1. Jagged Alliance 2
2. Unreal Tournament
3. Fistful of Frags

• Left 4 Dead 2 - for the awesome vs teamplay
• The Last of Us (remake) 1+2 - stunningly gorgeous, emotional heavy hitter
• Disco Elysium - art, literature, as a game

edit: I forgot Guitar Hero / Clone Hero was a game not a 'standard hobby', I play e-drums on that daily still..

• 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.

Elden Ring, Dwarf Fortress, and Disco Elysium.

• Uncharted (series)
• RDR2
• Minecraft

Honorable mention: No Man’s Sky

Copy Kitty

Anno 1800

Satisfactory

Factorio Minecraft And 3rd is split between rimworld and baldur's gate 3

Really hard to narrow it down, but I think this would be it:

1. Elden Ring. Before the DLC this would’ve been a toss up for where on the list to put it, but SotE made me confidently place it as my favourite game of all time. I’ll avoid any other Souls games in this list for the sake of diversity but Dark Souls 1 & 3 and Sekiro were all in contention for first place before the DLC. They’d make up spots 2-4 on my list, but I’ll omit them for this one. Elden Ring renewed my love of video games, at a time where I was getting a bit burnt out from playing them. When the DLC came out I played it day one, which I never do for anything, and it completely blew me away, even more so than the base game. The world design of SotE is incredible, the views are breathtaking, and the bosses are the best in the whole series. I cannot fully express just how much I love this game when you take into account the DLC. I’m not sure anything will ever take its place on the throne, but then again I would’ve said the same of Skyrim before I played any Souls games, so only time will tell.
2. Skyrim. Probably a boring or predictable choice, but with over 5k hours it’s kinda hard to not include it. I’d probably add Oblivion immediately after this one, but again, I want to make the list interesting so I’ll avoid it here. Skyrim also helped me through the darkest point in my life, so I’ll always hold the game close to my heart, even if new games come along to displace it on my list. I’ve spent so much time modding this game, and it’s one of the things that first brought me and my wife together when we started dating. It might not be my top spot anymore, but it definitely had the biggest impact on my life.
3. Hitman: World of Assassination. This spot was hard to fill honestly. When I think of my favourite games, I usually just think of the Souls series and Skyrim/Oblivion. There’s lots more games I love, but the top spots are all well above the rest. It’s kind of like movies. I have four movies I absolutely adore, and they’re on the highest pedestal. There’s lots more movies I love too, but they don’t compare. Ask me for my top four, that’s an easy answer. Top five? Near impossible. Same deal here, so I just went with playtime and Hitman is my highest remaining game at around 1500 ish hours. It feels weird to call it my third favourite game ever (or I guess seventh because of the other games I’m omitting from this list but you get the point), but so does any other game I considered for here, so I’ll include some honourable mentions below. But back to this game, I feel Hitman is the perfect game for what it is. It can be serious for sure, you’re a hitman taking on contracts, but it can also be completely ridiculous too. One minute you’re tinkering with a race car to make it violently explode on the track to kill your target without anyone suspecting foul play, the next minute you’re dressed as a flamingo exiting the mission by literally flapping your wings and flying from a helipad. 47’s permanent seriousness in the most ludicrous scenarios is peak comedy honestly. Going to a high society Parisian fashion show dressed as a children’s clown and punching out the CEO is a totally normal thing you can do in this game, it’s amazing. And if you don’t like that vibe, you can be a total badass and do a full blown shootout, or a stealthy assassin and eliminate your targets from the shadows with none the wiser. It’s the ultimate hitman/assassin sandbox game.

Honourable mentions: Portal 1 & 2, Pokémon SoulSilver, Hollow Knight, Dishonored, Red Dead Redemption 1 & 2, Batman Arkham Asylum and City, Inside, Gunpoint, any Forza game before the most recent one (haven’t played it), all the Bungie Halo games, and many more. I just love video games I think.

Control, the horizon games and stardew valley.

The Last Of Us part 1 and 2 and the Witcher 3

1. Skullgirls - Simply the best fighting game ever made. There's so much depth in a comparatively small roster that I could basically never get bored or see every viable strategy in it.
2. Baldur's Gate 3 - Tried and true RPG mechanics combined with the best version yet of Larian's engine that encourages free form problem solving. And on top of that, they managed best in class presentation in NPC dialogue and had some of the best writing in the genre. This will be a tough act to follow, especially since I don't think their last two Original Sin RPG systems were anywhere near as good as D&D 5e.
3. Elden Ring - It's been a great couple of years for two of my favorite games of all time to come out within a year and a half of each other, but this is another one of those games where there's just so much to see and so many ways to solve the problem in front of you. Pattern recognition for where to find your next reward is up to you; your next goal is up to you; how you conquer the bad guy in front of you is up to you.

