Oh - tough one. Particularly as I've been playing games for a long time...
But, thinking about the ones that made a big impression, I can get it down to the following (in no ranking order):
a) Elite - it gave you the galaxy with less memory than it now takes to render a single brick
b) Doom/Doom 2 - it gave you amazing sorta 3D with amazing action and wow, what's this cooperative / multiplayer thing?
c) ICO / SOTC - perfection. Everything fits, everything is exact, nothing is superflous, two games out of a very small selection that are both great games and could be argued as works of art as well
d) System Shock 2 - just nudges number 1 for me as Shodan was even better fun in this one, and had a brilliant enterance. Scary as hell, realistic ship, inteligent story, big twists, count me in
e) Silent Hill 2 - Really disturbing, and all the more so as you start to pick up on the clues, the underlying physiological themes emerge, and you start to wonder how much you can know anyone, including your protagonist
f) Deus Ex – finally, someone took the Unreal engine and put a story with real depth and great settings together for me to enjoy. I can now wander around my headquarters chatting, the world doesn’t consist of just me and the enemy, an intricate plot needs to be slowly unravelled, and nothing must be trusted in the end, except your own judgement
g) Space Invaders / Tetris - perfection again - simple, addictive, the originals (it worries me to think how much time I invested in these two long ago, but at least I was having fun)
Try to be reasonable... its easier than you think...
