Honestly, it should be Soul Calibur. As good as some of those other names mentioned are, Calibur took weapon based, one v one combat to a highly polished, almost perfect level in 2 and 3. No idea what happened to the series after.

Ok, so, pre-2007, I will say Half Life 2 (including all Episodes). It's a pretty easy choice tbh, considering now game did fps campaigns like Half Life and its sequel and still don't to this day. Plus, by the time Ep 2 rolled around, Valve had perfected their combat and their story telling and you really come to care for the series regulars.

Post 2007 - Bioshock 2. This game gets overlooked due to the original and a sequel that really changed things but the middle game is the best story for me. It's darker, ore manipulative and actually truly effective and raising some serious moral quetsions. It's just a same that by the se cond half of the game, things get a bit too repetitive and the gameplay suffers but the story never lets up.

ok...wow this is gonna be tough...just a note, the top 3s are not set in stone and likely to change

PS1 -

Metal Gear Solid, after years of Mario and Sonic (with a little bit of Doom and stuff like that thrown in) playing MGS for teh first time was an absolute revelation. The graphics, the sound, the voice acting, the story, the cinematics, the innovative and kinda hard to get into at first gameplay...oh all of it was handled so well. The rush to get a snipe rifle while Meryl is laying, bleeding to death still sticks in my psyche. Kojima's master piece.

Tekken 3, quite literally the greatest fighting game ever made. NO ifs, no buts, no maybes. As with any games of this type, it HAS to be easy to pick up and play but also deep enough to get us real fight fanatics coming back for more. It helped that some of the story FMVs at the end were so hilarious and that the graphics were so pretty and fluid.

Gran Turismo 2, at that point in time, the finest racing game ever made. Graphically, cars had neevr looked better, the tracks were beautiful to drive through and just the right side of challenging, the AI was good if a bit simplistic but ultimately, the cars handled with simulatory perfection.

N64 - I actually bought this after I had bought a PS2 but I had already played enough of it due to my friends and our mp Mario Kart nights

Mario Kart 64, about as fun as mp gets for a 10 year old. Bright, fun, competitive, challenging and technically superb. I'm still not sure if any Mario Kart or indeed, kart racer, has ever surpassed it. As for Nintendo, it marked the peak of their time in the console market and MK64 was just one link in a long chain of success.

Super Mario 64, the greatets platformer ever made? Almost 20 years on, it may just be. For all of Naughty Dog's efforts and Ratchet and Clank, along with so many other clones, Mario 64 still stands the test of time. Seriously, play it now and apart from the obvious hiccups of slippery controls and jaggedy graphics, it is almost perfect. The level design, the exploration of a 3D environment and the central hub, all oft replicated but never surpassed.

Golden Eye 007, by modern standards this is an ugly, basic fps BUT back in the late 90s it was one of the best mp experiences you could ever have and even the sp was good. Sneaking and shooting was almost unheard of at the time and to bring smooth, controller specific controls that actually worked was an absolute revolution. Would companies have gone big with console fps such as Halo and Killzone if not for Golden Eye? I don't think so. Not quite a great game as it fails the test of time but for its time, it was a hell of a lot of fun.

Playstation 2 - this was my generation of consoles. From my time in secondary school all the way through to college this was THE console and it had so mnay great games. The top 3 is far from exhastive

GTA Vice City, I don't even know where to start with this one. They took the open world/sandbox gameplay of GTA 3, upped the graphics, the size, the quality and the quantity, with a far superior story, one of the greatest soundtracks ever in gaming and a genuine 1980s, Scarface feel and put together quite possibly the best crime driven game of all time. I spent countless hours driving along the beach, going from helicopter to motorbike to boat and back again, shooting and destroying anyone in my path. Oh and chasing one of your enemies with a chainsaw is one of my favourite gaming memories. A return to Vice City please!

Final Fantasy XII, imo the best FF games ever and one of the best RPGs of all time. A battle system that adds depth but also fluidity, a solid story made better by lovable characters and funny (at times cringey) dialogue and ultimately, a vast, beautiful world to explore with some of the best enemy battles in the series. As a last hurrah on the goat console, we got one of the goat games.

Resident Evil 4, to say it was one of the ost revolutionary games of all time would be an understatement. It's camera perspective and third person mechanics weren't just ahead of the time, they were invented by this game. Everyone from Gears of War to future MGS took Capcom's mechanics on board and were better for it. Ultimately, technical aspects aside, this was a big, silly blockbuster in gaming form. Giant bosses? Check. Carzed villagers? Check .Secretive societies? Check. The best game in the series, regardless of its diminished horror approach.

GameCube - what a sad story this console was. So much potential and it was squandered by meagre 3rd party support and meagre first party quality but there was some quality on board and before I sold it, I did enjoy some of the games

StarFox Adventures, a bit of a forgotten platformer/action adventure but I really enjoyed it as a kid. Heck, you could ride a mammoth type creature and the staff combat was repetitive but for such a cartoonish game, looked kinda brutal. On a console lacking innovation, changing the genre and tact of a much love franchise and actually doing it well was a nice surprise.

Super Samsh Brothers Melee, not quite the beat 'em up Tekken and Soul Calibur were at the time but it was fun seeing all of Nintendo's family on board and beating seven bells out of each other. Much like what Nintendo do best, it was mp heaven. I still enjoyed Mario Kart 64 more but having a few friends around for a bit of colourful, childish fun was ok...after we were bored of Fifa and PES.

MGS: Twin Snakes, I know, I know, I already mentioned the original MGS but this was truly the definitive version of an already iconic game .Superior graphics, better controls and ultimately, a more well rounded game.

