I'm pretty well out of new games to play as i have recently finished Dragon Age: Awakening and given up on The Ballad of Gay Tony

Dragon Age: Awakening was a great expansion that was just a bit too easy, my review of the game can be found here.

Regarding The Ballad of Gay Tony, I finally managed to get past the first helicopter mission after remapping the controls but got stuck again a couple of missions later in a mission where you have to jump out of a helicopter to catch someone that you just pushed out of the same helicopter! Not only is the premise absurd but the mission itself is incredibly difficult, even with the checkpoint system. I've probably tried that one bit about 30 times but i'm too frustrated to try again; my rating of the game remains at 4.0. Garbage imo.

Ok, back to my list.

#20 Crysis (2007)

It's easy to dismiss this game as nothing but a pretty face, but the fact that I first played through it on my slightly upgraded 2004 Dell desktop with a single-core CPU using mostly low settings, and still loved the game, is a testament to how high the quality of the gameplay really is. I'm sure the people who disliked Crysis simply played it like they would a normal shooter without using the suits capabilities to change the way you play. The fact that the game features some of the best gunplay I have ever seen, coupled with great AI and glorious visuals and physics are just icing on the cake. Crysis isn't about the story, or getting to the next level, it's about playing how you want to play, depending on my mood I might spring into battle, spraying bullets at everything that moves punch a hole in a building and throw a barrel at a Korean. Or I might stay back, use cloak to get really close to my enemies then finish them off with a quick silenced pistol shot to the back of the head. Crysis is all about variety and customization, and this is does to a tee.

#19 Mass Effect 2 (2010)

Even though I recognize that Mass Effect 2 is in many ways a more refined game than its predecessor, as great as it is I simply couldn't get into the game like I did with Mass Effect. The story line, short missions with tame objectives and music just don't feel as epic as they did in the first game. But the gunplay is significantly improved, and there have been lots of small but significant improvements to the gameplay that make playing the game less clunky. It is very common these days to find a game that is better than the sum of its parts. Well, Mass Effect 2 is worse than the sum of its parts – even though all the mechanics that come together to create Mass Effect 2 are very well implemented, as a whole package it's simply not as impressive as it should be (from my perspective anyways). Still, the game is bloody fantastic; well written with quality and varied gameplay, it just doesn't strike me as really special like the original did.

#18 The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006)

Without mods, Oblivion is a poor RPG but a great action adventure game with loads of exploration, huge battles and enjoyable quests. With mods, Oblivion is so much more... all the supposed problems with vanilla Oblivion can be fixed with mods – the creatures that level up as you level up being the primary problem – which makes Oblivion into something truly special. This game is high in contention for the game I have spent the most time on overall, competing only with its predecessor Morrowind for this honour. Even though the plot if rather generic and the world can seem somewhat dead at times, Oblivion is incredibly immersive and capable of entertaining you for vast amounts of time – I don't think I've ever spent more time on a single playthrough of a singleplayer game, and I probably played through Oblivion at least 3 times. While not perfect, Oblivion is a hell of a game.

#17 Team Fortress 2 (2007)

Is not often that I play a FPS with no real sense of character progression in the form of levelling or unlocks, but the balance and generally fun gameplay of Team Fortress 2 had me playing for hours on end even before Valve started updating the characters with unlockable items. Somehow this game manages to stay fresh no matter how long you play it – while I rarely play the game seriously or as my main title, it's always installed on my computer and always there to play if I run out of newer titles. It's the perfect go-to game thanks to its brilliant online community and dedicated support from Valve. I almost always play the Heavy, and I'd say I'm a pretty damn good heavy, yet I'm still learning new things every time I play – like how you need to duck and move unpredictably when firing to avoid snipers. I find it hard to fathom that each of the ****s requires so much time and dedication to master, which when thought about makes Team Fortress 2 incredibly deep, even though it's so freaking easy to pick up and play.

