Basically any of these: Age of Empires / Age of Mythology Series Armies of Exigo Game Warcraft Series Command and Conquer: Generals Series (not sure about other C&C's) StarCraft II again because it is that good. Company of Heroes (though not as suggested as any of the above)
Age is very good through its campaigns but also is exceptional for educational purposes (pshhh, learnt more on Age than in History classes. :P ) StarCraft II mods are incredible, I should note "Smashcraft" as quite possibly the best one. Command and Conquer is pretty cool with the expansion, gives you a feeling of being overpowered with pretty much w/e branch you go (Toxic, Nuclear, Infantry, Tank, Air Force, Demolition, Stealth, Super Weapon, Lazer), through different units. Armies of Exigo I can only submit because it was the first (of 2) games which had made me play the game consecutively without playing another, as well as NEVER finding out the ending premature to it (the second was SCII ). Warcraft. What can I say? Story: Perfect Gameplay: Not even sure - I never played it Story: Makes up for Gameplay (if it's bad). Modding: Probably great - DOTA was born on these games, folks. (Aion of Strife was a SCI map that a modder essentially took inspiration on and ended up creating DotA).
Hmm, thank you H. I forgot that I tried Warcraft and it's great both in Story AND Gameplay. Tonight I'll get Command and Conquer, and can you tell me which Command and Conquer? Cuz there are more of it I think.
Command and conquer!!!!, any of them really, they are all really good in my opinion, you could go for cnc renegade, thats a first person and 3 person shooter, you could go for red alert which is about the russians and the u.s., well actually the soviet union, not russia., you could pla the first or second one of those, or you coul get the first decade, which includes every single cnc game made in the first decade from them. or maybe even starcraft the first one.
I can suggest a really good one, but I warn you it is old. It doesn't really compare to the newer games mentioned above, but it's a really fun and simple game that I think is worth picking up (you can get it for under five dollars). It's called Celtic Kings, although the company makes quite a few other games that are great as well.