Just as with books, movies, plays etc the past holds a treasure trove of amazing experiences. Unless you have a lot more free time than I do it's unlikely you've played anywhere near the majority of the classics. Let's get out those pink sunnies and compare notes on some of our favourite releases.
I've recently been going back in time a little on the retro pi and looking at console games I never had.
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I have to say Chrono Trigger blew me away with it's stunning art, puzzles with surprisingly little moon logic, and beautiful music.
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Mario golf on the SNES is very simple but for tired evenings cuddling on the couch it's been a winner in our household.
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The n64 Zelda games are surprisingly great too although that awkward period of 3d had some unusual controls. Even the gameboy ones are a blast although the water temple in oracle of ages it a bit frustrating.
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Heroes of might and magic 2 and 3 hold a special place in my heart and I can still dump hours into skirmishing with those (32167 for when hom2 gets too frustrating amiright?)
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I loved neverwinter knights as a kid but recently tried to check it out again and just... idk the magic wasn't there. I think now I'd rather just play some actual ttrpgs instead of sprawling CRPGs
PS1 is a mystery box to me so I'd love to hear some recommendations from that old thing. All I ever played on it was time crisis at my mates house (which was and is soooo coool, RIP lightguns).
What about you folks? What games hold a special place in your heart? or what have you checked out for the first time recently and found it's actually pretty good?
All the old MechWarrior games, starting with MechWarrior 2. That was my childhood. PGI didn't have what it takes to recapture that with MechWarrior Online or MechWarrior 5.
Shout out to Half-Life 1 and Team Fortress Classic (1.5). THAT was my teenage years. I played an insurmountable amount of TFC, adminned a couple servers, and took zero interest in TF2, because it just wasn't the same without concs, throwable frag nades, etc.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl was a gamechanger though. That released when I was in college. Fell in love with the hopeless atmosphere, good gunplay, and the eurojank. I still play the various S.T.A.L.K.E.R. mods to this day and am eagerly awaiting the release of number 2 (slated for December, but we will see. Devs have been through a lot).
I played the first STALKER at uni as well and loved it. Along with Red Orchestra that a mate was a play tester for.
All games paled in comparison to how much time I sunk into WoW between 2006 and 2011 though.
I know a lot of people that played WoW back then, and their experiences were largely the same. I didn't get much into MMOs beyond Guild Wars 1 at that time. Final Fantasy XIV was good for a time, but Elder Scrolls Online blew me away after they basically redid the game. That was obviously much later in life, though, and that's a very different framework of MMORPG than classic WoW and its early expansions.