• For me: Easily Portal 2.

    A deeply rich story, funny dialogue, and great puzzles that will truly make your brain think. The story is very rich and spans across several different eras of Aperture history, going as far back as the 50s. The dialogue is funny and some of the lines are the most memorable in all of gaming (like the Cave Johnson lemon rant). And last but not least, the puzzles are great. They start off pretty simple, but as you progress further in the story, they get more and more complicated, especially when you get the repulsion gel and proposion gel. I feel like Portal 2 is the Gold Standard for puzzle games that every game that comes after it will be judged on.

    Also, if you don’t own Portal 2 yet, now is a fantastic time to get it - it’s on sale for $1 on Steam, same with Portal 1. And if you want both games, the bundle containing both games is $1.50. Do not miss out on this offer, it’s so worth it.

    • I bought crosscode some months ago on GOG and I’m slowly working through it.

      I’m constantly amazed at how it feels like a grand AAA mmorpg. The complexity of the maps is astounding (sometimes at a fault) and there is a lot of stuff to do. A tales of grindea on steroids, if you will

      Strongly recommended if you enjoy the genre

  • Not everyone likes every genre of game - so here’s my grouped list:

    The “I’m a nerd and like to build things and I like to watch lava lamps flow” Factorio

    The “I enjoy tough but fair games that I can totally become OP in once I figure it out” Elden Ring

    The “I just want to chill” game Stardew Valley

    The “I like to build things” game minecraft Honorable mention-Terraria

    The “Metroidvania” game Hollow Knight

    The “Arpg” game Diablo 2 Honorable mention - PoE

    The “I like action and smashing things in an open world” game Neir Automata Honorable mention - God of war (play one of the originals so you can 1st hate the remake, and then get to THAT point, and then happily eat crow and let Kratos be your baby daddy.

    • Hollow Knight is the king of a crowded Genre by far. The charm of the world building is spot on and just leaves you wanting more.

      I’ve been impatiently waiting for Silksong since I accepted defeat on the endgame content of Hollow Knight for my own sanity.

    • I have so many problems with Elden Ring. I know it is super popular, but the polish just isn’t there. Enemies hit you through walls and terrain, you will teleport to the ground dead sometimes when run around the many cliff faces, and most of the character builds seem weak compared to just strength great weapons.

      • I always hear stuff like this but in hundreds of hours of play on both PlayStation 5 and PC. I’ve never experienced any serious bugs. It’s so interesting to me that experiences can vary so much between people.

        • It depends on how you play for sure. But considering they hide items and secrets paths everywhere, the camera controls are horrendous. And I do not believe you managed to fight the fire giant and did not experience any bugs.

          I’ve not even beaten the game and I’ve fallen through the map a few times randomly.

          • I’ve beaten the game about 6 times now and while I’ve certainly encountered minor glitches that made me laugh, I’ve never had issues that were game breaking at all. And the fire giant included.

  • Cyberpunk 2077. I’ve been known to simp pretty hard for this game, but I do consider it to be one of the best games ever made. The story, the music, the acting, the gameplay, the visuals… Every single part of the game is just masterfully done. I feel it’s one of those games that everybody should play; a sort of “milestone” game like Ocarina of Time or Skyrim. Even if you’re not a fan of FPS or RPGs, it’s worth turning down the difficulty and playing just to experience the best story ever told through a video game, in my opinion.

    • It’s a great story, and one of my favorites—I’m still replaying it. But I think the best story ever told through a video game is RDR2. But those are my two favorite games, so you really can’t go wrong either way.

      • I haven’t actually played any of the Far Cry games, so I couldn’t speak to that. But if they play anything like Cyberpunk, I might have to give them a shot!

        • Original Far Cry is pretty neat actually. It was an odd series where it went from “Large levels shooter” to “Flawed open world shooter with cool fire” to the modern “Go all over, climb towers for more map, and upgrade stuff” formula.

          Like Crysis afterwards, it felt like a “tech demo game”.

