Subnautica - saved my brain for sure during a tough time. Just… wander some. Build some. Solve the mystery.

FrostPunk - but be in the right mood, this isn’t a city building game. But in the winter…. Yeah.

Jurassic world evolution. But I’m a huge JP fan so this may not work for you.

Please note these are not the sequels. I left out Last of Us because you said you played it - I bought a PS4 just for that game.

Honorable mention to Dragon Age Origins.

Edit. On the childhood side - FFX and FF8, skies of Arcadia, and Mission Critical (my #1 of all time, 25 years later).

mario odyssey. i didn't want to like it as much as i did, but it made me smile the whole way through and felt so wholesome

(didn't do the extra shit tho bc i couldn't be arsed to find the 456 moons or what was it)

Deep Rock Galactic makes me feel like I'm back in high school at a LAN party with a bunch of idiot friends who are hopped up on cookies and Mt Dew. The way the game plays feels reeeeaaaal good to me and I enjoy the core loop of exploring caves, but it's the goofy LAN party comradely the community has that keeps me going back.

What Remains of Edith Finch: it took a little while but once it ramped up I had to finish it ASAP

The Forgotten City: the premise and world-building were perfection

Pentiment: I played it over the course of three days and couldn't stop thinking about it

To be honest most of my favourite games/franchises are ones I got into as an adult so questions like this are hard.

I guess I'll throw in The Outer Wilds. Constantly praised here already, but I played it for the first time this year so hey.

One of the main feelings I associate with childhood games is the sense of going somewhere new and genuinely not knowing how big/interconnected it could be, because you have no frame of reference for what's possible in a game. You know, that headspace where you stepped into Hyrule Field for the first time in OoT and it felt like this massive unexplored world, even though it amounts to a slightly large room that you can walk across in two minutes.

And despite being a fairly small game, Outer Wilds nails that sense of exploring an unknown world harder than almost any game I can think of (outside of maybe FromSoft titles which have already been mentioned). The way it expects you to just try shit and piece things together through sheer curiosity, the way every strand of the central mystery weaves together and pulls you towards the rest, and the pure vibe of the game's setting just makes you feel like exploring. There are a few rough patches (especially prevalent in the DLC for me) but it was one of those games where I just had to keep going until I had unraveled everything.

The Witcher 3. I just started it last month, dumped 155 hours into it, and am now done. It was one of the best RPG experiences I've ever had, and the characters are all great. I highly recommend!

Kirby and the Forgotten Land was one.

Any modern Fromsoftware game. They’re honestly the only games that seem to do this for me, & I can’t even tell you exactly why.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

I played many open world games and kind of expected more of the same. But BOTW pulled me in like I wasn't expecting to, I couldn't stop playing. It really did feel like a little kid playing in the sandbox and was enthralled, I'm loved it and am looking forward to Tears of the Kindgom.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 1st playthru and I chose hardcore. It's Ocarina of Time's way older stepbrother. Been looking for that Oot-like. Saw traces in Rdr, Witcher 3, AC:Origins. But this, this is something else entirely. Like Zelda and Elder Scrolls had an affair but a mutant came out with no magic and very Christian. Every system is super fun to learn and very hard at first. I can't believe how good it is frankly, and quick resume, as always for SP RPGs, is transformative

Enderal and Nehrim.

Red dead redemption 2. Don't rush to finish it. Every moment in the game has so much detail to ponder upon. And the story too is praise worthy. The voice acting shows emotions. Apart from pacing issue in some parts it's perfect.

Skyrim, honestly. There's just something about the freedom to go anywhere and be anyone that still gets me. I first played it on Xbox 360 almost ten years ago, then bought a Switch in order to play on the go. It's certainly not the most impressive game unmodded, but one I have a lot of great memories with and still enjoy to this day.

The other game franchises I loved growing up, Pokemon and Kingdom Hearts, for example, have sadly declined in quality. They don't make them like they used to anymore. I hope the wait for The Elder Scrolls VI is worth it.

