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Hmm. I wouldn't say these are the best games of all time, merely my favorites.
1. Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Though not currently playing, easily my favorite game. I played this for well over two years, and that's pretty good considering 1. It's a single-player only game, and 2. I never beat the mainquest, or even got half-way through it. Character customization is more than a little decent, especially considering how many options you have with others (like Arx Fatalis). Plenty of sub quests and guild quests to entertain yourself with, and even vampire and werewolf (werewolf w/Bloodmoon only) ones as well. The game also had a feel of a novel you play, considering how often you would be encouraged to read those mini-books they put in ("On Morrowind," "Sermons of Vivec," etc.) It has a relaxed feel that you can enjoy if you ever get tired of the constant hack-and-slash of twitch games.
Big Disadvantages:
Graphics look good in most places (for early Xbox), but in some places (Specifically character faces) they're just plain awful. The Main Quest is long and, after a while, boring enough to test even the most patient gamer's resolve (I made several characters who had no purpose other than to beat the Main Quest, and they all failed mid-way, the furthest getting to maybe 60% done), and you've pretty much got all the disadvantages of an otherwise amazing game in a nutshell.
2. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Originally, I thought this pretty much one-upped Morrowind in every way possible. Character customization was top-notch, though it was easy to make an ugly character if you didn't look at things from all angles. (If you thought you took a long time customizing characters in other RPG's, try Oblivion. I spent a good three hours on character customizing alone.) The Main Quest was so intriguing that I don't think I even paused for side-quests for the first few hours of the game. (A first for any Elder Scrolls game I've played.) However, it was short (Though perhaps I'm just comparing it to Morrowind's, which isn't fair by any means) and afterwards, you're not left with a feeling of a world at your fingertips, like I constantly had with Morrowind- you feel like you've completed the game. That's not a bad feeling- unless you're playing Elder Scrolls. It's a sad waste when about half a dozen guilds, hundreds of side quests, and all sorts of magical items to be found just seem dull in comparison to the fact that you just saved the Empire of Tamriel.
Another big problem with ESIV is the general over-poweredness of enemies once you hit level 20 or so. (Enemies level with you.) Seeing common street bandits eqquiped with elven, mithral, and even daedric armor is amusing at first, and quickly annoying later. (I went through three horses in the first few hours of that. :() Other than that, it's a great game besides.
(I suppose I'll skim down the descriptions now.)
3. Knights of the Old Republic & Kotor II (tie): Easily the best Star Wars games in existence, KOTOR and its sequel use the tried-and-true d20 system to propel the gameplay. General dislikes- too many glitches, KOTOR II's plot was more difficult to understand and less involving than the first KOTOR's.
4. Advent Rising. A little known game for Xbox and PC. The storyline's written by Orson Scott Card- the gameplay is dynamic and interesting- the soundtrack is amazing. Disadvantages are, the targetting system involves a "flick" feature which can be activated just by turning a corner. This makes platforming with nearby enemies hard, if not near-impossible. also, the graphic quality is low for a game made at the time of Advent Rising. Another unfortunate note is, Advent Rising received alot of poor reviews, so it is unlikely the other two games of this trilogy will ever surface.
5. Half-Life 2. I know, it's surprising it's this far down the list. Great game and storyline overall- graphics are top-notch, as is just about anything else for the game. I can't think of any immediate flaws, other than, in some ways, not being my favorite type of game.
6. Dungeons and Dragons Online- Stormreach. Easily my favorite MMO of all time, even though I hardly got to play it due to lack of friends playing with me. (A good reason to quit any MMO.) DDO functions alot more on the concepts of dungeon delving and teamwork. It's not the same as a tabletop experience, obviously, but it's got a "DM" (A narrator, who functions surprisingly well) and also manages to transform the normally turn-based d20 system into real-time quickly. Biggest disadvantage is the low level cap (max is 14 last I checked) and overall slowness in which you gain them. (You need five times the XP you need in normal D&D, so levelling up in-game can easily take a full day of playing.) The slowness could also be viewed as an advantage, though, as it lets you find people equal to your level quickly and easily.
7. First Encounter Assault Recon (FEAR): If there was ever a nuclear cataclysm and Half-Life 2 was wiped from existence, I sincerely hope we keep FEAR. Easily one of my favorite First Person Shooters, FEAR's engine is fun, and its story is deep. (The first level is basically one big long cutscene.) It suffers only from insane difficulty at some points and a disappointing expansion pack.
8. The Specialists. Technically not a game, this half-life 1 mod still has plenty of people playing years and years after it was made. The site is still active, and a 3.0 was released recently (a few months ago.) There are even roleplay servers. Not much disadvantage besides even more ***holes than you'll find on an average counter-strike server and, if it bothers you, old graphics.
9. Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones. Easily my favorite platformer. This game has a relatively good plot, a great graphics engine and awesome playing interface. This is probably the only game where flipping over someone's head to run up a wall, backflip over his head and another guys, and cut them both in half with a knife and an axe in two swift movements is relatively standard issue.
10. Sitting with mild sadness at the bottom of the list is Virtua Fighter 4. The fact that I remember it this fondly even though I don't even own it anymore should say something. This game had great combos, and there were no "over-powered" characters. The stronger the characters were, the harder they were to use and the more intricate and difficult their combos were. You could even make a "custom" character- which was really only a slight costume variation of an already existing one. Didn't much matter- most of your time wouldn't be spent there, but enjoying the game itself. If I had a PS3, I'd get VF5, but that's waaaay out of my price range.
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