By Jim Rossignol on November 8th, 2010 at 12:19 pm.
We don’t end up forging many list features here at Castle Shotgun, but we figured that we should do one, and make a big deal about it. This list that we are planning, The List, as I am currently calling it, is a big deal. It will be the Hivemind’s ultimate acknowledgment of the greatest PC games of all time. The essential, must-play, genre-defining, superlative-defying, consciousness-calibrating masterpieces that are the foundation of our interest. We’re not even sure how many such games there will be. I mean, sure, you could make a list of 10, 50, or 100 such games, but how many genuinely great games are there really? That is what we will decide.
However, you need to help us not miss anything. What we want from you today are your suggestions, and your arguments for, those games that need to go in that might not otherwise have an advocate. Telling us to put Deus Ex in there is probably going to be a bit redundant, but perhaps we might overlook the value of something else. Or perhaps you want to argue against something? Do you really hate Outcast and want to see it knocked out of the classics lists forever? Have your say, here, now.
SPEAK!
Outcast is the 57th greatest game of all time. Only a fool would deny it.
KG
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I have never heard of Outcast until today, why is that?
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It’s an old game, really only honoured in PCGamer and other review sites. As I recall, it got excellent reviews, then sold poorly.
Now available on GoG!
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Neither have I. The problem I have with a list like this is that most of these games are ancient. Or at least they are to me. Either way, my list of best games every would be entirely different from everything mentioned here. Just like my parents wouldn’t agree with my list of best music albums ever. (No I’m not calling everyone here old, but the games you grow up aren’t the games I grew up with).
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Don’t look at me, the first actual non-edutainment game I played was Worms 2. Every other game passed me by, really.
The only reason I know about old games is that I got annoyed that all these LEGENDARY games passed me by, so I started getting them to see what all the fuss was about.
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So glad to see Outcast mentioned straight away, Kieron. It stands a good chance of being my most-replayed game.
I am a sucker for any game that lays the atmosphere on thick. Outcast accomplishes this with its incredibly detailed world-building. The soundtrack ably assists as well with its “epic pulp” orchestra and choir arrangements.
My “Wot I Think” on Outcast: http://playtechs.blogspot.com/2007/04/notes-on-outcast.html
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Why only 57th? :)
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For a website that basically started out as PC Gamer UK: THE BLOG, surprisingly few people have actually read the magazine. For people who don’t get it, Outcast was always 57 on every PC Gamer UK best PC games ever list. I think it was even 57 on the 100 Greatest PC Gaming moments list.
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Outcast still means Jedi Knight: Jedi Outcast, to me, which was a great game as well. I’ll have to find out what Outcast is like.
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CAVE STORY.
Sorry for the hijack, but it HAS to be on the list somewhere.
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I must add my voice to those praising Outcast. For those of you who are whining about it being old, I played it for the first time just last year, and it was possibly the best game I played that year. Seriously, it’s that good. But more than just being good, it struck me with how unique it is. It has a really interesting graphical style which may or may not be due to using voxels (people seem to argue about this technicailty) that I found to be very beautiful despite being low-res. And the gameplay isn’t really like any other game I’ve ever played. Honestly, it seems like the kind of game that us PC games players used to envision the future would hold, where there wouldn’t really be strict “genres” anymore, we’d just have games where you could, you know, do stuff, without being limited to “action game” activities or “adventure game” activities.
Anyone who hasn’t tried this game, you should seriously consider getting it from GOG. It’s only $5.99, so even if you somehow hate it, that’s what, a lunch?
I would also like to add my vote for the original System Shock, which I actually enjoyed more than the second one. Am I a heretic for thinking that? I hope not. Anyway, that’s another game I played for the first time recently, and it grabbed me more than any other game has in a long time. I think it’s a great, early example of the potential games have in providing a unique experience that’s not possible in other media.
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i feel it is fitting that this is the first comment. As this is exactly what I was going to say.
And, so it doesn’t get lost on the 7 billionth page, the second thing I was going to say was Little Big Adventure 2.
That is all.
Good day!
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Though Outcast has the best soundtrack of the _______! :)
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I’m glad you are not picking some arbitrary number to frame your list around! Now time to think of some games
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Must play I would say Fallout, Baldur’s Gate, Half-Life. I’d say Doom (or maybe Quake) as well, it was pretty genre-defining :)
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No, I think you mean Wolfenstein 3D. Cyborg Hitler ftw!
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They really liked to hang big paintings on all their doors as well those Nazis.
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Die Alllied Schweinhunde!
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Although I’m sure it’ll be on the list already, I have to put my voice being Planescape: Torment, simple the best CRPG ever made, the ability to solve almost all quests without having to resort to combat made this a great game.
And Team Fortress 2 needs some list love, it’s simply put one of the greatest war themed hat simulators available today.
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While being able to solve quests without combat is cool, that is not really where the greatness of Torment lies.
The greatness of Torment is in it’s world and characters. The world of Planescape seems so utterly alien and mad, but yet is so finely crafted that it feels real on a deeper level than most other games even today.
Solving quests without fighting lets you in on a lot of the backstory, and I do feel you miss out if you play it agressively.
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Oh I disagree. I have been doing it as talky as possible, but then when I’m done with those characters I generally slaughter them. It’s usually best to talk your way through the game, but some of the fights are actually quite good I think.
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Planescape: Torment is particularly deserving of a mention because, in addition to being fantastically written and having a level of worldbuilding and characterisation that puts most RPGs to shame a decade later, it’s actually both easy and entertaining to play *right now*.
I picked the game up from GoG a few weeks back for the first time, and it’s been just perfect to quickly dip into whenever I fancy something different. I can’t overstate how much the resolution/widescreen and interface mods add to the attractiveness of the game – you have these wonderful handpainted backgrounds occupying nearly every pixel of a sharp and vivid 1920*1080 display, and it makes reading the huge blocks of text so much easier.
Also, if you want to play the game primarily for the story, you can wade through what little combat the game has by turning the difficulty down to ‘easy’ and enabling ‘rest anywhere’ in near-mandatory fanpatch. And if you want to experience all the story the game has to offer, your best bet is to be a mage with high wisdom and intelligence, and moderate charisma.
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I have it modded to give me high resolutions, but where are these UI and rest anywhere mods of which you speak?
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The obligatory Planescape: Torment modding guide that I obsessively link to in every RPS discussion concerning PST.
Also GOG now have a modified version of the same guide that might be of use if you bought it there.
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Hostile Waters – fairly unique take on the asymmetrical RTS, with a plot by Warren Ellis and voiceover by Tom Baker. The mechanics were transparent enough that you could see the effect of manning a vehicle yourself and sneaking it behind enemy lines to halt production.
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Also featuring several of the cast of Blake’s 7!
It was a great game.
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Heh, I always wondered why they didnt mention that on the box (it was a selling point for me) but then i just figured ?I was the only one geeky enough for it to appeal to. Glad I’m not alone :-)
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My name is Ransom …
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I agree!
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Agreed.
Also, Little Big Adventure 1
Dune 1
Planetside
Obvious ones:
Counterstrike
Diablo 2
WoW
AND SO NOT CALL OF DUTY
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Commander Keen 4
Prince of Persia 1
That would be all
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In what ratio then? Say 24 Commander Keens and 76 Prince of Persias?
