Be Excellent To Each Other

Slightly worried by the number of wrongheads attributing the moniker "best RPG" to anything other than either Baldurs Gate 2 or Planescape: Torment.

If it's any consolation, I completely agree with you about FF7 = Chocobo Poo.

Whew - that was close.

*whistles*

Alien Breed? Oh dear. I loved it at the time, but went back to it recently and it was awful. The 3D games were even worse.

RPGs suck FTFY.

With or without expansion?

U7 with expansion>Serpent Isle with expansion>Serpent Isle>U7

Only because it basically gives you the best equipment in the game at the start of the game.

The keyring is the best thing ever, mind.

Or Fallout. While the writing in most JRPGs is terrible, though, I don't think anything can really hold a candle to the likes of Dragon Quest V and Chrono Trigger.

Anyway, my list (which is a bit predictable, far too 90s-centric and in no particular order, apart from the first one):

Super Metroid (SNES) - I've written hundreds of veritable treatises on this game over the years, and won't bore you with one today. As a throw-away comment, though, let's just say that it represents an entirely uncompromised and untainted artistic vision actually making it onto the shop shelves.

Contra III (SNES) - Still play through this on Hard mode about once a week even now. I've yet to discover another title that manages to cram so much frenetic run-'n'-gun action and so many incredible set-pieces into 20 minutes of gameplay. Totally wears its influences on its sleeve, too, referencing Alien, Blade Runner, Predator and all sorts. How could you not love it?

Gradius Gaiden (Playstation) - This is the best expression of the Gradius formula to date, I think. Not as long or as thematically samey as 5, and much, much more balanced and learnable than 3 and 4, whilst still posing a real challenge on the second loop (which features an extra boss on level eight). Loads of character and heart, to boot, and a fantastic soundtrack.

X-Multiply (Arcade) - I love this one because it's basically a much more biologically-themed R-Type, and thus, as a Metroid wonk, makes me even happier in my pants than R-Type does. It's a fair bit more hectic, too.

Parodius Da! (Arcade) - You could call the Parodius games "Gradius on acid", but I would scoff at you for wheeling out such a cringeworthy drug cliché. You 'street' cunt. Still the best game in the series, this one. Let's hope Otomedius does it justice!

Super Castlevania IV (SNES) - I could happily waffle about this one all fucking day like a broken record, too, but I will say that in concentrating on moaning about its stiff controls, many people miss the point of CV4. In fact, I think it's probably the last CV game to do anything remotely artistically interesting. Just play it with your eyes open and your ears switched to 'ON' and you can't possibly have an unpleasant experience. Total baroque majesty!

Under Defeat (Arcade/Dreamcast) - Probably the best shmup ever made, if I stop fellating Konami's ghost for a second.

Metal Black (Arcade)
Darius Gaiden (Arcade/Saturn)
G-Darius (Arcade/PS1) - The three games Taito should be famous for. All of them have incredibly immersive worlds, for shooters; they're probably the only ones where I'd argue that the visuals and music are as important as the gameplay. Just very unique and memorable experiences.

As with any list I do, of course, this may have looked dramatically different if I'd have read the thread 5 minutes earlier.

I prefer the little paper dolls in Serpents, and it's nice that the expansion gives you that in U7.

RPGs>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>dudley>>>>>>>>>>>>>>boosh.

FTFY

And that's my new si9.

Hmm. *Thinks hard, thinks really hard*

Man, this is really hard - but here goes...

1: Civilization 4
2: Il2: Sturmnovik - 1946 (All in one mega bundle)
3: Colonization
4: Half Life 2
5: Company of Heroes
6: Gravity Power
7: Grim Fandango
8: Advance Wars 2 DS
9: Silent Hunter 3
10: Lord of the Rings: Shadows of Angmar

Bubbling under: Dune (Cryo RPG), Portal, Syndicate, Frontier, Settlers (first one), Sim City 3000

Yeah, that's about right.

To finish a level you needed to get to the end and touch the edge of the screen (the exist) with BOTH characters.

On the penultimate level of that game, the final bridge was not wide enough to fit both players on it in such a way that this could be achieved, meaning that you could not actually finish the two player game. Whilst I'd like to believe that it was a deep and meaningful plot-twist that made one of you suicide so the other could continue, it very clearly wasn't, and was just a monged up spanner-fest of a finish to a damn fine game.