#16 Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (2004)

Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (2004) – My personal favourite Splintercell game, Pandora Tomorrow was almost as ruthless and unforgiving as the original but a tiny bit easier, just enough to make the game much more playable and enjoyable while still retaining the tension and thrills of the original. The tropical setting was great – the combination of indoor and outdoor rural and urban settings really isn't found in any of the other games, especially the jungle levels, which reminded me of Far Cry but with much better stealth. While it felt like all the splinter cell games after Pandora Tomorrow were more focused on action, this game was all about getting around silently, and I found myself using all the gadgets I had at my disposal to get through each successive level. Probably the most varied and for me the best overall Splinter Cell game.

#15 Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault (2004)

Medal of Honour: Pacific Assault (2004) – probably one of the most overlooked and underrated games of all time, Pacific Assault was completely overshadowed by all the huge FPS games released in 2004. In reality Pacific Assault was right there with them, and with the exception of Half-Life 2 better than them. It featured a campaign that was both historically accurate and extremely fun – better than almost all of the Call of Duty games in fact. It was atmospheric, challenging, varied and most importantly incredibly fun. The game had a physics engine similar to the one found in Far Cry – but with a few important improvements. Rivers actually run, vegetation sways as you walk through it and shakes violently near explosions. There were even a few destructible buildings in a couple of parts. Most of these features weren't seen again until Crysis came out in 2007. But apart from all this technical prowess is a great story that is deeper than the usual "It's WWII – let's kill some Nazis!" crap usually found in WWII games. Like with the Band of Brothers games you are with a few squad mates throughout most of the game, and there is definitely some impressive character development. Great game, great gameplay, good story.

#14 Battlefield 2 (2005)

My standing favourite multiplayer FPS of all time, Battlefield 2 was complex, engaging, tactical and glorious with massive, open levels and all kinds of options for squads and commands. It even had an unlock and levelling system which precluded Modern Warfare by two years. I spent a ton of time on this game, and enjoyed almost every minute of it – because of the scale off most of the maps it's simply not that frustrating because you don't get killed that often. The action isn't nearly as intense as with most modern FPS's – instead it's slow and tactical, with conflict occurring not all that often. This is also the most balanced battlefield game, with all the kits being fun to play and all having numerous uses in combat. It's a rock-paper-scissors strategy game masquerading as an online FPS. It's brilliant.

#13 Max Payne (2001)

I love Max Payne for all the same reasons that I loved its sequel, but because it came out first and was essentially the same as Payne 2 I'm putting it higher on my list. The combat model is identical to Payne 2, the only real difference being that the graphics are a little bit worse. Firefights are fast and deadly, the writing is sharp, and the story one of revenge. Its great fun all around, highly polished and very well made. It was also a pretty big breakthrough when it came out, with gunplay that was way ahead of any other action games of the time.

#12 World in Conflict (2007)

Flat out my favourite multiplayer game of all time, WiC kind of played like battlefield from the top down with separate CIasses(armour, air, infantry and support) and even similar game modes. This is the first RTS (or RTT) that focuses entirely on combat with no base building and hardly any point-capping getting in the way of the fighting. The fact that the multiplayer matches are 8 vs. 8 is insane – each player only handles a handful of units, but still multiplayer matches are always fast and furious with action occurring all around you. Each cIass is difficult to play, and must be used to support other cIasss to be used successfully – kind of like in TF2 or BF2. If you're playing as air, you can decimate enemy tanks in seconds but you are susceptible to enemy AA. A successful assault will see friendly tanks rolling in and taking out the Anti Aircraft while the air playing focuses on the enemy tanks. Its all very tactical, yet it plays like an action game on steroids because of the frequency and intensity of the combat. Oh yea, the game also has a singleplayer campaign with a fantastic story and highly varied gameplay. Just another bonus.

#11 Call of Duty (2003)

With the best singleplayer campaign of the entire Call of Duty series and essentially the same multiplayer as Call of Duty 2, it shouldn't be difficult to figure out why Call of Duty 1 is the highest ranked on my list. The game has no bad missions, and loads of variety within the missions, which range from defensive to offensive to crazy car chases and even some stealth like missions. This game had such an incredible pace it never gave you a chance to catch your breath; games like this simply didn't really exist before Call of Duty hit the shelves. The multiplayer was also very fun, and while it didn't have all levelling and unlocks of more recent fps games it still had a good variety of maps, game modes and weapons that allowed for a good variety of play StyIes.