doom just blew our doors off when it released. Countless hours late night in the computer lab playing deathmatch, my first introduction to creating mods and maps, so many great memories.

Subnautica

Not my usual style of game, but this one is special. First time I played I did an hour or so to understand the basics, then restarted on permadeath. It took a very long time, but I eventually beat the game in a single life. The entire time was spent in a constant state of zen like terror.

Some honorable mentions would be GTA Vice City where I was heavily involved with the modding community, the Mass Effect Trilogy as the most epic story on gaming, Far Cry 2, the Dark Souls series, Infinifactory, and Cities Skylines.

In no particular order:

• Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
• Minecraft
• Gothic II (or The Chronicles of Myrtana: Archolos, but that's a mod)

With honorable mentions (also in no particular order):

• Portal 2
• Heroes of Might and Magic III
• Pokémon Platinum (Previously I would put Emerald Version, but I've recently started to play Platinum and it's best one yet, didn't touch later ones though).
• Far Cry 3 (and Blood Dragon)
• The Witcher 2 (Haven't finished TW3 yet)

Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance

Fallout New Vegas

Diablo 2: LoD

Narrowing to 3 is always difficult but these tend to shuffle around in the top spot

• The Outer Wilds

• Disco Elysium

• Legend of Zelda, Majora's mask

Might and Magic: World of xeen (clouds of xeen + darkside of xeen). I still replay it today on dosbox. An amazing mix of fun, things coming toghether and hard battles, an extensive and complex objects system, classes, and lots of great ideas. All in a 90'a game.

Eye Of The Beholder 2

Wing Commander 1 & 3

Am i old enough?

My picks came easy:

Diablo 2

Half Life 2

Witcher 3 (got me back into adult/dad gaming two years ago)

Blizzard and Westwood got me hooked as kid:

Dune 2, WarCraft 2, StarCraft, C&C Red Alert

Homeworld

Deus Ex

KOTOR

Nethack

Four-way tie.

Starsiege: Tribes (and Tribes 2)

Knights of the Old Republic (why not more mentions of this?!)

And Valheim or Minecraft. Both have offered countless hours of entertainment in the company of friends and family.

Mass Effect
Baldur’s Gate 3
Horizon Zero Dawn

• Fallout 2
• Baldurs Gate 2
• World of Warcraft (perhaps a bit of sunk cost fallacy)

Hard to pick just three, but I'll go with the following today:

• Final Fantasy VI

There's a roughly 4 hour stretch in this game of tension-despair-catharsis that absolutely blew my mind. I'm still trying to chase that feeling playing video games almost 30 years later. Plenty to like about the rest of the game, too.

• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

One of those very rare games that clicked for me in every single aspect of the game: script, plot, visuals, gameplay, music and more. Going to revisit this one soon with the next-gen update.

• Freespace 2

The one that's likely aged the most poorly out of the three, but once upon a time this game was unrivaled in making you feel like you were in the thick of a slugfest flying around in a fighter craft. Surprisingly interesting setting and story, too. I keep hoping we get more like this some day.

Outer Wilds. Baldur's Gate 2. Hollow Knight.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Hades, and Portal

Off the top of my head, Portal 2, Skyrim and Factorio. Love those games

In terms of sheer hours for me:

• Factorio
• StarCraft Brood War
• Counterstrike

I guess Tetris deserves a mention and so does Heroes of the Storm.

Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, Heroes of the Storm, and Half-Life 2

Extremely honorable mention to Dark Souls

Fallout: New Vegas, GTA: San Andreas, and Half-Life. All three masterpieces in their own right.

Half Life 2

Next level physics and graphics, immersive and deep storyline, delivered on the hype.

Battlezone (1998)

Fast paced first person RTS, utilized new texture resolution capabilities with actual NASA satellite photos of planet/moon textures. Cold War in space storyline was an amazing concept. The commands for managing everything was so quick and engaging.

Skyrim

Same reasons as everyone else it was just a great all around game.

Honorable mention: Bioshock, Super Metroid, Super Mario World, Freespace 2, Fallout NV, The Neverhood, Cities Skylines, Crysis.

I’m having trouble narrowing it down to 3. But in no particular order: Final fantasy XIV, Red Dead Redemption 2, Nier Automata, Journey, Tetris Effect, Zelda TotK , Persona 5

Lordy this is hard.

