Games

pronably rock band 3 i played it non stop until rock band 4 came out

and then theres skyrim which i cannot stop replaying every year

Based on play and replay, it seems to be either Payday 2 or Borderlands 2.

Payday2, especially if you have tons of builds and DLC, is a fantastic brain-off mob shooter where you can slightly improve/perfect your build and gameplay with each run. For some reason it just works for me.

Borderlands 2: fun guns; solid story; visuals and mechanics that mostly hold up today. It's just a good time and another skill-tree builder game where you get to feel like a god if you've assembled your skill tree right. The NG+ modes are a bit of a slog, but playthrough 1 is just a solid time.

Gunz: The Duel was my first competitive online game and it'll always have a soft spot in my heart.

Pathologic 2!

It's a rich world & narrative that throws you in the midst of an incredibly stressful seemingly impossible scenario and asks you to try your best. I love how the intense survival mechanics caused me to compromise my morals, starting the game trying not to kill anyone and then playing day 8 seeking out people to kill & steal stuff from. The mind map is also one of the most genius "quest logs" I've ever seen, giving you a feel for your characters emotions and providing hints on what to do next. The fact that anyone can die of disease & end quest lines makes it that much more important that you do your best to save them.

La-Mulana would have to be one of my top picks. With the catchy music, the "fuck you" difficulty, and the classic adventure theme really makes it stand out in my mind.

do you like sportsball, but think it needs level ups, perks, and gear? no? Me neither. I absolutely loved Pyre though. When a game dev takes a risk on a weird mashup like 3v3 basketball + Fantasy RPGs + visual novels, it's an easy way to score points with me. What really cemented this as my favorite was the characters and the emergent interactions that develop as part of your decisions during the Rites. No spoilers, but the game asks you to make hard decisions at every turn of the wheel, and that particular kind of tension and release is very unique in my experience. It's one of the few games I've 100%'d to see every permutation of events.

When it comes to nostalgia, my favourite game is a 90’s German demo of the DOS version of the original Command & Conquer.

„Jawohl, Sir!”; „Bestätigt!”.

The soldiers were still robots there, too, because of German law forbidding a realistic depiction of war.

The best game I’ve ever played is without a doubt Red Dead Redemption 2. I’ve never cried over a game, and with RDR2 I cried nearing the finale myself, then I cried again when I watched it being played in a let’s play series on YouTube. RDR2 is a masterpiece, plain and simple.

I’ve also never loved a fake horse as much as I’ve loved my RDR2 fake horse. Hell, I felt more attached to my horse in RDR2 than I’ve felt to 99% of characters in other games.

I play and enjoy most genres at this point, but my favorite has to be Skullgirls. There are 18 characters and so many ways to combine them that you can still come up with new strategies in this game over a decade after its release.

Halo 3 custom games with full party was the golden era for me. All my other favourites are all RPG like baldur's gate, red dead, mass effect ect...

I mean Skyrim is kinda cool. In similar vain I really really enjoyed Kingdom Come Deliverance 1, waiting for KCD2 to get all its DLCs before I jump into it. Grand Theft Auto San Andreas was also pretty good considering its age. I found Control to have a very addictive and unique gameplay. Special mention to The Last of Us part 1 and 2, as they had really seamless integration of gameplay, narrative and atmosphere.

I think Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was amazing. The only gripe I have is that the Switch just can't handle it very well.

It's hard to answer this because if you'd asked me 5 years ago my answer would be different (not just because TotK hadn't released) because my tastes change.

I call it a tie between The Last of Us and Uncharted 2. These are two of the most fun games I've ever played for totally different reasons.

Uncharted 2 was a lot of a great adventure, and loads of fun with great characters, while The Last of Us games were extremely emotional and I was totally invested in the characters and story.

I like many types of games. My favorites are probably Skyrim, Fallout New Vegas, Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, Super Metroid, and Super Mario World.

All time faves, it's a toss up between Fallout: New Vegas and RDR2.

Those two are the ones I still enjoy restarting new games in, and still enjoy playing, despite the cumulative hours logged over the years.

Very special mention to Skyrim though, obviously. I think I've logged more hours in Skyrim than the two above, potentially combined, but because I played that so much, I no longer have the desire to play it again whereas when I'm stressed at work, I often find myself daydreaming about riding my good boah through fields of lush grass and fishing in my lil boat.

And I would never have developed the love of gaming I have today if it wasn't for Oblivion, of all games - so for nostalgia, that gets a mention too.

What about more older games?

Rollercoaster Tycoon series - played it a ton. Playing it right now with the OpenRCT2 version online with a friend. Its fun!

Max Payne? This was something special.

Pro Evolution Soccer - the old ones (4/5/6)

Shenmue II

A revenge story set in 1980s Japan. Shenmue was excellent but Shenmue II is just another level in every way. For me it is the perfect combination of story, open world (which I don't normally like nowadays) and fighting game. It's quite a mixture of different genres but it works so well.

I'm with you that my favorite changes with my mood but probably final fantasy tactics. Story is great, graphics have aged like wine, great variation in play styles, the death cries of my enemies will always play like music to me.