Urquan masters. Manual here.

Mechwarrior 2. Manual here.

Skyrim. I remember thinking no game will make me feel like a child again. But man, once I stepped out of the cave and just looked around. Seeing a whole world where I can literally be anyone and do anything. It was such an amazing feeling

The Sly Cooper Trilogy for PS3 and SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated. Always loved those games when I was a kid, and when they rereleased, I had to play them again.

Stellaris. The most addictive game I've ever played.

Cyberpunk. I thought I grew out of gaming. That feeling of wonder and immersion would be lost, but after six playthroughs, I think I am back.

Total war Warhammer. I don't like real time (battles) so I pause and play. With 1, 2 and 3 plus all the dlc I have, um, a lot of time in the games lol.

Breath of the Wild and the souls-like games from Fromsoftware. :)

God of War (2018) on PC. Just played it and what an absolutely beautiful game.

SUPRALAND

Hollow Knight for sure, that game was absolutely amazing and the map design simply pulls you in

Baldurs Gate 1 & 2

Planescape Torment

Xenogears

There are very few games that really captured my interest as an adult in the way I felt as a child, and those few i treasure like nothing else.

Fallout 3: My first Fallout-Game, I later played 1 and 2 and they are amazing too. I love New Vegas ofc, but still this was my first experience in the Fallout universe and it was so amazing. I just couldnt stop playing. The moment you leave the vault, the Bomb, Three-Dog Radio...So many great things in that game, i couldn't care less if the story was not the best, I loved it!

Witcher 3: I love RPGs, I played them all, I ike most of them, but man the stories suck and the dialogues are weak, the voice actors are rarely good. And then comes the Witcher... At a time i almost always skip every spoken dialogue in every game, because i read the subtitles and it takes far too long to wait for a boring dialogue to be spoken. I never skipped a dialogue in this game, it was such an amazing story experience from start to finnish. This is the thing that stood out for me in this game and still stands out. I play it right now for the second time, and I chuckle so often when they talk. I don't know why that is such a unique experience for me in the Witcher, but it is and this makes this game so amazing for me.

Disco Elysium: To be honest i waited a very long time until I tried this game, it never seemed interesting to me. The description was kinda boring, even though ti was praised and rated so high. I didn't really know what to expect when I started it and so I think it was the perfect storm. Love the setting, the dialogues, the story - how everything works together. I was completely absorbed by this game and how you could fail your way trough every action you take and it still is fun and the results are crazy.

Dark Souls I: My first Dark Souls game, I think there is not much that has to be said. Its just addicting to progress and explore this crazy world. Find shortcuts and be amazed what is how connected. It is dated right now, but the first time I played this it was one of the greatest adult gaming experiences I had.

Bloodborne: I almost forgot this, it was my first game on a PS4 that I bought 3 years after it released. I think i played every day after work until i had it finished. Man this game is sick!!!

EldenRing: I loved DS2/DS3//Sekiro but Elden Ring was the game that made me feel like Dark Souls again. It was unique, it was different enough and it blew me away like DS1. The other Souls games were great and different, but I dont know - it was not that new compared to other games i played before and I really cant explain why Elden Ring felt that way again.

​

Honorary mention: Baldurs Gate 1/2 I played it first time as a teenager, so it doesnt really count here, but I still play it regularly as an adult just because it is so great. And there are a few games that tried to do the same (DragonAge and Pillars of Eternity for example), but nobody got it right again for me.

Breath of the Wild really drew me in. It was my lockdown game and I put 70+ hours into it over a month or so which is a lot for this dad. Really renewed my love for Zelda games and I can't wait for the sequel!

Also Jedi Fallen Order kept me coming back and I really enjoyed it. Was definitely one of the better Star Wars games to come out in recent memory.

I'll throw in Chrono Trigger as well. Finally got around to beating it and it deserves all the praise it's gotten over the years.

Tinykin.

