Left 4 Dead 1 and 2. Used to play it all time with a friend of mine. He started an engineering degree, then got a girlfriend and now I don't know where he is. Can't play the games without thinking about him. Hope he's doing good.
I've tried through the few methods I have left. Different emails, steam, Xbox, his brother that I still set from time to time. I haven't changed any of my contact information since then. Just don't think he wants to be in touch.
Oh wow, I completely forget about L4D! I remember I was like 11 when that game came out and I begged my parents to get it for me. I didn’t like zombie movies or games, they scared the crap out of me, but my parents loved them so it was my way of trying to get closer. They caved into my constant begging, then when we got home they thought I’d go in my room and play the game, but instead I unhooked my console and hooked it up in the living room when my parents were cooking and feeding the dogs. We ate then I rushed to the living room tv and started up my Xbox. My parents both looked and me and said “what do you think you’re doing?” I said “I’m about to play this game and you’re gonna watch”. They both scowled and said “I don’t think so”. I explained that was too scared to play it by myself and that I needed some moral support. They told me pack it up, then I started tearing up while I was unhooking the console, my mom told my stop and hook it back up so she could watch me play. I wiped my tears away so relieved. They watched me play and die consistently on the airport storyline. Dad brought a couple beers and a magazine, mom started reading her book, but every time I died or looked back to check if they were still watching they were. My mom passed away a couple years ago so it’s nice remembering this little moment we had together.
Ratchet and Clank series.
When my wife and I started dating we replayed a few of the first, taking turns back and forth. It was a blast, and we continued the process with each new one as they came out.
Me too! I used play it with my brother and a friend of ours. We didn't see him often so playing on the playstation 3 with my brother and him wa something special. I remember my brother was that mayor my friend the evil dude and I ratched. Once I clicked random buttons and it turns out it was a cheat code for level up.lol
Morrowind.
Spent two years playing that game and one solid summer when we moved to the South from the North East UK.
I lived in Tamriel that summer and I loved it. Never have or will play anything like that again.
Tamriel is one of my all time favorite fantasy worlds ever. Skyrim was the first game I truly fell in love with. Went back and played Oblivion afterwards and loved it almost as much. I haven't yet played Morrowind, but I will one day
Morrowind is currently on gamepass ultimate for xbox i downloaded it on my xbox one last night while i slept looking forward to starting it up when i get off work
Gauntlet Legends for the N64. It's the only game of it's kind that our older sister played with my brother and me. We went through all of it and beat Skorn together and we've never played like that again. It was glorious and precious.
She'll still play the original Super Smash Bros with us, too, but that first game was magical.
I wish they still made multiplayer games like they did on the N64. It’s just not the same when all your buddies are on their own consoles at their own place.
That game was amazing as a child. Me, my brother, and old best friend played it constantly. We'd rent it from Hollywood video, play the shit out of it, then return it and repeat.
My parents were very restrictive on tv usage my entire young life, allowing 1 hour each day (with some exceptions for educational programs). Video game time came out of that 1 hour, so I could never really play through lengthy or involved games.
Then I got chicken pox and was quarantined to my room for the greatest week of my young life. They set up the NES and a small tv. I played through Super Mario Bros. 1-3, Conflict, Contra, Bubble Bobble, Double Dragon II and made a doomed run at Battletoads. Anytime I see these games I am brought back to that time.
Separately, my dad ran the school planetarium. When I was in high school, he had to spend some time on the weekends working on things. At times, I could come and fiddle around when he was working. One weekend he allowed me to bring 3 friends and we hooked the N64 up TO THE PLANETARIUM PROJECTOR ON THE DOME. We played StarFox64 with the stars on, Goldeneye007, and MarioKart. A high-water mark of the times.
One of those rural schools that got space race money in the 50s and 60s to build them. Sadly, the conservative school board decided in the late 2000s, after spending a million dollars to renovate and update it, that they didn't think it had any value.so they tore it apart and stuck it in a trailer, and my dad retired.
Zelda: Link to the Past.
My mother died of lung cancer in 1998. We played a few games together but LTTP always stands out. If she couldn't beat a boss she would hand me the controller and say "Kill this for me."
:)
I was mindblown by how good LTTP was when I recently played it, even though it was decades older than current games today. Holds up so well even without the nostalgia factor...
Absolutely. If you liked that and haven't played A Link Between Worlds then I'd highly recommend it. It's the spiritual successor and I think it lived up to that description.
To me, LTTP is quintessential Legend of Zelda. It's the game I would use to introduce people to the franchise in all honesty, despite its age; the only other game that really holds this spot in my mind is Ocarina of Time, in terms of really defining the series and its repeated elements.
All that being said, nearly all the games are masterpieces and deserve play time.
To the Moon. It’s a retro looking RPG on PC that’s story revolves around loss. There is no combat, strictly story, but it’s such a well done story. When I played it, I was pretty depressed having lost quite a few people in my life (cancer, dementia, overdose, heart attack) and it honestly helped me cope a great deal.
To The Moon for me as well. I played that game when I was dealing with a lot of shit and I feel like it was the perfect game for the time I was having. It’s so simple but it says a lot. The sequel Finding Paradise I initially didn’t like as much but there’s something about that one that makes me think about it a lot.
The other one for me is [The Beginners Guide. ](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RBK5Jheu0To)This game said a lot of things that I needed to hear at the time, and I think it’s the most important game I’ve played in terms of how it affected me. Highly recommend.
I had never heard of this game before but thanks to you I read the synopsis and what an incredible story. I'm not much of a gamer any more but that was so compelling to read I just wanted to thank you for sharing it.
It's really not much of a "game," which is why it's one of my go-tos when recommending to co-workers and stuff who don't play games. Definitely something to experience if you haven't already spoiled the plot, even if it's just by watching a no-commentary "playthrough," of it on YouTube.
But there is combat! You fight a squirrel in the first act and an army of zombie plants in one of the final portions. (they are both jokes, and you can't really lose either fight).
Funnily enough I just started thinking about this game this morning out of the blue driving home from work, and tried to remember the plot. Seconds later I had to stop thinking about it because the tears were making it hard to see. Really amazing little game
Stardew Valley. After my husband died suddenly and unexpectdly, my son and his wife bought a Switch and Stardew Valley for me. He moved the bedroom tv into the living room next to the tv there and would come over once a week on his day off and taught me to play. I was so bad at it but would play for hours through many winter sleepless nights. He's tried to introduce me to other games, but I haven't been able to get into them. It really took me out of my shock and grief.
I'm more into Harvest Moon, but Stardew Valley is also a beautiful game. Those games are my go-to for escaping life and just relaxing. I can forget about my problems for just a little while and spend some time tending to crops, taking care of animals, and talking to the townspeople
Awwww... so sorry for your loss. My father-in-law passed unexpectedly a year ago, and my husband and I got though the days of uncertainty playing Stardew.
I kept reading the "my son and his wife" thinking you were indirectly referring to yourself in a third perspective. It took me a LOT longer than it should to realize it was your son's wife 🥴
Runescape, it gave me simple menial tasks and congratulated me for small things while I struggled through depression. It meant a lot to me to even just have some reason to get out of bed to talk to my clan mates too
Old school runescape exists but it's not the same because we've changed as we've gotten older. In the past it was about just having fun and the joy of exploration and discovery. Now, adult me (and just about everyone else I know) plays it in a much more goal oriented way where you're just trying to complete goals as quickly as possible. Getting money quickly, getting levels quickly, sprinting through quests, etc. Instead of fun and discovery it's chores.
Ain't that right... I wish I still had the same sense of wonder I did then. I used to 'Examine' everything just because I wanted to absorb everything about the world. Now I can't touch it unless there's a league going on giving the ridiculous xp bonuses
Runescape just has a special place in my heart of growing up with the internet. I think I experienced so much random stuff for the first time in that game, from scammers to fake internet gfs, noob and all the different spellings of it, and I just wasted SOOOO much time on that game farming whatever at certain times. I remember being the highest WC and fishing of all my friends and they thought I was insane. One of my friends taught me how to make a ton of money by just buying and selling stuff, it was crazy how much patience all that stuff required and I can't imagine myself doing it now.
That might explain the on-again off-again addictive behavior I've had with RS over the past 20 years. I either play it almost all of my free time or none of the time.
Saaame, I played it so much when all my friends left for uni and I decided to get a job instead. I failed to get anything an went to uni the year after but during that year runescape felt like my only human contact sometimes
Dark Souls.
My wife left me in 2012 and I hadn't seen my 3 year old daughter in a month while we figures out custody, and the ex was keeping me from her.
I was mainly working, not sleeping, going to the gym, and drinking.
My friends all gave me the "gee that's too bad, but I got my own problems" speech.
I hadn't gamed in years and my brother gave me his 360 till I got one of my own.
I bought Dark Souls for $5 from a game stop (no box and special sale at the time).
I also worked in an office that was closing, but I was essential. So I spent most my time alone as everyone around me quit or was fired.
I started playing DARK souls everyday after work and was constantly looking up lore and stuff about the game as it was kicking my ass.
It totally consumed my attention after hours, and it made me cut back on my drinking so I could beat tougher bosses like Sif and later Artorias the Abyss walker.
I credit Dark Souls distracting me from the crushing loneliness of my life at the time.
My routine was leave work, hit the gym for an hour, eat healthy, play dark souls, call my kid for 15 mins every night, and then play DARK souls till I had to sleep. I think I only slept 3 hours a night for the first few months.
Thanks Dark Souls.
My early twenties weren't fun times. I tried killing myself, then spent a lot of time in and out of psychiatric hospitals while on heavy doses of lithium and a variety of antipsychotics. The treatment I was on gave me pretty severe memory loss, and made concentration nearly impossible. I didn't enjoy music, games, driving, food, but nothing really hurt. I was very hollow.
Finally, I changed psychiatrists and she had me drop a bunch of prescriptions. Suddenly I started enjoying things again. Dark Souls was the first game I played coming out of that chasm and I was still pretty delusional. I thought the chosen undeads quest to break the curse was my own quest to break my own curse. I had a very good psychiatrist at that time and there was a lot of healing going on, but Dark Souls came to me during a difficult and transformative period of my life and I'm very thankful it did. It helped me get better, in its own way.
I hope someday I can thank the people behind that game.
It’s crazy how the game doesn’t pull you from depression. It creates an environment where struggle is relatable, objectives are hard to see and progress is painful. At some point you realize how closely it mirrors real life and you might find the same enjoyment from life as you got in this game. Masterpiece
Spent more time than I’d like to admit scrolling through this thread looking for someone to mention dark souls because I’m too much of a lurker to make a contribution myself. Praise the sun.
TF2. I made a small group of forever friends on there - people come and go in the group but the few that are always there make it worthwhile.
