• Oldschool RuneScape
• Factorio
• Baldur's gate 3

1. Minecraft - Was my absolute childhood and I met so many good friends and learnt a lot throughout my time playing the game.

2. Skate 2 - The controls are perfect, the vibe is amazing, it's just one of my overall favourites.

3. GTA V - The first R rated game I played. Both this game and Fallout 3 were massive inspirations for me focusing on 3D environments as a Game Dev student.

Honourable mention to Little Big Planet and Rollercoaster Tycoon Deluxe; both of which absolutely shaped my childhood

Factorio Minecraft And 3rd is split between rimworld and baldur's gate 3

1. Portal
2. Disco Elysium
3. Drone Perspective

In no particular order, and without adjusting for recency bias:

Single player

• Hollow Knight
• Undertale
• Outer Wilds

Multiplayer

• The Finals
• Awesomenauts*
• YOMI Hustle

* Right now the game is in a weird state where the original company who owned it went backrupt, and the game is in the process of being revived by a different company. In the meantime, the already low player count got lower. On top of that, there's two versions of the game: an old version that used Steam matchmaking (as the matchmaking server went down when the game original closed); and what had been the current patch, being accessible on a beta branch, which currently has issues making it hard to actaully play a match.

• Quake
• Minecraft
• Fallout

Quake2

UrbanTerror

Warcraft (1 or 2, not WOW)

• Mindustry, it's open source as well, must have sunk close on a thousand hours into it. Incredible Game, has a good modding scene as well.
• Trove, the opposite of Mindustry, in that the game sucks, I do not recommend. However the game had so much potential and it sort of half realized it before becoming a cash grab. Does a good job of releasing LOADS of dopamine for very simple game play. That said I am now looking into Veloren - which appears to try and be a better version of trove, although taking voxel MMORPG in a new direction. It's also open source so, yeah.
• Minecraft - with mods. Nothing quite beats tech mod mania. I hope some day luanti gets to be a real competitor on some level, but till then.

PHANTOM CRASH!

RDR2

Project Zomboid

Dungeon Keeper.
BOTW.
Emperor: Rise of the middle kingdom

Copy Kitty

Anno 1800

Satisfactory

Gonna show my age a bit here.

1. Chromehounds. Nothing since has filled that 20 story tall mecha hole in my heart. The way you could build your hound into the role you wanted to play really hasn't been done well in any game since

2. MAG (massive action game). Ps3/ps4 128vs128 matches online? It was such a clusterfuck and I loved it.

3. Binding of Isaac and all its expansions. Game has been a solid and consistent time sink in my life for more than 10 years. Quirky and infinitely replayable.

Disco Elysium

Hi-Fi Rush

...third is hard. Maybe Mass Effect Trilogy. Maybe Rogue Trader/Pathfinder WOTR.

Breath of the Wild. Kingdom Hearts. Gris.

For just being great in immersion and story.

Star Wars Pod Racer Halo Reach Word of Warcraft

Pod racer was the first game I was better than my younger sibling and when I bought my very first CD (Green Day). I spent hours playing that game with my CD on repeat.

Halo Reach was the first Halo game I was really into and first console modern game played. I spent so many hours playing online and IRL with friends.

World of Warcraft is the game I’ve played the longest. I’ve been playing since a few months after launch. Even though I initially thought it was “too cartoony”, it has kept me entertained for decades. Some of my favorite books are from Warcraft lore. I’ve played countless hours with friends, but now I play solo more than anything. I chase achievements, transmogs, and pets.

• Uncharted (series)
• RDR2
• Minecraft

Honorable mention: No Man’s Sky

Ultima IV
Phantasy Star Online
Destiny (not Destiny 2)

The Last Of Us part 1 and 2 and the Witcher 3

Outer Wilds

Mario Galaxy 2

UFO Enemy Unknown

1. GTA San Andrays
2. Halo 3
3. AOE 2

These games are rooted in my childhood and connected to memories of simpler times and good friends. I Still play video games but I don't think I could ever experience the same level of joy and excitement that I got from gaming as I did when I was younger. These days I'd rather just go for a nice walk with my dog like the boring old man that I am.

Only three is a cruel restriction; I grant myself at least a top four.

• Morrowind
• The Neverhood
• Diablo 2
• Hyper Light Drifter

• Nier: Automata
• Kingdom Hearts
• Super Smash Bros: Melee

• Diablo II
• Chrono Trigger
• Halo 3

I don't get to play games much nowadays but I was a rank 50 lone wolf back in the day. Good times.

Fallout 2/New Vegas

Terraria

Pillars of Eternity 1-2

But please ask me in a hour and probably will give you 3 new favs.

Did you play RDR1? I thought that one was much better than 2, story wise. Not that 2 was bad. Rockstar games are always good imo.

Baldur's gate 3 is also in my top 3, story wise and how well it was made and time spent playing it. I finished the campaign 6 times now, 4 of which with friends playing couch coop.

Also Age of Empires 2 because when I was young I played that game for over at least 3000 hours (if not double) and I still play it sometimes. Just well balanced and lots of good memories from back then, having LAN parties with my friends and playing it for days.

Factorio of course.

With all the times I asked posts like this I am sure that it is possible to correlate my person between different sites even if I used different usernames. How many people can share the same 3 games?

Half-Life 2, Max Payne 2 and Mass Effect because I‘ve been an impressionable teenager and a nitpicking adult.

Today:

• Super mario world
• Shadowrun Dragonfall
• Mechwarrior 4 mercenaries

• Left 4 Dead 2 - for the awesome vs teamplay
• The Last of Us (remake) 1+2 - stunningly gorgeous, emotional heavy hitter
• Disco Elysium - art, literature, as a game

edit: I forgot Guitar Hero / Clone Hero was a game not a 'standard hobby', I play e-drums on that daily still..

Skate 3 Gta 4 Re4

Going by favourite as "Left the most lasting impression on me" it would have to be:

1. Monster Hunter World

2. Crosscode

3. Outer Wilds

Top 3 is hard. I'll start with the first three that came to mind, in no particular order:

• Witcher 3

• Star Control 2

• Monkey Island 2

But there are so many that I could have listed instead.

The Commander Keen games are amongst the first I remember playing, I loved those and played through them so many times.

Baldurs Gate 3 was such a masterpiece, it probably could bump W3 off that list.

Although, Ultima 7 was the first RPG I played where I became properly immersed in the story. The world, the characters, the way the mystery of the main story unfolds. And it is actually a really good jump-in point for the series as it's set a couple centuries after number 6.

Fallout 1 also could easily make the list. I loved the way such a small and intimate quest for your vault unfolds into something bigger.

1. OMORI
2. Children of Morta
3. One Dreamer

This might change everyday, especially for #3 I don't have a definite pick. But I chose the lesser-known game.