Definitely Ace Attorney. It hits a lot of marks; it gives you the feeling of beating enemies by being clever, rather than powerful. It ties in with a sense of justice, and contains some murder mysteries that rival some of the greats of Agatha Christie with twisted, complex motives and multiple lying witnesses. It has VERY creative character designs, making each new face very memorable. Its localization team had their own sense of humor, conveyed well with how they chose to adapt many things. In spite of the humor, they often follow through with deeply emotional endings to each case.

Great question! For me it's definitely Minecraft with my kids - watching them discover redstone mechanics and build together taught me so much about collaborative creativity. Also Stardew Valley for showing how peaceful, non-competitive games can be just as engaging.

Fallout New Vegas set my expectation for quest choice and faction interactivity. I could go on about that, but everyone knows what people think about New Vegas.

Last year, I beat Dark Souls. That's now set my standard for RPG gameplay. There's bullshit, same as any game, but I don't think I've ever played another RPG where I've felt my skill going up alongside my in-game stats. Then you get to the Bed of Chaos, and that kinda goes out the window...

Spyro the Dragon:

This is basically the pinnacle of game design to me. It is a collect-a-thon of course, but the gems always sparkle no matter how far you are from them so that if you are in line of sight you will know that they are there making it easy to find them.

Far off sections of the map are basically always reachable and rewards you for trying to get there and utilizing uncommon paths through the map.

When you beat the game to 100% it rewards you with extra stuff and a little more game to show it had fun being made as much as you hopefully did playing it.

All with a fun story that wraps it up and doesnt require anything special to jump in. I want to see games that have thoughtful level design and world building while using the game mechanics in fun ways. The fact that you jump into levels directly and the loading screen is akin to you actually flying to the world is all engrossing to the world.

When I was 6 I was so excited to get a SNES. I wanted the bundle with super Mario World but it was sold out. So my parents gave me the option of waiting of getting this other bundle with this Zelda game. That sounded kind of girly to me being 6 and knowing nothing, but I was also 6 and had no patitience so Zelda it was.

I got home and started playing and was immediately hooked. I spent the next few years exploring every inch of Hyrule and the Dark World.

To this day I still don't have Super Mario World and have only played a few levels but I have played every Zelda since.

I've played dozens or hundreds of games since thrn, many that were absolutely amazing but nothing until Breath if the Wild gave me that same magic of wanting to discover every nook and cranny of the world just to see what's there.

Pharaoh, sims (1), sim city, minecraft. And gta of course, every part except Chinatown wars.

Zelda: Link to the Past.

How it shapes how I view games is how Zelda creates a lot of subconscious rules we take for granted until we see it not being used.

For example:

You'll often find the "locked door" before finding the key.

You'll see the treasure chest at the end, but no way to get there.

You see the cracked walls with no bombs.

A lot of puzzles are clearly pointing out the problems without words.

World of Warcraft. After it, a lot of player retention mechanics became super obvious in other games for me, especially because a lot of said games were copying "the king of MMOs"

Dwarf Fortress is my main go-to example of procgen done right. Whenever there's discussions of "game X sucks and is lifeless because it's mostly procgenned", I look back at DF. Lazy procgen is the problem.

I know at some point I saw a game with absurdly high damage and health numbers, I can't remember which one it was, whether a mobile thing around 2014 or a korean mmo, but that was the point where I very easily understood "big number better" is total bullshit

Elder Scrolls Morrowind was the first game I've played that gave almost complete freedom to the player, with lots of things carrying consequence, especially in relation to NPCs. That shopkeeper you killed? Still dead. This essential NPC that is a literal demigod? Yeah, you can kill him, have fun in this broken timeline you just created where you can no longer advance the main quest.

ITT: A bunch of people misunderstanding the question

Based on how many times I have started the game, but never finished

• Stardew Valley
• Terraria

Based on number of hours played

• Modded Minecraft
• No Mans Sky

• Morrowind
• Final Fantasy 7 (the original not the aweful Remake)
• Final Fantasy 9
• Secret of Mana
• Secret of Evermoor
• Planescape Tornment
• MegaMan X
• Gothic
• German trading simulators (Hanse, Fugger 2, Vermeer, etc.)
• all the many games on my C64

Minecraft, Warframe and old school Runescape.

Everything else I've loved over the years has fallen out of favour with me, but I'll happily dive into those 3 for a few hundred hours again

I've been playing games since the 80s. I wouldn't call myself a gamer. Here are a few personal hallmarks...