Indeed. I suspect that now it would be rubbish. Supercars II, too. That's why I won't play them ever again, as I prefer to live with my pleasant memories intact. I've NEVER gone back to an old game and enjoyed it much. I've still got my copy of X-COM: Terror From The Deep for the PSX, just in case I want to ruin my memories of that, too..

1. GTA: San Andreas (Xbox) - I've chosen the Xbox version for several reasons - the ability to export your pictures (with a chipped console), the vastly improved frame rates and performance, the custom soundtracks (I have a brilliant oldies station) and the far, far improved driving controls (though the helicopter controls are undeniably worse but this would cease to be an issue if you played on a 360 with a 360 pad). Basically, San Andreas has almost everything you could ever want to do. If you want to race, there's car races. If you want track and field button bashing, there's the triathlon. There's also fixed-wing and helicopter flying, train driving, crazy taxi-ing, truck driving, motorcycle stunts, dance dance revolution, side-scrolling shooters, a reasonable clone of Space Taxi (the bumblebee game), police/fire/ambulance games, three types of hand-to-hand combat, a jetpack, boats, a casino filled with games (including excellent blackjack), car pimping and tuning, radio-controlled toys, base jumping, homie road trips with a stolen bus, off road racing, skydiving...

Back when I was younger, I used to do a lot of this stuff in my previous #1 game, Stunt Island. However, Stunt Island was primarily a *shivers* machinima *shudders* tool, in which you could create scripted sequences for a variety of vehicles and props to go through, and then use a lovely editing suite to make a coherent (or otherwise) movie of the results. However, San Andreas lets me do all the things list above with proper structure, and in a proper living world that will respond to my actions. Granted, in the face of GTAIV it's hard not to miss some new features (taxis in particular) but GTA:SA remains my favourite game ever for the time being.

2. Transport Tycoon and OpenTTD (DOS/Windows/OS X) - Unquestionably the best world building/strategy/management game ever. Rollercoaster Tycoon and its progeny might have more mainstream appeal, but doesn't match the depth and flexibility and scope of Transport Tycoon. OpenTTD has removed all the limitations of the originals (due to the processing power and memory constraints of the hardware the game was originally programmed for) to give us a stupidly flexible, magnificent game. Primary industries produce (iron ore, coal, oil, wood), secondary industries refine (into goods, steel, etc) and the populations of cities demand it.

To get the materials from A to B to C(ity) you have planes, trains, trucks and ships, and the tools to build the vast infrastructure to support these - realistic signalled railways, road networks, airports and seaports. The local populace want to travel around too, so you can build passenger trains and buses to earn money that way too.

With its charming and familiar British setting (though you can mod it to anywhere in the world) and bright graphics, it's hard not to love Transport Tycoon. Yes, the AI opponents can't build efficient networks to save their lives and are little more than a distraction (most people don't bother playing 'against' them) but you'll be too absorbed in widening your main railway line to cope with the traffic from that new coal mine, or investing in the new-fangled Airbus model that has just been offered as an exclusive by the manufacturer.

Nothing has yet surpassed Transport Tycoon. Chris Sawyer's own Locomotion suffered from a lack of development, tiny maps and terrible pathfinding AI; freeware Simutrans has superior passenger modelling (in TT, people just board whatever bus or train or plane or ferry comes, regardless - in Simutrans, they have a specifc destination) but a hideously clunky interface; JoWood's 'Giant' series have been far too abstract and limited in their depction of transport networks.

3. Frontier: L33t 2 (PC, though lately I play it through UAE) - This needs no introduction, really. A vast galaxy, with endless adventures to be had. Gets repetitive as hell, but thankfully it's also compulsive as hell.

4. Star Control 2 (PC) - You'd have never imagined this would be the sequel to the original game, which gave us 20 varied space ships (with comedy aliens) to fight in a Space War-style arena battle, with a rudimentary strategy game shoehorned in.

Star Control 2, meanwhile, combines a bit of empire building, with customising your battlecruiser, and a bit of exploration and resource management... oh, and some adventure/RPG elements as you explore a vast section of galaxy in the aftermath of an invasion by the dreaded Ur-Quan. And this before the return of the outrageously entertaining Space War arcade combat bits. With some of the best music and dialogue ever written, and a huuuuge story spanning the even huuuugerer galaxy... this will delight you for weeks.

