For RPGs, I'd have to say Oblivion & The Witcher. FPS, I'm rather fond of Riddick (CoR: EFBB, looking forward to Dark Athena).

Hmm my favorites eh? Well in the RPG category All the TES games are on top
In the FPS category.... hmmm i really must say that Half-Life is the best.
And my last favorite game i will not place in a category, this game is (to me) a perfect game with a lot of spirit and warmth. It has a really good story, the graphics are really good and there is a giant adventure to be played. The game im talking about is Titan Quest!

I recommend that game to everyone

my favourite Rpg is Oblivion and the Gothic series. and Fps Battlefield Bad-Company

My RPG is Oblivion and Neverwinter nights 2.

Edit: yay 100th post

For RPG genre I'd have to say Oblivion, as for my favorite game, the old good Max Payne...(both of them) it's unbeatable, although I love Half Life2 and GTA-Vice City .

FPS: Starsiege: TRIBES, the one and only original by the original creators. (multi-player) Half-Life (single player)
RPG: Neverwinter Nights (multi-player) Oblivion (single-player)
Turn based strategy: ROME: Total War, hands down. Medieval Total War was good too though, just not as much fun for me.
Real-time strategy: I get too excited and don't do well in these - especially against people - but Starcraft was my favorite.

Don't have one favorite game though, since all of them hold a special place in my gaming heart.

Real-Time Strategy: Star Wars: Empire at War
FPS: Either Halo:CE or Doom(the original, not 3)
RPG: Neverwinter Nights(the original, not the sequel)

EDIT: I forgot to mention my all time favorite: Deus Ex. It doesn' t fall into any one category though.

RTS: Dawn of war or Dune 2
FPS: DooM
RPG: Neverwinter Nights Diamond

pc only ?
if so its going to be a very very short list
sims 2 oblivion and vampire bloodlines because thats all i really play on the pc

OK, setting Oblivion aside, because it's too obvious;

favorite series' (generally not specific games)- Castlevania, Zelda, Persona

favorite overall game- Way of the Samurai, if you haven't heard of it, try to find it. Pretty early PS2 game, but I played it a lot, mostly because of the character customization.

i played way of the samurai i would not call it best ..or good or even passable
its slow and plodding and one of your characters is an afro samurai
bizarre at best
then again i like bizarre

and i have a soft spot for the spyro games front mission 4 grandia 1 and 2 and most dreamcast games

1. Fallout 2
2. Gothic 2 + Night of the raven
2. Morrowind
3. Oblivion
4. Diablo I
5. UFO: Enemy Unknown (X-Com)

No there is no mistake on the list, just can't decide which one should number two.

my top 5
1 baldurs gate 2
2 fallout 2
3 oblivion
4 civilization 4
5 neverwinter nights

My favorites games I've ever played are :

-Super Mario Bros 3 (SNES, 1991)
-Donkey Kong Country 3 (SNES, 1996)
-Morrowind (PC, 2002)
-GTA San Andreas (PC, 2005)
-Oblivion (PC, 2006)

These games are great !

err not to rain on your parade but there was no super mario bros 3 on the snes in 1991
there was mario bros 3 on the nes in 1990
super mario world in 1991
and mario all stars (all 4 mario nes games ina 16 bit gloss) in 1993

I think my favourite game is Okami. Its one of the only games ever to make me smile simply because I was playing it, and the story is both witty and wonderful, without being overly twee or 'cutesy'.
Honourable mention to Ocarina of Time, Baldur's Gate, 1 and 2, Neverwinter Nights and Shogun Total War.

This may carbon-date me, perhaps...

Neverwinter Nights (the first one)
X-Com: UFO Defense (the American-release title for 'Enemy Unknown')
X-Com: Apocalypse
The Neverhood (an immensely silly claymation puzzle game from LucasFilms)
Bard's Tale III: The Thief of Fate (yes, I've been playing PC games since way before 1988... get off my lawn, kid.)

I can't say the best game I ever played but is easy to recall the ones that marked me forever.

