actually it still counts starcraft grew from a cancelled WH40k game (cancelled as GW wouldn't let them make it and refused the IP deal :P )heck they didn't even have the decency to change the graphics in some cases

Actually, the Flood is probably not in the "ripoff" area. Endless swarms of scary stuff is pretty much as old as time itself.

Well there's a fine line between referencing/inspiration and blatant plagiarism. But I would probably say Combat Arms kinda stole Counter Strike. At least the boring parts.

First of all, both science fiction and fantasy have a lot of idea sharing. Most races from both come from works that predate Warhammer and the *Craft games by far.
However, Zerg didn't really rip off Tyranids. Tyranids ripped off the Zerg. Yes, Tyranids existed first, but they looked nothing like they do now. When Starcraft came out, the Zerg, while still not original (you'd have to be blind not to see Giger's influence), looked nothing like the Tyranids of the time. Games Workshop probably looked at the Zerg, thought it was a great idea, and ripped Blizzard off (although in sci-fi/fantasy, it's generally more accurate to say influenced than ripped off), so everyone just assumed that Blizzard ripped off the Tyranids.

Actually, a lot of people claim that Warcraft/Starcraft were based on supposedly cancelled Warhammer and Warhammer 40K computer games (or rather, that Games Workshop withdrew the licence or something), but that's all urban legend, as far as I can tell. There is no proof that either Warcraft or Starcraft were originally conceived as WH/WH40K computer games. Blizzard simply "borrowed" heavily from Games Workshop, in the same way that Games Workshop in turn "borrowed" a great deal from Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings", in addition to other fantasy (and later sci-fi) sources.

Theres actually a lawsuit in place but it's sealed and since it was filed in the UK its not on the american court computer system. I do know that the year the settlement happend GW showed a rather large profit compared to other years since I know someone who got a rather nice bonus outta it :P

Catacomb 3d itself was a blatant rippoff of hovertank 3d!

Hardly surprising. Some of the WoW design team were members of Everquest's top raiding guilds back in the day.

Which was a direct rip of Maze War.

Bioshock is basically a mash-up of System Shock 2, the Fallout series and the philosophy of Ayn Rand.

I played Dark Star One for the first time yesterday. I thought maybe it was a sequel to Freelancer. NOPE!....