Greentext

A videogame that was made with complete love and devotion to the medium, made with talent and sincerity, and is a pinnacle of everything it stands, something that will stand the test of time...

And nobody mentioned Stardew Valley? I spent too long looking for it and didn't find a single mention of it. Absolute mastery of its genre, an incredible amount of dedication spent by the developer listening to the fans, and I can't imagine it not still holding up 10 years from now, or even 20 years from now.

Baldur's Gate 3 is great, I love it, but there were so many performance issues with the game even with top tier hardware, and the game was borderline unplayable for others due to these issues. I have a little bias since my save didn't sync across devices with the steam cloud and I have to start all over. Love the game, but I just can't believe Stardew Valley isn't even mentioned.

Lost Odyssey. I haven't played Clair Obscur yet, so I one know how it compares, but for me Lost Odyssey is the pinnacle of turn based RPGs.

Outer Wilds is this game.

Surprised no-one pitched Elite:Dangerous. Certainly a labour of love to begin with, incredibly talented sound design, first space sim to VR, truly devoted to the original material... Still going pretty strong (had a few weak years) with updates (only 2 DLC-ish major updates of which were paid) a decade later...

Cold Waters if you're hankering for some hot sub on sub action.

The first Halo trilogy takes the cake for me

Mass Effect. I know some will disagree, the third game has a lot of glaring issues, and EA really fucked up the ending, but as far as a fully fleshed out story and universe with a multitude of unique and independently structured species, characters, and cultures I think it’s one of the best. The writing and possible story outcomes and decisions that vastly and permanently affect the story from the first to the third game are insane.

Neither of these are popular enough to be on the scale of LoTR, but in terms of atmosphere and detail:

Hollow Knight - my absolute favorite thing about it is each NPC has its own voiced language recorded, babbling in the background as you read the dialogue.

Subnautica (the first one) - shitting myself with each new experience is something I'll always cherish. Highly recommend just playing without looking into the gameplay or plot. Has elements of exploring, resource gathering, base building, psychological horror (not graphic, just tense scenarios), sneaking.

Enderal 🥰

Planescape: Torment does it for me.

More lines of dialogue than all of Shakespear's works? Sign me up for that kinda RPG, lol.

Though these days some good voice actors can do a lot, looking at BG3 here, at least the voice casting.

World of Warcraft, at least for the first 3 expansions. I think the people that made it back then were utterly devoted to the story and gameplay, as were the players. I'll remember playing that until I die, so many memories.

Downvote away.

The Stick of Truth, obviously.

Semi-jokes aside, I am a bit sad that not a single person mentioned the first four Silent Hill games. The sheer influence that series had on video games as a whole, especially in the horror genre cannot be overstated. But I guess it is tricky with games because everyone has different tastes and interests. It is rare that games unite people the way lord of the rings did. Gaming is at once so broad and so niche.

Clair obscur

Baldurs Gate 3.

Baldur's Gate 3

Ocarina of Time. I'm biased because of nostalgia, but I genuinely think it's the best game ever created. It took everything that was great about the SNES classic A Link To the Past, brought it into 3D as an early N64 game, and improved literally everything. The atmosphere, the gameplay, the story, the time mechanic, the music... It's not perfect, in fact these days it's trivial to break many things in it with glitches, but I think it's absolutely the best.

Terraria! That game is great and aged like fine wine

As far as labors of love go, Stardew Valley is probably the most current example. People paid for this thing years ago, but Concerned Ape keeps adding new features anyway. The retro graphics give this thing a timeless quality out of the box, so it already looks "dated" - this hasn't stopped the robust player community around it. We'll probably see this game stay relevant for a long time.

FALLOUT NEW VEGAS! (Side note) Oh boy, a new list of games to play as I scroll through these comments.

Half life and half life 2

Dwarf Fortress.

It's weird that Deus Ex isn't in this thread yet. Such a well made game with quite a few prophetic moments.

Minecraft

I would have to go with the Panzer Dragoon trilogy on the Sega Saturn.

While the first title was, at its basics, a fairly simple on rails shooter it was more than the sum of its parts.

It had incredible art direction, a sweeping musical score, innovative world building and rock solid gameplay.

The second title built up on the first installment in every way to solidify it as one of the best titles of that generation.

Then came Panzer Dragoon Saga which evolved the series into a full blown JRPG that is still so unique and unlike anything else out there.

Team Andromeda's passion, dedication and innovation ensured each game was a new benchmark for Segas black box.

What I wouldn't do for a new installment by the original team.

Completely different genre but the Stabley Parable checks all of these.

100 years in the future and it will be just as perfect.

Undertale and Deltarune.

Dwarf Fortress.

Ultima 1-7 and 8 partially.

The Yakuza series I guess? Granted I've only played zero, kiwami and kiwami 2, but it all seems to be completely sincere in its craziness. It doesn't appear to pretend to be anything more than it is.

Hades

Prumbably the Morrowind game

Factorio