Elder Scroll series. Skyrim for the modding and eyecandy potential, Oblivion for the madness that is spellcrafting (also Shivering Isles is the best ES DLC), Morrowind for the true alien fantasy.

Thief II is the quintessential first-person sneaker.
Independence War II still has one of the best flight models and a great story.

X3: Terran Conflict is the best first-person strategy game.

Half-Life 1 and 2.

Il-2: Great Battles is the best WWII combat flight sim.
DCS is the best jet combat sim.

Elite: Dangerous is the only space sim with actual 1:1 scale galaxy, including many real-life stars and is the best life-in-space simulator with flight model as good as I-War 2 and decent enough on-foot parts (even though there is some jank and glitches).

1. Universal Paperclips
2. Dark Souls
3. Return of the Obra Dinn
4. Golden Sun (duology)
5. Persona 3 FES
6. Night in the Woods
7. Pseudoregalia
8. The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
9. Splatoon 2
10. Stacklands

Rimworld

Mount and Blade Warband (/Bannerlord)

Crusader Kings 2/3

Slay The Spire

Stellaris

Darkest Dungeon

Civilization V

Fallout New Vegas

Borderlands 2

Kerbal Space Program

Dwarf Fortress

Factorio

CS 1.6

Dunno after that - probably one of the civilizations, I'm partial to Test of Time personally.

• Worms Armageddon

• Neverwinter Nights
• Kingdom of Amalur
• Warcraft III: Frozen Throne
• Battle for Middle Earth
• Deux Ex
• KOTOR I
• Morrowind - Oblivion
• Red Alert 2
• XCOM2
• WH: Total War II

In Order with contender from the same gameline between brackets.

1. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
2. Valkyrie Profile Lenneth
3. Fire Emblem the Sacred Stones (Path of Radiance & Awakening)
4. Monster Hunter Worlds (Hunter 4 Ultimate & Rise)
5. Need for Speed Underground 2
6. World of Warcraft
7. Final Fantasy IV (IX)
8. League of Legends
9. Dwarf Fortress
10. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates (& Echoes of Times)

Honorable Mentions

• Midnight Club 2
• Sid Meier's Civilization VI
• Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2
• Tekken 3

Obligatory "No particular order and this was really fucking difficult to distill into just 10 games":

• The Witcher 3
• BioShock
• Minecraft
• Baldur's Gate 3
• Monster Hunter: World
• Dying Light
• Transistor
• Borderlands 2
• Elden Ring
• ARK: Survival Evolved

Outer Wilds

and

Inscryption

Half-life.

Sim city.

Smb3.

Not in order:

• Farcry 5
• civilization VI
• cyberpunk 2077
• portal 2
• Minecraft
• Hitman 2
• Hearts of Iron IV
• watchdogs
• oxygen not included
• The binding of Isaac

• Street Fighter 2 Turbo (Arcade)
• Chrono Trigger (SNES)
• Contra (NES)
• Dark Souls
• Warcrat 3 TFT (non remaster)
• OpenXCom with X-COM data
• XCom
• Slay the Spire
• OlliOlli
• Mark of the Ninja
• Yakuza0
• Horizon Chase Turbo

(No order, might be not exactly 10 :-P)

Not in order: Dark Souls 1 Dark Souls 3 Elden Ring Witcher 3 Undertale Baldurs Gate 3 NieR: Automata Skyrim Hollow Knight Minecraft

• Subnautica (original and Sub Zero, plus a nod to Planet Crafter which captures some of that same vibe)
• Metroid Prime (and all the other Metroids)
• StarCraft (1 and 2, though fuck Blizzard today)
• Diablo (2 and 3, though to a lesser extent for 3, and still fuck Blizzard)
• WoW (I'm done with it now but there was a reason I was addicted for those years, but fuck Blizzard)
• Oblivion (and Skyrim)
• Factorio (and Dyson Sphere Project)
• Beat Saber (and a nod to the rhythm games that predated it, like Rock Band, Guitar Hero, and Frequency I believe it was called)
• Paradox games (HOI4, CK3, Europa (uh current?), Stellaris)
• Hades

Many others could have been listed here instead. Oxygen not included, smash Bros, DBZ kakarot, xenosaga 2, transport fever, city skylines, risk of Rain 2, King's quest series, civ, Halo, Mario games, Zelda games, Mario Kart, Lego games, Minecraft... And I'm sure I'm missing many more that I have tried and others that I haven't.

