Yeah pacman and pong were seminal but so was elite on the BBC, and Populous which I think was on the spectrum. Also unreal tournament, silent hill, vice city, homeworld, doom 2016, beam ng, I enjoyed em all but I can’t decide. Ppl here have done much more gaming than me, I’m wondering what you all think is the best game ever. Age, platform, genre, bla bla - what’s best ever?
Either Witcher 3 or Baldurs Gate 3.
Been gaming since 1984 or some such.
By number of hours played: Factorio
By number of hours I can monologue about a game at you: also Factorio
By how much I think it affected gaming industry and culture: Doom
Most awe inspiring: Morrowind
Most depth of interest: Final Fantasy X
Most emotional impact: The Last of Us
Bad Rats.
On a more serious note, my personal best of all time would be SimCity 3000.
Soma, TF2, Fallout 2, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, Deus Ex, StarCraft: Brood War, Civ 5 would all be in the top 10 (in no particular order).
If I go with unique experiences as a criteria just to mix it up a bit I have a few
Playing xwing with a f16 flight stick is really fun and one of my first gaming experiences outside of nes and arcades. Just really fun fast paced fighter combat. A close second would be everspace or Chorus on a controller.
Playing one of the big multiplayer arcade cabinets like Simpsons or X-Men was the original couch co-op with whoever was at the arcade not playing pinball or pool.
Beating your first boss in a dark souls or elden ring game feels like a big accomplishment, sometimes even more than the later ones when your character gets more powerful.
Going from small groups with friends to raids in an MMORPG feels like starting a whole new game, EverQuest and wow were big ones for me.
Edit: fix typo, add type to flight stick
Playing one of the big multiplayer arcade cabinets like Simpsons or X-Men was the original couch co-op with whoever was at the arcade not playing pinball or pool.
I bought the 4-Player co-op X-Men arcade cabinet from Arcade1up and it’s been a blast playing it all the way through with my son.
That sounds like an awesome experience, I have a friend with a mame cab in their basement that I would probably spend too much time on it if I had one. I went with the cheaper option for mame and arcade legacy using a raspberry pi running batocera, but for some games it’s just not the same without the arcade controls.
I don’t think I have any favorites, there are too many great games to determine the best game, well… VA-11 Hall-A. It’s one of the few games that really touched me and affected my emotions deeply. Also, I love this game ost, one of the best game soundtracks ever, imo.
For me it’s tied between Dark Souls (2011) and Universal Paperclips (2017)
The answer to that question depends on your tastes, your current situation (amount of free time, mood, etc…) and many more. There’s no such thing as the “best” when it comes to a subjective piece of media.
I can’t even decide on my favourite game, because what I like and what I want to play depends on the aforementioned factors. I may be interested in a strong narrative today, on puzzles tomorrow, and on a crazy platformer game next. Different games resonate with me differently depending on when I play them.
Games that really stayed with me are (in no particular order) Xenogears, Metal Gear Solid, CrossCode, Digimon World, Oddworld Abe’s Odyssey, Ace Combat 4-6, The Talos Principle, Ori and the Blind Forest, Threads of Fate, and I also spent a crazy amount of hours on Stronghold, Advance Wars: Days of Ruin and Medieval II Total War. There’s, like, at least half a dozen different genres in that list and all those games are very different from one another, but all had different qualities that resonated with me for one reason or the other.
Multiplayer: Quake.
Single Player: Half Life.
That’s easy, Bloodborne.
I’ll probably get flamed for this, but no game has kept my interest/attention or had been as important to me as Old School RuneScape.
Its been almost 6 years since I first finished dark souls 1, and I still think of its endings and themes.
The age of light and dark. Prolonging the current status quo, or give up and accept the new one. The idea that alone, the chosen undead is weak, but as you get help from others, you can get better/stronger.
Best game ever is… difficult if not impossible to qualify. I’m gonna go with Shadow of War near the top though. Nobody else will, but I really appreciate that game’s ability to keep generating new experiences for you. Perfected the arkham combat, beautiful ragdolls, endless endgame to keep experiencing new orcs.
This again? Anyway, sure… Tetris or doom for importance. Not really the best. That goes to rdr2 for being one of the best selling games of all time while also being almost universally loved by both critics and fans. Not my personal favourite game, but objectively speaking, the title should go to rdr2, I think
FFXIV, but this doesn’t mean much because it’s dependent on what genres you like.
Most historically significant? Ultima 4, Wizardry 1, Pool of Radiance, Mario 1, Metroid 1, FF4, Chrono Trigger, FF7, Mario 64, Zelda OoT, Counterstrike, Starcraft, Diablo 1, WoW, Cave Story, World of Goo, Minecraft, Skyrim, Dark Souls, Zelda BotW