The orginal stronghold is a great example of a single played RTS.

DK country series is a good example of a side scroller with 3d graphics.

Kingdom hearts is a nice example of skill based stat building battles, in real time, and how AI can be commanded.

OH MY GOD, I'm going to EXPLODE looking at this list.

First of all, add "Star Reach" to Real Time Strategy, it's a must play for designers.

Second, where is Final Fantasy 3/6 on the RPG list, its inarguably one of the best games of all time, sporting an awesome mix of gameplay and story. What about other extraordinary SNES RPGs/action RPGs like Seiken Densetsu 3 / Secret of Mana 2, Tales of Phantasia, etc. Those games with their pixelated characters sport design that makes them a lot more fun than most of the games coming out today.

FALLOUT 1/2????

Settlers?!?!?

Battle Realms is another RTS game that is worthy in terms of unique design and balance (multiplayer setup)

MAGIC THE GATHERING!?!?

DUNGEONS AND DRAGONSN!?!?!?!?!?!?

The FPS list is also missing TRIBES, and it's predecessor: STARSIEGE

.... seirously, i'm about to explode

You guys judging from most of your lists, you guys have the most hyped games with the most repeditive play.

For shits sake guys, Star Craft was bad.

Here is my list in no particular order.

Total Annihalation
Half-life (the orginal)
Total War (midevil and rome, shogun was pretty bad)
Dues Ex
Grand Theft Auto (the orginal)
Civilization: Call to Power (yes the activision one, ctp2 was made by difrent team and really bad, civ1 was copy of countless empire games before it and civ2 was civ1 with better graphics, civ3 is really bad and 4 is looking that way to)

Warning, going to be quite retro-based...

Forbidden Forest (C64) - birth of the horror action genre
Karateka (C64, others) - forefather of Prince of Persia, birth of cinematic storytelling in games
Turrican I & II (C64/Amiga) - huge platform level exploration, bonuses/secrets
Turrican III (Amiga/Genesis) - ...and how to wreck that formula + include a cute manga girl
The Secret Of Monkey Island (PC/Amiga/ST) - adventure, characters, humor + you don't necessarily need to die or get stuck
Kirby's Adventure (NES) - the powers, efficient inclusion of secrets in a basically linear game
Kirby's Dreamland 3 (SNES) - emotional bonding with NPCs (well, animal friends) without any words
Ultima Underworld I & II (PC) - amazing variety of interaction in the gameworld
Deus Ex (PC) - systematic & varied methods of storytelling, while not really using cutscenes
Operation Flashpoint (PC) - how to take no shortcuts (in how many other games can you for example ride a car either as a driver or passenger and look around you, with body awareness and all)

hi all
OK, here's my list (or lists, better yet)
The Best RPGs (in no order)

D&D (tabletop) - because it's the first and the rpg industrial standard

KOTOR II - the best RPG+action hybrid (in that order)

Deus Ex (the first one) - the best FPS+RPG hybrid (geez, maybe even the only successful ?)

Divine Divinity - ah yes, it's hack'n'slash with cool story development and also the giant world

Ultima series (VIII especially) - the freedom of action and the loads of activities, also the npc system

Morrowind - the big and seamless (and dead %P) world

Gothic - the atmosphere and also the big world

Arcanum - the crafting system

Other Great Games

Starcraft - the best RTS ever! Great 3-race system, great story, KISS (already mentioned) etc

Flatout - the best racing sim. The physics system is so spectacular

Unreal Tournament 2004 - the best MP tournament game in terms of simulation and available weapons, also the best engine in terms of graphics+customization
Battlecity - you talk about consoles and don't mention this one? My personal favorite even in these ultramodern days.

PoP - the great fighting system combined with 3D arcade action and fun level design. Unfortunately VERY hard to beat (at least for me)

Quake I and II - great engine, great graphics for the moment, the awesome atmosphere (which was ruined in III Arena to my mind)

Earthworm Jim (all) - for my psycho side of mind, the funniest and craziest games! also cool level design

Zelda 3D - best console issue for Action RPGs! Great story and pretty cool arcade action

Even though it's been said already, go _definitely_ needs to be played if you're only familiar with chess and checkers. I'm not sure if it's the same around other parts of the US, but I had never even heard of go until recently, whereas I was very familiar with chess/checkers.

you people are missing the best snes rpg out which still stands as one of the best today. Secret of Mana hands down.

Super Mario 1
Super Mario 64
Half-Life
Lemmings
Total Annihilation
Pacman
The Incredible Machine
Quake
Everquest
A Final Fantasy

Tetris
Baldur's Gate
Starcraft
Final Fantasy Tactics
Guilty Gear X
Realms of Despair (old MUD)
The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Super Mario Bros 3
EarthBound

EarthBound is probably the most important game to me on the list. It's combination of humour, character design and well written dialogue has motivated me to play through it at least half a dozen times. The gameplay may be simplistic, but it is pure bliss on the creative side.

While we're all at it, don't forget to pay homage to the great old games that started them all.

Monkey Island series(the first 2 of the Monkey Island series at least) - really opened up the market for things to come, like Day of the Tentacles, Full Throttle, etc. The first PC game I played that made me laugh and fall out of my chair. Of course, then we have to mention Maniac Mansion as well, but Monkey Island really made things fun. Not to mention the developers had alot of fun with acronyms.

Descent (the original) - while everyone was drooling over Doom 1 and 2, Descent silently sneaked in and knocked the socks off of anyone who gave it a chance. I read that an editor at PC Gamer Magazine actually hurled due to motion sickness while trying to review it, how cool is that. Still, good things never last and the truly 3D freedom FPS games just kind of fell off the radar and Quake paved the way for the current large FPS market.

I'm amazed someone mentioned Star Control 2. You have my vote.

X-Com is a must on the list with its relentless'y tough game play. The only reason I ever came close to actually beating it was because I modified my save games to give myself more resources. :|

But overall, everyone made great points.