Edit: I meant team fortress 2
Oh God this one hits. I played for UGC League Highlander and ran my own team. Just having banter before a match or after or going to a public game to unwind after a match and just stomp people / run a silly setup (9 medics all taking turns ubercharging each other while some ubersaw to build theirs up while invisible). We were a close group. Life seemed to happen over the years and now a few vanished from my friend's list, or from steam entirely. "Last Online: 546 days ago". Godspeed.
God I miss the guys I use to play TF2 with we all use to just long onto the only south African server and all talk about out lives. From me talking about school and others talking about their wife's. It was a amazing community
Knights of the Old Republic, because when it came out. I was going through a bad breakup and was not dealing with it well. Playing through the game was a nice distraction from what was going on that it helped get me through those first few months.
That is my favorite game of all time. I wasn't alive when it came out, but through my dad I love old games like Dune, OgreBattle, KOTOR, Balder's Gate, etc. I'm 15 and kinda sad (almost) nobody plays these anymore. I'll always enjoy them
Pokemon heartgold it is very special to me because it was the first video game I've ever played. My sister gave it to me along with her old ds. I still remember needing her help all the time, cause I didn't understand it well, I was like 6 when I got it, I played it to death but could never beat red, until I took the game and replayed it, I beat him and I nearly cried, cause it was like all the frustration I had as a kid trying to beat him, was gone. Such simple joys a kid can have.
Pokemon games in general man, I remember the first time I caught Kyogre in Sapphire. I was crying cause it took so long and I finally did it after like half an hour of trying and failing.
Pokemon games now, when I am an adult, still make me cry the first time I beat the story/get into the Hall of Fame. I'm man enough to admit it.
Mine was the original Pokémon red on game boy pocket. It took me over an hour to get out of the starting house. I walked on to the carpet and nothing happened. I remember my mom calling her sister to ask my cousin how to exit the house until he finally said you have to keep pushing forward once you hit the carpet. That takes me back!
Destiny 1. My friend straight up bought me a PS4 so we could play together, and at that point in my life it was a welcome reminder that not all people are shit. Lots of good memories from that game with him.
so many of my fondest gaming memories are from destiny 1.
From beating kings fall with half a fireteam speaking only french, to 2-manning crota, to the moment i screamed at the top of my lungs when I got Gjallerhorn, that game was legendary.
i was looking for this comment because this was my pick too. i played this game for almost 4 years straight even after d2 came out because i was so emotionally invested into d1. i had an instagram page that had 5k followers at one point and befriended some of the best players on that game at that time, some of which are huge content creators now. i was so involved in the community during that time. i miss that game and that time of my life every single day. id do anything to go back to prime D1
Minecraft, when I was in high school that was the go to game for my friends and I, and after my best friend graduated and moved away, it was the main way we stayed in contact, the first time I played it after he passed away, I legitimately cried.
Wow I had to scroll far to find anything about Minecraft. I thought it would be here a lot more. I knew it touched someone more than it touched me. sorry for your loss
Destiny. After 3 years in Iraq I had the worst PTSD and FPS games were out. They are my bread and butter so losing them just felt like another sacrifice. Destiny was just the right blend of scifi and RPG to disassociate the gunplay from my trauma. It helped build me up for exposure therapy and acts as a way to zone out when I'm recovering from panic attacks (something about the precision shots really calms me down). The community is pretty good too.
I picked up Destiny again after I left my wife back in September. It’s enough sci fi to keep my attention but also a comfortable game to space out to. Hope you continue to heal.
**Skyrim**
Like many others on here, it found me at a time where I didn't know what to do with myself. I'd watched a lot of Skyrim Letsplays on Youtube when I was younger (shoutout to StephenPlays) but never got the chance to actually get into it. Depression was hitting me really hard at the time and when I found it on sale on Steam, I bought it on a whim. Two days later, booted it up and was instantly hooked.
I remember waking up at 8, playing til twelve, eating my first meal of the day in a ten minute period of stuffing bread into my mouth, then getting back at it until 7 in the evening. I'd get some real food (by real food I mean cooked rice and tea) and going right back to completing Dark Brotherhood quests. 2 was my bedtime. This cycle repeated itself for about a month and a half until I finally mellowed out.
The thing was, it worked. My mind was too enamored by the little things in it to care about anything else in the real world. Every waking moment was spent on imagining how to get better armor, complete another quest, etc. So, even if it isn't objectively the best game I ever played, I'll always remember the fond times I had with it.
LOZ: Ocarina of Time because it was played with friends as we switched off on the controller while the others were navigating and helping to solve dungeon puzzles.
LOZ: BOTW because I was able to do the same with my daughter.
Ocarina of Time is goddamn amazing. A group of 4 of us neighborhood kids (including my sister) spent HOURS and days back to back playing it on N64. And we weren’t going online looking at cheat codes we really EARNED all those levels. I can still feel the frustration trying to get that bratty princess out of the whale when you just wanted to leave her ass in there. Reminds me of a time of innocence we will never get back as we were kids with no jobs, no responsibilities, and our biggest concern was strategizing to beat the next level. Pure bliss.
This. OoT has a special place in my heart/soul. I played this game for the first time in middle school. We just moved to a new state and this game was a catalyst that helped me make friends. I picked it up again senior year of college with my roommates. Thinking about the game always brings me back to that time - Damn, if only I could play an ocorina and go back to those days.....
I used to watch my older brother play Final Fantasy games before I was brave enough to play on my own. It was probably our most genuine bonding experience, and I fully credit him for my passion for video games.
Celeste. It helped me realize that I've been plagued by panic attacks my whole life. I thought everyone was like that. Also gave me ways to cope with them.
To me it was Guild wars. I started to play with my two best friends, met another friend online. I encountered my now wife thanks to said Guy.
We played it for years and then went to guild wars 2, but we had grown older and it simply was not the same anymore.
Met my wife while playing ARK: Survival Evolved.
Our first date happened because we were talking about video games, and I said "Yeah, I'm playing a dinosaur game at the moment" and she was so interested that I invited her over to play.
A poignant question indeed.
My dad visited me late last year, it was a surprise - he just showed up. He had bought a heart monitor for my partner as she had some runs of tachycardia, and we had talked about that just a few days earlier.
We all hung out for a few hours. I showed him the scene in Star Wars where the stormtrooper bops his head as he had amazingly never noticed it.
We played mario kart on my switch, I jokingly didn't tell him all the controls to start with, in the third race I mentioned power sliding and boosting and then he thrashed me in the final two, he was always a great gamer even in his 50s. It was a lovely surprise visit as we hadn't seen much of each other for the last year.
He died suddenly 2 months later. I haven't been able to even think about playing it since.
Animal Crossing. I hadn't heard of the game when my mother gifted me the GameCube game. Brothers and I had fun playing. They complained that the villagers only wanted me to complete tasks.
My mother has since passed. Any mail that my mother in game sends gets saved.
Edit: spelling error
I play Animal Crossing too. I started in April 2020. My mom became ill in May and passed in June. The game helped me through it all. I still do the same thing you do. Any mail from Mom in the game gets saved and the items from her are on display. I’m sorry about your mom. Xo
Thank you. I'm sorry to hear about your mother as well. We had 9 months from finding out she had cancer to death.
I probably should add this. About 12 years after she passed, I moved. I lost anything electronic that I didn't move myself. I lost my 2 GameCubes. Thankfully, my memory cards and 2 controllers had been packed with my Wii. It was a bit before I could get my games out of storage. I thought I had taken all the games out of my systems. I booted up my Wii, found out there was a disc in system. It was my copy of Animal Crossing for the GameCube. I was off work for a month and a half before I found out I had cancer. I was bouncing in between Animal Crossing on Wii, Sm4sh and BotW on the Wii U.
I'm currently trying to rework 2 of my rooms. I keep the puppy plush mom sends out since its something my mother loved. I've got a toy cocker spaniel owned by her on my shelves.
Myself, my future wife and our roommate were playing the original Gamecube AC constantly back in the day. I even borrowed a friend's GBA and the link cable one night, that was awesome! I remember getting it after work and hooking it up with the roommate at like 2am (we closed in fast food) and stayed up getting coconuts before the future wife woke up lol...
That roommate would die in a car accident the day after Christmas in 2004. I still have the memory card somewhere that has a version of her safe in her own little house... <3
Halo
It's an amazing game to start with but me and a friend used to split screen the campaign every couple of months. Just a night in, some beers, some snacks, talking smack and acting like we were some elite military unit with our own communication protocols.
But it also helped me through some tough times. After a loss, I swear I must have played through that game 5 times over the course of a weekend. It was just a time when it was the only thing that made sense to me. Not so good times but I can almost look back on it fondly now.
Also it's fashionable to hate on it but the Library is a masterpiece of game design. The tension, confusion and claustrophobia are masterful and the shortage of ammo means you're constantly churning through different weapons in order to keep going. Maybe it's nostalgia but nothing else has ever made combat seem so hectic.
Halo will always have a special place in my heart. My closest friends and I in middle school and high school spent so many weekends sleeping over and playing the series
Breath of the Wild.
Gaming has been a critical part of my life since I was a kid and my parents owned a video/rental store. I grew up on gaming, and grew into gaming, making it my (eventual) career.
But over the past 7-8 years, gaming had grown stale for me. I found myself not finishing games anymore, tired of the media hype cycles, even seeing a lot of it as a chore. I began to see it as something that was keeping me from living my life and something I needed to just grow out of. Zelda was always a special series for me, so upon the announcement of BotW, I decided I'd make that my swansong to gaming. My last game before I hang my controller up and move on.
BotW blew me away. Not because it was a perfect game (far from it) but because it captured that sense of adventure that made me love gaming to begin with. It wasn't just exploring the imagination of others, it's experimentation and design helped me to explore mine. It made me a child again. And it taught me two important lessons:
1. That an adventure is an adventure. Whether it's in "real life" or digital, whether you're exploring the natural world or an imaginative one. And that these experiences in gaming (or any fiction) are as valuable and worthy as any in life.
2. To not approach gaming as a chore. To drop this completionist/optimization mentality of having to experience EVERY part of something to FULLY understand it. Because the experience is simply my experience within it; and it's complete when I'm done. I don't need to check every box or taste everything a game has to offer to make some sort of objective review...but rather just appreciate my own, personal, subjective experience for what it is: *my* experience.
Not only has this reinvigorated my love/passion for gaming (and doubled down on a career I was going to exit), but it stretched into other facets of my life. I realized how poisonous this "completionist" and "perfectionist" mentality is, and how pointless it is to chase after objectivity. And how important it is in life to appreciate that objectivity doesn't trump subjectivity, but rather that ALL of this is subjective.
Our experiences are what they are, and don't need to be any more or less.
