Games

All time faves, it's a toss up between Fallout: New Vegas and RDR2.

Those two are the ones I still enjoy restarting new games in, and still enjoy playing, despite the cumulative hours logged over the years.

Very special mention to Skyrim though, obviously. I think I've logged more hours in Skyrim than the two above, potentially combined, but because I played that so much, I no longer have the desire to play it again whereas when I'm stressed at work, I often find myself daydreaming about riding my good boah through fields of lush grass and fishing in my lil boat.

And I would never have developed the love of gaming I have today if it wasn't for Oblivion, of all games - so for nostalgia, that gets a mention too.

I have to say for me, I know this won't be everybody, my favorites are going to be the ones that change the way I felt about gaming, not necessarily ones that I would want to play again.

In fact, I have found that going back to some of the seminal games, or the ones that were most impactful to me, hurt my feelings because they were from a time... Where let's be real, technical limitations made a lot of very basic quality of life things nearly unavailable.

I think the 1st that changed the way I felt about gaming was Ultima 4 - they had flushed out the systems of the earlier three, which were pretty primitive, and made morality, all kinds of wonderful internal game systems, relationships, secrets, optional paths, total exploration. 5 and 6 were games that I explored and played molecularly because they were just a joy for me as well.

Another one I talk about a lot is a game called Squares Deluxe which the developer thankfully changed as freeware a few years ago. So anybody with DOSBox can download it and play it legally, and in my view, it's the best shape packing game ever made - there are so many amazing mechanics, and if you play Extreme mode and get a great run going, it can be the most thrilling experience!

How can I forget the very first game I played in arcades which was Atari Warlords at Fiesta Foods! I was bedazzled by the cabinet and I had to have a teenager explain to me what it was! I went flying home and explained what I saw to my mother and she was incredulous, and she took me back to play!

Runestone Keeper. I know that really if you distill it down, you're kind of playing a probability-based card / slot machine game. But play your choice is broad, and I love the fact that the entire playfield changes with every move potentially. Yes you can get screwed over, yes you can have amazing runs, but it's that unpredictability that keeps me salivating. I can't actually recommend anybody play this outside of steam version because the app one keeps changing - I've bought it a few times and I keep losing my license/progress when they change publisher agreements, to hell with that noise!

RISK OF RAIN 2

I call it a tie between The Last of Us and Uncharted 2. These are two of the most fun games I've ever played for totally different reasons.

Uncharted 2 was a lot of a great adventure, and loads of fun with great characters, while The Last of Us games were extremely emotional and I was totally invested in the characters and story.

I think Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was amazing. The only gripe I have is that the Switch just can't handle it very well.

It's hard to answer this because if you'd asked me 5 years ago my answer would be different (not just because TotK hadn't released) because my tastes change.

Better Than Wolves and Portal come to mind first.

BTW is just a labour of love of IMO a genius game designer FlowerChild (RIP) who out of spite for adding wolves to MC made the best game possible, it's extremely rewarding, all the small details are thought through. And now the community has taken over the torch and are updating it faithfully further.

Portal is just a gem of the game, already mentioned in the thread so not gonna start another one.

This is really hard. Dungeon Master on the Amiga500 is up there, as is Unlimited Adventures. Today, these don't look so interesting, but man they were great at the time. Amiga also had a neat RPG maker as well whose name I can't recall.

Fez! I love the low stress puzzle game. I think it’s beautiful and smart. I love that it was made by one guy. It’s too bad he got burnt out and quit. He is very talented.

Based on play and replay, it seems to be either Payday 2 or Borderlands 2.

Payday2, especially if you have tons of builds and DLC, is a fantastic brain-off mob shooter where you can slightly improve/perfect your build and gameplay with each run. For some reason it just works for me.

Borderlands 2: fun guns; solid story; visuals and mechanics that mostly hold up today. It's just a good time and another skill-tree builder game where you get to feel like a god if you've assembled your skill tree right. The NG+ modes are a bit of a slog, but playthrough 1 is just a solid time.

All time favorite game is so hard to narrow down. I’d traditionally always say Mario 3 and I stand behind that but there are so many great games that stand beside it. Donkey Kong Country, Half Life, San Andreas, red dead redemption 1 and 2.

I think if I was trapped on a desert island, I’d be fine with any of these as my only game

Take a guess

What about more older games?

Rollercoaster Tycoon series - played it a ton. Playing it right now with the OpenRCT2 version online with a friend. Its fun!

Max Payne? This was something special.

Pro Evolution Soccer - the old ones (4/5/6)

I mean Skyrim is kinda cool. In similar vain I really really enjoyed Kingdom Come Deliverance 1, waiting for KCD2 to get all its DLCs before I jump into it. Grand Theft Auto San Andreas was also pretty good considering its age. I found Control to have a very addictive and unique gameplay. Special mention to The Last of Us part 1 and 2, as they had really seamless integration of gameplay, narrative and atmosphere.

My favorite game is actually 3. The mass effect trilogy. I designed my first tattoo around the n7 renegade and paragon symbols. Second is definitely Mario bros 3. Still play it every once in a while.

La-Mulana would have to be one of my top picks. With the catchy music, the "fuck you" difficulty, and the classic adventure theme really makes it stand out in my mind.

I can't choose an absolute favorite, that's like choosing a favorite child.

It's a toss up between the Mass Effect Trilogy, Cyberpunk 2077, The Witcher (in partiuclarly 3) and (most) of Fallout games (but in particular 1 and 2).

If you were to put a gun to my head I'd probably pick either Mass Effect Trilogy or Cyberpunk 2077, probably based on what game i've played for the millionth time most recently.

Puyo Puyo 20th Anniversary. They took the best competitive puzzle game ever made and added a ton of goodies to make it the best package deal. 20 variant game modes, 24 character stories, a comprehensive set of tutorials, a devilish set of chain challenges, and a final challenge where you play against max level CPU while it's allowed to cheat.

It's a tragedy this game was never released in the west, and I can rant for hours about Sega has criminally neglected the series with the half-assed slop they put out now because they know that crossovers will sell better than the main series ever will.