It depends on the game. As far as fighting games go, I'd choose a human opponent. Some fighting games are notorious for pitting the player up against AI-controlled characters who can consistently pull off moves with perfect execution that the typical human player would have great difficulty doing even the first time around. Playing against another human player can potentially equalize the game a little. I feel that fighting games aren't just about knowing where to use your character's moves and when, they're also about the execution of the moves, so playing against the AI; which dosen't have to deal with execution; is in one sense taking away a part of the game for me at least. On a sidenote, playing against a human who has flawless execution is fine to me, as that person has learnt to execute his moves in such a manner through practice, whereas the AI iis simply to work that way. Not sure if I explained this quite as clearly as I could have, hope this dosen't cause any confusion. :P

As for Shooters I think I'd prefer to play with bots. Most of the reasons I'm not a big fan of playing with other players were already covered by the other posters here, but one point in particular that's worth mentioning is that you're inevitably going to run into a lot of people online; particularly in the shooter genre; who might do things that aren't neccessarily the most tactically sound things to do. :P I was trying to think of a polite way to put it, but I think it would be sufficient to say that a lot of the bots I've seen actually play better than a huge number of the human players I've come across. :P

While it is true that you might run into rude players when playing fighting games too, I find that playing shooters online puts me the company of both rude and stupid people, whereas whenever I play fighters I run into a lot less of both. Whether or not others have had a similar expierience to that is another matter. so to summarize, it simply depends on the game in question.

I always keep mine. I don't think I've ever even considered throwing any of them away, not even the ones that came in poor condition from the shop. :P

Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight. Some 5vs5 Skirmish games.

I would consider pretty much every Ace Combat game's soundtrack to be a favourite of mine, along with those of Odin Sphere and Valkyria Chronicles.

I would highly recommend Ikaruga and Guwange, both are some of the best games in the genre available through the XBLA. Being manic shooters they're obviously very different from Fez, Torchlight and MotN, but they're well worth it if you're into the genre.

It's a rare instance for me to find a game's narrative that been so werll-written that it manages to evoke such a strong emotional response from me, but there are a select few. With the exception of Lost Odyssey, most of the following games are ones which I haven't heard about many crying over, while there are a lot of games which I heard made others cry but didn't seem to have anything similar to that effect on me.

• Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway
• FFXIII
• Ace Combat: Squadron Leader (Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War outside of EU)
• Lost Odyssey

The first time, always. On subsequent start-ups, it depends on how good it was.

Probably Lenneth Valkyrie from Valkyrie Profile.