What is your number 1 favorite game of all time? And has a game come close to dethroning it?

Mine is still Metal Gear Solid for the PS1. As times pass, one must ask, has my favorite game been replaced yet? And to this day, it still hasn't. MGS has that perfect combination of fun, writing, unpredictable story, pacing, innovative boss fights, and awesome action sequences. And for that reason, it's still my number 1 favorite game of all time. Maybe the only game to come close to dethroning it was Ocarina of Time, and that was the same year lol.

How about you, SW? What is yours? And has there have been a game to come close to dethroning?

Halflife.

Objectively games have surpassed in many ways.

As a first time experience, big wowee, nope.

I don't really have a favourite game, I just enjoy what I'm playing and move on.

None, but CS 1.6 has a special place in my heart 'cause I used to earn money from it from way back when.

Deus ex mankind

Its this game right here. Original Deus Ex and no. no game to this day surpassed this masterpiece. Its video gaming perfection with intelligent level design, Best story ever told in video game, Deep FPS/RPG mechanics, Deep immersive sim experience. Its just overall everything. 11/10 game.

Maybe if STALKER 2 will turn out to be better than STALKER 1, it might surpassed this. but i doubt it will ever be surpassed.

MGS1 was also masterpiece so good choice solid.

Halo... Kotor.

Can't say I have an absolute favorite game, been gaming since the early 80s and the amount of amazing games I played over the years, well I couldn't just flat out say that one is better then all the rest.

Never really thought that much about my favourite game ever, but the very first name that always jumps right out in my mind whenever that question is asked is always System Shock 2. I guess that will do.

Surpassed? Never. BioShock came the closest; it nailed the atmosphere and the writing, but they went a little too far with the streamlining. Still a bloody great game. Doom 3 tried too hard with the atmosphere and still failed, and the writing was terrible. Dead Space was overall okay in every respect, but it relied too much on shock value and jumpscares. Prey 2017 had the gameplay, but the writing was bland and it had the atmosphere of the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro.

No game will never come close to dethroning Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and I still go back replaying it once a year...only on N64 and the later remake ruin the game for me.

Prey 2017 was closest thing to System shock 2. Bioshock being called dumbed down SS2 because it was. Bioshock basically was simple shock. everything is walking in straight line.

Prey is deep and complex immersive sim.

@ghosts4ever:

Again, mate, you're gameplay obsessed. Gameplay was never the point of System Shock 2; it was the atmosphere and the writing that made the game special. BioShock nailed both. SHODAN and Andrew Ryan remain iconic video game villains to this day because of the writing.

So yeah, as someone who loves System Shock 2 to death, that's why I find it hilarious every time Prey 2017 is touted as the "true spiritual successor" to System Shock 2. Sure, it had better gameplay than BioShock, but again, it had about as much atmosphere as the cold vacuum of space, and the writing was about as engaging as paste sandwiched between two ceiling tiles. No one will remember a single character from Prey 2017.

I’ve howled “Best game ever!” at screens for decades. At the time, they were Uridium, Halo, Manic miner, command and conquer, half life, bf2, bf4, football manager, Morrowind and more recently titanfall 2.

Looking back at all of them, they were good for the time.

Best ever? Has to be hl2.

Depends on genre, but

Halo1-3, and Kotor1/2 are up there.

Uncharted 2 still holds the crown for me. The 4th came close but Naughty Dog obviously didn't care about the co-op multiplayer so it didn't quite make it.

Uncharted 2 dethroned Resident Evil Remake.

the witcher 3

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anything else

I don't think I have an absolute favorite per se, but among my favorites of all time? Probably RE4, Pro Wrestling on the original NES, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, the first Gears of War. That's the thing, though. Going back playing them now, they just don't hold up.

That would be Chrono Trigger for me, best game ever. After that though then there’s just a whole damn bunch of awesome games that I could flip around and put into any position on any given day. Games like Final Fantasy III/VI, Resident Evil 2, 4, Ninja Gaiden Black, Bayonetta 1 and 2, Devil May Cry 5, and just a whole lot more I could name.

FF7 and it has not been replaced. Ill be surprised if it ever is.

not even by remake?

• Half Life
• Age of Empires
• Donkey Kong Country 2
• GTA: Vice City
• Dishonored

I chose these 5 because I think each one exceeds in what it set out to do, and among fans is still regarded as the best of what the genre has to offer. You still hear people talk about each one of these games. That's a testament to how good they are.

@ghosts4ever said:

Its this game right here. Original Deus Ex and no. no game to this day surpassed this masterpiece. Its video gaming perfection with intelligent level design, Best story ever told in video game, Deep FPS/RPG mechanics, Deep immersive sim experience. Its just overall everything. 11/10 game.

Maybe if STALKER 2 will turn out to be better than STALKER 1, it might surpassed this. but i doubt it will ever be surpassed.

MGS1 was also masterpiece so good choice solid.