Xbox - I bought this about 2 years after getting the PS2 and it was really lacklustre compared to that great console BUT it did have some absolute gems

Halo, everything I said about Golden Eye applies here but it was better. Better looking, better controls, better mp, a better sp campaign, better maps and ultimately, a better game. If Halo did not succeed then the Xbox would not succeed and maybe, just maybe, console FPS would not be what it is now. Oh and the opening beach segment is still so damn pretty.

Halo 2, and of course, the sequel has to be here. Although it wasn't a huge departure in terms of its sp campaign, the mp was taken to a new level. It was the precursor to modern online mp and fps, on consoles and PC alike owe this game a huge debt. WIthout Halo 2, XB Live and online console gaming may never have been what it would become a gen later.

Mercenaries, I first played this game as a demo on the PS2 but it was on the XB where I finally bought it and damn, this game is fun! The environmental destruction was aped by Just Cause years later and the wide, open world was, in terms of destructive freedom, even more interesting than GTA. Sadly, it lacked depth in its game mechanics and could become repetitive (go here, take out that camp, repeat), kinda like later Far Crys and Just Cause itself.But it was fun while it lasted and the different playstyles offered by its protagonists were beefy enough to warrant a chance.

Playstation 3 -

Mass Effect 2, one of the best stories ever told in a game and the reason for that is simple: the gameplay was designed to compliment the story and be integral to character progression. I have never felt as emotionally engaged as I did trying to get my crew on side and then, when I picked them for the final mission, the deaths that followed actually saddened me. ME2 might be the pinnacle of modern gaming.

Fallout 3, the best post apocalyptic world ever made and one of the most brutal too. Blowing up giant flies, going head to head with giant super mutants and meeting the crazy freaks that populated the world all intertwined to create one of the very best game worlds going. I'd much rather revisit it then recommend Fallout 4. Not to mention a true feeling of ownership of your character, as you take him from birth to death (posisbly). Oh and that brings me onto the BoS expansion. Damn, tha twas some action packed fun. It took all the elements of the original and upped the action. Everything felt heavier, bigger and more brutal. Taken as a whole, it's a terrific package!

MGS 4, as iconic as the original was, as innovative as the 3rd game was it was here, in the 4th iteration where Kojima took his much loved franchise and crafted a perfect stealth/action adventure. Yes, I do mean perfect. The out door environments in MGS3 felt too...closed in. It was basically a collection of corridors with jungle textures. The three separate locations in MGS4 felt like the outside. There were multiple routes to any target, multiple ways of approaching: go in all guns blazing? Or sneak in? Or do a bit of both and take the guards out of their assigned routes? I replayed the game probably 5 or 6 times and discovered a new way of progressing and attacking each and every time. It's a same how far the series fell with MGS V. Oh and the mp was awesome too. A mode where one player is Snake and everyone else must hunt him down? Yes please!

I've left out of the 360 as I only ever bought Forza, Halo and GOW on it. And I am currently still in the process of building my PS4 library and have yet to come across a truly great game.

Honourable mentions to: Fight Night 2, Fight Night 4, Fifa 99, Fifa 07, Fifa 12, GT3, Forza 1-3, God of Ward 2 and 3, GTA V, GTA:SA and many, many others

This has been spoken about a lot and as a PS4 owner, it's pretty cool that the new xb will have a 4k drive ... BUT very few people have made the switch, especially on a global level and most people still buy their movies on current BluRay (a major selling point) so it's not a big advantage.

@GTR12: np, I used to be really into my racing games till last gen too

Well I gotta say, I initially really enjoyed FO4 and it deserved to sell well but I started to become disappointed the further I got, as it becomes too repetitive and is lacklustre in so many ways to FO3.

But keeping it positive, I'm going to bring up COD Infinite. The sp is a lot of fun. Its a big, silly, sci-fi story with space shooting (Easy but enjoyable) fun weapons and some cool missions.

I'll add in the entire Dynasty Warriors series from the PS2 days. Yeah they were all pretty much the same a nd yes the combat was repetitve and the graphics bland but boy did I love hacking and slashing with lots of enemies (Especially for those days).

@GTR12: ah ok, but as you say, if the driving isnt up to scratch then its not worth it

I dunno if this is a troll or what but I'll just reiterate what a lot of people have said:

Halo had a full blown, console sp experience and the best one (better?) than Goldeneye years before. It's important to remember, that even with releases of games like Quake on consoles, those machines were not known for handling fps well and good, let alone great fps were few and far between. Yet Halo delivered.

By Halo 2, consoles had arguably the best mp fps experience on the market. t was beefier than Quake and Unreal and artistically, imo, better looking too with great maps.

By Halo 3, the sp was starting to fade but the mp was polished to almost perfection. I rate it alongside MW2 and a handful of others as some of the best ever.

I do agree that the fanbase is probably not as large, or rather, Halo is no longer as culturally relevant as it was a decade ago and it's because of a simple reason: the games are no longer that good.

@PSP107: The UK does not do business in dollars. The game is £30 and yes, its a decent price, way better than Nintendo's idiotic £60 release point, with certain editions even more expensive.

Ultimately, Crash was a major staple of the late 90s and those of us from that age will genuinely want a complete remake (proper graphical update) rather than slightly updated graphics and a PSN dl.

@iandizion713: 80 metascore, 9.0 user score. I think greatness did arrive.

The main concern has been that the ocntrols have not been updated the way they should have been and even back in the late 90s, they were problematic, although all 3D platformers at the time had a slippery feel. It's something that should have been better managed for a modern audience. Thats why I can understand why new gamers would find it difficult. I personally think I'd be fine with it and I'll get the game with a price drop.

And all of this better lead towards a brand new release!