From video gaming to card games and stuff in between, if it's gaming you can probably discuss it here!
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Not a unique opinion, but Portal is probably the closest thing to a perfect game. Nothing feels unnecessary, and every part of it (story, gameplay, visuals) is not only good on its own, but also work together to make the game better than the sum of its parts.
Portal 2's also great but suffers from a lot of fluff imo. The analogy I like to use is Portal 2 is like a big feast of really good food, while Portal 1 is just one small dish, but it's the best version of that dish you've ever tasted.
Beyond Good & Evil, 2003. It's been so long since I played it, I don't remember much other than it was a sandbox and it had some neat mechanics and cute characters and I loved it. The closing credits musical sequence is magical, too.
One of the first games I played that was translated in Dutch with good voiceovers! Loved it and made me more open to localized games.
I think I rented it for the gamecube but never played much. Apparently it's famously good! I'll have to check it out.
Had a partner want to practice hacking a 3ds before they closed the shop so I can play PS1 games. The first one I put on that mofo is Azure Dreams, my first and probably favorite dungeon crawler roguelike with a city builder. Also Breath of Fire IV is one of my absolute favorite games ever.
I haven't even heard of either of these so I'm definitely going to have to check them out!
I definitely think they are loads of fun but they both have amazing soundtracks, too! Breath of Fire IV still brings me to tears!
For me it was metal gear solid 3 snake eater. I thought it was the perfection of the metal gear formula. I’m exited to see its remaster.
My response to this will look like a who’s who of Dreamcast games. The Dreamcast was the first console I bought myself, so I have lots of fond memories.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. My favourite game of all time. I played it long after it had released thanks to the PSOne classics section on the PS3, but far and away it is one of my favourite experiences I've had with gaming. The map is robust, the RPG elements allow for unique experiences each time I've played, and overall it's just complex and challenging enough to keep you engaged, but not frustrating to the point of distress and apathy towards it. Highly recommended as a starting point for the PSOne.
Super Metroid. Similar to what I loved about SoTN, but more obtuse in nature for sure (it came out earlier after all for the SNES). The gameplay and atmosphere of course are great focusing on exploration and a gradual increase in ability lending itself to pursuing more exploration, but even the story is compelling enough to keep you engaged throughout.
Portal. Great puzzle game I've always loved. Challenged the medium when it first came out by taking what the source engine was best at (FPS') and placing it in an environment with little to no combat and the player thinking of ways to overcome each challenge with the tools at their disposal. (Fun story: my cousin was allowed to let me play this when I was younger because it was the only game rated "T" on the Orange box. It's also one of the few games I was able to beat in the hour or two periods we would visit my aunt and uncles' home.). It's short, sweet, and always a good time.
Kirby Air Ride. Last one I can think of but probably the game I've returned to the most. (Including Smash Bros Melee for the same system, also a great game made by the same director and studio.). Overall the "rides" for Kirby are a unique concept, but the game really shines with City Trial, a frantic 5 (or 7 for most people who love the game) minute period of collecting buffs and changing vehicles in order to beat opponents in a randomly selected minigame (race, battle, beat King DeDeDe, etc) at the end. Such a novel concept and one I always love to come back to for a quick game now and then.
One of my all-time favourites is Freelancer, 2003. Just a really fun arcade space sandbox with an engaging campaign and great multiplayer and modding scene.
Civilization IV was one of the best Civ games ever, with one of the best title tracks ever. I'm afraid to guess how many ~~hours~~ ~~days~~ weeks I spent playing that game.
I played Max Payne and its sequal recently and I was surprised how well they held up. The gameplay and level design kept it consistently fun
Mischief Makers for n64! its a puzzle platformer by treasure, its controls are a little unintiutive at first, but the games grappling/boost mechanics are so much fun once you get it down.
also, SHAKE SHAKE!
Soldier of Fortune. I will remember that whistle darn it!
But I lived through the golden era of arena shooters such as Quake III and UT2K4 which was amazing, but most of all the whole FPS genre was really ramping up to new heights every month back then with HL2/CoD and mods such as Counter Strike, Garry's Mod and the like.
Oh man, I remember when Soldier of Fortune came out. It was the first FPS (that I was aware of at least) that had dismemberment. I remember my mind become completely blown after shooting a guy's legs off with a shotgun.
Nowadays, it's nothing special, but back then it was insane.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (PC version). Be aware that PC version is a completely different game from the console versions.
No spoilers please but I'm finally sitting down to playthrough and beat the original Deus Ex. Installed GMDX mod and have been having a blast so far!
Oh you are in for a treat! I'm thrilled for you.
All I will say is experiment. Follow that "huh I wonder if?" relentlessly.
Definitely. It's starting to fall into the "They thought of everything!" levels of ways to solve puzzles and beat missions. I love how my character's personality seems to be driven by the sub missions I do and don't do. Very cool game so far.
Tetris (Game Boy/TI-83) and Nokia Snake. Those were my main mobile games for many many years. I don’t think I need to say anything about the games themselves. You all know what’s up 😆.
Warcraft 2. (I played this before Warcraft 1.) (Un)holy fuck. Everything about this game at the time was so metal. Started my lifelong bias for playing as Orcs in video games. Art and music are 😘👌 classic.
