4. Mass Effect 2 (PC, also on 360 & PS3)

Another sequel where the original doesn't make the list but the sequel is ridiculously high up! Mass Effect 1 was good, but was plagued with poor shooting mechanics, a clunky RPG interface and some rather horrible bugs. ME2 fixed all that and then refined the experience to become more of a shooter/RPG hybrid than an RPG with tacked on shooter controls. Guess what? It worked brilliantly. 

Rather than focus on weapon customisation and RPG-levelling, the RPG focus was shifted more towards character development and story-telling that helped to bring the player into the Mass Effect universe. The shooting elements were also changed so reloading and ammo conservation now became important. Gone were the numerous bugs that plagued the original. All these aspect, when combined together produced one of the best RPG/shooter hybrids on the market. 

The characters were some of the most intriguing seen in a video game. Mordin was brilliant and hilarious, Thane was deep and philosophical with Miranda loyal and ideological (it also helped that Yvonne Strahovski from Chuck was in the game). However, summing up these characters in a couple of words doesn't really do them justice. The vast majority of missions were based on the characters as you built your team and new layers were added as you did each mission. Discovering motivations and each characters personal story, as well as managing interactions between crew members were all part of what makes this game so amazing. The main story itself was actually relatively simplistic, but the smaller character stories were what made the game. Mass Effect 3 improved on the mechanics from this game, but I placed it lower because the hub areas, the missions and the characters in ME2 have an extra lavel of polish, thought and refinement that seems to be absent from 3. 

Add into the mix that all the decisions you made in ME1 are carried over to ME2 and you get a truly great RPG experience.

3. Deus Ex: Human Revolution (PC, also on PS3 & 360)

The prequel to the highly acclaimed Deus Ex, this really could have gone either way (especially after the disappointing sequel Invisible War which is still just outside my Top 50). Fortunately, the devs took everything good from Deus Ex, but rather than make a pure carbon copy they also added their own inventive spin on the stealth, story and art style. Very few games manage to blend the genres of shooter, stealth and RPG so brilliantly.

For the most part, the gameplay was pure Deus Ex. Every quest and level had multiple paths and methods for completion. You need to get into the police station. Do you hack through a terminal? Sneak through the vents? Use one of your augmentations? Smooth talk your way through the front? Go in guns blazing? Or perhaps kill all the civilians and pile their bodies up to get access to the fire escape?! The possibilities were virtually endless. You played the game at your own pace and tailored the experience to your own play style.

The futuristic setting was incredibly detailed and brilliantly realised. The science was actually handled incredibly well and you could see a huge amount of research was done to ensure the setting was as realistic as possible whilst still being fun. It also helped the storyline which was far more mature than the vast majority of video games (and most Hollywood films for that matter). Rather than go for the typical action Sci-Fi story of most video games or going heavy on conspiracy theories like the original, they went for a more personal and philosophical approach by questioning what it is to be human. Very few games manage to pull off a story of this nature so successfully and still make the game fun. 

The new additions were generally good. The stealth cover system was actually brilliant and the new third person perspective added to the game rather than ruining immersion as I'd originally feared. The art style obviously had a lot of thought and looked stunning in all its renaissance, cyber punk glory.

However, the game did have a few faults that stopped it from getting the top spot. The first has since been rectified in the Director's Cut edition but was the use of compulsory and linear boss fights. This was in complete contrast to the rest of the game, but the boss fights are now more in keeping with the rest of the game. The Director's Cut also included the masterful Missing Link DLC which is a great addition to the game and presents an extra perspective on the story. The one thing the Director's cut didn't improve on was the ending which felt rushed and the final choices felt a little cheap. Even with these faults, it still manages to blend so many great elements of FPS, TPstealth and RPG genres so incredibly well that it's my third fave game of all time.

2. Half-Life 2 + Eps 1 &2 (PC, also on X-box and in Orange box on 360 & PS3)

Sequel to what is probably the most innovative FPS to ever grace the market, Half-Life 2 had a lot to live up to but boy did it deliver. When released, the animations were some of the best ever seen, the graphics were superb even on a low spec PC, the physics implementation was revolutionary, the characters felt real, the battles were suitably epic in scale and it introduced the superb concept of the gravity based weapon.

Much like the original, HL2 maintained the immersion by sticking to the first-person perspective. As the silent protagonist Gordon Freeman, you had the chance to let your imagination place your own persona into the image of Gordon Freeman. However, Valve took this concept and blew it out of the water with its dystopian setting and storytelling. Hidden extras in the world reveal tit-bits of info on the story and events leading up to HL2 plus  potential events in future games. You are always Gordon Freeman, so when/if you miss them, Gordon misses them. Control of Gordon's movements is always with the player, so when Gordon's physical abilities are impaired, the feeling of being powerless is amplified. This is done well near the end of HL2 but utilised expertly throughout Episode 2. 

Another factor that I think is often overlooked is the acting and animations of the characters. In most games, the acting is terrible and the characters feel like they're just generic plot devices. In HL2, the characters actually engage in real life actions. The actions of Alyx are where this is most apparent. Yes she's with you (or Gordon) and talking to you through large segments with good animation, but also little details like when she's teleported to her father's lab and she smiles and gives him a kiss on the cheek. Easily missed, but little details like this help to breathe life into the characters.

