Outer Wilds, I refuse to elaborate because it will ruin the experience.

Two come to mind.
First is Monkey Island. It's the first game I ever finished all by myself. The opening scene with the theme music still gives me goosebumps.
The second is Daggerfall, the first game I devoted an ungodly amount of hours to. I spend all my time exploring every nook and cranny of that world, playing the tourist, borrowing huge amounts of money in some tiny country with no intend on paying back, splurging that money on houses, boats, clothes, armor and whatever else I wanted :)

SOMA. Go in blind.

Life is Strange. For me it was the most emotion I ever got out of any medium ever

Planescape: Torment
The game changed the nature of who I am.

Borderlands. Couch co-op with my brother was pretty much what videogames was to me as a kid, and borderlands was always our favorite. I can't wait to have a platform I can play borderlands 3 and the tiny Tina game on with him over the Christmases when hes back in town (I know they're not quite as good, thats perfectly okay)

These days, hollow knight is also genuinely very special to me. I don't think there's any game I hold in the same kind of place of reverence

Spiritfarer. I don't think I've ever cried harder while playing something than this.

There have been so many great games but I don't think I've had as much fun in video games than I did in Minecraft or Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

Tekken 3. The first game I got for my PS1 as a kid and the only one I had for a while.

I didn't behave a memory card so I must've unlocked every character at least 10+ times because the power went out or my mom discovered I left the PlayStation on.

Sim city 2000

Capitalism 2 It's one of the older games, but it's pretty good at learning to understand supply chains and costing

Star Control 2

Street fighter II

growing up with line ups of kids playing sfii in the arcades, leaving your quarters on the cab in a line to figure out who’s next, and when someone finally beat that Asian kid (who knew every move you’d make and always picked chun li) who played for free all day beating everyone else was finally beaten and the cheers and the whooping and sometimes even the real fist fights over it.

Street fighter ii was an absolute phenomenal moment in gaming

Disco Elysium. It's like a rich, dense cake frosted with depravity and layered with melancholy and hope. The VO work combined with the delectable dialogue really can't be beat. You'll know within the first minute if it has you.

Ghost Squad, also an arcade game.

For roughly 3 years of my life in college... after class, I'd go to the local arcade, spend $1, play roughly ~1 hour of the game... beat my old high score and go home. I did look up world-records and I'm a nobody on the world-record list, but I was #1 through #50 on that machine on the high score list, no one else at that arcade could even take out my #50 score.

SNES -- Super Mario World. I got to the point of ~12 minute speedrun, also no where near record-breaking world record or anything, but I'd like to think I'm better at that game than most people. Before college, my routine when I got home was to speedrun the game and beat it within ~15 minutes.

Factorio is probably the "long running game" that I put a lot of effort into.

The only games I ever reached "advanced/expert" level in were BlazBlue, Puyo Puyo, and Tetris. I wish I had the guts to actually go to a major tournament for Blazblue (the most popular of the three games I reached expert status into...). I'd expect that I probably was strong enough to qualify for Evo but I wouldn't expect to be in the top 32 even... just barely a qualifier. I was a regular training partner / punching bag for a few top-of-the-USA players on my friends list. I would lose 80%+ of the time but I was strong enough to occasionally eek out a victory vs top-level play (though you're never quite sure if the expert is feeling bad and letting me win, lol). I did play at some local tournaments though and knew I was near top of my state/local neighborhood at least. So I think I qualify for the expert ranking, though there is a huge tier of difference between "top of USA" and "top of local tournament".

EDIT: In terms of USA players, I'd regularly qualify for Puyo Puyo and/or Tetris tournaments. But I'm not top10 or anything crazy. Of course, USA-play is much weaker than overseas players. I'm not that good with regards to speed, only ~1 minute 40-line clear, but I think my downstacking and opening-theory is stronger than most people in Tetris and I can regularly beat faster players than me. Note that Puyo Puyo Tetris is a relatively slow Tetris game so top-tier PPT players are only ~40-seconds 40-line clear in this game, there's a lot more focus on downstacking efficiently since line clears are so slow.

I can sometimes 14-chain in solitaire Puyo / training mode, though my style is mostly harassment / beginning to screenwatch at the midgame for Puyo. Again, expert level in USA, but only maybe "advanced" as far as Japanese players go. I'm relatively bad at chaining but I think my midgame is good enough to qualify me for the expert level. I never outchain players of equal ranking to me, but instead perform crushing power-2 or other harassments while they're vulnerable on the 2nd level.

I also tried to reach advanced levels in Starcraft: BW and Age of Empires 2, but alas, I'm not that good at RTS. I'd say the games are still close to my heart due to the many hours / months / years of practice I put in, but I'm a nobody in these games.

Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty

It got me into RTS and the novels as well.

Also David Lynch's batshit insane original movie.