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Sheffield Wednesday 3
Fulham 0
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London 0
Hull 4
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I will just go ahead and say despite RPS’s general ambivalence towards foot-to-ball any list of PC games needs to recognise one entry of the Football Manager/Championship Manager (when SI did it) series. It’s has given me untold hours of joy through the years and no other game is capable of making me swear so loud or fist-punch with joy on such a consistant basis.
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As a poster on the biggest/2nd biggest (depending on opinion) Football Manager based forum for something like 6 years I’d have to say that general consensus rules either Championship Manager 00/01 or 97/98 as the peak. Probably 00/01
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I think the whole series should get an entry personally. There are a lot of different opinions on which one is definitive – most people I know would say 01/02. Personally I love FM2010 and think it’s as good as any of them.
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If Dungeon Keeper isn’t #65 and Battlezone #54 I’ll eat all your hats.
Also: Minecraft.
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… cannot, unfortunately, be considered, as it is still in alpha.
I think. The harsh but firm but fair-headed RPS Hivemind may think differently.
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Well Fallout: New Vegas is in alpha but people will still consider that.
Arf arf!
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Oh, well played, sir/madam.
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I’d second Minecraft, premature though it may be.
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You can play Minecraft, therefore it counts.
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OK, here we go.
PSYCHONAUTS! – An innovative game that stood on it’s own merits, rather than being an adaptation.
Outcast – An absolutely gorgeous game, with an incredible soundtrack and a fucking huge rocket launcher as a weapon.
Guild Wars – A new kind of MMO that lead the pack for years, and allowed for casual gamers to get into online gaming.
Tribes 2 – the first FPS to allow 64-player multiplayer, and the first to require players to act as teams, or else get blown away.
Portal – I really hope I don’t have to explain this.
Finally, I really hope that ul tags don’t work here. Otherwise, I’ll feel a bit annoyed about deleting all of mine…
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Oh, and now I feel silly. I forgot two.
Morrowind – one of the most impressive sprawling RPGs I’ve ever played. Eschewed the traditional deciduous-forests-and-bears setting of most RPGs, and instead threw flying jellyfish and top-heavy bipedal crocodiles at us with great abandon.
Planescape: Torment – a unique RPG where fighting is not always the answer, set in a world where good and evil are never so clear-cut, and belief shapes the universe.
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Sorry to be picky, but Tribes 2 wasn’t the first 64-player multipler fps. Quake 2 had 64-player deathmatch maps released for it back in 1998, and that may not have been the first. Otherwise, good list :)
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Huh. I did not know that. My English teacher lent me Quake 2 once, but I never got a chance to play it. Thanks for the correction.
I’ll revise that to “… first FPS to allow 64-player multiplayer that I’ve played…”, as I never played Quake 2, and I’ve played Battlefield 2. And I’m pedantic like that. :D
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Outcast didn’t have a rocket launcher. Also no weapons that could be described as “fucking huge”.
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The HAWK-MK8 fills the rocket-launcher part, if not the huge part. It’s one of my favourite weapons. Not on the same level as the LN-DUO 500, but close.
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Posting in support of Psychonauts and Portal.
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Grand Theft Auto: 3 (possibly Vice city and San Andreas too);
Galactic Civilizations 2
X2:The Threat <— DO NOT FORGET THIS!!!!
Monstrous Regiment.. Oh wait, that's not a game. Oopsie.
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Heh. Nearly happened to me as well: my bookshelf is on my left, and my gameshelves are on my right, and I can’t see what’s in them, so I was just about to list Naomi Novik novels. :D
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GalCiv 2 seconded until the cows come home, and even while they’re sleeping. X2….no. Just no.
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Im arguing against X2: The Threat.
It is easily one of the worst games I have ever wasted over 40 hours on.
Imagine a game with the pacing of hard scifi, but with the interest equivalent to watching big brother, with the house and the people and everything removed.
The game may have been big, but it was so boring. Escape velocity, or elite or freelancer are all better games.
Infact, Im going to advocate Escape Velocity, cant really decide what number. Ambrosia released it for macintosh, which means much of its audience doesnt know about it.
But it gave an open world, multiple stories and ships, economic trading, taking over ships as a pirate, taking over systems as a war lord, and much more.
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I always did think Escape Velocity (and sequels) were rather awesome, but the only reason I’ve even heard of them is because my cousin had a Mac growing up.
I still check every once in a while to see if EV:Nova has had a price drop in the decade it’s been out, but as of last week, not yet. I refuse to pay 30$ for a game that old on principle. Unless I suddenly come into a lot of money. But still….
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EV: Nova was indeed lovely. I actually did pay for it when it first came out and played it heavily on my iMac. Unfortunately I’ve since lost the code, so had to be a naughty boy and download it in order to install it on my PC.
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Yes X2:The Threat is quite possibly one of the best games ever.
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The X series really seems to divide people.
I also don’t care much for it either, but I know some who do.
I was intrigued by the introduction of the first X, because it seemed like it wanted to tell a great story, but all the story threads stopped to be woven after you started trading.
I bought X2 together with a friend, and I hoped that they learned from their past mistakes and made the story engrossing that time around. Turned out that they just dropped every pretence from the start that you could play it also for a story. So, yeah, didn’t play it more than half an hour. The start may not have been as slow as in the first game, but still too much. Oh, and the interface…what an unwieldy mess!
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How far back can we go? How are you defining “PC Game”? Does that simply mean “is on PC” or does it have to be unique to the PC? For example, Elite 2: Frontier was multi-platform (I believe first Encounters was PC only), but is one of the all-time great games.
I want to be the first to mention Thief, though. The absolute classic that started a genre.
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@Urael
Definitely First Encounters. Frontier gets all the love, but as its sequel was basically the same with more stuff and prettier graphics there’s no reason not to rate it higher. It even added a story, which, brilliantly, would happen regardless of what you did, and you could read about it in the papers as you shuttled Robots from Barnard’s Star if you didn’t want to/didn’t know how to be the hero.
Admittedly, it was broken on release – but it was fixed fifteen years ago, you can’t really hold that against it any more. And I enjoyed bolting a 1MW beam laser on the starting ship and hunting freelance wealth-redistributors whilst waiting for GameTek to post me the patch.
Most importantly: A decade and a half on, and nobody’s done it better.
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Frontier gets all the love because it’s the trailblazer. FFE was simply “standing on the shoulders of giants”. :) I do prefer FFE to play, though. It’s slightly more refined, as well as for all the other points you mention.
If you’re interested, take a peek at Alpha 6 of modern remake, Pioneer. The terrain engine alone is worth the download:
http://pioneerspacesim.net/
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And then some numbers.
Predictable, but I would like to see Planescape: Torment, Syndicate, Dungeon keeper, Diablo, Dark Forces, Fallout 1&2 and X-Wing vs Tie Fighter.
Maybe even a little Mass Effect 1/2? I honestly feel it’s one of the only truly great scifi games to be released in recent years that isn’t simply grizzly space marines being grizzly. Also, you get to punch that snarky reporter in the face. IN THE FACE.
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Honestly, I think TIE-Fighter was superior to X-Wing vs. TIE-Fighter, but not by much. The entire series was awesome fun.
Also, Sensible World of Soccer! Another World! Diablo 2! Cave Story! Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic! Warcraft 2!
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Yes, TIE Fighter was a stronger game from a story perspective. But it didn’t have the fantastic online support and huge range of tactical online gameplay that was way before it’s time in 1997. Even the lobby system was set up well for it.
