Your personal top 3 games you have ever played.

[remnant_phoenix]

The Legend of Zelda - This was the game that made me a "gamer". It wasn't the first game I ever played (that would be the original Super Mario Bros.), but it was the first game that really challenged me and made me realize just how amazing games could be.

Chrono Trigger - "It encapsulates everything that made the (JRPG) genre interesting or worthwhile". I was also the first RPG I played (besides Pokemon, but I don't count that). It was the first time that a game's story grabbed me by the chutzpah and wouldn't let go until the end.

Portal - This is the only game I've played as adult that filled me with that same sort of "I must keep playing to find out what happens next and what crazy challenges I'll have to overcome!!!" feeling that I had with the above games when I was a youth.

(Honorable Mention) Dark Souls - Pretty much everything above three rolled into one, except that the story lacked a big payoff in the end. I got the "light the fire" ending, and after everything it took to get there, the short-cutscene-fade-to-black-credits-roll just didn't satisfy. After reading more into the lore and finding out about the Dark Lord ending, I have less issue with it, but Dark Souls still doesn't quite stack up to the above three for me. If the game's storytelling were, in general, just a teensy bit less vague I'd put it at #1.

 

[cikame]

In no specific order.
Max Payne
Half Life 2
Devil May Cry 4.

These are games i can come back to over and over again and easily play through from start to finish.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Disclaimer: None of these games listed are above the others, they are just 3 that jump out instantly.

1. Red Dead Redemption- Because it's possibly the first game to ever make me genuinely feel something beyond a jumpscare or otherwise unnerved, Rockstar's western gets a nod. Its not perfect, but no games are. However, as far as a story goes, its the one with the least amount of holes and the most weight. It beat out the Mass Effect series by way of having a solid arc that wasn't interrupted by a tonal shift that didn't make sense in context to the series. Plus westerns are a rarity and RDR managed to capture the feel of old West flicks while also keeping in tune with the Rockstar humor.

2. Legend of Zelda - A Link to the Past - For some reason this game resonates with me. Maybe it was the peak of childhood before any major responsibility started to creep in, like the last summer before I actually had to worry about shit. But I love this game and can still play it today and enjoy it. Close second to this is OOT and Majora's Mask, but neither have the same weight for me.

3. Streets of Rage 2 - Music 10/10. Gameplay 9/10. Story Why should I care? Its a beat-em-up of the highest caliber. I've probably spent way too much time on this game for how basic it really is but dammit I love it and will hold it in my heart forever as one of my all-time faves.

 

[loa]

Starcraft/2
Pretty much the pinnacle of blizzard games and RTS games.

Dark Souls
Probably one of the most influential games in recent times and for a reason.

Undertale
Breaks the whole box of "jrpg" tropes and shows that impersonal "character growth by stat increases" can be personal and full of character.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

*Head Explodes*

I'm really not good at picking favorite games.

Same here...My top X games rotate more often than (insert Super Hero team name here). There are some that are always in my favorites though so I'll give it a shot.

Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds - I loved Link to the Past and a part of me wanted to just cheat and put in "Legend of Zelda series" but there are some apples in that bunch that I consider to be rotten. Link to the Past was my favorite for a very long time and while I also love Wind Waker & HD (favorite 3D), Twilight Princess, Ocarina of Time, I just get the most out of Link Between Worlds. It's incredibly open like the original but it doesn't feel like a guide game. It pays homage to LoZ3 but doesn't feel like it wallows in it. It makes Rupees feel valuable...I absolutely LOVED this Zelda game. I wish I didn't have to check out the Zelda wiki to find out what the bosses are named though.

Saint's Row 2 - I liked the third but I haven't played the fourth and the main reason I don't plan to play 3 or 4 again before going through number 2 is...well, the side-quests are what made Saint's Row 2 for me. SR3 was fun and I recall cosplaying as The Punisher in that one but SR3 doesn't have Crowd Control, Insurance Fraud or Septic Avenger (possibly the best side quest of all time). Saint's Row was a GTA rip-off but SR2 had made an identity for itself and when it launched, it was exactly what people wanted but didn't get out of GTAIV. Even today, I find a ton of enjoyment playing Saint's Row 2 despite having played it ump-teen times.

