The Top 30 are ranked, the runner-ups listed alphabetically.
Eligibility: Released on PS2, GameCube, Xbox, Dreamcast or Game Boy Advance. Released on PC/Arcade during 2000-2005 in the US.
Noticeably missing because I haven't played them (much): Vampire Bloodlines, Ninja Gaiden Black, Silent Hill 2, Okami, Arcanum, Psychonauts... I don't have much nostalgia for this era, but there's a pretty deep rabbit hole of games I could go down if I wanted to.
Vice City sharing the slot. I never played San Andreas.
The best old-school multiplayer deathmatch game I've played. If I ever wanted to go back to that genre, this is the game I'd load up.
I bought it right after getting laid off, played it constantly until I nearly broke my wrist, then quit after my free month was over. I can't go back, but I had a hell of a good time.
God, I loved that Wake Island map. Battlefield was much better when it wasn't so grimdark with the bad techno music and such.
I knew a crew of people who took this game very seriously. I was only OK, but its probably the most I've ever gotten invested in a fighting game.
Some people think this is a timeless classic... I think it was a solid follow-up to the original. Still, I fucking loved it at the time.
People tend to prefer Civ 4 and especially Civ 5, but Civ 3 was the one I've spent the most time playing.
I came to this mad late, it holds up!
Max Payne 1 & 2 sharing the slot.
God of War 1 & 2 sharing the slot.
It probably doesn't hold up at all, and is rendered totally obsolete by Hitman 2016... But I played the hell out of this, working my butt off to get Silent Assassin ratings on damn near every level and difficulty. It was so cool at the time.
I had a crew that would play this on the college LAN fairly often. There were a lot of cool mods on Battle.net too.
This was apparently a bad Thief game, and I'm not supposed to like it? I don't care, I really enjoyed it at the time. In particular, "The Cradle" level is a masterpiece of atmosphere and environmental storytelling.
That multiplayer demo was so fucking addictive, I loved calling in those airstrikes. I didn't play the retail game nearly as much for whatever reason.
I rented this back in the day and really enjoyed it, but the sequels never appealed to me for some reason. It was a great little sandbox with a story that could branch in a multitude of different ways. That initial encounter at the bridge can have at least four different outcomes right off the bat. Each playthrough took only 1-2 hours so it was compulsively replayable.
I really want another one of these :-(
Come on Sega :-(
These runner-ups are listed in alphabetical order
Better than Hitman 2, but I played it much later so it wasn't as impactful. Also, its rendered largely obsolete by Hitman 2016.
I was a BEAST at this game!
Very cool and atmospheric at the time, I doubt it holds up.