All three of these games just respect your intelligence and are composed of systems deep enough to give you countless ways to solve their challenges.

Morrowind - the first game that let me leave the path. It completely changed RPGs for me, and I loved it.

Solasta - this game captured the D&D feeling like no other game has. My wife and I have spent hundreds of hours playing this together.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard - this game touched me emotionally, more than any game before it. The whole 3rd act is an emotional rollercoaster. Plus it has one of my favorite action sequences ever, in The Siege of Weisshaupt.

Street Fighter II for getting me into fighting games. While I don't play that version anymore it is a favorite because of how much I did play it and later fighting games.

Valheim - hundreds of hours of enjoyment from the first moment I was dropped into the world by a giant crow. So much fun time with friends, building stuff, and just exploring. Such a well done game with fantastic lighting, sound, and things to do. Only long tine gripe is fighting on slopes!

Helldivers 2 - yeah, another more recent game but it is also just the exact thing I am looking for in a mutiplayer game with friends. Nearly everything is viable in most difficulties, the game has mechanics for accidental team kills, the setting evolves, but in a way that encourages participation in scheduled events without forcing it, and the devs have listened when the player base pushes back on changes that don't mesh with the tone of the game.

Enjoyed a lot of other games too, but those are ones that hit specific things that I love and enjoyable to replay over and over and over and over...

• Starcraft II
• Mount & Blade: Warband
• Heroes of Might & Magic III

Honorable mentions

• Anno 1404
• Far Cry 2
• Witcher 3
• Tropico 4
• Factorio

1. Skyrim
2. Minecraft
3. Destiny 2

It's hard to tell because I have played a lot of games but that comes to mind immediately right now. I would say:

1. Red Dead Redemption 2.
2. Garry's Mod.
3. Titanfall 2.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is a game that I absolutely fell in love with and it's one that I regularly go back to just lose myself in and still find new things in it. Arthur Morgan might just be my favorite protagonist of anything ever. It's still one of the best looking games ever made. The game looks like a painting. And you know they did something truly special when they managed to make my ADHD ass enjoy just walking in a game without running.

Gary's Mod is an odd pick for me because I almost thought about leaving it out because I cannot like don't see it as a game. I have thousands of hours on it and most of my time has been spent exploring empty maps. It's more of a tool of relaxation for me than anything else but it's deeply meaningful to me. If I had to summarize it, I would say that the Source engine is my home.

Titanfall 2 is simply the best FPS I've ever played. Both multiplayer and solo. It's amazing. I have spent weekends just playing the main campaign on max difficulty on loop without ever getting bored and the multiplayer was fucking fantastic.

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

Doom Crosscode Cave Story

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. rock band 3, spent multiple summers playing this all day long

2. skyrim, still play it every year for like 3 months straight. its insane

3. borderlands the pre sequel. i honestly prefer this one over any other borderlands game

• Link to the Past
• Super Mario Bros 3
• GTA 4

I took into account the impact at the time of release as well as the timelessness of the games.

Master of Orion 2
Lords of the Realm 2
Caesar 3

Really hard to have any real favorite. But the games I've played the most in my life:

Super Mario Bros (NES)

Diablo Franchise

Destiny 2

Did you play RDR1? I thought that one was much better than 2, story wise. Not that 2 was bad. Rockstar games are always good imo.

Baldur's gate 3 is also in my top 3, story wise and how well it was made and time spent playing it. I finished the campaign 6 times now, 4 of which with friends playing couch coop.

Also Age of Empires 2 because when I was young I played that game for over at least 3000 hours (if not double) and I still play it sometimes. Just well balanced and lots of good memories from back then, having LAN parties with my friends and playing it for days.

Grammar. ~~You're~~ -> Your*

Star Wars Pod Racer Halo Reach Word of Warcraft

Pod racer was the first game I was better than my younger sibling and when I bought my very first CD (Green Day). I spent hours playing that game with my CD on repeat.

Halo Reach was the first Halo game I was really into and first console modern game played. I spent so many hours playing online and IRL with friends.

World of Warcraft is the game I’ve played the longest. I’ve been playing since a few months after launch. Even though I initially thought it was “too cartoony”, it has kept me entertained for decades. Some of my favorite books are from Warcraft lore. I’ve played countless hours with friends, but now I play solo more than anything. I chase achievements, transmogs, and pets.

Gonna show my age a bit here.

1. Chromehounds. Nothing since has filled that 20 story tall mecha hole in my heart. The way you could build your hound into the role you wanted to play really hasn't been done well in any game since

2. MAG (massive action game). Ps3/ps4 128vs128 matches online? It was such a clusterfuck and I loved it.

3. Binding of Isaac and all its expansions. Game has been a solid and consistent time sink in my life for more than 10 years. Quirky and infinitely replayable.