The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall
(for PC)
---
The Good: You know how in Rugrats, Grandpa was always saying stuff like "back in my day, we had to walk FIFTEEN MILES to school!" to show how hardcore his life was? Skyrim's Great-Grandpa is exactly like that except, unlike Mr. Pickles, Daggerfall isn't exaggerating. The game's world is comparable to the real-life Great Britain, possessing a staggering amount of towns, quests and dungeons. Speaking of the dungeons, almost all of them are randomly generated by an unchained program with no concern for length, safety, logic or reason. In other words, if you're intent on braving the dangers of a dungeon, you better prepare to be lost for hours. In fact, you might never get out at all. The oppressive difficulty of adventuring, dreary atmosphere, palpable dread of exploring dungeons, great music, terrifying perils of combat, overwhelming sense of wonder at the massive world, the absurd level of freedom (want to buy a boat or a house? Do it!) and the fact that you can drink mead at taverns whenever you please, all make for an exciting game that blows its safer, more refined great-grandchild out of the water. It's free, too!
The Bad: Most obvious negative is the crushing difficulty and genuinely overwhelming freedom. Then there's the peril of making the reckless decision to explore some nearby crypt, which might lead to 15 hours of trying to find a way out, realizing you can't, and then simply giving up. However, the worst part of Daggerfall is, by far, its unstable, bug-ridden nature. Dungeons, locales and quests can be excessively glitchy, and save files regularly corrupt themselves for no discernible reason (so save often, and in multiple slots). While I personally find all of this meta-level terror to be thrilling, I doubt many others share the opinion.