By John Walker on July 31st, 2008 at 10:23 pm.
The new PC Gamer is out, and it’s Top 100 feature is filled with pictures of three-quarters of RPS (along with the staff of the magazine as well, probably. It’s hard to be sure because we just looked at the pictures of ourselves). Kieron wasn’t present, because his beard (RIP) was deemed too dangerous for the public.
Anyhoo, the point of a Top 100 is for people to read it, throw their hands in the air, murder their firstborn, and scream about the injustices of Silent Hunter III being at 81 instead of 80. PCG has made it so much simpler with their newfangled Readers Top 100 site.
It’s your chance to say which are the best PC games ever, so long as what you vote for is The Longest Journey and Deus Ex. I mean, I can’t force you to choose them. But I can arch my eyebrows and look particularly stern.
Mr Timothy Edwards, Dep Ed of PCG, would like it to be known that he welcomes suggestions for games that might be missing from the giant pool of those to choose from, and indeed if there are any bugs to report them to bugs@pcgamertop100.com.
Uh-oh, here comes one long string of incredulous posts.
My picks:
1. Fallout
2. System Shock 2
3. Half-Life
4. Team Fortress 2
5. Company of Heroes
6. Ghost Recon
7. Medieval II: Total War
8. Baldur’s Gate
9. Portal
10. Knights of the Old Republic
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Looks like RPS readers already got all over this. Also some wierdos who liked Bioshock and Oblivion.
Argument GO.
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I demand a podium position for Little Big Adventure 2 – make it so!
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Litte Big Adventure 2 deserves some goddamn recognition!
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I quite literally love the idea of this site, and that people apparently have such good taste.
Is there a winner declared at some stage, or is this an ongoing assessment of the views of mighty mighty Joe Public?
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Let me guess… Half Life 2 will win #1 spot again?
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What the hell? I mistakenly thought it was about choosing top ten games in each genre – not top ten games overall.So I chose as my top ten only third person games :(. Is there a way to change it ? I can’t seem to find it.
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1. UFO: Enemy Unknown
2. Portal
3. Bioshock
4. Freespace 2
5. Half-Life 2
6. Quake III
7. Dune II
8. Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
9. Battlefield 2
10. Startopia
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Another typical list…
1. Heroes of Might and Magic II
2. Deus Ex
3. Fallout
4. Giants: Citizen Kabuto
5. Chronicles of Riddick
6. Team Fortress 2
7. Starcraft
8. Startopia
9. The Secret of Monkey Island
10. Psychonauts
I’d probably have included Bang! Howdy and Rescue: the Beagles if they were available.
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Deus Ex may have been the first of it’s kind (I think) and pushed games forwards, but it’s pretty well dated now. I think it’s time to let it go.
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2 Matt – Deus Ex wasn’t first (that was ultima underworld), but it was just about best in what it did, and it STILL hasn’t been surpassed in terms of actual gameplay quality.Stalker was great, Bioshock was great, Deus Ex 2 was good, but nothing has touched the perfection that is Deus Ex 1, sorry.
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1. Grim Fandango
2. Grand Theft Auto 3
3. Team Fortress 2
4. Anachronox
5. Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
6. The Longest Journey
7. Beyond Good and Evil
8. Portal
9. Max Payne
10. Deus Ex
Broken Sword, Psychonauts, Bioshock and Half Life 2 were close runners-up.
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@Pavel. Site says you can revote:
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Pavel – I think Deus Ex does have a lot going for it, but I just can’t stand looking at it and I really don’t feel immersed in it’s world. Stalker, on the other hand, (my number one) is one of the greatest, immersive, gorgeous, shit scary games I’ve ever played, and while it could learn a thing or two from Deus Ex, I still think it Stalker blows DE out of the toxic, irradiated water.
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I’m so happy that Deus Ex was in the top 3 again this year. Has it been there every year since 2000? I’ve only been subscribing for a couple of years, but I think DX has been in the top 3 all this time. Funny how #1 always changes to a new and modern game, but DX never goes off there :P
It’s quite reassuring for us stubborn DX modders. Speaking of which, anybody who thinks DX looks terrible is advised to keep an eye on the High Definition Texture Package and the New Vision project. Jeez I think that’s the 3rd time I’m pimping those projects here. Well at least I’m not advertising my own, eh?
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I’ve requested Dwarf Fortress be added, although guess that its alpha status may exclude it.
Still trying to figure out the rest of the list, Grim Fandango and DOTT will be on there, along with Planescape: Torment and BGII. Portal will also make an appearence, as will Dungeon Keeper, Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 and Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. I’d be tempted to stick Photopia in there as well, but should probably have thought of it before I sent off the E-mail requesting Dwarf Fortress.
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Hey guys,
The code to change your votes is in the site, but buggy. It should be live early next week. Also – there is code for a search, but we spotted a security hole as we went live. That should be back in soon.
I’ll put the games you’re all suggesting into the list ASAP.
Thanks for your feedback, though. It’s really appreciated.
Cheers,
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It’s finishing up in September for publication in the October issue (of PC Gamer UK). Personally I’d rather it stay open on a permanent basis – it’d be an interesting gauge of the gaming public’s tastes.
Me, I can’t possibly do a top ten list. I could name ten of my favorite games easily enough (and a lot more besides), but prioritizing them? Nope. Not a chance.
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Good to see Planescape: Torment getting the place it deserves. Here’s my list:
1. Planescape: Torment
2. Thief II: The Metal Age
3. Half-Life 2
4. Portal
5. Deus Ex
6. Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl
7. Bioshock
8. Neverwinter Nights
9. Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
10. Commander Keen
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Oooh, how could I forget worms. I’ve also caught a number of other games on the list now that I’m wondering how I forgot. I think I’ll need to get a pen and paper and jot things down so I don’t miss anything.