I really REALLY want a remake.
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In 2, I actually ended up punching that reporter in the face. But I couldn’t for the life of me remember why…. It was kind of awkward.
Excuse me, ma’am, but do you have any idea why I would want to punch you in the face? Oh, thanks.
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I would have to go with X-Wing: Alliance over X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter. It had the strongest storyline execution of the entire series plus the online system pioneered by XvT (and better visuals).
The entire series should be an entry in the list. X-Wing was one of my earliest gaming memories and holds a special place in my personal history of games.
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Yeah I’m going to second the X-Wing Alliance. Absolutely loved the game, and the game still has fans upgrading the visuals and whatnot (or did two years ago, I haven’t checked back in lately)
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Also, Oblivion. Yes, I am not of the ‘let’s bash it becuase it’s oh so elite to do it’.
It’s one of THE modern-RPGs to know.
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Webash it because it’s a broken shadow of its illustrious forefather, not because we’re trying to be part of some fictitious club – Morrowind is the classic from that series, easily five times the game Oblivion is.
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Ah, the Elder Scrolls… the series that good writing forgot. I’m going to veto these grind-fests in the hope that future developers will actually start populating their vast sandbox worlds
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And again, I have to argue against Oblov, especially with Morrowind as an alternative.
Oblibion was good, but Morrowind is incredible.
The world is much more open, not in terms of choice, but in terms of adventure.
There are no arrows telling you where to go, maybe just a description, and someone to ask.
There is no boring combat that involves waiting for someone to hit your block so you can attack for a few seconds.
There is also a much better sense of progression. After a while, if you play it smart, you can start enchanting weppons with all the effects you want, and it is incredible.
A simple story: Im level two, in the capital city. I use my daily invisibility to sneak into a bank. After much hard work, i get into the vault.
There is a gaurd, and he wont stop looking at me.
Talk to guard: presuade. I dont try to get him to like me, but to hate me. Once i do this, he tries to stay as far away from me as he can.
This means he can no longer see half the vault. I rob everything in one half of the vault, with a clear line where his vision extends. Im level 2 with glass armour, and need a fence bad. :P
Brilliant stuff.
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Vivec, you mean? If so, I know exactly which vault you mean, cause I robbed it as well.
My method was a bit different. Get the guard to notice me, so his back is to the door. Wait until no-one notices me… then Skeleton Key the door. Sneak in, grab everything not nailed down, then leave. Sell all my loot, and profit.
Such a shame that my save games weren’t backed up. ;_;
Also, I have a slight problem with Morrowind’s quest system. While it’s wonderful having the freedom to go everywhere, some quests are remarkably vague about where you need to go. Such as “go to X”, and you’ve forgotten where X actually is. If, perhaps, each NPC entry in your logbook had the name of the city afterwards in parentheses (ie Balen Andrano (Vivec)). Often, I’ll load a game, and find myself in the middle of a swamp, with no idea what I’m doing there. Admittedly, it does add some fun to the game, as I try to piece together my motivations, say “to hell with it”, head for the nearest cave, and realise that’s what I was going to do already.
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Oblivion had one section worthy of praise: the Dark Brotherhood quests and no more
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Eye of the Beholder (1&2)
Railroad Tycoon
Doom
Xcom: Enemy Unknown
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Posting in support of X-COM, though the hivemind are hardly going to leave it off.
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Psychonauts
Realms of the Haunting
Arcanum
Arx Fatalis
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Omg thanks to Lewie:
ALPHA CENTAURI
can’t believe I forgot it at first
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Massive props for Realms of the Haunting! My mate and I used to play that game together, trying to solve the puzzles and taking turns at the combat. While the FMV reeks of period-specific-cheese the overall story is fantastic, as is the setting. If you haven’t played it, get on to eBay now!
Perfect GOG fodder, this. Get to it, CD Projekt!
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Man if GoG picked this up I’d be all over it again.
I loved how it incorporated all the occultism and pseudo-occultism into a game that made sense. And the letters in the study! R.J. – Rebecca Jane! Aelf! The entire super creepy part of the game at your dad’s old Parish! The Tower with the partial whispers that were lost in time! Also, Arqua and Raquia.
…too much awesomeness. A dearly underrated game that blended FPS, RPG and a puzzle adventure. I probably should mail GoG about putting it on sale now.
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Too bad it has no mouselook. Makes it kinda unwieldy to play. I’d love to play it, but this miss makes it hard to get into.
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Company of Heroes. The only RTS game I’ve ever liked.
World of Warcraft. A chat room with a huge engaging world around it.
Doom. The one that started it all.
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This is a trap of some sort, surely?
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Please let the embed code work, PLEASE let the embed code work…
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Awww, it didn’t work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dddAi8FF3F4
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homeworld. I thought 2 was better, but I’d understand if you put the original as #1 instead of it.
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Alpha Centauri is certainly a favourite of mine that seems to be oft forgotten.
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It beats Civ in my opinion.
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Yeah. Best TBS game ever for me. Still quite a few notches above most new TBS games today and always good for an ‘omg it’s 4 AM already?!’ replay once in a while.
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“omg it’s 4 AM already?!” is exactly how I feel about Sword of the Stars at the moment. It’s a definite “just one more turn” kind of game. The problem comes when that “just one more turn” triggers combat, which means up to 10 minutes extra you have to play.
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I was browsing through here to add it myself, should it be absent.
Alpha Centauri was, I think, only the second TBS game I played (the other being Civ I or II); it had me entranced from the start. The combination of a superb science fiction setting carried off with such exquisite style and deep, interesting mechanics means it remains a favourite to this day.
The last time I played this game was this morning, and the first time a few months after release, ten years ago.
Omission would be a tragedy.
IMO, the strongest living Alpha Centauri community lives at http://www.weplayciv.com (The SMAC section was so important, we actually have a redirect of our own: http://www.weplaysmac.com).
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This could be a big ask. In no order and only including games that I would go back and play today:
Doom
Half-Life
Baldur’s Gate
Planescape: Torment
Europa Universalis III
Red Alert
Civilisation II
Grand Theft Auto
Day of the Tentacle
Monkey Island II
Indiana Jones & the Fate of Atlantis
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okay but seriously, Deus Ex. The redundancy is justified.
I’m guess mentioning Thief and Torment would also be redundant? If nothing else then because other comments have mentioned them.
Somebody else above me said Minecraft, I’ll second that.
Nobody has said BioShock yet, so I’ll add that to the nominations list. Along with Stalker, though I assume you already put that there, Jim. I guess I just really like FPS games with RPG elements. In fact I’ll go ahead and add Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines while I’m at it.
And finally, something completely unrelated: Worms 2.
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Oh and you know what? Lemmings. There, I’ll stop now.
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Your mod (The Nameless Mod) should be included in the list of best PC games of all time.
Yes, even though it’s a mod. It’s that good.
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No that would be cheating, even I wouldn’t suggest that ;-)
But thanks!
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STALKER moreso than bioshock, because bio *is* a multiplatform game, and IMO not as good as STALKER
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Posting in support of Vampire.
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Are we talking games that have been on PC at some point, games that were first on PC then got ported out, or games that have only been on the PC?
I’d expect to see Doom, one of the older C&Cs (it’ll probably end up being Red Alert 2, even if I’d prefer RA1 to be there). Things like Dwarf Fort and Minecraft (sandbox-survival’em-ups) also represent everything that its unique in PC gaming, I’d like to see them referenced at some point.
