6th for me, nothing beats the PS2 and Dreamcast. For me it goes 6th, 4th, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 1st.

4th or 6th gen.

Its going down the shitter, yes, and I expected as much. Funny thing is; I'll be a lot closer on all accounts than our "prophet" JL...

3rd, 4th or 5th.

3rd because the nes was the first console that really got me into gaming back in 1989 at 8 years old, its kinda my fav ever system. I remember playing so many great games. some of which in hindsight weren't so great. A good example would be TMNT. Check out the AVGN review and you'll understand what i mean:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=XjUz8IT0CYg
Of course we all know the nes had a lot of killer games to and started a lot of franchises we still play and love today. The sega master system was pretty cool to, but nothing compared to the dominance of the nes.

4th generation because it built and improved on the 3rd gen so well. A lot of games from this generation have aged extremely well, some a lot better than games from the 5th generation. Tomb raider 1 looks awful today yet, sonic, street fighter, chrono trigger and donkey kong country etc still look solid. This generation was the peak of 2d gaming and many of the best games ever live here.

5th generation because it completely changed the way we played games. amazing 3d worlds and great interactive stories. who could forget their first experience of mario in 3d, the dog jumping through the window in resi evil, walking out on hyrule field, riding waves in waverace 64, zooming in with the sniper rifle on goldeneye or psycho mantis reading your memory card. truly amazing stuff, i think everything since then has been more of the same just with prettier graphics.

All 3 of these generations imo were amazing. nothing i have played since has even come close. my favourite game in any genre is in one of these generations. the 6th generation was very poor i thought, everything i played was just a poor update of a 5th gen gem imo. eg metal gear solid 2 or super mario sunshine. the 7th gen is already above that gen just for xbl and the wii alone, but is way behind my elite 3.

Picking only 1 out id have to go for the 3rd generation. My reason is probably childhood innocence. reviews, release schedules or one system being better than another didn't matter. As bad as it was i really had fun playing TNMT, whereas today id ignore something like godfather or the simpsons game for not being AAA. the fact that little to no 3rd parties supported the master system didn't matter, look how we all bitch over the wii support.

like monkeyman40210 said its pretty much all about the 90s, Hmm......... when i was a young kid/teenager.
I wonder if thats a common thing? funny how games became less interesting and important once girls come on the scene.

this generation...gears is so good.

I bought so many PS1 and N64 games that it wasn't even funny! I think the 6th gen was even worse. I was buying EVERYTHING. Still, my heart is with the 16-bit era. It was great!

I would have to say that the 4th gen was my favorite. I did buy into the 5th gen with a playstation but really at that point I was already more into PC gaming than console anymore.

Fifth generation. The quality of games from Nintendo was so much better then.

My Favorite Generation?
This one.

It's all about immersion baby!

Virtual reality is getting closer with each generation.
Technology brings realistic atmosphere.
Immersive experience.

Fifth generation. Final Fantasy VII, Ocarina of Time, and Majora's Mask completely sealed the deal for me, and they're only the tip of the iceberg.