Pokemon Soul Silver/Heart Gold - I imported this months before it launched in the United States. I probably got it as soon as it launched in Japan but anyway, Pokemon Silver was my favorite as a kid and while I could put that I love all of the added bells and whistles from gen...four(?) which were implemented into the GS remake. The end result is a beautiful incarnation of Johto and Kanto with tons of stuff to do in a time before Pokemon thought it would be a good idea to implement Super Training which I think of as nothing more than a great way to not play Pokemon while playing Pokemon. Not that I'm against Tamagachi but if I wanted to play with one I would...

Other games that I would rank really highly would be things like;

Konami licensed beat-em-ups from the 90's
Final Fantasy 2, 4, 6, 7, 8 and, 9
Soldier of Fortune 2
GTA-Vice City
Yokai Watch
Dragon Ball Z: Attack of the Saiyans
JUMP! Ultimate Stars
Halo: Reach
Mass Effect
Crackdown
Otogi: Myth of Demons

and many, many others.

 

[shteev]

Doom (1&2), Puzzle Quest (just 1), Tekken (pretty much all of them).

 

[Hawki]

Xenoblade Chronicles would be sharing that throne too, but between weird difficulty issues all the way through and a MASSIVE difficulty spike at the end with no level-appropriate sidequests to use to curb it, AND with all the stupid last second roadblocks they throw in your way RIGHT when the game hits it's climax... I can't put it up there with the two Kings of the genre.

(Seriously, after the big reveal on Mechonis, I was like "holy shit, this game might actually surpass Crono Trigger, wow. All they need to do is stick the landing!"...And then it didn't. Between a boring tedious and hardass dungeon right after, then a bunch of pointless delays in the actual final dungeon, THEN making the final boss rediculously hard with no quick way to level up? BAH! Still a great game and I love it, but there's no way it stands up to the Twin Kings.)

Funnily enough, I feel Xenoblade Chronicles drops the ball at the end, but for different reasons. Post-Mechonis, the game is about as open as it's going to get - I spent much of my time doing side-quests, and with the telethia around, there's always some monsters you can grind on (or just go into Prison Island for easier monsters, or go for the 'uber monsters' if you want some quick affinity points due to how long the fight would go for). Dickson was hard, Zanza even harder, but that wasn't too bad. No. What put me off was that at this point, the "power within" not only enters the dialogue and becomes an actual plot point (Fiora having Meyneth's power within her), not only does Zanza just not...stop...talking...about...gods..., but I have to deal with an outright bonkers plot twist (Earth) that in a world as bonkers as Xenoblade is makes me go...what?!

(Seriously, what does Earth actually add to Zanza's character that couldn't be accomodated for him being a god from the outset?)

So, yeah. Xenoblade does miss out on my top 10 list, but does make it into my top 10 RPGs. Golden Sun still remains my top JRPG for now.

 

[Elfgore]

One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3

Odd choice. Despite really liking One piece and being partial to a DW type game every now and again I never got this game (think I was put off by the gundam ones) but I have heard good things about it. As a side note really looking forward to Burning Blood later (not importing from Japan this time).

I tend to get that a lot. Most games people list in these are at least semi-popular. Not an unknown. This game is in due to having about 50 of the most original and well developed fighters I've seen in all of my warriors games. Each one plays different and with this game all warriors are fairly balanced. I'd recommend it since you're a fan of both series.

 

[Skatalite]

Two of them are easy, Dark Souls and Half-Life 2, but I'm not so sure about my third one (not counting other Souls games).
Probably Journey or Shadow of the Colossus, but I really can't pick between them.

 

[Ironman126]

It also helps that it is probably the first game I've played where being a mage is fun for the spellcasting itself, not just the idea that you can set a fire with the wave of a hand.

I could never bring myself to play a mage. It looks incredibly satisfying, but being a mage in DA2 means that I would have to put up with Carver. I really hate Carver. Which is good, because there is nothing worse than a character I am ambivalent towards. Like Mass Effect 2 and the 12 teammates I had to collect, so I could ignore all but three or four of them.