Are you going to be predictable and put either HL2 or Deus Ex will be at the top of the list? It seems to be standard like Zelda Ocarina of Time being at the top of any Edge “Best Games Ever” list.
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More pertinently: are freeware games being counted as well?
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I dare say “Any game”. Price ain’t nuthin’ but a number.
KG
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Posting in mega-support of Dwarf Fortress. If this ain’t in….
Well. I guess I’ll be all like sadface.
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Stalker and Vampire: Bloodlines are two classics which I think everyone in the world should play at least once.
As a more personal suggestion, I’d say Mirror’s Edge. The combat was awful and the story a little dodgy, but the sheer experience of running along a futuristic rooftop in it is awe-inspiring. It’s the only game that I feel accurately gives an impression of how the future might turn out to be, especially in the architectural sense. It is also, I’d say, the best looking game ever. Feel free to disagree on the last point.
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I completely agree about Mirror’s Edge, this game made me feel vertigo in most of the games I’ve played since. And the poor combat is nothing but a design choice to me, which makes the game even better because you focus on the run! I loved this game. I wouldn’t say it’s the best looking game ever though, the unreal engine has some very apparent defaults to me, but it was good looking enough for sure.
And I agree about Stalker and Bloodlines. You are a man of taste mister.
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Yes! Definitely Mirror’s Edge.
For a The List like this, I’d personally prefer to see a discussion of ‘ground-breaking’ rather than ‘great’ games. F’rinstance, with Mirror’s Edge, the insipid narrative and lacklustre combat make it less than ‘great’, in my opinion. But I’ve been disappointed with every first person game I’ve played since, because they lack such a brilliantly immersive, moment-to-moment sense of having a body. Look at Bioshock / 2, for example: great games, but strangely unimmersive when it comes to the simple act of walking / running around. This might just be a personal thing, but the Bioshocks are 2 of the worst games, for me, when it comes to feeling like a disembodied hand, floating round levels, rather than a truly corporeal entity.
This is why I’m very much looking forward to Brink.
Anyway, point being: I would suggest that, in order to appear on a The List, you should be able to say of a game: ‘after game x, it is unacceptable for other games not to include y’ – so you could say, ‘after mirror’s edge, it is unacceptable for other first person games not to try and give me a real sense of corporeal ownership’. Or, to take a classic example from the fps genre, ‘after half life, it’s unacceptable for first person games to include pre-rendered cutscenes’. These statements aren’t inarguable facts, of course, but they’re legitimate positions that could be taken if you were in a particularly hyperbolic mood.
And I think that’s what makes a game worthy of being Listed in a List: it’s the first game that showed us that x was possible. Mirror’s Edge is very good, but not great, and not one of my faves of all times, but it’s definitely one of the most important games I’ve played in the last couple of years.
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Stalker and bloodlines absolutely. I loved mirrors edge, but I’m not sure it is notable enough to make the cut in my onion.
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Vindictus could use a post-launch look. I have nothing else, and I tried so hard it hurt one of my orifices. Keep up the great work!
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What’s this Deus Ex thing?
Also, if you forget Minesweeper then there’s something wrong with you.
I’ll throw DK into the pile as well, and also suggest Hitman Blood Money. Most fun I’ve ever had killing people. And in the game.
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Posting in support of Blood Money. I’ve beaten that game many, many times. I don’t know that there are that many “shooters”, if you can call it that, that offer so many options to complete the mission in various degrees of subtlety and mass-murder. (I haven’t played Deus Ex, but I hear good things!)
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System Shock 2
X-COM
Neither have been mentioned.
Also some of the highly successful esports games should be considered, like CS and quake
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Actually, X-COM was mentioned above, but they misspelled it.
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Wait, Theme Hospital, did anyone say ‘Theme Hospital’?
If no-one has said ‘Theme Hospital’ I’m going to say Theme Hospital.
Theme Hospital.
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We apologise for the amount of litter.
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Theme Hospital?
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Theme Hospital was great :)
Another forgotten classic, Sim Tower.
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Theme Hospital.
(which I’ve never played, DON’T TELL P7uen!)
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There is no rat level.
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Go and play it now!
You’re not a PC Gamer until you’ve had your first vomit wave (and in the game).
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I’ll see your Theme Hospital and raise you a Startopia :)
Oh and while I’m here, Return to Castle Wolfenstein’s multiplayer was probably my favourite FPS multiplayer ever. Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and Enemy Territory: Quakewars tried to improve on it, but ended up breaking what was good about it.
One of my favourite games ever can be played for free now: Dungeon Master. Get it at http://dmweb.free.fr
Seriously, Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back are still incredibly good games, and noticeably hard as nails.
Does RebelStar count? I know it was a Speccy game, but it forever gave me a love of turn-based strategy, influencing purchases of other fantastic games such as XCOM, Fallout and Silent Storm.
And I don’t care if it’s still alpha, Dwarf Fortress is the deepest game I’ve ever played, and therefore one of my favourites.
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SimTower: The world’s most groundbreaking elevator simulator. I’d say nix this and replace with SimAnt, the world’s first Edutainment addiction for adolescent boys.
I’m looking around and nobody seems to have mentioned (likely by virtue of over-obviosity) SimCity here… which version will be crowned king?
Also, ThemeHospital over ThemePark? I dunno, you guys. There’s nothing quite like watching a Bouncy Castle catch fire and explode.
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Another vote for Startopia over Theme Hospital (though Theme Hospital is pretty neat too)
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As long as men of war is higher than company of heroes I’ll be happy.
IL2 1946 has to be in there as well.
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MEN
OF
WARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Homeworld was also great.
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Starcraft? Anyone?
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I’m fine, thanks.
I’ll stick with Red Alert and Age of Empires II
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I’ll go for some Starcraft.
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Another one I forgot, Vampire: Bloodlines (thanks to those who mentioned it and reminded me)
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Age of Empires 2
Also, despite not yet being released, CODBLOPS.
hehe. Codblops.
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I don’t like COD, so I don’t support your entry, but I do want to say CODBLOPS.
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Yeah i’m not a fan of the series. I really just wanted an excuse to write it. Try saying it out loud. It sounds like a poo splashing.
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I agree, maybe it was AndrewC saying it’s a tarp, but to me CODBLOPS sounds like Admiral Ackbar doing a poo
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A bad case of the cod-blops.
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X-Com (UFO Enemy Unknown)
Master of Orion II
Counter-Strike
Age of Empires II
Operation Flashpoint
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Lord Byte: Our tastes appear very, very similar. Certainly I’d agree with OpFlash, MOO2 and UFO.
I’d have to add Minecraft, I really would. Haven’t seen a game grip the world this much in ages.
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Trying to rack my brains for the not-so-obvious,
Jagged Alliance 2
Ultima VII
Uplink
Morrowind
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis ( I could argue a case for half of the old Lucasrts Adventure games really, but I’m sure John will have that covered)
Freedom Force
Jedi Knight II
Max Payne
Then all the obvious stuff like System Shock 2 etc!
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I think I meant Dark Forces II : Jedi Knight..
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Amen to Ultima 7. It is hands down one of my favorite games. I still remember breaking into a bakery late at night (in the game) and mixing water and flour to bake bread only because you could do it.
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Jagged Alliance 2, YES.
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genre-defining eh?