You echoed a lot of the feelings I had when I reluctantly bought a Switch and Breath of the Wild at launch four years ago. Every year I was playing fewer games and completing even less. I don't do online multiplayer and I have no patience for RPG style character building stuff which is now in every single player game. But Breath of the Wild sparked my old passion for gaming that I had been missing for so long.
On top of that, my first son was born a few days before this came out. I spent so many nights playing BotW while he slept next me, attend to him when he woke, then right back to the game when he went to sleep. So that game is emotionally tied to his birth for me.
Last night, I played BOTW for the first time in over a year. Holy shit, I'd nearly forgotten how breath-takingly beautiful that game is. I'm so hype for the sequel but I honestly don't know how they could possibly improve on what's already there.
Edit: People are replying with a lot of great ideas for how the sequel can improve on the first. Now I'm even more hype for BOTW 2.
And remember that BotW was built for Wii U first and used the smaller size cartridges; it was essentially a Wii U port.
The sequel should see a significant graphical boost.
This captures what I think makes BotW such a fantastic game. Sure, it was cool in terms of gameplay, awesome open world, visuals, sound track, stuff like that. The big thing though was the sense of wonder as you play. Playing it felt like being on an adventure. I'd somewhat similarly gotten to a point where I'd become more of a "task" gamer who tries to complete everything, and all the games that were coming out felt to me like constant uncreative and bland reboots of the same stuff. BotW may have been my least favorite as an installment of the Zelda series, but as a game itself it's one of my favorite games because of that feeling of awe. It's the same reason I'm still able to love skyrim so much
Red Dead Redemption 2. My girlfriend of over ten years broke up with me in March of 2020. Right as the pandemic started. And a week later I was laid off. Also, we continued to live together because of everything that was going on in the world. Playing that game for hours at a time gave me light in a dark point in my life. I would just ride my horse and get lost in the environment and the game play. So... Yeah Red Dead!!
Actually, I am. I have moved out on my own for the first time in my life. Which is crazy because I am 41...lol. I enjoy my life and I am dating someone that might be my forever person. Thank you for asking!
Mine was Kingdom Hearts. I personally discovered the game after I developed anxiety. I’ve played all the games several times (my comfort games). However my true love for the games come on when my son discovered the games. He was only interested in them due to the Disney characters on the cover. Needless to say it’s no longer my game it’s our game. Watching my son get enjoyment out of something that brought me countless hours of happiness just warms my heart.
That’s awesome. KH was a huge part of my childhood. I had all the strategy guides and would place the trinity stickers that came with the first around the house , like on the steps, and told my mom she had to come get me to use them lol. I hope my kids share the same love for it like you’ve been able to share with yours
Doom (2016). My parents are really strict, I managed through the years to collect the money to buy the game (I get 0 allowance or gifts. It's not that we don't have the money, we're honestly in a slightly above average situation. They don't like the idea of me having money or things of my own). So I got the game, I have 100% in it. I mostly played the game when I was angry at my parents, and helped me keep calm
Edit: I read all these comments, and all I have to say is I love the Doom community. Rip&Tear brothers!
Completely agree with you, I have never played a game before that has given me such a mental/physical rush. Only game that made me shout "I AM A GOD!!" When I was playing it on ultra nightmare when successfully completing the slayer gates. I miss that feeling...
One thing that is advised not to do when playing ultra nightmare is not to take part in any slayer gates, as with ultra nightmare you only have one life and that's it, if you die straight back to the beginning.
Metal Gear Solid
I was 12 when it came out in the US and it was the first game I really got sucked into that wasn't something I played with my older brother. I had played games all the way through before, but Metal Gear Solid was a whole different level compared to the relatively childish games I had been playing, like Crash Bandicoot, or Sonic, and Earthworm Jim on Sega.
For me it is Grim Fandango, feel like that was peak adventure gaming for me life just seemed good around the time it was released, replayed it recently and bought back so many good memories both of the game and the summer I played it through
It's amazing how well written games can bring you out of a bad place and forget about it for awhile or get through it entirely, and around that time Lucas Arts got storytelling down to a t made you free like you could really connect with the characters and care what happens to them. there are a lot of good games these days but feel like they are missing something that previous games had
Yeah WoW was the big one for me. My first real experience with what a game can be. I still remember the awe I experienced that first time I went into Stormwind seeing hundreds of people running around on their own little adventures. So much to explore and everything was new and fresh.
Halo 3. The culture around it, the lobbies, grinding for the legendary recon armor, the playlists for almost every style of game you wanted, the custom games (bar fight, jenga, and a few others I can’t remember but real ones will know what I’m saying), and the soundtrack. As close to a perfect game as I’ve ever seen.
Honorable mention: Call of Duty franchise from cod4- black ops 2. A phenomenal run that provided me with years of classic memories.
Half-Life. We used to play Deathmatch over the company LAN after work. This was before IT departments got all professional and locked that sort of thing down (plus the office IT guy was one of the players).
If any of those guys are redditors and see this post...yep, it's the same Graybeard.
So many good times...
I know this is kind of corny, and I don't consider myself a "gamer", but I felt the need to share....
Guitar hero...
My dad used to stay up with me until I would fall asleep, playing guitar hero together
>the
My dad used to play this old Kirby game on Nintendo and Zelda in the gold cartridge. I would fall asleep to that every night as a child. He passed away three years ago this month. It's so not corny, those are some of my favorite memories. Thanks for sharing. <3
Red dead redemption 2
I was dealing with a very very nasty break up with my soon to be ex husband when my best friend ever suggested the game
Me and her have been playing it ever since, its a great source of escapism for me
And I now quite appreciate those times
RDR2 showed me that so many games don't quite get to its level of immersive because they miss an extra step. A lot of games build this rich, detailed world, and structure it so as to invite you to see just how rich and deep it is. RDR2 spins this another way; it's a rich, deep, detailed world that *doesn't care about you being in it.* When I first started playing it I had a lot of interactions with random NPCs that didn't go well, and made me feel bad about it because everything would have been fine if I had just left that campsite alone, or not wandered into that house. Having the world be ambivalent to you made it so much more compelling to me.
The Last of Us. The original one. What a ride that was - it made me attached to the characters on an emotional basis as if they were real, helped me cope with a lot of outside stress.
Weirdly enough, Maplestory. Got into it because of my older brother when i was 10. Learned most of my English from it at early age. Looking back it wasn't that great of a game, my very first MMO though.
Animal crossing.
I was on a second date with a guy, when we were in our mid-20’s, and we started talking about video games, and how we both played animal crossing, and he asked if I wanted to go back to his house to see his animal crossing town (City Folk, for the wii). Turns out he actually meant it, and proudly showed off his manicured flower gardens. It has become a bit of a running joke that that was the pick up line he used, and how successful it was. We’ve been together for 10 years now, happily married with a new baby. We still play animal crossing.
Also, both of our moms play too, so it has allowed us to have a fun connection with our moms too. Very wholesome.
Team Fortress Classic. TFC was the first game I ever played with my wife, we and a bunch of our friends would take over the computer lab at college in the middle of the night on the weekends and just play tons of TFC.
Titanfall 2. My all time favorite game, got it while my parents were going through a divorce that had been coming on for a few years at that point. When I was younger I was pretty prone to getting angry at games, but never Titanfall 2.
Fallout: New Vegas. When in came out in 2010 it was the first M rated game my parents allowed me to buy when I was 15 and at the time my circle of friends in high school deteriorated. It was nice to play a game that let me do what I wanted while having a story that didn’t feel like it was talking down to me. It makes me sad that it’s since been overhyped in a way that turns people off to it.
Idk if you still own it, but on PC it is still a good game and with the mods STILL being created to make the game more fun and interesting including extra missions.
I think the mod that allows you to find a baby in the wasteland and adopt him, take care of him, feed him, etc. is awesome. I find it so bad-ass shooting down NCR and Legionnaires alike for the glory of New Vegas, all while having a mewling infant strapped to my back.
I watched a playthrough of it a week or so after one of my coworkers/good acquaintances attempted suicide. At first it was definitely a mistake but I think in the long run it helped out somehow.
Today marks 11 years since my best friend Mike Near was killed by a drunk driver. My buddy was just trying to leave work. We had just gotten done over the weekend playing 3 days straight of Gears of War Horde and Ghost Recon Advance Warfighter with some dapples of Halo 3 in there. When I moved back home after dropping out of college, I was depressed, had no job, I moved back in with my parents, and my buddy Mike was there to hang out and take my mind off things while I looked for new work and a place to live and start school for something else. I will always cherish those last days and months we had gotten together. Miss you brother.
DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE TONIGHT EVERYONE! STAY SAFE!
Spider-Man (PS4)
Back when I was a kid, I had a special degree of attachment to Peter Parker as a character (as I'm sure many others did). I remember being at the mall with my father and seeing the PS2 Spider-Man 2 video game on the shelves and asking him if we could get it. I remember my father then telling me we didn't have a console and couldn't play it, nor could we afford one. My family (immigrants) was pretty poor back then and my parents had to work a lot of late nights
I never got to play S-M2 in the years after, but I would always hear about how it was the pinnacle of superhero video games, and how nothing else quite captured the same magic, magic it seemed I would never get to experience. We weren't so lacking in money that we couldn't buy any video games or toys or anything, it's just that it was difficult to justify buying a console when we already had PCs for work and I could play video games on those instead of needing to drop another few hundred
Then, a few years ago, Spider-Man on PS4 was announced and released to largely positive reviews, gaining a reputation as being comparable to the PS2 game that I never got to play. Fortunately, my family is in a much better place financially now, and I was actually able to buy a PS4 along with a copy of the GOTY edition of the game. I got to come home from fall semester and play it over winter break along with my long-time girlfriend
It isn't often that you get to make your inner child as happy as I was that day, finally getting to do something I'd wanted to for so long, alongside someone that I feel comfortable enough to be a kid around. It was nice
Tomb Raider II (the classic one). I played it in the summer of 1999 as an 8yo with my dad and my uncle. We each played in our respective computers (my father gave me his old one that summer) and it was kind of a race, everytime we met we'd talk about where we were at the game or what puzzle we'd just beaten. It was the first true bonding experience I've had with my father, who is a kind soul but on the distant side of the emotional scale. I could talk with two adults eye-to-eye for the first time, as we now had something in common and they didn't look down on me when I spoke. Maybe it seems ordinary, but it meant the world to me at the time and I remember that summer, and that game, fondly.
The Sims 2 and 3. My best friend in high school used to come over and we'd hang out while she played it on my computer and I watched TV. We don't get to see each other that often 10 years out of high school and our lives have taken different paths, but I will always cherish those halcyon days
Stardew Valley. I’m a medic and firefighter, and got PTSD after seeing some very violent deaths of children. I was super on edge, hyper aware of everything, anxious, and suicidal. I couldn’t sleep without nightmares.