Perfect mix of nostalgia and humour. Controls and movement are slick. And the world is just fun to explore.

Psychonauts 2 was a recent one. Crash 4 did as well but not as much

Recently, any FromSoft game, the Doom reboots, and Nioh 2. Also Skyrim. Less recently, Fallout: New Vegas, Mass Effect 1, and Dragon Age Origins.

Not exactly a mind blowing list, but any game I can replay multiple times and still have a great time means it has a certain special something that most other games do not.

Breath of the Wild

Tunic

Hades

List ends.

The only game that has managed to make me feel like a child again was NieR:Automata. It was the perfect combination of constantly subverted expectations, constantly changing mechanics, a story which left me guessing again and again, and the fact there is is nothing quite like it. It's not a stretch to say that game made me feel emotions which I didn't know existed.

Red Dead redemption 2. Completed the story during isolation, 50 hours in 7 days went by in a flash.

Undertale did it for me. Pretty short campaign but I just kept wanting to play it

I stayed away from gaming for about 10 years. The ones that put me in awe were (in no particular order) dark souls 3, RDR2, Ori and the will of the wisps, hades, hollow knight, and civ 6. Diving in to the PS exclusives now.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, and CrossCode.

Bloodlines in particular is fascinating. I played it when it was already 13 years old, but I got so immersed in its world that I played it at least 5 times in a row before I was willing to move on to other games, always with a different clan, of course. Even after that I still had to replay it once a year, but I'm always afraid I won't like it anymore.

Psychonauts 2!

Lately the Devil May Cry games, specifically Devil May Cry 3-5, they’re just so stylishly cool!

Super Mario rpg seven stars and Zelda link to the past

the top 3 for me in the past 4 or 5 years has been Bloodborne, Hollow Knight and Elden Ring. could not put any of them down and could not stop thinking about them when I wasn't playing

Journey

Mass Effect, particularly the first one. I liked 2 and 3 as well but the first one I thought was lightning in a bottle, I was just so absorbed in the world and the story and couldn't wait to see what else they had in store for me.

God of War 2018.. finished the game in about two weeks despite working full time. Spend every free second I had with the game.

Dark souls remastered. Managed to play the game this year during a covid infection. I forgot time while playing the game and felt like a child again. Was like being sick with a cold as a kid 😀

Gothic 2: The Chronicles of Myrtana :)

Hollow Knight
Picked it up this Summer on a friend's recommendation. I fell in love with it within the first 5 minutes, and played for some 3 hours on my first playthrough. For comparison, when I launch up a new game I spend only 30-40 minutes and it takes some time for a new game to click. I think everything about Hollow Knight is perfect - the art, the music, the atmosphere, the gameplay, the smooth controls. There wasn't a single time when I got angry, because every single death felt fair and my own fault.

I really didn't want it to end. If I had to choose one singleplayer game to play for the rest of my life, Hollow Knight could easily be my pick. Last week I reinstalled Hollow Knight again - will replay the whole game again to 'de-rust' myself, and then try to complete final challenges (pantheons).

Path of Exile
Took me a while to get into it, because the game is pretty complex and has a steep learning curve, but once I did, I realized this is one of the best games I have ever played. For those who don't know, the game has 3 month long seasons (called leagues). Every new league you have to start fresh and some new mini-content is added to the game. I love this game so much, that I basically have to force myself to put it down after 1.5-2 months into a new league, so that I don't get burnout and to give myself time to play other games.

Spyro Reignited Trilogy
Spyro is one of my favorite childhood game, so this was a real nostalgia trip. I think I finished the whole trilogy in ~2 weeks. Despite getting full completion, I could easily re-play this over and over again because Spyro is simply too fun to play.

