Any platform(s).
- Disco Elysium
- Jade Empire
- Eternal Darkness
- Knights of the Old Republic
- Starcraft 2
- Quake
- Chrono Trigger
- Portal
- Resident Evil 4
- The Last of Us
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The portals are so much fun, even as a group activity.
The Half Life, Portal, and Left 4 Dead series’s bring me nostalgia like no others. Unbelievably good games
Solitaire and SkiFree.
sly 3
mirror’s edge
also portal 2 somewhere in there
In no particular order:
- Elden Ring
- Team Fortress 2
- Day of the Tentacle
- Freelancer
- FTL
- System Shock 2
- Duck Game
- Red Dead Redemption 2
- Rome: Total War
- Diablo 2
Day of the Tentacle is one of my first PC gaming memories. My friend’s brother had a PC that could play it, and I was in awe. I remember he had to uninstall it to make room for Duke Nukem 3d…
Have you played Wing Commander: Privateer? It predates Freelancer by a bit but it hit a lot of the same notes for me.
Half-life.
Sim city.
Smb3.
I know you don’t mean super monkey ball 3, but, there is the smallest chance you do. :)
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I bet our birthdays are pretty close to one another’s.
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Youngins. Did you never even meet Wirt?
Metal Gear Solid 1
Cyberpunk 2077
Civilization V
Gods Will Be Watching
Portal
Splinter Cell Blacklist
Dead Cells
Sniper Elite 3
Dirt Rally
Ghost of Tsushima
I was so close to putting Dead Cells on my list, but I opted for Hades instead. Dead Cells is so damned good, though.
- Outer Wilds
- Hollow Knight
- Elden Ring
- Baldurs Gate 3
- Metroid Prime
- Mass Effect 2
- Tetris
- Shadow of The Colossus
- Mother 3
- Fallout: New Vegas
Based on an incomplete sampling.
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.
Games that I have spent an incredible amount of time playing, in no particular order (games where I have noted time, I have played those exclusively without playing any other games):
- Enter the Gungeon (two years)
- Master of Orion (& sequels and likes)
- UFO/TFTD
- Sim City 2000
- Command & Conquer (just the first one)
- Quake World (5 years)
- Ragnarok Online (5 years)
- Transport Tycoon Deluxe (& Open TTD)
- Wizardry 7
- World of Warcraft (5 years)
I’d like to mention that there comes a certain point in skill based games like fps and twitchy MMOs, where your character’s movements are so ingrained in muscle memory, your knowledge of the game engines’ ins and outs are so thorough, that even just standing around in one spot you know at any moment what action or reaction is going to happen upon your next few key presses, and you have a hundred percent confidence in executing those without a flaw, if you bothered to lift your finger.
That’s when you quit, I guess.
Edit: honorary mention for Fallout 1/2/3/NV, TES3&5, Elite/First Encounter, Syndicate, Starcraft 2, Creatures 1&2, Civilization, Master of Magic, King’s Bounty & HOMM, DOOM 1/2, Scorched Earth/Worms, Diablo 1&2
Hmm, tough choices. In no particular order.
The Legend of Zelda - A Link To The Past This game was great when it was released and it’s great now, and thanks to the randomiser community it’s now infinitely replayable as well.
Super Metroid A series that literally helped define a genre, Super Metroid was everything that I suspect they wanted Metroid and Return of Samus to be but the hardware couldn’t keep up. The world is built for speed running as well with so many shortcuts that experienced players can utilise, and again, with the randomiser community making it infinitely replayable (not only on its own, but with a crossover with ALTTP!), this game easily makes it onto my list.
Final Fantasy VII My original introduction to JRPGs and a game whose story and mechanics still hold up today even if the graphics don’t as much. Obviously a lot of people feel the same way thanks to the Remakes, which while slightly out there have had so much nostalgia to play through them.
Final Fantasy XI The original Final Fantasy MMORPG and my introduction to MMORPGs generally, I put about 10 years into this game and still to this today occasionally reinstall it and see where I was last up to.
Final Fantasy XIV I tried several times to start FFXIV, but never got past the first few dungeons until COVID lockdowns hit, and since then am fully on board. The story, while a slow burn, is so good, and being a live service game means there’s always new content coming or changes to learn. But really, the story in FFXIV is easily good enough to qualify as a mainline FF title, and any FF players who haven’t tried it yet, should.
