Having just completed the platinum trophy for Resident Evil 4 Remake (in VR), I was inspired to make this thread. I don't want to do a poll - I'm sure we could never come to a consensus of "top game," but I am interested to see what others consider among their favorites. The games I list are my top games, not necessarily what I think might be universally acclaimed as "greatest of all time."

I really only have a "top 2" and it is:
1) Final Fantasy 7
The original; though Remake is amazing (10/10), it will take the rest of the trilogy being as good, before it could share the top spot.

2) Resident Evil 4 - Wii Edition / Resident Evil 4 Remake - PSVR2
PSVR2 is the definitive version of the game. If VR makes you sick, the Wii Edition is incredible. I don't really like how the game plays with a controller (original or remake), and it's only 9/10 with mouse and keyboard.

Other games/game series that I won't rank, but consider to be among the best of all time:
Elden Ring - The only modern game besides the above for which I completed the platinum trophy.
Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Justifies buying a Nintendo Switch by itself. I'm not a big Zelda fan, otherwise.
Final Fantasy: Tactics - The best tactical RPG of all time, with an amazing story.
X-Com - I put so many hours into the original. The way it incorporated UFO/alien myths into the story of the game was amazing. Procedurally generated maps meant "infinite" replay value. The modern reimagining is incredible, too, though modern X-Com 2 has better gameplay despite losing the UFO coolness of modern X-Com 1.
Master of Orion 2 - The pinnacle of 4X space games from computer gaming's golden age.
Total War - Almost every title in the series is incredible. I probably spent the most time with Rome 1, but Rome 2 is my favorite. I spent many hours with friends at LAN parties playing Medieval 1 battles in college.
Halo: Combat Evolved - Speaking of LAN parties in college...I bought the original X-Box (and 4 controllers) just for this game. I was the reigning Halo champion at my college.
Metal Gear Solid - I think Snake Eater (MGS3) might be my favorite, but the original definitely had a greater impact on me.
Command and Conquer - In the old days, the question was "StarCraft or C&C?" The answer: C&C. I was ranked top 20 in the world in Red Alert 2 for a while. Kane's line in Red Alert 1: "The foreseeable future...Comrade Chairman, I AM the future" is one of the best lines ever.
Super Mario World - The whole Mario Bros series is great, but this is my favorite.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (3 with Sonic and Knuckles attached) - Sonic was legendary back in the '90's, and this was my favorite one because you could actually save your game. There was also a NG+ where you could replay the game after obtaining all the chaos emeralds. Sweet.
Conquest of the New World - An obscure(?) 4X game where you founded a colony in the New World, eventually fought a war for independence from the mother country, and conquered the land. Very simple but engaging battle system. It displayed real life factoids about history during the loading screens - I legitimately learned a lot from the game.
Half-Life - I don't even know what to say about this one. The legacy is marred a little by the sequels being delayed/never being released. The spinoffs, especially Counter Strike, are also legendary. I was one of the top CS players at my college.

Some games I liked a lot that don't rise to "best ever" aka: honorable mentions:
Privateer - Spinoff from Wing Commander (WC3 with Mark Hamill as the main character was amazing as a kid).
Joe Montana Football - Better than Madden!
NBA Jam - I prefer the 1993 Sega Genesis version.
Civilization - The origin of "one more turn." 2 is probably the "best" with 4 being close. The modern ones are alright, too.
Sid Meier's Pirates! - I didn't play the original, but the 2004 remake is a super fun game.
Gran Turismo - Most of the series is incredible. I have to give the nod to 7 and VR mode, though (with a wheel and pedals, of course). I remember my brother staying up all night playing the original to buy a Dodge Viper, and then realizing we didn't have a memory card for the PlayStation.
Star Wars: Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast - I used to be a huge Star Wars fan, and played every Star Wars game. Most of the games sucked, but this one not only didn't suck, but was legitimately awesome.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - KOTOR is the best Star Wars game ever (which is, unfortunately, a low bar). KOTOR 2 could have been better if they'd have been allowed to complete it.
StarCraft/WarCraft - Not as good as the old C&C games, still great, though.
Total Annihilation - It never really caught on like C&C and StarCraft/WarCraft, but it was a much more strategic game. Lots of fun. I was once ranked top 50 in the world in this one. The spiritual successor Supreme Commander never captured the same magic, though was a decent game.
X-Wing/Tie Fighter - The only other Star Wars games that didn't suck (and were actually really good).
Doom - This will just be a catchall for the originals and modern ones. Fantastic games.
Delta Force - A "realistic" shooter from 1998 made by the now defunct NovaLogic. I think it was the first shooter I played competitively.
Splinter Cell - Great story. Great voice actor (Michael Ironside). 2's multiplayer was a ton of fun, and my friends and I spent many hours playing it at LAN parties.
Chrono Trigger - The best non-Final Fantasy JRPG.
Skyrim - Hundreds of hours spent playing, yet I never finished the main story...
Ninja Gaiden - The originals on Nintendo were punishingly difficult. The new ones were difficult but insanely fun (1st was best).
Magic Carpet - This game came pre-installed on the first PC I ever owned. You fly around on a magic carpet, hurling magic spells at rival wizards as you gather mana to "restore the worlds to equilibrium." Very cool concept. I'd love to see a modern reimagining.
Star Wars Galaxies - This gets honorable mention because I programmed macros to level characters while I was AFK, and unlocked several Jedi which I sold on eBay to pay for some of my college.