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malkav11 – I don’t agree about it staying open, I think it’s best as a snapshot in time. I also fear it’d be more open to abuse on a rolling basis
I was about to write my top 10, then realised I hadn’t read anyone elses… so I’ll keep it to myself.
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I have odd feelings about the PoP trilogy; taken all together it’s one of the finest series of games on the PC, and would have a high place in my list.
Examined individually, though, they all have different flaws which keep them off my list. IMO, they never got all the good stuff in, and all the bad stuff out, in one title.
Also: don’t forget the XCOMs!
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Well I’ve been skimming everybody else’s, so I might as well post mine here too:
1. Deus Ex (been modding it for 6 years, so…)
2. Planescape: Torment (best game story ever)
3. Thief: Deadly Shadows (just… so full of goodness)
4. Mass Effect
5. Knights of the Old Republic (more like a shared 4th, but I prefer ME’s gameplay)
6. Hitman: Blood Money
7. Portal
8. Fallout 2
9. Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (actually prefer Double Agent, but can’t find it on the list)
10. Starcraft
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Also guys – if you are posting your Top 100s here – if you want to write a few sentences about why you chose your games it would be great – we can use what you say when it comes to printing the full feature.
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1. Sacrifice (odd no one has mentioned this already).
2. StarCraft.
3. Baldur’s Gate II.
4. Planescape: Torment.
5. Fallout II.
6. Diablo II (well, I’m returning to it every year so :p).
7-8-9-10. Hard to decide, lots of good games.
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Voting problem. No System Shock. Does not compute.
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I propose a small sub-list:
Presenting the ‘Oh, it’s dawn…’ list:
1. Baldur’s Gate II
2. UFO: Enemy Unknown
3. Counterstrike: Source
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Tim: I would love to.
Deus Ex takes first place because it is so much more than the sum of its parts. It’s a good stealth RPG with good core gameplay and a good story, and then it has really great level design. It also has some of the most impressively gratuitous details of any game I’ve ever played (easily rivalling eg. GTA4 or Blood Money), and it reacts to your play style to an unheard-of degree.
Torment takes second place in spite of the core gameplay – I’m not big into the isometric AD&D clicking, but the story makes up for it in so many ways. Its text invokes images the likes of which it’s only now possible to reproduce visually, and oddly, when I think back on it, I don’t really remember what was actually on-screen, I remember the images it conjured up in my mind.
Deadly Shadows is third because it has unrivalled atmosphere. Its world has come alive like few other game worlds. The art direction, the moody environments, the background fiction, and the fantastic audio by Eric Brosius all adds up and pulls me right into the game. And of course there’s the Shalebridge Cradle. Never have I hated and loved any part of a game quite that much simultaneously.
The choice between Mass Effect and Knights of the Old Republic is a tough one because they’re so similar in so many regards. KOTOR has the Best Twist Ever, but I enjoyed ME’s gameplay so much more, and the fact that it has an original IP speaks to its favour as well.
I doubt anybody cares about the last half of my list (and that’s even assuming anybody cared about the first) :P
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We Uplink fans are well ahead of this all, and are already on the case to hacking this baby.
If paper forms couldn’t stop us last year, why would moving it online – to the world we run – halt us?
*insert evil comic book laugh here*
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All these posts and no mention of a Civilization game!? *gasps*
My favorite PC game is SimCity 2000. When I first played it as a wide-eyed eight-year-old, I saw the limitless potential of videogames. Coming from MathBlasters, console platformers, and arcade games, I was amazed that you could build these fantastic, intricate cities on your computer and watch them grow in beautiful detail (for 1994, the graphics are impressive). I could actually build and manage thriving metropolises (I was hardly a little genius or anything), a testament to the game’s intuitive mechanics and brilliant user interface.
The series, sadly, has steadily declined since then. SimCity 4 collapses under its own complexity and steep system requirements. But it’s still fun to fire up 2k every now and then and remind myself of why I love the game so.
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1.Worms (series)
2.Dungeon Keeper
3.Theme Park
4.System Shock 2
5.Deus Ex
6.Star Trek The Next Generation: A Final Unity
7.Command and Conquer
8.X-Wing vs TIE Fighter
9.Uplink
10.Defcon
I went for those games which, when I first played, seriously changed how I thought about games, and what I thought games could be – that for me has always been what draws me (back) to games. All of those above I’ve played at least twice.
Worms has to be at the top. No game has ever sunk so much of my time. Nights upon nights were spent playing that on with my friends on the Amiga and, later, the PC.
Dungeon Keeper gets a bit too much maligned. It wasn’t ‘new’, but took the management game mould and threw it at the wall. No reams of stats or numbers. Just disgruntled minions who you had to, somehow, convince to fight for you.
The rest follow similar reasonings – games which, for me, made me realise why I love games so, so much – and how they can be something other than the usual, unimaginative and unoriginal, tripe ‘AAA’ publishing houses try and flog to me…
Nothing else for a fair few years – bar some indie helpings – have made me feel quite like these games have. Except for Stalker. Maybe. If it had managed to pull through on a few of the promised features it backed out on (or THQ withdrew…).
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my vote:
Civ 4
Civ 2
UFO: Enemy Unknown
Deus Ex
Diablo II
Neverwinter Nights
Planescape: Torment
Company Of Heroes
Sim City 4
Unreal Tournament
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The Australian magazine PCPowerPlay did this exact same thing a number of months ago. Hmm…
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Tee-hee, of all the games posters have listed here, it’s the one that’s absent that is the most telling. In fact, now I’m about to mention it, this will probably cause it to be included in someone’s top 10.