In the beginning was the incredible Sinclair and the Z80 era... a brief stage at the Apple II and it's 6502 (not sure without confirming but don't matter, was something like this) and the MSX that like the Sinclair was the pre PC computers a used in deep, but not much about gaming passion in them (the first thing I deed in every one was get rid of the Basic they came with).

But is about games and gaming, so:

The first one was Phantasy Star on Master System. The game chocked me, I knew RPG but had never saw it in computer. A game where you need to talk to people, collect informations and a long and somewhat compelling story...

After I began to search for RPGs titles and found Ultima IV yet for the Master System and was hooked forever.

So I get a SNES and played the Final Fantasy 2 (IV in Japan) another shocking experience...

At this point I was going to play in the PC, I had several ones before and had played some titles like the fly simulator in the AT times without much on "emotion", same on the 386 and I used the computer only for work and programming strange things like FORTH compilers and such. When I first played "seriously" on PC it was already a 486, but the lacking of a sound board was something frustrating.

By this time I was playing Lands of Lore and must say I liked it, so I got the opportunity to acquire a Sound Baster Pro, installed it and...

Lands of Lore was whole new game as it was World of Xeen and so many others. No more console to me.

Nowadays games are fantastic, sure, but they fails in giving the same emotions those ancient ones did to me. Not even because they were the "best", some things aren't easy to explain.

Amen to that brother...

I would say Baldur's Gate series were the best RPG I ever played, in fact I would play anything that Black Isle made, BG series,
Icewind Dale series, Fallout 1 and 2, and of course the games bioware made, kotor series, neverwinter nights series, mass effect...

Also there was that great game, Arcanum, it was an incredible experience for me and quite tough one...

I haven't played Baldur's Gates yet, but I keep on hearing about and I'm about to buy the darn thing.

My three personal favorites, and what I think were the best three titles are:

Legend of Zelda: Orcarina of Time
TES 3: Morrowind
Final Fantasy X

My all-time favourite top three;

1.FF VIII (I loved the story, some people however, never fully understand how the characters revolve together in the end.)
2.WoW, heavy note on=PRE-BC
3.TES IV: Oblivion, no explanations really needed on this one.

Oh and I have to say Metal Gear Solid series is incredible... I played MGS2 on PC and it was great, incredible story, great gameplay, what else to say

In order of when I became addicted to each.

1.Age of Empires II
2.Day of the Tentacle
3.Neverwinter Nights
4.TES: IV (duh)

These are the PC ones if I'm going for all time I would have to include Link's Awakening for Game Boy. I wore out two carts of that game.

1. System Shock 2
2. Starsiege: Tribes
2. Homeworld
2. Fallout & Fallout 2

It hurts to make a list that short, but if I had to pick a handful of games to keep and nothing else... I'd cry a lot because choosing would be torture. I've played a lot of games, and a lot of those games could claim to be the best game I've ever played for one reason or another at one time or another. I must list the rest (ranked):

3. Oblivion & Morrowind
3. C&C 95
3. Bioshock
3. System Shock, for actually having a story and complex objectives back in 1992... unlike *coughDOOMcough* some games.
3. Earthsiege II, my all-time favorite mechsim.
3. The Longest Journey
3. Mass Effect
3. KoToR
3. Riven
3. Half-Life 2
4. Starsiege, which owned my life for five years straight because it had The. Best. Community. Ever. Would still be a 3 or a 2 if it weren't dead as a doornail online.
4. Tribes 2 - which totally would have taken the place of its predecessor if it weren't for good 'ol "Unhandled Exception" and the officially sanctioned disaster that was Classic Mod. I'd probably still have given it a 2 or 3 if it hadn't gone and died after Vengeance came out.
4. Diablo I & II
4. Myst
4. Portal
4. Half-Life
5. C&C: Red Alert
5. GTA2, because top-down action never got any better.
5. GTA3, because it made sandbox mainstream and did it well.