6. Fallout (PC) - Legendary roleplaying game. Released at a time when all RPGs were either tedious swords and beards nonsense (on PC) or 70-hour insta-battle grindfests (on consoles), Fallout won our hearts with its intriguing story, brilliantly written dialogue, original setting (what if the 1950s facade of the American Dream never ended?) and... TURN BASED COMBAT.

5. Skies of Arcadia (Dreamcast) - Delightful JRPG. The plot is ridden with cliché and saccharine, but it doesn't matter as you can't help but love the characters. The music is utterly magnificent. While the on-foot combat is pretty standard JRPG turn-based fare, the ship-to-ship combat is inspired and entertaining. As you build your crew and improve your ship, you get the genuine sense of being a great explorer, visiting exotic lands, meeting new civilizations and fighting off the evil empire. Like I said, ridden with cliché. But it's still one of my favourite stories of all time, as it's told so damn well.

6. Radar Mission (Gameboy) - Two games in one! An expanded version of Battleship, and an expanded version of Seawolf. Endlessly playable, some of the best graphics and music seen on the little handheld, I loves it I does.

7. Syndicate (PC) - The hours you could waste in this game doing whatever you wanted... come up with complex plans, plot exciting escapes, or just firing your guns to terrify civillians into running in front of speeding trains.

8. X-Com: UFO Defense (PC) - I love it. It gets a bit repetitive later on as you have to endure crashed UFO mission after crashed UFO mission while you wait for the World's Slowest Scientists to work out that the Plasma Gun Clip powers the Plasma Gun (duh!). The sequel (TFTD) was too hard, while the third-quel is arguably better with is pausable real-time combat, which greatly eases the tedium of endless samey missions by upping the pace considerably.

9 and 10 to come as and when I think of 'em.

I'm failing to feel much 8 bit love on this thread...............

(it has only lately occurred to me to just copy and paste a 'g')

I for one listed Manic Miner, Splat!, Rebelstar 2 and Fantasy World Dizzy. On the Speccy - the only 8-bit that matters. Similarly:

See also: Shadowfire, Ant Attack, Alien Highway, Highway Encounter, H.A.T.E., the Behind Closed Doors trilogy, Double Agent, The gordello Incident, R-Type, Tau Ceti, Dark Star, Tempest, Bumpy, Quazatron, Paradroid, Z-Man etc. etc.

Oh! BOMBJACK on the Speccy is fookin' superb. That.

Oh yeah...

NASH is dead. You're on your own. :(

It's so refreshing to see a list thread in which nobody is swooning or actually masturbating as they recount their experiences with Ocarina of Time.

Whatty of what now?

And sorry CUS, I missed your list.

It's lovely that you have apologised, but it's really not necessary

It gave me a chance to do a 2nd list, rather greedily, and to say that the Speccy was the only good 8-bit machine...

1. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (PC)
2. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2)
3. Final Fantasy VII (PSX)
4. Half-Life 2 (PC)
5. Medieval II: Total War (PC)
6. Resident Evil (PSX)
7. Civilization (Amiga)
8. Frontier: Elite II (Amiga)
9. Beneath A Steel Sky (Amiga)
10. Mario Kart (SNES)

Just missed the cut: Command & Conquer (PC), Football Manager 2008 (PC), Guild Wars (PC), Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords (PC), Mass Effect (Xbox 360), Halo 3 (Xbox 360), Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (Amiga), Silent Hill (PSX), Forza Motorsport 2 (Xbox 360), Street Fighter II (SNES), Solaris (Atari 2600), R-Type (Spectrum), Dig Dug (Atari 2600).

I'll skip the usual disclaimers and get straight on with it:

1. UFO: Enemy Unknown (PC) - I'm horrified that more people haven't included this on their lists. A masterpiece of game design.
2. ISS Pro Evo Soccer 2 (PS1) - What Bruce_Ree said. This may be the game I've played more than any other.
3. Advance Wars (GBA) - Makes any journey fly by.
4. Fallout 2 (PC) - I didn't think it was possible for RPGs to give you so much freedom and still play so well.
5. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) - Inches in ahead of 'World for convincing me that 3D Mario really does work.
6. GTA IV (360) - Most convincingly 'alive' game world ever.
7. Shenmue (DC) - The first 'investigate-em-up'? Completely ludicrous, but sublime in equal measure.
8. Tetris (GB) - Impossible to get bored with.
9. Secret of Mana (SNES) - About to get locked in a room for a week with a couple of strangers? Bring this game along and you'll all come out smiling.
10. Animal Crossing (GC) - Videogame nihilism. There is no good reason to keep playing this game, but you will.

