Just wanted to elaborate on my #50 since I like writing and have no life:
Mount & Blade: Warband.
This game showed yet again what small-timers can do through sheer love for what they're doing and by thinking simple and engaging. This was the expansion to the original Mount & Blade but I'm writing it as its own title since it is considered essential to the core experience since its release.
The genius premise is a travelling map with a single rider as your character being presented upon starting the game, after you create a character with a lot of skills you have likely not seen in most RPG's, such as Siege, Surgeon, Prison Management etc.
Your character is both a soldier and a commander and you amass a large or small band of troops that can be upgraded by earning experience in battle, if you can keep them alive for long enough, that is... you can recruit villagers (or recruits... 
) from six different factions and these can be trained into different troops and fitting different categories.
Being able to command a large army while simultaneously taking part in the battles is amazing and the combat is simple, logical and amazingly fun. It is is based on your skill and timing as well as weight, speed and reach, it is very direct and relies on physics and actual hits rather than a background calculation modified by a skillset or attribute and magical weapon stats.
Archery is especially fun and relies the most on skill, it is very challenging but a very dangerous tool once learned, especially during sieges, the bow will be a most welcome companion.
The world is large and populated by bandits and deserters as well as trade caravans and armies lead by various lords and nobles from the different factions and there is quite a bit of diplomacy involved as well as the large scale battles. You may choose to become somone's bannerman or you can be an independent rogue that screws all equally and can even found your own faction, but that's an incredibly tough task.
Why I love this game, in short; value, value, value in bucketloads, a bunch of fantastic mods, amazing and simple combat, simple yet logical economy, option of becoming a fierce warrior first and foremost or a charismatic commander with larger armies; there are plenty of skills that benefit the group as a whole and finding the balance between self-reliance and field commander worth is great fun.
Great blend of strategy and RPG and easily one of the greatest Indie titles ever released.
Essay Pro