Best games of all time that you always keep coming back to?

cornyflake

Junior Member
Oct 16, 2020
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What are your favourite games so far that you keep coming back to? The old ones or the new ones? Just simply curious to see what are the gaming experiences are and what are the main titles that left the biggest impression.
 

Ichinisan

Lifer
Oct 9, 2002
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Super Mario Bros
Super Mario Bros 3
Super Mario 64
Tetris Attack / Panel de Pon
Donkey Kong Country
Super Metroid
Zelda 3 (A Link to the Past)

Not exactly "PC games," but I've probably spent as much time playing these on PC emulators (except SM64 is almost exclusively played on a real console).
 
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GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
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Nowadays I'm on a mission to play though the games I haven't played in my library, so I don't really "come back" to any games anymore.

I did go through a period where I was pretty heavily using games as an escape from a stressful life, and then I found myself constantly returning to Bioware's "modern classics" : Dragon Age 1 and the Mass Effect Series.

Got my life a bit sorted and got myself back into a mindset of playing games for the entertainment rather than the pure escapism and decided to patient gamer my Steam library.
 

Craig234

Lifer
May 1, 2006
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Funny. I'm literally planning to finally play one of the Deus Ex series today. Baldur's gate 1 and 2, the AoE remakes, and Black Mesa (HL remake) are all on my recent and/or planned games. I think I kept my characters in Diablo II refreshed every 90 days for over a decade, until I finally forgot and they were deleted, because Blizzard has a crappy system on that.
 

Zenoth

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Jan 29, 2005
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There's plenty of games I keep going back to, but they're not necessarily my "best of all time". They're simply pure fun

I'm a 90s kid so for me it's always been Beat 'em Ups, and some shooters (the term "shooters" here is my 90s take on what is nowadays referred to as "Shmups", which is a term I never use). So games like TMNT3 (Manhattan Project), TMNT4 (Turtles in Time), Golden Axe 1 & 2, Streets of Rage 2 & 3 (a bit of 4 as well now), Cadillacs & Dinosaurs, Double Dragon 1 & 2 (or Super DD), Alien Vs Predator (the Capcom Arcade one) are my all-time Classics. When it comes to shooters, the number of them is lesser overall, but there's a few specifics like Aero Blasters (Air Buster), Twin Cobra and Raiden (or Super Raiden) being among ones I come back to from time to time.

It's probably weird, I guess, but to me there's a distinction between a game (or some games) I would consider to be masterpieces / "best of all time" titles, even though I don't necessarily keep going back to; and games I wouldn't exactly write a novel about but I can easily just pick and play and have a blast with. In fact, one of my absolute favorite game of all time is Dragon Age: Origins. In fact I think it's most likely my #1 Game of All Time (it's an internal debate I've had for years but it's very much up there), and I finished it about 3 times "only". But I've played something like Streets of Rage 2 probably two or three times more in my life. I would say something like SoR2 is among the best of all time in its own genre, sure, but I wouldn't say it's one of the best games I've ever played in my life. I guess it's just how I see it, I'd understand if it this is confusing for some but yeah, it's how I see things.

But yeah, anyway, games I can easily come back to are mostly Arcade-style games / ports, and in some select cases RTSes (WH40K Dark Crusade / Soulstorm, Command & Conquer 2, specifically).
 

delonm

Member
Apr 10, 2011
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HoMM II & III

Diablo II

Everquest (p99 version)

Might & Magic 6

I actually got a wild hair to really get in touch with my youthful innocence a while back and loaded up Might & Magic 3, Wizardry 7, Bard's Tale, and Ultima III. Regrettably, I find that I am now spoiled. I just could not handle the ultra low res graphics and almost non-existent mouse support. They looked terrible when stretched full screen on my 38" 4K monitor and were approximately the size of a postage stamp when run in a window. Sadly, with a tear running down my face, I deleted them (again).
 

Craig234

Lifer
May 1, 2006
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This is hilarious. I played EQ - go Prexus server - and just recently tried to play M&M VII, having enjoyed VI years ago, but can't get it to run. I played HoMM III not that long ago. Maybe there's a way at some point you can find to run them, maybe a cheap small CRT?
 

