Warcraft III

Starcraft is the best real-time-strategy game ever. This shouldn’t stop anyone from getting into Warcraft 3 which gets pretty close to perfection and is definitely the best RTS in the last decade. With the different add-ons, specifically DOTA, Warcraft 3 is now being played at LAN’s more than Starcraft. A pretty amazing feat.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

This might sound weird, but I seldom play CoD4 on multi-player mode. That alone should prove how amazing this game truly was/is. I was so immersed in the single-player story that  I finished the entire game in a couple days. The weapons were amazing, and I can’t say there was a best choice as each one had it’s pluses. Sadly, the sequel (and best selling game of all time) didn’t quite live up and had way too many confusing side-missions that really ruined the incoherent mess.

Deus Ex

I’m sure few of you have even heard of Deus Ex, but man did this game rock. With its release date almost a decade ago in the summer of 2000, I was just a wee lad going into high school. Blending shooter, role-playing, and stealth elements, Deus Ex gave players choice in a way that has seldom been matched since. As you progressed through the game you gained upgrades allowing your player to become better at tasks and skills. I’m still convinced upgrading the lockpicking ability was the best way to go. Writing this review makes me want to dust off my old copy and figure out a way to get it working on an x64 Windows 7 machine!

Unreal Tournament

This game technically came out a month before 2000, but I’m going to count it, because it changed the way I played first person shooters the entire decade. I still remember getting together with Malmborg and Drew back in high school and LANing all night on our P3 800 mhz machines! I found a copy of this game recently and it has lost little of its sweaty palm action. To this day, “Facing Worlds” is the best capture the flag map of all time, easy.

Battlefield 1942

The last game, and my favorite of the last decade is Battlefield 1942. Battlefield 1942 changed the world of gaming in 2002 and promoted us all from mere ground-pounding grunts to pilots, gunners, bombardiers, sailors, and tankers. No longer were you forced to be the M-1 Garand carrying grunt like in Medal of Honor. You could now choose a role (medic, gunner, engineer) each with a different task on the battlefield. You could also control dozens of authentic WWII vehicles in the air, sea, and land in massive 64-player maps. I wasted so many hours trying to beat Kharkov or Wake Island it’s not even funny.