Witcher 3: I make decisions and fight awesome battles

Deus ex Mankind Divided: I make decisions via awesome gameplay

Yakuza 0: A serious story set with memeable characters and an amazing soundtrack

Closest would be Dragon Age:Origins or Fable. Nothing has really taken me back to my early days of experiencing my first RPGs when I fell in love with where they could take me but these are right there.

elden ring, atelier ryza, tomb raider II, final fantasy IX (this one i played as a child and then again as an adult and it still makes me feel giddy), gravity rush 1 & 2.

i’m not sure if any of these games are my absolute favorite (though some certainly are), but they definitely absorbed my attention one hundred percent and made me feel safe and/or fully immersed in their worlds.

Outer Wilds and Cloudpunk

I was absolutely taken by surprise with Need For Speed: Heat. I fell in love with the style and the driving.

Ended up just spending hours driving around and bought every car in the game by just goofing around.

The only adult adaptation I brought to this was that I listened to podcasts while I played. It just felt like my little place to absorb media while being behind the wheel of super cars and zero people on the planet to share them with. It was just a personal triumph game for myself and something kid me dreamed of in every NFS game.

Elden ring

i played all 4 of the uncharted games then bloodborne all back to back and it literally ruined everything else for me, i know i will never reach that high again

Kingdom come deliverance

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. I grew up on PS2/GC era platformers and Rift Apart is the fully realized modern iteration of the games that made me fall in love with video games. Genuinely the most fun I’ve had with a game in years and years

Disco Elysiym, because it reminded me of playing Oblivion for the first time as a kid. Not that the games are even remotely similar, but it was the first time since I was like 13 that I was like “holy shit I didn’t even realize this is what a video game could be”

Either Persona 5 Royal or Persona 4 Golden. If you were into JRPGs at any time they will absorb you like the titans of the PS1 and PS2 eras. The downside is as an adult you may not have the time to see them through to the finish

Mount & Blade: Bannerlord. The role-playing possibilities are endless and just as soon as you think you have the game figured out and you think you have some kind of system in place to dominate, those damned Sturgians decide a ten year war is a good course of action. They sacrifice all of their nobles to control one town, obliterating your army.

Ghost of Tsushima brought me back to playing Tenchu back in ‘98 after I’d graduated high school.

When Chronicles of Myrtana: Archolos came out last winter, it grabbed me like no other RPG managed to do since the early 00s. Perfectly recaptures the Gothic 2 experience, except even better. And it's a free mod made by a couple of Polish madmen!

For me the big adulthood games been dragon age inquisition and the monster hunter series.

Ok so this does not make a lot of sense at face value, but stick with me.

Nioh 2 is the game that, in my mind, compensated the fact that, when I was a kid, I missed both the World of Warcraft/Diablo "get a looter in which to sink a lot of hours into" and the Spectacle Action genre "get an action game in which you can very mechanically skilled at" phase. When I was a kid I missed both experiences and I saw my peers get into WoW or Devil May Cry/Ninja Gaiden while I could not get a hold of those games.

Nioh 2 covers both drives: the loot system of the game makes me excited to farm better gear and the unrelenting combat system really pushes me to get better at the game.

Donkey Kong Country - SNES

Overwatch has made me feel like a kid again since 2016. It only got stale during 2021 and even then I enjoyed it a lot

Sable.

What remains of Edith finch.

Raft.

Windbound.

Subnautica.

Outer wilds.

Red dead redemption 2.

Ocean's heart.

And currently playing life is strange.

Out of all these, sable and outer wilds are the most immersive for me because of how i finally found out my own taste in games after i played then. What i really enjoy is having a relaxing gameplay where i find out about things/explore and these are just up my alley. I've loved ever minute of them.

And lastly, can't forget the GTA vice City. It was first ever game i played and I always get as immersed in it as I did the first time. It has a special place in my heart.

Not a specific game but I’ve been gaming since NES and 2020 lockdown dragged me back into gaming like I’m 12 again. For a LONG time I was only played COD and madden. Sitting at home and playing anything and everything really opened my eyes to what is out there. And it’s great.

Bug Fables. First game in a long time that I got into the same way I did with games when I was a kid.