Thanks man. I never played Deus Ex. I think I own it on GOG or something. I really want to some day play through the main MGS games again. But MGS was still the pinnacle of the franchise in my opinion.

But what is number 1?!

@SolidGame_basic: MGS remake if PS5 exclusive will force me to buy PS5.

Half Life 1.

It tries to tell a story exclusively from the first person perspective and it has a ton of variety in its gameplay and levels. Black Mesa is huge, Xen is ... interesting.

I guess as you play more and more games you get accustomed to what a game can be or what a game can do. Are you even wowed anymore by gigantic and diverse open worlds? No because we are accustomed to them now. I was wowed by Ghost of Tsushima because its world looks unlike any other.

But when you play a certain game for the first time it's truly special. And nothing I played back then came close to Half Life.

But the other four are really good too, and I would say as good as Half Life.

Really ??? for me the remake was great ... i can still play the original fine, but i'm always missing some features that were included in the remake.

Anyway, same answer for me, The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. And is not because i think is the best game ever made, but because it was the first time i was intimidated by this massive game. The feeling of leaving Kokiri Forrest and getting to Hyrule Field for the first time is such a gaming defining moment, i wasn't aware of any "open World" concept back in the day, so actually playing it for the very first time was mind blowing. Not to mention the dungeons, the boss battles and that epic, nostalgic and kind of sad ending. Man, that game truly changed me as a gamer.

For any game that came close to dethroning it ? maybe none, but i could probably mention some of my all time favorites like Chrono Trigger (in fact, is the only game for me, i can say is on par with OoT), Metal Gear Solid 3, Metroid Prime 2 Echoes, Mass Effect 2, The Last of Us ... probably Bayonetta 2 and more recently, Breath of the Wild for very similar reasons to OoT.

@R4gn4r0k: Yea, it's true that I think many people like their number 1 because of how it made them feel at the time they played it. 1998 was such a magical year for me lol.

Haha. I hope that rumor about Blue Point remaking the game is true. They are 2 for 2 with Shadow of the Colossus and Demon's Souls. Although I'm not sure what a Blue Point remake would entail. Would it be 100% faithful or would they try to do something with it? If they try to just recreate it, it might not be that good.

@madsnakehhh: I feel like there's no replacing the experience of playing OoT and Majora's Mask on N64. But maybe that's just nostalgia speaking lol. But I'm with you on the experience part. Was so mind blowing for its time.

Did you have a N64 at the time, or only a Playstation?

No...and it's not even an actual remake.

For me it is a tie between Final Fantasy 7 and Meter Gear Solid.

FF7 was unparalleled for its time. It was an insanely imaginative RPG with jaw dropping cutscenes, awesome characters and a huge variety of monsters and summons in the game. It was pretty much the first RPG to contain such fully realized production values and look this good. With a stellar story it still holds up well even today.

Metal Gear Solid was also a first for games. It was basically the ultimate action movie in game form - with one of the best, most well written scripts to date.

Both of these games came out around the same time and blew me away. For me these will always be 2 of the best games ever made.

Its Bloodborne but my nostalgia still trying to hold on to Persona 3.

Link to the Past is the one I always say, but it's a tossup between that and about 5 others.

The first deus ex for me. did choices/consequences really well, had a really interesting and immersive setting and a character building system that really made a difference.

Games that came close:

Vampire the masquerade: Bloodlines. If it wasn't so buggy i think it actually would have done it. better characters, better writing, a more interesting setting, more immersive and, on paper at least, a more robust character building system that had real consequences on how you played (and DE1 is no slouch in that department). everything was a bit more interesting....a bit more shades of grey. but it was released in a laughably broken state. the unoffocial patch has done wonders but there is only so much it can do. it was kind of sad to play it since i was constantly going through it and thinking "if they just fixed this and just tweaked that....MY GOD!". ah well....what could have been... :(.

Witcher 3. As i was playing it i was thinking "bloody hell i think they have done it". but i remember (roughly...it's been a while) the exact point it fell over: there was a quest in a castle in skellige where you go into a room and Geralt is drugged or something and he attacks statues that he thinks are real. it dawned on me that during that entire quest i didnt actually do anything. i basically scanned, ran around the places, scanned some more, followed Yennefer, hit a monster a few slaps and that was it. it dawned on me then that the game has actually been doing that a lot. i think the whole scanning thing did more harm than good in that game. also the RPG system is a bit meh. Still a great game with 2 great expansions though. just not GOAT material.

It is nostalgia ... but not without a reason. Playing Zelda on the N64 and in fact, so many other games from that era (FFVII, MGS, SM64), was the first time gaming made a huge step into the 3D territory with quality beyond anything we had seen, and it was just mind blowing ... specially since we were like10 - 16 at the time. So yeah, those days are not to be forgotten.

Hearts of Iron 3 is my favourite game since 2012. Before that it was P.T.O. II and III for 16 years. No nothing has come close to dethroning HOI 3.

