Best Games You've Ever Played

[Colt]

Well, thought I'd post the opposite to the other thread running atm. What are the best games you've played through your entire gaming life, the ones that stood out so to speak. I'm separating mine by points in my life.

Mine would be:

Pac Man (Wacka wacka wacka)
Captain Comic
Commander Keen 4

Doom (NIGHTMARE!)
Quake 2 (1st real multiplayer for me)
Taxi (Weaponised cars? I'm there!)

Sim City (High taxes, low taxes, repeat)
Roller Coaster Tycoon 1, 2 (high fares, low fares, repeat!)
Red Alert C&C (Afvirmativ! + Tanya rocked)

Half Life (headcrabs!!)
GTA I (Elvis has left the building!)
Baulders Gate (Fear my +2 mace)

Hitman 2
Age of Empires II (seed farm)
BG2
Sim City 4 (Observe my tri-tiered zoning structure!)
GTA II (must please the yakuzza)

Counter-strike (wow this game is like heaps realistic huh!)

Mafia (best character development and plot in a long time)
Hitman: Blood Money (best music!)

Tron 2.0 (love the colour scheme)

Dawn of War (real melee combat and dreadnoughts!)

Darwinia (love the vector art)

Portal (the cake is a lie!)

GTA 4 (true open world is within reach!)
Left 4 Dead (finally, zombie goodness for everyone and real co-op)
Civ 4 (just another turn)

Many more I'm sure...

[chip5541]

Elite (C64 version. The game even came with a galataic map and a novella)

Fairy Tale Adventure (One of the 1st games I bought for teh Amiga)

Deadly Dozen: Pacific Theater (The first online game I ever hosted and was such a blast to play.)

Line of Site: Vietnam (Another fun online game)

Team Fortress Classic (I spent even hour I could playing that game. I loved being a medic and infecting everyone. It is a shame towards the end Valve strewed it up)

X-Com (Alien tactical goodness. I found the Amiga version (UFO: Enemy Unknown) to run a little slower but had much better audio.)

Silent Storm (If there was a sequel to the X-Com series... this is it. What started off as a WWII tactical game by the end mixed scifi themes and really was a joy to play. Add a fully destructble environment and this game really is a must have. It is in my top 10 of best games.)

Pacific Storm & Pacific Storm: Allies (despite the fact that I beta tested the games I still find the game very enjoyable. If you like WWII strategy games then this game needs to be in your library.)

Heroes of Might & Magic 4 (HoMM4) (Great great game and a classic in every sense of the word.)

Never Winter Nights (NWN) (This game I never finsihed but I still go back and play constantly.)

Battlestations: Pacific (Just pure fun with Battleships, planes and subs)

[Joe Cool]

Harrier Attack- I remember the day I discovered that if you bomb your own carrier at the start of the mission it will not be there at the finish, you would run out of fule and crash. Amazing!

Hey! Here is said carrier. Cant you just smell the realalism.
http://i439.photobucket.com/albums/qq111/NoLeftTurn81/harrier-attack.jpg

Golden Eye- Really just for the mp. Lost much of my youth to that game.

MGS1-Loved that game and finished it. Was not bothered about the others. By the time they came out I had gotten into PC stuff.

Ridge Racer 4- The cars were just so outlandish, it was just at the time that games like Gran Tursimo were making their mark and this was a breath of freash air. Alos lots of mp fun.

Shogun TW.- I love all the TW games, but this is the one that hooked me. It was the first game I played on my first pc in 2000. The graphics, sound, feel and gameplay were all spot on. Prob the best game I have ever played.

Morrowind- I think this was the first RPG I ever played. I could not beleve the size of it! My self and my Bro played it together and were shocked to find that after hours of play we had only been on a tenth of the map. A fantastic game that I will go back to one day.

Deus Ex- I got this not long after Morrowind. Looking back now, I'm not sure if I really understood every aspect of the story, though it could have just faded with time. I remember when I got my hands on the flame thrower, that was a good day!

Il2- I love combat flight sims and this is the best of them. Still looks good, despite getting on in years and has a huge list of planes to fly.

There are also several games that need no explantion.
Halflife-series
CoD-series
Fallout3
Company of Heroes
Stalker-Series
Crysis
FarCry1

[shizakapayou]

The X-wing series - apart from X-wing vs TIE Fighter (a primarily multiplayer game) the series was solid, each title building on the last. I also partially credit X-wing for getting me into gaming and computers in general. I'd played a bit before getting that, but our 486/DX2 with DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.1 took a ton of effort to get X-wing running.

Warcraft 1, 2 3/Command & Conquer - Red Alert 2/Starcraft - holy crap I spent a long time on these.

Dark Forces/Jedi Knight series - I mostly missed out on Doom and Wolfenstein as a kid, but these took their place.

Goldeneye - never owned an N64 until after its day, or this game, but multiplayer at friends' houses was a lot of fun. Perfect Dark was a lot of fun, too.

Knights of the Old Republic - the second was good apart from falling on its face at the end, but the first was an epic experience throughout.

Jade Empire - similar to KoTOR, but very different at the same time. After this one I realized I was probably going to like a lot more Bioware games.

