Games

Dark Souls.

It fundamentally changed me as a person. All of the other fromsoft games are great but none of them really encapsulates the experience that is the first Dark Souls game.

StarCraft: Brood War

It's a difficult question to answer. I personally barely consider Disco Elysium to be a game, more like an interactive story that uses certain game mechanics as grammar elements and punctuation in its storytelling. It's a novel masquerading as a game. It's three novels in a trenchcoat. But if we do count it then it is my pick, by a landslide.

Otherwise it's probably Baldur's Gate 2. It's the story game I've replayed the most over the years and it was absolutely fundamental in my journey as a gamer, the definition of a formative experience. Even though parts of it are dated now (some clunk is to be expected from a 25-year-old game) I still prefer it to BG3. It's got a great story, great companions and an all-time great villain. David Warner put in an incredible performance and even all these years later there aren't many video game villains who have surpassed Irenicus in sheer aura.

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.

Minecraft

There are so many things you can do in the game, especially using mods

RISK OF RAIN 2

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.

Any of those three

• Disco Elysium
• Death Stranding
• Outer Wilds

Gothic 2, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, GTA: San Andreas and Arcanum are for og ny favourite games that are a bit too flawed to be all time favourite.

Final Fantasy 6 and 7 were so good, but I can't play them alone, we used to pass along the controller.

I love point and clicks like Grim Fandango and Monkey island.

I played Planescape: Torment in 2006 and it left such an impression on me.

Of never games there's Disco Elysium and The Obra Dim.

Not to mention Zelda's, Illusion of Time, the Mana series, Mario's, the old Blizzard games, Brotherbound games and other amiga games. Quake........

Maybe Day of the Tentacle?

StarCraft 2 was the perfect competitive RTS, with the best pro scene. I lived and breathed that game for years. Sucks that Blizzard decided to stop supporting it.

Fallout 2 is probably one of my favourite games of all time. Absolutely amazing game, if a bit sprawly. I've played through it many times and expect I will do again.

Red Alert 2 - the pinnacle of the isometric RTS genre. Bordering on too silly but without tipping into absolute farce. Mechanically very strong, the art is lovely, and even has nostalgia for me.

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth. Massive game but a run can be completed relatively quickly. I always disable the music because I don't like games that try to scare and intimidate me. I'm pretty good at the game so it tends to be pretty relaxing for me, if a bit fugue-state-y.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2: the apex of the Battlefield multiplayer games for me. The others have plenty going for them, but BFBC2 was the best compromise between destructibility, player counts, etc. for my tastes. Sniping took significant skill and one couldn't go prone - it meant that open areas didn't feel like a death sentence (looking at you, later BF games!).

Assassin's Creed: Origins/Odyssey two open world games with beautiful maps and locations to explore. I think I preferred the setting of Origins but the story of Odyssey. A bit of escapist fantasy, I suppose. I loved the Ezio trilogy too, mind you.

My "nostalgia favorites" will always be Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time and Sonic 2 (Genesis version). Sonic 2 is just so fun to go back and play any time I want a quick retro sides rolling platformer fix, and I've played through it more times than I can count. OoT was the first game I played that showed me what games could be through a combination of story/cutscenes and gameplay, as someone who was never able to get my hands on an SNES to play the epic JRPGs of the console growing up (I loved my Genesis, but let's be real, those kinds of games on Sega consoles didn't really come until later).

Nowadays Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom have eclipsed OoT for me, and for other more modern games another standout fave is Fire Emblem Three Houses, due in large part to its story and setting having everything I look for in a game, and its characters actually being more fleshed out and developed than the one-note units handed to you in many other games in the franchise. Engage has more... Engaging gameplay (sorry not sorry for the pun) but the story and characters hold it back quite a bit for me. Gameplay-wise, my favorite strategy RPG actually has to be Triangle Strategy, in that it has quite creative maps and every unit is designed with the potential to be useful depending on how you approach your own strategy, but I like the story/characters of Three Houses at least a bit more, and I tend to value story more in general in games. I'm also a big fan of the Ace Attorney franchise for the overarching story, characters and writing that it's built up through its history. Phoenix, Maya, Edgeworth, Apollo and friends are all among some of my favorite characters in gaming, and I'm glad I decided long ago to give that quirky-seeming series a try. AA7 when, Capcom?

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.

Curse of Monkey Island.

Ender Lilies

It's a mechanically strong Metroidvania with branching paths, hidden areas, and exploration, but what I love about it is the atmosphere and the juxtapositions is uses.

It is a crumbling decaying kingdom full of monstrosities, and the main character is an innocent little girl in a pure white dress. Lily does not attack, some of the monsters she is able to purify to restore their mind at which point they help her. So when you attack a monster appears to do the attack animation, while lily cowers a bit behind it.

One thing I love is when you are in a boss fight and shit is going down hard, the sound track is extremely chill piano music. The soft and beautiful contrasts against the harshness of the situation is a very compelling way.

The sequel Ender Magnolias is good as well. Mechanically there are some improvements, but I don't feel like the atmosphere or world building is as good. That may be because I played Lilies and was used to it. If your haven't played either I'd suggest starting with Lilies, and if you like Magnolias is worth your time.

The Witcher 3, followed by the Mass Effect trilogy (I consider it as a whole)

And honestly, Cyberpunk 2077 could complete the top 3

But if I have to consider multiplayer games, with 3000+ hours on Warframe (considering I haven't touched it for years), I guess it could also be considered my favorite (I think I also spent 1000h on ME3 multi)

My all-time favorites have been in place for many years now.

It's a tie between Sonic 2 (Genesis) & Final Fantasy 6 (SNES).

They are two very different games that represent two different concepts in gaming. For Sonic it's all about smooth, fun gameplay. With FF6 it's all about the story and the experience of controlling an ensemble cast of characters. I can beat the first in under an hour, as while the latter usually takes 60+ hours. They're like the yin and yang of videogames for me.

Planetside 2 as it was many years ago. I'll be forever bitter how they ruined it.

If I look at recorded playtime then its teamfortress 2 which wins just by 0.1h over rimworld and I havent really played tf2 for over 10 years.

It is crazy to me that Diablo 2 was not mentioned, yet. Second place: Modded Minecraft.

same deal, favorites change according to mood, but there are overall few mainstays:

Indiana Jones & The Fate of Atlantis.

It's a childhood favorite I return to every now and then. It's a point&click adventure, and to me it's essentially the 4th (and last) Indiana Jones movie. :D

Apart from one or two bad bits the game pulls, it's otherwise pretty logical from start to finish. 3 different paths from mid to late game, and mostly good voice acting (for the time). I know the game by heart at this point, but still it feels fun to play, every time. Nostalgia-goggles probably play a big part.

Cyberpunk 2077

I know it's a divisive game, don't care, works for me. The bleak vibes of the game just speak to me. Have played it through several times since launch, occasionally still find new things here and there. Not the deepest rpg around, but a good action-rpg with neonlights.

Unnamed Space Idle

I've been on this idle/timewaster for way over a year, slow progress raising the numbers all the time. Sure it's a bit low on gameplay, but absolutely neat little game to occasionally click few times when watching some longform content or so.

Baldur's Gate 2. There's no game I've played through more often. BG3 is a very fun successor, but Larian's writing can't hold a candle to classic Bioware.

Into the Breach for sure. Extremely satisfying strategy gameplay with a ton a variety with the different teams/units, heaps of replayability especially after the content update from a couple years back, and it being a run based game is great for folks who only get an hour or two to play on any given day.

- Tabi (ey/it)

Sometimes Rimworld, sometimes CP2077 and sometimes BG3

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.