Gaming

Conker Bad Fur Day (live and reloaded)

Halo 1,2 3

Mass Effect Trilogy

Guitar Hero/Rockband

Battlefield Bad Company 1/2

Castle Crashers

THPS 1/2/3 THUG 1/2

If Little Big Planet for the PS3 and PS4 ever get a proper sequel or remaster, or the Restitched developers ever actually put out that spiritual successor it would be a no-brainer. It was a magical game series for me that was not only very fun to play but also inspired creative and logical thinking with the intricate community level maker tools built into the game. Especially LBP2 with its logic gate and microchip implementations. When I took real engineering classes I was familiar with many high level concepts just because I screwed around with them in a video game as a child. Crazy.

It was also a very cute and well done aesthetic. The gorgeous background enviroments and the little sack boy character you play as. The vibrant collection of music. It was very unique.

Xenogears - My favorite RPG, a little rough in the later acts because of publisher shenanigans, but the story is still good and the gameplay, other than turn based being uncommon now still holds up. (Nier Automata is one of the few more recent games that taps on some of the feelings and concepts Xenogears has in spades)

Worms Armageddon - Less common suggestion, but a fantastically fun game to play with multiple people, even with one controller, since you can pass it around by turn.

Quake 1 - despite my two turn based suggestions FPS is my favorite genre. Quake 1 blends things like lovecraftian and body horror into the environment. And the re-release Bethesda has done is really well done.

Doom 1 + 2 - just for the history lesson. Also has a re-release now that makes it much more playable. Still fun too.

Planescape Torment - You'll want to be a particular person for this one. I don't have the patience for isometric rpgs like this one, but the story is great.

Diablo 2 - Pinnacle of isometric action RPG. Wasn't my cup of tea but if you like the genre, it'll be a winner.

Day of the Tentacle - point and click adventure, but fun and not quite as obtuse as a lot of them. Will make you think still and the evil tentacle is funny imo. Remaster available on steam too.

Freddy Pharkis Frontier Pharmacist - Another point and click, this one is a selfish add, I mostly add it because I played it a lot and liked it. It may not be the pinnacle of anything, but I found it fun.

Half-Life 1 and 2 - fantastic and fun both. They tap into some things that other FPS still today can't touch. Really fantastic games.

Vagrant Story - It's hard. It won't hold your hand. But it is a good story and interesting leveling/armor/weapon system.

Solstice - NES wizard game. It's a fun and somewhat difficult dungeon crawler/platformer.

Sonic 1,2,3 - Classics.

Chrono Trigger - Classic RPG

Final Fantasy 6 and 7 - Classic RPGs

Age of Empires / Age of Mythology - Great Turn based Strategy

Thief - The original games have some clunk to them but they are still fun.

Descent - Probably my favorite 6DOF game.

Heroes of Might and Magic 3 - probably the best of the Heroes games. Good fun turn based adventure game.

The Incredible Machine - A puzzle game where you figure out logical components, I played the Incredible Toon Machine a lot as a kid which is a cartoonish version.

System Shock - Another classic game. I haven't actually played the original, but am playing the remake. You cN look at both and decide what you'd prefer.

Lemmings - another unique puzzle game. Save the lemmings from themselves, they will walk to their doom.

Yakuza - The series is great and I'd recommend the remakes over the original. Starting on zero isn't required (It's a newer prequel) but it's a good start. The games are all similar in play, so take breaks between them. And the best parts are all the side stories. Seriously, all the fun is there imo. Main story is fun but side stories are more of a draw to me and generally hilarious.

Elder Scrolls III - New TES games are still fun, but they lost a lot of the soul the series had and it gets worse every time. Still fun for what they are, but Morrowind was a unique gem. Fair warning though, it does have it's rough edges.

A few newer ones because I can't tell where to cut things off lol:

STALKER - FPS, a bit buggy, but really excellent game. Especially with difficulty mods added. Blends in spookiness, the feeling of being alone, and fun action. Part 2 is set to drop within the next year or so. The invasion of Ukraine has made dev difficult and slower.

