Gaming excellence.

[Strafe Mcgee]

System Shock 2 is absolutely fantastic, I love that game to bits, but it's not without its flaws. The graphics were severely dated even when it was released, the weapon degradation is really annoying and the ending is a little bit of an anticlimax.

However I've got to say Half-Life 2. For sheer style, innovation, gameplay, originality, intelligence, storyline, character... the game has virtually no faults. It's first person shooter perfection and I love it very very much

Ps: Portal is also perfect

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

System Shock 2 is absolutely fantastic, I love that game to bits, but it's not without its flaws. The graphics were severely dated even when it was released, the weapon degradation is really annoying and the ending is a little bit of an anticlimax.

However I've got to say Half-Life 2. For sheer style, innovation, gameplay, originality, intelligence, storyline, character... the game has virtually no faults. It's first person shooter perfection and I love it very very much

Ps: Portal is also perfect

They have a mod out to upgrade the graphics of SS2. forget the name of it, though.

 

[Ricky_Rio]

don't get me started on "skies of arcadia"

Epic game it was
(talk like yoda i must)

 

[werepossum]

These are the closest I've seen, for my tastes. Probably F.E.A.R. was the best, but if I had to pick only one it would be CSS, not even close.

Shadow Warrior, for its day. You've got shuriken, a katana, dual-wielded Uzi submachine guns, and attitude! Environments are reasonably varied, enemies are varied and (for its day) smart, and there are numerous distractions. Unfortunately it's DOS-only. You tiny grasshopper!

Aliens versus Predator 2. Varied and interesting action, and more tension than any game I've played.

F.E.A.R. Probably the best single-player shooter I've played, with the possible exception of AVP2. The supernatural is creepy (although not scary), and the action is iincredibly fast.

Call of Duty. The pacing on all COD games is incredible, and it's ability to make you feel part of a larger force whilst still being integral and irreplaceable to the effort is second to no other.

And CounterStrike: Source. It has a large available number of attractive and interesting maps with more being added all the time (and free!), and offers anything from human-on-human multiplayer to time-killing and satisfying bot action. Whichever you choose, the action's frantic.

 

[hailmagus]

don't get me started on "skies of arcadia"

Epic game it was
(talk like yoda i must)

see, there/s somebody out there that feels me

 

[The Potato Lord]

Probably going out on a limb here but I'm gonna say Fable.
It accomplished exactly what i expected not what Mr.M promised
It was fun without having an unrelentingly hard section or being too easy.

 

[bulletproof12]

shadowrun, i dont care about singleplayer, i love multplayer.
and who the hell doesnt want to teleport through a wall with a already warmed up minigun.

 

[Hanji]

I hear Portal takes approximately three hours to beat. Although insubstantiality can technically be argued as a form of perfection, it seems a bit unfair to games twenty times as long that do not sacrifice game play. Unfortunately, that argument makes me yield the nomination of Heavenly Sword to eschew any hypocrisy. Anyway;

Final Fantasy X

It was absolutely perfect in every way. It had an interesting and twisted story that indulged emotion without too much angst, it perfected the turn-based formula, and it had an immense amount of completely accessible and useful content (as opposed to the esoteric extras so common today). I will always have an alternative fondness for VIII, but I think that's just because it was one of my first groundbreaking games.

 

[ArmTheBomb]

Well for starters, The Legend of Zelda: The Majora's mask. Sure the whole " 3 days till you get crushed" concept wasn't the best idea but I really loved the assortment of masks and how fun it was to use them.( fierce deity PWNS) I also enjoyed Call of duty 4's campaign. It drew me in and kept me there till the end. (Gaz, Sgt. Griggs and Cpt. Price die? lame...) It had a great mix of gameplay and story rolled into one sweet tootise roll.

 

[darthzack79]

Resident Evil 4 is nearly perfect in my opinion...survival horror's always been on the backburner for me but RE4 mixes thrills with action and (to an extent) puzzles so seamlessly. Not to mention that the knife-fight with Krauser is basically the most bad ass you can ever feel while playing a game.

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

Probably going out on a limb here but I'm gonna say Fable.
It accomplished exactly what i expected not what Mr.M promised
It was fun without having an unrelentingly hard section or being too easy.

*Agrees*

 

[Sylocat]

Dang, someone mentioned Majora's Mask before I could! HOW DARE YOU... just kidding. ;-)

Anyway, here's a few examples:

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars ? I think that until Kingdom Hearts came along, this was the closest Square ever got to making an "action" RPG. It kept the turn-based combat of the FF series, but tossed in the element of Timed Hits, an excellent and actually quite intuitive system that rewarded actual skill at action gaming. Not to mention the overworld exploration was a platformer, rather than a grind, with some interesting puzzles to solve and more action than any other Square RPG I can name (again, until Kingdom Hearts).
Oh, and the story is great, this game features some of the greatest guest characters (especially the new villains) in Mario history (name one other character in the history of video games even MORE insane than Booster). And for a mute sprite with only a handful of poses, Mario's character in this game manages to be gleefully expressive.
This is getting kind of long, so maybe I should head over to the User Reviews forums and make my "debut" there. This is just the essentials.

 

[sammyfreak]

TF2 and the HL2 episodes. Neither are my absolute favorites but they are as close to flawless as you get before Portals.

 

[Cooper42]

Perfect?

That's really difficult.

I would probably have to go right back.

Asteroids? It's just pure gameplay, nothing else - and the gameplay is good.

Which is kinda why Portal worked - just pure gameplay, and it was novel and fresh and very well presented.

The first serious sam games were like that too - pure arcade-y fps gameplay plus a bit of tongue-in-cheek.

The early wipeouts too, they were just pure, condensed, techno fun.

Many games are good, but perfect is difficult - most games have faults. I always prefer it if gameplay comes first, and is done well (even if not very polished). Graphics, story, audio etc. all come secondary to good gampleay. Not to say that they're unimportant, but I'd rather a plot-free arcade game that does something fun than yet another run-of-the-mill FPS with a new story and pretty pictures attached.

 

[boc407]

Deus Ex. Ive still got to find a game with that level of quality. Great storyline, gameplay and a fantastic of several genres.

 

[calsipher]

tetris ftw

 

[calsipher]

no wait the monkey island series they rock the socks so hard

 

[AspenSubie]

The God of War series really impressed me. I honestly could not put those games down, they were so much fun and the story so enthralling. Resident Evil 4 comes to mind as well, and Super Smash Bro.