• STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl
• EuroTruck Simulator 2
• Battlefield 2

Honorable mentions: EvE Online, Mount and Blade Warband, XCOM Enemy Unknown, Helldivers 2, Disco Elysium, Mini Metro, Tactical Breach Wizards

• Oldschool RuneScape
• Factorio
• Baldur's gate 3

1. World of Warcraft
2. TES V: Skyrim
3. Minecraft

Riven, Shadow of the Colossus, and Guilty Gear Strive.

(in no particular order)

Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal, Kingdom Hearts 2, Jak 3

Minecraft Borderlands 2 Bioshock

honourable mention for Zelda on N64

but the top 3 are based on replayability and just how easy it is to spend time playing them

Going to have to go with the three that had the biggest impact on me.

1: Doom / Doom 2. In addition to being two of the most influential and important FPS games of all time, they got me into modding, programming, the internet, 3D graphics, shaping my entire future career path.

2: Kerbal space program. No moment in all of gaming had me leap out of my chair and whoop the way landing in the Mun for the first time did. Now that I understand orbital mechanics, I get annoyed at almost all depictions of space flight in movies.

3: Factorio. Got to this one late, on Switch about 6 months ago. I can't think of any game which has rewired my brain as much. As a programmer, I come away from each play through with entire new methods of solving problems at work. May be the single most in depth and addictive game I've ever played.

• Gothic 2, and by extension, Chronicles of Myrtana
• The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
• Both are equally as monumental, so it’s shared between Obra Dinn, and Outer Wilds

That being said, i’ve excluded any mmos out of this list, purely because sometimes i struggle to call them my favorite games, despite having playing several thousand hours of each. Some of them have been unbelievably impactful at certain times in my life, but i’m afraid the embers are getting cold now

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.

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.

1. Cyberpunk 2077, just by hours played and number of replays.

2. The Horizon games. I just adore the world and Aloy.

3. Great Gianna Sisters for hours played and the music.

I also loved the Portal games, they might be a contender for third place.

• 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).

Bg3

Fo NV

Cultic

Beat Off The Wiener was a game I enjoyed as a youth as well.

The Last of Us, Mass Effect 2, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Those are all relatively new games. How old are you? Just decade, not specifics. I'm in my 40s. I'd say my top 3 are World of Warcraft, Factorio, and Final Fantasy 6.

Final Fantasy XI
Shovel Knight
Hades

1. Chrono Trigger
2. Xenogears
3. Vagrant Story

Nier:Automata gets an honorable mention.

1. Persona 4
2. Ar Tonelico 2
3. Xenoblade Chronicles 2

Honerable mention to Warcraft 3 TFT.

MGS3

Rocket League

Resident Evil 4

My top 3 are based on "for their time".

Morrowind

Portal

Halo 2

Impossible to rank, so I'll pull from at random from a top 25 I did not long ago:

• Trails to Azure - This one had a massive impact on me, from musings on depression and self-worth to love for a city, a community, and the hard choices that come from that love. Incredible story and character writing. All boosted by a well-developed world with a lot of moving parts and a crazy good soundtrack.
• WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgames - Endlessly replayable. Holds up even to this day. Every time I think about it, I'm amazed at how they got lightning in a bottle with this new idea.
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Just one of those games where every single facet clicked for me. Visuals, writing, setting, soundtrack, gameplay, meta-gameplay, decision points. All of it.

1. Factorio

2. League of Legends

3. Call of Duty 2