Have you ever felt personally close to a game?

Have you played a game you felt very strongly towards or felt a very strong personal connection with the game, not necessarily with its main character(s) but the depth of the story combined with the trials and tribulations that characters go through or deal with.
 
For me it was GTA4. I had never really known or let alone felt, what my dad had meant when he talked about all times when he first immigrated to America. I mean I understood it but I never really GOT IT, it took me hours to play through GTA4, and as I played and listened to things Nico talked about, mostly with Roman, I slowly started to understand...and it made sense. So much of what was said and what was told in that story spoke true to some of the same things my dad had spoken about it. 
       In a way it makes me feel closer to him because I actually know the experience he went through when he first came to America... minus the whole Mob thing.
 
 
The second one came with Sucker Punch's Infamous. The story of infamous was strong, so strong enough that I plowed through it in a week. Not only that but also because it was told really quite well, I loved the comic-book feel it had and the emphasis on modern time and placement. But it was also really emotional. That moment of Trish dying pretty much defined Cole as a hero...and honestly if the scene had gone on for a minute longer I probably would have started to cry. Glad it stopped when it did.
 I still feel so close that game because of what it represents... its just so honest and true in a way, there were so many things done right that made me connect with it. 
  I've always love comics, its such an interesting medium, and I've always liked superhero's, or at least the idea of superhero's in an everyday form. They shouldnt be an alien from another planet or anything in between. They should always be a person first. 
 
I guess I felt secure within its realms because it seemed so freeing but adult at the same time. If I were to design a game especially one revolving around superhero's or powers, I would do it similar to the way Sucker Punch did theirs.
 
 
Now...tell me yours. : )

I once shoved my dick through a video game disk. Does that count?
 
(It broke the CD)

Yeah, several. GTAIV, Fallout 3, Banjo-Kazooie, Ocarina of Time, Star Fox 64, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Heck, San Andreas too. But I'm just listing my favorite games, so I don't know I'm really understanding what you mean. I have some crazy obsession with the world of Fallout 3, though. Somehow, I've found Heaven in The Wasteland.

There's only one I can think of: The World Ends With You. The main character of that game is the one I could relate to the most in the games that I've played and the themes of death and sacrifice as well as individualism and cooperation resonated with me.

I have a connection with Metal Gear Solid, especially since I used to not be fast enough to save Meryl.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Meryl...cry

Mother 3! I never felt so sad yet happy at the same time, that game is so fucking good.

ICO, it took me on a personal journey that was beyond my imagination of what video games could be.

metal gear solid 3, and heavy rain. i felt bad for those games.

Shadow of the Colossus and Red Dead Redemption are a couple that spring to mind. The sense of growing dread I felt at the end of the latter, suspecting where it must have been ultimately heading, made my heart quite heavy.

Mirror's Edge and Persona 3. Both games I really loved the protagonists and really enjoyed being a part of their journey, that sounds stupid but it's true.

I once shoved my dick through a video game disk. Does that count?  (It broke the CD)

Uhm, the end of limbo made me audio ably gasp in amazement.

The end boss fight for Vanguard Bandits really got me pumped up. Most of the game was spent chasing after this bad guy, and when you finally meet up with him in this big mech suit you discovered that the mech is powered by the blood of the innocent, and every time he uses it he has to slaughter an entire village of people to drain them of their blood to use as fuel. For some reason I just recall this realization really pissing me off for some reason, and made me want to stop him with ever fibre of my being because if I didn't then he would have used the suit to take over the world and kill millions to do so.

The entire Halo series, especially Halo: CE. I got an xbox with Halo right before I moved in eighth grade. At the time I was seeing a lot of family and friends because we were going to be moving out of state, so if I had friends or family over that hadnt played the game and wanted to play it we would. That's how I will always remember Halo: as a great coop experience. I still play the new games with friends and family when I get the chance, and I still enjoy the campaign. Also, when Halo 2 came out I put a huge amount of time into the multiplayer. 
 
There are other games as well that I feel very close to: 
Driver 1 and 2
Pokemon Yellow 
Fallout 3 
Super Mario World 
 
As a side note, I feel like a lot of games that allow you to sort of make your own experiences really do a good job of creating a connection with the gamer. Far Cry 2 is a good example (at least I feel it is), and so are a lot of RPGs with branching paths, like Elder Scrolls or Mass Effect.