Those are the games I'd really miss having if I ever lost and couldn't replace them. The ones which, from time to time, I feel an inexplicable urge to go and play again- and for which I will wrangle with my computer for long periods of time if they won't work when I try to do so. I could survive losing the entire rest of my collection, NES and N64 classics included, if I managed to hang onto everything listed above.

RPG Oblvion

FPS Crysis and halo

Co-op Diablo 1 and 2

Might as well.

In no particular order for the PC: Morrowind, Planescape: Torment, Baldur's Gate I and II,

Not PC: Xenogears, Resident Evil 4, Legacy of Kains minus Blood Omen 2.

Probably not my best of the best, just games I like and happen to remember currently.

rpg: Chrono Trigger; multiple endings good replay value
Oblivion, Morrowind, Secret of Mana
??: Zelda's # 1, L2TP, Ocarina, Twilight princess
FPS: Half Life 2, Doom, Rise of the Triad, Turok1
RTS: Warcraft series, AOE2, Dawn of War, C&C, Fantasy Empires
Horror: Splatter House, Parasite Eve, Resident evil series( the original and new)
Action: Tomb Raider series( mostly #1),Thief series(but mostly #1)
Racing: GT1&2, Mario Kart( fun multiplayer action)

Final Fantasy XI
Star Ocean 3: Till the End of Time
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Ace Combat 5/Zero
Mass Effect
The Legend of Dragoon
Resident Evil 4

Two Worlds, Oblivion & The Witcher. The Witcher has an awesome fighting system. Oblivions one of the best "Modifiable" RP G's that exist . I recently bought Two Worlds and I think its ok though I hear most people debating on weather its good or not. For me its fairly ok, I haven't really got playing it much yet as my attentions always o Oblivion believe it or not .

Anyone else like two worlds? Its not that bad really , I just wish it could be Modifiable like Oblivion is.

Im not like everyone else. Halo and Final Fantasy did not really thrill me too much.

Favourites

RPG: Icewind Dale

FPS: Doom 64

Platformer: Jak and Daxter

Fighting: Killer Instinct

Racing: Extreme-G II

Extreme-G was amazing


Lessie

RPG:Oblivion
FPS:Call of Duty 4
Racing:Need for speed underground 2

Hmmm...My top 10


1) Socom II PS2
2) Mortal Kombat I,II, and III
3) Final Fantasy 1-10 + Online
4) Morrowind + Oblivion
5) The Half-Life series (inncluding source and TFC)
6) WoW (Pre-Burning Crusade)
7) HellGate:London
ChronoTrigger
9) Alien vs Predator for the Atari Jaguar
10) Dungeons of Daggorath

Honorable mentions:Twisted Metal,Quake 1+2,Tetris,Doom 1n2,John Madden 92-04,NBA Jam and Neverwinter nights.

I played video games back to Pong and Space Invaders. Yes, I am that old.

In no particular order.
The Secret of Mana
Chrono Trigger
Ogre Battle
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and A Link to the Past
Knights of the Old Republic
Star Wars Galaxies (before the so-called 'combat upgrade' /shudder)
Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy XI
Warcraft III
DOA 3
SSX Tricky
Morrowind (including Tribunal and Bloodmoon)
and most recently The World Ends With You


-T-

Edit: Forgot Castlevania 2, Faxanadu, Ghosts and Goblins and Super Mario World.

My all-time favorites:

Total Annihilation
XCOM: UFO Defense
Battlefield 1942
Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption
Deus Ex
Unreal Tournament
Age of Mythology
Star Wars: Empire at War
Rome: Total War
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
Doom II: Hell on Earth
Starship Troopers
Star Wars: TIE Fighter

If I have to pick an all-time favorite overall, I couldn't do it but would be a tie between Battlefield 1942 and Total Annihilation

LHammonds

God of War, Rock Band, Diablo, Mass Effect, KOTOR

The Thief series

Harpoon Classic
not the best graphics in the world, just really in depth game. Real time if the mission said it would take 14 hours, by god it did. Modern naval warfare simulation, really good tactical game. Have not found another to replace it, I still play it even after 11 years...It wasnt small map to cover, mid Atlantic north Atlantic, Arctic ocean basically NATO vs USSR. Maybe the mission is to stop 10 ICBM subs from reaching 500 mile off the coast of the US within 14 hours other wise fire. Other aspect were dealt in the mix the Red Fleet was lurking about, make sure planes had flight paths. Game played as If you were in War Room of CVN carrier...

