What's your favorite video game of all time?

[SargeSmash]

I was getting worried there, with Chrono Trigger not showing up. It's probably my number one game... although I typically like to subdivide into genres, because just limiting it to one seems too stifling. Two of the most recent games that have really floored me are Mario Galaxy, which rekindled my sense of wonder with 3D platformers, and The Last Story, which showed me that action-RPGs can still just be pure, distilled fun like the SNES greats of yesteryear.

 

[Z of the Na'vi]

It's a tie between Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie.

Oh how the mighty have fallen. What happened to Rare?

 

[pspman45]

can't choose one
list
Fallout 3
Persona 4/Persona 4 Golden (zomg amazingness)
Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando
Star Wars Battlefront II
Red Dead Redemption

 

[Mrkillhappy]

For me that would be Metal Gear Solid 3 just because I deeply enjoyed the camo system, characters, combat, and stamina gauge.

Honorable Mentions

Half Life 2
Shadow of the Colossus
Persona 4
Earthbound
Deus Ex
The Walking Dead
Silent Hill 2
Resident Evil 4

 

[Poppy JR.]

It's a tie between Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie.

Oh how the mighty have fallen. What happened to Rare?

Microsoft happened.

 

[Artaneius]

Either has to be Ultima Online, Unreal Tournament, or Smash Bros Melee.

 

[Poppy JR.]

Either has to be Ultima Online, Unreal Tournament, or Smash Bros Melee.

I love Melee! Certainly one of my favorite Gamecube games (along with Wind Waker) [footnote]By the way, welcome to the forums![/footnote]

 

[Artaneius]

Either has to be Ultima Online, Unreal Tournament, or Smash Bros Melee.

I love Melee! Certainly one of my favorite Gamecube games (along with Wind Waker) [footnote]By the way, welcome to the forums![/footnote]

Thank you for the welcome.

 

[josemlopes]

Series "Every Game Is Solid Gold" Award: Saints Row 2-4

Missing your own point if you dont include all games, but I guess its because the first one was 360 exclusive and you didnt get to play it, right? Either way Saints Row 1 was quite good at being more then a GTA clone (at the time there still wasnt that "every game is a sandbox game" mentality that is going on now so a sandbox game was still called a GTA clone and compared as such)

OT: TimeSplitters: Future Perfect, TS2 is close but I do think that the third game ends up being more complete as it actually offers the same TS2 gameplay in addition to the more typical modern first person shooter gameplay that is set by default (imagine Goldeneye with the controls of Halo as an option). Its very cool to have the option of tweaking certain gameplay options that end up changing it alltogether for better or worse. The story was also great if even short and less replayable, the game still offered everything else that made the previous game great and more making it my choice (if only more TS1/TS2 maps and weapons were available then there would be no contestent).

 

[The White Hunter]

Wasn't that game called Out of this World in the US? Or am I thinking of another game?

As I recall that is the US name for some reason, though I couldn't tell you why.

OT: Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles
Resident Evil 4
Metal Gear Solid 3
Bad Company 2.

 

[JagermanXcell]

Persona 4 Golden. Essentially taking a near perfect game... then perfecting it in every way in the remake. Praise the Atlus.

Runner-Ups: Dark Souls. DMC3. MGS3. Fallout NV.

 

[BNguyen]

It'd be a tie between Tales of Symphonia, Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, and Super Mario Sunshine based on the number of hours I've spent on those 3

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Fallout 3! I don't care to admit how many hours I've spent on it.

 

[Skeleon]

Sacrifice. Just the right amount of RTS, RPG, action, dark and slapstick humour, bizarre and beautiful visuals, even today, strange setting, blasphemous, funny, imaginative and so on. Love it.

 

[Proverbial Jon]

Silent Hill 4 needs the day time damnit! Wait, I meant night time.

I rank 'em like I rank most games, just based on how much I enjoyed myself in them. If everything in Silent Hill 2 was as shocking, unexpected and effective as the burning staircase scene it would definitely be my favourite game of all time (the feels, man).

As it stands it'd probably go along the lines of:
3
Downpour
2
4: The Room
Shuttered Mammaries Shattered Memories and 1
Homecoming

Haven't played or seen gameplay of Origins but I've not high expectations of it.

Ahh, glad to see someone else who appreciates Downpour. In my opinion, aside from suffering from some truly lacklustre enemy designs, Downpour did an awful lot right and it's certainly the best new Silent Hill.

My personal rankings would be:

2
3
1
Downpour
4
Origins
Shattered Memories
Homecoming

I hesitate to even put Homecoming on that list; I'd rather pretend it doesn't exist.

