34. Bioshock Infinite (PC, also on PS3, 360)

In the original Bioshock, I was amazed by the deathly dystopian beauty of Rapture, the immersive setting and the involving story. I thought that Irrational games would have a tough time topping it, but top it they did. Instead of taking the safe route of recreating a story in Rapture as Bioshock 2 did, they bravely turned the franchise upside down and created a new steampunk environment in the floating city of Columbia.

Whilst still quintessentially a Bioshock game, its differences meant it stood head and shoulders above the previous two iterations. Whereas Bioshock had tight claustrophobic corridors, Infinite opened them up into open, sky-rail covered, explosion-filled playgrounds. Whereas Rapture was a wasted city left in ruin, Columbia was filled with a bustling (often xenophobic) populace going about their daily business. And where Bioshock had you running through Rapture on your own, Infinite introduced a near perfect partner for Booker in Elizabeth.

Elizabeth was not only a useful aide in combat situations (and not a liability as often occurs with AI allies), but also provided motivation and effectively formed an emotional bond with the player. As the relationship develops, her role as the centerpiece of the storyline becomes clear and the game goes on to give one of the most memorable endings to grace the industry. A great new entry.

33. Metal Gear Solid 4 (PS3)

If you're a fan of Metal Gear Solid games, you'll love this. It beautifully rounds off the loose ends of the Metal Gear saga for Solid Snake. It does have a few too many cut scenes but has a deeply involved, emotional plot and classic yet modernised Metal Gear Solid gameplay (the first 2 chapters especially).

Legend of Legaia? That's a weird fighter RPG thing I recall.

33. Bioshock
PC, PS3, Xbox 360 (2007)

Bioshock is as much an experience as it is a game. And I need to take some time to give this game as much credit as I can for not sacrificing one for the other.  So many times we'll see a game take control away from the player to say what it wants to say (ala Metal Gear Solid), but in Bioshock, you're in control the entire time... or are you? Despite the player's control over Jack (the main protagonist), the game takes a rather revolutionary look at something as simple as gaming objectives, and works them around in a way that really impacts the story in a huge way (I complete a gaming objective without question because the game - or in this case Atlas - tells me to). The game gives you complete control... all while giving you none at all. Quite brilliant in its own little way. Not only that, but Rapture and its citizens are oozing with atmosphere and personality. Sander Cohen remains one my favorite delightfully disturbing characters in all of gaming. And despite the game's lacklsuter ending (the game really hits a wall when it reaches the climax), the rest of the game is so astonishing and captivating that it's really been an unforgettable experience traveling around the utopia gone to hell.

32. Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn
Wii (2007)

If Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance was my A New Hope, then Radiant Dawn is my Empire Strikes Back. The skirmish is over, and the real war begins. Old heroes return, and new ones enter the fold. Defeated foes return stronger than ever, and new enemies threaten to consume everything that we stand for. The story is truly epic in its delivery, spanning 4 arcs and countless chapters within. The stakes grow higher and higher each time, and your beloved units grow to immense power (not one, but two class upgrades!) as you continue on to save not just your country... but the entire human and laguz races. All in all it's Path of Radiance taken to heights not even fathomed... and I was overjoyed to be taken for a ride. Truly a game to experience as well as to test your strategic skills.

Legend of Legaia is correct.

33. 

Aside from a few areas, the world is covered in mist.  Seru live in the mist and attach themselves to people and monsters draining their life.  The main characters are tasked with awakening the Genesis Trees through the use of Ra Seru which will drive away the mist.

Gameplay works with a combo bar which when attacking you put in a certain number of commands.  Left, right, high, or low which correlate with left, right, down, and up on the control pad.  Depending on the combination of attacks, your characters might use an art, a hyper art, super art, etc.  One art is high, low, high, it'll do the high attack, then the low attack, then instead of doing a third high attack, it'll do the art attack.  You can combine arts as well, like say you can only fit five different commands into your combo bar.  Well you've got the first art, high, low, high, and another art that is low, high, high, left.  If you combine the last two of the first art and the first two of the second art, you've got high, low, high, high, left.  So what will happen is the high and low will attack, the first art will go off, and then next attack is high, then instead of left, it'll end with the second art. 

Each art takes a certain amount of AP though, so you can't just continue using attacks and keep doing arts.  After each attack the character will regain some AP.  The character can also use the spirit technique which will increase the length of the combo bar for one turn, have the character defend, and gain a decent amount of AP.  AP carries over to the next battle so if you end with 100AP or 0AP is your choice, might not be worth killing an enemy that has low health with a combo that takes any AP.

Magic works a bit different.  At the end of the game, there's the possibility of the characters having no magic spells.  Doubt that's going to happen, but each monster that has an element next to its name can be absorbed by your Ra Seru as a magic spell.  It's not going to happen all the time, sometimes whenever the character kills the monster it'll be absorbed if they don't have the spell.  So every character can potentially learn every spell the other characters have. 

Because of the difference in characters stats, accessories actually play a big part in Legend of Legaia's gameplay.  Each character is different.  Vahn is good all around, Noa has low attack, low intelligence, high speed, and the longest combo bar, while Gala has high attack, high intelligence, the lowest speed, and the shortest combo bar.  There are accessories that protect from status effects, give more AP,  AP costs reduced, resist elements, go first, go last, block more attacks, etc.  So it's well worth the effort in completely exploring each location to make sure you get all of these accessories.

As we go down the list, my games have slowly turned from great games to beloved ones.

Hint for #32:

Hey man *looks around* ... you want some fuzzy? It'll take you places for sure.

Sorry for the late reply, but yes. One of them is correct.

The answer is Banjo-Kazooie. It came out earlier in the same year as Ocarina of Time, but in several reviews of the latter, it was mentioned they were disappointed by the quality of some of the textures (particularly the market scene) saying Banjo did it better earlier that year .

Smeags said: As we go down the list, my games have slowly turned from great games to beloved ones. Hint for #32: Hey man *looks around* ... you want some fuzzy? It'll take you places for sure.

I wonder what you mean, but I guess I'll see as your list fills out.

My beloved games are great games.  I don't know about others, but for example, games like Dragon Warrior and Space Invaders won't ever make a top list of mine despite being the first games in their respect genres I've played.  Space Invaders is still good, but the original Dragon Warrior?  It was never really good.  It's just okay, and the only reason I thought it was good was because I never played anything like it at the time.

Well what I mean is that every game thus far in my list are what I consider to be amazing games. But with titles like Bioshock and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn and every title moving forward... these are the games that have really shaped me as a gamer. Just reminiscing about them as I type on about them really gives me dem feels.