I'll throw an odd one in.....NHL 2005 for PC.
Gameplay-wise, I liked it the best of that the games made with that engine.
But I like it for a strange reason. That year they wanted to revamp the create-a-player but it wasn't ready for launch day, so they scrapped it.
What that meant was whatever players were in the game, whatever their ratings were, that was the only options you had for customizing your teams. The Dynasty mode rewarded you for keeping your team salary low, so as you moved forward through the seasons, there was a lot more experimentation and I ended up using guys I probably never would have as I couldn't create or modify any players into the game.