Honourable mentions: Civilization II (PC), Metal Gear Solid (PS1), Eternal Darkness (GC), Doom & Quake (PC), Phantasy Star Online (DC), Bomberman (SNES), Super Monkey Ball (GC), WarioWare (GBA), Deus Ex (PC), Goldeneye (N64), Street Fighter II Turbo (SNES), Mario Kart (SNES), Resident Evil 4 (GC)......

Actually, fuck that, there are too many honourable mentions to mention.

READ MY LIST AND WEEP MORTAL!

The GX4000 outranks the Speccy by 2 to 1.

I just can't think of an 8-bit game that matches up now to be honest.

True.

Solaris (Atari 2600), R-Type (Spectrum) and Dig Dug (Atari 2600) made it on my "Just missed the cut" list because of the amount of time I remember spending playing them.

I wouldn't give them the time of day now.

I personally thought Jagged Alliance just did a much better job of the squad turn-based game.

Hang on... that means... they released two GX4000 games?

*runs*

I liked JA but it could really have done with a move forgiving save system. I would like to play it more, but it just takes to damned long to get anywhere, and it's so easy to screw it up at the last minute, that I can never be arsed. Also, UFO/XCOM had the advantage of the 'global' map and more strategic stuff outside of the direct combat - each mission (particularly early on) could have an impact on the wider campaign, and you have more choice about how to go about playing with the research and interception and such.

Apocalypse was great, too, and I loved the real-time combat in it. It had some neat little touches (did you ever try throwing a harmless item like an ammo clip at a bunch of aliens? They'll run for cover, thinking it's a grenade. Also, picking up cultist grenades and throwing them back never got old. And lying on top of stunned brainbeans to keep them from getting up), bright, attractive colours (but still managed to be atmospheric, dark and scary - TAKE NOTE, ENTIRE FUCKING INDUSTRY) great sound and the city itself was lovely. It's a real shame they didn't get to do all they wanted to with it - there are a bunch of half-finished items in the game files, and the vehicle combat and politics was sorely underdeveloped.

Anyway.

* UFO/XCOM

* Coloni(s)ation

* Fallout

* Grid Wars 2

* Starcraft

* The Settlers

* Aliens Vs Predator

Here's my two pence.

1. The Last Ninja (C64): Best. Game. Ever.
2. Manic Miner (Speccy): Actually made me want to play games until I die.
3. Resident Evil 4 (GC): Just cause it so much bloody good fun.
4. Hitman 2: Kill people (almost) however you want, so long as you want to be sneaky or uber violent. Fantastic gun pop noises never bettered by any of the follow-ups.
5. Shadow of the Collossus (PS2). So good I played it twice.
6. Conflict: Desert Storm (PS1): Best game I ever played with a friend.
7. Blood (PC): Best FPS game ever made. Inventive levels/dark humour/fantastic weapons. "I want Jo-Jo. Jo-Jo. Jo-Jo"
8. Age of Empires (PS2): 2nd best game I ever played with a friend. Two TV's, two PS2's, 40 minute rule that you can't attack each other, gentlemanly sharing of the monk-pot thingies, games lasting for 4 hours+. One of the reasons I didn't do so well at Uni. Brilliant.
9. F.E.A.R (360): Walking around in the dark with sod all happening has never been so good.
10. Super Mario 3 (I only ever played it on the Gameboy SP, so I've no idea if the NES version was any different...) Because its the best Mario game and you fucking know it.

If you disagree you sniff bums.

Right, an 8-bit (spectrum) list then, let's see what I can remember:

Manic Miner (as previously mentioned)
Chuckie Egg
The Hobbit
A Day in the Life (take control of Clive Sinclair's head, what more could you ask for?)
Bak 2 Skool (I thought this was much better than Skool Daze, never finished either of them though)
Combat School
Dizzy (A collective Dizzy entry as I'm not going to try and remember the highs and lows of the series)
Emlyn Hughes International Soccer (seriously)
Target Renegade
Pyjamarama

I fully expect to be moaned at for missing out loads of stuff. I'm not a very strategy person, so that's a ton of speccy classics straight out the window and I failed to list any of the Monty Mole games. Kill me now.

