For time played and enjoyment gained. Delta Force - Task Force Dagger. I still haven't found an fps that gives me the same enjoyment.
I'll say Grim Fandango, but closely followed by Half-Life and Thief II. My dad would probably say Championship Manager 01/02 as its all he plays.
Half-Life 2. There are others in different genres, but if I'm honest the series - and the rest of the Orange Box - are probably the greatest games ever made.
In terms of hours played it's probably Team Fortress 2, and while I love the game, I think KOTOR would top it for best game ever.
EVE Online. Admittedly it's also the worst game I've played. But that's just EVE. 10% of the time it's edge-of-your-seat-adrenaline-rush-inducing and the other 90% it's imbalanced, broken, buggy, and plain boring. But in the world of off-line games, it's a hard pick between KOTOR and Half-Life 2. I miss old-school BioWare RPGS .
Command and Conquer: Tiberian Sun. It brought me into gaming and (other than the shockingly weak AI) still holds its own against any other base-building RTS out there imho. I absolutely love the Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy games too, they have to be up there as well. The trouble is that nostalgia clouds our memories and we tend to pick our earliest games (because we were younger, less critical and remember it less well). Counterstrike is probably the best game ever - balanced, supremely flexible etc. TF2 could have taken the crown, but the hat and crafting business completely changed it.
Actually I've fibbed a bit there. Based purely on play time it's Lord Of The Rings Online with around 3,000 hours played lol That's over 4 months continuous playtime But My feeling for best game still stands I think. Noteworthy contenders though are: Shadow Of The Colossus, Half-Life 2, Portal, TF2, C+C Red Alert 2, Civ IV, World Of Tanks, Gran Turismo 4, Destruction Derby, Street Fighter II Turbo
Monkey Island 3 has to be within the top 3 for me. Also the Mass Effect series is brilliant and has been replayed many times.
impossible to pick one... FPS: BF2 (old skool Tom Clancy games are very very close contenders. Rogue Spear multiplayer anyone?) (no, the upcoming BF3 does NOT affect this choice) Action-RPG: Deus Ex (Final Fantasy 7 and 8 are tied for second place. Witcher is a fine one too, along with Mass Effect series and Morrowind/Oblivion combo) Action-Adventure: Diablo 2 (and Titan Quest is fairly fine too) RTS-Strategy: Company of Heroes series (Sup-Com and Star Craft is great too, with Neptune's Pride being one of the most addictive as well)) MMORPG: Star Wars Galaxy, pre-SoE (LOTRO is a close second. if only they got better PvP) Vehicle-Simulation: MechWarrior series (1 to 4. and Jane's Combat Sim like F-22 and Apache are awesome too. No driving game can come close. wanna try World of Tanks tho...) Space-Combat: Freespace 2 (with Freelancer and X-Wing series come close. WingCommander and StarFox are honorable mentions too) Fighting: Marvel vs Capcom but if i really REALLY have to pick one................ Solitaire. i clock more hours in that ever more than my SWG, LOTRO, and BF2 combined since Windows95 days.
If I went by the number of hours I've spent playing it (not including mmos), then my top 5 would be something along the lines of this: Final Fantasy VII KoTOR 1 and 2 Final Fantasy 10 Deus Ex Closely followed by lots of other Square and Bioware titles. Seen a number of votes for Half Life 2. Epic game, right up there with the best. I still couldn't call it 'the' best though. There is no way I could pick a best game ever. There are simply too many I adore.
You're a brave one posting something other than FFVII. I liked VIII a lot as well, probably second only to IV. Total Annihilation, Diablo, Dark Souls... I like your list!
Ocarina Of Time, because the world was so vast and there was just so much to do. It was certainly the first game I'd ever played that offered that scope. I also empathised with Link and his friends, something I don't always do with main characters. It's a difficult question to answer because we are influenced to some extent by nostalgia and also by how recently we've been playing a potential "best ever" title. I'm currently replaying S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow Of Chernobyl, and that ranks very, very high as well.
Having trouble looking beyond Super Cars II on the Amiga. Simple but perfect. I still laugh most days at "Manoeuvre, brake, crash, hospital" in the driving theory test. They need to re-release with 8-person online option
While I have many games that I love (Mass Effect 1 and 2 immediately come to mind), it has to be Half-Life.