As awesome as Dwarf Fortress is, it's technically still in early alpha and therefore isn't eligible. On the other hand, I don't think the game will ever be considered truly finished, so maybe "release date" isn't an applicable criterion.

Definitely have to add Cave Story to the list, though. That game is amazing in so many ways.

Persona 3 is another good contender. You can't help but like a game where the protagonist regularly shoots himself in the head so the people living in his mind will give him the power to fight monsters.

I'd also like to nominate the Golden Sun series. Good story, djinn were fun to find and mess around with, and it had awesome music. Not many gameboy games can make that last claim.

Guild Wars deserves a mention. Very innovative.

Why is Twilight Princess on there but not The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker? I liked the sailing parts! It was peaceful!

Animal Crossing is another good one. It's one of those games you either don't understand, or play obsessively for months.

I haven't played them, but I've been told that every Silent Hill game after the first should go on the list.

Because I forgot about it. It's hard to remember all the older games! But you reminded me to also add the Phantom Hourglass. I'd say that is one of the best DS games ever.

As for Dwart Fortress, I don't know. I've never played it myself, always thought it sounded kind of stupid, but that's just me. For now though, I think it will stay on the list.

arn't "best of" lists supposed to be done after  the time frame ends  specifically so you don't have to do things  like "we are  not including December"

I'm a little shocked.   I feel this list  is rather slanted.   I mean, none of the grand theft autos are on there.  And while I'm not one to suggest they are particularly fantastic games, they have dramatically influenced the  action game genre and both grand theft auto 3 and 4 are above 95% according  to the metacritic.   (so is Tony Hawk's pro skater for some reason... )  While I don't think the Metacritic score is by any means a real deciding factor, it does support that a lot of people think its something worth having.  And when all grand theft auto games after GTA 3 are in the top 90%, and are constantly used as the 'base comparison' when reviewing sandbox games, its a little daunting to not see any of them on the above list.

And  how did Red Faction  get on  that list  over some of the  more mass-fanboy FPS games like "Halo" and "Gears of War" or even "Unreal Tournament  3" which I am now nominating for its very complete  and easy to use map editor that is included with the  game.   (I am not nominating Halo or  Gears of war, simply commenting that they are over-hyped for a reason, and as much as  I dislike them should likely be included in the nominations on popularity if nothing else.  I am nominating unreal tournament 3)

And I felt MGS 3 was a more complete (and therefor "better" game) than MGS 4, yet rollercoaster 2 and 3 both get to exist?  (I must be in a list bashing mood.  I appoligize)

No one lives forever?  thats an interesting choice.

no, Baldur's gate 2 (2006)?  Dragon Age exists entirely to try to meet the greatness of Baldur's gate.

No, The Longest Journey (2000)?  I can't think of a better 'serious' adventure game this decade.  With sierra and lucas arts adventure games disappearing into the back-ends of time and space this decade, I almost feel that Longest Journey  should be listed as  a tribute to  our almost lost game genre.  (its making a comeback recently, but very slowly)

And I'm not even getting into titles I am specifically a fanboy like "Black and White" (2001) which introduced an amazing AI (though perhaps very poor by today's standards), and "startopia" (2001) which I feel is a great game even though you can't play it on any modern systems, and could barely play it when it was released due to issues with the developers.

And of course I want to nominate "Puyo Puyo: 15th anniversary edition" as the best  mother F***ING PUZZLE GAME OF THIS DECADE! (I love this game.  Its so awesome, its got me dates with attractive people simply by introducing them to it.  Like, introduce "Puyo Puyo: 15th anniversary edition" to an attractive person who has never heard of it before, and they will be all over you.)  but it wouldn't win because its release was limited to only 1 country in the whole freaking world, and its initial release had a serious game breaking bug in it (the game stopped saving after 255 saves, and it saved automatically every few minutes when you finished a game).  As a result, I'd wager nobody even knows what this game is so it would lose.

I realize we haven't even specified what makes a game "good" for the purposes of this discussion?  are we talking about "good" as in "made the most influence on the gaming culture"  or 'good' as in "consistant quality and to-this-day is an up to standards game that is fun to play"?   In the later's case, its really unfair just because as "up-to-standards" suggests, games are constantly improving.  Without "grand theft auto 3" today's sandbox games would very likely not exist.  And even though that game suffers from a mountain of flaws in designs, graphics, controls, and you name it.  It revolutionized the way we play sandbox action games.  I feel "Halo" is overhyped, but it similarly I have to give it credit for changing the way first person shooters are handled across the board as well.  I suspect the AI spawning system in Left4Dead is going to become the new standard for games going forward to generate new experiences for users with every playthrough based on how the players are doing.

But, now that I think about it.   How much research and analysis actually goes into most top-whatever lists.  Especially ones that have public voting.  I don't even know why I'm chatting here (I'm waiting for some files to copy so I can reinstall windows, thats right)

(I'ma totally gonna vote for Advance wars for best multiplayer* turn-based strategy game of this decade, and shadow of the colossi for best boss fights of this decade.)

Because nothing worth playing is coming out this December? At least not that I could find. Just another Guitar Hero game... Speaking of which, why didn't you mention Guitar Hero in your long post/rant? It basically made a genre (even if I hate that genre )

Of course it's slanted. This list is entirely based off the opinons of a bunch of PC fanboys (No offence to anyone, but seriously, if you're on Stardocks forums, odds are that most of you perfer PC games) And opinions are pretty much by definition slanted

And those games aren't on the list yet because no one has nominated them. I don't care how many people like a game, I just put the ones people suggest (and a couple of my own favorites) So what if a game only gets one vote? It's in someone's top 25.

