Damn this is hard..... so 2002 is is far back as I can go... grr... Love how so many people picked before 2002 so I will pick a few games in each category to also break the rules...
Shooters- Half Life 2, Battlefield 2 and Team Fortress 2. (runner up Arma 2 I wish I had more time for this game its hard but so damn rewarding!)
RPG's- Dragon Age Origins, Kotor (Kotor 2 would of been better if Lucasarts didn't rush Obsidian with only a year of development time) and Skyrim (just waiting for developer tools to come out and more mods) (Runner up Mass Effect series (if it had so more game mechanics of Kotor like melee and hand to hand I would of exploded but its still a great series none the less)
Strategy- Homeworld 2 (love the mods this game has and yes HW1 is way better), Sins, and Sword of the Stars (Hope Sots2 is fully up and running in 2-3 months) Man I love sci fi. Runner up Distant Worlds- its started out rough but this game keeps its rate of improvement omg it could top my list for favorite sci fi game.
Turn Based- GalCiv2, Civ IV, Medieval Total War (I want Civ V to be here but no, choices the company makes and the skeleton crew to work on Civ 5... gr... One can only hope for a amazing expansion.)
MMO- Eve Online, (TOR has some stronger areas like its better in single player department and group missions than eve but thats it)
Fighting Games- Super Smash Bros Smash and Brawl (this game is pretty damn close to perfect in my book and also Link and Sheik for the win!), Dead of Alive 4 (I don't play many fighting games so sue me)
Racing- Forza 4, Burnout Revenge, F Zero GX (why the hell hasn't Nintendo pushed out another game is beyond me, love the music and how crazy hard this game can get and oh yes Captain Falcon!)