Gaming

Portal 1.

Something about the ambiance mixed with the puzzles really stuck with me. I replay it almost once a year just to relive it.

Definitely Outer Wilds as well.

Hell, looking into the soundtrack changed my daily playlist to something heavily Midwest Emo.

I keep reading about Outer Wilds. I think its about time this summer.

To answer the question: Risk of Rain 1&2

And maybe the leviathans of my childhood. Ocarina of Time, Majoras Mask..

For me, that game would definitely be Disco Elysium. I've never connected with a game as much as with that one. I'm actually reticent of playing it again for fear of it not living up to the first experience; I felt like my first playthrough was perfect, even if technically speaking it wasn't.

Other than that, I also still think about Mass Effect a fair bit.

On a side note: if you liked the investigating and "detective-ing" of Outer Wilds, then you will probably also enjoy Return of the Obra Dinn, The Forgotten City, and The Case of the Golden Idol. I'd also add Disco Elysium to that list, but be aware it's a lot more text heavy.

Journey. Just the best coop experience ever.

• half life 1, finished around 25 times.
• kotor 1, finished around 20 times with different classes, genders, alignment.
• kotor 2, finished around 25 times with different classes, genders, alignments, party members.
• might and magic 7, finished around 25 times with different party classes, alignments.
• might and magic 8, finished around 25 times with different party classes, alignments.
• mass effect 1&2, finished around 3-4 times.

Who has obsession, me? No you have 🙃

Mass Effect -- particularly Mass Effect 2 -- left an impression, but The Last of Us is and will always be the game that has stuck with me the most/longest.

Easily RimWorld for me. The stories that play out over time, and how to make productivity more efficient live in my head rent free.

Horizon Zero Dawn. Need to play the second game at some point.

Vampires, The Masquerade: Bloodlines. The whole vibe of the setting, the story, the locations, and then when I finally understood what the plot was really about. Masterpiece of a game, couldnt stop thinking about it.

Hades is so good. Waiting for Hades 2. Aaaaany day now.

I never did finish Outer Wilds and still think about it a lot! I need to go start it again because it is genuinely spectacular, but I struggle with my constraint of only being able to put short-ish play sessions into it.

Playing Ocarina of Time with my son was an epic journey I treasure. It completely captured his imagination, and I was along for that ride.

Grim Fandango was, and continues to be, a dream for me.

While I'm there, Full Throttle also executed its style so well that some of its moments still serve as cultural/stylistic landmarks in my mind.

Mass Effect 2 had several moments where the atmosphere and universe totally hit the mark (Going into the Afterlife Club... come on!).

Red Dead Redemption connected me to that setting in ways movies can't reach.

Edit: I forgot to mention Firewatch! That game established a mood unlike any other game I can think of.

Undertale. The messages that game give you. Goddamn. That game also came to me at a point in my life where I needed it. The soundtrack saved me from contemplating a terrible decision. It saved my life. Wonderful game and an incredible experience.

SOMA. The ending still freaks me out until this day.

The Witcher 3 is probably the greatest video game I've ever played.

The Last of Us 1 & 2 is probably the greatest video story I've ever experienced.

These 3 games are something I think about in some capacity very often and are, in my mind, the benchmarks that every other game is held to.

Mass Effect and Dragon Age are my notable mentions.

I've mentioned this game already in a few comments recently, but I think it really deserves more attention.

Prey (2017): I've loved it since the first moment, and I still think about the story and lore very often. It's almost impossible to find a similar game (Bioshock 1 and System Shock 2 have quite some things in common with Prey, but the latter has its own unique vibe).

The final act of Disco Elysium fucked me up for a while

Last of Us part1 and part 2. Probably Ghost of Tsushima and also Shadow Tactics

The Talos Principle - for me, the puzzles hit the sweet spot of being hard enough to be on my mind all day, but never feeling like the solution was out of reach. But even more than the puzzles, the philosophical elements made me reflect on life, civilization, and personhood in a way nothing else has. It was a peaceful, tranquil experience of just me, a serene soundtrack, and thought provoking text and puzzles.

Half life Alex. I'm the only person I know IRL with a VR headset, so playing such an incredible and unique game feels like having an amazing dream that leaves you with intense euphoria , but knowing no one around you really cares as much about it as you.

Mass Effect series. Especially ME3 with the DLC's. I think it was the Citadel DLC that I enjoyed the most. The game was really emotional at times.

Outer Wilds and Omori. Both beautiful games and if I had to choose one to play through for the first time again, I couldn't.

Terraria for sure, it took maybe 30 minutes and I was hooked for days until I beat it. I still come back every few years to do it again

Horizon Zero Dawn (and sequel), Control, Mass Effect 2, Grim Fandango, Dreamfall.

In a very different way, Kerbal Space Program because it gives a good understanding of orbital mechanics.

