Mass Effect I-III
[2007-2012]

Mass Effect is an action role-playing game developed by BioWare for the Xbox 360 and then ported to Microsoft Windows by Demiurge Studios. The game takes place in the year 2183, with the player assuming the role of an elite human soldier named Commander Shepard, set out to explore the Galaxy on a starship, the SSV Normandy. In addition to plans for two sequels to complete a trilogy, BioWare plans to release episodic content online to fill in the story between each game, though these episodes are not essential for understanding the main plot line.

Although most of the game's screen shots, advertising cinematics and concept art show the same "default" male Commander Shepard, it is possible for the player to fully customize his or her character's appearance, gender, abilities, and even military background.

Skyrim [2011]

Prototype
[2009]

[HD]
[Trailer]
[Opening]
[Cut-Scene]
[Gameplay]

The game is set in New York City as a virus infects people and the military attempts to put an end to it. The protagonist of the story is named Alex Mercer, who has enemy-absorbing and shapeshifting powers. He can take memories, experiences, biomass and physical forms of enemies through absorption. Alex can also shapeshift into more specialized forms for attack, defense or sensory enhancement. All of these together are intended to give players multiple ways to complete their objectives. Parallel to the game's storyline is the ability to play the game as a sandbox-style video game giving the player the ability to 'free roam' Manhattan.

Dead Island [2011]

Elder Scrolls IV:
Oblivion
[2006]

Oblivion's story revolves around an escaped prisoner and his or her efforts to thwart a plot masterminded by a fanatical cult's scheme involving opening gates to a realm called Oblivion and unleashing its horrors on the mortal world. The game continues the open-ended tradition of previous Elder Scrolls games, allowing the player to travel anywhere in the game world at any time, including the option to ignore or postpone the main storyline indefinitely.

Dragon Age: Origins [2009]

Dragon Age II [2011]

Fallout III
[2008]

Fallout 3 takes place in the year 2277, 36 years after the setting of Fallout 2 and 200 years after the nuclear war between the USA and China that devastated the game's world in an alternate post-World War II timeline. The game places the player in the role of an inhabitant of Vault 101, a survival shelter designed to protect a small number of humans from the nuclear fallout. When the player's father disappears under mysterious circumstances, he is forced to escape from the Vault and journey into the ruins of Washington D.C. to track him down.

Along the way the player is assisted by a number of human survivors and must battle myriad enemies that now inhabit the area now known as the "Capital Wasteland". The game has an attribute and combat system typical of an action role-playing game but also incorporates elements of first-person shooter and survival horror games.

Hellgate: London
[2007]

ATTENTION DIABLO PLAYERS! xD
Made by Flagship Studios - Partly made up of many designers who QUIT Blizzard after it got obsessed with World of Warcraft... So they just started their own studio, and created what is essentially a "Diablo III"

Set in a post-apocalyptic London in the year 2038, Hellgate: London is a fast paced action role playing 'hack and slasher'.

While playing, you can switch between your regular melee weapons to a giant assortment of firearms, which are the ranged weapons in this game. But in a really wonderful innovative tweak from the designers, you have the ability to go into FIRST-PERSON MODE while you have any gun equipped!

- Classes - [Fighters]
Guardians & Blademasters
[Mages]
Summoners & Evokers
[Gun/Tech]
Marksmen & Engineers

Excellent, long game, highly reccomended.

Spore
[2008]

Spore is a multi-genre massively single-player metaverse god game developed by Maxis and designed by Will Wright. Covering many genres including action, real-time strategy and RPG, Spore allows a player to control the development of a species from its beginnings as a microscopic organism, through development as an intelligent and social creature, to interstellar exploration as a spacefaring culture. It has drawn wide attention for its massive scope, and its use of open-ended gameplay and procedural generation. Throughout each stage, players are able to use various creators to produce content for their games.

