What is your ONE favorite video game of all time?

[Onionguy]

So I'm going to go right ahead and say Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. The only game I've completed four times (even Thief Gold and Thief 2 were titles I only finished twice), and I'd wager I could easily play it a dozen times more.

Imo Bloodlines is too linear and doesn't allow for enough experimentation gameplay-wise to be a good desert island game, even though it is an awesome game.

If we're using the desert island method to choose a favourite I pick doom/doom 2 if mods etc are allowed. Otherwise dark souls 1 or Arcanum.

Damn I still can't pick one.

Thing is, while it IS rather linear, I'm a sucker for plot - and atmosphere. Bloodlines' aesthetics and world just speak to me on a deeper level than any other game, for some bizarre reason (Hell, I don't even like vampires); I'd wager it has to do with how just amazing it is at immersing the player in its consistent, unified vision - even with all the cracks and warts, you still feel like there's a core philosophy that dictates everything the game shows you. That, combined with the sufficiently different "tastes" the various clans give you, makes VtMB the only story-heavy game that gives me a desire to replay it the very moment I see the credits.

But admittedly, now that I think about it, since we're going with desert island... all of this is only true if I knew I'd get to leave the island at some point. If I had no fucking idea when I'd be able to see civilization again, it'd probably be wiser to go with a game that has a much larger replay value, even if the first few playthroughs wouldn't be as enormously enjoyable (to me) as a game like Vampire. Something like Heroes of Might and Magic 3, most likely.

fully agree with bloodlines, the only other games that reached the same heights of immersion for me were thief dp and stalker soc.

 

[Zombra]

Note to KafkaBot and cursed: you can use whatever method is meaningful to you, but "desert island" was not what I had in mind in the OP. I'm just curious which game you simply love the best, without forcing restrictions or hypothetical situations.

 

[KafkaBot]

Note to KafkaBot and cursed: you can use whatever method is meaningful to you, but "desert island" was not what I had in mind in the OP. I'm just curious which game you simply love the best, without forcing restrictions or hypothetical situations.

Yep, I'm aware, but I was hopelessly stuck between Planescape: Torment and Fate/Saty Night. Since you were specifically asking for a single game, I went with the desert island approach.

Gun to my head, I'd probably say Planescape, but solely because we're on the Codex. If this was, say, a weeb-centric forum, I'd probably say Fate/Stay Night instead

 

[kangaxx]

OG Deus Ex.

 

[MurkrLurkr]

For me, the "scenario" (if there must be one) is closer to: you slip on a banana peel and break your neck with catastrophic force. A brief instant away from death, the brain floods with its last reserves of endorphins, your life flashes before your eyes and you relive one or more pivotal moments of your course on this earth, with time only to re-experience one most cherished video game. As your muscles relax and your concluding breath ebbs through your shattered trachea like the last wisp of smoke from a crushed cigarette, the beloved memory of which game flashes across your fading consciousness, granting a final taste of your greatest gaming joy before everything you are is gone forever, as if it never was?

If we go by the OP's description of our expiration (latin word expirare, to breathe out, also meant to die) date, the game that would be uttered by my dying lips, the last breath of air that I tried to articulate to answer his question would be something akin to a whisper carresing his ear, so he can feel my spirit (in ancient Hebrew ruach, word for spirit, God's breath, also meant wind) leaving behind it's box, with gentle tunes of "Nerevar rising" accompanying the process of dissipation of life to Sithis from which it was called by ALMSIVI, I would exclaim MorroWind

 

[ELEXmakesMeHard]

If I could only play 1 game for the rest of my life, I'd likely go with Neverwinter Nights. Assuming I'd have access to all modules, and all persistent worlds.

As much as I love Gothic 1-2, I've replayed them so many times I that could close my eyes and imagine full detailed playthroughs in my head. There's unfortunately a limit to how many times I'll enjoy doing the same stuff over and over, no matter how great. This... even goes for... ELEX.

