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It's a tie between Wildermyth or Yakuza 0.

Two games that tell their stories in wildly different ways. Yet, they both got me to feel some serious emotions.

Witcher 3 is, for me, the best single player game I've every played. Though Ocarina of Time comes a close second - and I never even played it on release only years later when I bought an N64 at uni.

For multiplayer, however, you can't beat Halo with a load of mates round and a crate of beer.

Probably Life is Strange. It did a lot for me in my mid-late 20s.

#ArcadiaBaeNotBay

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion or GTA 4. 100% nostalgia picks since these are the games that I played endlessly as a preteen into high school. I would maybe throw Pokemon R/B/Y in there too since those were the games I played endlessly until I was old enough to start detasseling and buy myself GTA 4, Oblivion, and an Xbox 360

Jet Set Radio Future on the original Xbox.

I just love everything about it.

The original Legend of Zelda on the NES. It fully captivated me as a child. I remember taking the game map to school with me and my friends would circle trees that could be burned or rocks that could be bombed. Such fond memories.

Red Dead Redemption 2 with zero hesitation; honorable mention to Skyrim.

This is a hard call, and after a lot of self-deliberation...It must be Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, the updated 3DS version. It's a moody, dark, and interesting title within the Zelda game series! The deadline before the world ends pushes the player to figure out the most efficient way to make progress to save the world. The updated Bomber Journal makes this experience so tight and compelling!

Probably Dark Souls for me, the replay value and the many different ways to take on challenges in the game haven't really been replicated, even after many attempt. If not that, then Alpha Protocol. I think they did choice and consequences the best in a game. I'll also throw Dwarf fortress in there too, since people need to play it.

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

This was just a groundbreaking game. I know the graphics aren't as nice as Skyrim, but the world has more depth and the guilds are all full games in themselves.

Such a big open world, fully populated with flora and mystical fauna (Minotaurs and unicorns), an endless supply of side-quests.

Oblivion destroys Skyrim in the following places:

• Much more interesting and in-depth Thieves Guild, Assassin's Guild, Fighter's Guild, and Mage's Guild.
• Being a vampire is infinitely better than being a goddamn werewolf
• Skyrim leans too heavily for the Nord race, while Oblivion's story leaves race selection more open-ended. I always want to be an Argonian but it felt weird to be an Argonian in Skyrim.

considers

I think that it'd have to be something with a lot of replayability, which doesn't lose value to me after one playthrough.

Also, it can't be a genre where the game was limited by technology. I mean, I remember Wolfenstein 3D being amazing when it came out relative to other games of the time -- walking around in a 3D world was so mind-blowing -- but the novelty of that technology has long-since worn off, and there are many more-impressive 3D games today.

I guess roguelikes are probably about the top of the heap there, and my favorite is probably Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead. I still regularly play that, which seems to me to be a good test of whether it's still at the top of my list.

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.

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.

Tales of Phantasia.

It's still the only game I've ever 100%. It started my love of the Tales Of series and Dhaos is still my favorite villain of all time.

For myself: Illusion of Gaia (SNES).

I hear a lot of people talk about Soul Blazer and Terranigma when talking about this trilogy but IoG was always my favourite. I still have the soundtrack on my phone after all these years.

My personal all time favorite is hands down Halo 2. At that time my family only had dial up and I only ever played Halo 1 or 2 single player. Well one day I make a new friend and stay over at his house and they had high speed internet, Xbox live, and Halo 2. It was the first game I ever played online and it blew my mind. I remember going home and begging my parents for high speed internet and Xbox live but it was a hard sell especially because at the time they didn't mind dial up. They eventually switched after a few months because they got tired of the phone line being tied up lol

Super Metroid is the GOAT

Last of Us for story.

Original Modern Warfare 1 & 2 for all the memories I had of playing that in college.

Stardew valley was a really fun game to play with my wife

Chrono Trigger! Great plot, and it swaps the slow burn that brings a lot of JRPGs down for a shorter story with a ton of replayability. Gameplay and characters are also great!

Either Super Mario World or FF7

What a tough question to answer, stretching all the way back to Atari 2600 for me.

