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The Outer Wilds. IMO, non-violence-based gameplay design is an underexplored space, especially in 3-D games. The Outer Wilds manages to feel like a fully-fledged game, rather than a traditional walking simulator, using exploration as it's core gameplay loop.

Further, it's main progression system is you, the out-of-game player, learning about the world. There's no abilities you gain or keys you have to find. You unlock new areas, not as a programmed game mechanic, but as a function of reasoning about what you've discovered and gaining insight into how the game world works. Any playthrough could be beaten in about 15 minutes -- there's nothing physically blocking you from triggering the end of the game -- but it takes you 15 hours or so of flying around the solar system to accrue the necessary insight to get there.

It's really a special game.

Mass Effect. The one game I wish I could entirely erase my memory of and do it all again. <3

Tetris. Tetris is the King.

Definitely the original portal.

I'm generally not an FPS guy, but the puzzle game in the FPS format was really cool to see.

And when you finally do beat the game you can't help but think...

"This is a triumph"

Ocarina of Time.

Elder Scrolls III Morrowind. Everything in that game feels so different than anything else, including the other Elder Scrolls.

Titanfall 2 is the most fun I've had with a video game. The movement is so amazingly fluid, it's like Quake or Unreal Tournament but with more verticality, and then there's the Titans themselves, which feel like awesome weapons of war, yet not insurmountable to a skilled pilot on foot. Everything from the gameplay balance to the mechanics to the visuals and sound design is incredible, and the single-player story was very touching and exactly long enough to satisfy you without overstaying its welcome. I'm gutted that we're probably never getting a Titanfall 3.

Super Mario World

Stardew valley

Satisfactory.

I love making efficient systems and the freedom to do things the way I want to, such as by using the game's alternate recipe system.

The exploration and movement systems in the game are also to notch. It's not quite Titanfall, but I struggle to think of any other game where simply moving around is so fun. That's on top of how pretty the actual environment is to explore.

DDR probably. Helped me lose a bunch of weight and actually get reasonably healthy.

Outer Wilds and 2nd place isn't even close

Final Fantasy VII (the original)

Skyrim because it's not just vanilla skyrim.

Vanilla skyrim is good, but skyrim is also modded skyrim.

Some of those mods are basically games in their own right. And not average games either. Enderal and The forgotten city have won awards and are genuinely great.

You can easily spend a thousand hours playing Skyrim and that's saying something for a game that doesn't rely on grinding or have an online mode.

Tough choice as there are a lot of games I love, but I think I’d pick The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. It’s definitely my favourite in the Zelda series.

Elden Ring

Minecraft: easily in the tens of thousands of hours played. I have been and continue to play it on and off with some regularity

Super Metroid. Still holds up after so long.

Oblivion.

I think I was 12 or so when I first played it and absolutely no other moment in gaming in my life beats the pure joy and ecstasy I felt when, on my second start of the game, instead of leaving the sewers and going straight to Vilverin, I turned around and found the Imperial City and ran to it, being amazed that I just could do it and the game just let me do it. It was the first time I understood the concept of an open world game.

My first start of the game I went straight to Vilverin and couldn't go down the first flight of stairs because I was looting everything and I got over-encumbered. I'm not a native English speaker, and at the time I didn't understand what that word meant, so I just thought I didn't something wrong since I couldn't move or do anything and just decided to start again.

Jagged Alliance 2

The Sims 2 was really cheesy but had a lot of in-depth gameplay that balanced it out. The only thing better was The Sims 3, but it didn’t have as much charm.

I'm honestly stuck between Tetris (basically any form of it) and the entire Binding of Isaac series. I have put countless hours into these games and they're the ones I constantly go back to, no matter what.

I spent like 15 years of my life on World of Warcraft through all the good and bad, but it was the friends I made and the late night messing around that was the fun.

Age Of Empires. I still play to this day!

EarthBound

This was a tough one, but I think I've finally settled on Super Mario Kart.

It's not the best game in the franchise, but I think it's still my favourite, and the game I still have the most hours put into ever.

It's been 30 years of play now, and ongoing.

Knights of the Old Republic I & II, I've spent so many hours playing those game when I was a teenager that I don't even know. I remember finishing them multiple times with different build and when I though that there was nothing left to do I discovered the restoration project and mods that the replay options became infinite.

Left 4 Dead 2. It's not my favorite game, or what I think is the best game of all time, but it's definitely my most played by more than 1k hours. The game hits a sweet spot in terms of tactical gameplay that's almost chess-like in its level of complexity, balance, and replay-ability. The fact that it was released 14 years ago and still has a massive modding community and playerbase speaks to its quality. It's also on sale on Steam right now for $.99, and as it uses the Source engine, runs well on the most basic of potatoes.

The thing that made me fall in love with classic video games: SMB3 (NES)

Favorite game that got me into the next iteration: Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. With a nice helping of a Perfect Dark as a palette cleanser.

More modern: I've got about 1000 hours into Skyrim and have played Diablo 3 more than I'd like to admit.

I'm massively looking forward to Starfield.

I'm going to say The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for personal reasons.

When I was playing it, I was getting therapy for clinical depression. Breath of the Wild's entire structure really helped me process my depression and contextualise my issues, and I honestly think it helped me a lot more than would any game that is actually about depression.

Team Fortress Classic. The game was fun but the modding community really took it to the next level.

Final Fantasy VII, it's the most pefect game made by human hands.

Bloodborne for playing, Drakengard 3 for the characters and music, Tactics Ogre for the story.

Final Fantasy II (which we later learned was IV) was my first "real" video game. It holds a special place in my heart because my Dad had me play it when I was learning to read, and he had me read all the lines and dialogue out loud.

For years I thought the opening screed read that Cecil and Kain were "swallowed by a deep frog." Imagine my surprise reading it years later to read fog. Hey, when the text scrolls by and you don't control the speed, it can lead to some misunderstandings!

Seeing Rydia chastise an adult was also very empowering for me, as a girl of similar age. When she came back later as a day-saving badass, it made me want to grow up to be a day-saving badass, too.

Command and Conquer, it's one of the few things I can remember fondly sharing with my dad growing up. Also it has such a great soundtrack.

Mine are purely sentimental and I don’t expect anyone to agree, but the original monkey island, the original fallout or Baldurs Gate 1. They all have arguably better sequels but playing those games for the first time was something else.