Here's my top 10!

1 Dynasty Warriors 6
2 Samurai Warriors 2
3 Dynasty Warriors 5 Empires
4 Dynasty Warriors 5
5 Dynasty Warriors 5 Extreme legends
6 Dynasty Warriors 4 Empires
7 Dynasty Warriors 4
8 Dynasty Warriors 3
9 Samurai Warriors
10 Dynasty Warriors 3 Extreme Legends

I'm really surprised that a lot of people are choosing Half-Life 2 over the first game. It was much superior, in my opinion.

I wouldn't put either, to be honest. It was significant, changed the genre blah blah, and it was fun, but it's not something I ever have a strong urge to play again.

I agree that the first was better than the second, though.

Once I've finished Episodes 1 & 2, I'm quite likely to go back to the first one, actually. I especially liked the Opposing Force add-on.

In no particular order:

- Red Alert 2 (PC) Fantastically competitive skirmishes with my friends, still play it today.
- Half Life and its many mods, particularly Counter-Strike and Firearms (PC)
- OutRun 2 (Arcade) I never, ever, go to the arcades without racing my mate on this cabinet.
- Resident Evil 2 (PSX) Arguably, Resi 4 is better, but I really love this one.
- DEAD RISING (360) Absolutely, frustratingly, awesome.
- ISS 64/98 (N64) Best football game ever. Chunky graphics, simple gameplay, and the finest through ball system in any football game.
- Virtua Tennis (DC) The reason my Dreamcast is still plugged in.
- GTA: Vice City (PS2) As good as the others, but set in the best era by far.
- James Pond: Robocod (Amiga) Probably my most played Amiga game.
- GoldenEye (N64) So much fun with my chums.
- Super Mario World (SNES) Best Mario game by far.

Damn it, that's 11, but I can't remove any of them. I also want to say World of Warcraft and any of the UT games, purely because of the amount of time I invested in them and the fun I got from them, but you have to draw the line somewhere.

[pulls out a ruler and hits Dudley over the back of his hand]



YOU BOY! GO AWAY AND THINK HARDER!

Monty Mole = overated.

Emlyn Hughes wasn't a bad game although a bit of a Speccy port on the CPC.

As for Dizzy, well the first game is quite good but Magicland Dizzy is probably the peak. Big Red injected new life into the series and it's rather polished. From then on it's downhill.*

Kwik Snax was a superb Dizzy Arcade game. Speccy version is abit lacklustre but special mention to the CPC and Amiga versions which are rather spiffy. It's a great arcade puzzler.

I quite enjoyed Bubble Dizzy on the Amiga. Kill me now!



* I've never played Treasure Island Dizzy. It's a title that I've been holding back for years so I always have something new to discover. When I finally play it it will be like playing a new Dizzy game on the Speccy. Hoorah.

in no order

1 - Ico (Ps2)
2 - Counter Strike 1.5 (PC)
3 - COD4 (360)
4 - GH (any, all)
5 - Super Mario World (SNES)
6 - Jedi Outcast (PC)
7 - Alien Vs Predator (PC)
8 - MGS 1 (PSX)
9 - Resident Evil (PSX)
10 - Skate (360)
11 - Turrican 2 (Amiga)
12 - Excitebike (NES)
13 - Street Fighter 2 turbo (SNES)
14 - Cannon Fodder (Amiga)

So nobody else is feeling the ISS64 love?

Mmm, they're still 9ood. I did as much about a year a9o now, and unsurprisin9ly found that HL, Blue Shift and OpForce are all still 9ood! Except for the Xen endin9 to HL, natch!

I think the reason why is this: HL2 has a quite detailed plot and backround.

Half-Life: Welcome to work! OH NOES! Phew. OH NOES! Phew. What... OH NOES! What? OH NOES! Hooray! Wahey! I'm here to sluice the tank... oof. Oh, this Xen bit's a bit shit.

That's all you NEED. No mana9in9 a 'team' (except a bit in OpFor but then not much at all), no lon9 dialo9ue scenes. Just 'Shit! Fuckin' science lab's 9one *mental*! Do one!'

(also I think it's just a snappier 9ame to play, with better weapons, more believably threatenin9 enemies etc.)

Well, someone had to.

...

Apart from PC Gamer.