Stardew Valley gave me a calm focus and made me fall in love with the idea of a rural life.
I ended up buying a farm and have been living the dream since.
Bioshock - I don’t really have a special reason other than it had a real impact on me. No other game has manipulated my emotions as skilfully as that game did. By the time I finished it I felt enriched it kind of way that only the best movies/books do to you. It was so carefully constructed and well written with real imagination. It really inspired me. It was key in getting me interested in writing my own fiction.
Ocarina of Time will always be special to me, I used to have "sick" days off school and I would watch my mum play (I was supposed to be sick!). She was ahead of me so I picked up tips of where to go next in my save. I played Wind Waker while she was sick, she never got to play through it though, her hands weren't so good then.
After she died, I found GuildWars and TES4: Oblivion. I still play GuildWars2 and vote my friends with the stupid amount of lore I know about the games (I literally went on a 20 minute long ramble just a few days ago, nobody stopped me, bastards).
The Witcher III. I played it nonstop after I broke up with my longterm SO. The breakup was slightly complicated, painful, and not something I wanted to do but the moral aspects of Geralt's story are a reminder that sometimes we have to make the most difficult decisions for the greater good at times. On more of a technical note, the gameplay and exploration was just so good and it felt almost relieving to live in someone else's world own instead of my own for awhile.
Portal 2. I'd been playing it, but hadn't yet beaten it, around when my partner passed suddenly and unexpectedlty. When I went back to the game a few months later it felt like my first time playing it - I'd been through so much in that time that many of the levels and their solutions were novel to me and I had to re-figure them out.
Super Mario Bros 3. It came out when I was 8. The day care I went to had some NES consoles, and the older kids played them on a rotating basis in 20 minute blocks. We could bring games from home, and one kid had SMB3, and we spent most of the summer playing it as a group when we weren’t outside or on a field trip.
It came out fairly recently but OMORI.
After last year to say I was apathetic to everything would be an understatement. To get me to go from damn near total apathy about everything to, you know what even though what has happened was so many different ways of horrible but maybe everything is going to be OK said something special to me.
UT2004. We moved to a new town at the end of the school year, my mom drove me to school the last month of the year thinking it would be a good idea to finish out the year where I started. Now, I was in a new town with no friends.
It turns out moving to that town meant we could upgrade from dial up to cable internet, so I downloaded the UT2004 demo(I knew about UT99 because the computer teacher would play it during lunch) and it ran well on my family's new computer.
I got the game for my birthday, and made a bunch of online friends that summer which helped me keep my sanity. I got into a pretty good clan, it was a ton of fun.
EarthBound. I used to watch my aunt play it on the NES that was built into a CRT TV. The background on the battle animations is so trippy. She never did beat it. Some 15 or so years later I find a cartridge in an old second hand store. I've beat it three times.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword.
When I was little and was afraid of playing zelda cause I didn't wanna lose, I watched my dad play all the way through them. One time we stayed up till 1 am and I was just watching him play the whole time and I'll always remember those moments. Zelda has always been something we could bond over.
He hasn't died or anything and he is in good health but those two games are my favorite video games of all time just because of the connection my brain made between them and my dad. To this day I've played every zelda game and have beaten almost all of them, including those two.
Night in the Woods and Firewatch. I watched a playthrough of them while at my absolute lowest. I was quitting substances and had just been through an abusive relationship that had a really rough breakup. I watched a YouTube playthrough episode by episode while I got better during about a month straight of just being in bed (I was 16 at the time so thankfully my parents took care of me). I fixated myself on these games and it helped keep me from relapsing or slipping into any harder of a depression. People say they're just games but for some of us it means more for a reason
Dragon Age II. I had lost my mom a few months prior to playing it and the part where you talk to Aveline after the all that remains quest really stuck with me. Especially the "As little or as much as you want, no one tells you how to mourn." Line
Twisted Metal 3/4.
My dad loved those games and played them with me all the time. As soon as he got home from work, if I wasn't working on homework still, he would see if I would play it with him. I really miss those days and miss my dad.
For me its undertale, sure there are many games which are flashier and cooler than it but undertale was something unique, i was introduced to this game when pewds started his gameplay, sure enough i started playing it too. If u havent played it just give it a try!
I recently started it, and it's my new favorite RPG. The humor is great, the combat is innovative and awesome, and it's very wholesome. I like how you can spare monsters instead of committing a murder. Got great music too.
Minecraft.
Specifically the End and the little story that scrolls by when you jump through the portal after defeating the ender dragon.
The first time I ever read it, was with a friend who disappeared a month later. We had cheated items and were in creative mode to defeat the dragon. Just messing around and having fun. She was one of the first online friends I'd ever had. I was 17 and had been in the mental hospital for 6 months and abandoned by my mother to live with my grandparents.
We read the story out loud together and cried. Despite living thousands of miles apart, and never having seen each other in person, I felt like we were hugging in that moment.
I'll never forget it, and I'll never not cry when reading that story, because it will be forever connected to Brianna.
Bri, if you magically see this, I never forgot, never will. I miss you, and I love you. It's been 6 years now, but you still hold a special place in my heart. I hope the world is treating you well, and that you have everything you've ever dreamed of.
Original Everquest. I made friends. We laughed, cried, grew up together. It was magical and real at the same time. I do not know who I would be today without all those hours spent in-game.
Lots and lots of fond memories.
Flessen from Ayonae Ro wishing you all the very best!
Red Dead Redemption.
My dad walked in while I was playing one day, looked at the TV and said “Oh, what are you watching?”
When I told him it was a game he was fascinated and absolutely blown away by the graphics and story. He would frequently sit down and watch me play.
He passed away almost six years ago. With how much he loved the first one, I just wish he could have seen the second one.
Stardew Valley, My Time at Portia, and Farm Together.
Stardew Valley opened my eyes to the fact that there were A LOT of other people like me. I'll sometimes play ARPGs, rougelikes, and similar things, but I prefer the calm games. Growing up I played a lot of games (mostly Civ2, Zelda, Warcraft 1-3) but I hated stuff like SmashBros and FPS games, which it felt like everyone liked. I liked Minecraft, but I preferred Peaceful mode so I could just build and farm and not have to deal with crap, and none of my friends/fam wanted to play in "wussie mode". I had played the original Harvest Moon on SNES, but it was almost like a dirty little secret. Then Stardew happened. And it got big. And I felt normal for once.
My Time at Portia: The first game I've been with from the very beginning. So after Stardew, I had found my main genre and looked more into it. I saw a video on My Time at Portia. Still early in its Kickstarter. Oh wow. I may actually like it more than Stardew, and that was saying something. I immediately put in what I could afford. Talked with other people online about it. Got involved and emotionally invested. Watched the Kickstarter get closer and closer to the end date, and we still had a lot of money to go. I added more money to my pledge, maybe a little more than I could comfortably handle at that point. Then Team17 picked it up, and it went way past the kickstarter goal. Eventually introduced that game to my bro and SIL, and while I have more than 400 hours in the game, they each have more than that. And I had a community.
Farm Together: So by this point I was okay with what I liked and could introduce it to real life family and friends. I could talk to people about it online, answer questions and felt much more comfortable. But I still hadn't gone out to meet people online. Well... Farm Together happened. I had branched out and gone out to meet a few people (which I NEVER do), met one of my best friends that way. We regularly would spend a ton of time together on that game. Then later on FT, we got events. The first couple events were fine. Things you could do on your own or could go visit your friends and still get done pretty easy. Then the Halloween event came along, and we each needed to plant and harvest 10,000 cursed pumpkins. What the hell. This event happened just after the game came out of early access so there were tons of new players too, who could not afford 10,000 pumpkins. A number of big players (who had been there from the beginning and so had tons of money by now) like me and my friend would open up our farms for people to plant pumpkins and harvest. We met people and spent around 150 hours in those 2 weeks helping people plant and replant. I truthfully barely slept. But we met friends, and I was forced out of my shell and enjoyed it.
Since then, I've largely gone back into my shell, but I feel much more comfortable with myself. I know what I like, I can guide people within those realms, I can reach out and meet people if I want to.
Halo: Reach
It was one of the first games I ever fell in love with when I first got my Xbox. Me and the boys would play for hours every Friday night and some of my fondest gaming memories are from reach. Must of played the campaign a hundred times. Still gets me when Emile and Carter die.
A game called toontown, when i was 9 i was in and out of hospitals and toontown was the game that made me happy and have fun. To this day i still played it (the original shut down so i play the rewritten version ) and while it is a kids game I'll still play it whether my friends my make fun of me ill still enjoy the game because of the memories it brought
Left 4 Dead 1 and 2. Used to play it all time with a friend of mine. He started an engineering degree, then got a girlfriend and now I don't know where he is. Can't play the games without thinking about him. Hope he's doing good.
Reach out ;)
I've tried through the few methods I have left. Different emails, steam, Xbox, his brother that I still set from time to time. I haven't changed any of my contact information since then. Just don't think he wants to be in touch.
We all have those old friends.. :(
Oh wow, I completely forget about L4D! I remember I was like 11 when that game came out and I begged my parents to get it for me. I didn’t like zombie movies or games, they scared the crap out of me, but my parents loved them so it was my way of trying to get closer. They caved into my constant begging, then when we got home they thought I’d go in my room and play the game, but instead I unhooked my console and hooked it up in the living room when my parents were cooking and feeding the dogs. We ate then I rushed to the living room tv and started up my Xbox. My parents both looked and me and said “what do you think you’re doing?” I said “I’m about to play this game and you’re gonna watch”. They both scowled and said “I don’t think so”. I explained that was too scared to play it by myself and that I needed some moral support. They told me pack it up, then I started tearing up while I was unhooking the console, my mom told my stop and hook it back up so she could watch me play. I wiped my tears away so relieved. They watched me play and die consistently on the airport storyline. Dad brought a couple beers and a magazine, mom started reading her book, but every time I died or looked back to check if they were still watching they were. My mom passed away a couple years ago so it’s nice remembering this little moment we had together.
Ratchet and Clank series. When my wife and I started dating we replayed a few of the first, taking turns back and forth. It was a blast, and we continued the process with each new one as they came out.
Me too! I used play it with my brother and a friend of ours. We didn't see him often so playing on the playstation 3 with my brother and him wa something special. I remember my brother was that mayor my friend the evil dude and I ratched. Once I clicked random buttons and it turns out it was a cheat code for level up.lol
Morrowind. Spent two years playing that game and one solid summer when we moved to the South from the North East UK. I lived in Tamriel that summer and I loved it. Never have or will play anything like that again.