Metal Gear Solid 1

Cyberpunk 2077

Civilization V

Gods Will Be Watching

Portal

Splinter Cell Blacklist

Dead Cells

Sniper Elite 3

Dirt Rally

Ghost of Tsushima

In no order:

• Diablo 2
• Chrono trigger
• The incredible machine
• Loom
• Bravely default
• The secret of monkey island
• Prince of Persia
• Rampart
• Papers, please
• Zak McKracken and the alien mindbenders

1. Gothic 2
2. Gothic
3. The Legend of Zelda: Windwaker
4. Age of Empires 2
5. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
6. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
7. Guild Wars
8. Minesweeper
9. Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord
10. Football Manager 2024 (or one of the old EA ones?)

dragon age origins
mass effect 2 red dead 2 baldurs gate 3 witcher 3 cyberpunk 2077 tetris horizon zero dawn dragon age inquisition resident evil 4

Once again in no particular order: Ultimata IV - Quest of the Avatar

Sim City 2000

The Last of Us

Breath of the Wild

Trade Wars

Kingdom Hearts

Knights of the Old Republic

Civ 6

Omega - a dos game where you programmed Tanks and set them loose

And right now: Balatro

Half life 2 (especially episode 2), HL: Alyx, Mario 3, Sonic 3 (with Sonic and Knuckles attached), Sonic 2, space station 13, dead by daylight, portal 2, guitar hero 3, I dunno, one of the metal gear solids or Garry's mod

Gnome Mahjongg

Ltris

Bejeweled

Gnome Tetravex

Frozen Bubble

Xye

No particular order, but it seems I hit quite a few different genres.

• Starcraft
• Stardew Valley
• Subnautica
• Final Fantasy Tactics
• Infamous
• Hades
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
• Halo 2
• Super Smash Brothers Melee
• Rome: Total War

• Suikoden 2
• Final Fantasy 7 (original)
• Dark Souls
• Resident Evil 1
• Castlevania SOTN
• D&D Warriors of the Eternal Sun
• Resident Evil 1 Remake (GC)
• Gran Turismo 4
• Road Rash 2
• Oblivion

Big shout out to SFA2, FFT:A/2, BOF series, Roadwarden.

10 feels too little to condense 40 years of games.

In no particular order:

• Hero's Quest (from Sierra On-line)
• Valheim
• Fallout: New Vegas
• Skyrim
• No Man's Sky
• City of Heroes (can you believe it's legally back?!?)
• Red Dead Redemption II
• Planescape: Torment
• Stardew Valley
• Starfield

(I'm sure that last one will raise some eyebrows, but I've already got over 1k hours in it since launch. For all its faults, it scratches some itch of mine just right.)

Ranking is tough but I'll give it a go. The ranking is based on the impact and enjoyment I got out of them regardless of playtime.

1. What Remains of Edith Finch & Kentucky Route Zero (shared 1st place)

2. Life is Strange

3. Stray

4. GRIS

5. Cyberpunk 2077

6. SOMA

7. Heaven's Vault

8. The Town of Light

9. FAR: Lone Sails

10. Portal 2

That last one is a bit of an outlier but I have laughed so much while playing it, it deserves a place at the table.

In no particular order:

• kenchi
• ghost recon wild lands
• s.t.a.l.k.e.r
• ready or not
• arma 3
• dayz
• mag
• cities skylines
• red dead redemption
• skate 3

Tekken 3
Raiden rtype
Diablo
Unreal Tournament
Blakestone
Alien vs predator
Ultimate Doom
Team fortress 2
Overwatch 1 R.I.P
Battlefront 2

Satisfactory RDR2 Cyberpunk2077 Mass Effect trilogy Cities Skylines, GTA 5 Halo series then probably a bunch of simulators

• Ultima VII
• Baldur's Gate 1
• Daggerfall
• Morrowind
• Oblivion
• Deus Ex
• Thief
• Ultima Underworld
• Kerbal Space Programme
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance

Honourable mentions for Baldur's Gate 3, Crusader Kings 2, and Tears of the Kingdom.

I have not kept up with gaming much for the past decade, so my list is going to be very dated. In no particular order:

• Starsiege: Tribes (Tribes 2 gets an honorable mention)
• EarthSiege 2
• EverQuest (very begrudgingly, but it did kick the era of MMORPGs into overdrive, and I was addicted to it for almost a decade)
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
• Mass Effect Legendary Edition (I'm counting the trilogy as a single game)
• X-Wing Vs. Tie Fighter
• Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe
• Cities: Skylines
• Star Trek Online (only because of storylines)
• Battlefield 1942

No console games on my list, because PCMR! :P

[Edit] Almost forgot Star Control 2!

In some sort of order

• Sim City 2000, City Skylines
• Halo 1, 2, 3 , Modern Warfare 2, 3
• Civilization 4,5,6
• Kerbal Space Program
• Minecraft
• BioShock
• Final fantasy 7
• Game Dev Story
• FTL
• BG3

Elden ring

Borderlands 2

Pokemon emerald

Fallout 4

Monster Hunter world

Chivalry II

Gears of war 2

PUBG

Escape from Tarkov

Call of duty: World at war

Roughly in that order

Hylics 1/2

Half Life 1

Myst

Jet Set Radio Future

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk

Factorio

Doom II (heavily modded)

OpenRCT2

Voices of the Void

The Sims (I like the series as a whole, I feel like each game has its own pros and cons)

I'm probably a little biased but... (I'll also include my fave music track from each game as a little bonus!)

Pikmin 3

Pikmin 4

Pikmin 2

Pikmin

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Super Mario Sunshine

Super Mario Galaxy

Final Fantasy X

Super Paper Mario

Sonic Adventure 2 Battle