As far as labors of love go, Stardew Valley is probably the most current example. People paid for this thing years ago, but Concerned Ape keeps adding new features anyway. The retro graphics give this thing a timeless quality out of the box, so it already looks "dated" - this hasn't stopped the robust player community around it. We'll probably see this game stay relevant for a long time.
Baldurs Gate 3.
Terraria
Java modded Minecraft.
Morrowind
- Half-Life/Half-Life 2
- The original Fallout
- The original Doom
- Brutal Doom (the campaign)
- Star Control 2 (The Ur'Quan Masters fan-made modernized version)
- The Neverhood
- Subnautica (not Below Zer0)
- Duke Nukem 3D
- Total Annihilation
- Megaman (the first one)
- Megaman X (the first one)
- Team Fortress 2
- Portal 2
This is by no means an all inclusive list. These are just games that I personally played that fit the criteria.
Terraria, amazing game that is still supported to this day, best 5€ I've spend on a game.
Half life and half life 2
A videogame that was made with complete love and devotion to the medium, made with talent and sincerity, and is a pinnacle of everything it stands, something that will stand the test of time...
And nobody mentioned Stardew Valley? I spent too long looking for it and didn't find a single mention of it. Absolute mastery of its genre, an incredible amount of dedication spent by the developer listening to the fans, and I can't imagine it not still holding up 10 years from now, or even 20 years from now.
Baldur's Gate 3 is great, I love it, but there were so many performance issues with the game even with top tier hardware, and the game was borderline unplayable for others due to these issues. I have a little bias since my save didn't sync across devices with the steam cloud and I have to start all over. Love the game, but I just can't believe Stardew Valley isn't even mentioned.
Ocarina of Time. I'm biased because of nostalgia, but I genuinely think it's the best game ever created. It took everything that was great about the SNES classic A Link To the Past, brought it into 3D as an early N64 game, and improved literally everything. The atmosphere, the gameplay, the story, the time mechanic, the music... It's not perfect, in fact these days it's trivial to break many things in it with glitches, but I think it's absolutely the best.
Ocarina of Time
There are too many to mention.
MechWarrior 2
Dragon Age: Origins
Daggerfall
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Baldur’s Gate 3
The Longest Journey
Dark Souls
Civilization 2 & 4
Alpha Centauri
The Outer Wilds
Fallout 1 & 2
Alien: Isolation
Super Mario Bros. 3
Death Stranding
Doom (1993)
Phasmophobia
Psychonauts
X-Com: UFO Defense
The Witcher 1 & 3
Disco ElysiumAge of Empires 2, despite being Microsoft owned, is easily one of the best strategy games of all time and has very clearly stood the test of time. It's over 25 years old and people kept playing it a lot even before the HD remakes. I remember reading that the folks that made the 1st game often had to choose between "actual history or hollywood history" for some details, often going for hollywood because it made for a more fun experience.
I suspect Factorio might stand the test of time as well, and it's clearly something made by someone who really understands the medium. I haven't begun my factory yet.
Factorio
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
This is what can be done when the actual developers and artists are given a chance without executive meddling and forced monetization.
Undertale
Doki Doki Literature Club
Terraria
Prumbably the Morrowind game
Mass Effect. I know some will disagree, the third game has a lot of glaring issues, and EA really fucked up the ending, but as far as a fully fleshed out story and universe with a multitude of unique and independently structured species, characters, and cultures I think it’s one of the best. The writing and possible story outcomes and decisions that vastly and permanently affect the story from the first to the third game are insane.
Neither of these are popular enough to be on the scale of LoTR, but in terms of atmosphere and detail:
Hollow Knight - my absolute favorite thing about it is each NPC has its own voiced language recorded, babbling in the background as you read the dialogue.
Subnautica (the first one) - shitting myself with each new experience is something I'll always cherish. Highly recommend just playing without looking into the gameplay or plot. Has elements of exploring, resource gathering, base building, psychological horror (not graphic, just tense scenarios), sneaking.
Mass Effect. Even though it has its flaws, it was just an epic story, built up perfectly over three games. The ending is disappointing for some, but I really liked it. I was really excited for the sequels when the first one came out.
satisfactory
Final fantasy 6 Chrono trigger Capcom vs SNK2 Soul Calibur 2 Super Mario Bros 3
These games all stand tall as giants of excellence decades after their release. Teams have already decent renowned executing at the peak of their genre with true craftsmanship and deep care into their design from mechanics to aesthetics to music to gameplay.
Has he not heard of Ocarina of Time?
