Kbin: What is your all time favourite video game?
Kbin: What is your all time favourite video game?
Whether you started with a 2600 and a joystick in your hand, an N64 with a blistered palm or building your first PC in your teens, what is that one video game you've played at some point that to this day sits at the top of your list.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Stardew valley
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.
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.
Curse of Monkey Island, not even close.
I started with a super nes - super mario world will always be my game!
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.
The games that started it all for me: Mega Man 2, Earthbound
The games I've played the most: Rocket League, Starcraft
All time favorite playthroughs: Portal 2, Skyrim, Halo 3, Ghosts of Tsushima, RDR2
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.
Planescape: Torment.
It had a great story that questioned good and evil (rare for a DnD style game). The graphics were great at the time. The soundtrack was (and still is) phenominal and the characters were actual characters.
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.
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.
EarthBound
Freespace 2 (I’m old). Still one of the most compelling story’s I’ve enjoyed in a video game to date.
I started playing in 2013 when it went open beta. I've had a couple breaks from it during the last 10 years and every time I come back its like a whole new game. At this point its like 10 different games wearing a trench coat lmao.
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.
Deus Ex on PC, from the year 2000.
This game made me rethink what a game could even be. Whenever I thought of what a great game would be I'd think "It's like Deus Ex but..."
Mario Kart 64
Disco Elysium
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.
Half Life 1. That game was so ground-breaking, so atmospheric, so interesting in its puzzles and its combat that it just blew my mind and made me a forever fan.
Gotta go with Morrowind. It was a pretty formative experience during my early teenage years, and it's one of the few that I boot back up for a fresh run about once a year. Instigating the downfall of the Tribunal has become something of an autumn ritual for me. I know the world map layout of Morrowind better than I remember the layout of some of my own childhood homes.
It's a little clunky and not enjoyable for a lot of people that jumped into Elder Scrolls with Oblivion or Skyrim, but for old school fans, it's still probably the single greatest product that Bethesda has ever released. Fallout New Vegas makes a close second place on that list, but at least in my opinion, Morrowind holds the crown and given modern Bethesda's tendencies I don't expect that to change.
halo 1 the GOAT with best weapon balance in the series and solid all around design
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.
Dishonored, I absolutely adore that game, and it still looks so good because of the art direction they took with it. Funny enough, it was the same art director as Half Life 2
Duke Nukem 3D
Burnout 3: Takedown
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.
@GeekFTW Duck Hunt and Zelda A Link to the Past on SNES. Core childhood memories with family.
probably Forza horizon 5. closing in in 500 hours
best memories are from Minecraft for sure tho
I can't really name a single one that would be THE one. But the one I returned to the most over the years was the original Dragon Quest Monsters.
I had it on my Game Boy since I was in elementary school and even then played through it multiple times. Later I played through it multiple times on emulators. I just love this game so much.
It has a lot of flaws, starting with the limitations of a Game Boy game, but later games and other monster collectors never captured my heart like this one did.
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.
Tekken 3 for the sheer amount of times I beat it front to back. I had no memory card for my PS1 as a kid so I'd leave my Playstation on all weekend while I beat the game. Some days the power went out and I'd lose progress and have to beat it all over again.
Hard to choose one, but maybe I'd say Kerbal Space Program 1. It had a really profound impact on the way I understood the world, space, physics, and gave me one of the best feelings of pure exploration. It was amazing to drop into progressively lower orbits around a new planet or moon before finally landing and walking around.
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.
Gothic I&Ii
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.
System Shock 2
Many games come close for me... Mass Effect, Zelda Link to the Past,, Factorio and Homeworld would round out my top 5 for instance. But System Shock 2 was my first immersive sim game. It started a love affair with the genre that I'm still trying to scratch 25 years later.
There were many spiritual successors, with Arkane's Prey being the closest approximation I've found. Nightdive just released the original System Shock's remake a month back, so the wait for them to announce they're giving SS2 the remake treatment is torture.
