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[pramod]

I know we all have our best games of all time lists, but when we make those lists it's usually after we have time to reflect. I'm curious what games instead gave you that gut feeling right after you beat it, that 100% without a doubt, it's the best game you ever played?

I tried to think hard about this and there's truly only a couple of gaming experiences that stuck out for me.

One was Zelda 3 LTTP on SNES. I remember being in a daze of almost disbelief of what I had experienced. It was far beyond any other game I've played and at the time I 100% believed it was the greatest game ever designed.

I think there were a few other games that came close like Dungeon Master, World of Warcraft, Streets of Rage 2, and PSO but I think Zelda still is the one that left the strongest impression on me.

 

[Mr1999]

World of Warcraft Fileplanet Beta, no game since then has given me the same feeling.

 

[ProgenitorCastle]

Definitely Resident Evil 4 and The Wonderful 101 and Devil May Cry and Sonic 3 and Knuckles and Ico and Okami and many more of my favorite games! I'm particularly selective of my favorite all time games so if they resonate with me to the point I consider it a favorite, then at some point it must have given me the feelings described in the description in the OP

 

[Cert.in.Death]

The only one that I recall being immediately in the mix was Halo: CE. Everything else in my top ten required reminiscence and multiple replays before I settled my affection for them.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[Camreezie]

Ocarina of Time was the big one for me. I also fondly look back on Arkham City

 

[Dr.Morris79]

Soma.

 

[arvfab]

Grim Fandango

Shadow of the Colossus. Which is my all time favorite game.

FFX

Uncharted 2

The Last of Us 1&2

 

[KàIRóS]

Dragon Quest XI

It brought back my love for old school Turn Based JRPGs.

 

[Dust-by-Monday]

TLOU2

 

[Y0ssarian]

Bloodborne. I wasn't even finished with it when I considered that thought

 

[Captain Toad]

My favorite game ever was The Legend of Zelda. I don't think it will ever be topped.

There have been special games that definitely stood out amongst the rest over the years - Final Fantasy II SNES (IV), Resident Evil PS1, Mario 64, Demon's Souls.

 

[Edgelord79]

Witcher 3

 

[SLB1904]

Bloodborne. I wasn't even finished with it when I considered that thought

when i open the first short cut in bloodborne, when i killed the tower knight in demons souls. the uncharted series. metal gear series i knew those were bangers as soon as i started and a few others

 

[ReBurn]

Probably Mass Effect. It was the space opera I'd always wanted in a video game.

 

[Hoddi]

Bloodborne and BotW both spring to mind in recent years. I also never played Chrono Trigger until 2020 and it's still fantastic all these years later.

I'm also glad to see someone mentioned FFX since I've just started playing that. It's my first FF game and I've been wanting to get into the series.

 

[CheeseCake]

Firewatch.

It wasn't just right after.

It still is.

It almost made me cry and no game has ever had that effect on me.

 

[Aesius]

Bloodborne. I wasn't even finished with it when I considered that thought

When I played Bloodborne I had already beaten DeS and DS 1-3. But holy shit, the run up to Rom in Bloodborne is out of this fucking world. I remember being astounded by how massive and foreboding the world felt.

I had the same feeling with DS1 up to Anor Londo. It's funny how both of From Software's best games sort of peak around halfway to 3/4ths through, and both involve hitting dead ends.

 

[Banjo64]

First time playing Mario 64. First time playing OOT. First time playing Vice City.

First time playing MK DS online. Gears of War online. Halo 3 online.

Skyrim & The Witcher 3.

Edit because I forgot Demon’s Souls on PS3. Holy fuck yeah. That slapped hard. Hard.

 

[Kagoshima_Luke]

RE4. Dark Souls. Ninja Gaiden.

 

[CatLady]

Fallout 3. When it first came out I did pretty much nothing but play it, I would even dream about it and after about 300 hours I finished the game and had done everything possible in the game I did not want it to end. I looked at the map and went square by square looking for a possible secret quest or one the random encounters.

Halo Reach - That game was so emotional and tragic, I cried more than one while playing it. I was really immersed in the story and character. As much as I love the Chief, this was MY story as it was the first time I could play as a female Spartan. I loved the game so much that when I finished it, I started a new campaign. It was also the first Halo I ever managed to complete on legendary.

Halo Infinite - It's too early to tell if I will continue to love it as much as the other 2 since I just played it, but the game is a Halo dream come true for me. I've always wanted to explore an open world Halo with rewards for doing so other than skulls and with Infinite we finally got that. The gameplay and gunplay were exceptional, the best and most enjoyable I've ever found in a game including previous Halos. Unlike some other people here I loved the story and like Reach, I liked the game so much that when I finished it, I immediately started a new game.

