Games

Morrowind. One of the few games you can fail the main quest by going on a rampage or by selling the wrong item.

Best single game is probably Portal. The pacing, storytelling, innovation, sound, all are top notch even 20+ years later. Graphics aren't phenomenal, but don't need to be. The challenges and easter eggs made it a blast to 100%.

Not just my mood, but I have different flavors of favorite.

In terms of nostalgia and all-time enjoyment, hard to beat Ocarina of Time.

In terms of pure "this game is so good", may have to go with Red Dead Redemption 2. Truly a masterpiece.

In terms of most hours played, Civilization 6 at over 2000 hours.

Sekiro.

Only hard until you start to understand the dance moves. Then it becomes pure nirvana.

After NG+7 I had to stop playing it and give some other games a chance.

Super Mario World - just a fun game. Lots of little secrets and fun to speed run.

Titanfall - I played an absurd amount of this one and really wished there was a 3rd one. 1-2 remind me of the pattern seen in trilogys where 1 sets the stage, 2 deviaties pretty far and polarizes fans and then 3 uses the best of both while trying to feel more like 1. (Mario 1-3, Halo 1-3). My favorites in this pattern tend to be 3 so I'm disappointed I never got Titanfall 3.

Pubg - when it was new. Lost me years ago now but that first 6 months to a year was awesome. So many crazy games and absurd fun.

It's easily The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.

It has everything I could ask for in a game: Sword fighting. Magic. Secrets. Dungeon crawling. An alternate dimension. Side quests. Different tools and items. There's enough content that it feels fulfilling to complete it. Peak art. Peak music. NPCs don't talk too much, and there are just enough of them to make the world feel alive. Bosses.

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.

StarCraft: Brood War

Any of those three

• Disco Elysium
• Death Stranding
• Outer Wilds

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.

Shadow of the Colossus was barely even a game, it was art. I don't think I even played it for more than 20 hours total but just a simple masterpiece.

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.

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)

Minecraft

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

Sekiro.

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.

Curse of Monkey Island.

World of Warcraft!

I know people like to look down on it here but it's trully an amazing theme park metaverse experience.

I don't have much time for it these days but just playing couple of hours every week is such a joyful experience. There's just so much to do in the game, great writing, legendary characters, great people playing it. True metaverse experience everyone has been chasing lately.

I feel like my “all-time favorite” changes depending on my mood, but if I had to pick just one, I’d probably go with The Witcher 3. That game just hit all the right notes—amazing story, incredible world-building, and so much stuff to do without feeling like pointless filler. Plus, the expansions were just as good, if not better than the base game.

I replayed the entire game after completing Cyberpunk 2077 and finished it this weekend. Sadly for me the game doesn't hold up that well in various aspects and it was one of my favourites. The story is great, the ending is really well done, but the combat is too simple, the leveling of the game is all over the place, the RPG aspect of the game is really underwhelming and the game is just too damn long. I actually ended up enjoying Cyberpunk 2077 more at the end, but TW3 is a better game in general.

As for my "all-time favorite", that depends.

Nier: Automata changed me, the game had a real impact on me.

Zelda BOTW is the game that made me feel happier while playing it.

Sekiro is the game that just clicked perfectly.

DAO was my all time favourite RPG but Divinity 2/BG3 both took that spot.

Chrono Trigger is the game that I'll always remember, the singleplayer game that I've replayed the most.

Terraria is my favourite indie game.

I have a real soft spot for Bloodstained, I loved Casltevania Symphony of the Night and I waited so long for Bloodstained and the guys delivered what I expected. The first game that I wanted to do 100%.

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?

Transport Tycoon was fantastic and thanks to OpenTTD I still play it from time to time.

Gothic 2 is by far the best Action RPG of all time. Witcher 3 comes close, but still fails to surpass it in so many places.

Banished always gets me with it's atmosphere. It feels cozy but at the same time you are close to complete annihilation. Oxygen not included hits the same mark, but also has a distinctive art style and humor to it which I love.

Stanley Parable (and it's Deluxe edition) never fails to make me laugh. But it can get tedious sometimes...

Probably Morrowind.