If you play anything for more 5 years yeah... it is one of the best...

they are good the metal age is good as well at least someone else likes them other then me hehe

Sheppard

Deus Ex.

Has a bit of everything.. stealth, rpg, shooting, mods.. I love it.

oblivion and morrowind and online counter-strike

Starcraft.

to me, it is, and always will be, the best game ever made.

I have an additional game to add to my prior listing...Command & Conquer: Generals

I forgot how much fun it was to play as a terrorist and win using the stealth sniper. If the AI had any real brains, my snipe-n-hide tactics wouldn't have worked as well. And as my massive damage unit, I used a bus full of rocket dudes which decimated any vehicles it encountered.

It was also quite fun running around with an army of helos laying waste to everything in my path.

The giant China tank was also fun to rummage around in. Having 3 of those baddies with all different upgrades was almost unstoppable.

LHammonds

Oblivion PC
Morrowind PC
Turok 2: Seeds of evil N64
Call of Duty (the first one) PC
Assassin's Creed Xbox 360
Not in any arranged order just as they came to mind.

FPS: Serious Sam 2, Bioshock, COD4, Far Cry (superior to Crysis imao)
RPG: Neverwinter Nights 2 + Mask of the Betrayer, Mass Effect, Oblivion + community mods
RTS: Warcraft 3 + Frozen Throne, C&C3 + Kane's Wrath, Sins of a Solar Empire, Dawn of War + expansions, Company of Heroes
Adventure: Lego Indiana Jones, Hitman: Blood Money, Overlord, Psychonauts
Oddball: Spore, Sid Meier's Pirates!, The Sims 2 + expansions

Morrowind is the best.

I remember Seeds of Evil. Man I loved that game. It was suh-weet.

All TES-titles and anythng Sid Meyer ever laid his hands on. Easy. Anything stemming from pen&paper RPGs also appreciated, be it BG, NWN or Vampires. My p&p favourite never saw a decent adaption though, Call of Cthulhu... Just love the relativ simplicty of the system and the vast freedom it gives to the gamemaster in terms of plots and balancing. Another one I'd really enjoyed that never made it to computers was Paranoia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoia_(role-playing_game)

Hm... looks like there was a game, never saw that though. If anyone ever stumbles across it by chance... well, drop me a line by pm.

Let me see... The overall "best game I've ever played" would have to be Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, closely followed by Fallout 2, The Witcher, and several other games. Going into other categories, the best point-and-click adventure games would probably be Culpa Innata and Maniac Mantion: Day of the Tentacle, while S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. The Shadow of Chernobyl, Fallout 3: Wasteland, and Clive Barker's Jericho top the first-person shooters (although the last one should probably be removed). Space Simulations have Freelancer and Sins of a Solar Empire, although X-COM is up there as well. I guess I'll stop there for now...

I see that LHammonds wrote down Vampire the Masquerade... Which one is it? Bloodlines or Redemption... I have to say Bloodlines was fun and I play it every once in a while but Redemption was something else entirely... I would very much recommend to people who likes a good RPG...

I have to add Jagged Alliance 2 here since it is the best turn based strategy/RPG hybrid I have ever played...

Final fantasy series
Kingdom hearts
Oblivion & morrowind
star craft
legacy of kain: soul reaver (best story! ever!)
Disgaea
monster hunter (best when played with buddies!)

Oblivion(before my windows was crashed, my gameplay time was about 770 hours)), Devil May Cry 3, Final Fantasy 7, Final Fantasy 8, ONI, Emperor: The battle for dune, DooM3, bloodrayne 1-2, Takken 3 and Thief 3.