But really. Consider this:

WHAT OPPOSING FORCE SHOULD HAVE BEEN, FROM MY IMAGINATION:
You are Gunnery Sergeant Butch Throatbiter, squad leader in the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit. It's a routine day: you've just eaten your normal breakfast of hot gravel and 10 bottles of beer (bottles and all) and had a very large shit while reading the sports section. You are reaming Japanese Ground Self Defense Force exchange officer 1st Lt. Michiko Takoyaki hard up the ass when your hotline to the commander rings. You pull the stub of your cigar from between your teeth and flick some ashes into the ashtray balanced on Michiko's back as you reach for the phone.

The Black Mesa Research Facility is under attack! You are ordered to grab your gear and report for duty in 30 minutes.

(below) GSgt Butch Throatbiter, yesterday.


25 minutes later, you dash out the door, leaving a dazed but sated Michiko lolling on your giant bed in the NCO's quarters. You board a waiting V-22 Osprey and exchange masculine grunts with your squad. All the female squad members give your flirtatious winks of gratitude for the 'special attention' you gave them the other night.

Enroute, you are briefed. Unknown forces, believed to be extradimensional aliens, are attacking Black Mesa as a result of an experiment got awry. As you circle in to land at the facility, you can already see advance squads securing the surface installations and engaged in heavy combat with strange creatures.

From your main base of operations at the Black Mesa central helipad, you and your squad are sent on various missions throughout the facility - securing the internal communications system, escorting combat engineers to repair damaged generators, locking down the transit system, rounding up facility personnel, defending fellow soldiers who have been wounded by the alien creatures.

Unfortunately, the situation rapidly deteriorates and your final objective is to cover the evacuation of the HECU prior to the commencement of airstrikes. The final scene is a running battle across the tarmac of the central helipad as you struggle to hold off increasing numbers of aliens as the last few Ospreys take off. You leap aboard the final one and are treated to a front-row seat as F-16CGs drop cluster bombs on the hapless aliens. For you, the mission is complete.

WHAT OPPOSING FORCE ACTUALLY WAS:
As Corporal Adrian Shephard, you get to play Half-Life 1 again, with many virtually identical puzzles and situations. Your supposedly hardcore marine cohorts are unable to clamber over small obstacles or even climb ladders, meaning the whole 'be part of the army and command a squad' aspect is almost completely wasted as you're on your own for the majority of the game. The new aliens are incredibly irritating and armed with overpowered attacks, and the final few levels are so tediously annoying (not to mention the final boss) that you will only struggle through just to be utterly disappointed by the ludicrously shit ending.

Wimp!

CUS trufax: I ran a successful HL map 'reviews' site for about a year, before losin9 interest. Tryin9 to complete some of the (many) killbox 'levels' meant that I literally shat all over OpForce (not literally) when that came out - still enjoyed it lots however. It used the female assassins much better than in HL itself.

I've updated this one for some changes and descriptions...

Man, this is really hard - but here goes...

1: Civilization 4

The pinnacle of empire games. Simple but immersive graphics, a fantastic soundtrack (check out that John Adams Harmonium, people!) and the warm glowy feeling of building a civilization that everyone else in the world is jealous of. Led me to day dream on the bus of adverts advertising a glorious new life for immigrants in my empire, or of neutral country news reports on the plucky small civilization fending off air attack from a bigger foe with their plucky forces, before announcing an alliance, or of me fixing the world single handedly to make it awesome and lovely and all-mighty. Yes, food for my monstrous ego. Sid Meier, Brian Reynolds, I worship you.


2: Il2: Sturmnovik - 1946 (All in one mega bundle)

THE WWII flight sim. You don't need any others, basically. It's huge, with over 200 planes, 50 of them flyable. The graphics still look good in my opinion and there's nothing like swooping down on a convoy and obliterating them with rocket fire while dodging tracers. The first campaign is a little too realistic - basically the same couple of missions again and again in different places, 'cos you're a ground attack plane - but the atmosphere is amazing and everything feels just right. There are many great mods to download, too. The game covers Russia vs Germany, the Pacific War and Manchuria and China - but there are great user made campaigns such as WWII in Iraq with Brits vs Italians, and the excellent Hurricane Season which is a Battle of Britain one. The machinma's are also fab too.