FEAR - FPS, this first game is still good fun, the sequels aren't worth the piss I would take on them.

Mirror's Edge - The first one is fantastic, just don't focus on fighting (you're a runner not a fighter). The first and best First Person Runner game. I replayed it not long ago and still loved it.

Portal - Unique, fun, funny.

Metro 2033 - start of an excellent series. Loved the games, and then the books.

OK I should stop. In general I would suggest playing the remastered versions of any of these games. Many of the originals are victims of their times and did they best they could with what they had while defining what made a game good. The older the game the more likelihood you'll run into immersion breaking or game ruining designs. We had to tolerate that to find the gems in the rough. You don't have to do that.

Morrowind is hands down the best elder scrolls. If you want a TRUE sandbox where you can do whatever the hell you want, that's your game. Some issues include graphics, no quest markers (you have to read the quests and follow directions), the leveling system is not intuitive at all, and combat is heavily stats based.

Upsides are you can craft any spell or enchanted item using any spell effects you know. Ring of permanent invisibility. Spell of lock every door within 50 feet. Summon 3 different daedra at once. Conjure a whole set of bound armor. Explode yourself in fire. Literally anything.

The elder scrolls renewal project is working on recreating morrowind with skyrims engine and I really hope it comes out soon.

Shadow of the Colossus

Serious Sam first encounter

Warcraft 3

Starcraft 1/2

Medieval 2 Total War

Chrono Trigger

Commander keen

This is what I played as a teenager that still hold up in my eye.

X-wing alliance Age of Mythology Strongholds Crusaders Rise of Nations Midtown madness Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters Diablo Starcraft and Broodwar Super Street fighter II turbo Super Mario World Kirby All star Heroes of might and magic 3 Age of Wonders

Most good platformers from the 80s and 90s still hold up: Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic 3, Sonic & Knuckles, the Donkey Kong Country Games...

The Atari 2600 was before my time, but I bought one at a flea market when I was a kid and was actually impressed by how fun a lot of those games were: Laser Blast, Outlaw, Warlords, and Missile Command, to name a few. The problem is that the hardware is pretty important to the experience. The responsivemess (or lack thereof) of those old controllers is part of the design, so I'm not sure they'd emulate well.

Once you get into the early 3D era, it's hard for me to say what's actually good and what's nostalgia. I love Goldeneye, and it revolutionized the FPS, but it's probably a pretty bad experience if you didn't grow up on it. I'm pretty sure Mario 64 is still a legitimately good; it seems like it was still well received on the Switch, and it's core mechanics have remained basically the same through Sunshine, the Galaxy games, and Odyssey. I think Legend of Zelda: OoT is still legitimately good, but it's hard to tell. I certainly still enjoy playing it, and it think it's worthwhile just to see the origins of Z-Targeting, but I'm sure it does feel dated. Either way, you should play the N64 version of Majora's Mask for sure. It's still the strangest, darkest Zelda game, and the 3DS version was shit.

Finally, most turn-based RPGs are going to hold up, but I want to make special mention of Pokémon Gold, Silver, and (especially) Crystal. It's become trendy in the last few years to say these games are actually bad because of a bad level curve, a bad post game, and some other assorted complaints. The level curve criticism is fair, but the post game is great, and most of the other issues are just people who are upset it didn't follow some of the conventions set by later games. I could say a lot about it, especially if I got into it's connectivity with RBY, Stadium, and Stadium 2, but I'll just say it's still one of the highlights of the franchise, and a contender for greatest sequel of all time. Every fan of the Pokémon should play Crystal at least once.

Master of Magic
Heroes of Might and Magic 3
Deus Ex
Tyrian 2000
Postal 2
UT2004

This will probably get buried but I got a few of em for ya.

Syndicate Wars: Game was mind blowing for the time it was released.

Black and White 1/2: I know, more Peter Molyneaux. Everything else has been mentioned.

Jade Cocoon 1: Not 2. One was extremely unique and you won't find another game like it. It's the coolest monster merging game I've seen and has an endless dungeon.