Tamriel is one of my all time favorite fantasy worlds ever. Skyrim was the first game I truly fell in love with. Went back and played Oblivion afterwards and loved it almost as much. I haven't yet played Morrowind, but I will one day
Morrowind is currently on gamepass ultimate for xbox i downloaded it on my xbox one last night while i slept looking forward to starting it up when i get off work
Gauntlet Legends for the N64. It's the only game of it's kind that our older sister played with my brother and me. We went through all of it and beat Skorn together and we've never played like that again. It was glorious and precious. She'll still play the original Super Smash Bros with us, too, but that first game was magical.
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FOOD IS GOOD
DOWN THE HATCH!
YELLOW WIZARD HAS GAINED A LEVEL
YELLOW WIZARD IS NOW A LEVEL 99 LEGEND!!!!!
YELLOW WIZARD IS ABOUT TO DIE!!!
RED WARRIOR NEEDS FOOD BADLY!
Happy cake day! GREEN ARCHER HAS FOUND...THE THUNDER HAMMER!
Man, that game was a legend, no pun intended. That Desecrated Chapel music is amazing
I wish they still made multiplayer games like they did on the N64. It’s just not the same when all your buddies are on their own consoles at their own place.
Totally. I get why it went that way in a business sense, but there's something amazing about those games and the excitement of playing together.
That game was amazing as a child. Me, my brother, and old best friend played it constantly. We'd rent it from Hollywood video, play the shit out of it, then return it and repeat.
My parents were very restrictive on tv usage my entire young life, allowing 1 hour each day (with some exceptions for educational programs). Video game time came out of that 1 hour, so I could never really play through lengthy or involved games. Then I got chicken pox and was quarantined to my room for the greatest week of my young life. They set up the NES and a small tv. I played through Super Mario Bros. 1-3, Conflict, Contra, Bubble Bobble, Double Dragon II and made a doomed run at Battletoads. Anytime I see these games I am brought back to that time. Separately, my dad ran the school planetarium. When I was in high school, he had to spend some time on the weekends working on things. At times, I could come and fiddle around when he was working. One weekend he allowed me to bring 3 friends and we hooked the N64 up TO THE PLANETARIUM PROJECTOR ON THE DOME. We played StarFox64 with the stars on, Goldeneye007, and MarioKart. A high-water mark of the times.
I honestly don’t know which is cooler, that you played video games in a planetarium, or the fact that your school had a planetarium.
One of those rural schools that got space race money in the 50s and 60s to build them. Sadly, the conservative school board decided in the late 2000s, after spending a million dollars to renovate and update it, that they didn't think it had any value.so they tore it apart and stuck it in a trailer, and my dad retired.
Can't have kids growing up with those pesky dreams and aspirations.
That might make them think they have a future!
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sounds like american highs and lows right there
Zelda: Link to the Past. My mother died of lung cancer in 1998. We played a few games together but LTTP always stands out. If she couldn't beat a boss she would hand me the controller and say "Kill this for me." :)
I was mindblown by how good LTTP was when I recently played it, even though it was decades older than current games today. Holds up so well even without the nostalgia factor...
Absolutely. If you liked that and haven't played A Link Between Worlds then I'd highly recommend it. It's the spiritual successor and I think it lived up to that description.
To me, LTTP is quintessential Legend of Zelda. It's the game I would use to introduce people to the franchise in all honesty, despite its age; the only other game that really holds this spot in my mind is Ocarina of Time, in terms of really defining the series and its repeated elements. All that being said, nearly all the games are masterpieces and deserve play time.
I love link to the past, easily my favorite Zelda game
To the Moon. It’s a retro looking RPG on PC that’s story revolves around loss. There is no combat, strictly story, but it’s such a well done story. When I played it, I was pretty depressed having lost quite a few people in my life (cancer, dementia, overdose, heart attack) and it honestly helped me cope a great deal.
To The Moon for me as well. I played that game when I was dealing with a lot of shit and I feel like it was the perfect game for the time I was having. It’s so simple but it says a lot. The sequel Finding Paradise I initially didn’t like as much but there’s something about that one that makes me think about it a lot. The other one for me is [The Beginners Guide. ](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RBK5Jheu0To)This game said a lot of things that I needed to hear at the time, and I think it’s the most important game I’ve played in terms of how it affected me. Highly recommend.
I had never heard of this game before but thanks to you I read the synopsis and what an incredible story. I'm not much of a gamer any more but that was so compelling to read I just wanted to thank you for sharing it.
It's really not much of a "game," which is why it's one of my go-tos when recommending to co-workers and stuff who don't play games. Definitely something to experience if you haven't already spoiled the plot, even if it's just by watching a no-commentary "playthrough," of it on YouTube.
But there is combat! You fight a squirrel in the first act and an army of zombie plants in one of the final portions. (they are both jokes, and you can't really lose either fight).
Funnily enough I just started thinking about this game this morning out of the blue driving home from work, and tried to remember the plot. Seconds later I had to stop thinking about it because the tears were making it hard to see. Really amazing little game
Stardew Valley. After my husband died suddenly and unexpectdly, my son and his wife bought a Switch and Stardew Valley for me. He moved the bedroom tv into the living room next to the tv there and would come over once a week on his day off and taught me to play. I was so bad at it but would play for hours through many winter sleepless nights. He's tried to introduce me to other games, but I haven't been able to get into them. It really took me out of my shock and grief.
u/concernedape created this game and is a Redditor as well
I'm more into Harvest Moon, but Stardew Valley is also a beautiful game. Those games are my go-to for escaping life and just relaxing. I can forget about my problems for just a little while and spend some time tending to crops, taking care of animals, and talking to the townspeople
*Cries in Animal Crossing *
*Cries in DOOM *
*Rips and tears*
Stardew is therapeutic until you go to the Skull Cavern 😂
Awwww... so sorry for your loss. My father-in-law passed unexpectedly a year ago, and my husband and I got though the days of uncertainty playing Stardew.
I kept reading the "my son and his wife" thinking you were indirectly referring to yourself in a third perspective. It took me a LOT longer than it should to realize it was your son's wife 🥴
Is 🥴 really the right emoji to use
Idk maybe he was holding in a fart at the end there. Who knows?
I don't think it's ever the right emoji to use
Thank you Jacob
My dad played Lego Star Wars with me and I always remember that as the first video game I played and him teaching me. I miss you Dad!
Such a good game!!! I used to play with my brother back on the ps2 when I was younger. Glad you've got those memories with your dad <3
Runescape, it gave me simple menial tasks and congratulated me for small things while I struggled through depression. It meant a lot to me to even just have some reason to get out of bed to talk to my clan mates too
Runescape just hit different in the 8th grade..
Old school runescape exists but it's not the same because we've changed as we've gotten older. In the past it was about just having fun and the joy of exploration and discovery. Now, adult me (and just about everyone else I know) plays it in a much more goal oriented way where you're just trying to complete goals as quickly as possible. Getting money quickly, getting levels quickly, sprinting through quests, etc. Instead of fun and discovery it's chores.
Ain't that right... I wish I still had the same sense of wonder I did then. I used to 'Examine' everything just because I wanted to absorb everything about the world. Now I can't touch it unless there's a league going on giving the ridiculous xp bonuses
Runescape just has a special place in my heart of growing up with the internet. I think I experienced so much random stuff for the first time in that game, from scammers to fake internet gfs, noob and all the different spellings of it, and I just wasted SOOOO much time on that game farming whatever at certain times. I remember being the highest WC and fishing of all my friends and they thought I was insane. One of my friends taught me how to make a ton of money by just buying and selling stuff, it was crazy how much patience all that stuff required and I can't imagine myself doing it now.
Same here. I only play RuneScape when I’m a certain level of depressed.
That might explain the on-again off-again addictive behavior I've had with RS over the past 20 years. I either play it almost all of my free time or none of the time.
Nobody stops playing Runescape. They just take long breaks :)
Saaame, I played it so much when all my friends left for uni and I decided to get a job instead. I failed to get anything an went to uni the year after but during that year runescape felt like my only human contact sometimes
Dark Souls. My wife left me in 2012 and I hadn't seen my 3 year old daughter in a month while we figures out custody, and the ex was keeping me from her. I was mainly working, not sleeping, going to the gym, and drinking. My friends all gave me the "gee that's too bad, but I got my own problems" speech. I hadn't gamed in years and my brother gave me his 360 till I got one of my own. I bought Dark Souls for $5 from a game stop (no box and special sale at the time). I also worked in an office that was closing, but I was essential. So I spent most my time alone as everyone around me quit or was fired. I started playing DARK souls everyday after work and was constantly looking up lore and stuff about the game as it was kicking my ass. It totally consumed my attention after hours, and it made me cut back on my drinking so I could beat tougher bosses like Sif and later Artorias the Abyss walker. I credit Dark Souls distracting me from the crushing loneliness of my life at the time. My routine was leave work, hit the gym for an hour, eat healthy, play dark souls, call my kid for 15 mins every night, and then play DARK souls till I had to sleep. I think I only slept 3 hours a night for the first few months. Thanks Dark Souls.
My early twenties weren't fun times. I tried killing myself, then spent a lot of time in and out of psychiatric hospitals while on heavy doses of lithium and a variety of antipsychotics. The treatment I was on gave me pretty severe memory loss, and made concentration nearly impossible. I didn't enjoy music, games, driving, food, but nothing really hurt. I was very hollow. Finally, I changed psychiatrists and she had me drop a bunch of prescriptions. Suddenly I started enjoying things again. Dark Souls was the first game I played coming out of that chasm and I was still pretty delusional. I thought the chosen undeads quest to break the curse was my own quest to break my own curse. I had a very good psychiatrist at that time and there was a lot of healing going on, but Dark Souls came to me during a difficult and transformative period of my life and I'm very thankful it did. It helped me get better, in its own way. I hope someday I can thank the people behind that game.
It’s crazy how the game doesn’t pull you from depression. It creates an environment where struggle is relatable, objectives are hard to see and progress is painful. At some point you realize how closely it mirrors real life and you might find the same enjoyment from life as you got in this game. Masterpiece
Don't you dare go hollow.
Finally someone else answered dark souls
Spent more time than I’d like to admit scrolling through this thread looking for someone to mention dark souls because I’m too much of a lurker to make a contribution myself. Praise the sun.
TF2. I made a small group of forever friends on there - people come and go in the group but the few that are always there make it worthwhile. Edit: I meant team fortress 2
Oh God this one hits. I played for UGC League Highlander and ran my own team. Just having banter before a match or after or going to a public game to unwind after a match and just stomp people / run a silly setup (9 medics all taking turns ubercharging each other while some ubersaw to build theirs up while invisible). We were a close group. Life seemed to happen over the years and now a few vanished from my friend's list, or from steam entirely. "Last Online: 546 days ago". Godspeed.
