1. Baldur's Gate
2. Civilization IV
3. Age of Empires 1 or 2 (Don't remember which one I liked the best)
4. Half-Life
5. Rainbow 6 - Rogue Spear


Honorable mentions: Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, Civ3, Half-Life 2, Baldur's Gate 2, Icewind Dale 1 & 2, .

1) Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines :p
2) Baldur's Gate 2
3) Tekken 3
4) Mirror's Edge
5) XCOM: Enemy Unknown

1 and 2 sometimes switch. It was hard to choose for 3 - 5

I only really have a few games on my brain, in no order.
Zelda: OoT
Final Fantasy VI
Chrono Trigger
Resident Evil 4
Perfect Dark


Sadly no pc games, recently bought pc.

edit: revised list

This would be easier if I had a comprehensive list of all the games I've bought and played over the years. Or harder. As it is, some of my picks will have to be series and not specific titles.

Battlefield 1942 and mods
Independence War 2
Railroad Tycoon II and III
Operation: Flashpoint and community maps / campaigns
Gold Box D&D games. Not the best, but these are the ones that got me hooked on PC gaming

Wing Commander series gets an Honorable Mention, as do the original Lode Runner and Autoduel.

A top 5 list is really hard to do.

Elite
Neuromancer
Master Of Orion 2
Duke Nukem 3D
Command And Conquer

Let say those are the top 5 chosen randomly again others that are their equal, like Gunship, Gunship 2000, Warcraft 2, Starcraft, Red Baron...

I don't have a specific order but my post played games of all time are of the following...

Pick any two Civilization games (probably 2 and 4 although the first one is what started my love affair with this series)
Alpha Centauri
Ultima IV
Warlords
Everquest (enjoyed both 1 and 2)
Eador Genesis (has been a blast ever since I first discovered it and learned to play it)
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (only played it once but enjoyed It a whole lot and was extremely satisfying to beat it - was debating between this and the Zork series and decided to go with this)
Duke Nukem (lan parties at work were extremely fun, not so much solo)
Borderlands GOTY
MOO 2
Out of the Park Baseball
Diablo 2
Contra/Tecmo Bowl/Super Mario (nod to Nintendo)

Ok, so a little more than 5 but like trying to name your 5 favorite movies/songs/books, its kinda hard to stop at 5.

Nice going knee , Go on expand the list now

My "absolute top 5 games of all time" is going to change every time I'm asked that question. I just don't categorize things that way, all my games and books and movies in a linear list from best to worst, and there are a group of (significantly more then five) games that could appear on a favorite list, depending on my mood when I'm asked.

At the moment it is (in no particular order)
Final Fantasy VI
Silent Hill 2
Super Mario World
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Resident Evil 4

Ask me tomorrow, and some combination of Dragon Age Origins, Mass Effect 2, Jade Empire, Psychonauts, Portal 2, God Hand, Super Metroid, or Castlevania: Symphony of the Night might be there. Who can say?

The first five that come to mind where I spent a lot of time

The Secret of the Monkey Island
Super Mario World
Warcraft
Indianapolis 500
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

Top 5/10 whatever, I always like these topics because it gives me the chance to make others learn about excellent games lost in time/knowledge/market/etc.

Well, I usually list them by type:

RPGs:
1. Darklands (PC)
2. Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar (PC, ATARI 8-bit)
3. Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss (PC)
4. Sentinel Worlds I: Future Magic (PC)
5. Dragonstomper (ATARI 2600)
Honorable mentions: Phantasie (PC, ATARI 8-bit), Betrayal at Krondor (PC)

Adventure:
1. Monkey Island (PC)
2. Dallas Quest (ATARI 8-bit)
3. Asylum (ATARI 8-bit)
4. King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella (PC)
5. Heart of China (PC)

Strategy:
1. Master of Magic (PC)
2. Civilization (PC)
3. Colonization (PC)
4. Heroes of Might and Magic (PC)
5. War Inc. (PC)

Puzzle:
1. Fool's Errand
2. The Incredible Machine
3. Realm of Impossibilities (ATARI 8-bit)
4.