Doki Doki Literature Club You have to play this blind. Don’t watch a let’s play, and avoid any spoilers if you can. It’s worth it. But when it’s all done, if you’re playing on PC, people have written entirely new mods and story for it, and the good ones really know how to make you connect with the characters.
Persona 5 Royal I discovered the Persona series with Golden, and was super excited to play Persona 5 when it released, but Royal is the definitive version that you’ll want to play. The story is great, the gameplay is lots of fun, and the combination of JRPG and slice of life makes you feel a lot more connected to the loveable cast.
Factorio Just perfectly tickles that itch for resource management. The factory must grow.
Metal Gear Solid 2 A main memory I have of this game is the first time playing it where I bought out a whole box of those chocolates they sell for fundraising - was supposed to sell them to other people but they were great for late night snacking while I played. The stealth, the tension, the weird everything towards the end, it was a trip from start to finish.
Duke Nukem 3D Duke wasn’t my first foray into FPS games (Wolfenstein 3D manages that title). But it holds a special place in my heart as it was the first game I ever played online multiplayer on. But I did it before the internet, so literally had a modem to modem connection running over an IPX network. Realistically, there’s been plenty of better FPS games since, both modern and classic, but the irreverent humour, plus the fact I was a teen who probably wasn’t supposed to be playing a game with strippers and highly pixilated tits in it, just edges it into my top 10.
If you like DDLC, you should try Song of Saya. Just a warning, it can get quite graphic, but the storytelling is amazing.
Also Chrono Trigger if you’re a Final Fantasy fan.
Chrono Trigger have played and loved as well, but it’s not one I’ve gone back to and replayed, which was one of my key criteria in this list, longevity (for me - I realise Chrono Trigger does have it between the multiple endings and New Game+ mode).
I have a very distinct memory of first playing it via emulator on ZSNES, and running into a bug in a section in the future that required you to hold L and R and activate some controls to open a door. For whatever reason the emulator wasn’t handling that properly and I got stuck. Eventually went back to it on Snes9x and was able to progress, but that stuck out.
Haven’t heard of Song of Saya though, thanks for the recommendation!
I don’t think an emulator bug (especially from a 90s emulator) should factor into how good a game is.
I’d recommend giving it another shot. It’s one of my favorite games of all time, and the only game I find myself replaying every year.
Oh, sorry, please don’t read it that way! It’s a game I very much enjoyed when I played it, and I do still today watch speed runners race it occasionally. The bug didn’t impact my enjoyment of it in the longer term, it’s just a fun fact I remember about it from when I did play it all those years ago that I thought I’d share.
Ah. Makes sense. The early days of emulators were something I really enjoyed. One of the reasons I even got into computers was ZSNES (although glitching Pokemon 1st gen was another)
I love how you can tell how old someone is by their favorite final fantasy games :)
You’re right, you really can. That being said if it’s purely personal favourites I’d put FF6 into that list as well. I would love if they gave that the Remake treatment.
Same! FF6 is so damn good
- Suikoden 2
- Final Fantasy 7 (original)
- Dark Souls
- Resident Evil 1
- Castlevania SOTN
- D&D Warriors of the Eternal Sun
- Resident Evil 1 Remake (GC)
- Gran Turismo 4
- Road Rash 2
- Oblivion
Big shout out to SFA2, FFT:A/2, BOF series, Roadwarden.
10 feels too little to condense 40 years of games.
Road Rash 2
Oh man, this one takes me back.
No order in particular:
- Elder Scrolls 3-5
- KOTOR 1 & 2
- Dota 2
- Mass Effect
- Grim Dawn
- Kerbal Space Program
- Warframe
- Age Of Empires II
- Battle for Middle Earth 2
- Counter Strike
My top 10 in decreasing order (the first series’ games I listed individually to give due credit to these masterpieces):
- Chronicles of Myrtana: Archolos (Gothic universe)
- Gothic 2 + Night of the Raven
- Gothic 1
- Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout 2, Fallout 1
- Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect, Mass Effect 3
- UFO Enemy Unknown (OpenXcom variant)
- Warcraft III + The Frozen Throne
- StarCraft, StarCraft II
- Unreal Tournament 2000 G.O.T.Y.
- No Man’s Sky or Minecraft (contenders for 10th place)