Shmee

Memory & Storage, Graphics Cards Mod Elite Member
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Sep 13, 2008
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Probably classic Doom as it lived the longest IMO and modders still are developing for it. I also used to play Starcraft BW, Quake 2, and UT a lot, but not as much any more.
 
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Well, believe it or not, Virtua Tennis on PC is something that never fails to entertain me, even if it's just for 5 minutes.

And who can ever get enough of the X-wing/Tie fighter games? Wish they would open source them so I would have gazillions of tense nail biting missions to play.
 

TheELF

Diamond Member
Dec 22, 2012
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This is hilarious. I played EQ - go Prexus server - and just recently tried to play M&M VII, having enjoyed VI years ago, but can't get it to run. I played HoMM III not that long ago. Maybe there's a way at some point you can find to run them, maybe a cheap small CRT?
HoMM III has a non-official HD patch that makes it work on higher resolutions, 4k might still be too much for it though,but doing a windowed 1080 should be good.
There are a lot of classic games with similar patches.
 

rivethead

Platinum Member
Jan 16, 2005
2,635
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HoMM II & III

Diablo II

Everquest (p99 version)

Might & Magic 6

I actually got a wild hair to really get in touch with my youthful innocence a while back and loaded up Might & Magic 3, Wizardry 7, Bard's Tale, and Ultima III. Regrettably, I find that I am now spoiled. I just could not handle the ultra low res graphics and almost non-existent mouse support. They looked terrible when stretched full screen on my 38" 4K monitor and were approximately the size of a postage stamp when run in a window. Sadly, with a tear running down my face, I deleted them (again).

I haven't played yet (in my backlog) but this might solve your Bard's Tale issues:

 

CP5670

Diamond Member
Jun 24, 2004
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Freespace 2, Descent 2 and Deus Ex. I've just been replaying some Freespace 2 campaigns on my new monitor (a TV). Many of the games of that era have tons of great mods and fanmade missions that surpass a lot of commercial games, and are open source in some cases with modernized engines.
 
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GodisanAtheist

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Freespace 2, Descent 2 and Deus Ex. I've just been replaying some Freespace 2 campaigns on my new monitor (a TV). Many of the games of that era have tons of great mods and fanmade missions that surpass a lot of commercial games, and are open source in some cases with modernized engines.

- I have played the Freespace 2 and FSO with mods so many times I cannot count. That eventually died off though. If there was ever a game that I wished would get a sequel its Freespace 2.
 

CP5670

Diamond Member
Jun 24, 2004
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- I have played the Freespace 2 and FSO with mods so many times I cannot count. That eventually died off though. If there was ever a game that I wished would get a sequel its Freespace 2.

I made one of the mod projects for it and have been involved in its community for a long time. There was never any space sim since then that really matched it in every way, so it has remained popular.
 

bbhaag

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Jul 2, 2011
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For me the main three I always go back to and play though are Diablo2, Super Metroid, and Super Mario. No matter how many times I've played them I just keep going back.
 
Jul 27, 2020
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There's a plain text settings file in the folder structure of GTA 3 that you can tinker with. I usually change the physics of the taxi cab to have maximum speed and max inertia. Every other vehicle in its path will go flying off into the sky. Never gets old.
 

mikeymikec

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May 19, 2011
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HL2 series
Quake series
UFO Enemy Defence
XCOM 2012 EU/EW
XCOM2 series
Tomb Raider 1+2+4
Kotor1&2
Deadpool
Batman AA / AC
Witcher 3 series
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
Skyrim
 

Mopetar

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Jan 31, 2011
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Puzzle games like Portal are only enjoyable if the level design lends itself well to mechanics being implemented. Any particularly clever mechanic requires level design to be just as clever and that's no easy feat.

One game I could easily play over and over again is A Link to the Past. Well, any Zelda game really, but that one in particular has always been a favorite.
 

SteveGrabowski

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Oct 20, 2014
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If I had to pick a top 5 that I keep going back to:
  1. Super Mario Bros
  2. Shinobi (the arcade game)
  3. Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne
  4. Persona 4 Golden
  5. NieR Automata
 
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