And in the more recent category, Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed, Fallout 3, etc.

[gorilla325]

Shogun total war, everything joe said was true. it's simply awesome. i will add this: not only they create a great game, they also create awesome music for it, be it japanese or mongol.

prince of persia sands of time, the atmosphere of the game was awesome. the platformer gameplay was incredible. although the fighting was a bit easy, i think it was fun too, easy and fun. none of the sequel could catch the same feeling for me. the story was easy to follow, and the dialogue was endearing.

Oni, Severance Blade of Darkness, Bushido blade: for their awesome fighting mechanics. they were the first of the breed, they were the last of the breed...hardcore fighting. not some arcade fighting, who screamed their lungs out, trying to pretend they fought so hard...

tenchu 1,2. i loved tenchu. and i prefer cold weapon than fire arms. but the later ones became tedious and dumb... :p still loved the original tenchu very much though.

outcast, i loved the world they created. the sheer amount of interactive people was amazing. the world was fun to explore. it's just full of imaginations.

sacrifice, biggest magic spell effects ever created for any games. one of the most innovative gameplay and video game world ever created. wonderful dialogues, funniest manual i've ever seen!

mafia, i seldom got affected by video game stories, at least not same as stories from TV, Movies. this is the only one that does it. after watching the ending of the game, i got the same feeling as i was finishing watching Godfather. there're a lot to complain about the gameplay mechanics, but the story really outshone every shortcomings.

psychonauts. hilarious, wonderful, creative, sad, mad, shame... hilarious is its dialogue. wonderful is its whole experience. the whole game is made of creativity. sad for it's failure on the market, at least for the first few years. mad, for how could any game do better than it? shame, not more games are like that...

[pcfreak]

One game immediately springs to mind, Gunship. I had this title on both the Spectrum and Amiga and out of all the games I have owned, this one racked up the most play time for me. I used to play it for no less than a two hour session every time I started it. I played the game for a good 4-5 years. I originally started with the spectrum version, and fell in love all over again when the amiga version was released, with better graphics and more responsiveness.

http://amr.abime.net/amr_popup_picture.php?src=amiga_format/magscans/af001_1989_08/045.jpg&c=54880

My other big love is FSX, and I have progressed through the various version of the MS Flght Sim series. My ambition is to build a realistic and working flight deck with wrap around screens for my flight time (home brew simulator):lol: We would have to move house, and earn a little more cash for that one to come true though!

[Contagious Rage]

A visual timeline-ish tour of most of my favorites:

http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/2131/timelineh.th.jpg (http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/2131/timelineh.jpg)

[RHooks]

Wow. Seven replies and no Wing Commander?

There can be only one. The original X-Com.

The LucasArts X-Wing and Tie Fighter games were pretty good as well as the original Master of Orion.

There was this little game called Doom that was pretty popular.

All of the SSI gold box D & D games were superior in gameplay to what passes for a good game today.

*Forgot an important one. I still play Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri today.

[pcfreak]

I would have mentioned Wing Commander if it hadn't been for Gunship. I enjoyed that game very much too.:thumbup:

[Shoboy]

Crusader No Remorse and No Regret: The first games I played that I could NOT stop until I beat them. The controls, the sounds, the visuals, the entire atmosphere just sucked me in and made such an impact that no other game had done up till then. I got so wrapped up in the story, it was like playing a part in a movie.

SystemShock2: I never played the original, and I dont know why I bought this game when I did but I'm glad I did. It is my favorite game ever, or 2nd place to the Crusader series, they both mean so much to me. SS2 sucked me in and never let me go. It was the 1st game to make me scared, to make me care about what was going on because it made me feel like it was me in the game. The 1st person style worked as planned:p I had never experienced such an atmosphere in a game before.

Freespace 1 and 2: I never got into them until they were both out. I bought 1 and 2, plus the expansion to 1, at the same time. Loaded them up and played them straight thru in one weekend. Just like SS2, I cared about what was going on because the game did such a good job at putting me into the game. Again, I felt like it was me flying in space trying to find out just what these new aliens were all about and not dying in the process. No other space shooter has gotten me hooked. Close, but not as much.....(tachyon, Star/Freelancer)

HalfLife 1: It was so different than the mindless shooters I loved to play. Set in my favorite style, FPS, but felt so much better then any others I played at the time, the quake clones and whatnot.

GuildWars: My brother gave me his account because it just didn't turn out to be the game he thought it would be. I didn't think I would get into it because it was an MMO and at the time, I absolutely DESPISED mmo's. PC gaming was my hobby that let me ESCAPE reality and other people. I didn't want to play with other people. GW changed that, even though I solo'd most of the game and it's chapters. I was hardcore PVE for almost 2 yrs.

World of Warcraft: I'm currently on a break from WOW due to a couple of reasons, but my older brother and younger brother would play WOW while I was on GW. They got me to try a 10day trial. Once I played I was hooked. I found out I actually liked to play a pc game with people that I know, but I could still solo play alot of the game if I wanted to. WOW opened me up to a more 'rounded' way of looking at gaming. Top it off that my paly was the healing master then uber tank of my server and my lock was a DPS'ing SOB for the party in dungeons and raids.... well, it was nice to be sought after by people I didn't even know:)

TRON 2.0: From the moment I seen the cool blue effects I was hooked. It was a tight story and the gameplay and perspective was so fresh to me. Loved it so much I played it 4 times so far.