I probably forgot a few games, and there are others I might not think are "best of all time" such as Metroid, Mega Man, or other Zelda games. Most of my top games are from what I consider the Golden and Silver Ages of gaming: ~1993-2008. Though after so many amazing games this last year, we could be heading for a renaissance.

Please feel free to argue/disagree with me and post your own "greatest of all time" lists.

NHL 94 on sega genesis is the greatest sports game ever made

Battlefield 1942 and Battlefield 3 are the greatest multiplayer games ever made.

Police quest, kings quest, space quest and leisure suit Larry were best adventure games

F-19 Stealth fighter, Red Baron, A10-Tank killer and IL2sturmovik best Sims

GTA 3, VC, SA and IV and V best crime games...


Ohhh Delta Force...now that's a name I have not heard in a long time!  My 21 year old self use to troll with the handle 67yearoldbadass lmao

Ahh yes OG halo ce Lan parties....we use to play until the sun came up like crackheads

List has no standing with me as it omits Battletoads.

Everyone knows Battletoads is the best game of all time. And the hardest.

That game kicked my ass as a kid, and I beat all the Ninja Gaidens!

Wrong....section z was the hardest fucking game

Battlefield 2
Fallout New Vegas

Portal and Portal 2.

Final Fantasy 7
Resident Evil 2
Resident Evil 4
Dead Space
Silent Hill 2
Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind
Fallout: New Vegas
Metal Gear Solid
Elden Ring
Mass Effect

The Last of Us

Omit the DLC if you’re triggered; it’s a masterpiece of storytelling and it’s nice to see the HBO series doing it justice.

God of War
XenoGears
Yoshi’s Island
Metal Gear Solid
Super Metroid
Street Fighter II
Soul Reaver
Knights of The Old Republic
Halo CE
Final Fantasy 8
Call of Duty 4
Half Life 2
TES: Oblivion
Witcher 3
Resident Evil 2
Bioshock
Donkey Kong Country 2
GoldenEye 007
Metroid Prime
GTA: Vice City

Man so many left to list

Edit: added a few more

Oo nice pick with Soul Reaver.

Yeah, that's a classic that could be a candidate for a modern remake.

In my head I grouped those with Half-Life, but I guess they were distinct games. Definitely great ones.

Ultima Online

Socom 2, the end.

No Diablo.
No GTA.

4/10 would not read again

KOTOR 1 and 2

1- Metal Gear Solid 3- Most incredible story of any game ever.  Gameplay doesn't hold up by today's standards, but I don't think anything will ever knock this out of my top spot.
2- Final Fantasy X_ edges out FF7 for me, they nailed the atmosphere and other than a few shit minigames, this is flawless.  Incredible and gut-wrenching story.
3- Nier Automata- Criminally underrated.  Amazing story and fucking deep.  The best soundtrack of any game ever.
4- Bloodborne- The best Soulsborne.  Amazing bosses and the best lore/story if you're paying attention.  Ludwig and Lady Maria are two of my favorite bosses in the series.
5- God of War (2018)- Kratos' evolution as a character and maturity is unreal.  The scenes with Athena are some of the best ever in gaming.

FF7
FF Tactics- I probably have more time on this one than any others.  Dunno why this is the only PS1 FF to not be re-released for modern consoles with trophy/achievement support
MGS
MGS4- took me doing a platinum run to fully appreciate this game.  Way ahead of its time and Old Snake is the best protagonist in the series, imo
Sekiro
Skyrim
Castlevania: SoTN
The Last of Us
Horizon Zero Dawn
God of War 3
RE2 remake
Nier (remaster)

Witcher 3
Skyrim
RDR2
GTA 3
Metal Gear Solid 1
BF3
Gran Turismo 2
Tribes

My favorite game of all time has been Far Cry 2, but I'm pretty biased toward the African setting and conflict (I live out this way and I'm writing this from Kenya after going on a safari game drive with my kids this morning).

When I finally got to visit rural Kenya and Tanzania, it felt like I was walking around the game maps.

Turns out the game designers took a trip out this way and based their game designs on stuff they saw. They 100% nailed it.

Tetris.

Also, I really liked The Secret of Mana.