 

[DeepSpace5D]

Shadow of the Colossus

 

[DaleinCalgary]

M.U.L.E.

 

[Stuart360]

The ones that really stand out for me over the years are -

Elite - Amstrad CPC464
Super Mario World - Snes
Super Mario Kart - Snes
Streets of Rage 2 - Genesis
Street Fighter 2 Turbo - Snes
Ridge Racer - PS1
Halo CE - Xbox
Half life 2 - PC.
Mass Effect Trilogy - 360 and PC
Skyrim - 360 and PC

I havent really played a game since Skyrim where i have thought 'Man this is probably the best game i have ever played!'. The closest i have come to in recent times would be Assassins Creed Odyssey, and The Division 2. Neither of them were close to 'the best game ever!' territory, but both games were arguably my fave games of last gen.

 

[pramod]

Definitely Resident Evil 4 and The Wonderful 101 and Devil May Cry and Sonic 3 and Knuckles and Ico and Okami and many more of my favorite games! I'm particularly selective of my favorite all time games so if they resonate with me to the point I consider it a favorite, then at some point it must have given me the feelings described in the description in the OP

That's right, I totally forgot RE4. I think that game came very very close for me in terms of best game of all time. It was definitely the best 3D game I ever played upto that point, and I definitely felt it was the best game of that era once I put it down.

Also a special shoutout to SOR2, while I don't think it gave me "this is the best game of all time" feels, it was a game I felt I could play forever and never get tired of.

 

[MrA]

megaman 2
then
shining force 2
then shining force 3
then
metal slug
then
metroid prime
then
resident evil 4
now it would be too hard to happen again, not because I've become jaded, just to many great games going up against a history of so many great games then different things filling different niches becomes too important,

 

[GigaBowser]

Most games I play are the best games I've ever played after I smoke a bowl, and movies are the best I ever watched

 

[Miyazaki’s Slave]

Limiting myself to the last 3 years:

Ghosts of Tsushima
Yakuza: Like a Dragon

For me these two stand out!

 

[CitizenZ]

Company of Heroes
Half Life 2
MW2
STALKER
RE4
LoU
The Witness
FO NV
Recently been playing a game that I have had in my library for 8 yrs and have to say Spintires is absolute one of the few I feel is revolutionary still today.

 

[TLZ]

Firewatch.

It wasn't just right after.

It still is.

It almost made me cry and no game has ever had that effect on me.

Interesting.

The only game that made me emotional at the end was Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and The Lost Ocean.

As for OP, there are too many to list or remember. But some off the top of my head were Metal Gear Sold 2 and Final Fantasy X.

 

[BaneIsPain]

God of War, MGSII, FFIX and nu-God of War

 

[Plantoid]

World of warcraft, re4, dark souls (all of them)

 

[Stuart360]

Company of Heroes
Half Life 2
MW2
STALKER
RE4
LoU
The Witness
FO NV
Recently been playing a game that I have had in my library for 8 yrs and have to say Spintires is absolute one of the few I feel is revolutionary still today.

If you havent tried them already, get Mudrunner and Snowrunner. They are basically sequels to Spintires, and IMO improve on Spintires in almost every way (especially controls wise where Spintires can be a bit fiddly).

 

[xPikYx]

I will choose 1 per console

Megadrive: Sonic
Snes: Donkey Kong Country
PSone: Resident Evil
Nintendo 64: Super Mario 64/ Zelda OOT
GameCube: Resident Evil 4
PS2: Silent Hill 2
Xbox: Splinter cell Chaos theory
Xbox360: Gears of War
Ps3: Uncharted
PC: Mafia/The Witcher 3

 

[TheInfamousKira]

Ocarina of Time
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy X
Kingdom Hearts II
Metroid Prime
Resident Evil 4
Silent Hill 2
Resident Evil VII: Biohazard
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Assassin's Creed II
Mass Effect 2

Those were the organically occurring ones. A lot of other "classics," I had been overhyped for for years from the gaming community, like ALTTP, Super Metroid, RE2, FFVI, etc, and while they were every bit as good as was said of them, I went into them with their reputation preceding them, which I feel altered the criteria I judged them on.

Other games I had A LOT of fun with but wasn't expecting to, and there's enough jank that I can't say I thought they were the best ever without an asterisk. Metroid Prime 2 I thought was much more interesting, better put together and much more difficult than Prime 1, for instance, but it was only as good because of the template that the first game established. I thought Lightning Returns was an insanely fun Final Fantasy game, but it's essentially an open world FF does Majora's Mask after two super laser focused, linear games. So stuff like that.