Sim City 4 Deluxe
[2003]

Includes
"SC4 - Rush Hour"
The game allows players to create a region of land by terraforming, and then to design and build a settlement which can grow into a city. Players can zone different areas of land as commercial, industrial, or residential development, as well as build and maintain public services, transport and utilities. For the success of a city players must manage its finances, environment, and quality of life for its residents.

Dungeon Siege 1+II
[2002-2006]

The first Age of Aranna was ruled by an overlord with absolute control of magic itself, and ended in a cataclysm that consumed both he, and the amassed armies of the rebellion.

In the millenium since that fateful day, the magic has flowed freely to any who would command it, but the tide has finally begun to wane, heeding instead the call of its ancient legacy. From the Plain of Tears a new heir beckons, and with each day his strength grows. Consuming those who submit, eradicating those who resist. With none to oppose his ascendance, the circle will be complete, and an ancient age will begin anew.

Test Drive Unlimited
[2007]

Test Drive Unlimited is an arcade-style racing game, the 9th game of the series that features over 125 incredibly detailed, licensed sports cars and motorcycles and a terrain modeled after the Hawaiian island of Oahu, which features over 1000 miles of roads and highways.

Run amazingly smoothly even on half-decent computers, even with so much detail.

Path of Neo
[2005]

The Matrix: Path of Neo is the third video game based on the Matrix series and the second developed by Shiny Entertainment. Players control the character Neo, playing through and alternating the story to scenes from across the film trilogy. However, In my opinion this is the *only* Matrix game worth playing, much like the only good movie is the first.

At the start of the game, the player is hacker Thomas Anderson, and does not possess any of the powers that the character will later discover as Neo. As the game continues, players learn new skills and techniques, equipping Neo for the final showdown with Agent Smith. These additional skills may be learned both in training levels and in the main game. Many of these skills are used by Neo in the trilogy, including the bullet dodge, bullet stop, and flight. A number of weapons are available in the game, consisting of both melee weapons (including various types of swords, staves, and escrimas) and firearms (assault rifle, submachine gun, pistol etc).

The game uses film excerpts as cut scenes throughout the game at certain milestones. This footage includes clips from the original Matrix theatrical films, and from other sources, including the short film series, The Animatrix.

Wolfenstein
[2009]

The story is set in the fictional town of Isenstadt, which the Nazis have taken complete control of in order to mine rare crystals necessary to access the "Black Sun".

The story is told through cutscenes, scripted events, telegraph messages, and intelligence that the player finds scattered throughout the game. The game involves the main character, B.J Blazkowicz, going to a fictional German town called Isenstadt, which serves as "hub" for the player throughout the game. Isenstadt is where the player can get missions from two different groups, or upgrade their weapons and powers at the Black Market.

Unreal Tournament III
[2007]

In this installment of Unreal Tournament, the vehicles are split into two factions, the Axon vehicles and Necris vehicles. The Axon vehicles are the same vehicles from UT2004, but several have significant gameplay changes. In addition, every player is equipped with a personal hoverboard on vehicle maps, which is a skateboard-like device that allows players to quickly traverse large maps and grapple onto other teammates' vehicles. However, the hoverboard is very vulnerable to attack, and any kind of hit will knock the player off the board and disable him or her for several seconds, thus being highly exposed to be killed by nearby enemies.

Also, the weapons for the player have all been reinvented visually, making for a new much more fast-paced and brutal game than earlier ones.

Unreal Tournament 2004

UT2004 was built upon the engine and content of its predecessor, UT2003, addressing most its shortcomings, and overall features more than twice the combined content of the previous game.

Enhancements were made to the UT2003 game types, a new UI, Voice over IP and bot voice command support, engine enhancements and optimizations. They also made an improved single player game, and improved community and demo recording support, in addition to thirty-one new playable characters. A Sniper Rifle similar to the one included in the original Unreal Tournament was added. They created one Onslaught map, and developed AI support for Onslaught. 16 new DM maps, 5 new CTF Maps, 2 new Double Domination maps and 1 new Bombing Run map were added. The Assault gametype design and implementation were also reintroduced from the original Unreal Tournament.

