Which FPS Games Are The "Most Engaging"?

[kjetil1991]

half life 2 because of the story line and gameplay, gravity gun was the most genius weapon ever made. and maybe mirrors edge too. and halo 3 ofcourse

[Pilot_51]

Battlefield 1942 by far, I've had it for about 6 years now and I rarely get bored of it. I just love how epic it can make those WWII battles feel, with the huge variety of vehicles with mostly realistic-feeling physics, and a strong emphasis on teamwork and strategy.
With over 4300 total gaming hours logged on my Xfire profile since January 2004, BF1942 holds almost 1000 hours, about 400 above #2. It obviously doesn't have much of a single player mode, but the multiplayer gives it the best replay value by far.
Before BF1942 and before I upgraded my PC to play it, I played a lot of Quake2, mostly with the No Item Quake (NIQ) mod.

Best single player game is a tough one. There are many great ones out there, some of which I've played through twice or more, and believe me I rarely play through a single player game more than once. I want to say System Shock 2, but it was co-op with a friend twice after playing alone once, and I bet the co-op is what made it so very fun.
There's the Half-Life series (I've played it all, it's about equally good all the way through), Portal, and the C&C series (haven't quite played it all, but what I've played has a good storyline).

A few other games I play frequently (at least an hour per month): UT2004, Raven Shield, Battlefield 2, Garry's Mod, and There.

My budget might have something to do with my opinion, but I find a lot of the newer games to not be very attracting. A lot of them seem to just take a bunch of ideas from other games and slap on the best graphics they can. Then again I've been saying that a lot since around 2004, but most games I play I find to be very enjoyable (though not as much as BF1942 in the long run).

BF2142 to me is one of those cruddy EA sequels from a series they didn't create, they just destroyed what I liked about the Battlefield series, which was mostly the accuracy of real-world objects in the game and/or the sense of action in a historical setting.

So, given all the incredible games I've played, BF1942 really stands out as the best game ever IMO.