As far as Origins goes... imagine the Silent Hill franchise as a single image. Playing Origins feels like someone tried to copy that image from memory while blindfolded: the basic shape is there but there's far too much about it that just feels wrong or just outright copied from better games.

It has a neat mechanic where you can shift between the fog world and the otherworld using mirrors (which is needed to solve puzzles) but it gives the player too much control over an element which ought never be controlled in a Silent Hill game. Plus you can carry portable TVs in your inventory that are one-use-only melee weapons. What?

 

[Evonisia]

Silent Hill 4 needs the day time damnit! Wait, I meant night time.

I rank 'em like I rank most games, just based on how much I enjoyed myself in them. If everything in Silent Hill 2 was as shocking, unexpected and effective as the burning staircase scene it would definitely be my favourite game of all time (the feels, man).

As it stands it'd probably go along the lines of:
3
Downpour
2
4: The Room
Shuttered Mammaries Shattered Memories and 1
Homecoming

Haven't played or seen gameplay of Origins but I've not high expectations of it.

Ahh, glad to see someone else who appreciates Downpour. In my opinion, aside from suffering from some truly lacklustre enemy designs, Downpour did an awful lot right and it's certainly the best new Silent Hill.

My personal rankings would be:

2
3
1
Downpour
4
Origins
Shattered Memories
Homecoming

I hesitate to even put Homecoming on that list; I'd rather pretend it doesn't exist.

As far as Origins goes... imagine the Silent Hill franchise as a single image. Playing Origins feels like someone tried to copy that image from memory while blindfolded: the basic shape is there but there's far too much about it that just feels wrong or just outright copied from better games.

It has a neat mechanic where you can shift between the fog world and the otherworld using mirrors (which is needed to solve puzzles) but it gives the player too much control over an element which ought never be controlled in a Silent Hill game. Plus you can carry portable TVs in your inventory that are one-use-only melee weapons. What?

Yeah I've heard that about Origins, I just don't have a PSP to bother, and finding a PS2 version of a not so successful game won't be easy (and I doubt it would be cheap). Ah well, it's only two innovations where either bad or poorly implemented (mirrors and weapon system, respectively). Downpour improved on that weapon system.

Downpour's otherworld sections were crap though, they were always chase sequences (like in Shattered Memories). IMO it handled it's monsters better than the originals did, and if the design was better I could imagine piddling my pants every time I played it.

 

[Rariow]

As of about five months ago, Telltale's The Walking Dead. It gets a lot of criticism, and a bunch of it is deserved, but there's been no other game that's affected me as deeply on an emotional level. The fact that on top of that it was an actual game and not a David Cage-esque Dragon's Lair type thing made it just simply phenomenal. Sure, the narrative may not branch as much as it appears to the first time around, but your choices give context to the story. Even if the overall plot doesn't change, some of these actions have long-standing consequences on how you got here, and puts the same events in different lights.

For, geez, seven or eight years prior to that it was the first Deus Ex. A real triumph of game design, everything about that game was magnificent bar the graphics and the AI. Of course, it's the level design that made it. The fact that having re-played it at least once (Usually twice) every year since I discovered it I'm still finding new ways to do things that were quite obviously intended by the designers is mind-boggling. Say all you want about sandbox games and open-world, this is the game with the most re-play value ever made. The amount of stuff packed into the Hong Kong level is just amazing.

Special mention to Katawa Shoujo (Because I have to mention that thing every so often on these forums). Had as much if not more punch as Walking Dead emotionally and not only turned me into a massive visual novel fan (I've gone through about 14 of those things in a year because of it), but is also still the single best VN I've read. The only reason it isn't up there with Deus Ex and The Walking Dead in my top 3 favourite games of all time is that I can't really bring myself to consider it a game. It's certainly a strongly game-like experience, and it both presents and is perceived by many as a game but I don't think it IS a game. I still recommend it as strongly as the two games above.

 

[Idlemessiah]

Another vote for Spyro the Dragon here. One of the first games I ever beat 100%. I try to replay it at least twice a year.

And an honorable mention goes to Medievil. My first ever hack n' slash. Has brilliant world design and really cool music. The humour though. It's the games humour that gets me every time.

 

[AceTrilby]

A difficult question to answer, since I have so many favourite games...

I'm gonna have to go with Persona 4 Golden, though, based mostly on the fact that it's the game I own the most merchandise of. Also because it's probably the best JRPG I've ever played - easily accessible and addictive to the max.

But hey, one of my top 10 games of all time is Deadly Premonition, so what do I know?

Special mention to Katawa Shoujo

Also seconded.

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

My two favorite games are Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island and Metroid Prime.
I honestly cannot choose one over the other.