3: Colonization

It was a struggle to come to terms with putting two Meier games in the top 10, but this is sufficiently different from Civ 4 to warrant inclusion. A game that still grips me today, it tests your morality as well as your strategy. I tend to be nice to the Indians for example. The Dutch are clearly the best though, with their big merchant man. Alpha Centauri is just as good by the way, but this wins due to me playing it more.

4: Half Life 2 + Ep's 1 & 2

Yeah, it doesn't reward repeat gameplay as much as it should, and it is a little too easy, but Half Life 2 has the second best atmosphere and most compelling story of all games so far. The light touch is wonderful, it doesn't ram exposition down your throat (everyone assumes you know what's going on) and you can work out the whole plot from the many details and visual clues around. Also the ambience is incredible. I love the deserted hamlets and rebel outposts, the way the phone wires sway in the wind as gunships arrive with that eerie hum. The first game's climax battle is weak, if well plotted and scripted, but Episode's 1 & 2 make up for this. Episode 1 being a more intimate and close quarter action fest with lots of claustrophobia, Episode 2 being a huge epic that advances the plot significantly. It's funny, the game isn't perfect - but I struggle to think how it could be much better.

5: Company of Heroes

The best RTS ever, basically. Fantastic graphics, a real gritty Band of Brothers feel without the nauseating Saving Private Ryan schmalz of Brothers in Arms and Medal of Honour. Sighting a Tiger is a terrifying experience as you desperately try to sticky bomb the engine and then outflank it. With fully deformable scenery which allows use of cover and excellent AI which means your troops react realistically under fire, this feels most like a genuine battle unlike the 'toss more troops in' approach of C&C. The gameplay punishes tank rushes and turtling as well by use of a dynamic battlefield resource points system that forces players to commit to the middle ground and the ability of infantry and AT guns to mount effective AT defence. The expansion Opposing Fronts is pretty damn good too, but the vanilla package remains the best.

6: Gravity Power

Simply the best 2 player game ever. "BINGO!" "TOUCHDOWN!" *Splunk!* ~Sigh~

7: Grim Fandango

The best story and atmosphere in a game so far. It's Casablanca meets The Day of the Dead meets Chinatown meets The Twilight Zone. And it's awesome and has Manny Calevera, who is the bestest hero ever. With a script that's better than 9/10 movies and a cracking voice cast, Grim Fandango is a wonderful dream world full of characters you're genuinely sad to leave at the end.

8: Advance Wars 2 DS

It eats life like some radioactive monster. Fun, bouncy, colourful and silly yet deeply clever and balanced. Repeated horror inflicted as you look up at the clock and realise an hour has passed in seemingly ten minutes.

9: Silent Hunter 3

The most immersive game ever. Silent Hunter 3 is a subsim that with the addition of the Grey Wolves modpack becomes an almost flawless game. Swing music and nazi pop songs on the gramaphone? Check. ("Das ist musik, ya?") Fully 3D sub interior you can walk around in? Check. Dynamic campaign map covering the entire war? Check. Scalable difficulty from arcade fun to fully-full-full do the calculations and attack run trigonometry, hydrophones and map course plotting yourself? Check. Custom music so that haunting Vaughan Williams plays when you sink ships? Check. Complete sweating terror as you hear the screws of a corvette overhead and the splash of charges? FUCKING CHECK.

10: Terra Nova

Revolutionary 3D FPS mini-mech game that had you bouncing over huge landscapes fighting a guerilla war with intelligent team mates against an evil Earth empire invading your plucky colony. Hugely atmospheric, cheesy but involving FMV bits and an excellent arsenal of weaponry. Like Midwinter meets Starship Troopers. Completely flopped because everyone wanted Quake instead. Gagh.

Bubbling under: Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, Dune (Cryo RPG), Portal, Syndicate, Frontier, Settlers (first one), Sim City 3000, GTA: San Andreas

CUS - Have I missed something or has your "g" key broken?

It's been stuck for some time.

It's really pissin9 me off now.

Remap another key to it.

No, you remap YOUR face.

edit: sorry, it's this new hayfever medication... also, nice idea...

Just 4 Chinny: My 8bit top 10 in no particular order.

Uridium - C64
Beyond the Forbidden Forest - C64
Chuckie Egg - C64
Wonderboy - Sega Master System
Psycho Fox - Sega Master System
Impossible Mission - C64
Druid - C64
Fantasy Zone - Sega Master System
Skate or Die - C64
Wonderboy in Monsterland - Sega Master System