[Loser]

Duke Nukem 3D was a game I came back to again and again. I can remember staying up waaay too late, Duke Matching against my roommates, listening to Straus (the waltz seemed to be perfect for death match, still is).

Duke Nukem was eventually replaced by Unreal Tournament as my favorite FPS (I never did get into Team Fortress or the 'classed' FPS spawn that followed it).

Civ kept me up all night, later Civ II and MoO II, then SMAC/X, now SE IV. But I never played them for more than a few months. The thing was, after staying away from them for a few more months, I could come back to them with the same zeal I felt for them at their best.

Diablo was followed by Diablo II and then LoD, which I still play on Bnet every now and then.

WarCraft, WC II, StarCraft, Dungeon Keeper, DK II, Shogun Total War; I still go back to SC BW, Shogun TW, and DK II. They're still great games.

Descent, Descent II, those stood by themselves for me only because I haven't the head for flight sims (can't reason/track/do much of anything in three dimensions...)

Homeworld was an incredibly beautiful game, but I was only barely good enough to beat the single player campaign. I still come back to it, though.

The AvP Marine demo scared the snot out of me, and so did the game (excellent use of darkness!).

The Sims was a great game to play games with, probably the best ever. It amazed me when it came out, but I haven't been too keen on going back to it.

You're right, though. It's been a while since a new game completely blew me away. That's a real shame, because millions of dollars are being funneled into the gaming industry.

Downright unacceptable...

Either we've been missing out on the real kickass games or the whole industry has gone downhill. If anyone knows of a truly great game that went unmentioned, or came out recently, please speak up.