PixlBit

Journey, for obvious reasons. And watching my nephew (who is really into FPS games) play through it, and then sitting back after he was done and just saying "whoa!" and sitting in silence for a few minutes.

Flower. The game play, visuals, and music all helped me tremendously when I was having mental health issues caused by a previous job.

yeah I found Journey to be achingly beautiful.  I couldn't explain the experience, it's very abstract.  But if you let yourself fall into it, you are seriously rewarded.  

Journey did it for me too. I was tearing up but I had no idea why.

 Otherwise, dark souls. It's my favourite game of all tI've for a reason, and that reason is this: Despite its marketing, Dark Souls is designed to make you feel something. Rather than likening it to other games – most of which are purely about sensory stimulation – I prefer to compare Dark Souls to an album. More particularly, an extreme metal album. Like an extreme metal album, Dark Souls is incredibly inaccessible. It has no desire for mass appeal. In fact, it thrives on alienation. It wants only the dedicated, the people who will strive to understand what it is trying to convey. 

Also, like an extreme metal album, Dark Souls has an emotional agenda. It has one united vision. It wants you to feel isolated. It wants you to feel empty. It wants you to feel like you are nothing, and that everything around you has more right to exist than you. It succeeds. The monster design, the level design, the sound assets, the silence – all these things combine to unnerve and depress you.

More than anything though, Dark Souls wants you to prove it wrong. It wants you to prove that you have a right to exist in its world, despite everything it throws at you. It pummels you to the ground, yet it gives you hope. It gives you a reason to press on, even when everything seems lost. It wants you to go in as one person, and leave as another.

yeah i agree on Dark Souls, but I experienced that first with Demon's Souls, which Machocruz touches upon below.  Dark Souls is a lot more refined, but both games share that isolation that I think sometimes is key in making a great great video game.  

It's like, you want to share that world, but if you do, you'll lost it forever.  Brilliant.  

Well I've been thrown in jail in almost every RPG I've ever played does that count as arresting? :)

dammit, Mothman!

There is great art that is personal, and that which is universal.  Read 'Artist and Public: And Other Essays on Art Subjects' by Kenyon Cox.  But all one has to do is look at history and the role art has played in various cultures to see that this is true.

To be tranformed or arrested are two different reactions. I'll go with the second*: what I found most striking. Demon's Souls would be at the top of games released starting in the last console generation.  Because of the senses of isolation and desolation that are so important, to me, in what makes a great adventure in a game. Shadow of the Colossus. The Legend of Zelda. Metroid. Morrowind. These games and others all have this trait in common.  Unlocking the mysteries of a realm you are not familiar with, negotiating its hazards. One can have adventure in a world not so forlorn or vacant, but it's a different atmosphere. What I'm getting at is a quasi- mystical experience (or for the characters in the story, sometimes literally mystical), which is absent amidst the hustle and bustle of civilization or settlement.

Or maybe it's simpler than that. I just like natural wastelands, often intersecting with ancient ruins. World 4 of Demon's Souls evokes the same feelings that  Shadow of Colossus did in the previous generation.  Overcast and silvery. Windswept and cool. The character of spring and fall, my favorite seasons, here in the midwest.

Other games I found arresting on a more formal level:

Terraria - I would have lost my mind over a game like this back in the 16-bit days, an aesthetic it aims to imitate. It's got everything. It's Metroid + Legend of Zelda + Diablo. The itemization is some of the best I've seen in a game (reminding me of how bland it's become in Elder Scrolls, post Morrowind).

Red Dead Redemption - Lives up to its title. This is a story of redemption, and revenge, and redemption through revenge. The ending dots the I on all that came before, like few game stories ever have. I still contest there is no company better at storytelling in AAA than Rockstar. Suck it, Naughty Dog.

*All the games I would call transformative happened well in the past, such as the original Castlevania.

I liked Red Dead Redemption too.  Just riding your horse around the wilderness was an amazing experience.  I'll never forget it. I've never done that in real life, but I've fantasized about it. Games are as close as I've gotten to anything like it.  