• Crash 'n' the Boys: Street Challenge on NES was the first time I had fun playing multiplayer.
• Metroid II: Return of Samus was the first game I was addicted to. Super Metroid is still my favourite game.
• UMKIII was the first game I actually got pretty good at.
• Starcraft. My brother played this and I loved being a spectator, in hindsight I realized that gaming could be a sport that people would watch at this moment.
• Quake and Descent were the first times I got motion sickness playing games!
• Counter-Strike because everyone played it at university.
• FFVII because I never played it and it is apparently kinda famous...

• TIE Fighter
• GoldenEye 64
• Diablo II
• NetHack
• Doom/Doom II
• Descent/Descent II
• Galactic Battlegrounds
• Super Mario World
• Dark Age of Camelot
• World of Warcraft
• PlanetSide
• Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II (yes, it's my favorite game in the series, fight me)
• Wing Commander: Privateer
• Torchlight II
• Hammerfight
• Carmageddon 2
• Freelancer
• DoomRL
• N/N++
• FreeSpace
• Katawa Shoujo
• Unreal Tournament
• Minecraft
• Cave Story
• FTL
• Dark Souls
• Slay
• Terraria
• Ender Lilies
• The Binding of Isaac (and Rebirth)
• Chivalry: Medieval Warfare
• Dead Cells
• Hollow Knight
• Kerbal Space Program
• Transformice
• Soldat

• Ultima IV: Quest for the Avatar - yes I’m older then dirt but I played my first real video game on an Apple IIe and it was a revelation real puzzles and my first choices with consequences
• Tetris - ok so a great game doesn’t need a story or puzzles or anything but good game play
• Gauntlet: Red Elf needs food badly. My first exposure to cooperative gameplay.
• Pokemon:RBY - I love the mechanics and they were the best turn based combat.
• Halo - Great storyline’s really do help but the gameplay was a real game changer for me I enjoyed how if you wanted to you could get through a level in several different ways.
• The Last of Us - Literary Characters that I came emotionally attached to. There’s a reason the first season of the TV series was so good it was because the writing of the game was just so good. I still remember the finale in the operating room when I (Joel really but I was so invested) found Ellie I was angry I was mad and I shot the nurses because I was so mad. I’ve, to this day, never felt so inside a character in any media as I felt then.
• Spiritfarer - My first cozy game and the only game I’ve ever played that made me stop and think about what just happened. I don’t ever want to spoil the game for anyone so all I’ll say is it’s less then the cost of a Happy Meal on steam and worth more for your soul then you can put a price on.

My Younger days:

• Legend of the Red Dragon
• Police Quest 1
• Anarchy Online
• Bard's Tale (OG)
• Shadowgate
• Metroid
• Forgotten Worlds
• Super Mario World
• Paper Mario TTYD
• Guitar Hero
• Tony Hawk's Underground
• Star Wars: KOTOR

More recently:

• Cave Noire
• AC: Odyssey
• Fallout 4
• Cloverpit
• Offline Games (Android)

Mostly tried to stick to a single release per platform for the earlier games. I'm sure I've missed some.

Newer games...I know the AC and Fallout titles aren't most people's favorites, but I love those worlds. Games are all about comfort for me.

Super Mario Bros 1, 2 & 3
Super Mario World
Mortal Kombat 1 & 2
Wolfenstein 3D
DOOM
Commander Keen
Starcraft
Diablo 1 / 2
Unreal Tournament 2003/4
Counter-Strike
Half Life
Everquest
World of Warcraft
The Secret of Monkey Island
Indiana Jones Fate of Atlantis / Last Crusade
LOOM
Resident Evil 1 & 2
Legend of Zelda 1
Ocarina of Time
Mario Kart (SNES & 64)
Ogre Battle 64
WCW/NWO Revenge
Portal 1 & 2
Grand Theft Auto 2, 3 and 5

Yeah I'm old. Some modern ones:
Breath of the Wild
Valheim
Outer Wilds

Star Control 2

Questions like these always reveal the core audience of millennials and older Gen Z.

Playing Minecraft multiplayer in 2010 blew me off my socks and I will never experience anything as intense as that, video game wise.

I used to have a hard time ranking my favorite games. Often the order would change based on how I was feeling at that time.

That all changed when I found Satisfactory. I no-lifed that game for months. Never before have I felt as though a game had been made for me.