Mine would be…
Cave Story (indie!),
Gears of War (Cover!),
Zork (Text Adventure!),
Quake/Doom (FPS!),
FF7 (JRPG!),
Baldur’s Gate (WRPG!*),
N (Normal Platforming!),
StarCraft 1 (RTS!)
and that all i can think of.
yes some of these aren’t just on PC and aren’t even the best in their genre, but i was just thinking of games that could be held up as representing their genre.
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Solium Infernum.
Company of Heroes.
Minecraft.
-I’m aware two are this year but I think they’re both very special.
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Privateer, please! Great game that I spent countless hours on. Yeah, Elite was first but somehow it does not hold the same place in my heart.
And some more…
Tie Fighter
Syndicate
Unreal (yeah, the first one)
Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis
Morrowind
System Shock 2
Thief
Some of these are as obvious as Deus Ex, I know.
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Yes yes yes yes! I heartily agree with your list, especially with Unreal 1, as it captured like no other the feeling of alienation when landing on a strange planet…
I daresay Thief 2 deserves to be on the list even more than 1, as it’s progressed a lot in terms of mission design. Not too many monsters, and some very very good levels (Life of the Party comes to mind…)
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Exactly, that’s what Unreal did so very well! It was not the most coherent of games but it had more than enough atmosphere to make up for such minor shortcomings. Crashing-on-alien-worlds-and-going-on -an-epic-journey-in-order-to-escape didn’t get any better than this. Even today I fondly remember Unreal’s beautiful sights (Harobed Village, Bluff Eversmoking, Sunspire, NaPali Haven,….) and music. Too bad Epic messed up with Unreal II and never tried again. GoW, nah thanks.
And Thief: Life of the Party FTW!
Converning improved sequels, I find the System Shock and Thief series quite similar in this respect as they both started out with great first games that got even better when their second parts came around.
Oh, and while I’m at it. Some more for the list:
The Secret of Monkey Island
Tribes 2
Battlefield 2
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Some old names that came to mind (specifically talking about the PC versions where applicable):
Colonisation
Alpha Centauri
Master of Orion I & II
Heroes of Might and Magic II
Jagged Alliance 2
Nahlakh
Ultima IV, V, VII
System Shock 1 & 2
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Not exactly genre defining but for me they’re 2 of my favourite games of all time: the Age of Empires and Worms series
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Which Worms game?
Answer directly.
“Aye, and briefly.”
“Aye, and wisely.”
“Aye, and truly, you were best.”
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I’m going to go with Helbreath, The Fourth Coming and Magestorm just because I bet nobody ever heard of those except me, and yet I spent and enjoyed spending hundreds (*cough* thousands *cough*) of hours in each of these games. :-)
As for a more predictable answer, Doom, Planescape Torment, Baldur’s Gate, Minecraft, Starcraft, Diablo. City of Heroes, Far Cry, Crysis, FEAR and Riddick were really good too.
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Man, Far Cry. It’s just so pretty, and what I like about its prettiness is not that it’s super-realistic (though it seemed it at the time, as all graphics-pushing games do) but that, as it ages and becomes more obviously fake, it loses none of its charm because it’s still bright and pleasant and clear and runs stably. The game itself I found incredibly fun on Realistic difficulty – very punishing of mistakes, but totally *fair* about it. I thought the core mechanics of scouting an area, tagging all the enemies in radar, and then using the basic principles of “realistic” gunplay (crouch, use cover, don’t move while shooting, headshots are instakills) to remove them one by one were very well polished. I even enjoyed the mutants.
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Riddick! Yes, good call. Weird game. You never knew what the hell was gonna happen next. Also, Vin Diesel’s best performance by a long way.
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Props on Riddick from me too. I bought it in the Xmas sale last year and played it a while ago – blew me away. Never thought a game based on a cult movie could be such a worthy, well, game in itself. And yeah, Diesel’s voice acting was pimp.
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@jarvall I completely agree. The original Serious Sam evokes the same feeling whenever I go back. It does not look nearly as lush as Far Cry, but it is still bright and colorful unlike so many other FPSs. You know what, I nominate Serious Sam for The List. It brought back the classic Doom formula (some might say even improved upon it) during a time when shooters were moving towards more serious, story-driven experiences.
When will developers get it? When I play a shooter, all I want to do is SHOOT THINGS IN A SATISFACTORY MANNER. Serious Sam at least got that right.
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Deus Ex. I know, what you said, but you can’t ask about “greatest games ever” then expect me not to mention that.
Other than that, things that you might not consider:
Homeworld
Whizzkid
Master of Orion
Railroad Tycoon (possibly 2?)
Alpha Centauri
Sensible Soccer
XCOM (I like TFTD, but pick and choose0
Then there’s the funny ones, the ones that only mean something in context.
I mean, Darwinina is a fantastic game, that I’d like to mention – but really, most of what makes it great is tied to having been into games and computers since a young age. It riffs on Sensible Software games and demoscene funkiness.
Doom (not actually to my tastes) is most notable for what it really kicked off, rather than being that fantastic now.
Battlezone/Hostile waters for showing us what RTS could have become.
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But DooM is still fantastic.
There has been many occasions when I have been playing a modern FPS and suddenly come to a conclusion “Damn, this is lousy. I want to play Doom again”
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I guess I’m kinda poorly equipped to judge, really – I don’t like any of id’s post-keen output.
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Having played all three for the first time recently, I can say that I didn’t enjoy Quake 1 much at all, but I thought Doom 1 and 2 were a blast. I found Quake to be all grimdark and depressing, loveless muddy gloom, but Doom to have a simple atmosphere of FUNFUNFUN.
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Ooo! Sensible Soccer! The only foot-to-ball game to have ever actually been fun. Lemmings with balls!
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Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer. Often overlooked as it was an expansion pack, but vastly improved on the original game. One of the few truely great 3D RPGs
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NetHack
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I second nethack. I have lost too much time in my life to that game. breaking into gnome vaults and sacrificing FTW.
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You see here a scroll scroll labeled PRATYAVAYAH.
i – a scroll labeled PRATYAVAYAH.
What do you want to read? [ijklm or ?* ] i
As you read the scroll, it disappears.
This post glows silver for a moment.
(+1)
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I have to put one in for Morrowind, which is just such a brilliant (and very grey) world. It does a far better job of immersion than Oblivion I think.
Also, if no one is gonna say it, I guess I will. STARCRAFT
Its success is undeniable, and for good reason.
Also
Doom, its still fun, I can’t believe its still fun but its true
Baldur’s Gate (of course)
Dwarf Fortress, sure its almost entirely inaccessible without outside content like youtube guides, but my dwarves just trained a war jaguar and war grizzly bear, so…
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I forgot to say
Knytt, Knytt times a thousand, its so damn good, and beautiful, I mean this was the first time i ever saw a game that resembled art, and I played it all in one sitting even though I had a problem set due cause its so damn awsome
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Knytt Stories and Dwarf Fortress are both amazing in completely different ways.
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Downloading Knytt to see what the fuss is about :)
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Just writing to say: GRIM FANDANGO! Let us not forget this. Do so at your peril!
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I’m surprised it took that long for someone to mention Grim Fandango, as despite all its clunkiness in my humble opinion it deserves to be included!
Further also echo’ing Minecraft (despite its alphaness), Dwarf Fortress (despite its relentlessness) and the Jazz Jackrabbit-series (despite his Cliffness).
