• Diablo II
• Chrono Trigger
• Halo 3

I don't get to play games much nowadays but I was a rank 50 lone wolf back in the day. Good times.

I'll cheat because picking just 3 is impossible.

1. Nethack / Alundra (PS1) / Sim City 2000 / Transport Tycoon Deluxe / Prey / Doom 2016 / Elite / Dwarf Fortress / Rimworld / International Karate / Paradroid

2. System Shock / Ultima 3-8 / Alpha Centauri / GTA5 / Titanfall 2 / Control / Eye of the Beholder / Sensible Soccer / Star Control 2 / Total Annihilation / Impossible Mission

3. Undertale / Bioshock Infinite / S.O.M.A. / Nemesis the Warlock (entirely because of the title song) / Pirates! / Stardew Valley / Revenge of the Mutant Camels

Fallout 2/New Vegas

Terraria

Pillars of Eternity 1-2

But please ask me in a hour and probably will give you 3 new favs.

Forever stuck in mid to late 90s JRPGs, if I had to pick 3

Final Fantasy VI Final Fantasy Tactics Suikoden II

1. Super Mario RPG. I played through this game so many times as a kid.
2. Dust: An Elysian Tail
3. Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor

• 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).

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

1. Puyo Puyo 20th Anniversary - Puyo Puyo is the greatest competitive puzzle game ever made, and 20th is a massive package of incredible extras to go with it. I made a video just showing off how many cool things are in this game, and got so carried away that it ended up being an hour long. To this day, I continue to have a chip on my shoulder about how everything else Sega has done since doesn't come anywhere close to this game, and so the west has never gotten to see the best of what the series has to offer.

2. Skullgirls - Best damn fighting game of all time. Fast, explosive, with tons of options for flexible teambuilding. It wears its old-school influences on its sleeve, in an era where too many modern fighting games feel watered down. At the same time though, Skullgirls was also so far ahead of its time for having functional online, a training mode more robust than any other game at the time, and tons of excellent QoL features.

3. Slay the Spire - Spire has ruined all other roguelikes for me. What I love about Spire is that it does not let you get away with just looking for one powerful synergy that will carry you, many enemies are designed to hard counter one-trick decks. You're forced to adapt and actively consider what threats are coming up and what you need to deal with those threats, recognizing the difference between the cards you want and the cards you truly need.

1. Jump Ultimate Stars, this is the dream game for any Otaku, the fact that we can still play it in 2025 thanks to custom servers is a blessing.

2. God Of War 2018, I was having a bad streak gaming related due to personal and work life, but when this game was released I got it immediately, something that I rarely do (patient gamer gang), anyway, this game kept me awake late nights, I know this is not something that one should brag about, but I was enjoying it completely thus the nights felt that happened too quickly.

3. Toy Story 2, this game will never age for me, I honestly don't know if it should deserve this spot, but if there is a game that I have replayed the most in my life, this would be it, the platform mechanics and graphics are top notch for me (and hey, PS1 graphics are making a comeback, so no shame at all with that style).

Maybe another game deserves that last spot, but those 3 games were the 1st ones that came to my mind.

Honorable mentions:

Mario Kart DS

Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Trilogy

Hotel Dusk & The Last Window (can you guess my favorite console by this point?)

Pokémon Soul Silver

TWEWY

Time Hollow

All the other God of War games (even Ascension)

Batman Arkham saga (even Origins)

The Witcher 3

Xenoblade

And a bunch others that would make this list absurdly big, which is not the main point of this post.

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.

Factorio, Anno 1602, Civ 3

Easy choices for me, but I don’t know how to order them.

Anno 1800 gets an honourable mention for feeling like a great spiritual successor to 1602, but I have a ton of nostalgia for the first game.

Disco Elysium sits completely unchallenged at the top spot as the most meaningful experience I've had playing a video game. I resonated deeply with its themes and its main character as someone who has struggled with depression, addiction, obsession and trouble moving on. It's an astonishing achievement in both writing and in the use of a game as a storytelling medium, an one of the best ever examples of "video games as art".

The rest of the list is almost impossible to order, because there are so many different ways to rank them. Games I've played that I think are the objectively best? Games I would like to just sit down and play right now the most? Games that made the biggest impression on me as a person, especially growing up?

Regardless, it's probably any two out of:

• Dark Souls 1
• Baldur's Gate 2
• Civilization 5
• Final Fantasy VI
• Need For Speed: Most Wanted (2005)
• Bioshock 1
• STALKER SoC/CoP/Anomaly
• Alan Wake 2
• Fallout: New Vegas
• Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines
• EVE Online (up until 2015-16 or so)

Will probably add Expedition 33 to it in the future, but need the dust to settle on it first. EDIT: Hell, Blue Prince has a good shot at making the list too.

EDIT 2: Somehow forgot Dishonored 1&2 and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. It really is impossible to list just three!

Morrowind
Final Fantasy X
The Last of Us

The first two are interchangeable first and second.

Next two are Final Fantasy VIII and inFamous 2, again interchangeable.

Squarez Deluxe

Tormentor❌Punisher

Ultima 6

Couch coop: Ssx tricky Original Halo

Solo: Roller coaster tycoon Skyrim Rdr (zombies)

Competitive: Sc2

Mmo: Wow

But I'm older. So that's a factor. Haven't gamed in years.

In no particular order:

• Megaman X
• UNDERTALE
• Call of Duty 4 (campaign, never played MP)

I just really like those three games. They're all fun in their own ways and in the case of Undertale it shaped a huge part of my 20's because it was through playing it that I learned to love humanity even with its bumps and scrapes. It kept me from turning into a full on misanthrope.

Honorable mentions go to GTA Online (I have almost 6000 hours in that game total, it's my favorite pastime), Call of Duty Black Ops 2 (multiplayer), and Titanfall 2.

BOTW

Fallout: New Vegas

Skyrim

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.

Master of Orion 2
Lords of the Realm 2
Caesar 3

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.

1. Super Metroid
2. Fallout: New Vegas
3. Factorio

Assassin's Creed: Black Flag and Rogue. Skyrim. Dishonored. Bioshock. NFS MW (2012). The Pentiment. These are in no particular order.

Duskers, Homeworld & Earth-2150

Today:

• Super mario world
• Shadowrun Dragonfall
• Mechwarrior 4 mercenaries

Outer Wilds

Mario Galaxy 2

UFO Enemy Unknown