With so few good new titles being released these days, especially by major studios, I figured I'd make a thread for everyone to share your favourite classic or older games, especially if they're lesser-known titles that others might have missed at the time.
I'll open with The Saboteur (2009), Mercenaries (2005) and Saints Row 2 ( The 2008 original)
Off the top of my head:
Need for Speed: Most Wanted
The OG Phantasy Star Online (never played online though)
Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
Star Wars pod racer
the IL2 WWII flight sim series
Dark Messiah Might and Magic
Bioshock
If you are going to put Bioshock on here, you really should put on System Shock and System Shock 2.
System Shock was remade in 2023 by Nightdive Studio. It is fantastically faithful to the OG System Shock. Shodan is one of the greatest villains ever written. She is 100% the inspiration for GLADOS.
System Shock 2 is still a great game. It is FPS action horror. I guess it is a little dated now, but it uses modern controls so it is playable. I am sure you can get mods to improve the graphics etc.
Also, X-Wing, TIE Fighter and X-Wing vs TIE Fighter were all outstanding games. They build on the lore from Star Wars and were a blast.
It is actually possible to kill a crippled Star Destroyer in one of the missions of X-Wing if you try hard enough. Normally their shields are immune to fighters, but this one has been sabotaged. See if you can take it out.
they've been on my list.
X-Wing alliance was a game my parents got me next to Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo and Freddy Fish, not realizing what kind of game it was. I have fond memories of digging up the discs in our junk drawers every few years and reinstalling it on our computers. it would install natively all the way from Windows 2000 to Windows 7, just had to have a joystick. I barely even played the campaign, I spent my entire time in the mission editor in playing custom missions. it was actually possible to kill a star destroyer with a YT 1300 or YT 2000 by setting the turrets to autofire and strafing it from a distance.