Best games of the past decade

Since everyone else and their brother is doing a best games of the decade list, I thought I'd go ahead and do one myself.  It's not like anybody else is actually right, anyway, so I figure why the hell not.  Besides, while my taste in games may be slightly different than the average person's, it's still my list, and if you disagree that's fine, just keep in mind, nobody's asking you to play them.  They're just the games that I liked.  So here we go, in no particular order.

• Microsoft's Flight Simulator X:  As much as I hate Microsoft under the leadership of Steve Balmer, this is one product that Microsoft has never failed to do right.  The improvements to the physics and graphics were incredible, and the AI was light years ahead of its predecessor FS9.  Even better, many of the mods made for FS9 worked as well or better in FSX, and that's where Flight Simulator really stands out.  Throw in new aircraft, flight routes, and AI carriers from countless different sources, and you felt like you were living in the world of commercial air transportation.  Of course, I was just happy that the jetways actually moved and connected to your plane at the airport, so I suppose I'm easy to impress.  I would have preferred a more instructive flight training simulatiion, more along the lines of what FS9 had, but it wasn't a big deal to just go back to FS9 and learn how to fly again.  Other than that, the only thing I was really hoping for out of the followup to FSX was people on the ground.  Airport workers, people walking to and from the airport terminals and near the hangars, even kids watching the airplanes from inside the terminal.  That would have been cool, but sadly it will never be since Microsoft killed Flight Simulator's production team and laid off all of it's developers.  One of many reasons I wish Steve Balmer a thorough anal probing by aliens.
• Portal:  An FPS with no weapons, no enemies, but just amazingly thought out puzzles and one of the most hilarious narrative stories I have come across in video games.  When we are old and wrinkled, when our grandchildren come to us seeking sage wisdom from our long, experience-filled lives, we will look at them with a tear in our eye, smile at them with the compassion of one who has seen it all in our long years, and say "the cake is a lie".  They will look at us and think we're fucking nuts, but we know what we're talking about.  Our own grandparents suffered through hard years of economic disaster, wars that killed millions, and untold suffering for generations, yet we were fortunate enough to learn all of life's lessons in 19 puzzles created by a computer construct trying to tempt us with cake.
• Company of Heroes: I generally don't like many strategy games, but Company of Heroes is one of a few exceptions to the rule, and I'm not even sure why.  Yes, the graphics are pretty frickin' awesome, and the gameplay is somewhat realistic, but usually that's not enough for me to fall in love with a game.  What matters most, though, is that the game is quite simply fun to play.  I really can't place my finger on a single item that makes this game stand out in my mind, but it simply is one of my favorite games from the last decade.  I even have this strange sort of addiction to it that is beyond explanation.  I'm dead serious about this, too.  It's triggered almost every day, when I'm putting the dishes away.  As I'm taking the silverware out of the dishwasher and putting it in the drawer, I always, and I mean that literally, I always get an extremely strong urge to stop what I'm doing and go play Company of Heroes.  I doubt a team of the world's greatest minds will ever figure out what makes that connection in my brain, but there it is, and any game that can do that has to be an outstanding game.
• EVE Online:  Otherwise known as making spreadsheets fun.  Seriously, that's essentially what this game is, a giant fucking spreadsheet with pictures, but it's a blast, and has some of the most unique qualities I've ever seen in a video game.  Admittedly there's an awful lot of grinding if you don't want to pay to play, and the LONG process of leveling up can, I admit, take some of the fun out of the game, but if you're willing to be patient, put in the time, and not get mad when someone flips a can on you, then you can have a blast with this game.  Besides, it's still the only game where everyone is playing in the same universe.  You don't choose a server to play on, you log in, and literally everyone is there where you are.  I haven't played it in a while, I admit, but I waisted far, far too many hours in that game simply mining ore, and I liked it.
• Auto Assault: This game got short shafted big time.  I will probably never understand why it didn't take off any more than it did, but sadly it had a short lifespan, even for your average MMORPG.  I mean, you're a battle car, in a future apocalyptic world, and your job is to go out and kick ass.  What's not fun about that.  I know, a lot of people complained that the populations were too low on the servers, that finding people to campaign with was too difficult, but I disagree.  Then again, I'm not your typical MMO player, either, even though I like to play MMO's.  I liked Auto Assault because in all actuality I could play it as a single-player game.  I liked the fact that I could be out doing a quest, and some random person, another human, could be lying in wait to kick my ass.  I never got worked up over the crafting bugs in the game like other people did, but then again crafting has never been my thing in video games.  I much prefer to take all the loot I pick up, sell it, then buy what I need, but that's how I am in real life, too.  I don't want to make a sandwich when I can buy one, so why would I want to do that in a game?  But that's just me.  If I ever get rich and start my own development studio, this is a game that I'm going to try to remake.
• Guild Wars:  No, it's not World of Warcraft, and in spite of what GW players typically say, should never be compared to WoW.  The only comparison between GW and WoW is the fact that they're both fantasy-based games, but otherwise the gameplay is completely different, and that's a good thing.  I like Guild Wars because it has a pretty awesome story line, but mostly because, again, it's an MMO I can play as a single-player game if I want to, and if I don't want to engage in PvP play, I don't have to. Ever.  Then again if I do want to engage in PvP, that's easy enough to do also, and I like the way that PvP is structured in arenas, like in some ancient Colosseum.  Many argue that Guild Wars is not a true MMO, and there's some merit to that argument, but it's still a fun game that can suck up way too many hours of your life if you let it.
• Day of Defeat/DoD:Source:  Easily my favorite game for several years running.  The gameplay itself is simple.  Shoot the enemy, don't get shot, but it was the first multiplayer game I really got into.  I spent far, far too many hours playing this game, but I made some great friends in the process.  Graphically, not the best game in the world, but I found it much, much more enjoyable than Counter Strike, for the simple fact that even if you suck and die a lot, you don't have to wait long to respawn and start playing again.  I got better, though, so I didn't suck for too awful long.
• Battlefield: Vietnam:  Another mod that was, in my opinion as good as or better than the original.  Battlefield 1942 wasn't a great game in my opinion, because even though it came with a single-player campaign, it left a LOT to be desired.  BF:Vietnam wasn't like that at all.  They made no attempt to pretend there was a playable single-player element to the game, the weapons and vehicles were fun to play, and most of the stock maps were big enough that you could play for hours without wanting to change maps.  Loved this game, and wish I still had it.  Not only that, but the game's soundtrack seriously kicked ass.

There are more really great games that came out over the last decade, many that probably deserve to be on this list.  These are primarily the ones that stick out in my mind, and others that deserve to be on this list, like Doom3, F.E.A.R. etc... didn't get listed simply because I'd be here writing all damned day.