Civ 2 because, even when you don't win, you have fucking epic games that are basically like alternative world histories, you watch your empire rise and fall over the centuries. I once surrounded Karakorum for 2 years with sea bourne forces, taking the capitol of my fiercist enemies once it had weakened sufficiently (cut off it's supplies). Eventually they took it back, and with technology stolen from me, swept through asia and eastern europe, cutting off MY capitol (rome) from the remains of the empire, finally leaving me nothing but Great Britain, from which to launch my last ditch nuclear attack in a bid to win the space race, hence the game.

Or the time I took over the aztecs in one turn. Or the world war 2 scenerio which I played on into the coldwar era, disabling nuclear weapons in the program code and entering a BIG ASS world war 3 with the soviets. Stealth bombers hitting Moscow from hidden aircraft carriers, espionage units sent into the city to disable their air defence.

And Deus Ex. So fucking brilliant. I literally stopped playing videogames for 2 years after I played that, cause there was just no way anything could live up to those standards. I remember they order you to execute your brother, and i was like "fuck that" so I turned and shot the commanding officer in the face... and instead of saying "mission failed," it kept the brother in the game, and removed further scenes with the commanding officer. And then later they tried to arrest us in the brother's appartment, MiB style. Instead of running away I decided to stay and fight... when they eventually got enough hits on me, instead of dying and restarting the level, I woke up in the next level, prisoner,having survived death. And the twist about that prison... dopeness