We all have that one game that holds a special place in our hearts. What game is it for you?
For me, it’s Metal Slug. Growing up, every Monday, my parents would drag me to the laundromat after work. As a kid, it was a pretty boring, but I had my toys, origami books, and coloring books to keep me entertained. However, my favorite thing to do was playing the Metal Slug arcade machine with my dad.
My dad was great at the game, and he taught me how to play. Though I improved, I could never keep up. When I’d inevitably die, he’d let me take over his side to let me have a bit more playtime. My favorite part was when he’d share stories from when he lived in another country and would go to the local arcade.
Those moments are cherished memories, and even today, whenever I visit an arcade, Metal Slug is the first game I play, despite still being terrible at it haha
Honorable mention goes to Mario 64, another game that holds a special place in my heart. I got an N64 from a garage sale, and playing Mario 64 while at home, with my mom’s “chore” music in the background ignited my love for gaming
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Thank you for sharing!
Outer Wilds, I refuse to elaborate because it will ruin the experience.
I have yet to play it and every time I see someone bring it up in a comment or video I instantly close it haha.
I love going in blind into new games and I’ve heard this game is a great experience
I can confirm that going in blind is a great way to enjoy it. I played it for my book club, having never seen a trailer, screenshot, or even recalled the text.
PLAY. IT.
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Wow what a story. It shows how games can be meaningful. Hope you’re living well!
Thank you. Just taking things day by day, small step by small step.
My first play through I romanced Shane and like you his story resonated too hard with my actual reality.
I made a new farm and love my himbo Alex.
Two come to mind.
First is Monkey Island. It’s the first game I ever finished all by myself. The opening scene with the theme music still gives me goosebumps.
The second is Daggerfall, the first game I devoted an ungodly amount of hours to. I spend all my time exploring every nook and cranny of that world, playing the tourist, borrowing huge amounts of money in some tiny country with no intend on paying back, splurging that money on houses, boats, clothes, armor and whatever else I wanted :)On a similar note, Full Throttle is my favourite game ever, and has been since I first played it. I love everything about that game.
Sid Meier’s Pirates! I played it so much as a kid. Now I’m 43 and I played it a couple of months ago. It’s still a great game!
Life is Strange. For me it was the most emotion I ever got out of any medium ever
I played it long after it had come out. I purposely avoided learning anything more about it than I already had. I knew I would play it at some point. I knew what I was getting myself into. But I could never have prepared to fall in love the very second the main menu theme started playing. And that was only a setup for the rest of the game.
It’s crazy how much of this game was exactly what I needed. I had lived not far from the Oregon coast during the time this was set. Spent a lot of time there. I left a couple years before this game out, just long enough to start missing it deeply. The visuals and the dialogue especially were so on point that it was deeply nostalgic for me. The story about losing and reconnecting with friends, the nerdy shit, all the anxieties, even the animist undertones, I connected with all of it. This game is even a big reason why I started following voice actors, as I was so impressed by Ashly Burch in this role. Chloe is why I played Before the Storm and the Farewell episode, too.
This is the closest a game has ever felt to being tailor-made for me. It was a step on my mental health journey. I started journaling after playing this. And I started moving on.
I’ll definitely check it out now! You make it sound like a great game
I don’t want to oversell it! So much of how the game connected with me was due to unique circumstances and a lot of coincidences.
It’s not a bad game, though. Got pretty decent reviews.
SOMA. Go in blind.
This one’s the game that lives rent-free in my head and is impossible to evict even though I’d like to sometimes😅
Probably a lame answer, but Minecraft for sure. No other single game has stuck with me this long, and I have so many good memories of playing it over the past 12 years. Sure there are franchises like Mario Kart and Animal Crossing I come back to every time there’s a new entry, but Minecraft has been this continuous thing that’s just always there, and I can never really stop playing it for more than a couple months before it brings me back.
The only other piece of media that’s stuck with me so long is a book series that’s still getting new releases every year or so.