DCS World, KOTOR and maybe Cyberpunk bounce around the 3-5 marks.

Too bad the Switch doesn’t have P.T.O. games in their online library, I would instantly buy a Switch and forget about buying a PS5 for awhile.

Deus Ex.

Nothing has come close to dethroning it.

Gaming has obviously evolved in the past couple decades to become more streamlined, efficient, and easier. But nothing is as rewarding as playing that game. Multiple, actually meaningful endings. Great writing. Excellent RPG mechanics.

The world needs more first-person RPG's like Deus Ex. Actual first-person RPGs, not first-person action-RPGs. Vampire: The Masquerade: Redemption came close, but wasn't good enough. Cyberpunk was a step in the right direction for a modern, recent game, and while it's a lot of fun, it's too clunky of a game to even be compared to it. Also the writing is just god awful for the most part.

Yeah this would be a close second to me. It was also the game that introduced me to online gaming (Team Fortress Classic, Counter-Strike Beta) and that alone makes it incredibly unique, memorable, and amazing to me.

@mrbojangles25: I think we grew up at peak gaming tbh. In the space of a short time, Quake, Halflife, Rainbow 6, Starcraft, Diablo, Homeworld, Age Of Empires, Unreal, Unreal Tournament, Quake 3, Metal Gear Solid... list pretty endless.

Feel bad for kids these days growing up on cinematic shit and surprise mechanics.

Also, because we live in this modern age were information is so easy to obtain, that sense of magic of discovering shit is almost non-existent.

Like.. we had to get information from magazine where you had still screenshots and if you were super lucky a demo disk.

Nowadays just see trailers and footage and shit months in advance.

More information good, obviously. But also lose excitement ignorance can provide.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

It was surpassed in quality over a decade ago, but I am as passionate as I am about this medium because of OOT on the N64. I honestly don't know if I would have been this dedicated of a gamer had it not been for that title.

@uninspiredcup: yeah, I'm not gonna pick one - I never do. Don't know how people have singular favorites, TBH. But I agree - there were so many games back around that era where I really struggle to see much comparable magic to them today. Thank god for indies and "fringe" passion projects, which basically relive or spin-off that era instead of following current mainstream trends. Those are the best new games IMO

Streets of Rage 2. Nothing is ever going to dethrone it, but other games in its realm are Streets of Rage 3, Streets of Rage: Remake, Sonic 3 & Knuckles, and Sonic Mania Plus.

Mass Effect 1 is currently my favorite game of all time. I've always been into scifi and loved Kotor1.

ME1 absolutely blew me away.

Witcher 3 is the only game to come close.

@madsnakehhh: Don't get me wrong, I do own the 3DS version and there's no denying the remake does better then the original but for me, I prefer the darker and moody feeling of the N64 version however there is absolutely no denying that the 3DS version looks way better than the N64 version. The lighting, coloration, proportions, and overall aesthetic is better on the N64 version and the 3DS version just has more detail in the environments and better textures. I didn't like how Nintendo change the music in the Fire Temple but I do understand why and not to mention, the N64 version has Ganon's red blood in it.

One thing I forgot to mention in my previous post. I still adore Majora's Mask N64 and I always felt like it was a true expansion pack would be since that game was shorter then OoT.

Edit: I never played the OoT Gamecube version, so can't really comment on that version.

@davillain-:

Yeah MM is pretty dope, but that MM remake is a worse game for so many reasons. Kinda weird how much they screwed it up.

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On topic, yeah don't have one. Even picking genre specific favs would be a toughie, but overall? Nah.

F.E.A.R. from it's amazing AI to it's satisfying combat nothing comes close to dethroning especially not Doom 2016 nor that overrated QTE fest Doom Eternal.

I love FEAR alot. a masterpiece and one of my fav FPS of all time. but both Doom games surpassed it (i mention because you wrongfully mentioned) when it comes to design plus Eternal is more difficult in nightmare than hardest difficulty of FEAR.

FEAR level design is just linear office corridor while Doom games have enough variation in design.

if Eternal is QTE fest than every of your game have one button take down from far cry to RDR2 to GTA. they are also QTE fest.

Final Fantasy VII. Nothing else to date has been able to match the experience of playing FFVII for the first time back in 1997. I had no interest in RPGs up until FFVII came along and opened my eyes to an entire genre of games. RPGs became my favourite genre over the next decade or so, before I eventually grew tired of RPGs over the last decade.

I also didn't care about things like environmentalism or climate change either until FFVII came along. And my favourite twist in a game to date is the Zack twist, which anticipated the type of psychological twists we started seeing in movies like Fight Club, Sixth Sense and Memento a few years later.

Blizzard's classics: Diablo II/Starcraft/Warcraft III. I played those games the most. I remember looking forward to go home from school to play those games with my friends. I still replay them, always keep them installed.