Top 3 that I played from 2002-2012

This is top 3 of the games I enjoyed/played the most within a specific decade of my life and obviously are subjective to whatever games I had access to/what consoles I had along with whatever my specific tastes and interests were at that given point in my life etc, etc, etc. It is also not based on release of game but on the time of my life in which I played them.

During this decade I was in the USMC (2002-2007), left the USMC and basically failed at life for a while, and slowly tried to piece together just what was wrong/why I allowed my life to fall apart. Dramatic details aside, when it comes to games I began to open up to them as more than just entertainment and saw their artistic/storytelling merits. When other forms of art were not emotionally impacting me as strongly as when I was younger, games had just begun.

List items

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  Shadow of the Colossus

  Everything about this game blew my mind. I basically 100%'ed everything in this game except for maybe a couple of the time trials because by that point I had my fill. I'm not sure if I actually cried while playing it but I know I was close on at least a couple of occasions.

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  Dark Souls

  When I played this game I was in a phase of my life where the solitary and oppressive atmosphere of the game meshed perfectly with how I was feeling at the time. I won't proclaim that it taught me lessons or any such nonsense but it definitely had an impact on me and opened me up to the idea of playing challenging games.

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  Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4

  I was a full blown adult when I played this game so I cannot say I had major revelations or that this game taught me a bunch but I definitely empathized with the characters and story lines. I also started opening up to the fact that presenting yourself differently to different people isn't dishonest and in some instances presents a more honest/realistic perspective of who/what you are to people than if you simply behaved the same way to all people all of the time.