I agree about Demon's Souls.  Blake has a good point about Dark Souls above, but for me, it was Demon's Souls that was so striking -- that isolation and doom you feel is really great in videogames, I remember it in Quake, etc.  Just being underground with those giant freaking salamanders was freaking horrifying. 

Have you played Starbound?  I've heard that's very good.  

I look for mystical experiences in a lot of art, and I most often find it in music.  Games... sometimes.  Books, not so much.  Movies, not so much.  But games and music seem to have the right things going for them.  I listen to a lot of minimalism, and it really gets me into an otherworldly state sometimes.  I love when video games do the same thing.  

If you play PC games, I'd recommend Cradle to you.  It's got its flaws, but it's also quite brilliant in its presentation of transhumanism and other sci fi ideas.  And it's also on a wind-swept plain.    

Oh shit, forgot about Dwarf Fortress. Transformative and arresting. The greatest thing in gaming in the past 10 years, imo.  The utter magnitude and attention to detail in this game and its systems is mind-boggling. It raised the standard for all games.

I've heard of that but don't know much about it.  I'll look it up.  

Looks like I need to buy Journey. 

I'd say GTA is the most arrested I've been in a series.

dammit that joke!  

Journey is cool man.  It's not for everyone, but if you like it, you'll love it.  

In all honesty though, Arkham Knight was quite arresting and is the first game I've played that really wowed me with what my PS4 can do.

Also, a lot of it takes place in GCPD lockup, so the joke still works. 

Resident Evil 1 and Silent Hill 2, to this day when I replay them I feel tense and uneasy, the way those worlds try to shut you out, and Silent Hill 2 with it's fog and darkness makes you feel lost.

Links Awakening (Gameboy)
Considering the tiny screen and basic visuals and color schemes, I was instantly transported to another world and I held this game above other zeldas for a long time until Twilight Princess. 

Monster Hunter (PSP) 
I was very impressed with the size and scope of the first Monster Hunter game on PSP. The vistas and giant monsters, of course I didn't know it was meant to be played co-op, so getting through the whole thing solo was quite daunting.  

Link's Awakening is my top favorite Zelda game of all time!

Links Awakening gets me too.  Something magical about that game.  

"Arresting."  That's a unique word to use in this situation.

I'm glad I got to experience Journey, but it didn't wow me as much as it did others.  It's just a game about a ketchup bottle wearing a scarf walking through the desert.  Just joking, I know it's better that that, but it still didn't affect me as it did others.

Portal and Portal 2 really wowed me in the past five years.  I'm not big on the 'games as art' argument, as I'd rather games just be fun.  But this would be a good candidate for the games as art thing.  And it had good gameplay and storytelling, too.  And GlaDOS became one of my top five favorite villians almost instantly.  When I first saw the video where she comes back to life in the sequel and says, 'You monster," I nearly got chills!  Portal and its sequel are definitely one of my favorite games of the last console generation.

Did Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse come out in the last five years?  That was one of TellTale's best.  For a game based on comic book characters who revelle in immature humor, the game turned out very sophisticated.  In a way, it's too bad the creator of Sam & Max is now working at Disney.

Child of Light came out last year and really captivated me with its setting and 2-D RPG gameplay. I even liked it better than Bravely Defaut, another RPG that came out last year.  Right now I'm working on reviewing a 3DS game based on the cartoon show Gravity Falls, and it's made by the same people who did Child of Light, and you can tell!

And that's all i can think of from the last five year.  Further back and I'd be gushing about stuff like Katamari Damacy and Psychonauts.  --Cary

I haven't played Portal 2 yet, but I'm going to soon, I PROMISE!  I loved the first one, and played it with my brother, so it kind of makes me sad to play the new one without him.  

That dude in Journey DOES look like a ketchup bottle!  

You know, I've never played Sam and Max.  But I hear you talk about it all the time.  Maybe they're on Steam.  

I liked Child of Light too.  I haven't finished yet.  It's on my Wii U and I was playing on the Gamepad.  I might start it over though.  It certainly is beautiful.  

I am almost certain the Sam & Max games are on Steam.  TellTale usually puts all their games on Steam.