Minecraft

World of Warcraft Wrath of the Lich King

Fable - this game blew my mind when I first played it. After spending all day playing it at a mate's place I bought an Xbox on the way home

Hollow Knight Silent Hill 2 Portal 2

• Horizon Zero Dawn
• Uncharted 2
• The Last of Us

Zelda BoTW (I haven't play Totk yet), GTA V and Batman Arkham City

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II

Deus Ex

Stalker SoC, HL2, Battlefield 2

"Top" could be so many things... So I'll go with

##Top 3 Games That Are Technical Marvels

These games aren't necessarily my favorite games, but each one showed me something that represented a major technological feat.

3. Tears of the Kingdom

Using what was essentially mid-tier, five year old cell phone hardware, Nintendo delivered an incredibly detailed physics engine that gave players a frankly irresponsible amount of freedom. (I cannot imagine how many edge cases they must have had to fix before launch.)

But that physics system not only works the way we humans generally expect things to work, ...it works fast as lightning and smooth as butter... Buttered lightning, I suppose. All while running AI, rendering a huge draw distance.

People give Nintendo crap for using weaker hardware... But maybe they should be turning that inside out - Look what Sony/MS have to use to mimic a fraction of Nintendo Power.

2. Half-Life: Alyx(2020)

A monument to the potential of VR gaming, HL:A still stands far ahead of the pack. If you've only watched a playthrough or played it with a pancake mod, you've missed out on what makes it special. Valve made us feel like we were truly inhabiting the world of Half-Life. Ransacking rooms is a lot more fun when you're doing it yourself vs pressing A-to-search.

It set a high water mark that has yet to be exceeded even four years after its release.

1. Kirby's Adventure (1993) This wasn't Kirby's first game, but it was the first to include the iconic "copy" ability. Kirby's Adventure was one of the later games released for the original NES and (for my money) is the most gorgeous game on the console. It pulls together parallax effects, detailed, multi-color sprites, clever animation cycles and surprisingly tight platforming.

I've never been "big" into Kirby games, but this one is the exception. It's one of my favorite NES titles. I'd replay this over either NES Zelda any day.

Diablo 2, Dwarf Fortress, Majora's Mask.

Not in any particular order.

Diablo 2, Civilization 2, Secret of Mana. No particular order.

Prey (2017), Dark Souls, Outer Wilds. In no particular order.

MechWarrior 2

Red Alert 2

StarCraft

Honorable mention: destiny 2

IDK if I can pick just three so I'm not going to; all of these are games that I would consider must-plays for different reasons. If I had to choose, the first three would be my top three, but the rest are in no particular order:

Silent Hill 1, 2, and 3 are all fantastic for their own reasons (I'd recommend starting with 2, then 1, then 3). 1 for it's fear factor and atmosphere, 2 for it's thick atmosphere and deep story, and 3 for its disturbing undertones and incredible atmosphere. There are no other games quite like these. There are few games I would consider to be life-changing experiences, but these would be my #1 pick for that type of game, but that's not to take away from the other games I listed here, many of which are also life-changing. You're also going to hear the word "atmosphere" a lot more in this comment.

OMORI is fantastic for kind of similar reasons, but some of the best and most emotional storytelling in any game I've ever played, tied with Silent Hill 2 and the next game

Saya no Uta is fucked beyond belief, and so worth playing/reading. It will make you feel disgust, empathy, intrigue, and sadness at the exact same time

Chrono Trigger is one of the best games all-around that I've played, from the story, to the gameplay, to the art, to the music.

Yoshi's Island and Wario Land 4, just for the gameplay, level design, controls, and a t m o s p h e r e (happy atmospheres this time). The gameplay with both of these games is just sublime.

Super Mario World: Call of Cthulhu ROM hack by yashum is one of the most unique ROM hacks that I've ever played. Has an amazing dark atmosphere, which is weird to say about a Mario game, other than maybe Super Paper Mario. The journey is better than the end for this one.

myhouse.wad (gzdoom-exclusive DOOM II mod) is a mind-bending game with amazing atmosphere and gameplay. A very unique game with equally unique story-telling. Don't read anything about it, and make sure to play the .pk3 version and not the .wad. Don't read anything on the Google Drive until after playing through at least once.