The stanley parable
Dark souls 1
Books are where it's at! Lord of the Rings all the way!
Outer Wilds is this game.
It's not a trilogy, but I gotta preach the good word of Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights. If you enjoy 2D metroidvania style games it's top notch.
The game just drips in atmosphere. The environments are beautifully drawn and designed, characters and enemies are animated well and the music just wraps everything up in a nice bow. It's a melancholy game and it literally made me cry at points and I'm not the type to tear up often when playing games.
The game can be challenging at times, but I wouldn't say significantly so. I would say Hollow Knight is more challenging than this game especially with some of the end game content that that game has.
The game is worth full price, but it goes on sale pretty regularly and probably is right now with the summer sale on Steam.
There's also a sequel out now called Ender Magnolia. I haven't played it yet but I will eventually.
Expedition 33
Cold Waters if you're hankering for some hot sub on sub action.
Bloodborne
MarioCart :)
Planescape: Torment does it for me.
More lines of dialogue than all of Shakespear's works? Sign me up for that kinda RPG, lol.
Though these days some good voice actors can do a lot, looking at BG3 here, at least the voice casting.
XCOM
Surprised no-one pitched Elite:Dangerous. Certainly a labour of love to begin with, incredibly talented sound design, first space sim to VR, truly devoted to the original material... Still going pretty strong (had a few weak years) with updates (only 2 DLC-ish major updates of which were paid) a decade later...
EverQuest.
Completely different genre but the Stabley Parable checks all of these.
100 years in the future and it will be just as perfect.
The Yakuza series I guess? Granted I've only played zero, kiwami and kiwami 2, but it all seems to be completely sincere in its craziness. It doesn't appear to pretend to be anything more than it is.
Skyrim
Minecraft. Star Fox 64. Pokemon Stadium.
The ArmA series by Bohemia Interactive.
A lot of good suggestions but my first thought was Final Fantasy X.
I would have to go with the Panzer Dragoon trilogy on the Sega Saturn.
While the first title was, at its basics, a fairly simple on rails shooter it was more than the sum of its parts.
It had incredible art direction, a sweeping musical score, innovative world building and rock solid gameplay.
The second title built up on the first installment in every way to solidify it as one of the best titles of that generation.
Then came Panzer Dragoon Saga which evolved the series into a full blown JRPG that is still so unique and unlike anything else out there.
Team Andromeda's passion, dedication and innovation ensured each game was a new benchmark for Segas black box.
What I wouldn't do for a new installment by the original team.
Cities: Skylines
Suikoden
The Stick of Truth, obviously.
Semi-jokes aside, I am a bit sad that not a single person mentioned the first four Silent Hill games. The sheer influence that series had on video games as a whole, especially in the horror genre cannot be overstated. But I guess it is tricky with games because everyone has different tastes and interests. It is rare that games unite people the way lord of the rings did. Gaming is at once so broad and so niche.
Lost Odyssey. I haven't played Clair Obscur yet, so I one know how it compares, but for me Lost Odyssey is the pinnacle of turn based RPGs.
Try Yakuza
Zelda OoT, Majora's mask, BotW, TotK
Wolfenstein 3D
Drova
Puzzle Pirates, frankly. Made by people who knew what they were doing, were extremely talented, independent, although eventually tried to hook onto Sega as publisher, almost killed the game and then re-purchased the game from Sega to continue as "re-indie" devs. Still going to this day with a stable player base of a few hundred. The game itself is very clearly hand-crafted and every one of the (few) developers left their mark on it. Feels completed and polished.
Nethack, nothing comes close
Final Fantasy XI. It's been online for over 20 years and still has a devoted player base. The game's scale is so epic that many people still haven't beaten the expansions.
When it came out it was so far beyond what we had seen in an MMO before - The only competitors were UO and Everquest, but the graphics, music, complexity, and storyline were miles beyond those games.
It's a game with unimaginable depth of play that takes years to master - not like the hand-holdy easy games we get nowadays. Truly a gem the likes of which we will never see again.
Not a videogame, but I'd argue it could very well be the case for Pathfinder, D&D, WH, or any other tabletop system in which you really get invested.
I think immortal gates of pyre is shaping up to be one!
I have to ask, what spontaneously caused the internet to love the lord of the rings movies? For decades after they were made, only occasional jokes about unhinged 20 hour directors cut binges. Now? Frequent jokes about 20 hour directors cut binges, and endless sincere compliments. They’re good movies, to be sure, but the shift always seemed inorganic to me.
