in no particular order
- GTA San Andreas (PS2) god knows how many hours just mucking about with modding cars, exploring etc. the storyline was actually interesting and Samuel L Jackson's villain is great fun.
- Doom/Doom II/Final Doom (& extra modded stuff - i dont actually like the base game's maps that much) (PC) the base game mechanics are so addictive and there's literally more good community content than you could ever hope to actually play through!
- Dark Souls (PC) multiple multiple characters in NG+++++ etc., masterpiece.
- Fallout New Vegas (PC) multiple different playthroughs with different character playstyles, fantastic modding scene.
- Pro Evolution Soccer 6 (PS2) imo the most true-to-life while still being enjoyable football sim ever made - i must have about 200 years of master league racked up
- Ico (PS2) beautiful game, engaging story with so little actual dialogue. puzzle gameplay is just simple enough for my simple noggin to process and enjoy.
- Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) slight shift to a more epic narrative, still retains the beauty of its prequel/predecessor, great gameplay and mechanics and i never found the controls a pain as i know others have.
- Dragon Quest VIII (PS2) i had no idea about Dragon Quest series until i picked this up randomly and its just perfect - a JRPG that doesnt take itself too seriously, but manages to have interesting characters, fantastic soundtrack and great mechanics. if you dont like the usual jrpg suspects (FF etc.) try this out.
- The Walking Dead (PC) made me cry like a baby - incredible game.
- Half Life 2 (PC) the actual mechanics of this game were groundbreaking and incredible at the time, and the core game still holds up (imo). ive played this through multiple times and its still great fun. hoverboat section still stands out as an FPS highlight after +10 years
just missed the cut
- The Sims 2 (PC) put so much time into tinkering with this, making different families and worlds. only left out due to its expansion content being ridiculously expensive and spread out so could never be bothered to pirate-download and install it all
- Quake 3 Arena (PC) was slightly too young to appreciate this before i moved on to other competitive fps's, but this grabbed my attention when it was first released.
- Streets of Rage 2 (Megadrive) i still load this up from time to time to run through with Max. huge fun in 2P mode as you can hit each other by accident
- GTA Vice City (PS2) same reasons as SA, let down by slightly less to do in the world.
- GTA V (360) same reasons as SA, let down by slightly empty world. along with SA has the most engaging storyline imo.
- GTA IV (360) fantastic game but never really got into it - didnt really like the 3 player mechanic.
- Fallout 3 (PC) just loses out to NV for having a slightly less engaging world, still a wonderful game.
- Sonic 2 (Megadrive) just as fun to play as Streets of Rage again
- Skyrim (PC) loses out (just) to NV as the fantasty combat/setting is slightly less engaging than the post-apoc/guns
- Metal Gear Solid 3 (PS2) ive never liked the controls of MGS games, but this gets into my list for the beautiful range of environmental settings, and the cool throwback storyline (never liked the futuristic nonsense from the other games in the series). plus Big Boss as a protagonist is interesting and the final scenes are genuinely emotional.