Psychonauts, basically my first "hard" platformer, I did play Spyro and Crash before by I always had my big brother for the hard parts, Psychonauts was my first time going solo.

Of course there is so much more to that game, the humor, the style, the psychic powers and the challenges, amazing overall game.

Sonic Adventure 2: Battle for the GameCube. I had rented it during Spring Break one year. I also got sick during that same Spring Break. Playing that game helped me though the sickness and kept me occupied when I probably would've went stir crazy otherwise.

MYST. I still think about this game and the sequels weekly. I would sit next to my dad and explore, take notes, read books, and become completely immersed in the worlds of MYST.

FF7 ps1

Legend of Mana and the Tomb Raider series.

Wing Commander. It needed expensive hardware, like a 33MHz CPU, and some features were disabled when you had less than 1MB RAM but it was worth it. To me, there was never another one like this.

Need for Speed: Most Wanted. I love arcade racing games, simulators can be annoying sometimes. The graphics were also pretty good at the time. I also really like the customisation options, nothing better than making your car feel really yours.

The OST is very special to me. It helped me form my current music taste. Hell, I still listen to it from time to time. I have also discovered my favourite band, Mastodon, through the soundtrack.

But the best part were the cop pursuits. Oh, the sweet sweet adrenaline from dodging car blocks and SUVs etc. I remember how hard my heart was beating every time I was running away from cops after completing every objective, listening to them communicating on the radio, hoping none of them would be on my way to the nearest shelter.

I bought Continue?9876543210 because I thought it sounded interesting and had about $10 to burn.

I thought it was hauntingly beautiful, and I got hung up following Jason Oda after that. I think he's got great instincts for video game design, even if his last game Waking still needs polish (but is also gorgeous). I'm actually afraid he's thrown in the towel, having tried to bite off more than he could chew, but I hope to keep seeing new works from him anyway. Solo indie game development is a kind of hell I assume.

FFVII Deus Ex Baldurs Gate Alpha Centuri Master of Orion (1&2) UFO: Enemy Unknown Homeworld

All the originals

Very few modern games have captured me the way those did back then. It's like trying to enjoy modern music, nothing sounds as good as the stuff your 20s

Like others have said. Hard to pick one.

I had an Age of Empires demo disk that I played through dozens of times before actually receiving the full game.

Crash Bandicoot for PS1 on Christmas day at 7 years old is definitely a core memory.

But more recently I've really enjoyed games that have a good blend of story/gameplay or that really nail a theme. Subnautica was an awesome experience to play (dark room and good headphones are recommended for the first time playing through), Portal 2 because it was so unique (I played #2 before #1).

I don’t think I could possibly pick just one.

• Playing Civilzation: Call to Power, together was one of the first shared activities I ever did with the woman who is now my wife.
• When I was in middle school, my dad made me a text-based game (mildly Roguelike, even, if I recall correctly) set at school centered around going to classes and solving puzzles/collecting school supplies.
• Years ago, I made a game myself for my then-girlfriend to play that secretly just an elaborate proposal wrapped in a video game.

Honorable mentions would go to Xenogears, Metroid 2, Ur-Quran Masters, and obscurities like Rollin’, Tranquility, and Omega, which collectively ended up defining my taste in games, more or less.

Dear Esther made me realize games can be beautiful. The soundtrack is fantastic too.

• Warzone 2100
• Nexus the Jupiter Incident
• Ground Control
• Homeworld 1
• Supreme Commander
• Gris

I’ve been chasing the high of Asheron’s Call my entire adult life.

Gain ground and shadow run on the genesis. Fable on xbox

Minecraft. I didn’t have the best home life growing up and it was where I was able to escape to.

Alex Kidd in Miracle World for the Sega Master system.

And get off my lawn.

I didn't see it mentioned so..

Original EverQuest. Up to Rise of Kunark expansion specially.

It was my first MMORPG. I miss the way I used to feel playing it! Miss having to camp spawn points and actually talk to / interact with others to share resources and camps etc.

Ico on PS2 by Fumito Ueda.

I binged the game over a long weekend whilst suffering from flu, my partner at the time picking it up from Blockbusters based on the box art alone.

The mood of the game, its lighting, the mysterious setting and circumstances, paired with being ill was already quite the experience. But what completely caught me off guard was a simple but rather genius mechanic.

As to not spoil the game (too much), throughout much of Ico, you lead another character around the game by holding their hand. This is implemented as holding down R1.

I can’t explain it but it was an emotional experience when you had to get go of R1. The risks, the worry, and the longing to hold your follower’s hand once more.

Binging the game, you do a lot of hand holding, but you truly feel it in your hand too; that comforting tension of gripping the controller, squeezing R1, and holding a digital hand.

I appreciate it’s not an accessibility friendly mechanic but I still think about how meaningful holding a single button could be in a game.

Ico proved to me that “games” can be art, designers can be auteurs, and that the medium can be more impactful and evocative than absolutely any other.