How long have you been gaming and what are your top 5 games of all time?

[Forge]

Mother was in a bowling league, so I started playing Galaxy Game in the alley's arcade/pinball section when I was 5 or 6. That would be 1975. One of my uncles also gave my parents a home pong-game to hook to the tv around the same time.

1. Legend of Zelda (the first one)
2. Final Fantasy (the first one)
3. Rouge/nethack
4. Duke Nukem 3D
5. Super Mario Bros.

[Damian Cunliffe]

I bought The Long Dark when it first released on early access too. Great game. I usually end up playing it on Christmas day for some reason. Maybe it's because it's a game with a lot of snow?

[Wolf]

Oh it is indeed Teratus..........and I'm still playing it, in a modded form.......with Sword Coast Strategems, my god I did not know what I got myself into when I first activated the "Better Encounters" after turning on "Better Mages", "Better Priests" and "Better Druids"..........

[NorthernNikki]

Been gaming since the late 70s (yes, I'm old). We got our first Atari for Christmas in 1980 with such classics as Pac Man, Asteroids, and Space Invaders. It wasn't until about a decade later that I went from strictly console gaming to PC gaming as well.

My all time favourite games is such a tough challenge. By what metric do you judge them? Overall time spent? Nostaligia? How memorable the experience was?

1. Doom. Love all of them and still come back to them from time to time. Couldn't pick just one favourite, I like them all for different reasons.
2. Spyro the Dragon, Spyro 2 Ripto's Rage and Spyro Year of the Dragon. Played these relentlessly with my son when he was little - they went downhill after Insomniac sold the franchise.
3. Ratchet and Clank - Again, played hundreds of hours of these with my son. There were hits and misses in the series, but Deadlocked is probably my favourite. I always liked the arena battles in these and the commentary was hilarious.
4. Sim City 3000. I played this one most of the series. 4 just didn't grab me as much and the most recent I didn't end up purchasing, but 3000 I spent a good 1000 hours in.
5. The Long Dark - I bought this one in early access in 2014. It wasn't much back then - one small map which felt pretty big at the time and have watched it grow and get polished and buffed over and over. The developers have made a lot of mistakes along the way - it took 3 years to bring it from early access to release, and it wasn't ready. Since 1.0 they have changed mechanics several times, even changed the UI with the latest update. Improvements, tweaks and additional content are great, but complete overhauls after 1.0 shouldn't be a thing really. However for all it's faults, the survival mode of this game still grabs me and I'll fire it up every few months and sink another hundred hours into it. Technically it's still not finished, of the promised 5 episodes of story mode only 2 have been released - and then re-released yesterday - but I don't play it for the story, in fact the story mode is kinda boring to be honest. Survival mode is what makes this game great.

There are 100 others that could have made this list, and on another day in another mood it would probably be vastly different. lol

[Teratus]

Baldur's Gate getting some love ^^ Amazing franchise

[Teratus]

Been gaming since 1990-1991.. I was around 3-4 years old when I started.. late 3's maybe early 4's i'm not 100% sure on the specifics.
So around 27-28 years i've been into gaming.

It's really hard to narrow the list down without limiting myself by a single game per franchise or else it would mostly be Zelda games XD

1. Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask.
If I had to pick one Zelda game above all others it would be Majora's mask although Ocarina and A Link to the Past are damn close.
Majora wins out because I love how messed up and dark the game is compared to some of the others as well as the freedom to do whatever you like in any order you want pretty much.

2. Guildwars franchise.
Sorry I can't choose between the 2 games.. There's just so much I love about both and the amount of time I've invested in this franchise is absurd.
Guildwars is my first real experience with MMO's and Online gaming in general tbh.
I'm very invested in this franchise's story and i'll continue to support both games until their servers go offline.

3. Final Fantasy 7.
Choosing between 7, 8 & 9 isn't easy as all 3 games demanded so much of my childhood time and continue to this day to demand replays on occasion.
I have to go with 7 on account that it was the first real Final Fantasy game that I played.. the only previous one being Mystic Quest which was more of a spin off.
I love everything about 7 from the characters to the world they inhabit.. right down to the combat and gameplay, It's a hard game not to love imo.

