Out of curiosity what modern games do you think deserve to be considered classics? And why?
Morrowind. A crystallizing moment for the sandbox genre, reminding everybody that as good as GTA III was, that didn't mean that sandboxes had to be limited to urban crime sims. A huge, beautiful world, with a highly distinctive look that sets it apart from traditional "medieval Europe, but with dragons" fantasy settings, but small enough that the dev team were able to lavish detail and make every region, town, and dungeon feel unique. A
gorgeous soundtrack that never gets old. A complex, intriguing plot, but one that you can pursue entirely at your leisure, instead of being dragged through twenty-minute cutscenes between spurts of gameplay like so many other fantasy RPGs, with plenty of other things to do instead if you want a break; and backing it up, a rich mythology in the form of a
vast selection of well-written in-game literature. And best of all, a comprehensive editor suite included
right there with the game, so that its player community has been able to create huge amounts of extra content, upgrade the graphics well past the awkward PS1-era models included with the original game, and generally keep it polished - maybe not quite to present-day standards, but definitely far better than other games from 2002 have ever got.
Even its own sequels haven't really equalled it, in my opinion.