I don't play games too often anymore, but I am absolutely in love their potential as a medium. Amateur game design is actually one of my side projects, however working in collaboration with flaky friends is a huge impediment to progress in that field.

Most of the games I like are the artsy, offbeat ones. Shadow of the Colossus, Katamari Damacy, Okami, Silent Hill (the first two, at least), Ico, Psychonauts, etc. There was a period where I played a lot of RPGs, however I more or less gave up when I realized they were quite time consuming and very few were on par with Xenogears, Chrono Trigger, or Final Fantasy VI (that's six, not the overrated seven). Growing up I loved all of Miyamoto's games, Lucasarts adventure games (particularly the Schafer ones), Marathon (not a huge FPS fan but this game was really something else), Mega Man 2, Castlevania (particularly 4 and "Symphony of the Night"), and Ganbare Goemon (known here as "Legend of the Mystical Ninja," a great overlooked gem). A lot of others, too, give me time and I'll remember. I will also say that whatever its fanbase, "GTA San Andreas" is an amazing game designwise - the level of detail they put into designing those cities is just ridiculous! I thought GTA 4 was beyond stupid though....

The most recent system I have is the PS2. Once "Trico" (or "The Last Guardian") comes out I'm going to have to buy a PS3, so I'm waiting until that point to play "Bayonetta" and "Brutal Legend," games by some of my favorite directors that I'm really looking forward to.

Most of the games I like have good music that is well integrated, so I usually listen to their soundtracks (and actually, I own most of the soundtracks so I tend to listen to them a lot anyway). The one exception is "Viewtiful Joe," because Joe's voice is SO damn annoying.