To a lesser extent, DA2 kinda does that, too. I can count on both hands the number of times I brought Fenris or Anders anywhere and most of those were their story missions and one was the Deep Roads. To be fair, most of that was the fact I simply didn't need a healer or a DPS warrior (three rouges and Merril work just fine for the situations that don't involve a dragon).

 

[RedDeadFred]

1. Mount and Blade Warband
I've ranted about this game a lot here, so I'll keep it short. It's the ultimate medieval sandbox game. Start as a peasant, lead a band of companions, become a vassal, lead an army, stab your king in the back and conquer the world. Also, mods. Many mods.

2. The Witcher 3
I've had almost a year to reflect on this and determine if I really did consider it among my top 3 games of all time. The answer is a definite yes. To be honest, if it were't for the modding scene with Warband, this game would be number one. It has the greatest open world ever, and it's really not even close. The side quests are all interesting and you genuinely feel like you're a part of the world. Many of the quest lines were better than entire other games (good games too). Also worth mentioning, the first expansion somehow outdoes the base game and delivers the best quest line yet. It's crazy how good this game is.

3. Skyrim/Oblivion (I really don't know which one I like more)
Best fantasy sandbox game. Also, I feel like my list is unfair since two of my top 3 games are heavily dependent on their amazing modding communities.

Top 3 games if ONLY counting the base game and no modding help:
1. The Witcher 3
2. Bastion -favourite soundtrack, gorgeous art design, and one of the most deeply moving stories in video games. Out of all these games, for me, it's the closest to perfect.
3. The top 2 are the only ones I'm sure of. The rest change on a day to day basis. However, today number 3 is Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker. Easily my favourite of the series. The art style is perfect, the story felt a lot more nuanced than many of the previous titles, and the open sea was a delight. One of my fondest gaming memories is simply sailing that beautiful ocean with the best soundtrack of the series playing.

 

[American Fox]

Shining Force 1 and 2
Resident Evil 2
Lego Pirates of the Carribean

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

- Metroid Prime
I talk about it less than the next two coming up but I'd say it was my first favorite game so if I were to declare one of the others my favorite, I'd feel guilty, like I'd hurt it's feelings.

-Bioshock
Perfection put to disk.

- Bloodborne
See, if this thread had popped up, like, two months earlier, I don't know what would go here, maybe The Last Of Us. I got Bloodborne a couple of months ago and I heard it was good but I did not expect it to sweep me off my feet like it did. I'm a Souls series virgin too so guess what I'm getting into whenever I finish Bloodborne?

 

[Guffe]

Oh fuck me....
Top 3 favorite games
uuuuhhmmmm.........

Warcraft III Reign of Chaos and Thr Frozen Throne
Pokemone Gen I (Red/Blue) and II (Gold/Silver), might be cheating putting both those gens here, if I only choose one of the generations it would be Gold/Silver

NO IDE WHAT THE THIRD ONE IS....
There are too many, those two are basically what got me into gaming, Pokemon on the original Gameboy as a 10-year-old made my dreams come true about being a PokemonMaster while WarcraftIII is the first game I played in my teens that I put several hundreds of hours into. And I still play WarcraftIII occasionally.

Good shouts for third spot would be:
Xenoblade Chronicles (both ones)
SmashBros
Zelda games
Tales of Symphonia
etc

 

[FPLOON]

Well, due to Pony Island (and to a more similar extent Undertale), my personal [top] picks has been skewed... so, I'm going to list 4 because that's how many fingers are on just one of my hands...Tales of Symphonia (GameCube): It's still the only JRPG I've beaten more than 10 times and as much as I want to blame the game's "New Game +" involving its GRADE system, I just really wanted to replay this game over and over again... considering it always felt like I haven't seen everything this game had to offer overall...Kingdom Hearts (PS2): As much as I would want to choose Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories for the Gameboy Advance (especially when that game's story works best without prior knowledge of the first game in my opinion), the first game in the series felt the most stand-alone to the point where I really enjoyed replaying this game for what it was...Rayman 3 (Gameboy Advance): It feels wierd mentioning this Rayman game after playing Rayman Origins and especially Rayman legends, but it does not change the fact that it was the first Rayman game I've played to 100% completion... and that's not including mentioning Rayman Advance as both being the first video game I've ever owned and the precursor to enjoying Rayman 3 a lot more the same way Rayman Origins was to enjoying Rayman Legends a lot more...Pony Island/Undertale (PC): I went into both of these games under a particular mindset and left with a different mindset that far exceeded my expectations... For Pony Island, it was through its gameplay that kept me going until I found out the full truth of the situation... For Undertale, it was the story that engaged me on an unexpected level even after it "ended"...I can think of a lot of honorable mentions that stem back to multiple post on this very forum alone, but there's still a limit to how much text can fit into one post in general...

