What is your favourite game and why?

Chrono Trigger. Simple yet deceptively deep story, memorable characters without there being too many of them, neat combat system, zero repetition, and an awesome soundtrack. My only complaint is how pathetically easy it is.

Close seconds would be:

Metroid Fusion: Gave Samus a 'voice' without wrecking her as a character. Great bosses. Great abilities. Great level design. Was not my first Metroid, by the way, so I'm not just running on nostalgia here :P

Descent 1 and 2: I consider these two one game. Nothing like them, even today. Just moving around is entertaining, the map works well, all the weapons are awesome (the Fusion Cannon and Earthshaker Missile are legendary), and all the enemies are unique in their blocky, robotic way.

Knights of the Old Republic: How is it that a 7-year-old game is so much better than Bioware's latest effort in every meaningful way? I just finished KOTOR a week ago, so again, no nostalgia. No complaints witht his game aside from stupid AI companions who aren't any stupider than the ones in ME.

I have various "favourites"... one for each system I own(ed)...

Atari 2600

• Game: Pitfall!
• Why: Platforming goodness unparalled for the time.

NES

• Game: Contra
• Why: Platforming at it's best. The game was brutal, unfair even, against the player, but once you managed to memorize the paterns and spawning of the enemies, the sense of acomplishment of finishing a game sequence was grand.

Genesis

• Game: Shinig Force (And Shining Force two).
• Why: First turn based strategy games I played on a console. As I grew older (By than I should have something around thirteen and fifteen respectively), I got more and more interested in games that made me think, as oposed to the rote hand-eye coordination needed on platformers.

Playstation

• Game: Tactics Ogre
• Why: Turn based strategy with a history that gave the player freedom to choose their own path... (To follow the orders of your superior or to topple said superior and grasp the power for yourself... kill an entire village on cold blood and make it look like an attack from a neighboring country or refuse on raiding the vilage and go rogue on your quest...). There where many choices to make, along the whole game, that affected the outcome of everything that you'd do later...
• Honorable mention goes to: Final Fantasy VII (and VIII), Metal Gear Solid,Resident Evil Director's Cut,Syphon Filter and Tenchu.

Playstation 2

• Game: Disgae Hour of Darkness
• Why: Again, turn based strategy, but this time with a flair of sillyness and "bad" jokes that made me like the game almost instantly.
• Honorable mention goes to: Grand Theft Auto Vice City, Onimusha and The Godfather.

Playstation 3

• Game: Valkyria Chronicles
• Why: Turn based strategy, whith anime-like appearance and an interesting history... what is there not to like?
• Honorable mention goes to: Assassin's Creed series, Dragon Age Origins, Uncharted series and Vanquish.

PC (The only one that defies this chronological order I placed on this list... I've been playing PC since 1987).

• Game: Civilization (I own 2, 4 and Colonization)
• Why: Guess what? Turn based strategy! THough it lacks on history, the game mechanics is compelling enough to make me return for more, always.
• Honorable mention goes to: Mass Effect, Simcity (The original one), Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic (both) and Theme Hospital (Silly and bugy, but nice to play).

Ignicaeli

I love the comprehensive list here.

I could never pick just one thats impossible but my list is simple

Devil May Cry Series(DMC3 was my favorite, the story was just awesome.)

Kingdom Hearts Series(Favorite one would be KH2 or KH:Brith by Sleep, Birth by Sleep was amazing and it was on the psp none the less but I'm drawn to there stories.)

Assassin's Creed Series(My favorite would probably be Brotherhood mainly because it offers the multiplayer but all of 'em are masterpieces.)

Final Fantasy Tactics - Pretty much Squaresoft at their best. I loved all the PS-era FF titles (Okay, not so much FFVIII), but Tactics really just gripped me and never let go. Everything about it was just done so damn good. To this day, Delita is one of my favorite characters in gaming. Whenever I look at games like FF Tactics or FFVII and then look at where the series is now, it just makes me sad. I miss Squaresoft.

The craziest thing about it all is I actually quit when I first bought it because I saved right before a battle I had no hope in beating (The Wiegraf battle), and only replayed it maybe a couple years ago. Glad I did. :)

Resident Evil 4-I've lost track of the amount of times I've completed it. Great great game. Perfectly corny. Awesome bosses too.

Half Life 2-Wonderful atmosphere and near perfect pacing.

God Hand-It's pretty much the most awesome game ever.

I can't just pick one :P

Super Mario Bros. 3- Brought so much to mario as a whole and a fantastic platformer

Metal Gear Solid- Amazing Story,Characters and everything felt so perfect.

God of War- The perfect HacknSlash/Beat Em Up and had a great story as well

Uncharted 2-Great Characters,Fantastic storytelling and perfect gameplay.

Metal Gear Solid 4- A Great Way to end Kojima's insane story filled with twists

Super Mario Galaxy 2- The Perfect Platformer

1. Multi-plat - Bioshock
2. PS3 - Killzone or Uncharted It is a toss-up
3. 360 -Gears of War

Dead Space. Technically perfect, visually stunning, incredible audio/sound effects, engrossing story, chilling atmosphere, scary enemies,holographic presentation and dismemberment gameplay make it a masterpiece of a sci-fi survival horror shooter.

Venom_Raptor

Mike Tyson's Punch Out! When I first got a Nintendo this was the only game I wanted. I loved the characters, the strategy, the difficulty. I played Super Punch Out for SNES, but that was so much easier the MTPO. I never played the punch out for WII, but I heard it was pretty easy also.

Dead Space, it creates such an incredible atmosphere and such a feeling of hopelessness which makes it such a great horror game. The games story is quite good too, lots of twists. The sound is one of the biggest reasons, the music is amazing, the sound effects are great and the atmosphere makes it so the slightest bump or thud is terrifying.

it is cruel to ask a gamer what his FAVORITE game is

so i´ll pick the top 5

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within - outstanding gameplay, deep and lenghty story, great characters and it's what really put me into gaming

God of War 3 - stunning graphics, memorable story and characters and, as always, superb gameplay mechanics

Metal Gear Solid 4 - self explanatory

Uncharted 2 - perfect pace, smooth gameplay, brilliant story and a multiplayer that exceeded all my expectations

Demons Souls - the innovation in online play this game offers, great gameplay and a huge sense of accomplishment

i have to go old school and say JACK 3 i dont know why but i f***ing love it

The first NBA Street. The game is challenging, simple, and flat-out FUN. And the soundtrack is so good, I've bought some of the songs and albums related to it.

When it was released Allen Iverson was the reigning MVP, LeBron Jameswas in high school, and Kobe Bryant was emerging as a star. But even after all those years, NBA Street still remains an incredible experience every time I play it, even as a sports game.

i honestly cant say