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30 Games & Franchises That Permanently Altered My Brain Chemistry

A chronological archive of the games that shaped my taste, stole my time, corrupted the save file, and left permanent side effects.

Original release order Corrupted but playable Debug Mode Active

System Diagnostics

Hardware warnings recovered from the same damaged memory card as the list.

Red Ring Event Detected. Cause unknown. Emotional overheating likely.
Disc Read Error Retrying campaign memory. Please do not eject during cutscene trauma.
Memory Card Status Save file corrupted. Profile recovered. Damage is permanent.

Recovered Timeline

Ordered by original release date, because ranking them by preference caused instability, overheating, and several unhelpful emotional prompts.

Cartridge Chaos EraCartridge contacts unstable. Blow gently and retry.
1996

Dragon Ball Z: Hyper Dimension

SNESAnime fighter ritualAltered

Fast sprites, dramatic energy attacks, and the feeling that Dragon Ball battles had somehow escaped the TV and landed in the cartridge slot.

1996

Mario Kart 64

N64Split-screen chaosAltered

The beginning of competitive nonsense, questionable cornering, and family-friendly emotional warfare.

1996/97

Diablo

FranchiseLoot ritualOpen archive

Sanctuary keeps falling apart. The loot keeps improving. One more run remains a medically unrecognised unit of time.

1997

GoldenEye 007

N64Shooter landmarkCorrupted

Split-screen espionage crimes before anyone had the language to call it multiplayer brain damage.

1998

Spyro

FranchiseGem hoarding problemOpen archive

Tiny purple dragon. Enormous gem problem. Absolutely no sheep safety policy.

1998

Mario Party

N64Friendship hazardAltered

A board game disguised as a controller-destroying social experiment.

2000

Pokémon Crystal

Game Boy ColorJohto obsessionCorrupted

The version where Pokémon stopped feeling like a game and started feeling like a second life carried around in a tiny plastic rectangle.

Shooter Awakening EraDisc read error. Campaign obsession still loaded.
2001

Halo

XboxSci-fi shooter gospelLabotomiser

The one that made alien ringworlds, campaign co-op, and sci-fi shooters feel mythic.

2003

Need for Speed: Underground

PS2 eraNeon car ritualAltered

Street racing, glow, and menu music strong enough to become a time capsule.

2004

Far Cry

FranchiseOpen-world chaosOpen archive

Tropical islands, dictators, cults and increasingly unreasonable ways to clear an outpost.

2004

Star Wars Battlefront

FranchiseGalactic warfareOpen archive

The galaxy keeps declaring war. The response remains lasers, enormous battlefields, and absolutely no regard for collateral stormtroopers.

2004

Half-Life 2

PCPhysics awakeningLabotomiser

A game that made level design, atmosphere, and gravity manipulation feel like a new language.

2005

F.E.A.R.

Shooter horrorAlma detectedCorrupted

The shooter that understood a hallway could be more threatening than an army.

2007

Crysis

PCMaximum thermal loadPC Kindling

Turned my PC into kindling on the menu screen in 2008. The island hadn’t even had a chance to get involved.

2007

Uncharted

FranchiseClimbing insurance voidOpen archive

Ancient ruins, cinematic escapes, and a man who has never met a ledge he couldn’t destroy.

2007

Mass Effect

FranchiseGalactic group therapyOpen archive

Galactic politics, impossible choices, and a ship full of people with unresolved side quests.

Open-World Brain Rot EraThermal warning. Map icons spreading.
2008

Fallout 3

WastelandRPG driftLabotomiser

The ruined world that somehow became comforting to wander through.

2008

Left 4 Dead

FranchiseCo-op panicOpen archive

A perfect machine for teamwork, screaming, and blaming the person who startled the witch.

2009

Borderlands

FranchiseLoot shooterOpen archive

Vaults, loot, questionable employers, and an alarming number of guns. The whole family has its own save slot.

2011

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Fantasy RPGQuest overflowLabotomiser

One quest became twelve, twelve became winter, and suddenly the save file was a lifestyle.

2013

The Last of Us

FranchiseNarrative damageHeartbreakerOpen archive

Infected cities, found family, and emotional damage that survives every remaster.

2013

Grand Theft Auto V

Los SantosOpen-world scaleCorrupted

A ridiculous machine of driving, crime, spectacle, and staying longer than planned.

2014

Dragon Age: Inquisition

Fantasy partyBig map behaviourAltered

A sprawling fantasy world with enough party politics and quest sprawl to leave a mark.

2015

The Witcher III: Wild Hunt

RPG epic743h loggedLabotomiser

A world so rich it made side quests feel like main events.

Geralt, stop fingering my toiletries. — Yennefer

The Fog OpensController disconnected. Teammates still crouching in corner.
2016

Dead by Daylight

The FogAfter-midnight gen damageLabotomiser Level: 5000+ hours

Doing gens after midnight: certified lobotomy activity.

ENTITY FILE RECOVERED 5000+ hours in The Fog detected. The Entity owes me rent, payable with in-game currency. NEW TRIAL AVAILABLE: repair generators after midnight. Risk factors include stealth killers, solo queue, and Sable in the locker.
2017

Divinity: Original Sin II

Party RPG311h loggedTurn-based chaos

A party, a plan, and one misplaced fire spell. The definitive lesson in why every surface is a potential problem.

2019

The Dark Pictures Anthology

FranchiseChoice-induced panicOpen archive

A fresh cast, a terrible situation, and the persistent suspicion that every button is the wrong one.

Modern Immersion EraSSD loaded. Emotional damage rendered in 4K.
2020

Ghost of Tsushima

Cinematic samuraiPlayStationCorrupted

A gorgeous open world that understood wind, style, and quiet devastation.

2020

Cyberpunk 2077

Night CityNeon existential crisisCorrupted

Identity, technology, mood, music, and the feeling of living inside a broken neon machine.

2023

Dead Island 2

Zombie actionHELL-AImprovised dentistry

Sunshine, pool parties, and a city with a serious biting problem. Los Angeles has had better weekends.

Recovered Playtime Logs

The top 10 most played games on my PSN profile. Not preference order, just the logged damage.

  1. Dead by Daylight5000+ h
  2. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt743 h
  3. Grand Theft Auto V544 h
  4. Borderlands: The Handsome Collection388 h
  5. Fallout 4327 h
  6. Minecraft326 h
  7. Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Definitive Edition311 h
  8. Star Wars Battlefront II307 h
  9. Star Wars Battlefront275 h
  10. Diablo IV263 h

Known Issues

Fake support documentation for a very real corrupted save file.

CASE #FOG-5000 Status: corrupted but playable Issue type: permanent brain chemistry alteration Suggested fix: remove cartridge, blow gently, reseat, and try again Estimated resolution: never

Why is my save file corrupted?

Prolonged exposure to open-world RPGs, split-screen chaos, multiplayer stress, and games with permanent side effects has been detected.

The timeline is not loading correctly. What should I do?

Remove the cartridge, blow gently into it, reseat it, and try again. This may not fix anything, but the childhood placebo response is powerful.

What does Labotomiser mean?

A classification awarded to games with confirmed long-term impact on taste, habits, behaviour, and brain chemistry.

My controller disconnected. What now?

Remain calm. Your teammates were not helping anyway.

Recovery controls enabled

Try the famous code, or use the short recovery sequences: Memory Card Recovery is ← ↑ → ↓. The Fog Access Code is ↓ ← ↑ →. Desktop accepts keyboard arrows, B, and A. Mobile accepts the buttons.
Awaiting input...