What is a game you just keep thinking about...

At this moment, I'd say Dance Dance Revolution series, for having tons of Eurodance music that I like.

Titanfall 2 (and when the hell is Respawn gonna release Titanfall 3 - I need more BT & Cooper).

I think about Half-Life a lot, and where it could've gone with Marc Laidlaw's "Epistle 3" story. On current gen hardware, something like that could exist. I have high hopes for the future of the series, and it's one of the few IPs that makes me more than happy to think about.

I'll narrow this down to games I don't also go back and play a lot:

Half Minute Hero has a moment in it that is one of the most simple, dark, and emotionally harrowing in a game I've played. Especially in a game that is mostly comedic and named after premature ejaculation. (SPOILERS FOR ONE QUEST IN A GAME THAT'S OVER A DECADE OLD)

The game's basic story is that a force rises to destroy the world in 30 seconds, and only through the blessing of the Goddess of Time can the hero enter a time loop and grind enough to power up to defeat the boss. It's more puzzle game than RPG (like Loop Hero).

One quest is a little different, as you also bring along a young woman from one of the villages you pass through. She's very peppy and positive and wants to see the world and the whole thing comes off a little saccarine until she makes you promise that you'll never forget her.

You cross a plot point, and it turns out: the entire land you've been exploring for this quest is infested with zombies that were covered by a spell (everyone but your companion was acting distant and detached, so something was certainly up). When you fight the zombies, it tells you that one in the back looks familiar. If you do nothing, and keep fighting, when you kill the final zombie, a dialog box pops up onscreen that just says: "Liar."

This isn't the end of the game, but it sure as hell felt like I got the worst ending possible, it absolutely OBLITERATED mementally and emotionally. And yes, you can get a better ending to the quest, it just uses a game command that you probably forget about because you literally never use it in the game.

Personally, I got 2 games on my minds very often:

The classic Xcom-Ufo because it was the only game that had all that I wanted: tactics & horror.

And Shadowrun from sega genesis because it offered me some of the best moments during my childhood and it was the first time I saw the beauty of a role-playing game, you know what they say, you never forget the first one.

Games I think about are games I missed or did not have the time to play. Dino Crisis 1&2 are those games I don't know how I missed. I think I was playing a lot of racing games at that time. The Ape Escape games and Brave Fencer Musashi are other games that would cross my mind until I played them over a year ago.

I've been doing almost nothing other than working and playing video games for 30 years, games that really stuck in my heart though were GTA IV, MGS4, midnight club 2, MX vs ATV offroad on PS2, psi ops, and command and conquer. These games are not in my top 10 games at all, something about the atmosphere and mechanics made them all stand out in a way that my brain latched on to

The First Valkiria Chronicles sticks with me because I had played it so much loved the story and characters so much that i went and found fan subs of the anime based on it. Having every soldier in your statagy game have destinct personality’s despite a permadeath mechanic was brave. I don’t like the second or third game nearly as much. And hearing that the fourth game was a little horny put me off from trying it that and the storyline avoids most of the interesting aspects of the first game. One of the weirdest things that works is the alternative history Europe 1930’s setting and technology. I realized how tone deaf the racial bigotry is compared to the actual holocaust. But having grown up with problematic anime they are at least trying. It has stayed with me maybe just behind Persona 4 as my favorite Japanese game.

I probably think of vanilla WoW 2/3 times a week.

As in: thinking about up in my brain pan? Oof too many, it's a real nightmare up there.

Recency bias has me occasionally still thinking about Outer Wilds, Divinity: Original Sin 2, 13 Sentinels, Disco Elysium.

I play Apex Legends almost daily but I'm always thinking about Titanfall 2 in the back of my head. It doesn't help that the latest character trailer directly references that extended fiction. I like Apex, I just can never get the adrenaline high that I did whenever I was a top scorer in a Titanfall 2 match. Same goes for most multiplayer shooters to be honest.

I think about the ending SERE moment from Titanfall 2 a lot

Madden 2006.

Okay, maybe not. A good third of my brain is dedicated to thinking about 90s PC games, though. I certainly ruminate on Llamatron: 2112 a lot. The You Don't Know Jack franchise also tickles my neurons quite a bit, both as a personal favorite series and just how uniquely impressive it was and sort of still is. (and don't even get me started on Jellyvision's version of Acrophobia, some of the most fun I've ever had with internet randos)

In short, if it's weird and unique enough, it tends to live in my head permanently.

The Last of Us Part II rocked me to my core and I've thought about it daily since finishing. It helped that, beyond my my enjoyment of the first game, I had essentially no expectations—no spoilers, no reviews, avoided all discussion and discourse—and basically went into it blind. I'd originally planned to plow through it between Christmas Day and New Years (yeah, I held off that long), but ended up having to step away from the game for days at a time because its violence and unfolding perspectives were getting to me. Felt almost like the video game equivalent of playing through Apocalypse Now or Incendies. I never want to forget the feeling of that first playthrough.

Titanfall 2. I need more BT & Cooper.

Stardew Valley.

I don't know what it's about with that game in particular, but it's definetly the game that takes up the most headspace. Even in periods where I've played it too much and take a break from it, it still sneaks in my head and I spend my day at work stacking fruit and daydreaming about the perfect farm.

Heat Signature's the first one I thought of. I don't know how more people didn't get sucked into that game.

I think about the Broken Sword games a lot. Specific lines of dialogue and set pieces.

Something I've never gotten from any other gaming experience is the thrill of running through Liberty City in GTA IV's online Cops 'n Crooks game mode, specifically One For All, where a team of criminals have to escape from a team of cops and make it to an exit vehicle. It's the only game I can think of where you're sometimes forced to make the choice of, for example, whether to wait for your teammate or drive off without them to make your own escape and it actually matters. It was a constant mad scramble to survive and I've never played anything else like it.

There's a handful of games that i keep with me in my mindpalace and tell stories about often.

• Shogo: MAD and how it took me more than 2 playthroughs to realize that this linear shooter has two endings.
• Warcraft 3 and how i practiced my builds offline during the week to go online in the weekends and test my mettle against real humans.
• Gabriel Knight 3 and how it is a wonderful blend of myth and reality, with a wonderful french vacation vibe all over that game. Probably my first adventure game where comedy & humor wasn't the main draw.
• Final Fantasy 8 and how great the pace in that game is, how it keeps setting up enjoyable plotlines and how cool the idea of this neverending war is, with schools acting as PMC's to take on missions.
• No One Lives Forever and how it naturally nudges you towards a stealthy approach by having the enemies speak hilarious dialogue if you do.
• Dota 2 and how it's pretty much the ultimate teamgame made for a computer, where every element of the game (water, trees, day/nightcycle) has the potential to be meaningful to the game at hand.
• Metal Gear Solid and how it truly felt like no other game when that demo released. Even the controlscheme added to the identity of the game, because it was the right controlscheme for only this game.

Final Fantasy XIV was the first MMO that I enjoyed playing and came to love. I loved spending time in that world, whether being the hero of the story, or just mining/crafting on the side, or just futzing around with the VinCo folks.

I had to stop when I started a family because I couldn't dedicate that much time to gaming anymore, but I still frequently remember about the great times in Eorzea.

Max Payne 1/2 - I wind up replaying these at regular intervals.Each time I figure I would cherish a revamp of these I understand on the off chance that the designs or show was transformed it would lose its appeal.

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