Gaming

Zelda Links Awakening. It's a perfect clock, every wheel in place.

In very recent times, I honestly believe Zelda:TotK is very close to being perfect.

It's hard to define perfection but Return Of The Obra Dinn has very few flaws IMO. I can only complain about relatively minor UX problems. Everything else is incredible. I still think about the story years later and the music gets stuck in my head to this day. It is such a consummate achievement of game dev and its design achieves maximum results with the limited resources of a solo gamedev.

If we're going really old school, then Space Invaders. Its way of leveraging the hardware at the time to make the enemies and music speed up after you defeat more of them is elegant. Back then, the more things a game had on screen, the slower it ran. So, destroying more enemies removes more things from the screen, causing both enemies and music to speed up.

This is something that's taken for granted today, but I think at the time, it was genius.

My vote goes to Shadow of the Colossus. The story, the mood, those damn creatures. Just enough frustration to keep you going and enough variation to not make it boring.

Witcher 3. They very well combined open world with story telling, with tons of side quests, many of which affect the story. The characters aren't one dimensional. For example Bloody Barron is a low life, but also draws sympathy as he pays for his sins from the past. The world is also unforgiving, many times you have to make a decision between shitty option and even shit tier option. The graphics and characters are also very detailed. All of that creates a great atmosphere.

If you haven't played it, you should give it a try.

Celeste has just perfect controls and pacing. I still think about it. I wasn't as touched by the story as others but many were. I'm still playing Super Mario World and find it so impressive and charming.

Fallout: New Vegas. Wait now, don't laugh at me. I'm painfully aware it was built on an engine that just does not cooperate and crashes regularly. BUT, the gameplay itself, the roleplaying, the fights (yes I do like VATS), and the choices by god the choices. So many choices with so many consequences, telltale wishes they were this cool. The only thing for me that's holding this game back is 1) the rickety engine it's attempting to balance on, and 2) unfinished quest lines. The devs for this game had so many brilliant ideas that never made it on screen, I don't know if they shot themselves in the foot, or if the deadlines were unrealistic. Even though some of the main quests between the warring factions feel lopsided, and some interesting things seem to go to a dead-end, the game never felt unfinished to me. There was so much to do and try, I never felt cheated by the game in narrative. Instead, I just want more because it was awesome how interactive the world was. It responded to my decisions and made a unique playthrough because of my decisions, I don't believe the predecessors even come close to this. Sure 3 and 4 kept similar mechanics, but the game didn't react to your choices. If I had one wish it would be to see Fallout New Vegas as the devs intended, with every plot line completed and polished, I'd even continue to play it on its rickety system. Though this would need to be a magical wish because there's no way that engine could handle the work needed, and converting this content to a new engine would be very expensive (so I'm told). I know she's not perfect, but goddamn she has the potential to be.

Bioshock I think, loved it so much. Excellent writing and graphic design. Wish the remaster had improved the visuals more tho

Perfection is overrated. Most of my favorite gaming experiences are with games of which I would be able to cite plenty of flaws.

I like games with sharp edges.

That said, there are a lot of good games being mentioned in these comments.

Hollow knight. The gameplay, the smoothness of the controls, but also the universe, the atmosphere, the fantastic music. Absolutely wonderful game.

To The Moon

Firstly, it's fairly short, which I appreciate in a game that's primarily story-driven. Secondly, the story is damn near perfect. When I got to the reveal towards the end I actually sobbed (quietly, in a manly way). No other game has ever affected me that way.