Has any game topped Tetris in the falling blocks puzzle game genre?

Personally I'd play something like Columns or Puyo Puyo any day over boring old Tetris!

Speaking of Puyo Puyo - Bubble Bobble probably also still have its crown?

Arkanoid 2 for bat and paddle?
Puzzle Bobble for bubble puzzle thingy?

Civilisation

actual war for war games??

Well, at very least, it's the most realistic.

Wizardry 7.
Thief 2.
Super Metroid.
Master of Magic.

Big Rigs over the road racing, it's still the worst game of all time. =)

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, no game has been able to capture atmosphere, horror and open ended gameplay this good.

GTA 3 + Vice City, after that it only went downhill.

Carmageddon, no game based on a movie has been this much fun.

Hitman: Contracts for stealth. Particularly the hide in plain sight variety of stealth.
Halo for the console FPS. two weapon slots worked well for the gamepad and its lack of buttons. Add regenerating health to it, and have a game that's perfectly suited to linear levels with very tightly controlled battles over the more traditional sprawling open level with lots of weapons and health pickups to find. Say what you will about filthy console gamers, but not having to manage ten different weapons with just a single button was a godsend (especially in a major firefight).
Age of Wonders for turn-based strategy. Yes, Heroes of Might and Magic comes close, but I thing Age of Wonders wins the day.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater for the skateboarding genre. In fact, the entire genre is pretty much built on that game.
Rapelay. Undisputed king of the most utterly fucked up things that come from Japan genre.
Kerbal Space Program has to be the #1 space flight simulator on the market.

MadTV! and MadNews - Still play that alot because it never got good followups or remakes

Transarctica - Nothing else like it

Business Sims in general are probably the most neglected genre that was big in the nineties. Hope we will see a revival there just like turn based games are seeing.

Also most of the examples in this thread so far have tons of games better or similar to them. I mean if Eador is not better than Master of Magic or Age of Wonders, then what do you want, how could any game ever be better? I am a big fan of all three but this is not even close.

Freespace 2 Ulitmate space sim?

...id still vote for Tie Fighter / X-Wing ;)

Or I-War 1, if we are talking about semi-realistic space sims.

I agree with that statement completely

I don't completely agree on this. Morrowing was undoubtedly the pinnacle of the Elder Scrolls series, but I liked Gothic 2 even more. On this however I agree completely.


But for atmosphere still nothing beats Ultima 7 and the Ultima Underworlds remain the defining real time dungeon RPGs. Arx Fatalis tried to follow in their steps, but was not entirely as good as the original.