What's your favorite video game of all time?

[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.

 

[Artaneius]

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

Yoshi Island is a good game. But, baby Mario's crying made me want to just throw the controller at the television just to shut him up. After awhile I had to use the Game Genie just to use the cheat to shut him up.

 

[unindexedsearchengine]

I don't have a single favorite game, rather a royal triumvirate of three games that I adore equally. Now, I'm of those disgusting heathens who dares to have the opinion that most modern games a better than most older ones, so out of the three, only one was released back when the year didn't start with a 2. Bite me.

I'll start off with said older game.
Broken Sword : Shadow of the Templars And old point'n'click adventure with beautiful, semi-hand drawn graphics, a gorgeous soundtrack, and a wonderful story. The characters are interesting, and the whole game has a special, undefinable feel to it that makes it stand out.

*the other two will make everyone hate me*

Mass Effect 3 Yes, you read that right. 3. I, personally, disliked the original ending, but only slightly, and think that the EC ending are downright great. Most other issues people had with the game, I either deem insignificant, or aren't an issue for me at all. The story was great. The soundtrack was great. The gameplay was above average. The Citadel DLC is the best piece of downloadable content for any game I've ever played.

Assassin's Creed IV : Black Flag Until now, Assassin's Creed 2 was undefeated here, for reasons I elaborated in past threads of the same nature. Since 2, the AC series has been in decline, but I continued to adore it (a stance few share on these forums). But Black Flag is absolutely marvelous. The iconic soundtrack, vastly improved gameplay, beautiful open world, and the (in my opinion) great story elevated this game about AC2. Just slightly.


Feel free to insult my opinions and tell me I'm what's wrong with the industry. you know you want to

 

[llew]

Im heavily torn between Kingdom hearts 2 and Devil May Cry 3: special edition... I love the game play in both, love the characters in both, love the music in both and love the story in both... what makes it even harder to decide is the final boss battles of both are just so atmospheric and while KH2 has a real sense of urgency DMC3 has a sort of desperation about it

 

[babinro]

Diablo 3

I've put more time into this game than any other in my life and it hasn't even been two years. It's the reason why my Steam game backlog to get pretty out of control at the moment. I'll leave the game for a couple of days and immediately want to get back into it. It's just the perfect time-sink game to enjoy while listening to music, ebooks, web series, netflix, etc. I love the combat system, the diversity in how the classes play, the skill/rune system, and more.

The game isn't perfect mind you. I'm sure I could write several pages of changes I'd love to see. However, I've been able to make that criticism with all my favorite games over the years.

Previous favorite game of all time: Rock Band (drums)
Before then: Diablo 2
Before then: Final Fantasy 6 (or 3 for SNES)
Before then:.....don't remember. Probably a NES or Commodore 64 game.

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

Max Payne 2.

Even now this game feels smooth. It's mechanically solid and stylish to boot.

 

[cojo965]

I would be divided by Assassins Creed 2 and Jurassic Park operation Genesis.
AC@ because it was this game that got me hooked on the franchise and is just all round a good game and JP because that game was my childhood, i recently started replaying it and it's as fun as i remember.

Yeah, yeah, FUCK YEAH! Another Escapist who knows of JP:OG. Internet bro-fist.

OT: Dark Souls, if the whole 1000 Gamerscore for the game tells you anything.

 

[Raikas]

Just in terms of replay value, my favourite is probably the original Civilization - I played that regularly for 15 years, so I can't see how anything else can come close.

I have come to love some story-driven games - both the TellTale Walking Dead game and ME3 (yes, really) really impressed me when it came to emotionally connecting with the content - but will I want to play them again in 10 years? I don't have an answer to that one.

 

[SteveTR]

My favorite game is Final Fantasy VI. I just love everything about it. The story, the characters, the setting, the music, and Kefka. I love the steampunk-y atmosphere. You know, I also really like Final Fantasy VII, but that's the game that kind of brought the franchise into a different direction. In my opinion, FFVI was the last game in the series to be truly fantasy.

 

[AD-Stu]

Ultima VI will always have a special place in my heart for introducing me to how great RPGs can be... but these days it's Mass Effect 1 that takes the prize on my list. In both cases it's the sheer dedication of the creators to world building that gets me (since both obviously have gameplay failings).

Special mention to Need For Speed: Most Wanted (the Black Box original, not the Criterion remake) too for still being the most fun I've ever had in a driving game.

 

[Julius Terrell]

Ninja Gaiden Series (Nes series - Still one of my FAVORITE series with kick ass music and difficulty to match. I've yet to beat ninja Gaiden 3. ._.

Lumines - I could spend 1000s of hours playing just this.
Final Fantasy VII - Simply a work of art in every aspect.
Pop'n music - This entire series is amazing!
In the groove - Just as epically amazing as ITG.
R-Type Delta and Final - Beautiful games with great soundtracks
Peggle - Can spend 1000s of hours playing this too. Just keep cranking out new levels and
power-ups.

Edit: I got to add Tetris to this list. My first love for puzzle games. I remember so fondly playing the NES and the gameboy versions. Hell, the Gameboy color version is still one of the best versions I've played to this day. The next Tetris was really interesting as well.

It's such a shame that puzzle games don't get any love anymore.