And then there's games like TLOU, which after ruminating I recognize as fantastic, but on first playthrough I really just didn't have the same takeaways that everyone else did. It didn't change my life, cause me to meet my wife and name my first child Joel or anything.

 

[kalecsan]

Yeah and those are still my favorite games of all time

Mgs2, FFT, Warcraft 3, Dark Souls, Sotc

 

[Ozzie666]

Wings on Amiga. I felt I had just taken part and survived a world war. Was pretty engrossed in the whole written story at the time.

 

[alabtrosMyster]

River Raid (Atari 2600)

Donkey Kong (Coleco Vision)

Double Dragon (Arcade)

After Burner (Arcade)

Metroid (NES)

Zelda (NES)

Zelda 2 (NES)

Mega Man 2 (NES)

Phantasy Star (SMS)

Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES)

Ghouls n' Ghost (Genesis)

Phantasy Star II (Genesis)

The Revenge of Shinobi (Genesis)

Thunder Force III (Genesis)

Lords of Thunder (Turbo Duo)

Dune II (PC)

Doom II (PC)

Quake (PC)

Castlevania SOTN (PS1)

Final Fantasy VII (PS1)

God of War (PS2)

God of War II (PS2)

Wipeout HD (PS3)

God of War III (PS3)

Uncharted 2 (PS3)

The Last of Us (PS3)

I might have missed a couple, I loved my time with the Dreamcast, Sega CD, more PC titles maybe... The rest (SNES, N64, GameCube, Xbox, Xbox 360, TG-16, etc.) all had great games too, they just never reached the same buzz level for me.

 

[Imtjnotu]

Gears of War

Uncharted 2

God of War PS4

Final fantasy 7 PS1 days

Okami

Mario RPG

Gta San Andreas PS2

 

[NeptuneCL]

Ocarina of Time, Conker´s Bad Fur Day, Resident Evil 4

 

[Armorous]

N64: Zelda OOT, did not even have to beat it, I immediately thought it was the best game ever made.

 

[Ev1L AuRoN]

Super Mario Bros 3 NES
Street Fighter II SNES
Quake II PC
Mario 64 N64
Final Fantasy VII PS1
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of the Liberty PS2
Half Life 2 PC
Gears of War II 360
Uncharted II PS3
Last of Us Part 1 PS3
Persona 4 Golden PS VITA
God of War PS4.

 

[JoduanER2]

Half Life 2 PC
Halo Combat Evolved Xbox

Maybe Uncharted 2

 

[SenjutsuSage]

Metal Gear Solid (ps1)
Syphon Filter (ps1)
Splinter Cell Conviction
Max Payne
Final Fantasy VII
Mass Effect 2
Halo Infinite
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Fallout 4
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic
Lost Odyssey
Persona 3
Persona 4
Marvel vs Capcom 2
Counter-Strike 1.5/1.6
Street Fighter 2 - Champion Edition
NBA Jam (SNES)
Mortal Kombat
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Super Mario Bros 3
Chrono Trigger
WCW vs NWO The world or whatever it was called, basically all those badass n64 wrestlers.
Dragon Ball Z Legends PS1
Shenmue Part 1
Megaman Battle Network, the first one for GBA I think.
Super Mario 64 (can't forget this)
Final Fantasy 8
Final Fantasy 9
GTA 3
GTA Vice City
GTA San Andreas
GTA IV


I'm sure there are things I'm forgetting, but this is my list.

 

[vodka-bull]

Zelda BotW and TLoU2.

 

[Tschumi]

Best games I had played until then at the time I completed them.

Take it as writ that this list is subdivided by genre.

Age of Empires 2: Age of Kings, first mission of the Joan d'Arc campaign
Metal Gear Solid 2
Warcraft 3
Halo: Combat Evolved
GTA: San Andreas
World of Warcraft (vanilla, tbc)
TES 4: Oblivion
Age of Mythology
Neverwinter Nights 2
World in Conflict
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Pillars of Eternity
The Witcher 3*
Pillars of Eternity 2
Persona 4 Golden
Gran Turismo 6
The Last Guardian
Total War: Warhammer 2 (only the first 100 turns or so, then I reroll)

* Overall Tschumi's GOAT

 

[tommib]

 

[yansolo]

witcher 3, its the only game i never uninstall from my pc

 

[Topher]

 

[Investor9872]

The Witcher 3 and the Mass Effect Trilogy. Those two are the only games that made me feel depress, sad and lost at the end of the games.