Silk has spoken words of wisdom concerning halo. Halo offers no new exciting elements to the first person shooter and does a poor job of trying to replicate classic qualities.
If you want a realistic first person shooter multiplayer action you play counterstrike source. End of story.
If you want a fast paced kick ass multiplayer first person shooter you play quake 2 or 3. End of story.
If you want a kick ass console first person shooter multiplayer you play Goldeneye or Perfect Dark. Goldeneye is a better game, but perfect dark does give you more multiplayer options, and I like that.
I will now cover the top three games by type:
FPS: Quake 3, Half Life 2, Goldeneye.
RPG: Final Fantasy 3, Final Fantasy 7, Diablo 2.
RTS: Age of Empires 2, Command and Conquer Red Alert, Civnet (yes I know, not a RTS, but is a strategy game and I can't make a whole seperate category for turned based strategy games because only one applies.)
2-d Side scrollers: Mario 3, Duke Nukem, Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
Games that merit mentioning: Madden Series, Mario 64, Zelda series, FF5, Axis and Allies.
Now I will list the top five games of all time:
1) Quake Three Arena. The best first person shooter ever made. Intense multiplayer. Lacking single player quality, but still awesome.
2) Final Fantasy 3/6. The best role playing game ever made. Great story line, great magic/skills system. A classic for the old tight SNES.
3) Age of Empires 2: Age of Kings The Conquerors. The best real time strategy game ever made. Easy game play, wealth of strategies, great replay value.
4) Final Fantasy 7. The second best role playing game ever made. Great story line, but pretty crappy magic/skills system. Materia? What the hell?
5) Half Life 2. Superb. The best single player first person shooter I have ever played. CSS is decent as well.
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both."
-Benjamin Franklin