What's THE game you were totally captivated by?

[Npiet1]

SMB3 one of the first games I played (though there's a bunch. Parents played games too. So my earliest memories were gaming.)

[CommanderAlex]

On 3/9/2021 at 11:27 AM, DeadnightWarrior said:

It's your turn now: what's your "one and only" game?

Black Mesa, the remake of Half-Life, is one of the best visually stunning games I have played so far. Once you get to the Xen chapter, the developers really pulled it off, it's quite majestic and beautiful. The graphics are amazing and the music is really good (sometimes I listen to the Xen OST). I played this game twice already in it's full completion. It was so satisfying to play this game and once it was all over, I just wanted to play it again. 

 

I did play Half-Life up until the Office Complex chapter but after that, I never completed the game. I have a copy of it on Steam but I have to play it sometime in the summer. 

[Morrie Sells Wigs]

If we are talking recently, there's a few.

 

I still maintain that the level 1-30 campaign in The Division is one of the best games of recent years.

The world was incredible, the gun play exceptional, the power and speed of the upgrade and loot system was varied, and perfectly paced. 

The endgame Dark Zone aspect was less coherent and became monotonous over time...but that 1-30 experience was a personal favourite. 

 

The Last of Us Remastered on ps4 was another gem.

Such a great story, with visceral, brutal combat - and factions was a nice bonus.

I have the sequel, and the combat is still fantastic...just a shame about the direction they took the story in.

 

Another personal favourite was GTA4 on 360.

 

Loved that game so much.

 

Classic Rockstar, and GTA5 cemented that reputation. 

Notable mentions go to Arkham  Knight (ps4 and pc), Bioshock:Infinite (ps4) Rage (360), and Fallout 3 (360).

 

I'm also ploughing on with Death Stranding on pc, so I can't say for sure yet whether it's in my conversation as a classic.

[Rauten]

If I had to choose one and only one it would be, no doubt, Phantasy Star Online.
And if I have to choose one specific version, it'd be Phantasy Star Online v2.0 for the DreamCast.

Dear Lord that game chewed, devoured, digested and shat out my soul for years - and I loved every second of it.

 

Other notable mentions:

• WoW
• Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn
• Dark Souls
• Dota2
• CS:GO
• Sunless Sea

[AzzaNezz]

My first PC game was MMO called Dekaron,i played that shit for like 5-6 years and it was the best times ever.

But the best game i ever play was Red Dead Redemption 2

[SolarNova]

Its been a long time since any game really captivated me to spend hundreds, nay thousands of hours playing. I've never found anything to replace them despite my best efforts. In the end it was a result of the industries changing genres and game styles.

 

Earth & Beyond (2002-2004)

EvE Online (2004 - 2010)

WoW (2006 Vanilla to start of Cata 2010)

 

EnB ended due to EA buying out Westwood for C&C, as soon as they had it they shut down EnB (they didnt care for it). EA has been on my Sh*t list ever since.

 

I basically stopped with both EvE and WoW around the same time, though for different reasons.

For Eve Online, In game situations resulted in my gameplay regressing to a point i wasnt willing to spend months working my way out of.

Basically the alliance i was in ,aswell as the Corp, gradually fell apart despite being around for a long time.

As I trained purely combat but needed heavy industry to maintain momentum as a solo / small corp player, which i didnt have, I was stuck in high sec and got board quickly of high sec life and couldnt wait for industrial training to complete (would have taken up to a year) so i could afford the cost of nulsec. basically it got slow and boring.

 

WoW - I left because it basically went easy mode towards the later half of WotLK. However the start of Cata I returned and it was nice due to the reintroduction of some level of basic difficulty, but that was quickly nerfed. That and my Guilds downgrade from semi hardcore raiding to casual made me just decide to quit.

 

I had some hope for Rift, Aion, Tera, Guild Wars 2, and Black Desert but none of them could fill the void the above 2 left.

Rift just died, as did Aion.

Tera had slow development initially which resulted in me taking  a break, and shortly after i returned after a expansion, it went F2P which included heavy nerfs to difficulty, which in a action combat style mmo ..completely ruined it.

GW2 was great ..but it had poor endgame for someone who was used to WoW style raiding. it to got boring for me.

Black Desert had nice combat, but had no endgame, and also real life decide to, kick me the balls so to speak, around that time, resulting in having no access to my PC for a very extended amount of time. by the time i was back online Black Desert had gone down hill.

 

Haven't found anything to sink my teeth into since.

[mwagen]

The Half Life series, and I'll include the Portal series also. Few games have compelled me enough to play through in one or two sittings, and the first time I beat them I immediately wanted to go back and play them again. And again, and again... There's only a few games that I felt like replaying (Mass Effect, STALKER, Crysis, Inside, The Talos Principle, Ocarina of Time) but none as much as Half Life.

[Andreas Lilja]

Always go back to Age of Empires 2.

 

Definitive Edition is so perfect.