Each has bundled with it, particular and easily recallable sensations. I’m sure there are other games I found a peculiar liking for, but the upper echelon is saved for these few and far between experiences. Perhaps it is the high bar that I am using as a filter. It’s around here I start to struggle to find further entries. Mass Effect 2 and Halo: ODST have their files, quintessentials from an earlier time. As art is want to do, Outer Wilds and Terraformer created a video/audio palette for a 5 month period of 2019 that proved to be so impactful that a single song playing through my headphones or car speakers prompts a backdraft of emotions flavored like existential dread and the fear I won’t have enough time to do all that I want.

Next is a dual function report detailing the overlap of Outer Wilds and Thank You Scientist’s third album Terraformer. A world so deep and full of opportunity that I forgot my own sad existence for just long enough. Skyrim inevitably has a thick file, the game saved my life after all. A reimagination of a beloved formula, an old dog given fresh and violent new tricks.

Splinter Cell: Conviction is the easiest to find. The heaviest, most dense reports number fewer than seven, surely. My mind rifles through the Rolodex of past experiences, rummaging for those few that have a file a little deeper than the rest. It’s not every year that you come across a game that has the innate ability to command your thoughts for weeks, even after completion.

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