Deus Ex. I won’t call it a masterpiece, but it’s an iconic piece of gaming. I thought the “solve the missions however you want!” aspect was a bit oversold but replaying it during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic just made me realize how good the story and lore writers were. Music was great too, and it’s a good source for memes.
I just picked up Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition (the original, not the Remaster) again. Installed it on my Steam Deck along with DSFix after a year or so of scrolling past it and seeing the "unsupported" icon. Looked it up on ProtonDB and apparently it works just fine.
What a game. The level design is still unmatched imo
I still play Doom 1 & 2 most days. Nothing matches it for speed of play. Doom is fast.
Doom 2016 is a good game too, but I'm it lacks speed.
Final Fantasy Tactics(PS1) remains my favorite game to this day. I really liked messing with the various classes and abilities, and it's a rock-solid tactics game, to boot. Couple that with amazing music and a great political story, and you've got a classic.
TG Cid is hilariously broken, though.
FFT has an active modding scene, too. Lots of rom hacks are still being made for the PS1 and PSP versions of the game.
There's always Diablo 1.
But my favorite is Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, which was made by some of the people who created Fallout and has a LOT in common with it. It's an open world, a combination of classic fantasy with elves, dwarves, and halflings with a rising steampunk technology that competes with magic. There are many schools of magic and technology, as well as social, stealth, and combat skills. The graphics are very crude by today's standards, but the gameplay is outstanding.
You know, I never tried Diablo 1 even though I grew up religiously playing Diablo 2. Also love the original fallout games, I definitely need to make time for this.
Diablo 1 has the same gameplay as the other games but in terms of scope and concept it's much more self contained, it's a different experience. Good game, but d2 is what the sequels have all tried to recreate, so it will feel quite different.
Unfortunately some of my favorite games are no longer around in a playable state.
I friggin loved Atlas Reactor but it shutdown in 2019. Another all time favorite, which is still around but does not have the community to keep it feeling alive is: Shattered Galaxy.
Other games I think deserve to be in the all time best games of all time list are:
Every Star Wars fan owes it to themselves to play Knights of the Old Republic, at least once. And if you play it once, you'll want to play it through again, as a different character class. And if you play it twice, you'll want to play it through again, as a dark-side Jedi. And if you play it thrice, you may be tempted to play it through again, as a Droid.
It's a wonderful story, that feels like Star Wars (which, for those of us older Star Wars fans, who at the time were suffering through the cumulative disappointments of the prequel trilogy, became our salving solace), with plots and settings and characters and ships and light-sabers and action and betrayals that were (and still are) as rich as any of the movies or shows.
The people who run the franchise keep teasing canonicity, so play it soon, so you'll gasp like we do when Darth Revan makes an appearance.
Revan's introduction in KotOR was mind blowing.
Deus Ex, System Shock 2, Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines, all of these still hold up, and are totally worth a play even if you never played them back in their day.
Also, Alpha Centauri has SUCH a great narrative. Each faction has a strong identity, each leader has a fitting personality, the whole package is great.
It really deserves a remake to update the controls and UI, it still plays really well if you can get past that though.
Baldur’s Gate II is and will always be the most influential and important game of my life.
Civilization III. Still undoubtedly the best from me, every subsequent change to the series has been negative.
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).
This game is actually a bit before my time since it was released two years before I was born, but the original XCOM game (aka UFO: Enemy Unknown) is still one of my favorite games of all time. And it's just gotten better over the years with fixes and modding through OpenXcom.
I like the modern Firaxis games a lot too, and Xenonauts even moreso, but nothing has quite hit the same as the OG.
TimeShift came out in 2007, and that game was the bomb. Loved the concept with the suits that can control time, and the game play felt really smooth. Nothing beats freezing time and grabbing the enemies' weapons from them and shooting them with it.
@insurgenRat the king kong movie tie in game its actually really good and extremely innovative and alot of the ideas I've never seen replicated sadly we'll probably never see a remaster cuz 1 it's a tie in game and 2 it was made by ubisoft
Eternal Darkness
Silent Hill
Resident Evil 1+2
Call of Cthulhu
Quake 1-3
Doom 1+2
Chrono Trigger
Final Fantasy 3, 7, Tactics
Metal Gear Solid (all of them)
Shadowrun (SNES)
Castlevania 1-3, SOTN
I could go on...
The original Red Alert is still one of my favorites! In the expansion you can even fight Giant Ants!!! (Not sure how many people knew)
For me it will always be Zelda: A Link to the Past. Possibly due to nostalgia more than anything else.
(Also, unrelated but if you liked Chrono Trigger, look into Sea of Stars, an indie game heavily inspired from it. It should release this summer and Yasunori Mitsuda even composed some music tracks for that game!)
Edit : Another game, this one bad, holds a special place in my heart... Final Fantasy Mystic Quest on the SNES as well. The music is great, but the rest, meh. What's special about it is one of my aunt shown me this game when I was a kid and it is what introduced me to the world of Final Fantasy. Unfortunately that aunt died many years ago.
I really loved Myth: The Fallen Lords and it’s sequel Myth II: Soulblighter. They were made by a pre-Microsoft Bungie and had a lot of heart.
I followed the forums and joined a clan (Myth Imperial Knights - still wondering where my buddies Gryphon and Spencer are!). I played it for what must have amounted to literal weeks.
I never played the third one. It wasn’t made by Bungie and I heard it wasn’t as good, but I’d love to be able to go back and play the first two