I haven't even mentioned the superb game design Valve implement where early on they allow you to explore an area to get the lay of the land before entering a gun fight. Or the immense battles vs soldiers and gunships on dystopian rooftops closely followed by mass battles with striders. Or the well paced vehicle sections where just as they start to get boring, you move onto something else. Or the little puzzle sections that give you breathing room from all the action. Or the brilliant implementation of physics as a gameplay mechanic with the gravity gun brought into full glory in the creepy Ravenholm. Or the ant lion section where you control the beasts and use them to attack your enemies. The sheer variety and depth in the game is epic in every sense of the word. No other pure FPS does what Half-Life 2 manages in a single package. 

Add to all this the fact that Valve are continually updating the Source engine and many little improvements are seemingly retrofitted into Half-Life 2 and Eps 1 & 2, and you get the greatest FPS single-player package on the planet.

1. Deus Ex (PC, also on PS2) 

So, finally we reach number 1, although anyone who looked at last years list, this should be pretty obvious. This is quite simply the greatest game ever created! So many different play-styles, so many different decision trees, and a fantastic story to boot. If you like FPS or you like RPGs (even better if you like both!), this game has to be played. The tech may be old, but the story and the gameplay are timeless.

Set in a cyber punk world (set in the not too distant future) where a wide array of hidden political groups, terrorist factions, freedom fighters and advanced computer AI are all vying for for their ideological future. You play JC Denton, a new nano-augmented agent for anti-terrorist organisation UNATCO. The first level shoves you in the deep end and immediately sets the tone for the rest of the game. You enter the docks to find terrorists have attacked the base to steal the months supply of a vaccine for a global plague. You're tasked with finding the terrorist leader (alive). Immediately, your brother (a fellow agent) gives you the option of which weapon you want to carry: crossbow, sniper rifle or RPG.

You then have multiple options; Do you use stealth and sneak around? Do you go to the other side of the island and meet with the contact for the key to the front door? Do you pick the lock? Do you find a back way in? Do you hack the security systems and disable the cameras? Do you make for the ammo caches first? Do you go in guns blazing or silently take them down? Do you kill your enemies or just stun them? Do you avoid them alltogether? Do you bother with the secondary objective and save the captured agent or just leave him? If you do rescue him do you give him a gun? When you reach your final objective do you follow orders or outright kill him?

All those decisions are on the first level and can have an immediate effect on the way other characters interact with you. In the future, the choices you make have serious repercussions on the characters around you including whether they live or die. The repercussions aren't always clear-cut either. Whether your pilot Jock lives at the end of the game is based solely on your curiosity rather than a clear positive/negative decision tree seen in most RPGs. All these decision trees and the detail in the world (you can drink and eat food, read newspapers, hack computers to read e-mails, get drunk/high etc.) make this game deeply immersive.

In fact, the game is so ridiculously immersive to the point of embarrassment for me. I actually mistook the beeping of a stopwatch (in real life) for the sound the explosives make when they're about to go off and dived into the opposite room. Luckily, no-one saw, but yeah...

I haven't even talked about the story yet. The storyline is one of the best in video games history. A deep and involving plot that combines political intrigue, conspiracy and advanced science into one amazing package. What's so extraordinary is that it manages to retain an excellent storyline whilst still giving the player such huge freedom and choice. Only a select few games have ever acheived this, and I can't think of one that had as much choice as that offered in Deus Ex.

Add to all this the variety of weapons that included a measly batton/knife, grenades (EMP, gas, explosive), assault rifles, shotguns, RPGs, sniper rifles and massive energy weapons, plus all the different nano augmentations (enhancements) that included invisibility to either bots or organics, healing, super speed, spy bots, balistic protection plus visual enhancements, and you get an amazing package.

A Deus Ex prequel in Human Revolution made it to number 3, but even with the new graphics, the level of immersion is still slightly lacking by comparison as there is just a ridiculous amount of interaction with the world in the original. That and it had silly boss fights (ignoring the Director's Cut) whereas the orginals boss fights still played out with multiple paths in mind. There were 3 different points you could fight Anna Navarre depending on player decisions for instance.

So the game was perfect in single player, many will complain the multiplayer wasn't that good. I entered the multiplayer with this in mind but have to say, I found it thoroughly enjoyable. The sheer variety of weapons and nano-augmentations kept it fresh, different and was actually a lot of fun. Basically, this game is incredible, and if you haven't played it, you owe it to yourself to give this a go. Oh and it also predicts the future as it predicted 9/11 a year before it happened! Play this game for a view into our future! If you can't stand the old school graphics then there's a High Def texture pack(s)/graphics mod for it:

http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-nameless-mod/tutorials/improving-deus-exs-graphics-with-mods

So glad to see love for Deus Ex

And that's me done!

Well done to everyone who guessed correctly and apologies for the long descriptions. A lot of these have been from the first year we did this and I've been adding to them since. Maybe next year I'll tone it down

Oh lots of love for Deus Ex!

Actually, my fiancee bought me this game for our first Christmas together so love on two different levels!

OK, that sounds kinda dodgy...

#3 - Close. Didn't know those weapons were in other Final Fantasy games.

#2 - Spot on, well done.

#1 - Stick a GOLDEN on the end of that and you're good to go.

#3 - Well done.

#2 - Nope, but good guess with the rail gun mention.

#1 - Oh hell naw.

might as weel put the rest up today

Oh! Then I know it! Or at least, there's only one game I know where you get cake in the end. Super Mario 64!