Top 100 games of all time

One of my favorite YouTubers, Cannot Be Tamed, recently started doing a countdown of her top 100 games. I thought that sounded fun, so here's my own list!

1. Fall from Heaven II
2. Baldur's Gate II
3. Life Is Strange
4. Civilization IV 
5. Dragon Age Inquisition
6. Sid Meier's Pirates!
7. Dragon Age Origins
8. Portal 2
9. The Walking Dead Season 1
10. Planescape: Torment
11. Ultima VI
12. Grim Fandango
13. Fallout New Vegas 
14. Civilization II 
15. Deus Ex
16. Digital: A Love Story 
17. Mario Kart 64
18. Fallen London
19. Maniac Mansion
20. Portal
21. Oregon Trail
22. System Shock 2
23. Hero's Quest (Quest for Glory 1)
24. Mask of the Betrayer
25. Red Dead Redemption
26. Ultima VII
27. Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire 
28. Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines
29. Chrono Trigger
30. GTA San Andreas
31. Shadowrun Dragonfall
32. Mass Effect 3 
33. Prince of Persia 
34. Sil
35. Katamari Damacy
36. Rez
37. Shadowrun Hong Kong
38. Space Quest III
39. The Last of Us 
40. Rock Band
41. Super Mario Bros III
42. Transistor
43. ICO
44. Mass Effect
45. HalfLife 2 
46. Final Fantasy VII
47. Baldur's Gate 
48. Monkey Island 
49. Dance Dance Revolution
50. Gone Home
51. 80 Days 
52. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time
53. Metal Gear Solid 2
54. Shadowrun (SNES)
55. Legend of Zelda
56. HalfLife
57. Day of the Tentacle
58. Final Fantasy VI
59. Mass Effect 2
60. Hate Plus 
61. Time Crisis 
62. Dex
63. Civilization
64. Plague Inc.
65. Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
66. Final Fantasy X-2 
67. Europa Universalis III
68. Neverwinter Nights II
69. Sunless Sea
70. The Walking Dead Season 2
71. Final Fantasy X
72. The Binding of Isaac 
73. South Park: The Stick of Truth
74. Colonization
75. Lord of the Rings Online
76. The Wolf Among Us 
77. Betrayal at Krondor
78. Number Munchers
79. Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders
80. Analogue: A Hate Story 
81. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES)
82. Castle Adventure
83. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
84. Her Story
85. Psychonauts
86. The Witcher III
87. Castles (DOS)
88. NationStates
89. The Simpsons Hit & Run
90. King's Quest III
91. Lemonade Stand
92. Final Fantasy XII 
93. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim 
94. Star Wars: The Old Republic
95. The Two Towers (PS2)
96. StarTropics
97. Spiritual Warfare
98. Fallout 3
99. Pillars of Eternity
100. GTA V

Excuses and rationalizations:

My criteria for this list is simply based on how fondly I remember each game. No particular consideration is given to how influential a title was or how much I think others would like it.

Older games almost certainly do not hold up to their rankings here! I value them greatly because I first encountered them when the world was young and full of possibilities.

Conversely, since I'm evaluating these from the perspective of my feelings in 2017 and not at the time of play, some games that I greatly appreciated but have since soured on are ranked lower or missing altogether. The various Bioshock games are probably the main example here.

I didn't have any particular cutoff for eligibility, but was a bit more conservative about recently-played games. The Cat Lady and Dreamfall Chapters will probably make the list after they've had some more time to percolate.

Expansions, DLC, mods, and remakes all contribute to the base game's ranking. So, for example, Baldur's Gate includes my experiences with the vanilla game, the modded game, Tales of the Sword Coast, and BGEE. The only exception is when an expansion or mod takes the form of a standalone game that is not linked to the base game.

Each entry in a series is ranked independently of one another. Exceptions were made in cases where the entries all shared similar mechanics and story and blur together in my mind - this includes most rhythm games as well as Katamari.

This list is ranked, but just as a snapshot in time. It's really hard to compare games, particularly across genres.

All of these games are good, even #100!

I'm sure I forgot major titles. Whoops. I may or may not revise this list, but it isn't intended to be a living thing.