Where is World of Warcraft? You know, the one that appeared at number one in PCG’s top 100 last year despite it being possibly the most divisive piece of shiny trash there is. It doesn’t matter how many love it, the number that were disillusioned by it and the reasons why should have been enough to not allow it in the top spot.
I think the representive sentiment of all PC gamers has been accidently revealed. Will be interesting when I get this month’s issue to see where WoW comes in.
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What do these things actually mean? Do they mean that the listed games (in their original forms) would still stand up today, that they were the best in their day, or that they’re the ones we most fondly remember?
Someone said that Deus Ex is a bit dated these days. Ok, so does that mean it’s no longer great because it’s graphics are/or interface are dated (because let’s face it, the gameplay still stands up), or does it mean we’re fed up of seeing it listed in the top 10?
No wonder there’s so much killing of first-borns when these lists are published.
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Does the top 100 include indie games? Where’s Randy Balma on that list?!
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1. Fallout 2
2. Knights of the Old Republic
3. Transport Tycoon
4. Half-Life
5. Half-Life 2
6. SimCity 3000
7. Deus Ex
8. Planescape: Torment
9. Command and Conquer : Red Alert
10. Shogun: Total War
so hard to choose. I just put games which are the closest to my heart, games which made me miss deadlines and stuff like that. Not sure KOTOR should be so high. And shogun should be higher (the best TOTAL WAR game ever)
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Re: Tim’s request
1. Heroes of Might and Magic II
The exploration, tactical battles, RPG-ing and resource management all tied together so well. Even your campaign choices (ogres or dwarfs?) influenced the play of the game. Also, the pacing was perfect for hotseat multiplayer. All the later HOMMs were too slow; my friends and I probably never finished a match. I’m hoping King’s Bounty will be a rehash of this game.
2. Deus Ex
I went back to play it a second time immediately after finishing it.
3. Fallout
It probably comes down to the perfect execution.
4. Giants: Citizen Kabuto
It’s so bright and shiny and varied.
5. Chronicles of Riddick
The most cinematic game yet, still years ahead of the rest it seems.
6. Team Fortress 2
And so on…
7. Starcraft
8. Startopia
9. The Secret of Monkey Island
10. Psychonauts
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Gorgeras: Good point about WoW. I actually considered it because I’ve been playing it with a friend for a few weeks again, but I generally don’t find WoW that enjoyable as a game. It’s an excellent world, but I enjoy it as a vessel for social interaction, I find the gameplay quite unenjoyable. That’s why it’s not on my list, at least :)
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Right, what to say.. I chose games that have made a big impression on me when playing the first time and not disappointing on replay.
1. Planescape: Torment
Wonderful story, going far beyond what is expected in videogames, even when we’re being extremely optimistic. The story twists and turns and the amount of detail in what basically is a spruced up text adventure, is staggering. There are surprises around every corner, sometimes pertaining to the main plot, many more times outside of the plot.
2. Thief II: The Metal Age
Again, great story. A very dark, aggressive gameworld – it’s literally you (Garrett) against the rest of the world. The game has a dreamlike, nightmarish quality, helped a lot by that constant feeling of wanting to run away, but you can’t, you have to hide and hope the person walking by doesn’t notice you. Also a great main character in Garrett, who veers on the right side of smartassy comments (most games have characters say bland, action movie-like oneliners). Always loved how far the gameworld could be pushed by gameplay – as long as you have a rope arrow, you can climb into the strangest places (an option that disappeared with Thief: Deadly Shadows, sadly). I chose the second game because I like the Mechanists as the baddies, the adding of industry-like mechanics was an interesting choice. Also: tons of fanmade missions!
3. Half-Life 2
A great example of why PC games shouldn’t be all about graphics – HL2 looks fantastic, but it’s scaleable fantastic! I played this the first time on a crappy laptop on a 16Mb Dell graphics card. When a new chapter started loading I could take a shower, make some coffee, but it still ran beautifully after that wait. HL2 is all about artistic design, not about a try at photo-realism, it’s like playing inside a beautifully animated feature film. I have a soft spot for gameworlds and HL2 has a great one. The first time you walk outside of the trainstation into the main square is stunning, must be one of my favourite game openings. This is all besides the actual gameplay, which never bores me. Lots of mods here, too, ofcourse.
4. Portal
What can I say that hasn’t been said before? Great gameplay, great writing (actually funny writing, which is rare in games), great voiceacting, yet again a wonderful gameworld.
5. Deus Ex
It’s all about choices in DE, all about exploring a detailed gameworld. I was amazed the first time I played it.
6. Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl
Incredibly atmospheric, one of the few games that I found to be actually frightening (underground labs), had quite a satisfying ending (which is also rare in games).
7. Bioshock
I wasn’t that impressed by the story itself, but I did think Ken Levine’s idea of telling the story through architecture worked well, creating a very atmospheric experience. I really enjoyed the gameplay too, I loved trying out all kinds of combinations of plasmids and weapons.
8. Neverwinter Nights
This is all about the mods, I think. I’ll find myself returning to this game about every 9 months or so (same goes for Thief II), play a lot of fan made content.
9. Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
Another case of a great opening: the moment you leave the ship and walk towards the village. Also the first game that made me panic with the initial idea that I didn’t know what I was supposed to do, which slowly but surely turned into a great feeling of freedom and adventure. And then it started to rain and I actually gasped.
10. Commander Keen
A sentimental choice, more so than some of my other choices. I grew up playing Keen and when id threw it on Steam I had to repurchase it immediately.
(Sorry about the length LOL!!!!11!!