To The Moon. Barely a game, the dialogue can be really cheesy in places. But dang, I've thought about the ending to that game probably monthly for over a decade. The sequels are an incredible continuation of the story as well.

Death Stranding. Beautiful landscapes with awesome moments like treking through a snowstorm to reach a distant prepper outpost. Waiting for rain to stop while playing the harmonica for bb. Definitly could have had one more zone to round it all off, or maybe expanded the final boss area zone to full size.

Mass Effect trilogy gave me the harshest gaming hangover in my life back when I finished all of them back to back like 10 years ago

There's also Ichiban Kasuga living rent free in my head, yesterday's trailer made it worse

Half Life 2. Specifically, the crossbow that shot rebar. That thing was AWESOME.

A few that come to mind:

• Gris - such a beautiful game. I was going through something when I played it and I just felt such a connection.
• Undertale - just an all around incredible game. I'm a big fan of Earthbound and this scratched a similar itch.
• Beneath a Steel Sky - I love point and click adventures and this one will love forever rent free in my head. (bonus: it's free on GoG)

Celeste, even made me cry a bit towards the end, first from it being sad but then happy at the very end.

Final fantasy VII and Kingdom Hearts games also are always stuck in my head even to this day

For me it’s Return of the Obra Dinn. I was blown away by how well this game is done. I blew through it in like 2 days. The way the story plays out is so cool. Afterward I hassled my wife to play it because she loves that murder mystery stuff but she bought it and still hasn’t played it lol.

Anyway highly recommend if you’re into puzzle games.

Neverwinter nights and it's expansion packs still sticks with me

Life is Strange Might have just been I played it at a point in my life that I could really relate to it but characters have stuck with me since playing it. Looking back, it could have been so much more then it was in terms of choices and such. But I still think overall it was great

Kenshi. Kenshi is the single most unique game I have ever played I think. There is no campaign, you are just sent into one of the largest maps ive heard of in a video game with the goal of "survive". So many ways to play, I've had so many different adventures in that game, with stories that I crafted that have stuck with me for years. I am still heartbroken I lost my saves from 2019 :(

Second choice is prototype. I dunno why but I just adore the shapeshifting combat, and edgy early 2000s aesthetic. Alex Mercer is one of my all time favorite supervillian/hero characters, he's just cool, man.

So many people mentioning Outer Wilds, think I will have to revisit that. There are a lot of honorable mentions like HL2, SOMA and Ocarina of Time. But for me, the outstanding mention would have to be the original Elite on the Sinclair Spectrum. For such an early, technically simple game it had so much depth and gameplay, and challenge (took me weeks to master that damn docking procedure without crashing!).

Basically all Blizzard games between '95 and '04 (So Warcraft 2 up until World of Warcraft). I just loved them all. Great gameplay and awesome music. The soundtracks for the games of that era are just permanently recorded in my brain and they'll randomly start playing in my mind very often.

Diablo 1 was my first ARPG and I remember playing it online and not knowing what the hell people were talking about because I wasn't familiar with the lingo yet. I loved playing online with the overpowered duped items like the Godly Plate of the Whale and the Arch-Angel's Staff of Apocalypse. It was great.

Diablo 2 was even better than the first one. My favorite ARPG of all-time and in my opinion still the best one ever made. I've spent hundreds of hours on this game online and I still wish I could relive those days. One of the greatest games ever.

Warcraft 2 was also one of my favorite games, the soundtrack was especially great. I know every note of every piece of music in that game by heart. Sometimes a random piece of Warcraft 2 music will just pop in my head and start playing on repeat for hours on end.

World of Warcraft was the first MMORPG I got addicted to. I played others before, but WoW just had me hooked. I've played this game religiously up until the end of WotLK when the game lost its magic for me. I've played all the expansions that came after that but not much, usually just one or two characters to max level and then I get bored with it.

Deus Ex and Morrowind are always installed in my computer.

Bioshock Infinite. Love the aesthetics and world building in this game.

Spec Ops: The Line I thought it was just another military 3rd-person shooter. Boy was I wrong. That thing hit me hard!

Also Oni by bungie. I like the style and I remember that the climax was somewhat emotional for very jung me.

This war of mine I cannot play this game for long and I absolutely love it for that.

There are others too but the common thing is that they were emotional for me. Sure I remember great visuals or gameplay but at the end of the day the games that make me feel stuff stay with me.

Shadow of the Colossus. The entire vibe of the world just got to me.

Started thinking about it and turns out I have a few:

• Thomas Was Alone for the overall vibe, music and writing
• Celeste for the the story and gameplay
• Hollow Knight for the world, music and mechanics
• Metroid Prime for being generally incredible
• Overwatch for being my intro to online games and the friends I made playing it
• Halo 3 because a mate of mine and I played it so damn much