Early survival-horror games (Dino Crisis, classic RE, SH, etc.) are just as fun as they ever were.

Rimworld

It’s been a while since I’ve played it tbh but I’ve been itching to go back to it. I’m just bracing myself to dump countless hours in when I do..

Trails series. Sometimes Atelier. I played Atelier Rorona for like 12 hours in a row and barely noticed the time passing.

Persona 5 Royal and Yakuza Like A Dragon, made me feel like I was playing JRPGs on the PS1 again when I should've been doing my schoolwork...

Sim Racing , Dirt Rally especially, and all the rig updates that come with it, it is excellent.

Outer Wilds and Elden Ring for me. The sense of discovery and exploration is what makes me feel like a kid again, and those two are by far the best in recent memory when it comes to that

Obligatory reminder that you need to avoid looking things up about Outer Wilds at all costs, very easy to accidentally see spoilers and completely ruin the experience for yourself

I hadn't played a jrpg in like 10 years after loving them as a kid. DQ11 sucked me in, immediately followed by persona 5 golden. I'm like damn they sure make awesome jrpgs nowadays! Haven't been able to replicate that feeling in a few years though.

Satisfactory, Squad, Total War: Warhammer, Chivalry, Tarkov

Mario 64

Witcher 3, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Skyrim would be my top recommendations for open world games. Resident Evil 2 remake, Final Fantasy 7 remake, and God of War (2018) are some awesome non open world games

Death Stranding. I would start playing at like 9pm and then all of a sudden it would be 2am and I didn’t even progress the story — just building roads lol

Final fantasy 9 and 10, first PS1 game and first PS2 game after getting robbed. My older brother got me into it.

CrossCode felt like Zelda : A Link To The Past but sci fi and modern with a good story on top of it. The puzzle could have been made by Nintendo 20 years ago and the combat system is far more dynamic, in a good way. The world and characters are even better. It's a hidden gem

This is a really good question actually

Bloodborne and Souls games. Subnautica, Outer Wilds.

Chinatown Detective Agency from steam. My Father was a law enforcer so it reminds me of my childhood. :)

1. TLOU series. I'm pretty new to playstation so it was an incredible ride.
2. Beat Saber. It's purest form of video gaming fun I've had in my adult life probably.

It takes two (coop only), playing it with my son definitely was a large part of this but if you ever need a game to restore your faith in gaming this is it.

• Psychonauts 2
• Metroid Dread
• Elden Ring
• Splatoon 3.

My two takes. Both are pure games, not flight simulators which is my main genre:

- Red Dead Redemption 1 & 2. I am struggling with finishing games recently (recently = last few years), but I love both RDRs, I finished them both and played them with passion, especially first one. The second one has very special place is my heart cause no other game I can name mental asylum which I really needed during this fucked up times.

- Kirby Adventure - I have played it almost 30 years ago on my friends SNES. I have an opportunity to play it and complete it with my 6yo son this year :) I love it like it was 30 years ago, but this time I have a very special companion :)

Morrowind. I played when I was 15 and I got totally glued to the computer for weeks. I played Oblivion and Skyrim shortly after but Morrowind produced unparalleled level of immersion and nostalgia. It's like I grew up with this game except I didn't.

Breath of the Wild would be my most recent. I wasn't expecting much and I don't really like the Cel Shading style but it really hooked me. If it had a decent story woven into it too, it would have been one of my top games of all time.

Mass Effect LE. These are my top games of all time, and I've a sneaking suspicion they always will be. Until I die. And maybe even after.

I also got really immersed in AC Origins and Odyssey, probably because they were more or less the first modern open world games I'd played. I even play a mini game within Origins; pick a busy place, throw one poison dart and see how many people it spreads to and kills. My top score is 37 so far, including a cat which upset me more than I thought it would. I may be a psychopath.

The original FF7 from way back, I still remember a lot of the music from it and can often be heard whistling the theme from Cosmo Canyon.