Properly distinct beast races, freedom to fuck up the world, really rewarding exploration, awesome scenery and concepts, great soundtrack, you can free slaves, and Argonians have never looked better overall.

Second place, probably Red Dead Redemption 2. Every single aspect of that game is outstanding. The pacing, the story, the characters, the combat, the exploration, the horse genitals, the music, the graphics, the massive scale of the world.. Just truly a masterpiece of a game, and I think Rockstar will never surpass it.

Honorable mentions for Caves of Qud, Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy 7 (original AND remake/rebirth) and Starflight (mostly played on C64 but Genesis/Megadrive version is far better)

Oh, fuck, and Silent Hill 2, that's somewhere in the top three. Both original and remake. Fucking exceptional works of art.

Thief 2: Metal Age

That's a tough one to answer. I have to say league of legends, because it's always our friends fallback game.

But other favorites are:

• Terraria
• Subnautica
• Bravely Default
• Warcraft 3 - mainly the custom maps, we played so much of that
• Slay the spire

My nostalgia faves are still The Longest Journey and Grim Fandango. My love of stories told with games started here. I do need to think about what my all time favorites are, though. That's a big question.

definitely Deus Ex

but also The 7th Guest lol

For me, Elden Ring. I enjoy open world exploration and collecting-heavy games, and I also enjoy soulslikes for the strategic combat and variety of options. So ER was like two of my favorite ice cream flavors combined into one delicious meal.

Star Control 2 - it's a mix of RPG storytelling with zany aliens mixed with Asteroids style PvP arcade gameplay. Like Ham and Cantaloupe, you think the combination wouldn't work but it just somehow does. The writing and lore of the whole universe is just super rich and really immerses you into the whole universe.

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.

The OG X-Com is probably up there as a game that I keep coming back to. Especially after I learned about some of the total conversion mods for it.

I play almost every genre (minimal interest in sports games, admittedly), and my favorite changes all the time. But in general, here are some of my all-time top games:

Final Fantasy Tactics

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (people who think BL2 is better than TPS are wrong)

Spider-Man (PS4)

Hades

Civilization 6

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?

There's probably a lot of nostalgia in the choice, but my all time favorite game is Quest for Glory: So You Want to be a Hero. The game was just the right mix of fantasy, adventure and humor for a young me, and I still go back an play it about once a year. A close second is Valheim. It's kinda my "cozy game". I find building and exploring relaxing, and there's enough fighting to keep the game from getting boring.

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)

I probably can't decide on a single one but if I had to list:

• Operation Flashpoint (a big candidate on best)
• Mafia 1
• Giant: Citizen Kabuto
• Half-Life series
• Portal series
• Dark Souls/Elden Ring
• Age of Empires II (also big candidate on best)
• Mass Effect series

And I'm gonna stop myself here because there's way more which just complicates choice

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.

I'm a teacher, and as soon as students figure out I play games, they inevitably ask me this question, but I largely think it's an unfair question to ask someone who games as a genuine hobby rather than just a kill time.

I like to tell them that's a really impossible question to answer and instead offer them my favorite franchise of games: Monster Hunter. I feel like I can more reliably say that I am a massive fan of the franchise, with it reliably being my favorite videogame franchise, without that seeming weirdly inaccurate considering the wide variety of genres and sub-genres that make up video game interests.

To say that Monster Hunter Rise is my favorite game would be a massive disservice to the captivating, genre-breaking storytelling power of Hades, my deeply rooted love of the flight mechanics in Elite Dangerous, my history as a brief world record holder for a Mario title, the thousands of hours of Team Fortress 2 I've shared with friends, or my experiences grinding World of Warcraft arenas to the top 0.5% of players. And I've somehow listed 5 formative titles from the top of my head without even representing my deep passion for rhythm games, with Hi-Fi Rush being a genuine contender for that "favorite game" slot that I am arguing doesn't exist. So I don't answer with any of these games, because not only would my answer be fundamentally untrue, but it's not really the question my student means to ask, either. They want to know what I am into, and giving them a standout franchise that automatically gets my money when a title is released gives them a much better answer than any one title could ever do.