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup: It's old but not old. Went open source and has been developed over some time by the community. It's much more newbie friendly these days.

Warlords Battlecry 3: Holy cow the races, persistent hero progression in an RTS. It's age shows though.

That's all I can pull of the top of my head right now that I haven't seen mentioned, though I didn't skim every single comment.

Alright lots of recommendations in here, some that are making me question how old I am now since some of these don't strike me as old enough to require a recommendation but I'll just suggest one as a bit of a dark horse.

Tyrian 2000, the classic PC Shmup of a time long gone. Oh and I guess Jazz Jackrabbit cause that soundtrack is funky.

I'll recommend games to younger gamers but the graphics look like shit compared to today's games.

Unreal

Unreal Tournament (if you can find others to play with you)

Duke Nukem 3D

Sid Meyer's Civilization (the original one put out by Microprose. No addons. Just one complete game.)

Doom

Quake

Might & Magic (yes there is no "Heroes" in the title)

Baldur's Gate (The very first one)

King's Quest

Simon the Sorcerer

MDK (Murder Death Kill)

Orcs vs Humans (when Blizzard were not a corrupt asshole of a company)

Not that old, but Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (2004).

I have not played that many games, but I have yet to find such an amazing action adventure combat mechanics.

There is a trailer on Youtube that does the system justice - everything can be done in-game, at your will, and it's not even that hard. Context matters, and it's so rewarding chaining different combos to plow through them like butter.

Those basic enemies are meant to be fucked up in every possible way, the environments often provide ample varieties of opportunities.

Then there are stronger enemies and bosses, which don't let you mop them around, so you have to fight them face to face.

The game itself is decent, there are some bad platforming parts, but thanks to time rewind they can be beaten.

The biggest issue is very low native resolution, and the game kept crashing on my Steam Deck. I will try it again, because I want to relive that combat again.

Pac Man.

I just finished X-COM Enemy Within for like the 3rd time. One of my all time favorites.

• Tron 2.0 - A FPS game set inside computers from the early 2000s. There were a lot of great weapons in the game but I always went back with the Disc throwing weapon.

• Homeworld 1/2/Cataclysm- An 3D space RTS series 1999/2000s. During the campaign all units made carry through to the next mission.

one of my favorite games of all time: Prince of Persia 1989 (1990 on PC). it's a "cinematic platformer" where the animations take priority over responsiveness.

once you get the hang of it, it's incredible what Jordan Mechner could fit into a ~1MB game controlled with just 5 keys. the realistic platforming and sword fights were unlike anything I'd seen. still impresses me to this day.

it's kind of notorious for being a hard game you have to finish in an hour, but I think it's a must play. I always felt like it was one of those zero-fat games. no filler, no repetition without a curveball thrown in every now and then.

flashback and blackthorne were two more in the genre that i really really enjoyed before 3d games came along and ruined the momentum of the genre. other people will suggest another world (aka out of this world) but that one, while iconic and unique, will feel more antiquated by today's standards and works more like a puzzle than the rest.

Rollercoaster Tycoon. Super chill game, you just manage amusement parks and build rollercoasters. Openrct2 is an updated engine for it, which supports modern high resolution screens, but requires a copy of the game for the art assets.

It's not super old, but the original BioShock is one of those games that you can point to and say "this is art". It's an amazing exploration of Ann Rand, capitalism, addiction, art, deregulation, unions, and greed, all with the most beautiful art deco levels. The mechanics of the powers you get are tied into the themes and your choices of how to acquire them are in themselves a statement of the self vs others. It's well thought out from the ground up, from aesthetic choices to narrative ones, and one of the few games that absolutely nails it.

I enjoy the gameplay of the second one even better, though I feel the attempt to explore collectivism doesn't fit as well by using the same motifs as the first one, the dlc Minerva's Den has the most tragic exploration of identity and the singularity out there.

The third is fun to play but I think they were trying to explore too much of everything at once, between America, racism, classism, quantum states and everything else, and unlike the first two, the mechanics of the plasmids didn't really lend anything to the story. The dlc is fun, but rewrote a poignant lesson from the base game and watered it down.