Elden Ring, Dwarf Fortress, and Disco Elysium.

Really hard to narrow it down, but I think this would be it:

1. Elden Ring. Before the DLC this would’ve been a toss up for where on the list to put it, but SotE made me confidently place it as my favourite game of all time. I’ll avoid any other Souls games in this list for the sake of diversity but Dark Souls 1 & 3 and Sekiro were all in contention for first place before the DLC. They’d make up spots 2-4 on my list, but I’ll omit them for this one. Elden Ring renewed my love of video games, at a time where I was getting a bit burnt out from playing them. When the DLC came out I played it day one, which I never do for anything, and it completely blew me away, even more so than the base game. The world design of SotE is incredible, the views are breathtaking, and the bosses are the best in the whole series. I cannot fully express just how much I love this game when you take into account the DLC. I’m not sure anything will ever take its place on the throne, but then again I would’ve said the same of Skyrim before I played any Souls games, so only time will tell.
2. Skyrim. Probably a boring or predictable choice, but with over 5k hours it’s kinda hard to not include it. I’d probably add Oblivion immediately after this one, but again, I want to make the list interesting so I’ll avoid it here. Skyrim also helped me through the darkest point in my life, so I’ll always hold the game close to my heart, even if new games come along to displace it on my list. I’ve spent so much time modding this game, and it’s one of the things that first brought me and my wife together when we started dating. It might not be my top spot anymore, but it definitely had the biggest impact on my life.
3. Hitman: World of Assassination. This spot was hard to fill honestly. When I think of my favourite games, I usually just think of the Souls series and Skyrim/Oblivion. There’s lots more games I love, but the top spots are all well above the rest. It’s kind of like movies. I have four movies I absolutely adore, and they’re on the highest pedestal. There’s lots more movies I love too, but they don’t compare. Ask me for my top four, that’s an easy answer. Top five? Near impossible. Same deal here, so I just went with playtime and Hitman is my highest remaining game at around 1500 ish hours. It feels weird to call it my third favourite game ever (or I guess seventh because of the other games I’m omitting from this list but you get the point), but so does any other game I considered for here, so I’ll include some honourable mentions below. But back to this game, I feel Hitman is the perfect game for what it is. It can be serious for sure, you’re a hitman taking on contracts, but it can also be completely ridiculous too. One minute you’re tinkering with a race car to make it violently explode on the track to kill your target without anyone suspecting foul play, the next minute you’re dressed as a flamingo exiting the mission by literally flapping your wings and flying from a helipad. 47’s permanent seriousness in the most ludicrous scenarios is peak comedy honestly. Going to a high society Parisian fashion show dressed as a children’s clown and punching out the CEO is a totally normal thing you can do in this game, it’s amazing. And if you don’t like that vibe, you can be a total badass and do a full blown shootout, or a stealthy assassin and eliminate your targets from the shadows with none the wiser. It’s the ultimate hitman/assassin sandbox game.

Honourable mentions: Portal 1 & 2, Pokémon SoulSilver, Hollow Knight, Dishonored, Red Dead Redemption 1 & 2, Batman Arkham Asylum and City, Inside, Gunpoint, any Forza game before the most recent one (haven’t played it), all the Bungie Halo games, and many more. I just love video games I think.

Control, the horizon games and stardew valley.

Factorio Minecraft And 3rd is split between rimworld and baldur's gate 3

Betrayal at Krondor. A huge world for exploring, at a time when that didn't exist.

Chrono Trigger. The replay value is so high.

Wolf 3D or Doom or Doom 2 or Quake 3, for similar reasons.

StarCraft, at a time when BattleNet was small and the ladder rankings and fights were all global.

Ragnarok Online in the early 00s is the only reason I’m alive to post this comment

Diablo II for sure, what an amazing technical achievement in the year 1999

Theeeen probably Earthbound.

1. Jagged Alliance 2
2. Unreal Tournament
3. Fistful of Frags

Only 3 choices makes it a tough one since there are many exceptional games...

If I had to erase every experience of all games, the ones I'd keep are (in no particular order): Cyberpunk 2077 Fallout: New Vegas Sunset Overdrive

Doom Crosscode Cave Story

The Last Of Us part 1 and 2 and the Witcher 3

Riven, Shadow of the Colossus, and Guilty Gear Strive.

