Hey, so I'm wondering what games some of you guys think really stand out among others, games that make you feel a certain way or hold your attention longer than others. Ones that allow you to make an emotional connection with the storyline or characters. Every once in a while I stumble into an exeptional title that holds my attention for far longer than any other games, and getting input from you guys would really help. Here are some of mine:
Skyrim: good story but I love it because of its modding community and immense replayability, if you can even fully complete it.
Far cry 3: well written characters and a Good story, at least in the first half. The game does a great job making the player feel emotional about a character's death, not to mention it's stunning visuals and great gunplay, even for today.
mass effect series: even though the ending was less than satisfactory, the act of building relationships with characters ingame through the conversation System is awesome, knowing the same people throughout the course of 3 games really gives you a connection to them, to say nothing of the amazing story and gameplay.
Shadow of the colossus: one of my favorite old games of all time, very little is shown ingame and there is almost no diolouge, but the game has more of an open ended artistic theme to it. The battles with gigantic monsters are epic as well, and another cool thing is the rumor of a 17th colossus, which people to this day are still looking for. The game may be old but it's scenery still never fails to impress me due to the mysterious factor that plays into it.
the halo games (most of them): I've been playing Halo for years and years, and it's one of the best first person shooters I've played. Following the same master cheif and cortana, bungie never fails to build up hype and anticipation for a new title, and almost never fails to impress me when they finally do. It may not have the open world aspect aloud of us have come to expect, but it is amazing nonetheless, single player and multiplayer. you may not have as much satisfaction playing the first few as I did, but in that time they were awesome to me.
finally, toribash: I'm sure you've heard of th is game by now, considering where you're reading this, but the reason I love this game, put shortly, is because of the skill and dedication it takes to stick with it. It is a game without an obvious skill cap like some games, and the community is the perfect size in my opinion. It's big enough that the servers and forums are active,but small enough that you can coincidentally find your friend in a server and be able to say "hey I'll see you tomorrow". In games like battlefield or call of Duty, you meet a player but never see them again. You just can't leave toribash forever.

Well that's my list, feel free to add some of yours, I'm always looking for great games to play and not just leave in my steam library.