What is the best computer game you have ever played?

[Aran Thule]

I still have to put my fave down as being Star Control 2
Simple but designed with great imagination and humour.
Was so popular with fans that they remade it to work on multiple operating systems and improved the sound and graphics.

Basic idea of the story is that you were born in a research base and now all grown up and with a prototype spaceship you set off to earth to find out why there has been no contact with them for a long while.

The game has a kind of multiple choice dialogue system and combat is like asteriods.

Can be downloaded for free from The Ur-Quan Masters - Downloads

 

[Jan van Leyden]

I may select only one game? Then my vote goes to:

Pirates

Ah, spending endless time sailing the Caribbean, deciding on a whim whether to hunt for ships, searching for treasures or long-lost relatives, sacking towns, wooing the governors' daughters, distributing the plunder and waiting for release from gaol, hoping that the old crew still believes in you.

 

[Askaval30]

Planescape Torment

Only game that is truly moving on so many levels...

 

[Joker]

Half Life and its sequels.

 

[jonesy]

If you're looking for strategy games check out Battlezone 1 & 2, and M.A.X: Mechanized Assault and Exploration.

Battlezone 1998 is free, and works on most Windows systems without any tweaking. It's the best real time strategy game I've played. It's also one of the best first person shooters.

The sequel is pretty good too.

M.A.X. is the greatest turn based strategy game, but only if you have a friend to play hot-seat with. As a singleplayer it's pretty good, but nothing special.

 

[CuRoi]

The obvious yet oddly not mentioned yet - Oblivion

Yeah, I've been playing computer games since Pong and I'm a big fan of many of the games mentioned above, but as an avid RPer, the entire Elder Scrolls series just gets it right for solo RPGs. (Of course, I'm at the gaming table with friends if given a choice!)

Other favorites which I'd have on my "Top 10...err 12" list based on countless hours "wasted" on them:

Ultima 3
Warcraft (not "World of")
Starcraft
Wizardry
Railroad Tycoon
Civ series
Gold Box DnD (Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds)
Unreal
Quake
Half Life (and the original Wasteland)
Diablo
Pirates

 

[Felon]

X-Com UFO Defense is the pinnacle of computer gaming.

That was a game about constant surprises and exploration. I remember how awed I was the firs time I blindly toss a grenade into a cornfield. The field actually caught fire, and it shed light that revealed the alien, and then the next turn the fire spread and burned the alien to death. You just couldn't take any of that for granted back then.

And then there was when I first discovered that with a little firepower and persistence that it was actually possible to blow in the alien ships rather than enter through the front door.

And then there was the first time my base was invaded. I couldn't believe that the aliens were actually allowed to put me on the defensive like that.

 

[darkwing]

I've played a lot of games, but the one I never get tired of is Team Fortress 2.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Probably Civ II, but I'd also consider Baldur's Gate II and Fallout II (why is the second one always the best one?).

 

[Merkuri]

(why is the second one always the best one?).

Once they've realized the first one is popular, they spend time to improve on it with the second. It's the opposite of movies, where often the second one is just hacked out as cheaply as possible to just ride on the popularity of the first.

Lots of these that people have mentioned are some of my favs, too, like Half-Life, the Civilization series (though I actually find Civ IV my fav so far), the Warcraft/Starcraft series, Planescape: Torment, Baldur's Gate I and II.

For older games, I used to love playing the Quest for Glory games. I think they were the first true cRPGs I ever played. (We had a copy of the original "Hero Quest" before Sierra changed the name and only found out it was selling for tons on eBay after we sold it for a couple bucks at a garage sale.) Wing Commander will always hold a special place in my heart because it was the first game I ever played by myself (as opposed to watching my father play games). And I can't forget Wolfenstein 3D and the original Doom. My sister and I used to watch my father play those when I was a kid, and my mom used to poke her head in the room and laugh because all three of us were leaning to the side, trying to see around a corner.

Back to more modern games, I logged hours and hours on Oblivion and Morrowind (though sadly I have actually not finished the main plot in either). I think I played Prince of Persia: Sands of Time three or four times. That was the only game I've ever played twice back-to-back (I loved it so much that when I finished it I couldn't accept it was done so I played it again, even though it's completely linear and has almost no replay value). And right now I can't stop playing Dragon Age: Origins. (Bioware really knows how to do a single-player cRPG.)