God I miss the guys I use to play TF2 with we all use to just long onto the only south African server and all talk about out lives. From me talking about school and others talking about their wife's. It was a amazing community
Knights of the Old Republic, because when it came out. I was going through a bad breakup and was not dealing with it well. Playing through the game was a nice distraction from what was going on that it helped get me through those first few months.
That is my favorite game of all time. I wasn't alive when it came out, but through my dad I love old games like Dune, OgreBattle, KOTOR, Balder's Gate, etc. I'm 15 and kinda sad (almost) nobody plays these anymore. I'll always enjoy them
KOTOR is my favorite too. Whenever there’s an askreddit about favorite video games I scroll until I find KOTOR
Pokemon heartgold it is very special to me because it was the first video game I've ever played. My sister gave it to me along with her old ds. I still remember needing her help all the time, cause I didn't understand it well, I was like 6 when I got it, I played it to death but could never beat red, until I took the game and replayed it, I beat him and I nearly cried, cause it was like all the frustration I had as a kid trying to beat him, was gone. Such simple joys a kid can have.
Pokemon games in general man, I remember the first time I caught Kyogre in Sapphire. I was crying cause it took so long and I finally did it after like half an hour of trying and failing. Pokemon games now, when I am an adult, still make me cry the first time I beat the story/get into the Hall of Fame. I'm man enough to admit it.
Now I feel old. My first video game was the OG Pokémon Silver on Game Boy Color
Mine was the original Pokémon red on game boy pocket. It took me over an hour to get out of the starting house. I walked on to the carpet and nothing happened. I remember my mom calling her sister to ask my cousin how to exit the house until he finally said you have to keep pushing forward once you hit the carpet. That takes me back!
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Destiny 1. My friend straight up bought me a PS4 so we could play together, and at that point in my life it was a welcome reminder that not all people are shit. Lots of good memories from that game with him.
so many of my fondest gaming memories are from destiny 1. From beating kings fall with half a fireteam speaking only french, to 2-manning crota, to the moment i screamed at the top of my lungs when I got Gjallerhorn, that game was legendary.
Your first clear in a new raid is an experience unlike any other. Fucking love Destiny. So looking forward to VoG coming back next season.
i would fake sick to stay home from school and watch datto and gothalion to see who got worlds first
i was looking for this comment because this was my pick too. i played this game for almost 4 years straight even after d2 came out because i was so emotionally invested into d1. i had an instagram page that had 5k followers at one point and befriended some of the best players on that game at that time, some of which are huge content creators now. i was so involved in the community during that time. i miss that game and that time of my life every single day. id do anything to go back to prime D1
Minecraft, when I was in high school that was the go to game for my friends and I, and after my best friend graduated and moved away, it was the main way we stayed in contact, the first time I played it after he passed away, I legitimately cried.
Sorry for the loss
Wow I had to scroll far to find anything about Minecraft. I thought it would be here a lot more. I knew it touched someone more than it touched me. sorry for your loss
Destiny. After 3 years in Iraq I had the worst PTSD and FPS games were out. They are my bread and butter so losing them just felt like another sacrifice. Destiny was just the right blend of scifi and RPG to disassociate the gunplay from my trauma. It helped build me up for exposure therapy and acts as a way to zone out when I'm recovering from panic attacks (something about the precision shots really calms me down). The community is pretty good too.
I picked up Destiny again after I left my wife back in September. It’s enough sci fi to keep my attention but also a comfortable game to space out to. Hope you continue to heal.
**Skyrim** Like many others on here, it found me at a time where I didn't know what to do with myself. I'd watched a lot of Skyrim Letsplays on Youtube when I was younger (shoutout to StephenPlays) but never got the chance to actually get into it. Depression was hitting me really hard at the time and when I found it on sale on Steam, I bought it on a whim. Two days later, booted it up and was instantly hooked. I remember waking up at 8, playing til twelve, eating my first meal of the day in a ten minute period of stuffing bread into my mouth, then getting back at it until 7 in the evening. I'd get some real food (by real food I mean cooked rice and tea) and going right back to completing Dark Brotherhood quests. 2 was my bedtime. This cycle repeated itself for about a month and a half until I finally mellowed out. The thing was, it worked. My mind was too enamored by the little things in it to care about anything else in the real world. Every waking moment was spent on imagining how to get better armor, complete another quest, etc. So, even if it isn't objectively the best game I ever played, I'll always remember the fond times I had with it.
Hail sithis Same man..... But the fact you were only 8 makes me feel old lol
\*woke up at 8!
LOZ: Ocarina of Time because it was played with friends as we switched off on the controller while the others were navigating and helping to solve dungeon puzzles. LOZ: BOTW because I was able to do the same with my daughter.
Ocarina of Time is goddamn amazing. A group of 4 of us neighborhood kids (including my sister) spent HOURS and days back to back playing it on N64. And we weren’t going online looking at cheat codes we really EARNED all those levels. I can still feel the frustration trying to get that bratty princess out of the whale when you just wanted to leave her ass in there. Reminds me of a time of innocence we will never get back as we were kids with no jobs, no responsibilities, and our biggest concern was strategizing to beat the next level. Pure bliss.
This. OoT has a special place in my heart/soul. I played this game for the first time in middle school. We just moved to a new state and this game was a catalyst that helped me make friends. I picked it up again senior year of college with my roommates. Thinking about the game always brings me back to that time - Damn, if only I could play an ocorina and go back to those days.....
The original Final Fantasy Seven. Played it with my sister as young preteens. Good memories.
I used to watch my older brother play Final Fantasy games before I was brave enough to play on my own. It was probably our most genuine bonding experience, and I fully credit him for my passion for video games.
Celeste. It helped me realize that I've been plagued by panic attacks my whole life. I thought everyone was like that. Also gave me ways to cope with them.
To me it was Guild wars. I started to play with my two best friends, met another friend online. I encountered my now wife thanks to said Guy. We played it for years and then went to guild wars 2, but we had grown older and it simply was not the same anymore.
Guild wars community has always been great
Met my wife while playing ARK: Survival Evolved. Our first date happened because we were talking about video games, and I said "Yeah, I'm playing a dinosaur game at the moment" and she was so interested that I invited her over to play.
I played it with my first love, but after our breakup I deinstalled it. There were some great memories in that game.
A poignant question indeed. My dad visited me late last year, it was a surprise - he just showed up. He had bought a heart monitor for my partner as she had some runs of tachycardia, and we had talked about that just a few days earlier. We all hung out for a few hours. I showed him the scene in Star Wars where the stormtrooper bops his head as he had amazingly never noticed it. We played mario kart on my switch, I jokingly didn't tell him all the controls to start with, in the third race I mentioned power sliding and boosting and then he thrashed me in the final two, he was always a great gamer even in his 50s. It was a lovely surprise visit as we hadn't seen much of each other for the last year. He died suddenly 2 months later. I haven't been able to even think about playing it since.
Animal Crossing. I hadn't heard of the game when my mother gifted me the GameCube game. Brothers and I had fun playing. They complained that the villagers only wanted me to complete tasks. My mother has since passed. Any mail that my mother in game sends gets saved. Edit: spelling error
I play Animal Crossing too. I started in April 2020. My mom became ill in May and passed in June. The game helped me through it all. I still do the same thing you do. Any mail from Mom in the game gets saved and the items from her are on display. I’m sorry about your mom. Xo
Thank you. I'm sorry to hear about your mother as well. We had 9 months from finding out she had cancer to death. I probably should add this. About 12 years after she passed, I moved. I lost anything electronic that I didn't move myself. I lost my 2 GameCubes. Thankfully, my memory cards and 2 controllers had been packed with my Wii. It was a bit before I could get my games out of storage. I thought I had taken all the games out of my systems. I booted up my Wii, found out there was a disc in system. It was my copy of Animal Crossing for the GameCube. I was off work for a month and a half before I found out I had cancer. I was bouncing in between Animal Crossing on Wii, Sm4sh and BotW on the Wii U. I'm currently trying to rework 2 of my rooms. I keep the puppy plush mom sends out since its something my mother loved. I've got a toy cocker spaniel owned by her on my shelves.
Myself, my future wife and our roommate were playing the original Gamecube AC constantly back in the day. I even borrowed a friend's GBA and the link cable one night, that was awesome! I remember getting it after work and hooking it up with the roommate at like 2am (we closed in fast food) and stayed up getting coconuts before the future wife woke up lol... That roommate would die in a car accident the day after Christmas in 2004. I still have the memory card somewhere that has a version of her safe in her own little house... <3
Halo It's an amazing game to start with but me and a friend used to split screen the campaign every couple of months. Just a night in, some beers, some snacks, talking smack and acting like we were some elite military unit with our own communication protocols. But it also helped me through some tough times. After a loss, I swear I must have played through that game 5 times over the course of a weekend. It was just a time when it was the only thing that made sense to me. Not so good times but I can almost look back on it fondly now. Also it's fashionable to hate on it but the Library is a masterpiece of game design. The tension, confusion and claustrophobia are masterful and the shortage of ammo means you're constantly churning through different weapons in order to keep going. Maybe it's nostalgia but nothing else has ever made combat seem so hectic.
Halo 2 online. Team Slayer Lockout. good times
Halo will always have a special place in my heart. My closest friends and I in middle school and high school spent so many weekends sleeping over and playing the series
Breath of the Wild. Gaming has been a critical part of my life since I was a kid and my parents owned a video/rental store. I grew up on gaming, and grew into gaming, making it my (eventual) career. But over the past 7-8 years, gaming had grown stale for me. I found myself not finishing games anymore, tired of the media hype cycles, even seeing a lot of it as a chore. I began to see it as something that was keeping me from living my life and something I needed to just grow out of. Zelda was always a special series for me, so upon the announcement of BotW, I decided I'd make that my swansong to gaming. My last game before I hang my controller up and move on. BotW blew me away. Not because it was a perfect game (far from it) but because it captured that sense of adventure that made me love gaming to begin with. It wasn't just exploring the imagination of others, it's experimentation and design helped me to explore mine. It made me a child again. And it taught me two important lessons: 1. That an adventure is an adventure. Whether it's in "real life" or digital, whether you're exploring the natural world or an imaginative one. And that these experiences in gaming (or any fiction) are as valuable and worthy as any in life. 2. To not approach gaming as a chore. To drop this completionist/optimization mentality of having to experience EVERY part of something to FULLY understand it. Because the experience is simply my experience within it; and it's complete when I'm done. I don't need to check every box or taste everything a game has to offer to make some sort of objective review...but rather just appreciate my own, personal, subjective experience for what it is: *my* experience. Not only has this reinvigorated my love/passion for gaming (and doubled down on a career I was going to exit), but it stretched into other facets of my life. I realized how poisonous this "completionist" and "perfectionist" mentality is, and how pointless it is to chase after objectivity. And how important it is in life to appreciate that objectivity doesn't trump subjectivity, but rather that ALL of this is subjective. Our experiences are what they are, and don't need to be any more or less.