Now my ranking is

1. Satisfactory
2. (a huge-ass gap)
3. Hades 1&2 4-∞. idk like every other game that is conventionally good?

Dungeon master 1 & 2 The Secret of Monkey Island
Indiana Jones Fate of Atlantis / Last Crusade
LOOM
The dig Escape from Tarkov The Division Ultima 7 Wing commander series Strike commander Battletech crescent hawks inception/revenge Mech commander Payday 2

Nothing has shaped how I view games more than Dark Souls.

Elite - a huge 3D vector universe to explore.

Tetris - adictiveness distilled.

Driller - oh wow, filled 3D graphics on a 3.5MHz 8 bit micro?

Wolfenstein 3D - shooting nazis is fun.

Doom - incredible, improved graphics and more fun.

Quake - full 3D now, but not as fun as Doom.

Half-Life - oh yeah, now we're talking. Great storytelling and gripping fun.

Portal - fun, engaging and funny.

Bioshock Infinite - I guess I enjoy riding the skylines.

Torchlight - There's something cozy about those dungeons, I dunno.

Skyrim - how did I lose 900 hours of my life?

Ocarina of Time is my GOAT. Finishing it as a kid and realizing that games could be more than just killing time, that they could be epic journeys with satisfying endings, that they could be a whole art form was really transformative.

tes3, persona 3, gothic 3, angband ~~3~~ and diablo. Also f.e.a.r. and arx fatalis.

• Halo
• Life is Strange
• Final fantasy VIII
• World of Warcraft
• Expedition 33

None of them are perfect but they all made me think about games in a different light and keep me wanting to play.

Halo comes to mind straight away. The way the enemies react, dodging out the way or charging towards you was something special. Also the music score and freedom it gives you in the semi-open levels to play differently.

Dishonored

This was a pinnacle showcase of how interactive a game could be. The sandbox design not only encouraged your creativity but met it beat for beat. This was also the game that made me understand how much world design and atmosphere matter. Making a world feel believable with environmental story telling is incredibly difficult but so satisfying. To this day, not been dethroned.

Team Fortress 2

Balance, class design, character design, game mode design, and a touch of jank; all in the name of what is the most fun. I see this as the grandfather of Deadlock and The Finals; both games I come back to more often than TF2 but who's DNA matches closest.

UNBEATABLE

Trusting your audience with regards to story telling and leaving things unsaid. Also importance of a banger soundtrack.

Sekiro

Importance of tactility and flow. Quick, slow; quick, quick; slow. Technically a rythm game too.

Z.A.T.O.

A showcase of how little you need to make a game and still have it feel impactful. Also importance of picking a target audience and nostalgia. Also visual novels rule.

NieR Automata

Do NOT **** android women

Here is my Quality Slop list (I only like them because they are good):

• The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
• Metal Gear Solid
• NieR Gestalt
• Test Drive Unlimited 2
• Halo Combat Evolved
• Dark Souls
• The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
• Half-Life: Opposing Force
• Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair
• Silent Hill 2 (the original, not the remake)
• Super Metroid
• Need for Speed Underground 2
• Shenmue 1, 2, and 3 (Shenmue 3 is probably the worst game on this list, but its still pretty good regardless)
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 1 & 2
• Age of Empires II
• Command & Conquer: Generals - Zero Hour
• Policenauts
• Panzer Dragoon Orta

Each of these have contributed to my high bar of expected quality for games. Most of these games were made on a very tight budget and schedule, with pretty harsh hardware limitations, and are the greatest games of all time. Modern game studioss have no excuses for the awful quality they launch games in with more time, money, and lack of hardware limitations.

Super Smash Bros — I play better when I play to get better and have fun. Worse when I try to win. Was a great lesson in general.

Hollow Knight & Silk Song — art and music and such tight games

Slay the Spire — hedging bets and long term thinking in a way that’s much more nuanced than standard RPGs

Sekiro — like playing an instrument

The legend of dragoon.

Chrono Cross.

GTA-all of them, (all rockstar games)

Gran Turismo-all of them.

Final Fantasy 7,8,9

Metal Gear Solid-all of them. (Except survival)

Minecraft.

DayZ.

• Starcraft
• Gothic
• Magic the Gathering
• Warcraft 3 + dota
• FTL
• Nuclear Dawn / Natural Selection 2
• Supreme Commander
• Eve Online
• Factorio

I could list a few more RGPs, like Mass Effect, Fallout New Vegas and the Witcher games that are also top tier experience, but they all sort of the do the same thing, in that a story you might expect from a novel or movie, can be told in a game, but also the game offers more interactivity.