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I hear that. My favourite adventure game of all time, it’s storytelling, atmosphere and writing are second to none.
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Glad to see someone mention this. Grim Fandango should definitely be on the list.
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Good point. Well made.
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This.
Wonky controls, badly dated graphics, occassionally questionable puzzling, but that scarcely matters because the game is simply FABULOUS (with a capital FABULOUS).
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I also second this. Only advanture game in donkeys years that I played through in one night (with occasional cheaty look up bits).
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Ah… I thought I’d have to be the first to post this…
Adventure games suffer from most gamer’s scorn due to their usually stupid puzzles and failed attempts at deep storytelling. Grim Fandango might not have the best puzzles ever designed, but the story, setting and atmosphere is unique. Good humor and the best “coming-of-age” story a game ever featured. The transformation of the protagonist from sympathetic loser to daring hero is so subtle that he feels like a real person despite the totally surreal environment. It’s so many years after this was released and apart from a couple of good adventures, like The Longest Story which is really not coming that close, the genre is always coming short of fulfilling my expectations…
and since we were to post suggestions for a list, add Thief.
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Oh man, I can’t believe I forgot Grim Fandango too. That game just oozes style. Definitely my favorite adventure game. While I’m on the subject of Tim Schafer, I’ll add another vote for Psychonauts too.
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Grim Fandango: Great story, stuck in a not so stellar game. For me, the controls were much too clunky (oh, the many times I ran against a wall…) and many puzzles too obtuse. There was barely any fun in exploring the world and solving the puzzles for me.
I enjoyed more watching a Longplay of it than playing it. Grim Fandango as an animated series, now that’s something I’d get behind!
For me, Grim Fandango as a game fails. But as a story, there’s nothing better!
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Did someone tell you to put Deus Ex in there already ? You should.
HL seems a pretty obvious pick in the murder simulator genre too, and maybe STALKER too (Call of Pripyat if I had to chose one). I’d agree Mass Effect deserves its place in here, as well as Psychonauts…
Rayman and Black and White would be good entries too.
I might add other as they cross my mind later, that’s all for now…
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I still have some of my all time favorite games in their original boxes next to my computer (PC, I should add, the amiga games are safely tucked away.. ;) ).
In addition to what has been mentioned above I would like to add:
System Shock 1&2 – the first one completely blew me away, the sequel was excellent as well.
Syndicate Wars – loved this as well, for me Syndicate will always be an Amiga game
Ascendancy – one of the first 4X strategy games I played, I actually still play this sometimes, really really great game. It’s due out on Iphone btw
Operation Flashpoint – this was the answer to all my dreams, freaking excellent
Diablo 1&2 – Excellent excellent games.
Civ IV with expansions – for me, the best and most enjoyable Civ game to date
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I remember playing the demo of system shock 1 on a disc that came with some silly mag (pc gamer) and going out and buying it later that week.
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someone’s already said it but GTA San Andreas and Vice City were both incredible games, you can go and play gta IV and sa and vc are still way more fun, along with worms, the 2 gta 3 spinoffs were easily the most fun i’ve had gaming
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I absolutely loved Sam & Max hit the road and a load of other lucasarts adventure games. Monkey Island as well.
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Oh and how about motherfucking Dune 2 for inventing the RTS genre.
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I think you mean Herzog 2 invented the RTS genre… Or, to give it its correct title, Herzog Zwei. That was a Mega-Drive game though, so can’t be in the list.
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Common misconception. Herzog Zwei was far from the first real time strategy game. Though if you are talking about the genre as it is today, then it would be correct to say that Dune 2 (not Herzog Zwei or any of the other earlier real time strategy games) invented it.
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Herzog Zwei was the first game to have all of the mechanics and concepts that would come to define the RTS genre… it introduced the conventions of the genre. Earlier games may have been Real-Time and had strategy, but not in the same way or on the same scale that Herzog Zwei did, and the RTS genre had. Dune 2 popularised the genre, but it wasn’t the first… And I’m not the only one that thinks this…
http://www.gamespot.com/gamespot/features/all/real_time/p2_01.html
http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3134179
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Well I’ve lost countless hours to the following games:
Elite
Baldur’s Gate
X-wing vs Tie Fighter
Fallout
Nethack
Mega Traveller 2
(And appreciate they aren’t strictly PC games but Magnetic Scrolls: Jinxter and Lords of Midnight should also get a mention.)
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Oh and Mechwarrior (II/Mercenaries/3) :)
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Yes! Mechwarrior II gets two (big robot) thumbs up.
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@PhilJC
How have I never heard of Mega Traveller 2 before, I love the Traveller RPG system and “MT2 is a very faithful adaptation of the Traveller role-playing game with over 100 fully explorable planets (most with multiple cities and each with it’s own sub-quests) and a non-linear story line.” sounds like my kind of game to a T.
How has it stood the test of time? Is it still enjoyable played today?
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@disperse
Personally I think it’s stood the test of time though the sound effects are a little grating nowadays. The combat was great fun – you could be minding your own business and five minutes later you’re the last one standing in a town full of red splatters. There is a ton of quests to keep you occupied in between fire fights as well.
Worth checking out if you have a spare afternoon/weekend. :-)
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@PhilJC
I definitely will. It’s going on the “list of games I will play when I have time, dammit!”
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Jagged Alliance 2
Ground Control
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Sheesh. I had to get to the second page of comments before someone mentioned Ground Control. Shame on you all!
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Can you spare us from a ranked list, please? We don’t really need hysterical comments arguing the order of the games presented. Alphabetical lists are fine.
Also, could you maybe make it open ended, so if people do end up squealing repeatedly about one game you’ve missed, all you’d need to do is add another entry… (GameSpot had an old Greatest Game section that continually expanded)
Finally, while a Top 30 list would be fine, I’ve pretty much played all the games on most Videogame Top 100s (because I am old), so you might want to reach for a much, much higher number…
As for nominations…
I think I’d go for “Violet” and “Nightfall”, from the IF 2008 Comp. I’d very much doubt they’ll make the list, but a dab of IF would be good, and not just the typical “Anchorhead!?!!?11″ that always gets on there, or the sad “Zork” entry that really belittles more recent, better, games in the genre. Maybe that one with the pictures and the sex and the violence that Kieron championed back in the day but whose name escapes me…
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I resent any lists that would have “Awesome Aardvark Adventures” on the top.
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I fucking hate that Gamespot list for SPOILING THE [important character] REVEAL in SS2. Seriously, I’m not reading the entry to have a mutual masturbation session over a game I’ve already played, I’m reading it so you can tell me why I ought to give it a try. One does not encourage people to see The Sixth Sense by saying “You should see this movie where it turns out Bruce Willis is dead the whole time”. Goddamn morons. Luckily, SS2 was such an amazing game that even without the joy of experiencing that plot development for myself, it was one of the best gaming experiences I have ever had.
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:) Seriously, that has just resulted in me discovering the ending to Sixth Sense for the first time. I’ve somehow kept myself clear of spoilers (while knowing there was one) thinking I might get round to watching it at some point. Caught out of the corner of my eye. I don’t blame you.
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RagingLion: Aye, me too.
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Why the hell has nobody mentioned Deus Ex? You fools!
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Avoiding the obvious ones that people have already said:
Little Big Adventure
Star Control 2
Knights of the Old Republic
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LBA ftw!
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Oh my god yes, LBA 1 and 2.
