Who could forget the masterpiece that is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hss2QwtT6xY. With an amazing original soundtrack and gameplay like you've never seen before.

That is extremely tough to answer. I feel that one game doesn't show enough of what made up this generation.

Skyrim- For how well a world can be crafted and hour huge a game can be.
The Mass Effect trilogy-For the intricate story telling.
Journey-To show off how the indie scene and how beautiful a game can be.
Call of Duty 4-For how good the online multiplayer scene can be.

Im sure I'll think of others but to say one game defined this generation is tough.

To you it might be a generic fantasy land, but to me it was stunning and beautiful - especially back in 2006. But then, I love that traditional style of medieval / Tolkien-esque fantasy. Very few games have moved me as much as Oblivion did, walking through the lush forests of Cyrodiil for the first time with Jeremy Soule's music playing away.

And it's superior to Skyrim in most areas for me. Really, the only things Skyrim does better are:

• Better dungeons (although still far too bright and linear, so this was only a marginal improvement)
  
• Character models (big improvement, although in a strange way I prefer the look of Oblivion's NPCs. They have more charm)
  
• Large-scale battles (the battles during the Civil War questline were undeniably a big improvement on the battle of Bruma in Oblivion)
  
• Level-scaling (again, only a marginal improvement as dragons felt very scaled... as did most loot, quest rewards, and shop inventories. Like Oblivion, it still felt like the world revolved around you)
  
• A more diverse gameworld (though ironically, I felt this worked against Skyrim in a way, and made the gameworld seem smaller than Cyrodiil. In Cyrodiil everything was blended in well together in a nice sea of green. In Skyrim, you walk for 5 minutes, and suddenly the landscape and weather changes dramatically... which just made everything feel shrunken and squashed together in terms of scale)

Almost everything else, Oblivion did better.

For the record though, even though I think vanilla Oblivion was much better than Skyrim, I'd only rate Oblivion as one of the best games this generation when you take mods into consideration. Without mods, it's good but flawed. With mods it's incredible and right up there with Morrowind at the pinnacle of open-world RPGs. It simply has one of the best modding communities of any PC game out there.

I'm stuck between - Red Dead Redemption ( it's like GTA, except in the Wild West and better in every way )
- Human Revolution ( I was surprised how true it was to the original )
- MGS 4 : GOTP ( because it's MGS )
- Heavy Rain ( the pinnacle of videogame storytelling )
- Fallout : New Vegas ( same gameplay but better writing than FO3? count me in! )

And that's pretty much it.

Edit : Oh and Demon's Souls! Picked it up after Dark Souls and preferred it. ( strangely, I found it even harder than Dark Souls. Don't know if that's the common viewpoint, but that's how I found it. )

It's not a silly question and I'll leave it at that.

Honest point and I did find it quite nice.

[censored] Dawn of war

Fallout: New Vegas, A great story with gameplay and combat that isn't overly-simplified and not overly-complex, I'm not going to get into it more then that because it would take too long for me to give all, or even half the reasons.

Read Dead Redemption, for pretty much every reason everyone else said.

I'm not a fan of Call of Duty, but I believe that CoD zombies is the pinnacle of every game mode this generation.

Hmm. Probably either GTA IV, Red Dead Redemption or BioShock. All have an emphasis on story whilst having awesome worlds and engaging gameplay. I'd include FO3 or FONV but the stories, FO3 especially, were a bit bland compared to the others I listed.

I'll just list some....

Fallout: New Vegas
The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings
Bioshock
Portal 2
And hopefully Dishonered.

Basically this.

Halo 3 and F:NV are my two favorite games from this generation, mainly NV.

Never played Kanes wrath though. Only 4.

Batman Arkham City and Lego Batman 2 (the latter I might be getting next month).

Oh, well, if you'll leave it at that, your opinion is so valid! I never looked at it that way!

Oblivion
Fallout 3
GTA IV
Uncharted 3
MGS 4

I think all of these deserve a spot.

Well, what do you expect. How is a question asking the opinion of others silly? As you can see from this thread many ppl have an answer and even those that say none have that as an answer.

It's like you trying to push some sort of logic as if you're the only one who uses both sides of his brain and the rest of us are just dumb or something.

Modern Warfare 3.

http://www.gametrailers.com/side-mission/2012/06/20/metal-gear-solid-5-confirmed-will-feature-solid-snake/

Bwahaha. Wow, what are the chances?

Oh well, it'll surely end up being a good game, even if incredibly unnecessary.

No not really look at this http://images.vg247.com/current//2012/02/20120222mgs.jpg Thats not solid snake

Oblivion with mods (including OOO and MMM and nGCD and Quarls, etc)

With mods Oblivion is incredible. I probably shouldn't even comment on Oblivion without mods, since I've been using major overhaul mods for so long.

Special mention for Morrowind, Skyrim and Fallout 3. I am very partial to Bethesda open world games.

I don't play on consoles, so what constitutes "this generation" is less clear to me. But assuming it's about six or seven years, the one game from that time period that really stood out for me is Fallout: New Vegas.

The Witcher 2 - a contentious game I know, but I feel it's set a new standard in multiple areas. Cliche high fantasy just won't do anymore.

Deus Ex Hr - a thinking person's game hampered only by some lame boss fights. But to make a sequel that is worthy of the original is a significant accomplishment.

SSF4 - best fighting game ever made, and it's still in 2d. Pure awesome.

Amnesia: Dark Descent - an amazing indie game, probably the best horror game ever made. And by a handful of people no less.

Batman: Arkham City - The sheer amount of content, the quality story, and great combat. It's the full package for an action/adventure game.

Indie- Minecraft
FPS- CoD MW
RPG- Fallout New Vegas/ Witcher 2
RTS- Age of Empires III / Starcraft 2
TBS- Civ V.

All around greatness, either goes to GTA IV or Red Dead Redemption. GTA IV's story wasn't near as good as Red Deads. But it's gameplay was certainly funner.

Indie - Minecraft
FPS - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
RPG - Dragon Age: Origins (even though I had more fun with Oblivion when it came out)
RTS - Company of Heroes
TBS - Medieval 2: Total War

Hmm good question tough one a random list:
Fallout 3 completely captured me and I enjoyed gaming so much more ever since it was a fantastic memrobal game.

Fonv again great and maybe better than fo3 but lacked the freshness that blew me away with fo3.

Gta 4 great story and some of the most fun i've had on multiplayer.

Dead space came out of no where had a great story great characters amd great setting with challanging gameplay bit short though

Bioshock oustanding setting I just love the atmosphere
Assains creed two fun combat but a little simple and great detail the worlds with a good story.
There my favourite games skyrim and oblivion just miss out.

Actually assuming games that caused the biggest waves recently are the pinnacles, i will say these.
Halo, COD, farmville(or whatever the first one was), Angry Birds, WOW, Skyrim and a few i am forgetting.