rllmuk

40	Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Xbox)
39	Grim Fandango (PC)
38	Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe (Amiga/PC/Archimedes)
37	The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (PC/Xbox 360)
36	Civilization II (PC)
35	Elite (BBC/CPC/Commodore 64/Spectrum/Atari ST/Amiga)
34	Phantasy Star Online (including v2) (Dreamcast)
33	Grand Theft Auto 3 (PS2)
32	Perfect Dark (N64)
31	Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan (DS)

Comments on the games I've played:

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Xbox)

I never got very far in this. It was just a bit boring, and took ages for the game's story to kick in. By the time I found out what was going to happen, I could tell that I'd never get anywhere near the end of the game without devoting weeks to it, and I had many more enjoyable things to do instead.

Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe (Amiga)

Another game where I never quite got what everyone raved about. It all seemed a bit clunky, with the ball lacking momentum and the playing area being just the wrong size for the number of goals. I used to play this at friends' houses, on the Amiga and on the Mega Drive, and despite winning a large proportion of the time, I was never convinced I was entirely in control. The team management bits seemed pretty pointless as well.

Elite (BBC, CPC), Elite: The New Kind (PC)
I have played this game for hundreds of hours. It's aged pretty badly, really, in that modern games do everything it does but better, but they add other games over the top. Maybe that's why I still like Elite - it's pure, clean, and easy to play. I've learnt profitable trade routes, I've earnt the title of Elite, I've jumped into witchspace and survived.

Phantasy Star Online (including v2) (Dreamcast, Gamecube, Xbox)

One of the best gaming experiences of my life - although not necessarily the best game ever. This was the first time I played anything online with friends, and I spent many hours building up my character by running through the forests, caves, mines and ruins. I can still remember the first time I battled Dark Falz with online assistance, drawing attention away from others, healing, whittling down his health. The final blow leading to a poignant animation of a red ring, showing the fate of the hunter who had left us messages through the world. I've killed Dark Falz many times since.

Grand Theft Auto 3 (PS2, Xbox)

I completed this, which is saying something given the difficulty of the final mission - chasing a helicopter to a dam, not getting killed while running to the control room, shooting someone who seemed to be wearing a full kevlar bodysuit. Is this the best of the 3D iterations? Vice City had less interesting missions but possibly a better world; GTA IV got boring very quickly due to hassles from characters calling your mobiles; the PSP games were great but a bit limited in terms of out-of-mission havoc. I've not played San Andreas of the latest instalment yet, but will one day. GTA3 remains great fun to mess around in, and I can still recognise landmarks in the city when I watch videos today.

Perfect Dark (N64)

I played very little of this, as I came to it late and the FPS genre had evolved considerably. It's dated far more than Goldeneye.

Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan (DS)

Great fun, but I prefer Elite Beat Agents.

From a request on RLLMUK, my favourite ten games for the Mega Drive.

Virtua Racing
Three tracks, one car, minimum of content, £60. Utterly amazing and worth every penny. Magazines warned that it wasn't as good as the arcade game, but that didn't matter - the freedom it gave in terms of being able to steer any way around the circuit and not be shifted to the edge of the screen - it felt like the future.

Sonic 2
I won this in a competition in Mega. Release day came, and I had no Sonic 2. A week later, no Sonic 2. Another week, and I had a letter from the magazine apologising for the delay. I eventually got the game a month and a half after everyone had completed it - and yet I still love it. My favourite Sonic game, just.

Street Fighter II Special Champion Edition
When combined with the six-button pad (which I still feel is the epitome of digital pad design), this is the perfect fighter. I spent hundreds of hours on this; I even got a new Mega Drive (replacing my original Japanese model, as SC2 was region-locked) just to play it.

Aladdin
Far better than the SNES game. The rug ride level has one of the most memorable tunes in any game, and I can still remember where to go to get the genie's heads.

Micro Machines 96
A toss-up between this and MM2, but the courses on this are just a bit better. Amazing with four players.

Shining Force
I'd never played a strategy RPG before this; I've still not played one as good. An involving story, great characters and well-balanced gameplay.

NHL Hockey '93
I didn't play ice hockey. I'd never watched a match. None of my friends ever had either. Why, then, was this game so routinely played whenever we went to each others' houses? You felt so stylish grabbing the puck and slaloming up the pitch before shooting and scoring - later versions may have added four-player but they felt a bit too clunky and heavy.

Toe Jam and Earl
If you play it now, it feels so slow and awkward. How did I ever have the patience to complete it? I did, though, several times over. Special mention must go to level zero, where TJ&E get to bathe in a hot tub.

Quackshot
The Disney platformers were almost all great. I feel this is the best of the bunch, though Castle of Illusion is very close behind. I don't think of Aladdin as a Disney platformer for some reason; it's a film licence.

The tenth place goes to Road Rash. And Desert Strike. And Populous. And Mega Lo Mania. And Mega Bomberman. And Thunderforce III. Too many great games!

Oh, and the two-player mode of Lemmings was genius.

RLLMUK’s top 100: 40 – 31

My favourite Mega Drive games