Hybrid (like RTS, Action RPGs, etc)
1. Majesty (PC)
2. Dune 2: The Building of a Dynasty (PC)
3. Darkstone (PC)
4.

Simulation:
1. Wing Commander 2 (PC)
2. Wing Commander (PC)
3. Privateer 2 (PC)
4. Red Baron (PC)
5. Falcon 3.0 (PC)

Sports:
1. Micro League Baseball (ATARI 8-bit)
2. Earl Weaver Baseball (PC)
3. Hardball (PC)
4. Front Page Sports Football (PC)
5. TV Sports Basketball (PC)

Racing:
1. The Great American Cross-Country Road Race (ATARI 8-bit)
2. Poleposition (ATARI 8-bit)
3. Stunts (PC)
4. Racing Construction Set (ATARI 8-bit)
5. Pitstop II (ATARI 8-bit)

Platformer:
1. Flashback (PC)
2. Another World (PC)
3. Montezuma's Revenge (ATARI 8-bit)
4. Spelunker (ATARI 8-bit)

Sandbox:
1. Populous (PC)
2. Populous 2 (PC)
3. Populous: The Beginning (PC)
4. Sandbox God (PC)

Well, that's what I can think of, so far.

As you can see, no NES, SNES, Genesis, N64, XBOX, PS games have been listed because I went from ATARI 2600 to ATARI 5200 to Colecovision to ATARI 8-bit to PC and stayed with PC.

No, I'm not a dinosaur. I just started early.

This might change over time as I remember more games :)

In no particular order(aside from my favorite). SMT: Digital Devil Saga 1/2(counts as one), Project dot hack(counting as one!), Dragon Age: Origins, and KotOR 2 make the top 5. My favorite game of all time is SMT: Nocturne.

I agree with those who have said this is a very hard thing to answer. :) There are so many games over the years, literally hundreds/thousands that picking 5 as the absolute best is a real challenge for me at least.

Here are some highlights of my last 20 years of PC gaming that spring to mind although I wouldn't consider them to be conclusive top 5 lists as I might think of other titles in the morass of games later which I might consider superior. :)

2000s:
Half Life 2
DOOM 3
Far Cry
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2

Update: Oh crap, how could I have left out Lord of the Rings Battle for Middle Earth II??? :)


1990s:
Half Life
Quake/Quake II
Starcraft
Warcraft II
X-COM (the one before Apocalypse, the name escapes me)

Damn that was hard. I can think of a bunch of other games too but those are the ones I've played probably the most so far. I own a bunch of other games that I might find to be even better than these but without completing them entirely it's not totally fair to pick them. Another challenge I had was that over time graphics/audio and other aspects of games visually change for the better overall, and other technologies can tend to make newer games better. Not exclusively of course, but just as a generalization, so with the plethora of games out there one might be tempted to pick newer flashier games as being superior perhaps. Tough call and I don't think there are any right answers or wrong answers, just a matter of individual preference. :)

My top games list so far for the 2010's decade would be:

Tomb Raider
Bioshock Infinite
Metro 2033

The more I look at my lists though the more I want to make them all top 40 lists of each decade so that nothing gets left out. They're also not in any particular order, just random. :)

I'm generally not a sports fan for pc games, but yours brought back some awesome memories. And reminded me that I did like sports games at one time but man, they sure don't make them like they used to.

That Earl Weaver BB is my favorite bb sim but I only played it for one year while at college. Me and my 3 roommates had a fantasy draft with all the players in the pool. I think I ended up with Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth, Mike Schmidt, Roy Campanella (who ended up being my team MVP). Wow, can remember so much of it still. Good times!

EverQuest
Ultima VII: The Black Gate
Ultima Underworld
Baldur's Gate
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

This list is subject to some changes as I continue to get around to many games I've missed over the years with a couple of exceptions, namely the first two in the list. Those are permanent and the list is ordered by number 1, 2, etc.