Probably The Last of Us. The way that ending plays out, makes me really think about how we interact with the ones closest to us and are willing to accept any of their flaws, regardless of how severe they are.

I think I'm gonna buy the PS4 version of that soon.  Should be cheap now.  

There's alot of games that had wowed me these past few years. I would say SMG but that wouldn't count. To me the ones that stand out would be Batman Arkham Asylum, Uncharted 2, Pokemon Y/Omega Ruby, Xenoblade Chronicles, and Super Mario Galaxy 2.

Batman showed me that a licensed game can be great, if under the right hands. Felt like Batman TAS.

Uncharted 2 showed me a fantastic action-packed cinematic experience.

Pokemon Y/Omega Ruby showed me the evolution of the franchise afters years of it being a 2D game.

Xenoblade was just a fantastic game, fantastic cast of characters in a very interesting world and a great story.

And Super Mario Galaxy 2 showed me that more of the same isn't a bad thing, but it took everything to the next level. Fantastic level design with great music.

I'm gonna buy that Pokemon and dedicate myself to finally exploring that series. Never gave it much of a chance before. 

I loved Asylum, but it was the beginning of City when you were Bruce Wayne in the "prison" that blew me away.  

I really should play those Galaxy Games again soon.  

Nothing in the last few years, except maybe P.T.  That "game" did more with just one hallway than most full retail games.  It's a shame we probably won't get to see what Silent Hills could have become, but honestly, I don't see how it could have lived up to the playable teaser.

Last gen, two series stick out for me: Portal and Bioshock.  I don't even care for first-person viewpoint, but I got accustomed to it just to get lost in those worlds.

Portal blew my mind too.  I think I sort of found it at a time when I thought video games were sort of running on fumes, creatively.  But that game was so dope. 

Ni no Kuni is the one game that instantly that comes to mind for me. It's by no means the only good game I've played, but it sticks out above all others. Also Fallout: New Vegas came out within the past 5 years, so there's that. And Bayonetta 2.

Did you beat it?  I really liked it but disliked the battle system

Yeah, all the way to the end. Phenomenal game. I even liked the battle system, honestly.

Damn I should really go back to it.

Can't think of one off the top of my head. I can think of a lot of books though. I guess I don't really look for story in video games or for some kind of important effect. I mean, I've been wowed by the art in games, the music, the execellent gameplay, but when I think of what you're saying, I can only think of books I've read. Those have affected me deeply and changed my life in subtle ways. I haven't found a game that has done that for me, and I don't think I expect a game to do that. Games feel more like sports to me. I'm in it for the action. 

well it doesn't have to be an "artistic" experience necessarily, just maybe something that made you catch your breath or something.  Like, my example above is stepping out into Hyrule field in Ocarina of Time, or another example I'm thinking of now is the first level of Modern Warfare where you're on that tilting ship... that moment really stuck with me too. 

I guess it would be the trailers for Demon's Souls. I still get goosbumps watching them. 

Hearing that Haloesque music in an early trailer for Destiny really got me going too. 

Last 5 years? Hmmmm, I'm bad at chroncicling things in "years" but I'll try my best! (Despite being old and senile)

Firstly I have to give credit to Dragon's Dogma Dark Arisen. Not only was it "fun" but it ended up having much more interesting characters and a better story line than I thought it would. I mean with how egregiously reviewers lamented "those aspects" I expected some very dry writing but ended up getting very attatched to the lore and most memorable npcs. There's much more to this action rpg than "Typical fantasy with dragons in it" and I appreciate just how tense and atmospheric the surroundings became once night fell.

PC wise I got plenty of enjoyment out of Shadowrun Returns and Dragon-fall. For those not in the know, Shadowrun combines cyber-punk with fantasy so it's posiible to have an elf sniper, orc cyborg, or a dwarf hacker. As futuristic turn based rpgs go it's merely "pretty good" but hair-brained schemes are exceptionally talented at creating believable and likeable characters and pretty decent yarns to boot. I especially recommend Dragon-fall director's cut which really got me deeply invested in what was going on!