Here it is, our second installment eulogizing our favorite titles from the last generation of video game consoles. You can read the first part, which features Dan Brooks’s top five games, HERE.

This second list comes from erstwhile pal of the site ALLEN RUCH, a man whose highly articulate passion for video games arrived a bit later than with many of us (the lucky devil), but runs deeper than Earth’s Inner Core.

Here’s his Top 10.

1. Grand Theft Auto:San Andreas (PS2/Xbox)

GTA III was the revolutionary game that changed all the rules, and Vice City was more fun than cutting lines of coke on a neon synthesizer. But San Andreas was the fulfillment of the GTA promise, a true masterpiece, and I can honestly say I’ve never enjoyed playing a video game more. Cruising the sun-drenched streets of Los Santos in my low-rider, receiving a radio education in old-school hip hop from Chuck D; careening Bullitt-style across the hills of San Fierro while a burned-out Peter Fonda babbles about flying saucers; evading missiles over the desert while flying planes for a deliriously crazy James Woods; hunting down rogue cop Samuel L. Jackson as the city is consumed by a riot… The epic scope of San Andreas combined numerous genres with wit and good humor, all the while doubling as a trenchant satire of American culture. (Props must be given to the Xbox version not just for improved graphics and sound, but because it allowed me to commit acts of mayhem to my own mixed tapes of Nirvana and Johnny Cash.)

2. Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (Xbox/PS2)

Every Splinter Cell game is amazing—a blend of exotic, James-Bond style locations, jaw-dropping graphics, and wickedly strategic gameplay. But the third was the high-water mark, perfecting everything that makes the franchise great, and bringing a degree of characterization to Sam Fisher that makes Solid Snake seem like, well… a mere video game character. I realize that the Splinter Cell games are not for everybody, but no game rewards careful planning and spider-like patience quite like Splinter Cell—and all those wonderful, wonderful gadgets!

Read the rest of Allen’s Top 10 after the jump.

3. Manhunt (PS2/Xbox)

Probably the darkest game published for either system, the feeling of playing Manhunt lingers years after I’ve finished it. Like that memory of having my head trapped in a plastic bag while I was drowning in sewage. Sulking through an industrial desolation, shard of glass in hand, stealthily approaching a white supremacist as he raves about rebirth and Jesus and “shedding his skin,� all the while Brian Cox whispering in my earpiece, “Kill him, Cash, take out this racist fuck…� There were moments in Manhunt where I wanted to put down the controller and take a shower. And yet, what I remember more than the brutality and horror is the impressive A.I.—Manhunt made you feel like you were being hunted by violent psychopaths, which made your executions all the more…satisfying.

4. Halo (Xbox)

Yes, Halo 2 had multiplayer, an expanded story, additional vehicles, and so on. And it was awesome. But there’s something about that feeling of first crashing on Halo, and realizing… this is a ringworld, by God, and…all these weirdo, electric-blue aliens, they’re out to get me…. And by the middle of the game, after you’ve played through a couple of hair-raising, massive-scale engagements, and you suddenly understand that the Flood is attacking both you and the Covenant, while the automated forces of Halo itself want all three of you dead…

5. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Xbox)

Though I’m not a huge fan of either the Star Wars universe or computer RPGs, KOTOR was insanely engaging, a game that was not afraid to think big. The breadth of the storyline, with the sweep of ancient history… and then, you know, the famous twist, where the roller coaster drops, and you realize that you can actually play the game in several different ways… And best of all, the game was just as rewarding no matter how you played it, whether you redeemed yourself or fell happily to the Dark Side. Ah, poor George Lucas—this is what the Star Wars prequels should have been!

6. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 (PS2)

Years later, perched upon the summit of piled-up Tony Hawk games, it’s easy to see that THPS 1 and 2 were leading up to THPS 3; a landmark game after which the franchise would wander in the hit-or-miss wilderness, never again recapturing the magic of that third-time’s-the-charm outing. And let’s face it, we all know it, Neversoft knows it, Jack Thompson knows it. Customized characters, crazy-fun levels (Canada! The Cruise Ship!), a perfect bag of tricks…sure, it would have been cool to do a Natas Spin, but come on—who gives a shit about getting off your board? THPS 3 was pure fucking bliss, a moment of Gaming Innocence, and there’s been nothing like it since.

7. God of War 2 (PS2)

All right, so the platforming is not as elegant as Prince of Persia, and the combat is not as tight as Ninja Gaiden. Who cares? God of War takes everything that’s cool about Greek Mythology to a twelve-year old boy, and turns it into a playable version of the greatest Ray Harryhausen film never made—with well-placed checkpoints, intuitive mechanics, and boss battles that are actually enjoyable. (And a “holy cow!� moment of cinematic delight once every hour.) And while God of War I was undeniably awesome (Your skin is permanently stained white by the ashes of your slain family!), God of War II upped the ante, adding a cast of bizarre titans, and allowing you rip the wings from griffons in flight. Oh, and Harry Hamlin “reprises� his role as Perseus—but this time, as a total asshole!

8. SSX 3 (PS2/Xbox)

What THPS 3 was to the Tony Hawk franchise, SSX3 was to the SSX series; all other SSX games were working up to this high point, and all the following games were a letdown. With its crazy-ass characters and those incredible, unforgettable slopes—those wonderful, high-speed, reckless, mad-fun, invite your friends over and get stoned and drink beer and snowboard for hours and hours slopes, SSX3 was a shining example of video game purity.

9. Fatal Frame (PS2/Xbox)

As a big fan of survival horror games, I can’t say that Fatal Frame is the scariest—but it did tell the best story, and unlike most video games, it told its story with maturity and even grace. Based around a mechanic of snapping photographs of ghosts, Fatal Frame created an unsettling atmosphere of ritualistic murder and decay to support a fairly ingenuous “combat� system. (Once you powered it up, the “camera obscura� was more fun than all the shotguns of the world combined.) Somewhat underrated, it’s definitely a game worth playing alone in the dark.

10. Silent Hill 2 (PS2)

No other Silent Hill game was as scary as Silent Hill 2. First of all, the franchise was young, so its twittering, homicidal nurses and psychedelic cockroach textures had the full power to shock and appall. At the time, there was no movie, no lame sequels, no parodies—Silent Hill seemed to be a unique creation, something truly born from a delightfully warped imagination. Especially the second game—there was something deeply fucked up about Silent Hill 2. Your character was not really a nice guy, was he? Seems he may have suffocated his ailing wife? And what were those dark, sexual undertones coloring the game? Was the town some kind of judgmental, Freudian hell? Those suggestions of child molestation and suicide? And of course, the time you opened a door, and it seemed that Pyramid Head was, uh, raping…something? No, there was nothing pleasant about Silent Hill 2, and that’s why, despite terrible controls and a lame combat system, it was an unforgettable gaming experience.

Honorable mentions:

-Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (PS2)
Screw Raiden, right? And please, with the endless cut scenes, just let me play! But that tanker level! So many awesome games were born in the labyrinth of that tanker.

-Ninja Gaiden (Xbox)
Oh, so demanding, so weird; but so very, very smooth.

-Midnight Club 3 DUB Edition (PS2/Xbox)
Pure arcade racing excitement, with ridiculously fun car customization.

-The Warriors (PS2/Xbox)
The gameplay had kinks, but the atmosphere and dialogue were simply brilliant.

-Resident Evil 4
Sure, the plot makes little sense, and the dialogue less so; but when those villagers come at you…

-Allen Ruch

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