No. 14 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2 & PC, also on X-box)
The only GTA game on my list as it's quite simply brilliant. For me, the content in this game alone was enough to push this game up to 14th. All the aspects that made GTAIII and Vice City great were thrown into this game and then the content was doubled to create a gloriously fun package. Great missions, lots of cars, diverse environments (3 different cities, countryside, dessert) and flying jets! I preffered the mafia story of Vice City, but the sheer volume of the game world and the variety of things to do make this game the best GTA game ever created!
No. 13 Half-Life (PC also on PS2)
I think this game really needs to be put into perspective to truly appreciate the revolution it brough to the FPS genre and general single-player storytelling in video games. It came out in a time where FPS' were all arcade shooters like Quake, Doom or Unreal, had little to no narrative, poor AI, unrealistic damage models (didn't matter where you hit someone, the damage was the same) and where everyone was a beefed up generic soldier (actually, not much has changed in that respect). Half-Life broke the mold. You played a geeky scientist, headshots would actually kill, the AI actually flanked you and flushed you out with grenades rather than running into walls and the narrative was excellent and told throughout the game world.
Quite simply, it was the first game to truly combine all these aspects into one revolutionary package. The narrative especially; for the first level you didn't even get a gun as it just built-up tension and set the scene for the rest of the game. The lack of cut-scenes and the fact that everything was seen in first-person also meant that a greater level of immersion could be maintained making you actually feel like you were Gordon Freeman. It also balanced the action with superb level design and puzzle elements requiring you to actually use a modicum of thought as opposed to the pure gibb-fest of previous FPS titles.
It's also worth remembering that the mods that sprung from this game (namely Counterstrike, but others like Day of Defeat as well) have gone on to become some of the greatest and most popular multiplayer FPS' in the world, many still being played today. Basically, nearly every FPS on the market today has been influenced in one way or another by Half-Life.
