This is practically IMHO. I’m curious what games (computer and console) are the epitome of their genre.
FPS: I vote for Unreal Tournament. I’ve had more fun with it than with any sequal.
RPG: Planescape: Torment.
Adventure: The Longest Journey.
Survival Horror: Alone in the Dark.
What other games are the apex of their genre?
FPS - Half Life
Adventure - Grim Fandango
RPG - Wizardry 1
RTS - Rise of Nations
TBS - Civ 2
First Person Sneaker - Thief 1
MMORPG - Anarchy Online
Special Consideration - Rogue Spear
Oh, I didn’t realize you wanted the epitome, I just listed my favorite.
In that case I change RTS to Age of Empires and MMORPG to Everquest. Modern RPG would be Baldur’s Gate 2 but Wiz 1 wins for classic.
For RPGs, I’d have to nominate Final Fantasy VI and VII, and Chrono Trigger. Although it looks like you guys are computer gamers, not platformers.
For the run, jump, shoot, and collect things genre, it’s a pretty close tie between Jak & Daxter and Ratchet & Clank (in 3D, that is–Wizards & Warriors owned that style of gaming in 2D).
FPS - Halo (What are you guys THINKING?!?!?:dubious: )
(However Unreal is good, it’s more of a fast paced game than a strategic one)(And Half-life and it’s sequels are great (CS))
RPG - Final Fantasy VII most likely
Diablo 2 (LoD) is fairly good
MMORPG - Everquest (not when World of Warcraft comes out though 
)
RTS - Starcraft, possibly Warcraft…
Platform Fighting - Super Smash Bros (melee), Soul Calibur (2), Street Fighter
RTS - Age of Empires II, Conquerors. Yeah, it’s a microsoft game, and yeah, it doesn’t even run right on their own system, but…
It’s balanced perfectly. There’s no defense that can’t be broken by someone more skilled or paying more attention, and there’s no attack that can’t be stopped in a similar manner. Every unit has its enemies. And the map editor? Well, ok, it’s a bit clunky for the complex stuff, but some of the scenarios folks have made with it are incredible!
Role-playing game? I’m’a nominate two, so take THAT conformity!
Fallout, and Fallout Two. REAL character development, stuff your character does actually affects the outcome of the game, and a great sense of actually being there. Not a click-watch-click-watch ‘game’ like some of the Final Fantasy series is.
New category: Humor
I nominate for permanent #1 status the all-time great “Sam & Max Hit the Road”. An older point-and-click adventure game with the cutest little hyperkinetic rabbity-thing you ever saw clamp onto someone’s jugular vein while screaming “death from above!”
Well… permanent until the new one comes out!!!
Adventure: Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time / Link to the Past
First Person Shooter: Half-Life (Goldeneye for multiplayer)
Platformer: Super Mario 64
RTS: Total Annihlation
Humor: Conker’s Bad Fur Day
How can anyone nominate anything other than Fallout 2 for best RPG ever?
Racing game: F-Zero (yes, on Super Nintendo/Famicom)
Fighting games: King of Fighters 2002, Street Fighter Alpha 3
Racing: Daytona USA 2 (I dunno if this ever came to console, I only got to play it at the arcades once)
Lightgun: Silent Scope 1 and 2
I second dutchboy208’s F-Zero nomination.
Because the same company made Planescape: Torment and it is better.
Music: Amplitude (PS2) 
RPG- I’ve never played Fallout or Fallout 2, so I can’t rate those (though I was a BIG fan of ‘Wasteland’ on my Apple II+), so my vote goes to Arcanum. Large world, what you did had an effect on the endgame, and lots and lots of choices for character development (granted, I always ended up either a melee specialist, a gunsmith with good firearm skills, or a wizard with the necromancy / force / translocation combo, but still, the options were there).
Blasphemy.
I will evade the FF style/PC style RPG issue by splitting it:
RPG(console): Xenogears
RPG(PC): Fallout 1 and 2
New catagory:
Space sim - Descent: Freespace (1 and 2)
RTS: Starcraft
FPS(PC): Half-Life
FPS(console): Perfect Dark (although, I HAVEN’T played Halo yet; I’ll probably get it for PC soon)
Racing: San Francisco Rush (or, preferably, **Rush 2: The Rock).
Space combat: Star Raiders. Word!
Text adventure: Anything by Infocom in general, Trinity in particular.
FPS: Doom. No muss, no fuss, grab 'n gun.
RPG: Planescape: Torment. Brilliant writing, memorable characters, a huge world, fantastic graphics, freedom of alignment… The perfect RPG experience, period. And it’s not like I haven’t played the best. Chrono Trigger, all the Final Fantasies, the Fallout series… Sure, they’re good, but Torment eclipses them all with room to spare.
FPS: Half-Life (Halo? Please. Just an average shooter with pretty graphics. Half-Life was nearly as revolutionary as Doom, and the former is still fun today.)
Adventure: Grim Fandango. It made me laugh, it made me cry. It’s made all of my friends who I’ve lent it to laugh and cry, too. This game proves outright that games can be art.
Turn-Based Strategy: Worms, in any form in the original series. Worms, worms, worms. What can I say about worms? Funny. Takes a minute to learn, and years to master. Hugely moddable. Just awesome.
Hah, AVERAGE shooter?
More like the best FPS.
Yes, Doom was revolutionary for its time. So was pong.
It is a good game, but multiplayer is what gets me. I’d rather have multiple possibilities playing thousands of different people than just play against the computer ive beat over and over…
Now halo ISn’t the most balanced game… and is quite exploitable in many ways (Pistol owns…), But it takes A LOT of practice to get better.
RPG: Suikoden 2
This series doesn’t get nearly enough credit. The game isn’t half as flashy as Final Fantasy games, but it’s got tons of interesting characters and never forgets to be fun.
Strategy RPG: Final Fantasy Tactics
Not just the best strategy RPG, but the best game ever made.
First Person Shooter: Half-Life
Platformer: Super Mario 64
It was unquestionably ground-breaking and influenced just about every game, not just platform game, that came after it. The key, though, is that it’s still the best in terms of control, pacing, design, and presentation.
Graphic Adventure: Day of the Tentacle
With DOTT, some of the puzzles are as interesting as the cutscenes, and you really feel like you’re interacting with a story instead of just watching an animated movie.
Humor: You Don’t Know Jack: Movies
Best writing of any videogame, ever, period. When this was released, I was convinced that the industry had finally entered the stage where people would no longer accept writing that was just “good for a videogame” and demand more maturity and intelligence. That didn’t happen. This is still a damn fine game.
Music/rhythm: Gitaroo-Man
Not the most innovative in its genre (that’d be Parappa the Rapper), but the best in execution
MMORPG: Final Fantasy XI
Maybe too early to judge, but this is the game I was expecting when I first heard about Everquest.