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1) Daggerfall
2) C&C Red Alert
3) Space Rangers
4) Arx Fatalis
5) Rise of Nations
6) TIE Fighter
7) Morrowind
8) Unreal Tournament
9) Star Trek 25th Anniversary
10) Mechwarrior 2
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Gee, I wish I could make a fancy top ten list, but my PC gaming experience is woefully limited. I’ll make a top 5 list, merely because the bulk of my games are strategy and tycoon games.
1. I’d say Mythos, but it’s not going anywhere right now. So, it would have to be Rise of Nations. Best depth and micro-management I have ever seen in a strategy game.
2. Probably Portal. I play a lot of Puzzle games, and this has been one of the best. Add in the physics based puzzles (I LOVE PHYSICS), the hilarious voice-overs and the Portal Flash map pack and there is a winner. My computer can barely run it and I still went through the entire game.
3. Doom Nothing can quite achieve the same run and gun feel that Doom did–not even Doom III. Add in the fan-made engine Skulltag with 32 player online deathmatch and there’s a winner.
4. Starsiege: TRIBES Most modern FPS games require little skill (cough cough Halo, sorry) and I think TRIBES gets it. Add in flying with a jetpack and the fact that its FREE.
5. Half-Life 2 It’s rare that I get a game that looks as good as Half-Life 2 does on my computer. Every penny I spent on the Orange Box is a penny well spent. With great voice acting, tense shootouts, great story great compatibility with my ancient laptop, this is one of my favorite modern FPS games. Plus, it has mods.
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1. Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl
2. TIE-Fighter
3. Star Control (series)
4. Doom (series)
5. Half-Life (series)
6. Red Orchestra
7. UFO: Enemy Unknown
8. Mechwarrior 2
9. Duke Nukem 3D
10. Dune II
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am i the only poor sod afflicted with an overexposure to internet lists?
but, oh god, it is such temptation to enumerate games, and I too can’t resist. Since I’m listening to the glorious MIDI soundtrack at the moment, one big shoutout to Descent 1.
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No, you’re not alone there, but this is a PC-centric one and it’s interesting to see what RPSers are picking (in fact, to me that’s more interesting than the “official” PC Gamer Top 100).
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Can’t believe no one is mentioning Oblivion. What a hell of a game.
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Criteria: Games that I’ve spent literally years of my life on, and are closest to my heart.
1- World of Warcraft
2- Football Manager (series)
3- Rome: Total War
4- Civilization II
5- Starcraft
6- Freespace 2
7- Diablo II
8- Company of Heroes
9- Neverwinter Nights
10- Doom II
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For all the talk of Sacrifice on this site, I’m surprised only one person mentioned it..
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1. Half Life 2
2. Duke Nukem 3d
3. Day of the Tentacle
4. Giants: Citizen of Kabuto
5. Sacrifice
6. The Longest Journey
7. The Secret of Monkey Island
8. Command & Conquer: Tiberium Dawn
9. UFO: Enemy Unknown
10. Grim Fandango
10. Darwinia
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1. Bioshock – I never really knew what “immersion” was until I played this. I spent at least 15 minutes in every room exploring every nook and cranny and soaking in the detail.
2. Guild Wars – For an entire semester I took not a single page of notes for any of my classes. My notebooks were filled instead with ideas for new GvG builds. The only game where I met people (some in real life) who I remained close with even after we stopped playing. Leading my guild to #6 on the ladder was the highlight of my gaming life thus far.
3. EVE Online – My first MMO. Played it for 2 years while I was in school and just recently picked it back up. It’s uniqueness didn’t phase me because I wasn’t bogged down by pre-conceived notions of what an MMO was supposed to be. After playing a bunch of other MMOs I’ve come to appreciate it a lot more.
4. Star Wars: Jedi Outcast – Lightsaber combat has never been this fun and strategic since. I would probably still be playing this eight years later if scripts didn’t ruin the multiplayer.
5. Star Wars: Rebellion – Kind of an odd choice I guess but it was the first strategy game I ever played and christ did I play the hell out of it. The appeal of blowing up planets with a death star or sending THE Darth Vader (!) out on assassination missions never waned.
This is getting long…I’ll do the rest quick
6. Rome: Total War (blew my mind)
7. Warcraft 3 (loved the story and still play DotA occasionally)
8. Counter Strike 1.6/Source (my favorite multiplayer shooter, great clan experience)
9. Half Life 2 Episode 2 (all were very good but this one was great )
10. Max Payne 2 (loading quicksaves over and over just to kill the same 2 guys in different ways…so much fun)
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Damn. Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines isn’t there. :<
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S t a r c r a f t
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No one has mentioned Syndicate?
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1. Oblivion
2. Bioshock
3. Pirated Crysis
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1. Grim Fandango (Love the characters, setting and humour to death….sorry)
2. Fallout (Such a well crafted world with a real sense of choice)
3. Secret of Monkey Island (So clever, the first funny game I played)
4. Half-life 2 (So well refined, very polished)
5. Hitman: Blood Money (Very fun planning and so many ways to do each mission)
6. Psychonauts (Very funny, I love Schaefer)
7. Planescape: Torment (Amazing story, that’s all)
8. Morrowind (Great open world with a lot more character than Oblivion, great architecture)
9. Max Payne 2 (I’m a sucker for the noir comic style and amazing shootouts)
10. Portal (Not as challenging as I would have liked but very funny)
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More people should vote for Frontier: Elite II. You’re making Commander Jameson cry.
You, an Eagle Long Range Fighter, 100 credits, and an entire galaxy to explore. Riches to reap, moons to mine, pirates to kill, stars to skim. Solar systems hundreds of AUs across, with planets you can land on and read the time from the church clock. All on a single floppy disk.
It’s 15 years old and it hasn’t been beaten at its own game yet; impostors like Freelancer and X just aren’t trying with their faux-”space”. Only its own sequel (same game, better graphics, more space-ships, more bugs) holds a candle to it.
