Arma 3 Sonic 3 and Knuckles Resident Evil 4 Dark Souls 2 Metal Gear Solid 1

Lucky for me, I already had to make a top 25 when topsters lists went around earlier this year.

I can hardly believe it, but trimming this down to 5 now seems to be just as hard as building it up to 25 back then... uh, you pick 5?

For me, it’s the following:

• The Sims 2
• Fallout New Vegas
• A Short Hike
• GTA San Andreas
• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations

Honourable mentions include Skyrim, Undertale, Assassin’s Creed II, Breath of the Wild, and Pokémon Emerald.

• Wizball on the C64. I cannot even begin to explain how much fun I had with that game.
• Wing Commander III on the Amiga. Ginger Lynn Allen in all her pixellated glory? AND Tim Curry? What more can you ask?
• Ratchet & Clank (all of them) on the PS2. Shout-out for Jak & Daxter though.
• Silent Hill III on the PS2. Not necessarily the best SH game, but the first one I played, and that amusement park was the first time I was ever genuinely scared by a video game.
• Half Life 2 on PC. I mean, nuff said.

I love loads of games, old and new - I feel really bad that Uncharted, MGS, Alan Wake, Control, Death Stranding, and a load of other brilliant games aren't on that list, but I feel like those 5 are the ones that were most epoch-defining for me for the kind of games I love.

1. Dance Dance Revolution 8th Mix - Extreme

2. Deus Ex HR

3. Fallout NV

4. Fallout 4

5. Deus Ex

(6. Deus Ex MD)

Half-life 2

Full Throttle

Day of the Tentacle

Broforce

Assassin's Creed 2

Chrono Trigger

Outer Wilds

Subnautica

Deus Ex

Ocarina of Time

1. Dark Souls
2. BioShock
3. The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim
4. Metal Gear Solid 4
5. Disco Elysium

Binding of Isaac

Minecraft

Civilization (series as a whole)

Grandia II (my FF7)

Super Mario Sunshine

• Half-Life 2 and Half-Life + Portal
• Earthbound and Mother 3
• Mario Kart 7 (+ 8 and World)
• Daxter
• Fable on the OG Xbox

• Galaxian (5200, 1982)
• The Dungeons of Moria (DOS, 1983)
• The Legend of Zelda (NES, 1987)
• King's Quest IV (DOS, 1988)
• Microsoft Solitaire (Win 3, 1990)

Honorable mentions:

• Centipede (1981)
• Shinobi (1987)
• Doom (1993)
• Day of the Tentacle (1993)
• Myst (1993)
• Tie Fighter (1994)
• Minecraft (2011)

1. GTA VI
2. GTA V
3. GTA IV
4. GTA San Andreas
5. GTA Vice City

resident evil 4

portal

Metroid prime

metal gear solid

god of war (ps2)

Pokemon crystal

1. The Lord of the rings online
2. Guild Wars 2
3. Valheim
4. Civilization 5
5. Ascendency

Mass Effect 2, Baldur's Gate 3, Starcraft: Brood War, Witcher 3, Natural Selection 2

Dwarf fortress

Valhiem

Factorio

Starsector

Half life 1+2

I don't have the mental capacity right now to put together a list, but one that I haven't seen listed that would definitely be in my top 5 would be Star Control 2.

The game has a lot of "really good...for its time" to it but it's still one of my favorites.

Slightly different take, these are games that for one reason or another were pivotal moments in my life.

Final Fantasy / Final Fantasy II (IV) - NES & SNES

The OG X-Com - PC

Asherons Call - PC

Morrowind/Oblivion/Skyrim - PC

Guild Wars 2 - PC

The order would probably change each time I need to think of this:

• Stalker GAMMA
• System Shock 2
• Prey (2016)
• Call of Duty : Modern Warfare 2 (2009)
• Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Other ones up there:

• Final Fantasy X
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
• Balatro
• Resident Evil 2 (1998)
• The shareware version of Commander Keen on my grandfather's PC when I was a child

Organized chronologically and with the system that I played them on listed:

• Dragon Warrior IV (NES, 1990)
• Final Fantasy Tactics (PS1, 1997)
• Portal (PC, 2007)
• Sid Meier's Civilization 6 (PC, 2016)
• Marvel's Spider-Man (PS4, 2018)

honorable mentions:

• Mega Man X (SNES, 1993)
• Final Fantasy VII (PX1, 1997)
• Rock Band (X360, 2007)
• Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor (NDS, 2009)
• Enter the Gungeon (PC, 2016)
• Hades 1 (Switch, 2020) & Hades 2 (PC, 2025)

1. Dishonored (Even more specifically the knife of dunwall dlc)
2. Mass effect trilogy
3. Signalis
4. Star Wars Republic Commando
5. Half life 2

Making this list was hard I went by games I'm mostly likely complete for the millionth time

I guess I'd point to some of the most formative games for me.

• Half-Life 2
• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
• Trails in the Sky (FC+SC basically one game)
• Final Fantasy XIV
• Elite Beat Agents

It's funny that most of those are Japanese games, but I still think of Source and all of Valve's work as being so key to me. I worked a lot with machinima tools, which were far more available in moddable games than anything Japanese.

• Portal 1 and 2
• Life is Strange
• RDR2
• Mecca Chameleon
• Mad Max

In no particular order, here's some games I absolutely adore, some of which absolutely have deep flaws.

Undertale

Gotcha Force

Dragon's Dogma

Kenshi

F-Zero GX

I feel like I'm deeply undercutting some loves, especially story driven games (such as the popular in this thread disco elysium) because I simply haven't poured dozens of hours of them individually and they don't spring to mind as easily. Devil May Cry 5, World War Z, Death Road to Canada, Mass Effect (yes, one), there are so many greats, and I want to enjoy them all. But when I think facorites, I end up thinking of games that let me go fast and explore a cool world

Romancing SaGa: minstrels song

Super Mario World

Civilization ii

Lords of Magic

Left 4 Dead

• Witcher 3
• Koudelka
• Parasite Eve
• WoW
• KOTOR

Chrono trigger FF7 Red dead 2 Rocket league GTA 5

1. Rocket League
2. Beat Saber
3. Minecraft (including mods)
4. Satisfactory
5. Mafia 1 and 2

• Marvel's Spider-Man
• Ghost of Tsushima
• Uncharted 4
• Samurai Warriors: Spirit of Sanada
• Hi-Fi Rush

Bloodborne

Portal 2

Age of Empires 2

Overcooked 2

Pokemon FireRed & LeafGreen

1. Control
2. Metal Gear Solid
3. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
4. Alan Wake 2
5. Red Dead Redemption 2