Probably Life is Strange. It did a lot for me in my mid-late 20s.
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
Asteroids. I shudder to think how many quarters I spent playing that game. Sometime I’ll have to see if there is some retro arcade out there where I could go play it again.
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.
Bloodborne for playing, Drakengard 3 for the characters and music, Tactics Ogre for the story.
Super Mario 64!
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.
I’m probably weird when I say Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn. At first a failed game that became a labor of love by the people that took it over. It took multiple years and expansions for it to come to a “conclusion” and the once i finished it, I was very satisfied.
To me it’s similar to the Marvel project up until the conclusion of the Thanos arc. I’m not the biggest marvel fan or much of a Disney fan. I do really respect the courage it takes to throw that many years at a project and trust it almost all the way.
FFXIV feels like that. It has that final fantasy marriage of interesting yet somewhat complex story with a message that makes you think. Its an MMO but honestly you can enjoy it up until the conclusion of End Walker with a couple of friends and some queuing up for the story fights. You shouldn’t have to do any terribly difficult encounters to progress the story and experience the game unless you choose to. The. Every so often you run into a song and get blown away. The game does a great job of usually having each expansion have a visual and music theme and sticking with that without making it feel like repetitive copy paste job.
I almost never like replaying a game or heck rereading the same book. But this game is the one exception where if a friend finds interest, I’ll resub and level yet another job with them and totally enjoy all over again.
Definitely Dark Souls. I have played DS 1, 2, 3, Bloodborne, Elden Ring, and Sekiro. I only have completed DS 1 and 2 out of them (mostly due to time, with the exception of 3 which I just don't like).
I know the DS1 map like the back of my hand, the mechanics feel natural to me, I feel like I'm being treated fairly and have the skill to complete challenges, and it genuinely feels rewarding for me. I feel good after playing Dark Souls for a bit. Even when struggling with a boss, 95% of the time it felt like I had made a mistake which could be fixed next time.
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.
Red Dead Redemption 2 with zero hesitation; honorable mention to Skyrim.
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.
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!
Undertale still holds a special place in my heart after all these years.
It made me care about its characters in a way that no game had ever done before, and few have since. The cool and replayable story, along with a great soundtrack are other things that I like. Only criticism I really have of the game is the questionable graphics, but I've never been the type to care too much about graphics anyways.
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.
Stardew valley was a really fun game to play with my wife
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.
Super Metroid is the GOAT
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
Last of Us for story.
Original Modern Warfare 1 & 2 for all the memories I had of playing that in college.
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
THPS2 and a close one is F.E.A.R.
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.
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
Final Fantasy VII
I always end up going back to the first Half-Life; everything in that game is very well made.
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).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.
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.
Pokemon Sapphire
The Binding of Isaac.
I don't know of I could ever say a single game.
Minecraft is definitely the one I've spent most time, probably more than a couple of thousands of hours
Empire Earth is the one I go back the easiest
Is it even possible to pick just one?
Several of my favorite gaming experiences are one-time, non-repeatable. Solving the Return of the Obra Dinn is up there, but it couldn't possibly be my favorite game because I can never experience it again.
Playing Dark Souls for the first time is the same thing. Discovering the world, finding the intricacies of the interconnected map, struggling with and overcoming challenging areas and bosses. The relief of unlocking shortcuts and the amazement at the maps connectivity. It was the first game of it's type I played, and it was phenomenal, but coming back to it never matches that first playthrough. And let's be honest, the bosses feel downright mundane after having played the later releases.
Disco Elysium affected me in a way no other game has. Its themes are so relevant to me that it struck me on a very personal level and it was an incredibly cathartic experience that will stay with me forever the way any great book would. I actually found it more enjoyable the second playthrough too, however, is it really even a game?
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team DX. The originals were the games that made me realize gamrs could make me feel things, and DX is literally just them but with QoL changes.
Final Fantasy IX
I just love it. The cast, the writing, the music, not a perfect game but for me a perfect story, a perfect experience.