 

[K12]

My PS2 broke recently and I mourned it's passing primarily due to these 2 games:

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time - Almost certainly the game that I've played through more times than any other.

Shadow of the Colossus - Wonderful in every way and I would love a remake once "The Last Guardian" gets finished so time in the early 2100s (preferably with the other 32 planned colossi that got cut from the original)

(also Okami which I hate that I never finished and Devil May Cry which I probably should have given another shot)

For my third I'd go with Dark Souls though this might well get replaced by Dark Souls 3 if the game stands the test of time after it stops infected my dreams.

There are plenty of games that I might think are better of equally high quality as these but these but I am very confident that I will never ever stop wanting to play these three guys... though with "Shadow of the Colossus" I now can't!

 

[MysticSlayer]

(Seriously, what does Earth actually add to Zanza's character that couldn't be accomodated for him being a god from the outset?)

For starters, it sort of reflects where Shulk is at towards the end. His world is dying (similar to Earth), and he is the only one left with a Monado, essentially giving him the power of a god. He's shown that he isn't the first to be in that position: Zanza had been given the opportunity to destroy Earth and recreate a new world to serve him as a god, similar to the decision Shulk has at the end. Meyneth, despite having been highly benevolent as a god, argued against such a decision and even tried to stop Zanza. Shulk basically is given the choice to follow Zanza's path or accomplish what Meyneth tried to do from the beginning: Leave everyone in a world without gods. Sure, he could go on to follow Meyneth as a benevolent god, but that wouldn't have been what she wanted.

There's also probably a lot of Nietzsche philosophy involved if you dissect the dialogue, but I'm not familiar enough to do that. Regardless, I found the ending to deal more with Shulk than Zanza. It also has quite a bit to do with Meyneth, and it is where we finally get answers to some of the questions regarding who Alvis is.

 

[Landwalker]

In no particular order:

Chrono Cross: Yeah, I know, not Chrono Trigger. I never actually finished CT, although I did enjoy it (and all its mentions here are making me want to drag it back out and take another whack at it). But damn do I love Chrono Cross. I love the characters, the world, the music, the everything.

Crusader Kings 2: I love the Paradox grand strategy games as a whole, but the medieval era has and always will have a special place in my heart. It's so easy to get wrapped up in your dynasty's characters in this game and start creating head-stories for them, and there's such great variety in terms of how to tackle the game. For sheer hours spent, this probably takes home the trophy.

Kerbal Space Program: Okay, fine, I'm a dork. But in addition to having adorable kerbonauts, it's a fascinating game, and it gives you such a strong feeling of accomplishment each time you pull off something difficult that you'd never done before that you can almost cut that feeling with a knife.

Honorable Mentions: Final Fantasy Tactics, Wild Arms, Civilization (any), Tropico (I like T5 the best), Mount & Blade: Warband, Europa Universalis IV, Banished, Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura, Majesty, Rollercoaster Tycoon (series), and Company of Heroes.

 

[Spunky88]

1.Yakuza 5- Love the mix of beat-em-up and adventure
2.Resident Evil 4- For the pacing and suspense
3.Sonic 1- For the excellet control and fun gameplay

Still haven't gotten tired of playing these games ,can't even tell you how many times I have played through RE4 and Sonic 1 (I'm on my 2nd playthrough of Yakuza 5)

 

[Dizchu]

Doom, System Shock 2 and Undertale. Easy.