Zelda: Majora's Mask is one of the best games that Nintendo has ever produced. Dark, brooding atmosphere, sadness, probably the best soundtrack that Koji Kondo ever made

Diminish isn't even a game that anyone can play, but instead, it's a Let's Play series on YouTube. It's a really deep and emotional journey, though, and I would highly recommend giving it a watch.

• Factorio
• Age Of Empires 2
• Portal 2

Jump Ultimate Stars for Nintendo DS.

Xenoblade Chronicles for Wii (I have yet to play the Switch version).

Ace Attorney Trilogy/ Hotel Dusk for Nintendo DS.

Kinda cheating in the third one, but I am not even sure these are my favorites, they are the ones I have played the most that is for sure (maybe honorable mention to Toy Story 2 for PS1 lol).

EDIT: Honorable mentions to Shadow of The Colossus and God of War 2018, heck it is almost impossible to narrow this down to 3 games.

What Remains of Edith Finch

Kentucky Route Zero

Life is Strange

These are not the games I play the most. In terms of hours it would be Minecraft, Civilization VI, Divinity II: Original Sin, and Sprocket. And I love those games a lot, but they don't bring me the same experience as a well made story-driven game.

What Remains of Edith Finch is a "walking simulator" in terms of gameplay, but it should really be seen as an interactive movie. As Edith Finch, you go back to the house you grew up in as a kid, and where the whole Finch family lived once. The Finch family are generally quite unfortunate and usually meet an untimely end to their lives. As you go through the house room by room, you explore Edith's memories and the last moments of the person who died. It is only two hours long and should be played in a single sitting for the best experience. It is so far the only game where, when it was finished, I couldn't do anything besides sitting behind the screen, staring at the credits that were rolling, feeling bittersweet awe and sadness. It is an experience that I cannot recommend enough.

Kentucky Route Zero, on the other hand, is a bit harder to recommend, because I feel it's much more niche. It is another story driven game that takes a point and click approach to moving around. What makes it tick, though, is the sense of mystery. The game starts with a man named Conway. He is delivering a shipment of antiques - the last one before the shop will close down. He is rather lost, but gets the directions that he must go over highway zero. As you go through the game, you explore the mysterious underground highway and river of Kentucky and meet interesting people along the way - all of them with their own issues. Debt, guilt, addiction, and loss are all handled in this game. It's tricky to recommend, as there is nothing in terms of "actual gameplay." But for those that enjoy an interactive and unique story, it should be on your radar.

And lastly, the most famous one on my list: Life is Strange. I don't think it needs much introduction, but for those who don't know it: It is a game about Max, who discovers she can rewind time to a certain extent, and Chloe, her childhood friend with whom she reconnects. Don't worry about the superpower part too much; it's not a wacky Marvel thing, but rather a tool that is used to influence your environment and the people around you in more subtle ways. You explore Arcadia Bay and its inhabitants and learn more about Chloe as well. The game also presents you with various story choices that influence how people feel about you and react to you. Don't expect Detroit: Become Human levels of choices matter, though.

For me, I had the pleasure of going in completely blind and playing the prequel first. While I can understand that playing the prequel after the original can make the prequel feel underwhelming, it worked out for me. In the prequel, you play as Chloe before Max returns to Arcadia Bay and get to know her and her story. Then you go into Life is Strange already caring about Chloe, which elevated the experience significantly for me. So, to those that played it too, you know the choice I made at the end ;)

Portal 2, Half-Life: Alyx, and Dishonored

Rimworld (with all the mods (regular Rimworld doesn't crack the top 3 IMO))

Portal 2

Outer Wilds

My top three would be Rimworld, Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Metroid Prime.

Honorable mentions to Outer Wilds, Hollow Knight, Windwaker, Subnautica... There are so many great games out there that it's hard to pick a top three!

Final Fantasy X

Morrowind

The Last of Us

The first two could be in either order.

Probably the most memorable, in no particular order: Dark Souls, Prey, Dishonored, The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077

Brood War

Life is strange

Baldure's gate

Morrowind

Majora's mask

American mcgees Alice

Honestly, morrowind is so good I can't be sure of 2 or 3