SHOGO and BLOOD2: I bought them both at the same time and played them in 1 week. I just loved the way they were designed, the levels, the humor, the action, the graphics. They just became 2 very cool games to play to me.

MAFIA: Just a very cool, immersive game that I didn't think I'd like, then I was so pissed that I beat it cause it was over.... no more game to play.

Homeworld: This game was my interactive movie. I felt for the crew of this ship, the lost children trying to find thier ancestorial home. I just had to do what I could to help them find thier way. They way the game was interlaced with the cutscene's made the transitions so cool. I would get more story then I've got to play out my part to help make the next cutscene of the story happen. Cataclysm didn't hit me as hard because it wasn't something new to me, but it was more of the same and I cared about the universe, what was going on.

Hexen/Heretic series: I fell in love with the fantasy world they created, and it was so cool to play the games as they came out, all different "people" as the main character, but it was all in the same universe, fighting the same evil. Then when you would be corvus again in Heretic 2, and when it was 3rd person... oh man, I couldn't get enough of Heretic 2.

[Eddie Ismail]

Some of my favourite PC games are, in order:
Baldur's Gate 2
Star Craft
Warcraft II
Prince of Persia (the original one on the 486)
Half-Life
Doom
CnC: Generals

[Ojnod]

Return to Castle Wolfenstein - Was the game that I really took to playing online. The first online multiplayer game I played was Mechwarrior 4 but I only played it online when a friend of mine was playing. With RTCW I became a regular on one server and spent most of my time playing medic and sniper. I still lean towards medic classes in multiplayer games to this day.

BF1942 -The first game I played and enjoyed with such large scale battles. I did start out playing Tribes 2, it was one of the first games I bought once I really started to call myself a PC gamer but I never really got into it and just played it because it was one of the few games I owned.

Diablo 2 - I used to go to my friends house on weekends because he had two dial-up lines and we would play until 6AM on a mac G3 and an IBM thinkpad sitting right next to it.

World of Warcraft - Well what can I say, it is my most played game of all time. Though I haven't played for about 5 months now I dumped almost 7500 hours into that game over the course of 4 years. I'm pretty sure that is enough time to become a fighter pilot or something. What did I get out of the deal? Some great friends from all over the country with whom I still play games with every week even though half of us don't play WoW anymore.

Call of Duty 4: My favorite modern shooter. I don't play a lot of single player games but I played the SP and loved it. My MP character is level 55 (though most players are, it doesn't take that long) and it is my favorite game to launch when I only want to play for 30 minutes or so.

Unreal Tournament 2004: The pinnacle of the UT series in my opinion. This was the only game I ever tried competing in for money. I was probably the best UT player in my area at the time so when some friends and myself headed to Louisville for Million Man LAN 3 I thought I would atleast have a shot. The first stage of the tournament was to reduce the pool of 128 players down to 64. We played 8 player free for all for 10 minutes or so and the top 4 players from the match would move on and be seeded in a bracket according to their dominance in the FFA. Well sure enough, the 10 minutes were up and I was 1 kill out of 4th place. It was a pretty tough bracket, I think 3 of the 8 people ended up going to the sweet 16 but I was not one of them. My professional gaming dreams were born and killed on the same day. Oh well.

Other notables without any story behind them: Age of Empires 2, Warcraft III, Team Fortress 2, Rollercoaster Tycoon, World of Goo.

[Terry Penrod]

.

Chess

Cheers, Terry

[Mikell]

Crusader No Regret/No Remorse was awesome in it's day. One of my first.
Bioforge, Jedi Academy,Road Rash and Crysis.

[gorilla325]

forgot to mention MDK the first one.

[Rob]

Diablo 2 - Mindless clicking, lots of fun. Even better over a LAN with a few friends. Easy to lose myself for days.

Final Fantasy 6 - I have always liked JRPGs, but Final Fantasy 6(3) had a lot of heart and a brilliant story. The Final Fantasy series has a few other gems in 4, 9 and 10.

Knights of the Old Republic - Star Wars done right with a great story and proper mechanics. Worthy of a few play through.

The Monkey Island series - Insult sword fighting should say it all.
s
Mechwarrior 2 - Oh how I love thee. Here is another game I lost days into. The only thing better was going to Virtual World and playing on the mechwarrior simulators. Talk about one hell of an experience, being inside an actual pod with throttles, rudders and weapons systems. Too bad they no longer exist in a way for people to realistically play.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d5/30podbay.jpeghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/86/30cockpit.jpg
The pods had sliding doors which would completely immerse you in the pod. Good times.

[Ojnod]

.

Chess

Cheers, Terry

Not bad, the Queen got kinda OP when the devs decided to buff it back in the 15th century but still very playable.

[sean.smith95]

My favorate game is Prince of Persia, awesome visuals! 3rd person view. No nasty DRM!