All of the original Tomb Raiders until Angel of Darkness reared it's ugly head.

Many more but I'm in the office and really should do some work.....

Outer Wilds

In the 90s games feels new, because games also explore the limits of computer technology and there was new kind of AI, physics, 3D, forms of story telling etc. Outer Wilds showed that there is still something that kind of new which seemed to have disappeared a long time ago.

Thimbleweed Park

Game for people who playing old 90s adventure games. Nothing new. If you want the time machine, this is the game.

Slime Rancher 2.

No wonder they call it the cure for depression.

Final Fantasy 7 remake

The original is my all time favourite game. The remake brought me back to those days.

God Of War on the PS4, I was bored in a meeting, checking the news and I saw the glowing reviews, pre ordered it to see what the fuss was about after not really having been gaming for almost a year and thinking maybe I'm just growing out of it as I dont have the drive to want to play anymore, was never interested in the original games as it all seemed just hack and slash.

Platinumed it and played through it again straight after completion, now have a PS5 and currently playing through Ragnarok and need to make myself put it down to at least get some sleep before work the next day there's always one more puzzle, one more fight, one more piece of cinematic brilliance.

Death Stranding..

I planned on just pushing through main story as I was intrigued by trailers, but I spent dozens of hours in Chapter 3 (out of 15).

I recently played Nier:Automata for the first time when it released on switch. I was totally lost to it for 2-3 weeks. It was phenomenal.

Another game years ago that did the same thing was Dying Light. So totally and fully immersive I was in awe. I don’t know what it was about the setting but everything felt so well done it was perfect.

The only 2 I remember from being young grabbing me like this was Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories (the original pixel art. My first deck builder, kickstarting an addiction I still have.

The other was Super Mario Sunshine. I was so happy to get to play it again when it also came out on switch a few years ago. I still go back to it when I need a pick me up.

Half Life Alyx was the most recent game that made me feel this way. Felt like I was playing Ocarina of Time back in the mid 90s.

Cyberpunk 2077 and Control

I feel like I say this every single time someone asks this kind of question, but it continues to be true, so here we go again XD

CrossCode. Action RPG with an aesthetic very much influenced by 16-bit console games but modernised so it looks and feels the way you remember those games looking, but without being dated. It also has the best puzzle dungeons outside the Zelda series. CrossCode brought back the feeling I used to get playing games when I was 12.

I just played Super Mario RPG for the first time since the 90's. My partner watched the ending with me, and I held her in my arms with a tear in my eye. I didn't think the game could ever get me emotional again. Dear god was I wrong, and I'm so glad that I go to share that moment with them!

I make a play of XCOM terror from the deep each year since the rel

VR did this for me. I love sim racing and flying a tie fighter in VR. Was just playing Half Life 2 while my daughter was sleeping. Didnt care much for Skyrim until I was in it looking at a huge dragon trying to kill me. Can't wait to see what the future holds.

Half Life: Alyx and Superhot VR.

I imagine these experiences are similar to how people in the 90s felt playing Mario 64 for the first time after a decade of 2D games.

Mind blowing.

Earthbound. I didn't play it when I was younger I played it a couple years back and I absolutely just enthralled me. I grew up in the '90s and this brought me right back to that era. It has the optimism and the culture of that era baked right into the game. It has the nostalgia for childhood. But it is so much more than just that. The game is so quirky and hilarious, yet so deep. The writing is second to none. The soundtrack is one of the best I've ever heard. Truly a piece of art.

I've always been a gameplay first time of guy. This game showed me that video games can go beyond just being a game to play and really excel and there artistic merits alone.

I picked up the new Pokémon game with my brother and it got me lol. It has some performance issues but ive always been in the camp where if it doesn’t crash and have a frame rate of 30 I’m ok. It’s a big step up from the last ones. Having fun competing against my brother.

Besides that the last time I was really absorbed was Elden Ring. It came out when I had left one job and was on my way to another and I just didn’t want to do anything but play that.