I think I'll pick No Mercy/Virtual Wrestling Pro 2 on the N64. Possibly thousands of hours both solo and competitive at a friends with some incredible round robin tournaments with up to five participants. Just amazing Create A Wrestler and one of my handful of favorite gameplay mechanics ever. Also we were paying during the exciting days of pro wrestling so we had that enthusing us as well.

It might sound dumb, but Guardian Tales. It's a gacha game on mobile and Switch, but I really love it. The story is great, it's fun to play, and the devs are very generous. I've played it multiple times on different accounts just because I have so much fun with it.

Castlevania Symphony of the Night. Had no idea what I was getting into and have been chasing that same experience ever sense.

THPS2 and a close one is F.E.A.R.

While it's hard for me to come up with an ALL TIME favorite... playing Doom 2016/eternal is one of my greatest pleasures in life. Just simple mindless hack and slash that can get MUCH more difficult if you want it to

I always end up going back to the first Half-Life; everything in that game is very well made.

Final Fantasy VII

Streets of Rage 2. Favourite soundtrack, too.

As I've gotten older and have less time to commit to competitive gaming, cooperative gaming still lets me enjoy challenging multiplayer experiences without having to worry about ELO or keeping up with the current meta as much.

As much as I love Helldivers (and I am very excited for the sequel coming out later this year), Deep Rock Galactic is undeniably the champion of the cooperative gaming genre. You can jump into almost any lobby of random players and be rocking and stoning together instantly. Deep Rock Galactic features many game mechanics that just naturally result in cooperative play, without the need to rely on voice or text communications (though, voice and text are available and used).

Not to mention that the devs are really really amazing. Seasonal updates always come free of charge. They have a battle pass system that is 100% free that just rewards cosmetics. If you don't get battle pass cosmetics by the end of the season, you can still earn all the cosmetics at a later date. The only DLC on offer are cosmetic packs, which are really cool, but the cosmetics you can earn in-game are also really cool. There's no pressure at all to spend more outside just buying the base game. I deeply appreciate them and how they conduct business.

Being totally honest, I don't think I can just settle on one game like that. I play different games for different reasons, and what genre/titles I've played the most has varied a lot throughout my life.
Up there, however, is Dark Souls, as well as League of Legends (despite all the issues I have with it, it's sucked me back in for over a decade now).

Like some already said, I too love Mass Effect, Dragon Age, The Elder Scrolls, Zelda TP and Stardew Valley. It's hard for me to chose a favorite game… There's a few of them I equally like, and it kinda changes depending on my mood.

Saints Row 2 is one I haven't seen mentioned yet. There's always something fun to do in this game and it’s hard to get tired of it. The map is packed full of interesting stuff, feels bigger than it actually is. And without writing a novel about it, I like the story a lot. It's a perfect balance between wacky and serious, plus the characters are great. Truly underrated game imo. Shame what happened to the series…

That Dr. Mario vs Tetris game. My mom would bust it out and we’d have competitions way past bedtime because she was addicted. So some good childhood memories attached to a fun little game.

Star Control 2. My son and I just started another playthrough.

Holiday Island. And Transport Tycoon Deluxe...

NFL 2k5.

And I'm still mad with EA about the exclusive NFL License.

Trials of Mana. Actually the whole Mana series were completely unique and very innovative when they first released. But the combination of story telling, party building, and combat system still hasn't been topped for me. The games are something I always have ready to emulate at all times. Fingers crossed they decide to remake the rest of the Mana series. Legend of Mana needs some love even though I remember most people weren't really keen on building their own world.

The Tales series was probably the closest before the switched from 2D to 3D. The switch, I thought, took away a lot of what made them stand out from other jrpgs in the market.

My close 2nd is Legend of Dragoon since it actually changed the combat system in a really meaningful way. Legend of Legaia also did something similar but I thought the storytelling was better in Legend of Dragoon.

Soul Sacrifice still needs some love. It's only downfall was releasing on such a niche system like the Vita. It actually moves the MH formula forward in a really interesting manner by forcing you to make really interesting choices in the story.

The King of Fighters, the whole franchise, it's just that special to me since my childhood

I've played a lot of the games on this thread and more that haven't been mentioned which deserve to be recognized, but for my experience The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth goes at the top.

There are others more nostalgic, others with more acclaim, but I always come back to Isaac. The RNG, art, humor, and item combos made that game stick to me like nothing else. It has just a little hit of inspirational game design that speaks to me.