Unreal II: The Awakening
[2003]

A first-person shooter video game, designed initially only for a single-player campaign, Unreal II: The Awakening stars a former Marine, John Dalton, a Terran Colonial Authority Marshal whose job is to patrol remote areas of space far away from any real action. He is called back into service to retrieve seven pieces of an ancient artifact thought to make a powerful weapon when assembled.

The plot follows a set path with the character going to various planets in search of the artifacts. Level design at each location is also single-pathed, with a certain amount of puzzle solving and key finding.

Environments on each planet are quite diverse, ranging from tropical to desert, bunkers and industrial installations, and alien cities and even inside the bodies of aliens. During several missions the player must hold a location against waves of incoming enemies, in some cases using NPCs as support. Overall it is a short story, comprising only 12 missions, but an EXCELLENT old game, definitely worth playing through.

Doom III
[2005]

Doom 3 is a story-driven action game played from a first-person perspective. As with previous Doom games, the main objective is to successfully pass through its levels, defeating a variety of enemy characters intent on killing the player's character. Doom 3's more story-centered approach, however, means that the player often encounters friendly non-player characters, who provide key plot information, objectives and inventory items.

Enemies come in multiple forms and with different abilities and tactics, but fall into two broad categories of either zombies or demons. Zombies are humans possessed by demonic forces, who attack the player's character using their hands and melee weapons or a variety of firearms, while demons are creatures from Hell, most of which attack using claws and spines, or by summoning plasma-based fireballs.

The Chronicles Of Riddick [2009]

"Assault On Dark Athena"
[Includes "Escape From Butcher Bay" from 2004]

The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena is a sequel to The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, which has been remade and has been included along with the Assault on Dark Athena campaign.

The games are a tie-in prequel to the futuristic science fiction film The Chronicles of Riddick. Actor Vin Diesel [who was involved in the game's development] reprises his role as the film's protagonist, Richard B. Riddick.

The games follows Riddick, a psychopathic murderer, as he attempts to escape from a maximum-security prison called Butcher Bay.

[AoDA takes off from EfBB's ending]

Morrowind [2002]

Diablo II
[2000]

The storyline of Diablo II is played through four acts. Each act follows a predetermined path with preselected quests, although some quests are optional. Players fight monsters to level their character up and gain better items. Battle is conducted in real-time from an isometric viewpoint. Each act culminates with the destruction of a boss monster, upon which the player proceeds to the next act.

Unlike the original Diablo, Diablo II was made specifically with online gaming in mind. Several spells (such as auras or war cries) multiply their effectiveness if they are cast within a party, and dungeons, although they still exist, were largely replaced by open spaces.

Fable III was fun to fight in, but a real turd of a game overall. I don't reccomend it.

Fable
[2005]

In the world of Albion, the player assumes the role of an orphaned boy who realizes his dream of becoming a hero. The choices players make in the game affect the perception and reaction to their Hero by the characters of Albion, and change the Hero's appearance to mirror what good or evil deeds the Hero has performed. In addition to undertaking quests to learn what happened to the Hero's family, players can engage in optional quests and pursuits such as trading, romance, and theft.

Second Life

[Linden Labs - Free Online MMORPG]

Built into the software is a three dimensional modeling tool based around simple geometric shapes that allows a resident to build virtual objects. This can be used in combination with the Linden Scripting Language which can be used to add functionality to objects. Avatars may take any form the user chooses, animal, vegetable or mineral, including being made to resemble the person whom they represent. A single Resident account may have only one avatar at a time, although the appearance of this avatar can change between as many different forms as the Resident wishes, as all users have a limitless inventory with pleasantly simple windows-style folders.

Second Life has an internal currency, the Linden dollar (L$). L$ can be used to buy, sell, rent or trade land or goods and services with other users. Virtual goods include buildings, vehicles, devices of all kinds, animations, clothing, skin, hair, jewelry, flora and fauna, and works of art. Players who make significant amount of Linden money are prone to convert this into real-world money, which is a simple operation done through the main SL website.