That’s why Frontier got my number 2 spot, anyway. It was close between that and PS:T for number one.
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Despite registering it won’t let me in and keeps requiring me to login :|
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@Colthor I agree completely I still play Elite every so often. 15 years old already… damn am old… but seriously X-Com must win this…
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I’m not even going to look at PC Gamer list, pointless exercise. Here is my painfully narrowed down selection (although I cheated by using series of games where necessary and given vintage titles where due), rearrange the order as see fit (it will probably change the
moment after I post this):
Fallout
Total War Games
System Shock 2
Freespace 1&2 (but truly TIE Fighter)
Monkey Island 1&2
Dawn of War Collection (but homage goes to Dune 2)
UFO/Jagged Alliance 2 (v1.13!)
KOTOR
X3 (but really Frontier and Privateer)
COD4
Honorable mentions:
GTA: Vice City
Prince of Persia
Homeworld1&2
Undying
GalCiv2
Baldur’s Gate
… and many many more
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Forgotten bout this one. Throw into the main list as number 11 :D
(How very liberating!)
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I weep for the memory of the original System Shock, and for Lemmings.
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Alas, all this excitement and I forgotten to add the originally forgotten title!
It is of course Arcanum!
To compensate for this act of negligence I shall add a few explicit honorable mentions: Syndicate, Eye of the Beholder series, Aliens vs Predator, Jedi Knight, Grim Fandango, Heroes of Might and Magic… I’d better stop now…
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I can’t believe codename eagle isn’t on the listings!! GRRRR
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UI seems somewhat screwed in FX 3.0.1 and in IE 6, unable to login in IE and unable to make selections in FX.
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1. The Secret of Monkey Island 1/ 2
2. TIE-Fighter
3. Fallout
4. Starcraft
5. Ultima 7 parts 1 2
6. Duke Nukem 3D
7. Syndicate
8. Mechwarrior 2
9. System Shock 2
10. Quest for Glory series
My own list is hard to pick but Monkey Island 1 2 remains my top favourite of all time it’s near perfection as far as I’m concerned. Honourable mention goes to Psychonauts.
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Starcraft
Warcraft 3
Warcraft 2
Diablo 2
Diablo
Warcraft
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Chuckie Egg? Should surely get a mention somewhere…..
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1. World of Warcraft
2. Rome Total War
3. Half Life 2
4. GTA: Vice City
5. Call of Duty
6. Psychonauts
7. Monkey Island
8. Rise of Nations
9. The Movies
10. Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth 2
WoW – No other game has engrossed me for so many hours or given me so many laughs, smiles, jaw-drops, frustrated bouts of profanity, and glowy pointy weapons. Whether I’m bombing birdman infested regions of Draenor, taking part in raids with 24 other people, kicking back in the Blue Recluse and roleplaying, or making irrelevant jokes about High Overlord Saurfang on OOC channels, I’m somehow almost always enjoying myself. Stuff the stats like damage mitigation, parry chance and drop-rate of epics. I just want to play. And I do. Through a polished interface, a well refined family of classes, and, these days, one of the most mature and well-presented worlds a game could hope for.
2. Rome: Total War – Whilst I didn’t at first fall in love with Rome as many as I did with Medieval 1, the game’s charm and setting eventually lulled me in. My greatest achievement on the game was sneakily taking the titular city underneath everyone else’s nose. The Roman empire was still as strong as ever, but spying that their city was ripe for the taking, I dove in, and took it. Yes, I then had to face the brute force of the empire, but my Greek Phalanxes put up a good fight. I was always amazed at the strategy to battle map transition, and to top it all off… Lord of the Rings Total War, the mod. Yum yum yum. Oh, and the battles are the closest we’ve got to Hollywood, too. They’re huge, they’re dynamic, and to mouse over the entire battlefield and see all the different scrums is lovely.
Half Life 2 – Simply the best, most accessible, polished, and iconic FPS ever made. So much variety in the levels, and characters, and fire fights. It’s hard to pick my favourite scene from the game. The last battle in the city, maybe? Or driving along the coast and discovering so many stories within the tattered remains of houses. Or maybe any time the G-Man speaks to you? (Time, Mister Freeman? Is it really that… time again?) Not as ground-breaking as original, not as satisfying with the combat, and not as impressive with the AI, in other aspects, such as the presentation, the art, and the plausibility of the city itself, with rubbish strewn around realistically, it excels.
4. GTA; Vice City – This game served as an epiphany for me. It meant so many different things in so many situations. It ignited my love for several bands, and of 80s culture in general. Cruising down the beach front listening to “I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight” may be used as a common example of what nade this game great, but it’s true. And the radio stations… so much love and thought went into them I just had to buy the individual soundtracks. And the moment you gain the mansion, and by dent of that, the helicopter… and soon after that, the ability to drive around in an ice-cream van selling questionable packages to anyone who wants them. So many things to do, so much going on… it may pale in comparison to the interactivity and coherence that GTA 4 offers, but GTA 4 offers things I’m not wholly interested in. I was in love with Vice City.
Call of Duty – I was lucky enough for this to be my first PC game. Waking up on Christmas morning, seeing my new PC, and installing this wonderful, brilliant game… and then being amazed by so many of the things that console gaming simply didn’t offer. Aiming down the sight, shell shock, crouching and going prone… and then, for the first time, playing through Burnville and Dawnville. They’re the levels I return to whenever I boot up Call of Duty again, and they’re still impressive now. It was so intense, so claustophobic when you were hid behind a dead cow, with nowhere to turn… and with three armies to play as, instead of just one, so huge scale, too.
