Way behind here, gonna do a short rundown of some titles I didn't mention yet:
#39: S.T.A.L.K.E.R Shadow of Chernobyl (GSC Game World, PC):
I was drawn in to the first trailers and gameplay videos of this; it seemed like an intense, semi-realistic shooter with a grim and oppressing atmosphere and challenging combat. Despite numerous delays; the game really delivered on the promises, it presents itself in a way that extremely few shooters besides Bioshock and Metor 2033 have managed, I'd go so far as to say extremely few games at all come close to this. Creeping around underground with poor health and no food, only a flashlight and a fairly strictly limited supply of ammo, all the while surrounded by faint echoes of screams, heavy breathing and dragging feet that could jump around the next corner is truly intense and you don't want to mess with the military above ground. Even bandits are a challenge under certain circumstances and you can take nothing for granted. The game did have some issues, it has a fairly uninteresting narrative and the side missions are quite uninspired overall but the modding community have helped lift this title over the potholes it had and it stands as a monumental title that all FPS fans owe themselves to play.
#38: Tomb Raider (Core Design, PS1):
One of the flagship titles of the PS1 back in the day, it featured an excellent and unique blend of action and puzzle gameplay; sort of like a 3D platformer in many ways. The level design was fantastic and the music was enthralling and the graphics were great in their age, the main character went on to become a cult symbol for the gaming industry of the 90's and this was in no small part due to her character model design; she had, quite frankly, boobs big enough to make small mountains ashamed over themselves. The layout of the game was clean and simple; you enter various tombs, lairs, caverns and ruins and go in search of artifacts, there are encounters with various creatures, ranging from wolves to dinosaurs (!), people and even mummies (sort of) and there is a great deal of variety to the environments you explore. Fantastic game that showed the world, along with Mario 64, how to pull of proper 3D gameplay in 3rd person view.
#37: King's Bounty: The Legend (Katauri Interactive, PC):
A sort of remake of the New World Computing (Heroes of Might & Magic) classic from 1990, this game is a mix of strategy and RPG, not unlike Heroes of Might & Magic, but it takes everything deeper. There are a lot of different units to be recruited and fought, a bunch of different spells and a cool selection of artifacts. In addition to the magic and your army; you also have at your disposal four spirits with different abilities that you can trigger in combat by spending Rage, which is the brother of Mana, for all purposes. The music is amazing, the visuals are fantastic and the gameplay is among the best in this genre and certainly head & shoulders above the more modern take on the Heroes of Might & Magic series. I think that's the main reason why I fell in love with this title instantly; it is what Heroes could have become and it took up the crown in the genre as the must-have series for fans of games like these. Word of warning; do not start playing this to relieve stress right before a huge test or task at job; it will devour hours and days unlike most anything else you'll have played.
"36: Left 4 Dead 2 (Valve, PC):
Originally, I didn't have much love for this series, the first one was a bit too basic and I hated the fact that it stole time and attention away from the Half-Life franchise. However, with the sequel to Left 4 Dead; Valve pulled a rabbit out of a hat and managed to strike that nerve they have close to sole subscription to; the endless amount of fun gameplay one. It is quite simply mind-bendingly addictive to play online or on LAN and I don't know a single person who owns this title and has actually become tired of it. The gunplay is terrific, the level design fantastic and the visuals are awesome; they squeezed the Source engine to the point of bursting with this one. The premise is simply enough; you play one out of four characters as a part of a group of survivors after a zombie appocalypse and the goal is to make it to safe houses. Along the way, you pick up different weapons, grenades and explosives and you're often forced into corners where you need to fight of a swarm of zombies, and these are not the slow, meandering kind you see in most films and games; they can really move! And the super verions of them are deadly as hell, and have a wide variety of special skills, from spitting acid to choking with a long tongue while obscuring the battlefield with smoke and to deadly, razorsharp claws that minces you up in seconds, exploding bile on you that attracts a swarm or quite simply being amazingly huge, strong and tough to kill. You still haven't played this game? I pity the fool! Best coop fun in years!
#35: Crash Bandicoot (Naughty Dog, PS1):
I remember this being one of the first games I owned on my first PS1 and I remember what fun it was. The title character was goofy and funny, the enemies and stages were filled to the brim with humor and color and even as an adult, I kept discovering new little gags and details that make me laugh. It is a tremendous platformer at the core, it had super tight controls and awesome level design (who can forget the warthog level and the music in it?) and it helped cement Naughty Dog as one of the primary reasons to own a Playstation, a notion which persists to this day with their recent offerings.
This is not merely nostalgia either; after almost 20 years, this is still a solid game that manages to engage and thrill, and that is a rare feat indeed.
#34: Fallout 2 (Black Isle Studios, PC):
It perfected the recipe from the first game and it broke new ground at several turns; it showed and mused around topics that were strictly off limits to the gaming medium, it relived heavily on atmosphere which was tough to summon at the time due to technical limitations and lack of incentive to dedicated a lot of time to it, it featured gameplay that relied a lot on tactics rather than huge guns and noise and the RPG elements were deep and advanced for this genre. It was pretty much the dystopian version of Baldur's Gate in many ways, but a lot more groundbreaking on some fronts and I actually still have and play this game from time to time, there is a good version that works with every version of Windows available on GOG.com.
Hint for 33:
I recently named this title as the most good-looking game of 2014, it released in January this year and was made by a small studio comprised of previous members of a studio who were actually responsible for making a title I have mentioned in this very post.
Essay Pro