I love going back to Minecraft once or twice a year.
I have so many good memories in that game and there are friends I made while playing Minecraft Hunger Games that I still talk to today and I met them back in like 2013.
Whenever I first started playing I took the PVP route, but now I mostly play survival with friends. I truly love that game
Modded Minecraft is like a drug
Planescape: Torment
The game changed the nature of who I am.I’m surprised and delighted to see this so high up! This was the first RPG I ever really got immersed in, and what an incredible ride it was.
What can change the nature of a man? This game, apparently
Updated my journal
Just noticed your username, what a great character. The whole arc with the unbroken circle of zerthimon… I might need to go ahead and reinstall.
It’s one of the few games where I genuinely cared for the characters.
Most RPGs these days, I end up becoming some variation of murderhobo because by the end I’m fed up with every other NPC or faction.Love the Planescape setting, love the characters.
I played Numerana… but it didn’t scratch the itch.
I didn’t finish it, maybe it got better, maybe it’s not for me.It’s been a few years since I reinstalled, maybe I should.
Spiritfarer. I don’t think I’ve ever cried harder while playing something than this.
Oh god, “Spiritfarer” can break a person.
The soundtrack really hits you deeply, too.
The only time i cried harder was while playing RiME, and part of it was how unexpected it was. That spiritfarer got to me was kind of expected from the start, still dived in head first.
I played this after losing both of my maternal grandparents within weeks of each other a couple years back (they were both in their mid-90s and one of them brought COVID home) and Spiritfarer really helped me process my emotions and get through everything. Some of the characters reminded me of them in various ways, which was touching and cathartic. What a beautiful game.
Among others mentioned Tomb Raider (2013) is among my favorites. I know it’s objectively far from the best game in any way, but I’ll never forget my first 100% of the game. I spent the last hour of that playthrough trying to finish the last collectible quest. I had to shoot mines on and around the beach. After running around crazy not being able to find that last mine I gave in and looked up a walkthrough to see where it could be. Sure enough it was not there for me. Turns out, it can get glitched out and spawn in a different place, which I was able to find. Problem was, the hitbox didn’t like the new placement, so shooting at it did absolutely nothing. After half an hour of running around, aiming at it from every angle I could, i finally saw the crosshair turn red for a moment. The mine was gone soon enough.
In a similar boat is Beyond Two Souls, a very hit or miss game, I admit. I was finally able to play it when it came out on PC. I didn’t even realize how much it had grown on me when, and since I had first watched a playthrough of it. I played through it in one sleepless night. Then again, though a bit more spread out, after the Steam release. And now it’s out on GOG, so guess what I’m going to be doing this weekend.
Honorable mention to Gone Home. I randomly picked a game from my brother’s library and had no idea it would be a start for a new era of gaming for me.
I recently finished Tomb Raider 2013! I actually uploaded a review here haha
I had a lot of fun with it and I was thinking about finishing it 100% but I started playing something else instead. Maybe on my next run I will do that
Yeah it’s a bit of a chore… but a fun chore! When you’re in the mood…
Borderlands. Couch co-op with my brother was pretty much what videogames was to me as a kid, and borderlands was always our favorite. I can’t wait to have a platform I can play borderlands 3 and the tiny Tina game on with him over the Christmases when hes back in town (I know they’re not quite as good, thats perfectly okay)
These days, hollow knight is also genuinely very special to me. I don’t think there’s any game I hold in the same kind of place of reverence
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Star Control 2
It’s so good, although I think I only ever got about 20% through. I should try again now I’m older and wiser(?).
There have been so many great games but I don’t think I’ve had as much fun in video games than I did in Minecraft or Battlefield: Bad Company 2.
BC2 was so damn good holy shit. My guys have war stories from that game lol
Sadly the BF series hasn’t been the same since.
I still remember my first Minecraft worlds. I first played it on my iPod, then on my PC a couple years later.
I fell in love with the game twice. I think that it is my most played game of all time.
