Honorable Mentions

Starcraft is, without a doubt, the most influential real-time strategy game ever. It is an extremely balanced game that still continues to be played to this day, despite being released over a decade ago (in 1998). Heck, it is actually a national sport in South Korea, with professional Starcraft players as well-paid and well-publicized as other professional sports players. It is an epic struggle between the mighty Protoss, the innumerable Zerg, and the upstart Terrans in an epic war over limited resources. Unlike so many other real-time strategy games, each race is unique and balanced, meaning that playing one race will not permit the same tactics as another race. Although it does not look great now, its graphics at the time were astounding, offering a 3-D view without resorting to lag or screen-tears. It could even be said that Starcraft popularized and developed the concepts of micromanagement and macromanagement in all real-time strategy games. Blizzard Entertainment did itself proud with this one despite their already great history of producing quality games. They recently announced a sequel to Starcraft, and there was much rejoicing among their fans.

I have a large bone to pick with games based on licensed properties, but this one is not one of them. Star Wars: Republic Commando puts you in charge of a squadron of elite Clone troopers during the Clone Wars. It is a squad-based first-person shooter, and it is perhaps the first one that I have really taken notice to. The squad AI is actually competent and they listen to your commands, and they have a tendency to try to survive rather than die! That's an automatic win in my books, because, even in this modern era of gaming, there are a ludicrous number of these types of games where the AI works against you. This game also offers great voice-work that adds personality to your compatriots, as well as some of the coolest weapons you've ever seen in a Star Wars games. Sadly, there are no lightsabres, but, come on, aren't you all sick of Jedi already? Give exploding robots and gritty characters a chance! Also unique to the game are its tie-in novels, which are positively reviewed. In all, this is a refreshing game that I think deserves a lot more publicity.

Based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft, Eternal Darkness is a psychological horror game that is about a group of select individuals throughout the ages. Your main protagonist is Alexandra Rovias who, due to supernatural circumstances, must read the Tome of Eternal Darkness and re-live the lives of those who had to suffer for it. Long story short, you are fighting an ancient and powerful eldritch horror who is gunning for you. The sense of powerlessness is amazingly pervasive throughout the entire game, causing you to actually worry and fear for the characters you play. Besides offering many unique stories from the eyes of different characters, Eternal Darkness offers many creative "insanity effects" for your characters as the game goes on. These often break the fourth wall and scare the player as well, such as offering the "blue screen of death" if you try to save the game or screwing around with volume. The developers must have had some people who were actually insane to program such effects so effectively. It is an interesting experience that no other game has emulated, and I recommend it to anyone who loves a good scare.

Earth Defense Force 2017 is a game where you need to tell your brain to quit complaining about logical fallacies. Once you do that, this game will show you a really good time. Earth Defense Force 2017 is about a military group fighting off the Ravagers, a group of extraterrestrial invaders. The entire concept is based around old Japanese science-fiction movies being dubbed into English, the most famous being Godzilla. Yes, you can expect moronic citizens and idiot comrades getting in your way, really cheesy lines, and some really over-the-top monsters. But you know what? That's its appeal; it purposefully throws so many groan-worthy items at you that you can't help but laugh. The gameplay is definitely more old-school, where you can collect weapons and upgrade your health with item drops from defeated monsters. There are over 150 different weapons to collect in the game, as well as 6 different vehicles to pilot. With 5 difficulty settings, 53 levels, and a really fun cooperative mode, you can bet your britches that this game will be absolutely addicting.

This, dear reader, is the grand-daddy of tycoon games. Roller Coaster Tycoon popularized an entire genre of games, with its easy-to-use interface and charming visuals. The entire idea of the game is to build theme and maintain theme parks with various stalls, rides, and decoration in order to attract guests and increase revenue. At the time of its release, video games were prominently about destroying things, so a game based solely on the concept of creation immediately caught the eye of the gaming world. It took off, and it has become one of the top-selling games of all time. Even though there were objectives to complete to unlock new parks and items, the game was more or less freeform, allowing you to build your park at your leisure. Like the Sims, though, people usually developed the video game cruelty potential, where they became more and more creative in murdering or torturing the denizens of the game world. Oh well. It's not like it would influence people to do so in the real world, right? Right...?