There’s too many to list but Zelda 2 was the first game I finished. It was a collaborative effort, using a book, but my friend Frosty and I stayed up all night (this was in junior high so this was a big deal) and finished it. Fond memories.
There’s too many to list but Zelda 2 was the first game I finished. It was a collaborative effort, using a book, but my friend Frosty and I stayed up all night (this was in junior high so this was a big deal) and finished it. Fond memories.
Lots of great games have been mentioned but wanted to include two recent masterpieces:
- Hollow Knight. It's such a fantastic ride, such a rich world, such great characters, and such a terribly sad but somehow poetic plot. Getting that game even today at full price is still a steal.
- VA-11 HALL-A: You're just a background NPC in a big cyberpunk adventure, nothing you do has anything to do with the main plot, you only get glimpses of it, and the story is essentially the mundane life of this person and not much else. Yet it's so rich and interesting and fun! And the music is awesome.
I'm pretty old so have a lot of games I feel terribly nostalgic about, but I'm going to pick a relatively recent one in Deep Rock Galactic.
It just feels like such an absolute triumph of game design in so many ways. I've always had a soft spot for Co-op PvE, and it's just done right. Having a dedicated key to rock and stone (cheer on your teammates) is an absolute genius move for promoting positivity and cutting down on toxicity. Gunplay is good and varied. The feeling of exploration is AMAZING! Probably the game that's kept me going 'wow' when I go to a new place the most consistently after hundreds of hours.
So much respect for the devs who are continuing to absolutely nail it!
Going all the way back to the NES for me, and I'm getting the feeling I'm quite a bit older than most of the commenters here: Super Mario Bros. 3 - best game of all time. :)
Fallout New Vegas
Dead by Daylight. I love it as much as I hate it.
GOAT is Dungeon Keeper. Holy siht that's a great game. Still play it to this day, despite the fact that it's close to 30 years old.
"Little Big Adventure 2", also known as "Twinsen's Odyssey" in the US, and rebranded worldwide as "Twinsen's Little Big Adventure 2" few months ago.
I've played a lot of games and it's hard to choose an all-time favorite, but Planescape: Torment is the one I still think about the most, 24 years after playing it.
Y's Book I & II on the TurboGrafx-16 system.
I really enjoyed the story and music in that game. I just played through it again a couple years ago.
Morrowind. Morrowind's world just feels alive and as someone who knows the game inside out that game just feels home
Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Skyrim
Mario RPG. It's just enjoyable, it's a video game toy you really play with. Throughout you're encouraged to just have fun and not take anything seriously. Yeah jump on whatever you want, see if you can land on that Toad running around in circles. You did it, here's a funny little animation as a reward. run up a debt at the hotel and play bellhop, get yelled at for jumping on the shop counter, officiate a wedding, do some random backtracking to see Samus sleeping, go on a world spanning scavenger hunt. All while every little attack and magic is a little minigame to play with. Dont worry about grinding, here's a power star to run through a dozen battles worth of xp in a few seconds.
Feeling daring in kbin, huh?
Tecmo Super Bowl
Enteral Darkness. Greatest game of all time!
Final Fantasy Tactics is my all time favorite game. But someone else mentioned Legend of Dragoon, and I have to say that game was just pure beauty.
Final Fantasy VI is a close second. And so is Fallout 2. I've replayed that many times.
Sim City Franchise / Cities Skylines
Guess I like building, planning, laying things out and watching things grow :)
I love Nier:Automata. The sound track, gameplay, story, all of it is just tied together so well. It impacted me so much and is definitely my favorite game. Planning on getting a tattoo based on the black box and lunar tear from the game someday
Legend of Zelda: a link to the past.
Played the previous entries on NES and those are great game, but alttp on the SNES showed how magical these games should be. The music and visuals was just great.
This is a hard question because I have so many that I love, but I'm going to go with Tales of Vesperia.
WWE Smackdown: Here Comes The Pain. Used to do 2-3 season mode playthroughs in one session, it was that addicting.