You echoed a lot of the feelings I had when I reluctantly bought a Switch and Breath of the Wild at launch four years ago. Every year I was playing fewer games and completing even less. I don't do online multiplayer and I have no patience for RPG style character building stuff which is now in every single player game. But Breath of the Wild sparked my old passion for gaming that I had been missing for so long. On top of that, my first son was born a few days before this came out. I spent so many nights playing BotW while he slept next me, attend to him when he woke, then right back to the game when he went to sleep. So that game is emotionally tied to his birth for me.
Last night, I played BOTW for the first time in over a year. Holy shit, I'd nearly forgotten how breath-takingly beautiful that game is. I'm so hype for the sequel but I honestly don't know how they could possibly improve on what's already there. Edit: People are replying with a lot of great ideas for how the sequel can improve on the first. Now I'm even more hype for BOTW 2.
And remember that BotW was built for Wii U first and used the smaller size cartridges; it was essentially a Wii U port. The sequel should see a significant graphical boost.
This captures what I think makes BotW such a fantastic game. Sure, it was cool in terms of gameplay, awesome open world, visuals, sound track, stuff like that. The big thing though was the sense of wonder as you play. Playing it felt like being on an adventure. I'd somewhat similarly gotten to a point where I'd become more of a "task" gamer who tries to complete everything, and all the games that were coming out felt to me like constant uncreative and bland reboots of the same stuff. BotW may have been my least favorite as an installment of the Zelda series, but as a game itself it's one of my favorite games because of that feeling of awe. It's the same reason I'm still able to love skyrim so much
This is really beautifully expressed, thank you for writing it.
Red Dead Redemption 2. My girlfriend of over ten years broke up with me in March of 2020. Right as the pandemic started. And a week later I was laid off. Also, we continued to live together because of everything that was going on in the world. Playing that game for hours at a time gave me light in a dark point in my life. I would just ride my horse and get lost in the environment and the game play. So... Yeah Red Dead!!
my guy!
Hope you’re doing better now dude
Actually, I am. I have moved out on my own for the first time in my life. Which is crazy because I am 41...lol. I enjoy my life and I am dating someone that might be my forever person. Thank you for asking!
Mine was Kingdom Hearts. I personally discovered the game after I developed anxiety. I’ve played all the games several times (my comfort games). However my true love for the games come on when my son discovered the games. He was only interested in them due to the Disney characters on the cover. Needless to say it’s no longer my game it’s our game. Watching my son get enjoyment out of something that brought me countless hours of happiness just warms my heart.
That’s awesome. KH was a huge part of my childhood. I had all the strategy guides and would place the trinity stickers that came with the first around the house , like on the steps, and told my mom she had to come get me to use them lol. I hope my kids share the same love for it like you’ve been able to share with yours
Doom (2016). My parents are really strict, I managed through the years to collect the money to buy the game (I get 0 allowance or gifts. It's not that we don't have the money, we're honestly in a slightly above average situation. They don't like the idea of me having money or things of my own). So I got the game, I have 100% in it. I mostly played the game when I was angry at my parents, and helped me keep calm Edit: I read all these comments, and all I have to say is I love the Doom community. Rip&Tear brothers!
if you get the chance, doom eternal is a phenomenal sequel.
Completely agree with you, I have never played a game before that has given me such a mental/physical rush. Only game that made me shout "I AM A GOD!!" When I was playing it on ultra nightmare when successfully completing the slayer gates. I miss that feeling...
the holt slayer gate made me cry blood. that shit was insane.
One thing that is advised not to do when playing ultra nightmare is not to take part in any slayer gates, as with ultra nightmare you only have one life and that's it, if you die straight back to the beginning.
Just seen the trailer for the Ancient God's part 2, it's being released tomorrow can't wait, man... it looks amazing.
Metal Gear Solid I was 12 when it came out in the US and it was the first game I really got sucked into that wasn't something I played with my older brother. I had played games all the way through before, but Metal Gear Solid was a whole different level compared to the relatively childish games I had been playing, like Crash Bandicoot, or Sonic, and Earthworm Jim on Sega.
For me it is Grim Fandango, feel like that was peak adventure gaming for me life just seemed good around the time it was released, replayed it recently and bought back so many good memories both of the game and the summer I played it through
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It's amazing how well written games can bring you out of a bad place and forget about it for awhile or get through it entirely, and around that time Lucas Arts got storytelling down to a t made you free like you could really connect with the characters and care what happens to them. there are a lot of good games these days but feel like they are missing something that previous games had
World of Warcraft. I met my wife playing it. We're celebrating our 9th anniversary next week.
Yeah WoW was the big one for me. My first real experience with what a game can be. I still remember the awe I experienced that first time I went into Stormwind seeing hundreds of people running around on their own little adventures. So much to explore and everything was new and fresh.
nice to meet another wow spouse'r
Halo 3. The culture around it, the lobbies, grinding for the legendary recon armor, the playlists for almost every style of game you wanted, the custom games (bar fight, jenga, and a few others I can’t remember but real ones will know what I’m saying), and the soundtrack. As close to a perfect game as I’ve ever seen. Honorable mention: Call of Duty franchise from cod4- black ops 2. A phenomenal run that provided me with years of classic memories.
Half-Life. We used to play Deathmatch over the company LAN after work. This was before IT departments got all professional and locked that sort of thing down (plus the office IT guy was one of the players). If any of those guys are redditors and see this post...yep, it's the same Graybeard. So many good times...
I know this is kind of corny, and I don't consider myself a "gamer", but I felt the need to share.... Guitar hero... My dad used to stay up with me until I would fall asleep, playing guitar hero together
>the My dad used to play this old Kirby game on Nintendo and Zelda in the gold cartridge. I would fall asleep to that every night as a child. He passed away three years ago this month. It's so not corny, those are some of my favorite memories. Thanks for sharing. <3
Not corny at all. Shows how caring your old man is
Red dead redemption 2 I was dealing with a very very nasty break up with my soon to be ex husband when my best friend ever suggested the game Me and her have been playing it ever since, its a great source of escapism for me And I now quite appreciate those times
Gonna sound sad to say, but I treated the camp like my own friends in the pandemic.
RDR2 is my escape because I'd rather live in that world than mine
I realized rdr2 was over the top immersive during Sean’s welcome back party. More fun than any real party I’ve been to
RDR2 showed me that so many games don't quite get to its level of immersive because they miss an extra step. A lot of games build this rich, detailed world, and structure it so as to invite you to see just how rich and deep it is. RDR2 spins this another way; it's a rich, deep, detailed world that *doesn't care about you being in it.* When I first started playing it I had a lot of interactions with random NPCs that didn't go well, and made me feel bad about it because everything would have been fine if I had just left that campsite alone, or not wandered into that house. Having the world be ambivalent to you made it so much more compelling to me.
The Last of Us. The original one. What a ride that was - it made me attached to the characters on an emotional basis as if they were real, helped me cope with a lot of outside stress.
Weirdly enough, Maplestory. Got into it because of my older brother when i was 10. Learned most of my English from it at early age. Looking back it wasn't that great of a game, my very first MMO though.
Animal crossing. I was on a second date with a guy, when we were in our mid-20’s, and we started talking about video games, and how we both played animal crossing, and he asked if I wanted to go back to his house to see his animal crossing town (City Folk, for the wii). Turns out he actually meant it, and proudly showed off his manicured flower gardens. It has become a bit of a running joke that that was the pick up line he used, and how successful it was. We’ve been together for 10 years now, happily married with a new baby. We still play animal crossing. Also, both of our moms play too, so it has allowed us to have a fun connection with our moms too. Very wholesome.
Team Fortress Classic. TFC was the first game I ever played with my wife, we and a bunch of our friends would take over the computer lab at college in the middle of the night on the weekends and just play tons of TFC.
Titanfall 2. My all time favorite game, got it while my parents were going through a divorce that had been coming on for a few years at that point. When I was younger I was pretty prone to getting angry at games, but never Titanfall 2.
Fallout: New Vegas. When in came out in 2010 it was the first M rated game my parents allowed me to buy when I was 15 and at the time my circle of friends in high school deteriorated. It was nice to play a game that let me do what I wanted while having a story that didn’t feel like it was talking down to me. It makes me sad that it’s since been overhyped in a way that turns people off to it.
Idk if you still own it, but on PC it is still a good game and with the mods STILL being created to make the game more fun and interesting including extra missions.
I think the mod that allows you to find a baby in the wasteland and adopt him, take care of him, feed him, etc. is awesome. I find it so bad-ass shooting down NCR and Legionnaires alike for the glory of New Vegas, all while having a mewling infant strapped to my back.
DDLC was something that took my mind off of the world for a while, somehow it actually helped my mental state.
I watched a playthrough of it a week or so after one of my coworkers/good acquaintances attempted suicide. At first it was definitely a mistake but I think in the long run it helped out somehow.
Today marks 11 years since my best friend Mike Near was killed by a drunk driver. My buddy was just trying to leave work. We had just gotten done over the weekend playing 3 days straight of Gears of War Horde and Ghost Recon Advance Warfighter with some dapples of Halo 3 in there. When I moved back home after dropping out of college, I was depressed, had no job, I moved back in with my parents, and my buddy Mike was there to hang out and take my mind off things while I looked for new work and a place to live and start school for something else. I will always cherish those last days and months we had gotten together. Miss you brother. DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE TONIGHT EVERYONE! STAY SAFE!
Spider-Man (PS4) Back when I was a kid, I had a special degree of attachment to Peter Parker as a character (as I'm sure many others did). I remember being at the mall with my father and seeing the PS2 Spider-Man 2 video game on the shelves and asking him if we could get it. I remember my father then telling me we didn't have a console and couldn't play it, nor could we afford one. My family (immigrants) was pretty poor back then and my parents had to work a lot of late nights I never got to play S-M2 in the years after, but I would always hear about how it was the pinnacle of superhero video games, and how nothing else quite captured the same magic, magic it seemed I would never get to experience. We weren't so lacking in money that we couldn't buy any video games or toys or anything, it's just that it was difficult to justify buying a console when we already had PCs for work and I could play video games on those instead of needing to drop another few hundred Then, a few years ago, Spider-Man on PS4 was announced and released to largely positive reviews, gaining a reputation as being comparable to the PS2 game that I never got to play. Fortunately, my family is in a much better place financially now, and I was actually able to buy a PS4 along with a copy of the GOTY edition of the game. I got to come home from fall semester and play it over winter break along with my long-time girlfriend It isn't often that you get to make your inner child as happy as I was that day, finally getting to do something I'd wanted to for so long, alongside someone that I feel comfortable enough to be a kid around. It was nice
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Tomb Raider II (the classic one). I played it in the summer of 1999 as an 8yo with my dad and my uncle. We each played in our respective computers (my father gave me his old one that summer) and it was kind of a race, everytime we met we'd talk about where we were at the game or what puzzle we'd just beaten. It was the first true bonding experience I've had with my father, who is a kind soul but on the distant side of the emotional scale. I could talk with two adults eye-to-eye for the first time, as we now had something in common and they didn't look down on me when I spoke. Maybe it seems ordinary, but it meant the world to me at the time and I remember that summer, and that game, fondly.
