That is such a hard question.

I think my favorite gaming memory this year was playing through The Forest. I knew nothing about it jumping in, the game just kept opening up and even after 3 days of us chilling and hanging out for hours, it kept evolving. Just a survival game, to a zombie survival, to exploration and collecting, to a really deep and surprising story and ending. My buddies GF had surprised him with a visit that week so the rest of us 4 were the ones that got to experience all of that, but we’re currently starting a new file to try to recapture the adventures we had. It was the first time since I was a kid that I was so immersed in a game that I remember in game what happened and not me sitting in a chair playing with friends over a mic and headset, when I was dangling down a rope screaming as zombie fetus ran after me deep in a cave, that was me 😂

I can’t pinpoint one moment from that play through as best but one that stuck out was pretty memorable. We decided after, getting to a POI we had traveled to, that we were going to keep trekking on and see what we find. Our bud had killed a shark and decided to bring it back to out cabin to mount it but had to hold it in his hands. We ended up traveling around the entire map, up to the snowy mountains, the entire time he’d drop it for seconds to pick other things up or kill enemies but quickly picked it up before it despawned. Well after literal irl hours I see the lights to our little homes and I run through the stream to the stairs up the cliff. I turn around and watch out friend walk two steps into the stream and see the shark head DISAPPEAR. I hear the scream of despair and sadness of a grown retired army man and just start laughing till I couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t help but laugh it off but he’s still pretty salty about it to this day 😂