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.

• STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl
• EuroTruck Simulator 2
• Battlefield 2

Honorable mentions: EvE Online, Mount and Blade Warband, XCOM Enemy Unknown, Helldivers 2, Disco Elysium, Mini Metro, Tactical Breach Wizards

Grammar. ~~You're~~ -> Your*

3 is really tough, but I'll say:

1. Hollow Knight
2. Noita
3. Super Metroid

Other GOATs of mine are already mentioned by others. Y'all have impeccable taste

Metal Gear Solid 3, Subnautica, Papers Please.

I love the Metal Gear series but the Cold War setting of 3 works so well with the theme of the game. It also features crab battles and the ladder boss.

Subnautica really captures the feeling of being lost in some alien world and slowly making it your new home. The electronic voice assistant manages to send chills up your spine with lines like "oxygen."

Papers, Please explores complex moral decisions in such a simple way. I wish to live my life more like Jorji.

1. rock band 3, spent multiple summers playing this all day long

2. skyrim, still play it every year for like 3 months straight. its insane

3. borderlands the pre sequel. i honestly prefer this one over any other borderlands game

1. Mafia 1 from 2002, that game really shaped my taste in games when I was a kid
2. Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. Essentially a perfect video game from start to finish IMO.
3. Alan Wake 1 or 2, genuinely hard to pick one.

In no particular order ( mostly cos i think ranking beyond a certain degree of precision hurts the art involved ):

• NieR Automata
• NieR Replicant (ver 1.22.. , realistically)
• The Talos Principle ( one of the most suprisingly brilliant games that too many people haven't played)

then i suppose one tier below, not consequent of any particular shortcomings, but rather just not being at the same "transendent" level as the above:

• Crosscode
• Citizen sleeper
• What Remains Of Edith Finch
• Portal & 2

NieR automata literally changed my life, so it kinda deserves it's own top spot, but placed as is in spirit of the question.

It's hard to tell because I have played a lot of games but that comes to mind immediately right now. I would say:

1. Red Dead Redemption 2.
2. Garry's Mod.
3. Titanfall 2.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is a game that I absolutely fell in love with and it's one that I regularly go back to just lose myself in and still find new things in it. Arthur Morgan might just be my favorite protagonist of anything ever. It's still one of the best looking games ever made. The game looks like a painting. And you know they did something truly special when they managed to make my ADHD ass enjoy just walking in a game without running.

Gary's Mod is an odd pick for me because I almost thought about leaving it out because I cannot like don't see it as a game. I have thousands of hours on it and most of my time has been spent exploring empty maps. It's more of a tool of relaxation for me than anything else but it's deeply meaningful to me. If I had to summarize it, I would say that the Source engine is my home.

Titanfall 2 is simply the best FPS I've ever played. Both multiplayer and solo. It's amazing. I have spent weekends just playing the main campaign on max difficulty on loop without ever getting bored and the multiplayer was fucking fantastic.

No one is going to agree with me, but here I go:

• Counter Strike (all versions): the perfect shooter.
• Terraria: the progression is amazing, but what never ceases to amaze me is how, despite the game's huge content, it is never overwhelming or intimidating. Just a lot of fun.
• Transport Fever 2: by far my favorite world-builder type game, and it still gets updates!

Going to have to go with the three that had the biggest impact on me.

1: Doom / Doom 2. In addition to being two of the most influential and important FPS games of all time, they got me into modding, programming, the internet, 3D graphics, shaping my entire future career path.

2: Kerbal space program. No moment in all of gaming had me leap out of my chair and whoop the way landing in the Mun for the first time did. Now that I understand orbital mechanics, I get annoyed at almost all depictions of space flight in movies.

3: Factorio. Got to this one late, on Switch about 6 months ago. I can't think of any game which has rewired my brain as much. As a programmer, I come away from each play through with entire new methods of solving problems at work. May be the single most in depth and addictive game I've ever played.

• Halo 2
• TLoZ:OoT
• Half Life

I can't deny that nostalgia has to do with the first two fossils in the list, though I still maintain that I like them more than their latest counterparts in their franchises.
Not Half Life though: it was ~15 years old when I first played it, no nostalgia there.

Still, between the many games I would gladly build a monument to, those are games that I can play beginning to end without getting bored, annoyed or burnt out (as long as you allow me to use the Ship Of Harkinian randomizer for Z:OoT, otherwise replace that game with Perfect Dark ig).

Dune 2, WoW, Stardew Valley

My top 3 are based on "for their time".

Morrowind

Portal

Halo 2

1. Skyrim
2. Minecraft
3. Destiny 2

• Wing Commander 4 - At the time, I was very young, and this game changed how I looked at videogames. For my little brain, the FMV cutscenes and genuinely decent acting (ffs, it has Mark Hammil) somehow made it click that games could have compelling narrative
• Kingdom Hearts - this game changed my life in many ways. I can genuinely say I wouldn't be doing what I do today if it weren't for this game and my involvement in the fan community around it. This game is very special to me because of its themes and major plot beats, and how those interacted with my life at the time. This game taught me that you could go beyond "compelling narrative" and break my heart with a video game lol
• Natural Selection 2 - I wish this game were more popular in its prime. This is the epitome of what I think good competition looks like, and a great manifestation of what I personally love in esports

Those are all relatively new games. How old are you? Just decade, not specifics. I'm in my 40s. I'd say my top 3 are World of Warcraft, Factorio, and Final Fantasy 6.

Smb3.

HL2.

Team Fortress Classic.

Falcon 4.0 gets my respect for forcing me into advanced computer tinkering and sending me into my career eventually.

1. Super Metroid
2. Fallout: New Vegas
3. Factorio

1. Skullgirls - Simply the best fighting game ever made. There's so much depth in a comparatively small roster that I could basically never get bored or see every viable strategy in it.
2. Baldur's Gate 3 - Tried and true RPG mechanics combined with the best version yet of Larian's engine that encourages free form problem solving. And on top of that, they managed best in class presentation in NPC dialogue and had some of the best writing in the genre. This will be a tough act to follow, especially since I don't think their last two Original Sin RPG systems were anywhere near as good as D&D 5e.
3. Elden Ring - It's been a great couple of years for two of my favorite games of all time to come out within a year and a half of each other, but this is another one of those games where there's just so much to see and so many ways to solve the problem in front of you. Pattern recognition for where to find your next reward is up to you; your next goal is up to you; how you conquer the bad guy in front of you is up to you.

All three of these games just respect your intelligence and are composed of systems deep enough to give you countless ways to solve their challenges.

• Shadow Warrior 2 (playing with Quake 3 arsenal)
• Prey (playing in VR)
• Burnout Paradise (playing with wheel and VR).

Oh, cheeky 4th one: Magicraft (best bite-sized PoE/arpg ever)

Planetside 2 used to be my no.1 game, but I haven't played in a couple years and do not believe I'll ever return.

Bg3

Fo NV

Cultic

MGS3

Rocket League

Resident Evil 4

The Last of Us, Mass Effect 2, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order