Pscyhonauts – The evolution of the adventure genre, and I don’t mind one bit. It took all the good stuff about the LucasArts classics – the stunning humour, great mix of characters, logical and challenging puzzles, and at times irreverant settings – and plonked you into a competent platformer. Alright, it, when surrounded by its genre, isn’t the best in its league, but the sheer variety of stages, and how little the game relied on it being a platformer, made up for that. The one where you were turned into a giant, and those hilarious soundclips about heading for the orphanage, or the war stage, where you were shrunk to the size of a small game piece… it was a game of such creativity and imagination, and very rarely felt like it was tedious or boring to make. Brutal Legend better come to the PC.
Monkey Island – The most famous adventure game series of all time, and it’s very, very hard to pick a favourite of the list (discarding the god-awful 4th edition, of course). The original, perhaps, with its beautiful opening, the excellent insult sword-fighting, and the wonderful cast of characters? Or how about the second, with the more refined puzzles, the greater variety in locations, and the weirdo ending? Or the third, with its improved, lovely graphics, the mind-boggingly brilliant Murray the talking skull, and whole section dedicated to insult sword fighting? It’s futile to try and pick one. The series has been with me since early childhood, and its opening tune still sends shivers down my spine. Iconic, for me. Not even the tiresome obsession with pirates today that people seem to have can dull that.
Rise of Nations – hey, an RTS I was actually alright at! Brilliant game, this. Although the actual campaign mode was a disappointment, the skirmishes, or mini-campaigns, as they should have probably been called, were the real feast for me. The sense of progression, of history changing in front of your eyes, and the beautiful art that characterised the different nations, be it the units or the massive, lovingly lit buildings themselves were complemented by the gorgeous music. When everything was working, and your empire was massive, you could just scroll around the map and watch it all happen. And the wonderful world would be shattered with one of the most powerfully moving portrayals of a nuclear weapon in a game. The screen went monochrome, and the screams of victims could be heard. Nothing less than chilling. The accessibility and rarity of needing the manual made this experience all the more sweeter, and when I tried the demo of the much-anticipated Rise of Legends, and found it wanting, I was very, very bitter.
The Movies – Heh. Hours spent making completely irrelevant and probably offensive movies with friends on this great, original game, and eventually making my AS Media Studies coursework trailer using it, guarantees its spot in my heart. It’s a good game. The tycoon part of it is very good, but I bet loads of people avoided it like the plague, in favour of just making their own movies. And that’s fine, if a little saddening. Making movies themselves sometimes felt like a chore, or a challenge, as the scenes to choose from, though extensive, were not exhaustive. I’m sure the expansions cleared this up somewhat, but it’d be an impossible task to please everyone, but these are slights on what was a superbly ambitious game from Lionhead. It nailed the Hollywood feeling so perfectly, so accurately, and for someone who had just recently read Moving Picture beforehand, it couldn’t help but make me giggle. Getting your pictures reviewed, whilst a small and not completely dynamic feature, was still nice, and whilst they were many design decisions I’d have done differently, the game got the mechanics spot on most of the time.
Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth 2 – This is a guilty pleasure game for me. I -know- it isn’t great. I know that it’s an uninspired RTS with woeful design decisions like letting you shoot down a tower by filling it with enough hours. And I know the battles don’t come even anywhere close to the ones shown in the films. I know this. But hells, it’s Lord of the Rings! Hells, you can summon a Balrog and have it do battle with any number of opposing foes! The powers system, wherein you gain both experience for your units through battle, and points to use for general, godly powers, which sometimes results in that epic summoning of the Balrog, really makes the game for me. If it didn’t have that, I simply wouldn’t bother with the game. But the constantly drip-feed of new abilities, until you’re practically a War God, is brilliant. It’s pretty easy, too. It doesn’t wipe your forces off the map like Warcraft 3 does on any difficulty setting if you’re not too good at it. It’s forgiving. It’s there for you to reign. And the custom hero thing might be small and lack much cosmetic customisation, but…er… well, at least it’s there.
edit: …christ. I got carried away a bit.
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1. Grim Fandango
2. Half-Life 2
3. Portal
4. Oblivion
5. Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl
6. Call of Duty 4
7. Hitman: Blood Money
8. Bioshock
9. Brothers in Arms (series)
10. Team Fortress 2
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Speedball and F111 Stealth fighter bomber and Simcity were games that made a big impact on me.
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1. Tribes
2. Deus Ex
3. TIE-Fighter
4. No One Lives Forever
5. Planescape: Torment
6. UFO: Enemy Unknown
7. Crysis
8. Mafia: City of Lost Heaven
9. Secret of Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge
10. Company of Heroes
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What? They put Just Cause on the list? I’m sorry, but Just Cause was shit. It had potential to be a good GTA clone but it failed the basics. The driving was just wrong and the combat was mediocre. If you got in a helicopter you could survive forever unless you did something really stupid. Airplanes were completely useless due to the idiotic control scheme. The storyline was as generic as it’s possible to get. The game was decent fun for a few hours but there is no way it belongs on any top 100 list.
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Actually, that surprised me too.
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No Witcher, no VTM:B…..WTF….
*sends email
Awaits eventual addition to RPG listing…
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WTF no Red Orchestra??
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1. X-Com: UFO Defense (Turn-based tactical perfection)
2. Half-Life (The benchmark for the modern shooter)
3. Starcraft (The benchmark for the modern RTS)
4. Warcraft 2 (Addictive gameplay, if lacking other things that were found on Starcraft)
5. Star Wars Galaxies (My favorite MMORPG, despite its many flaws)
6. Wing Commander (Epic storyline and fun gameplay. Needs a modern remake, in my opinion)
7. Duke Nukem 3D (Got me into online play, both co-op and deathmatch)
8. Return to Castle Wolfenstein (Incredible multi-player component, if somewhat lacking in the campaign)
9. Command and Conquer (Too many fond memories to ignore, even if it’s lost its shine)
10.Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (The pinnacle of the series, in my eyes)
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More discussion plus justification here!
