i know i already answered this with another selection, but i keep thinking about what a life-changing experience breath of the wild was for me...this is the only game i've ever played that truly felt like an adventure, as in it actually felt like a vast realm that i was exploring and conquering myself...that doesn't really explain it, but i've rewritten it five times and i can't figure out how to express it properly. other games are great at giving me that sensation of freedom and exploration, but i'm always aware that i'm interacting with a game controller to make the in-game avatar do what i want him to. when i play BOTW, i forget that there is any distinction between myself and the shirtless elf boy wailing on moblins with their own spears.
it probably helps that i always make sure to be medium-high when playing it, but even after i come down, i still feel like every game session was a unique chapter that i created for my own personal adventure, different from anyone else who has ever played the game. even random encounters feel like action setpieces, like my epic clash on that long bridge at sunset...there are plenty of gaming moments from various games that will stick with me forever, but most of the time they're the same cutscenes or boss battles that everyone else who plays the game also experiences. in this game, they're all uniquely mine, or at least they feel that way...like when i accidentally stumbled onto kakariko village while i was just wandering around climbing mountains, and the camera sped off onto its predetermined cutscene path through the village, but the devs expected me to come in from the road so i alone, by pure chance, got to crest that mountain and see the full panorama of the village laid out before me as the camera plunged down into the caldera.
so many moments like that...the shrine puzzle that wanted me to carefully tilt the controller to navigate a heavy steel ball through a maze, but i got fed up with it and simply tossed the ball through the air into its target, landing it by pure luck on the first try. or, finding and taming my first wild horse. or, the first of many times i saw a faint light in the distance and leapt from a tall tower on a hang glider just to see what it was.
i stand by my original choice of night in the woods for my favorite game ever, but breath of the wild easily takes the prize for sheer unadulterated joy