About my 41-50:

50. Slicks 'n' Slide (PC shareware)

Little driving game that I've now and then returned to again and again for almost thirty years.
I like fighting my own lap records and this game keeps top 10 for each track, also saying when and on which vehicle times were done.
Available free somewhere, with 100+ tracks.

49. Sega GT (PC)

I usually say driving games are all about driveability, but Sega GT proves that wrong: it does everything else
great, but much of game driving physics isn't that good.

48. TIE Fighter (PC)

A more reasonable difficulty than in X-Wing makes this more to my taste.

47. The Final Fantasy Legend/Makai Toushi SaGa (Wonderswan Color fan translation)

I bumped into this one playing with Wonderswan emulator. I've played many (especially 16-bit) JRPGs and this was very refreshing. Playing the two sequels on Game Boy (emulator) was disappointing and not because of the graphics.

46. Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss (PC)

I'm not fan of Western RPGs but man this game was ahead of its time. I particularly love doors: for some you can find a key, pick it, use spell to open it or just hit it with your weapon till it breaks (or your weapon does, but that's why there are some laying around from your late enemies).

45. Gran Turismo (PS1)

Not the best driving game at anything, but very good at everything.

44. King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella (PC)

My favorite of the old Sierra adventures - and I've played a whole lot of them (mostly with a walkthrough...)

43. Ratchet & Clank 2: Going Commando (PS2)

I'm not big fan of action platformers, but this is among best I've seen.

42. Wonder Boy III: Dragon's Trap (SMS)

Back in the day I got stuck (not finding Captain Dragon) and gave up. About decade later I played the ending with emulator, using a password and cheating. Then over a decade after that I decided to look up map/walkthrough to continue from my old save/password (I tend to keep EVERYTHING, I have decades of notes). And I finished the game accidentally using the cheat armor, without knowing how it worked.
Despite this less than ideal journey, I can see greatness in totla design of the game and would've surely enjoyed it more had I happened to play it in different phase of my life than I did.

41. Mansion of Hidden Souls (Sega CD/MegaCD)

After making the list, I kind of wanted to drop this lower or entirely out. Objectively this isn't a great game. Subjectively I love the atmosphere. It may be short, but it's a beautiful little game with reasonable puzzles - despite the end part where you might make a dead end save and have to start again.

I'm away for a few days, so I'll post more hints and keep delaying the write-ups

#48 - This Zelda-like has you go from its hub town to the 4 directions around it, wherein lie gigantic beings. It's not Majora's Mask!
Hint 2 - You play as a blue-skinned swordsman.

#47 - This other Zelda-like starts you off in a completely grayscale area, from which you travel through doors to the "real" world.
Hint 2 - You play as a crow wielding a sword that glows red.

#40 - A game that was made to appease North Americans' desires of gritty "mature" realism.

#39 - The first entry in a sci-fi trilogy that is almost more well-known for one of its supporting characters than the main character.

#38 - The only numbered sequel in the mainline series of a franchise over 25 years old.

#37 - Possibly the most maligned game of all time, but even it is having somewhat of a redemption arc.

#36 - Though it is the third game in its series, it's often treated like it was the first.

#47: Death's Door?
#39: Mass Effect?

I did have to google a bit admittedly, but I feel like I might have played a demo of this in the '90s (we had a demo disc of about 9 different Star Wars games for the PC). Most of my time was sunk into Dark Forces though.

A few guesses that I expect are wrong.

40 - Twilight Princess

36 - Grand Theft Auto III

38) Metroid II: Return of Samus?

37) Cyberpunk 2077

36) Persona 3

Think it's about time I post my writeups for the second batch on my list, before I start to fall behind:

Placement/ Last Year	Write-up	(Box) Art
#45 #35	Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty The first year I took part in this 4 of the 5 MGS games made the list, but by now it’s down to just one as the others have been pushed out (they’re still great though). Sons of Liberty is a crazy ride from start to finish with an absolutely insane storyline even by Metal Gear standards and it’s my favorite for that very reason, even if there might honestly be one too many plot twists thrown in there (seriously what does S3 stand for?). However, the gameplay of early MGS games was never that great in my eyes if I’m being honest (though still far from bad), and that’s the main reason most have left the list by now and 2 is steadily declining. But as overall experiences I still like them a ton, and Sons of Liberty in particular.
#44 #42	Marvel’s Spider-Man I think the best way I can describe Marvel’s Spider-Man is that it’s simply excellent entertainment. From swinging around New York City, to the fast-paced combat, to the surprisingly compelling story and of course the countless quips, it was just a thoroughly good time whenever I sat down to play. I haven’t played Miles Morales yet, but I’m definitely curious to see if that and the upcoming sequel can deliver as fun experiences as this.
#43 #39	The Last of Us Well, what can I really even say about this game that isn’t obvious. I guess one thing I can say is that I only played it for myself maybe… 6 years after its release? And we’re talking the original, not even the remaster, but obviously it was still great. It’s peak video game storytelling, not my number of course or it would be higher, but definitely top tier. As for the gameplay… Well, it’s quite good as well. Not where the game truly shines for sure, but I think they managed to make a great third person shooter/survival game here with just the right amount of crafting elements for it to not become too complicated and slow down your progression through the story, which is after all, why we’re all here.
#42 #41	Celeste Celeste essentially took everything I liked about Super Meat Boy (got pushed out of the list this year, but still an honorable mention) and build upon it further. The large connected levels consisting of smaller rooms is an excellent way of making a platformer and the dash mechanic and its variations allow for some very interesting and often very challenging level design. For its gameplay alone Celeste would already be my favorite 2D platformer, but it certainly doesn’t hurt that it also has a compelling story on top.
#41 #32	Resident Evil 4 (Wii Edition) Resident Evil 4 is a favorite to many, and it’s not hard to see why. It’s survival horror at its best and has many extremely iconic parts to it from the 1-hitting chainsaw man to the ever-quotable merchant. But to me at least, there’s also been another element that elevated the experience: motion controls. The Wii version is still the only version of this platform-rich game I’ve ever played, and its simply the best implementation of motion aiming in a shooter that I’ve seen, and perhaps surprisingly, it goes damn well with horror gameplay. Actually, having to physically aim down a Regenerador as they menacingly walk towards you is just a special kind of terrifying. I'll have to admit I found a few more flaws with the game that I remember when I replayed it this year, but there's still something special about its atmosphere, gameplay and over the top characters that makes it easily one of my favorites on the Wii and an overall favorite as well.

There are turning out to be far more difficult than I expected.

#37

-"You think there's a dog buried in this."

-"I can tell you're not a yesterday's grouse's son."

-"You need to fix it before old twig-pants inside the plant has a shit fit."

-The above are all Finnish language idioms translated essentially word for word and said in the game by the janitor.

-The developer is also from Finland, and have only just released a long-awaited sequel to a horror game they made over a decade ago

#36

-Make it to the spring of the third year to meet the person who started you on this journey

-The person you're meeting is your grandfather

-Well, the ghost of your grandfather

-The game started with you inheriting your grandfather's old farm

-Almost entirely created by a single person

Ah yes, the demo discs. I should have also have a few buried somewhere. In fact I think I also played Dark Forces first on one of those discs. Also a great game, though I remember only replaying the first two levels because my young self was afraid of the monsters in the water of the sewer level after that. It would give my quite the dark-water-level phobia for many, many years actually.

Yes, that damned sewer level and those monsters. I never got past that... I was convinced it couldn't be completed as it was only a demo.