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Rome: Total War, but only because I haven’t played Shogun (it’s probably better)
Dune, the first RTS
There’s nothing I’ve seen nominated that I would disagree with
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Or even Dune 2, which has already been nominated (I don’t really consider the first one)
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my #1: The Longest Journey (but with Walker around, I realize it’s also a bit redundant)
others:
Fallout 2
Civilization (the first one)
Baldur’s gate
Psychonauts
Vampire: Bloodlines
Arcanum
Planescape
Half-life 2
OH… and… and… Commander KEEN !
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Many good mentions already. Here are some more.
Beneath a Steel Sky.
Pizza Tycoon!
Yes, I said Pizza Tycoon!
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I believe you clearly mean a far superior game: Pizza Syndicate (named Fast Food Tycoon outside of Europe).
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Baldur’s Gate 2. The first was very good, the second beat it in spades and Throne of Bhaal was the awesome-flavour icing on an absolutely perfect cake. Bioware still haven’t beaten it since, in my opinion.
Planescape: Torment. Another ace game, in a different way than BG2 was.
Dawn of War (the first one), because it actually got me to like RTS games.
UFO: Enemy Unknown. Epic, epic stuff even now.
Torchlight. Very fun, but beneath the shiny cartoon-like exterior it’s surprisingly lengthy and really quite addicting. And they released the full editor for pretty much unlimited modding goodness.
I have to add World of Warcraft too, because for all that it gets knocked, and the silly decisions Blizzard sometimes make, it hasn’t been beaten yet.
Eversion. To tell you why would be a spoiler.
Half-Life 1. Valve took the old, knackered, badly-creaking Quake engine and made it to a triple backflip while singing. In the process they ended up creating the best example of the genre at the time and a game that still stands up now.
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Wouldn’t Diablo overshadow Torchlight?
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Half Life 2, obv.
I’ll trust Walker will make the case for The Longest Journey. Beyond Good and Evil: the console port was terrible, but it’s a classic on any platform. Lemmings. Day of the Tentacle. Lemmings.
There’s a speadsheet foot-to-ball game that caused my housemate to fail his degree twice. I always resent when really dull games get the headline spots in these lists, but it’s undeniably an PC big hitter. Likewise WoW.
Lemmings.
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I’d want a list that is quintessentially about pc games. So GTA 3 and onwards became console titles primarily, and while they are terrific, they were never games that should be played on the pc as many other titles should be.
I suspect the titles I can think of would be listed, but I’d like to vote Civ 2 over 4, not because its necessarily better, but because it was in some ways a very pure experience that I absolutely adored.
I do feel doom should be there, because not only was it a seminal game it was also wonderously inventive, and also featured things that you don’t see much in games these days (hordes of enemies swarming across the screen to you).
I’d like to forward Warcraft 3 as a suggestion just because the custom games that came out of that are awesome. I know thats not where they started, but they really blossomed there. Its also quite a nicely plotted game with an excellent and varied campaign- a polished starcraft really.
Also, are we saying must play in terms of awesomeness or interest? Becuase the Sims is interesting for what it is, but I find the gameplay mostly dull to be honest.
[I know I've got too many paragraphs here, but I wanted this to be more readable]
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Nobody mentioned System Shock 2, this makes me sad.
Other unmentioned games:
vvvvvv – Does it need an explanation?
Metro 2033 – Incredibly well made, not to mention the story is great. It’s like a better Half Life 2 without physics puzzles.
Icewind Dale 2 – Personally find it better than other Infinity Engine games because of the 3.0 rules (with exception in regards to Planescape: Torment).
Dungeon Keeper 2 – Some people mentioned the first, but I personally prefer the second one.
Max Payne – Classic.
Cave Story – Shouldn’t need explaining either.
Mirror’s Edge – Someone mentioned it, but I wanted to mention it again.
Heroes of Might and Magic 3 – Best TBS in history.
Age of Wonders (Series) – Second best TBS in history (although whether you prefer 2 or SM is due to personal preference)
That’s it for now.
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Looks like some people mentioned these while I was typing out my comment, natch.
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vvvvvv – wasn’t that a rather unimpressive arcade-style game known only for how stupidly hard it was?
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VVVVVV is amazing. Easily one of my GOATEES. And it wasn’t stupidly hard, not in a Demon’s Souls way. Which is also brilliant, BY THE WAY.
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You preferred Dungeon Keeper 2?
You are clearly a bot trying to ingratiate yourself to the community in order to sell us Loboutin shoes, but your sequel love has betrayed you.
HAVE AT YE!
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@ Memphis-Ahn
I imagined Kieron would handle all the System Shock II, Deus Ex, Thief 3 side of things…
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Wow, reading through them all, I’m surprised that nobody has said Freespace2
I never played the first one, so I can’t vouch for it, but seriously FS2 had just the bestiest of the best controls, that really felt like controlling a machine. It had amazing battles and a properly properly well made story. It’s not just “Good vs Evil”, it’s “Us vs Them and then there’s Him and wait are we on the wrong side?”
What else? oh Theme Park definitely along with the Theme Hospital said above
Populous as well
Command&Conquer the original
Rome: Total War (Arguably the best of the Total Wars)
Call of Duty 2 or 4
oh and ofcourse The Path and/or The Endless Forest. Both great games, and at least one Tale of Tales games should get in there for being different.
Maybe Dear Esther too, though it is a tad confusing.
erm… what have i missed? I guess I might as well drop the bomb, I suggest F.E.A.R. Partly because of the incredibly impressive combat AI, manipulated with environments to show of their best at all times. But also for Paxton Fettel, particularly when I shot him in the head. Just one shot. It’s one of my standout gaming moments because I realised that I was holding a gun instead of a shooty toy.
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I dunno about Freespace 2. I mean, I think it ought to be on the list simply because so many other people seem to hold it in such high regard, but personally I found it fairly unengaging. I found the story ok-but-not-great (and talk about unsatisfying conclusion!) and the weapons weak enough and difficult enough to use that I felt frustrated, ineffective, and merely thankful every time I scored a kill, rather than heroic as I gather the game intended me to feel.
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Freespace 2 is the main one I could think of that was at risk of being missed out; good to see I wasn’t the only one!
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F.E.A.R is, in my mind, still the best representation of the pure FPS and I’m certain it will be overshadowed by some form of Call/Medal-of-Duty/Honor. While those games’ narrative were often better (especially MWs), F.E.A.R had superior control (and brilliant kung fu moves), twitch-reflex speeds (where the slow motion ability really allowed the developers to speed everything up), graphical depiction of combat (smoke everywhere, broken concrete, lots of blood), visceral gun impacts and excellent sound design, and not least of all, the supremely engaging AI. All these things makes F.E.A.R in my opinion, deserve the spot as the most excellent modern FPS.
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Big whoop for Freespace 2 from me as well! Lasers and nebulas and massive, MASSIVE capital ships all made a superb atmosphere for some memorably tense battles. (Plus the menu screens were sweet.) The way you could manage your shield capacity in quadrants was soooo cool, as well. And the Match Speed button. That was good. Stinger missiles… It’s all coming back to me in a dizzying flood of laser-fire.
Man I need to get a joystick again…
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Seeing lots of games that I forgot above, but the only one that has me going ‘d’oh’ is TIE Fighter. What a quality game
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I tried playing The Longest Journey last year and came to the conclusion that the journey is so long because the protagonist takes such a damn long time walking across the screen. Really, the game has not aged well.
