Half-Life: Alyx and it's not even close. I know VR isn't for everyone, but for me, playing that game felt like I was transported to Valve's best version of a Disney World ride or something, and no game has made me feel that way before. Although I'm sure it helped that I was already a big Half-Life fan. It's a shame the next-best VR games are things like Beat Saber, Minigolf, etc... fun games, but gimicky in comparison. Now that the Frame has released without a launch title, I'm not sure anything will ever live up to the bar that Alyx set.

Worms Armageddon. Four friends. One computer. Everyone was religiously attached their own team already but then we found out how to replace the noises your worms made with your own voice recordings. My mental happy place.

Playing Lego Star Wars with my kids. My son was still in diapers and doing amazing at the game, he often annoyed his siblings though, because he'd wander too far ahead in the game and the screen would trap them in a spot unless he came back to give them space to move around an obstacle.

Holy sit that image put the marx fight bgm into my brain INSTANTLY

Halo Reach capture the flag with a buddy. Game winning point without much time, he got the flag and I picked him up on a mongoose and he was screaming the Indiana Jones theme on his mic as we barely made it back to our base in time. I had to do some great driving. Not sure why it stands out so much.

We also used to beat the Easter egg on all cod zombies maps and since my group broke apart I've always wanted to form another group or something to beat the new maps.

Wife, brother, and I have had some awesome moments in Ark Survival Evolved.

Don't get to play all that much these days... Damn job...

I would say playing pokemon. I spent countless hours with friend and family battling and trading through out the generations. One would be ny parents took my brother, best friend, and I to a Pokemon Black & White promo pre-release demo release in a mall a few hours away.

The mall had a few pokemon inflatables scattered around the mall (like Zekrom and Reshiram) and an area with DS to play for X anount of minutes. We waited in line (the mall was fairly empty due to a bad snow storm heading in the area) for a short time and got to play.

I was excited due to the new seasonal changes (which was unique mechanic) and battles. I took a couple of photos (with my sliding pre smartphone and got a pin of one of tje flagship pokemon.

I do wish I had my old phone because my parents took a photo of my friend, my brother, and I standing in front of one of the inflatables.

After losing my brother to suicide last year and unable to stay in contact with my long time best friend due to reasons, I cherish going to expos and gaming events.

Looking back now just shows how video games have a huge impact growing up for everyone.

Awesome post OP and romhacks are fun to play. I played a lot of pokemon romhacks and I feel gamers now don't have that experience we had.

Not the best overall, but it's very recent, just 1 week ago. I joined a simracing championship, and it has a solid roaster, including the best player in my country; he's eSports level, top 100 in the world and has represented my country at international level.

The race was time-based instead of lap-based, which means you don't know exactly how many laps will there be, and it depends on things like leader's pace, whether they change tires, etc . I was fighting top 3, and everybody at the head was fuel saving for +1 lap, which meant they would have to do an extra pitstop. I did the math, and found that saving for +2 laps only in the second stint would save me a few seconds overall, just barely enough to offset the time loss of the aggressive fuel-saving required.

So anyways, it comes the first pitstop, I decide not to change tires which gains me a few seconds, and end up leading. This dude catches and easily passes me, as I'm almost 6 seconds slower than him, but I keep calm and trust in my strategy. We reach the final lap and he has to box, and the distance between us is small enough so I'm unsure if he'll catch me. When I realize he probably couldn't, I became so anxious that I just forgot to drive lol. In the end, I crossed the finish line ans my engine runs out of fuel 200 meters ahead, but it was enough for me to baaaaarely win him. It felt amazing, specially knowing I had no chance at beating them driving, so I ended up beating them at maths :).

Playing the original Mortal Kombat at a friend's house who had less strict parents. Participating, and dominating, in the national competitions hosted by Blockbuster. Clearing Chronotrigger repeatedly to see all the different possible endings. Exploring the seemingly endless vast dungeons of Daggerfall. Importing a Japanese N64 to play Mario 64 months before it came to the States.

My memory is not the greatest, but nostalgia keeps trying to tell me playing Sonic Mega Collection on gamecube while also switching back to TV mode when commercials ended was one of the best gamer moments for me.

But I know that it surely must be a more current thing like me defeating the harder boss battles in the latest update of the pokemon fangame Pokemon Rejuvenation, good route, within the last month or so. Classic mode difficulty isn't a joke, even with facing zero IV pokemon with no enemy item usage thanks to the password system, if you are like me and still try to be a bit casual in your playthrough.

That makes my achievement of beating a Pokemon Reborn randomizer run ( not NPCs ) without resorting to legendaries, mythicals, or pseudos look like a playthrough of Pokemon Emerald in terms of difficulty, IMO.