Mine would be

Fall Out 4, first one of the fallout games I've played.  I've heard new vegas is better but I can't get past those graphics.
Halo Combat Evolved
Splinter Cell, the one that had Co-Op play
Starfield, even with the bugs which are frustrating as fuck this is an incredible game.
Condemned Criminal Origins, this game took me about a month to beat, I didn't sleep well while I was playing it and there was one part that scared me so bad I yelled out loud.
Grand Theft Auto San Andreas
Grand Theft Auto V
RalliSport Challenge, an amazing rally game that was killed by EA
Forza, I've probably spent the most time on these.  My friends and I would do a weekly hour long endurance race where the winner picked the next weeks car and class and the loser picked the track.
Project Gotham Racing 2, A friend and I would work to get through all of the challenges together taking turns when we failed.  Some of those cone challenges were an absolute bastard to do.

Honorable Mentions.
Fable, fucking great soundtrack and my first RPG.
Oblivion, My first dip into a real RPG.

Holy shit, I forgot Duke Nukem, Rainbow Six 3, Rainbow Six Blackout, Day Z.  I have friends all over the country from the last 3.  Spent thanksgiving with one of them when my parents were gone one year and went golfing in Murtle beach with others one year.  I've got one buddy in Canada that is a pilot and keeps threatening to come down here.

Meh.  I've tried to make myself play resident evil before.  All of them.  Even the 4 remake for the wii, and my wife has the one for playstation with the VR.  I never could get into it.  Its just slow and boring.  The game is on rails where you have to perform specific actions in a specific order while sitting through dialog.  They throw in jump scares to try and keep you from realizing how bored you are.

I'm with you on the old mario, mario 3, sonic3+knuckles.  

mortal kombat series up through ultimate MK3.  Basically all of them that were made for the sega genesis system.  Then the series went through half a dozen shit games while they tried to figure out what to do next and how to add a 3D arena to the 2D fighting game genre.

Smash bros and mario kart are great.  They managed to make fighting and racing games that were easy for anybody to pick up.  And there was enough control built in that you could really sink some time into it and develop skills.

guitar hero series was great because it was actually a new genre.  They developed entirely new styles of controllers to play it.  And then of coarse the song tracks.  They introduced younger people to some of the great old music, and vice versa.

Gran turismo 3 on PS2.

Was wondering when this, EQ would show up

guitar

Halo LAN parties and Counter Strike cafe's were peak gaming for me.

Honorable mention to Goldeneye 64 and Mario Kart 64. Lots of fun with the neighborhood kids.

Early WoW took up a lot of my time but it was more of a "carrot on a stick" that kept me playing instead of pure fun.

I'm not surprised to not see it on the list, considering it's a fairly esoteric game in the West.



Though tbh SHOC isn't my favorite, too janky. Some of the mods, like Anomaly or GAMMA, are much better. And do well to capture the survival elements.

EQ was a close second.

You see all these huge tech companies investing into trying to create a Metaverse.

These idiots don't know that the closest we've ever come was 20+ years ago in a UO or EQ server.

Halo one def deserves an honorable mention as well for FPS

I did play that one. Pretty interesting game, despite not making my list.

Other games like System Shock and BioShock are great games that I don't consider "greatest of all time," but I'm surprised no one else brought up.

I purposely didn't include MMOs (except for my college-paying honorable mention), but UO and EQ could easily be on a list of "most significant" of all time, if not a "best of" list.

MechWarrior 2.  Still some of the best PC game music ever recorded.

For sure. I completely forgot about MechWarrior 2.

Contra

MW2 was good, but MW4 was better.

FFTactics is so high above every other game on my list.

Pitfall

Metal Gear Solid IV

Anybody remember Red Faction?

That was definitely my favorite shooter of all time. Back in the days of playing split screen on the couch with all the buddies.

Quake 2

Manhunt

Jeehun Hwang makes some great music. I know he did MW2 and MW2M, not sure if he did GBL.




As a longtime BattleTech fan, MW2 was better than MW4 in terms of gameplay. Though MW3 was the best.

Mechwarrior 4 and Mechwarrior 4:Mercenaries were the best in the series overall.

I enjoyed MW2 (especially the Ghost Bear's legacy expansion which had the best missions overall of any of the games) but story, customizing the mechs and gameplay goes to Mercs. The final assualt in Mercs is the best mission of the series.

MW4 Mekpak was great for learning to poptart ahead of time for MWO. ggclose

Another vote for Secret of Mana as best game. The astonishing thing is the story is only half of what they actually planned to put in.

Playing a game with the three (and not just two!) of us on the snes back in the day was a phenomenal memory.

The "which MechWarrior game is best" is kind of like "which Civilization game is best."

I recognize the series as amazing, and while I have a personal favorite, each game is pretty great.

My favorite is 5


Just kidding, 4 Mercenaries is probably the best, but it stands on the shoulders of giants.

MechWarrior 5: Clans is supposed to come out in 2024; should be decent.

C'mon, this long and no Zelda Link to the past!?

I still play FC2 annually.   I was in TZ in the winter, so things were greener

Don't forget your bottle of Konyagi.

Cheers!
Attached File

Falcon 4.0

Atari Pong.

Donkey Kong is the greatest game of all time