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Interesting observation about the glorifed chat room that is World of Warcraft; the best thing about it is the other people and the worst thing about it is also the other people. Depending on them, your experience can vary so greatly.
Can WoW take credit for either? How many calls to nerf Rogues are based not on any assessment of the class but the behaviour of Rogue players who so tend to deliberately exploit their abilities to the extent that they will take no risks and only fight you when they have little chance of losing? Does this bare any relation to the cries of Mages and Shaman players to be buffed, because they are by far the easiest targets of those Rogue players?
Likewise, gaining gear in a large raid could be more rewarding not because of the supposed ‘hardness’ of achieving it when compared with ‘free epics’ from PvP or Badges(in truth, after being told for years that raiding is hard, I eventually try it and find it’s a rote-learning process an octopus could be trained to do). I think this has more to do with you being in a group at the precise moment of the award being given and you are heartily congratulated for winning either a dice roll or having more imaginary ‘dragon kill’ points because you’re the leader’s best friend in real-life.
I believe criticism and praise of WoW should focus more on how it encourages most of it’s players to behave.
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There is a definite point here. Personally I’m not including anything kind of Multi-player games in my list simply because despite the many hours I’ve spent playing them, they are ultimately more of a social experience rather than a pure game experience, and the preference is as much about what your friends are into as anything else. I can’t be objective about what’s good or bad about them.
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Don’t read anything into the order. There’s so little to choose between games at the very top.
1. Civ IV
2. Rome: Total War
3. Grim Fandango
4. Half Life 2
5. Portal
6. GTA San Andreas
7. Total Annihilation
8. Alpha Centauri
9.Company of Heroes
10. Team Fortress 2
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Alpha Centauri!!! I forgot about it, should be on my list. Really a top 10 is really tough to do, top 20 would be much easier.
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It’s difficult to pick a top 10.. sort of like films, depends on mood sometimes. Many expected, and much deserved titles on our lists..
However, more love needed for Homeworld 1 & 2 (first game I ever downloaded a soundtrack to) Lineage 1 & 2 (spent many years on) and Sam and Max Hit the Road. (=
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The big ones for me:
Counter-Strike (PC)
Diablo II (PC)
Little Big Adventure (PC)
Final Fantasy 8 (PS)
World of Warcraft (PC)
Metal Gear Solid (PS)
Dune 2: Battle for Arrakis (PC)
Total Annihilation (PC)
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I’m guessing LBA1/2 didn’t make the list? Wouldn’t surprise me if none if the PCG lot have played it tbh :p
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Hey guys,
We’ve added 64 games based on the feedback in this thread, and email. The games are:
Alone In The Dark 3
Alone In The Dark: New Nightmare
Anarchy Online
Another World
Bloodrayne
Bloodrayne 2
Bubble Bobble
Call of Cthulhu – Dark Corners Of The Earth
Call of Juarez
Carmageddon
Chaser
Clive Barker’s ‘Undying’
Command & Conquer – Renegade
Command and Conquer
Crusader: No Remorse
Dark Forces
Democracy 2
Digger
Dwarf Fortress
Faces Of War
Gods
Gothic
Gothic II
Gothic III
It Came from the Desert
Jade Empire
Jagged Alliance 2
James Pond (Series)
Jazz Jackrabbit
Jazz Jackrabbit 2
Knights of The Old Republic 2 – The Sith Lords
Last Ninja
Lemmings (series)
Maniac Mansion
Mech Commander Gold
Mechwarrior 4
Mega-lo-mania
Mr Robot
Prince of Persia
Project IGI
Project X
Quake
Rainbow 6 (Series)
Rainbow 6: Vegas (series)
Red Orchestra
Requiem: Avenging Angel
Sid Meier’s Pirates!
SimCity
Soldat
Starscape
Stunts – Ever 4D Sports Driving
Superfrog
System Shock
The Curse Of Monkey Island
The Witcher
Tomb Raider: Legend
Turrican (series)
UFO: Afterlight
UFO: Aftermath
UFO: Aftershock
Ultima Underworld
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines
Warcraft: Orcs and Humans
The code to change your voting should be in by the end of play tomorrow. So, woo!
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Thanks Tim, so we will be able to vote again then? Anyway, Red Orchestra is not by “Steam” its by Tripwire Interactive :D
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Much as I enjoy Deus Ex, I really have to wonder why so much praise in face of its less stellar moments. Great level design? The idea of multiple paths across a level was (is) great, but most levels were terribly obvious and broken down by black and white choices. You could either choose between obviously trapped corridors (go there for LAMs, go here for NSF trooper), or the ill conceived and exhaustive vent crawling.
Also, any list that mentions the likes of Bloodrayne and Just Cause doesn’t really deserve much attention, in spite of the good will that may have gone behind the editors.
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Diogo: You do have a point about the options in DX often being pretty obvious, but I’m not sure that’s a weakness. If you can quickly get an overview of your options for approaching a particular objective, you can quickly make an informed decision about how to handle the mission. Similarly, it becomes easier to decide what sort of skills and augmentations to choose if you know roughly what sort of problems you’ll be facing.
It’s true there was too much vent crawling, it’s hard to argue with that. I could put the argument forth that I suspect you can complete the entire game without ever entering a vent, but if you want to be stealthy, vents are often (though far from always) your only option, and that’s a shame.