4. Pokemon Fire Red.
You do not wanna know how much time I invested in this franchise over the last 20 years.. I literally broke the in game playtime clocks on almost every game and I never left the house without a handheld system and a pokemon game for years and years XD I was absolutely obsessed with this shit for well over a decade.
Fire Red is winning out because it's just my favorite.. Kanto region with access to all the pokemon from the second and third generations.. plus I was the only guy around who had the Gamecube Colossium and XD Gale of Darkness games and the ability to transfer multiple legititmate gen 2 species and legendaries which you otherwise couldn't obtain from the 3rd gen games and the first gen remakes.
So I kinda became the guy to go to in my area for legitimate gen 2 pokemon eggs for a while and remained the guy to go to for gen 2 legendary's lmao

5.Donkey Kong Country
Tough call between this and Super Mario World.. but i'm going with DKC just because of how much of a visual marvel it was at the time of it's release.
Hell even today the game still looks amazing, plays great and claims an iconic soundtrack that's unforgettable.
If you owned this game as a kid.. I bet you genuinely felt like one of those kids in those hilarious 90's gaming commercials the first time you turned it on.. like you were literally playing a game from the future lol

[Wolf]

Started in 1998, I was a late starter at 12.

And damn now I have to choose.....I really don't like that

In no particular order

Falcon 4.0 (BMS Mod)
Arma 3 (don't like the setting, but the core of the game is great.)
Baldur's Gate 2
Gothic 2
IL-2 1946

I could write a massive list of "Honorable Mentions" containing some others like Battlefield 2, Jedi Knight, Project IGI, Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2, X-Wing Alliance....and a host of others, but then we'll be here until tomorrow morning.

[Noobc0re]

Started early 90's.

In no particular order:
-Diablo 2: LoD
-Lylat Wars
-Battlefied 2
-Red Alert 2
-Super Mario 64

[Damian Cunliffe]

Yeah it is extremely difficult to choose the top 5. I go by which games give me the strongest nostalgic warm fuzzy feelings (plus Crusader Kings 2, which has to be in my top 5 by simple virtue of the fact that I've played it for almost 2,000 hours).

[Horna]

Human Revolution damn near made into my list too! Very very good game in my opinion. I'm about to start the Mankind Divited after I finish Doom 2016.

[Damian Cunliffe]

I'm always glad to meet someone else who liked Far Cry 2. It's my favourite in the series by far. They got the music and tense atmosphere just right. Sneaking through the jungle to get past a checkpoint with that suspense music playing just never gets old.

[Kraneloran]

I'd say I'm gaming 18 years, since 11, My Favorite games.... that'll be a hard one.

0.5 Jagged Alliance 2
1. Terranigma, SNES
1.5 Chrono Trigger, SNES
2. Gothic 2, Night of the Raven, PC
2.5 Heroes of Might and Magic 5, PC
3. Jade Empire, PC

From this point I'm Kinda Cheating ^^' I'm just so Indesisive

3.5 Age of Empires 3, PC (I know, odd choice)
4. Seiken Densetsu 3, aka Secret of Mana 2, SNES
4.5 Epic Battle Fantasy 4, PC
5. Deus Ex: Human Revolution, PC
5.5 X³: Reunion/TC/AP, PC

[nmlss]

I've also been playing for 27 years, since 1991, when I was 5 and my parents gave me a Mega Drive with Sonic for Christmas. These are my Top 5 games ever:

1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
2. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
3. Max Payne 2
4. Sonic 3 and Knuckles ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
5. Doom (2016)

[Horna]

For about 25 years and my top 5 games are:

1.) Jagged Alliance 2
2.) Starcraft(+Brood War)
3.) Witcher 3
4.) Heroes of Might and Magic II
5.) The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

It's really difficult to actually choose your definite top 5 games, since there are so damn many absolutely excellent games to choose from! Tons of marvelous (S)NES games is left out, but I think list above is pretty good top 5 game list for me. One thing I noticed is, that not all of those are actually games without flaws, but I just find something very endearing in them.

[SckizoBoy]

Though I am a child of the 90's, my old man was such a stickler, so I didn't really start gaming in earnest until I went to college... though the first game I played was Caesar 3, introduced to me by a neighbour when I was still in middle school.

Anyway, PC gamer, an ex got me onto consols, though.

So top 5, which will likely change and in no particular order are:

Rome: Total War (permanent spot here if mods allowed)
Assassin's Creed II
Mass Effect (whole series, though probably 2 if I were to pick one of the three)
Deus Ex (it's aged, but still very engaging, if this had a graphics update and minor gameplay tweaks, this would be be an auto-(re)buy for me)
Dishonored (never really played Thief series, even though I have them from GoG) -_-

Special mentions for Skyrim, Assassin's Creed Black Flag, Total War: Rome II (if it includes all expansions), Napoleon: Total War, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, SW:KotOR, couple others... probably... maybe more... -_-