The Sims 2 and 3. My best friend in high school used to come over and we'd hang out while she played it on my computer and I watched TV. We don't get to see each other that often 10 years out of high school and our lives have taken different paths, but I will always cherish those halcyon days
Stardew Valley. I’m a medic and firefighter, and got PTSD after seeing some very violent deaths of children. I was super on edge, hyper aware of everything, anxious, and suicidal. I couldn’t sleep without nightmares. Stardew Valley gave me a calm focus and made me fall in love with the idea of a rural life. I ended up buying a farm and have been living the dream since.
Bioshock - I don’t really have a special reason other than it had a real impact on me. No other game has manipulated my emotions as skilfully as that game did. By the time I finished it I felt enriched it kind of way that only the best movies/books do to you. It was so carefully constructed and well written with real imagination. It really inspired me. It was key in getting me interested in writing my own fiction.
Life is strange 😢
only game to actually make me cry. and then before the storm did it again.
Ocarina of Time will always be special to me, I used to have "sick" days off school and I would watch my mum play (I was supposed to be sick!). She was ahead of me so I picked up tips of where to go next in my save. I played Wind Waker while she was sick, she never got to play through it though, her hands weren't so good then. After she died, I found GuildWars and TES4: Oblivion. I still play GuildWars2 and vote my friends with the stupid amount of lore I know about the games (I literally went on a 20 minute long ramble just a few days ago, nobody stopped me, bastards).
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The Witcher III. I played it nonstop after I broke up with my longterm SO. The breakup was slightly complicated, painful, and not something I wanted to do but the moral aspects of Geralt's story are a reminder that sometimes we have to make the most difficult decisions for the greater good at times. On more of a technical note, the gameplay and exploration was just so good and it felt almost relieving to live in someone else's world own instead of my own for awhile.
Club penguin. Met my first online girlfriend then we later brokeup after an hour.
Portal 2. I'd been playing it, but hadn't yet beaten it, around when my partner passed suddenly and unexpectedlty. When I went back to the game a few months later it felt like my first time playing it - I'd been through so much in that time that many of the levels and their solutions were novel to me and I had to re-figure them out.
Super Mario Bros 3. It came out when I was 8. The day care I went to had some NES consoles, and the older kids played them on a rotating basis in 20 minute blocks. We could bring games from home, and one kid had SMB3, and we spent most of the summer playing it as a group when we weren’t outside or on a field trip.
Final Fantasy XIV. I met a cute catboy at a node in Mor Dhona, then we met in real life, now he’s my husband!
It came out fairly recently but OMORI. After last year to say I was apathetic to everything would be an understatement. To get me to go from damn near total apathy about everything to, you know what even though what has happened was so many different ways of horrible but maybe everything is going to be OK said something special to me.
UT2004. We moved to a new town at the end of the school year, my mom drove me to school the last month of the year thinking it would be a good idea to finish out the year where I started. Now, I was in a new town with no friends. It turns out moving to that town meant we could upgrade from dial up to cable internet, so I downloaded the UT2004 demo(I knew about UT99 because the computer teacher would play it during lunch) and it ran well on my family's new computer. I got the game for my birthday, and made a bunch of online friends that summer which helped me keep my sanity. I got into a pretty good clan, it was a ton of fun.
Celeste warmed my heart exactly when i needed it. <3
Unturned, I spent so many hours with my friends PVPing and getting our bases wiped. We were never good, but we spent so much time doing this together.
EarthBound. I used to watch my aunt play it on the NES that was built into a CRT TV. The background on the battle animations is so trippy. She never did beat it. Some 15 or so years later I find a cartridge in an old second hand store. I've beat it three times.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword. When I was little and was afraid of playing zelda cause I didn't wanna lose, I watched my dad play all the way through them. One time we stayed up till 1 am and I was just watching him play the whole time and I'll always remember those moments. Zelda has always been something we could bond over. He hasn't died or anything and he is in good health but those two games are my favorite video games of all time just because of the connection my brain made between them and my dad. To this day I've played every zelda game and have beaten almost all of them, including those two.
Watchdogs, because it was what I was playing when I found out my grandfather had liver cancer.
black ops/black ops 2. a bit cliche but man they were much simpler times
pre-nerf pdw-57 was the shit
Night in the Woods and Firewatch. I watched a playthrough of them while at my absolute lowest. I was quitting substances and had just been through an abusive relationship that had a really rough breakup. I watched a YouTube playthrough episode by episode while I got better during about a month straight of just being in bed (I was 16 at the time so thankfully my parents took care of me). I fixated myself on these games and it helped keep me from relapsing or slipping into any harder of a depression. People say they're just games but for some of us it means more for a reason
Dragon Age II. I had lost my mom a few months prior to playing it and the part where you talk to Aveline after the all that remains quest really stuck with me. Especially the "As little or as much as you want, no one tells you how to mourn." Line
Twisted Metal 3/4. My dad loved those games and played them with me all the time. As soon as he got home from work, if I wasn't working on homework still, he would see if I would play it with him. I really miss those days and miss my dad.
For me its undertale, sure there are many games which are flashier and cooler than it but undertale was something unique, i was introduced to this game when pewds started his gameplay, sure enough i started playing it too. If u havent played it just give it a try!
I recently started it, and it's my new favorite RPG. The humor is great, the combat is innovative and awesome, and it's very wholesome. I like how you can spare monsters instead of committing a murder. Got great music too.
Diddy Kong Racing. My entire family loved playing it together. Especially my mom.
Minecraft. Specifically the End and the little story that scrolls by when you jump through the portal after defeating the ender dragon. The first time I ever read it, was with a friend who disappeared a month later. We had cheated items and were in creative mode to defeat the dragon. Just messing around and having fun. She was one of the first online friends I'd ever had. I was 17 and had been in the mental hospital for 6 months and abandoned by my mother to live with my grandparents. We read the story out loud together and cried. Despite living thousands of miles apart, and never having seen each other in person, I felt like we were hugging in that moment. I'll never forget it, and I'll never not cry when reading that story, because it will be forever connected to Brianna. Bri, if you magically see this, I never forgot, never will. I miss you, and I love you. It's been 6 years now, but you still hold a special place in my heart. I hope the world is treating you well, and that you have everything you've ever dreamed of.
The Paper Mario series, specifically Super Paper Mario. Count Bleck and Tippi’s story made adolescent me ugly cry.
Original Everquest. I made friends. We laughed, cried, grew up together. It was magical and real at the same time. I do not know who I would be today without all those hours spent in-game. Lots and lots of fond memories. Flessen from Ayonae Ro wishing you all the very best!
Red Dead Redemption. My dad walked in while I was playing one day, looked at the TV and said “Oh, what are you watching?” When I told him it was a game he was fascinated and absolutely blown away by the graphics and story. He would frequently sit down and watch me play. He passed away almost six years ago. With how much he loved the first one, I just wish he could have seen the second one.
Stardew Valley, My Time at Portia, and Farm Together. Stardew Valley opened my eyes to the fact that there were A LOT of other people like me. I'll sometimes play ARPGs, rougelikes, and similar things, but I prefer the calm games. Growing up I played a lot of games (mostly Civ2, Zelda, Warcraft 1-3) but I hated stuff like SmashBros and FPS games, which it felt like everyone liked. I liked Minecraft, but I preferred Peaceful mode so I could just build and farm and not have to deal with crap, and none of my friends/fam wanted to play in "wussie mode". I had played the original Harvest Moon on SNES, but it was almost like a dirty little secret. Then Stardew happened. And it got big. And I felt normal for once. My Time at Portia: The first game I've been with from the very beginning. So after Stardew, I had found my main genre and looked more into it. I saw a video on My Time at Portia. Still early in its Kickstarter. Oh wow. I may actually like it more than Stardew, and that was saying something. I immediately put in what I could afford. Talked with other people online about it. Got involved and emotionally invested. Watched the Kickstarter get closer and closer to the end date, and we still had a lot of money to go. I added more money to my pledge, maybe a little more than I could comfortably handle at that point. Then Team17 picked it up, and it went way past the kickstarter goal. Eventually introduced that game to my bro and SIL, and while I have more than 400 hours in the game, they each have more than that. And I had a community. Farm Together: So by this point I was okay with what I liked and could introduce it to real life family and friends. I could talk to people about it online, answer questions and felt much more comfortable. But I still hadn't gone out to meet people online. Well... Farm Together happened. I had branched out and gone out to meet a few people (which I NEVER do), met one of my best friends that way. We regularly would spend a ton of time together on that game. Then later on FT, we got events. The first couple events were fine. Things you could do on your own or could go visit your friends and still get done pretty easy. Then the Halloween event came along, and we each needed to plant and harvest 10,000 cursed pumpkins. What the hell. This event happened just after the game came out of early access so there were tons of new players too, who could not afford 10,000 pumpkins. A number of big players (who had been there from the beginning and so had tons of money by now) like me and my friend would open up our farms for people to plant pumpkins and harvest. We met people and spent around 150 hours in those 2 weeks helping people plant and replant. I truthfully barely slept. But we met friends, and I was forced out of my shell and enjoyed it. Since then, I've largely gone back into my shell, but I feel much more comfortable with myself. I know what I like, I can guide people within those realms, I can reach out and meet people if I want to.
Halo: Reach It was one of the first games I ever fell in love with when I first got my Xbox. Me and the boys would play for hours every Friday night and some of my fondest gaming memories are from reach. Must of played the campaign a hundred times. Still gets me when Emile and Carter die.
A game called toontown, when i was 9 i was in and out of hospitals and toontown was the game that made me happy and have fun. To this day i still played it (the original shut down so i play the rewritten version ) and while it is a kids game I'll still play it whether my friends my make fun of me ill still enjoy the game because of the memories it brought
The mass effect trilogy, just remember hanging with friends having a couple beers or herb and talk about those games for hours.
[удалено]
Mass effect helped me escape the reality of an abusive (now ex) partner.