There are other things that make me single out the level design in Deus Ex, however. First and foremost how well its fiction has been assimilated into the levels – I know DX simply builds on the Origin/Looking Glass school of design in this regard, but it’s a really great early example of levels that just make sense on every… well, level. You can tell the designers had the fiction in mind when making the levels, and that’s an approach to level design that I really appreciate and which most recently spawned Bioshock.
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@Jonas:
Well said, and I’d surely argue that the developers did the best they could at the time, particularly in conveying level structures that steered away from the more traditional corridors of other similar games. I feel level design is one of the more fearsome beasts of videogame development, and it’s not always easy to handle. In the case of Deus Ex, I think these choices could have benefited from being less obvious in order to evoke a greater sense of danger and of using spatial awareness. For instance, I still recall large corridors and other choke points with cul de sacs or clearly outlined options for advancement, and it was disapointing that it wasn’t a bit more organic. But when it was, it worked rather well: the larger, sprawling levels – even if some seemed labyrinthine for their own sake – felt like huge improvements, which made the confined and blunt levels pale in comparison.
As Kieron put it once, we never saw anything like it – but on the other hand, we had seen it too much.
I must reiterate that, in spite all of this, it’s still one of my favourite games of all time, as it really is more than the sum of its parts, although I certainly look to the System Shock series – and Bioshock, as you’ve mentioned – with slightly more fondness on some aspects.
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Level design is very difficult. You have to keep the gameplay in mind when you construct the layout, you have to make it aesthetically pleasing, you have to make it reflect the fiction of the game, you usually have to make it plausible and believable and conceal its boundaries, and you always have to keep the technological limitations in mind as well, so you don’t break the engine. That said, it is also one of the most immediately rewarding jobs in game development.
I wouldn’t presume to say Deus Ex is the most well constructed game in history in every regard – DX has flaws just like every other game. But it has enough brilliance that I can still forgive its flaws and the gameplay holds up so well I still play it 9 years after its graphics went out of date (the perceptive reader will note that DX is 8 years old ;) ).
Also, ehm… *cough*.
>_>
<_<
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I still fire it up ocasionally as well, even if it’s just to hear Anna Navarre and Gunther mocking poor old J.C. about his baggy overcoat that makes him look bigger than what he really is :)
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“Don’t tell me you’re going to wear those sunglasses during a night operation.”
“My vision is augmented.” 8)
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I pretty much just play FPS, so this may seem pretty limited…
Top 10
Half Life Series (including, I’m sure, HL2 Episode 3)
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Chernobyl
No One Lives Forever 2
Max Payne: The Fall of Max Payne (the movie will probably butcher it)
Portal
Prey
Far Cry
GTA III: San Andreas (technically not an FPS…but a great game)
Bio Shock
ZORK trilogy (again, not an FPS, but the passage of time didn’t mean anything as I was playing it, which is a good measure of a great game)
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But the one game your all forgeting is Age of empires 2 possibly the greatest game ever made
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Just in case anyone is curious what the final results were (taken from #194 (December 2008) edition):
100 Dwarf Fortress
99 FIFA (series)
98 Quake
97 Race Driver: Grid
96 Final Fantasy VIII
95 Homeworld
94 Command & Conquer
93 Tie-Fighter
92 Civilization
91 The Sims 2
90 Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War Dark Crusade
89 Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis
88 City of Heroes
87 KOTOR 2
86 Guild Wars Nightfall
85 UT2004
84 Star Wars: Galaxies
83 Doom II
82 Everquest II
81 FEAR
80 WORMS
79 C&C: Red Alert
78 Thief II
77 Battlefield 1942
76 Civilization II
75 Psychonauts
74 Beyond Good & Evil
73 Red Orchestra
72 Cal of Duty
71 Dark Age of Camelot
70 Duke Nukem 3D
69 Fable
68 Battlefield 2
67 Age of Conan
66 Halo
65 Everquest
64 Total Annihilation
63 Far Cry
62 Diablo
61 The Secret of Monkey Island
60 Football Manager (series)
59 The Witcher
58 Quake III: Arena
57 Hitman: Blood Money
56 Unreal Tournament
55 Neverwinter Nights
54 Call of Duty 2
53 Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War
52 Doom
51 Hereos of Might & Magic III
50 C&C: Red Alert 2
49 Grim Fandango
48 Supreme Commander
47 Ultima Online
46 Rome: Total War
45 UFO: Enemy Unknown
44 Half-Life 2: Episode One
43 GTA 3
42 Max Payne 2
41 Age of Empires 2: Age of Kings
40 Company of Heroes
39 Baldur’s Gate
38 Gears of War
37 System Shock 2
36 STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl
35 Mafia
34 Guild Wars
33 Medieval II: Total War
32 Max Payne
31 GTA: Vice City
30 Mass Effect
29 Planescape: Torment
28 Crysis
27 Fallout
26 Battlefield 2
25 Final Fantasy VII
24 Warcraft III
23 Counter-Strike 1.6
22 Garry’s Mod
21 Morrowind
20 Counter-Strike: Source
19 GTA: San Andreas
18 KOTOR
17 Civilization IV
16 Fallout 2
15 Half-Life 2: Episode Two
14 Baldur’s Gate 2
13 Bioshock
12 Oblivion
11 Diablo 2
10 Deus Ex
9 Half-Life
8 Starcraft
7 Portal
6 TF2
5 Call of Duty 4
4 World of Warcraft
3 Lord of the Rings Online
2 Eve Online
1 Half-Life 2
(nb Battlefield 2 appears twice for some reason: my guess is that one of the entries was meant to be Battlefield 2142. MMO games did especially well – the voting link appeared on various MMO community forums)
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You expect me to take this seriouslyy when Solitaire ranks higher than COD4 – come on get a grip!
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