None whatsoever. I just did this because I was bored. And I was somewhat curious as to what games people thought were the best from the last 10 years. I'm not even completely sure what research needs to be done when the whole thing is based off of people's opinions.

Anyway, your suggestions will get added shortly. And I bet you're the one sending PM's to Frogboy calling him a troll, aren't you

Mass Effec, Dead Space, The Suffering Series? They might not be the best games of the decade, but I am surprised that they weren't even nominated. My nominee would have to be Bioshock....seeing as it is already on here, my nominee is Galciv2...damn....seeing as it too is also already on here my nominee is Elder of the Scrolls 3: Morrowind...fuck...seeing as it too is on here my nominee is Fallout3...wow. I love you guys.

Here's mine-

1. Vega Strike- an open source space sim (open-ended FTW!). Very excellent. I'm not quite sure if it counts, as it is on v0.5.0 stable. I think it does though, as there is quite a bit of content and most of the bugs are being/have been squashed.

2. Evochron Legends- an indie space sim developed by StarWraith 3D Games. I've tooled around with the demo a bit. Very interesting and innovative gameplay.

3. Prometheus v4.0- originally a mod for UT3, but has been released as a standalone on the UDK. UDK FTW!!! Premise- you play someone who can "switch quantum states"; basically you work together with past&future selves to complete objectives.

4. Infinity Combat Prototype- the combat prototype for the in-development MMO-Space Sim "Infinity:The Quest For Earth". Very good looking. Mostly I put this as #4 since I can't get it to run on my comp, but the screens and the vids I've seen make it look awesome. The graphics are simply beautiful.

4. Secret Maryo Chronicles- a Super Mario clone, it is quite enjoyable. Best part- open source.

5. The Ball UDK Demo- another UT3 mod, a "demo" version was released using UDK. Once again- UDK FTW!!! In "The Ball", you play a geologist who finds an ancient, well, ball, that is controlled only by a strange gun-like tool. Using the "ball", you solve puzzles by hitting switches (the tool is also used for some other stuff than just hitting the ball around), and you kill enemies, like giant bugs and zombie-mummy things. Plus, there is a "monkeys killed" count. Amusing and wierd at the same time.

That's all I can think of right now. Another game I love to play, FreeOrion, isn't even close to being complete (v0.3.13 stable). It is very interesting (tech tree is huge, just as a TB4X should be).

SimCity 4! It's so accurate that some universaties use it to teach city planning!

Actuall I just started the whole pc gaming thing a few months ago, so I'm not a fan boy yet.

Let's Review:

4X Space Genre (w/multiplayer)

1. Homeworld
2. Cataclysm
3. Homeworld 2
4. SoSE

MMORPG & MUD's

1. Legends of Futures Passed (text based (Modified DIKU MUD)
2. Everquest (Broke the Mold)
   
3. WoW (Cloned the Mold)
4. Morrowind - Oblivion, Etc.

FPS

1. Battlefield
2. Battlefield 2
3. Battlefield 2142
4. MECHWARRIORS

FPS/RPG Synthesis

1. Fallout 3 (Bethesda)

STRATEGY & TACTICS

1. Shogun - Total War
2. Age of Empires - (Series)
3. Stronghold - (Series)
4. Sacrifice

OLD SCHOOL DOS

1. Acendency
2. Might & Magic
3. Red Alert - (Original)
   
4. Warcraft - (Original)

oh thats nice just leave the stealth and fighting genre out the loop.

2 more titles should be on this list:

Age of Wonders 2. - Shadow Magic

Temple of Elemental Evil

Gmod! (Garry's Mod for HL2)

Maybe it's not quite up to the standard of some of the games on the list, but in terms of hours/dollar, it's at the top of my list.

Alright I know that Space Combat sims were mostly worthless the last decade but one game has to be added to that list Freespace 2. released in 1999 (within 10 years of now right?) it is probably the best space combat sim out there and deserves to be on the list. 

Golden Sun: the lost age (2nd one).

Leinad, as much as I wish otherwise, FS2 sadly can't be added to this list, since kyogre is looking for games released this decade, starting January 1st, 2000.

Vega Strike FTW!!!!

I have to agree with this choice.

I also think that the Beyond the Sword expansion for Civ 4 is worth mentioning.

@Protoplazm

ugh how could i ever forget sacrifice, what a wonderfull game that was

Yeah. This goes for a lot of the games Protoplazm listed, too. Homeworld was 1999, and the last time I checked, DOS was pre-2000...

I was expecting that but a guy can dream can't he? Besides Homeworld 2 I think that a game that truly deserves a sequal but will probably never get it is Freespace 2...

Unless Stardock would want to take up the reigns? (A guy can dream can't he?) 

Sim city 4!!!!!             This game is too addicting..

You can just run it on your background sometimes.

#1. Mass Effect (for definately)

#2. Rome:TW

#3. KOTOR (#1: the Bioware one, I'm an Obsidian hater lol)

#4. GalCiv2+Expansions (surprisingly I actually got more game time in R:TW)

#5. Fallout 3

Good list nice variety. I would expect most people to have 75% FPS on theirs lol. 

Kings Bounty Armoured Princess

CIV IV (already suggested)

Some overlooked games:

Diablo II (and expansion)

Command & Conquer:  Generals

King's Bounty: The Legend

FIFA Soccer 2002