• Half-Life (the original). First game that legit made me jump back from my PC, screaming, “Ahh!” It was a very tense moment–I was out of ammo so that meant my only weapon was the crowbar… Others that have played the game will know what I’m talking about. I was playing that moment in the middle of the night–probably 2AM-ish–with my headphones on in a basement room lit only by the light of my (1024x768) CRT monitor.
• Final Fantasy 7. The first and only game that made me cry actual tears (of sadness; not like that time the house lost power in grade school after a long and eventually successful boss battle which is another gaming moment I’ll never forget).
• Minecraft. Well, it’s not perfect on it’s own but here I am playing modded Minecraft with my kids again. We’ve been playing this game together like this for almost ten years! We’ll play until we’ve learned every major/popular mod that exists for any given version then stop playing for a while then a year or so later we’ll be at it again for a month or two 😁. Aside: Myself and my kids are like absurdist experts in cross-mod overpowered combos and nonsensical things like how to combine nuclear power with mana generation and all the steps/progression necessary to get there (LOL).
• Baldur’s Gate 3: It won GOTY in so many places for a reason. Absolutely fantastic and one of the big reasons why is because it doesn’t dumb things down for laymen or children (or child-like people aka game reviewers hehe). It’s a game made for geeks that are adults and can understand and appreciate adult themes and scenarios where it’s impossible to save everyone (and having to play the rest of the game living with the consequences of your actions). Aside: You could say it’s a game that teaches consequence culture! Haha. BTW: If you haven’t tried modding BG3 yet it’s totally worth it. Even if just for some of the QOL improvements and cosmetic stuff 👍
• Before EPIC bought Psyonix, Rocket League. Oh man I spent like 3,000 hours in that game and never got bored. I was happy to pay for Rocket Pass every time it came up for renewal because I was just having way too much fun and wanted the game to do well. Then EPIC bought Psyonix and they ended support for Linux (I got a temp ban from the Rocket League subreddit and the associated Discord for saying that was going to happen!) and at that point I stopped playing. Then they made it free to play and way too quick and easy to get a new account and that’s when my friends stopped playing too (because it ruined ranked play which was the only way to play people that were near your skill level).
• Beat Saber. Truly the perfect VR game. You burn loads of calories while listening to awesome music (your choice of music if modded) and having fun. Mod it to make it truly next level. I mean, the BeatLeader mod saves the entire replay of you beating any given map and posts it online where you can re-watch and share your amazing speed/accuracy and cool dance moves! Example: https://replay.beatleader.xyz/?scoreId=7668607 (watch it, you’ll smile… That’s one of my replays and it’s “replay of the year” 2023 👍)

If I think of more later I’ll try to remember to come back to this thread and edit my post.

Aside: There needs to be more high speed competitive games like Rocket League that use 120HZ event loops (that aren’t just twitch reflex FPSes). I miss playing a game with the controller where careful and precise control would make you feel like you had a superpower compared to the average player. Like, if you practiced enough you could keep the ball on your car (aka dribbling) and flip it up in the air just before an opponent tried to take it from you (making them feel sooooooo inadequate haha). Also, expert mid-air maneuvering could have you completely crushing your opponents with them feeling like they didn’t stand a chance… Not because you got lucky and/or bought the best equipment but because of your sheer skill at the game.

I also miss the feeling of being an impenetrable goalie, haha. Even facing off against pros I could lock them out of scoring unless they coordinated their attacks. It felt sooooo good to block a well-executed, amazing double touch ceiling shot and then… “Calculated” followed by another block within a second from their teammate, “Calculated”. Ahahaha. Good times.