Any platform(s).
Not in order: Dark Souls 1 Dark Souls 3 Elden Ring Witcher 3 Undertale Baldurs Gate 3 NieR: Automata Skyrim Hollow Knight Minecraft
In Order with contender from the same gameline between brackets.
- Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
- Valkyrie Profile Lenneth
- Fire Emblem the Sacred Stones (Path of Radiance & Awakening)
- Monster Hunter Worlds (Hunter 4 Ultimate & Rise)
- Need for Speed Underground 2
- World of Warcraft
- Final Fantasy IV (IX)
- League of Legends
- Dwarf Fortress
- Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates (& Echoes of Times)
Honorable Mentions
- Midnight Club 2
- Sid Meier’s Civilization VI
- Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2
- Tekken 3
I’m not very nostalgic, so not much of old games on this list (in no particular order):
Bloodborne Red Dead Redemption 2 Dark Souls The Legend of Zelda: Tears of The Kingdom Hades Monster Hunter World: Iceborne Shadow of the Colossus Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater Super Mario Galaxy 2 Elden Ring You people lack some serious games:
- Shadow of the Colossus
- Silent Hill 1-2-3
- Monkey Island 1-2-3
- Outer Wilds (happy to see it on many list)
- Alley Cat
-
Nethack : old school roguelike
-
Tale of Maj Eyal : removing of tediousness in old school roguelike
-
Baldur Gate 2 : D&D implementation
-
Civilization 2 : just one more turn
-
Fallout 2 : narrative based on character build
-
XCom : tactical combat with base building
-
Jagged alliance: tactical combat with squad building
-
Knight of Legend : best original turnbased combat system never done again
-
Slay the Spire: For deck building
-
Quake: playing with friend
Dat amulet of yendor doe…
-
- Final Fantasy VII (might be replaced with Rebirth if I end up replaying it a bunch in the future like I do with the OG)
- Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue
- Theme Hospital
- Mirrors Edge
- Celeste
- Halo 3
- Need for Speed Most Wanted
- Tony Hawk Underground
- Persona 3 Reload (before this it would’ve been 4 that would’ve been my favourite of the franchise)
- The Sims 3
I tried to think of games that I keep coming back to, or in the case of Persona and Celeste, ones that stick in my head even years after beating them.
Edit: don’t know how this slipped my mind but a kingdom Hearts game should definitely be here. It’s my favourite game series, I think I forgot to put it down because I was trying to think of which one I would put down as the best of the series.
Might and magic III
F19
Submarine Commander (Atari computer game)
B17 (intellivision)
Counterstrike.1.6
Half-life
Castle Wolfenstein
WOW
WoT
Witcher 3
Cyberpunk 2077
I’m just going to drop my number 1, especially because it’s in no one’s list but somehow CP2077 is mentionned several times…
- The Witcher 3 !
Then the rest would be:
- Age of Empires II
- Minecraft
- Overwatch 1
- Star Wars Battlefront II (the OG)
- Trackmania
- Portal
- Skyrim
… I’ll leave the remaining 2 to others :)
In no particular order:
- Elden Ring
- Mass Effect 2
- Dark Souls 3
- Bloodborne
- Factorio
- Terraria
- The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
- Metroid Prime
- Alan Wake 2
- Outer Wilds
Honourable mentions:
- XCOM 2
- Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2
- Fallout 3
- Terranigma
- Resident Evil 2 (Remake)
- Dark Souls 1
- Beyond Good and Evil
- Half Life 2
- Halo 1-3
- Mass Effect 1 and 3
- TES 5: Skyrim
- Zone of the Enders 2: The second Runner
- Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater 🎶
- Endless Legend
Extremely close to my list - I’d probably only add Starcraft and Minecraft.
And maybe switch wind waker for Ocarina, twilight princess, or BOTW.
In no particular order:
- kenchi
- ghost recon wild lands
- s.t.a.l.k.e.r
- ready or not
- arma 3
- dayz
- mag
- cities skylines
- red dead redemption
- skate 3
I’m probably a little biased but… (I’ll also include my fave music track from each game as a little bonus!)
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
This might be an unpopular list, but I’m ranking games in terms of overall enjoyment.
- Red Alert 2
- Mass Effect 1 - 3
- Doom 2016
- Doom Eternal
- Cyberpunk 2077
- Starfield
- Doom (the original)
My favorites:
- Breath of the Wild
- Tears of the Kingdom
- A Link to the Past
- Chrono Trigger
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons
- Sim Park
- Donkey Kong Country
- Mario All Stars
- Mario Paint
- Super Mario World
Context: I’m pushing 40 and didn’t play video games between SNES and Switch.
I read “I’m pushing 40” and was like, “oh, I guess we have different sensibilities.” But then I remembered I’m pushing 40 myself.
No particular order, but it seems I hit quite a few different genres.
- Starcraft
- Stardew Valley
- Subnautica
- Final Fantasy Tactics
- Infamous
- Hades
- Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
- Halo 2
- Super Smash Brothers Melee
- Rome: Total War
In no order…
- Grim Fandango
- Psychonauts (I and II combined)
- Fallout New Vegas
- Morrowind
- Portal (I and II combined)
- Thief (1-3 combined)
- Civilization II
- Space Invaders
- Falcon series (F3 and 4.0)
- The Pandora Directive
And some bonus games to add to the mix, because there are too many amazing games in the world.
- The Longest Journey/Dreamfall
- Red Dead Redemption II
- Mass Effect
EDIT Also
- Pac Man
- Quake II
Both grim Fandango and psychonauts 1 and 2 are absolute gems
Hat tip to you for including some classic games. Most of the respondants are making me feel positively antediluvian :)
Ah, yes. From before the flood of modern content
Morrowind was such an amazing experience, it’s one of the games I wish I could experience for the first time again.
Morrowind was bundled with a video card I got, and thought I’d at least try it. I had no idea what it was or how it worked, and I fell headfirst into it. WEEKS thrown at it, and I never got bored.
After that, Oblivion was a letdown for me and I didn’t get very far into it. Skyrim was great fun, but the lore was clearly secondary. (I eventually went back to Oblivion and found it a better story than Skyrim, but Morrowind is still the best.)
You can play TES3MP and hold someone else’s hand through it for the first time.
Portal! Wish I’d remembered that one for my list. Such an inventive game.