There are few, they tend to gravitate towards childhood or somehow realate to my life. The first 3 crash bandicoot games, after that the others don't do it. I don't consider any of the ps2 games legitimate. The original half life is definitely one I hold near and dear to my heart. GTA is definitely a series thats another for me as well. Back when I was a kid I played the first GTA and saw what those games could be (which then became GTA3).

I'm an engineer, I've got a crowbar, I've got a goatee. Were there headcrabs around I'd gladly hit them with said crowbar.

PGR4

Just kidding, it would have to be Jak 3 or Crash Bandicoot (yes I was a weird child), or my favourite games that I always go on about (Fallout + Bioshock). I actually got into the FFXIII story pretty deep before losing all interest with the gameplay, it's cool how they speak in my accent!

Games have never gotten so immersive for me that I was personally close to them. Maybe the closest that came to that(and this is a weird one) is Pikmin.

Rubbed my dick on my FFX case.

hope that helps

Metal Gear Solid for the PS1. I just felt really connected to the story and the characters. Oddly enough, during the Persona 4 Endurance Run, I became really connected to Charlie Tunoku and the gang. I also became connected Francis York Morgan both during the ER and when I bought the game roughly five months after the ER's final episodes.

PlaneScape: Torrment - I really liked the philosophical question throughout the story of "What can change the nature of a man?" and the bonds between comrades or nakama.

For honorable mentions I also liked Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic because of the attention to detail of the universe and the bonds between the main characters even after the twist. Descent FreeSpace 2 and Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance for being big story driven, complex flight sims that made you feel like you were actually piloting a fighter instead of just pressing a thumbstick and using the l bumper to lock onto 20 targets at once like now adays.

Eternal Sonata. Yes, the story is simple and melodramatic to the extreme (longest character death speech in history), but it was released on one of the worst days of my life, and in the week or so it took me to finish, it really helped pick me back up. A strange notion for a game that's all about death, but it's a connection that's lasted ever since.

@Twitchey said:

I once shoved my dick through a video game disk. Does that count? (It broke the CD)

This could not have been a better first reply to the thread.

Final Fantasies VII through X hit me at a time in my youth when I was very susceptible to their themes. I found myself feeling very emotionally attached to the characters and stories. I have very strong memories of playing them. Bittersweet memories mostly. I sometimes wish I could go back to those times.

Kingdom Hearts touched me where nothing has touched me before.

Definitely. Then again, I primarily play games for stories these days it seems. 
 
Mass Effect (+2), KOTOR, GTAIV, Fable 2 all come to mind quickly. Engaged in a way that a lot of others aren't able to do.

Silent Hill 2 and Shadow of the Colossus ... these two games "touched" me and I am man enough to admit it.

Jak 2, Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core and Red Dead Redemption. The characters in these games mature over time (even John Marsten) and I found myself torn up once the game was over. Except in the case of Jak where there was eventually a sequel and it happened all over again.

Seconding(thirding?) Shadow of the Colossus.  I still tear up a bit at the ending. 
Also, um, probably Deus Ex, and, uh, 
Homeworld! How could I forget Homeworld.

@ajamafalous said:

@Twitchey said:

I once shoved my dick through a video game disk. Does that count? (It broke the CD)

This could not have been a better first reply to the thread.

I think you have bigger(smaller?) problems to worry about if you can actually fit any piece of your dick through a CD/DVD hole.

@ajamafalous said:

@Twitchey said:

I once shoved my dick through a video game disk. Does that count? (It broke the CD)

This could not have been a better first reply to the thread.

I think you have bigger(smaller?) problems to worry about if you can actually fit any piece of your dick through a CD/DVD hole.

The Persona games are very personal to me.

As a small Italian Plumber I feel there aren't really any games that resonate well with me :(

Ocarina of Times and Majora's Mask. Probably because of their nostalgia value to me but re-playing these games gives me this very special feeling.

GTA IV was just amazing and stayed in my 360 for ages. I just love every R* game. 
 
RB2 was a huge one, yeah a music game with no story. I was always the RB guy, had the instruments and DLC. I was also Expert at all the instruments. When RB3 came out, the instruments were SUPER pricey over here so I never got them, got RB3 but it wasn't something I played as much as I did with RB2.

Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines

While playing that game I felt like I was part of the Los Angeles underworld of vampires. It really had great atmosphere that game.

Whoa, inFAMOUS spoilers.
 
But to answer your question: Yes.

Silent Hill 2 for story/character connection (not that I've ever fought zombie nurses in a ghost town, mind). 
  
Blood and The Neverhood for games that I just love dearly.