(in no particular order)

Really hard to have any real favorite. But the games I've played the most in my life:

Super Mario Bros (NES)

Diablo Franchise

Destiny 2

Grammar. ~~You're~~ -> Your*

Minecraft Borderlands 2 Bioshock

honourable mention for Zelda on N64

but the top 3 are based on replayability and just how easy it is to spend time playing them

• STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl
• EuroTruck Simulator 2
• Battlefield 2

Honorable mentions: EvE Online, Mount and Blade Warband, XCOM Enemy Unknown, Helldivers 2, Disco Elysium, Mini Metro, Tactical Breach Wizards

1. Mafia 1 from 2002, that game really shaped my taste in games when I was a kid
2. Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. Essentially a perfect video game from start to finish IMO.
3. Alan Wake 1 or 2, genuinely hard to pick one.

Street Fighter II for getting me into fighting games. While I don't play that version anymore it is a favorite because of how much I did play it and later fighting games.

Valheim - hundreds of hours of enjoyment from the first moment I was dropped into the world by a giant crow. So much fun time with friends, building stuff, and just exploring. Such a well done game with fantastic lighting, sound, and things to do. Only long tine gripe is fighting on slopes!

Helldivers 2 - yeah, another more recent game but it is also just the exact thing I am looking for in a mutiplayer game with friends. Nearly everything is viable in most difficulties, the game has mechanics for accidental team kills, the setting evolves, but in a way that encourages participation in scheduled events without forcing it, and the devs have listened when the player base pushes back on changes that don't mesh with the tone of the game.

Enjoyed a lot of other games too, but those are ones that hit specific things that I love and enjoyable to replay over and over and over and over...

It's hard to tell because I have played a lot of games but that comes to mind immediately right now. I would say:

1. Red Dead Redemption 2.
2. Garry's Mod.
3. Titanfall 2.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is a game that I absolutely fell in love with and it's one that I regularly go back to just lose myself in and still find new things in it. Arthur Morgan might just be my favorite protagonist of anything ever. It's still one of the best looking games ever made. The game looks like a painting. And you know they did something truly special when they managed to make my ADHD ass enjoy just walking in a game without running.

Gary's Mod is an odd pick for me because I almost thought about leaving it out because I cannot like don't see it as a game. I have thousands of hours on it and most of my time has been spent exploring empty maps. It's more of a tool of relaxation for me than anything else but it's deeply meaningful to me. If I had to summarize it, I would say that the Source engine is my home.

Titanfall 2 is simply the best FPS I've ever played. Both multiplayer and solo. It's amazing. I have spent weekends just playing the main campaign on max difficulty on loop without ever getting bored and the multiplayer was fucking fantastic.

Dragon quest monsters Final fantasy tactics Terraria

All legendary

• Gothic 2, and by extension, Chronicles of Myrtana
• The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
• Both are equally as monumental, so it’s shared between Obra Dinn, and Outer Wilds

That being said, i’ve excluded any mmos out of this list, purely because sometimes i struggle to call them my favorite games, despite having playing several thousand hours of each. Some of them have been unbelievably impactful at certain times in my life, but i’m afraid the embers are getting cold now

• Halo 2
• TLoZ:OoT
• Half Life

I can't deny that nostalgia has to do with the first two fossils in the list, though I still maintain that I like them more than their latest counterparts in their franchises.
Not Half Life though: it was ~15 years old when I first played it, no nostalgia there.

Still, between the many games I would gladly build a monument to, those are games that I can play beginning to end without getting bored, annoyed or burnt out (as long as you allow me to use the Ship Of Harkinian randomizer for Z:OoT, otherwise replace that game with Perfect Dark ig).

Metal Gear Solid 3, Subnautica, Papers Please.

I love the Metal Gear series but the Cold War setting of 3 works so well with the theme of the game. It also features crab battles and the ladder boss.

Subnautica really captures the feeling of being lost in some alien world and slowly making it your new home. The electronic voice assistant manages to send chills up your spine with lines like "oxygen."

Papers, Please explores complex moral decisions in such a simple way. I wish to live my life more like Jorji.

Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal, Kingdom Hearts 2, Jak 3

3 is really tough, but I'll say:

1. Hollow Knight
2. Noita
3. Super Metroid

Other GOATs of mine are already mentioned by others. Y'all have impeccable taste

Master of Orion 2
Lords of the Realm 2
Caesar 3

• Link to the Past
• Super Mario Bros 3
• GTA 4

I took into account the impact at the time of release as well as the timelessness of the games.

• Starcraft II
• Mount & Blade: Warband
• Heroes of Might & Magic III

Honorable mentions

• Anno 1404
• Far Cry 2
• Witcher 3
• Tropico 4
• Factorio