Well, Prince of Persia Sands of Time was unique and really playable in a completely different way than most games were when it came out. And I still have my copy and load it into my 360 from time to time.
But...I think I logged more hours playing Morrowind. And I'm a stealth fan! RPGs aren't really my thing, at least not as video games. But the game hit the right notes of character development, unique open world, and intuitive leveling. My issue with most RPGs is that you can design a character with a spread of skills, and many of those skills are useless in game mode, leading to an unbalanced an unwieldy character until it gets to the point you either start over or quit. But I never ran into that problem with Morrowind. I'd like to think I had just reached the point where I instinctively knew how to create the perfect character for any RPG, but realistically I think it's just because Morrowind was really adept at catering to a variety of styles. No clumsiness at handling stealth, melee, ranged, or magic-based character as seen in so many other titles. And the skills were all pretty useful (well, except Mercantile, but that skill has never been useful in the history of RPGs and if you don't know that now, you haven't played enough of them). So anyway, I loved Morrowind, but the commitment-phobe in me has difficulty calling it the best. Without Baldur's Gate, for instance, there would have been no Morrowind. And Baldur's Gate was a great game in its time, though nowadays we'd just look upon the graphics and chuckle into our chocolate milk. Best game ever? Perhaps through nostalgia-filters, but if you took a real hard look at it, you just can't make a great case.
So all in all I throw my hands up in the air and refuse to commit. This is why I'll never get married.