With NWN I can not only revisit stories I'm a bit nostalgic about, but also enjoy new player content, and do some RP with others (or troll them) if I feel like it.

 

[baud]

going with Zombra's criteria, I'd say Link's Awakening, but I'd have a hard time articulating why

 

[SumDrunkGuy]

REmake if I had to guess.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Neverwinter Nights with modules and persistent worlds was a big part of my cRPG life at one time (in fact, I even recently bought NWN:EE for $2.00 from a key store just in case I get the itch again) but I'd have to go with Doom II + certain pwads for my bestest ever.

 

[Poseidon00]

Honestly it's probably Mortal Kombat Armageddon lol. The 3D era was taking big cues from DnD lore at the same time as I was getting into DnD as well, and I ended up running several campaigns in Outworld/Earthrealm. When I wasn't rolling dice or rolling virtual dice in NWN or Baldurs Gate, I was creating characters in MKA and translating them into 3.5 rules.

 

[Sandro Botticelli]

Heroes of Might and Magic 3. By hours played alone it would win. It's one of those games that no matter how much time has passed, it's always easy to get back into. It never shows its age to me even after playing newer strategy games.

 

[Machocruz]

Deus Ex. Still finding new (to me) things 20 years later. It's the best game of cyberpunk, which is one of my top 3 genres/settings. Writing and plot are in the top 5 of all games. Music is perfectly harmonized with content. Immersion/atmosphere is top rank. Characters are as memorable as any in the medium. I grew up a consolefag, but this game changed all that. It kicked off 20 years of going back into the archives of PC gaming to catch up on the greats I missed, and PC becoming my primary platform.

I think only a New Vegas level FPRPG in the same or similar setting could ever top it.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

When I played Deus Ex the year it came out, I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die. Actually, not quite but i did let my brother get shot so I could high tail it the hell out of there. Hey, he's the one who insisted that I make my escape while he held them off and sacrificed himself. I felt bad seeing him on the slab later and perhaps wondered if i should have considered that the game might have had actual C&C. Live and learn.

 

[Zlaja]

The idea is more like ''you have one month left to live, which game will you play before you die."

Then it's better to play something really fucking awful, so that you look forward to dying.

 

[Moaning_Clock]

Hard question but likely Rayman 2: The Great Escape. Still fun after all these years. Fueled by nostalgia obviously.

 

[Zombra]

Nothing wrong with nostalgia. "Best I ever had" is expected to be seen through a rosy filter.

 

[distant]

Hard to say because obviously love different games for different reasons. If you asked me when I was younger I would have instantly said Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines. Replayed it relatively recently and still loved it so probably that.

 

[OctavianRomulus]

Doom.

 

[Abu Antar]

My brain says Championship Manager 01/02, but my heart says Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura.

I will go with my heart on this one. Yes, combat is broken, but it gave me a feeling that many other games after cannot give me. I don't often use the word immersion, because I always feel like it does not apply to me. I don't get immersed in the way other talk about some games. I am always fully aware that I am playing a game, but Arcanum is the closest game to give me that feeling.

CM 01/02 is unrivaled in how many hours I have spent with a single game. I play it to this day. Arcanum, I have been playing less and less these past few years.

 

[undecaf]

Fallout 2 (of all games...).

 

[lecrop]

Ultima V

 

[Hag]

Battlefield 1942: Desert Combat, from around 2006-2008, before DC_Final, the nerfs and all this shit.
Glorious chaos. Glorious destruction.

Few years ago there was still a DC server up, full of skilled players but with a bad camping habit (plus terrible map rotation). Elected to play on vanilla BF1942 then, where the overall level was lower but people played for fun.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

Starcnowaitguiltygeohnofallowaitarcanholdondeubutthenagain.....fuck you.

 

[Cazzeris]

XCOM UFO Defense I think was the best

 

[rohand]

A toss up between PST and TES3