You guys have a very skewed definition of “of all time”. For me, I’d say the newest is possibly Tetris, with the other two being chess and go.
rFactor 1. Just about the only thing I play anymore too.
Meh, if you’re ignoring the implicit “computer” in the OP, then I can’t see Tetris as competing with backgammon for the top 3. Don’t know which of them is newest, maybe chess.
I’m pretty sure the OP meant video games only.
Probably Planescape, Deus Ex, and TF2.
So Team Fortress 2!
Even if he didn’t, my answers wouldn’t change since this is about a personal list. I haven’t played go or backgammon, and I don’t much care for chess. Only possible change I might make is to switch Angband and its variants out and place tabletop D&D RPG there on the second place. Your mileage will vary, of course.
It’s extremely difficult for me to name my top 3 video games of all time. My TOP favorite is easily Final Fantasy VIII (already mentioned once here, yay!)
Then it gets ridiculously hard to just pick two more among my top favorites. Portal 2, Star Control 2, LoZ:A Link To The Past, Sonic The Hedgehog 1/2/3 (hard to pick my favorite among those), Super Mario Galaxy 2, Yoshi’s Island, Fallout 3, Phantasy Star IV, Starcraft 2, Red Alert 2, Final Fantasy IV & VI, Crono Cross, Perfect Dark (N64), Metal Gear Solid 2… these are all games I can go back and play at any time and just absolutely love love love like I loved the first time I played them.
Putting a gun to my head, if I HAD to just list my top 3 favorite games, I guess the nostalgia factor and the “formative years” of gaming are going to trump the others, and I’d have to say…
- Final Fantasy VIII (1999)
- Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001)
- Perfect Dark (2000)
So 2001 is probably my answer most days. But I’m dangerously close to knocking off Perfect Dark and including Portal 2 instead, so possibly 2011.
Skyrim… It’s freakin’ huge! I’ve been playing for 200 hours and don’t think I’m even half done yet!
Fallout IS my all time fave on Xbox. (Original fallout circa 2000 was great on PC). Honorable mention to the original “Resident Evil” on Playstation 1.
Jagged Alliance2 (1999) is my all time favorite on PC hands down.
The Binding of Isaac. Extremely enjoyable game for me with no sign of slowing down. I still haven’t mastered the use of Lemon Mishap, after all.
Yo Chronos I like yer posts and imma let you finish, but Skyrim is the greatest game OF ALL TIME!
My list changes all the time, but as of today my all time 3 best games are
- Civilization,
- TIE Fighter, and
- Knights of the Old Republic.
It’s hard to call out one particular Civ version - I loved all five - so I’ll split the difference and say that the median publishing date is about 2000. That makes Knights of the Old Republic the newest on my list.
Three is a small number, though. It’s hard to leave off Red Baron, X-Com, World of Warcraft, SimCity, Rome: Total War, Elite, Total Annihilation, and a bunch of others.
Too many to confine to just three, but as far as time enjoyed playing and the fondest memories of…
- Guild Wars, the only true non-grindy fun I’ve had in an MMO.
- Soul Calibur, I’ve played all of them to death, though there’s something about 5 that has lost some mojo.
- Skyrim, I see no end to playing this one.
I had a love/hate relationship with Dragons Lair at the arcade. I never got past the first 3 seconds or so. So I bought it for the Wii just so I could actually play the game. After dying a billion times I finally beat it. It took a hlaf-hour. I played it several more times and got down to about 15 minutes. If it weren’t for all the dying the game is probably a whole 5 minutes long.
Let’s see… I suppose FF7 (1997) narrowly edges out Starcraft (1998). Doom (1993) would be my third.
I agree that three is a small number, and leaves off tons of great games I’ve played for thousands of hours or over and over again, like Diablo II, Super Smash Bros Melee, Deus Ex, Soul Calibur 2, UT99, Team Fortress 2 …
My (current) list would have to be, in order:
- Red Dead Redemption
- Skyrim
- Portal 2
For me, Portal’s the only one. Although if you expanded it to “Top 10,” Portal 2, Bastion, Mass Effect 2, and Braid would make it. Maybe the original Halo, as well.
Kind of shocked to see that none of the GTAs made anyone’s lists.
My newest top 3 game is Xcom: Enemy Unknown. (Hey, I only just found it). The other two…hmm… probably Elder scrolls:Oblivion (haven’t played Skyrim yet), and Grim Fandango.
Hey hey! Come on over, have some fun with CRAZY TAXI! (2000, Dreamcast. Though technically came out in Arcades in 1999).
Don’t know why this one holds up so well, but it’s probably a combination of simple yet deep gameplay and absurd premise.
Final Fantasy IV (II US) - this was the game that got me into RPGs, and by extension, into serious console gaming. Before I played this game, I was an eight year old kid who enjoyed playing some Mario or a little pinball. I also really like that a lot of the SNES era games can be replayed in 10-12 hours or less; I make a run through this one, Link to the Past, and Super Mario world probably once a year without a ton of trouble, while I’d love to replay something like FFXII but I’ll probably never get around to it.
Heroes of Might and Magic… III - it was a really difficult decision between the second and third entries in this series for me. The second one was, much like FFIV for RPGs and consoles, the game that got me really into TBS and PC games. A decade and change later, though, the one that I still pick up and play at least once a year is number three. It iterated about perfectly on everything the second one did right. It’s also worth noting that I thought seriously about putting Might and Magic VI or VII on this list, too; I’d give a lot to get some more games from New World Computing circa 1997-1999.
Everquest - and by just over two weeks, we have our winner (3/16/99 vs 2/28/99 for HoMM3). I don’t know that this one holds up as well as either of the prior two games, but I also don’t know if I’ll ever spend nine months of time /played on anything else in my life. Not to mention if you give it influence points for all of the time in Guild Wars, Vanguard, Rift, and I’m sure GW2 down the line.
Games I’d have loved to get on this list: the games I mentioned in passing above, Secret of Mana, FFVI, Lufia II, Shining Force II, Phantasy Star IV, both Chrono games, Tactics Ogre, Final Fantasy Tactics, Symphony of the Night, Fantasy General, Warcraft III (especially if you include DotA with that), Civilization IV, Neverwinter Nights, the GBA Fire Emblem games… and a ton of other RPG and TBS games that you can probably guess from the pattern. I like some FPS and action and puzzles and whatever else if they’re good games, but those two genres are where I live.