          The original Far Cry was fun even though it feels VERY dated these days. The AI can be challenging, the weapons are fun enough, and about 50-60% through the game you start fighting ridiculously unbalanced enemies that frustrated everyone! :D But it’s still good in the way a silly B-movie is good.

          Better version of similar gameplay? Crysis. Crysis was so cool.

  • I would add Outer Wilds to the list.

    You can really only play it once in a lifetime but I think it’s the best video game experiences available.

    Honorable mention for Tunic and Cocoon for the same reason

  • A couple of oldies, that deserve to still be played. Disclaimer: I played both games when they were already ~8 years old, and completely outdated in terms of technology.

    Planescape: Torment

    One of the best RPG ever created, and that is entirely for the world building and writing, and how much of the gameplay ends up being based on these rather than the combat mechanics (which are just ok)

    Deus Ex

    Again it was way ahead of its time in terms of world building and depth, and it was still an unashamed PC game, that dared to challenge its users a little and didn’t need to have a GUI that could be used with a gamepad, unlike the sequels.

  • I haven’t seen it mentioned here, so I’ll rep for Noita. It’s an amazing rogue-like with great atmosphere and a really compelling world to explore.

    There’s a chemistry/alchemy system in the game that is really detailed and fun to explore. The game’s tagline is “every pixel simulated,” and it’s not an exaggeration. Noita is like those falling sand games that were popular in the early 2000s, where each particle of sand could interact with other particles. Imagine that, but you’re a badass witch flying through the world and blasting motherfuckers who try to get in your way. Your wands can set things on fire or freeze them or melt them with acid or blow them up or other crazy shit.

    The wand mechanics are incredibly deep. Like, it’s not “turing complete” levels of deep, but the rules for spells interact in incredibly interesting and exploitable ways. The feeling you get when you discover a powerful combo of spells is incredible.

    The devs also have a cool policy of turning bugs into gameplay mechanics. I really can’t say much about this without spoiling things, so this one is hard to talk about. Basically, if someone finds an exploit, they oftentimes won’t “fix” it. Instead, they’ll take it and tweak it to add consequences for using the exploit, or they’ll balance it a bit to make it harder/remove a bit of the benefit. It’s a really cool approach and has lead to a great relationship between the devs and the community. They don’t take our toys away, they just make them work better in the world.

    I played the game completely blind until I got my first win (it took about 80 hours of playtime), and I’d highly recommend that approach for folks who are willing to tolerate failure and who like to experiment. If it’s too frustrating then that’s okay, there are a lot of guides out there to help out new players without giving up too much. Many people describe your first win as you beating the tutorial, and there’s some truth to that.

    It can be gruellingly difficult at times, but it’s just so damn good, and there’s so damn much of it. I have around 600 hours in in that game which is twice as much as any other game I’ve played.

    • I’ll back this up, and recommend people having a hard time look into Spell Labs on the steam workshop (and elsewhere) to help get further into the game. Once the game really clicks, it’s super satisfying. Even before then, the ridiculous wonder of all the things are great. It’s just as hard as it is amazing and that can be a turn off. There are other quality of life mods available in the workshop for people wanting to just enjoy the game, but the tutorial in Spell Labs is one of the biggest helps I got in unlocking progression.

      Noita Together sessions were the big thing that turned the game into an obsession for me.

    • Noita is my favorite game that I’m terrible at, lol. I love Metroidvanias & everything Roguelike/Roguelite, so this game ticks the right boxes for me. I die in more spectacular ways Everytime I play, but still have a good time.

  • I’ll do you one better: completely free.

    Check out Ashes: 2063. It started life as a mod for Doom, but is now completely standalone and has more in common with the Metro games than anything else at this point. PC only, but both games and their expansions are 100% free and worth every minute of your time.

  • Don’t hate me, but I like Cyberpunk 2077. It may have had its problems at launch, and I heard people were promised all kinds of stuff that was not delived, or was delivered only much later, but I never listen to hype anyway. I’ve played this for many hours. There are great mods for that game that make it even better, and it has such cool characters, such a fascinating world, good music, great design, the combat is fun… I love it.