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you know… you could’ve pressed ‘esc’ to skip the walking animation…
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Will pressing ESC also make the game look and sound non-horrible, turn the characters likeable and make the puzzles reasonable?
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Heretic!
It looks much nicer if you play it windowed, so you can see the graphics in naive resolution. The characters do waffle on a bit, but they’re some of the best in gaming.
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Good grief, if those characters were the best in gaming I think I’d quit the hobby at once. I thought the character concepts were well fleshed-out, interesting, varied, natural, 3-dimensional, &c… but the actual lines and voice-acting delivery were saturday-morning-cartoon quality – I only put up with it because I found the the world, puzzles, and art so enjoyable.
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What the what? Sarah Hamilton as April Ryan is one my favourite computer game voices.
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The first Tomb Raider. I have wonderful memories of exploring those echoing tunnels.
Doom, obviously, but I was just thinking today about all the ways it innovated, beyond the obvious 3Dish-ness. Including both co-op and deathmatch modes was just… tectonic.
And put in Left 4 Dead. I’m not sure shooters really have anywhere to go after that game.
Most of my others are obvious, but how about Hero’s Quest (later Quest for Glory). That game absorbed months of my life, managing to mix adventure game and RPG in a way no-one has really managed since, and was a graphic adventure where there was more than one way to solve each puzzle! Now why hasn’t anyone copied that??
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“And put in Left 4 Dead. I’m not sure shooters really have anywhere to go after that game.”
Left 4 Dead 2, maybe? :P
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Carmageddon. For all the reason’s Alec wasn’t so sure about it last week
Dark Forces – A GOOD StarWars game. A narrative driven vintage FPS with puzzles, backstory and general top notch (for ’95) cinematic atomosphere. Plus the Concussion Rifle defines ‘fantastically broken’ as a phrase.
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Amen brother, the concussion rifle was a thing of beauty.
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Diablo 2 is my favourite PC game ever, and so of course I feel it should be included.
Gothic 2 is a very unique RPG, with great atmosphere, gameplay and replayability. It is not as well known as such big RPGs as the Elder Scroll Series, and so it will probably hardly be mentioned, but it is far better.
Let us not fall into the trap of ‘famous’ games getting high just for being famous, and not on gameplay alone!
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Gothic 2 offered some interesting choices and an interesting world, but the control responsiveness was horrid, there were tons of bugs, and it ran like a hog on even state-of-the-art (at that time) machines.
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I believe nobody mentioned Heroes of Might and Magic (third is my personal favourite)
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Spacewar
Lemmings
Digger
Dune2
Wolf3d
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Beggar, forgot Alley Cat
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Alley Cat seconded. Also, Dogfight and 3Demon. Power to CGA.
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Wasn’t Alley Cat a bit crap? Oh no! I’ve fallen in a fish bowl! Oh no! I can’t catch this ruddy bird!
Although, it does have an absolutely classic theme tune. Possibly the best music to come out of gaming as a whole. (Perhaps second only to that catchy one from off of being in Mario. You know the one?)
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Did no one mention Pirates! yet? Put it on the list!
Also Final Fantasy 7, Vampire: Bloodlines, Wing Commander 3
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I have to say:
Zork
Railroad Tycoon
SimCity
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If I spent all day pondering it, I could probably come up with a few more, but the ones that stand out most vividly to me are:
Neverwinter Nights
Freelancer
Morrowind
S.T.A.L.K.E.R – Shadow of Chernobyl
Just Cause 2
Faery Tale Adventure.
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“The name’s Trent.”
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+1 for freelancer. Losing the Freelancer disks was a great mistake.
… but I just bid on ebay for some more. So maybe the day will be saved!
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I think I’d better share the love before it’s too late and give Anachronox a mention, so…
Anachronox
There are many others, but others have already mentioned them.
I’ll also give the original Dune a mention, I think it’s sadly overlooked in favour of it’s more well known RTS successor.
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Anachronox really was a hidden gem. I sadly lost my save games towards the end and so never completed it, but it was fantastic.
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@Larington
I also enjoyed the original Dune game, I recall it being the first CD-ROM game with full video and voice I played. I’m not sure the gameplay would hold up under scrutiny though, being able to play through the story of the characters in the book (one of my favorites at the time) was pretty amazing though.
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Agreed on Anachronox – one of the biggest hidden gems of gaming period.
I picked it up on a rainy Friday. Loaded it up, and the rest of the weekend is blacked out. Next thing I know, the credits are rolling, its 7:30 AM on Monday morning, and I have to go to work in 30 minutes. I’m not sure if I slept that weekend or not, but ‘immersed’ is not even close to the correct word for what that game did to me. Complete awesomeness.
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Oh man, Anachronox! Another awesome game that many have never played. A bit buggy, and perhaps not the best looking, but great fun and a truly strange and unique universe. I actually played it for the first time only a few years ago. I want to support it because it’s not well known and fairly unique, but I can also see how many players might not quite hit it off with it the game the way I did. Are we allowed to include games that may not have a mass appeal but do have a very strong appeal to a subset of gamers? If so, this should go on the list.
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Carmageddon.
Battlefield 1942 Desert combat.
World in Conflict (I’m surprised no-one mentioned it).
Dune II
Red Alert
Warcraft 2 (this may actually be quite bad in retrospect)
Company of heroes.
Soldier of fortune 1? :p
Alpha Centurai
x3 Terran conflict
Duke Nukem 3d!
Carmageddon.
Carmageddon.
Carmageddon.
Carmageddon.
Carmageddon.
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Planescape Torment, Baldurs Gate 1&2 (1 was more revolutionary but 2 represents the pinacle), UFO, Starcraft (first really big e-sport), Civilization, DOOM (made fps popular), Quake World (Online play), Half-Life, Counter-Strike (first gigantic mod), Freespace 2 (pinacle of space sims).
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The Lost Vikings. The first one. Ah, memories.
I’m also going to throw in a somewhat controversial one and say Albion, the old Bluebyte RPG. Ok, the game mechanics were pretty bad, but just for it’s depth of story and narrative atmosphere it’s a game I’ve played through at least three times.
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Speedball 2
EVE Online
Natural Selection
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Alpha Centauri.
Hitman: Blood Money.
Vampire: Bloodlines.
Stalker: COP.
EVE Online.
World of Goo.
Total Annihilation.
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@Wallace
Good god, yes, Hitman: Blood Money.
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Freespace 2!!
Why has no-one mentioned Freespace 2 yet??!
So good it killed the space sim genre dead for years, as no-one could beat it (singleplayer)
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SPELUNKY.
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A golden idol for Mooglepies.
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Another vote for Spelunky. I had more fun with Spelunky than I do with most big-budget games.
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We seem to be missing some Wing Commander.
The first one because it was like the first
Or the third because it had Luke Skywalker starring in it.
Also Ultimas 1-7 plus Underworld (and maybe Online as it kiked off a lot in the MMO world).
I’m not sure I saw Full Throttle up there either.
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Seconding Ultima Underworld. That game was almost 10 years ahead of its time.
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Thirding the Ultima Underworlds. Those games invented the immersive sim genre.
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Quest for Glory (orig. Hero’s Quest) series. Never gets the love.
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Quest for Glory! Quest for Glory! Quest for Glory! Seconded seconded seconded!
John, we’re counting on you.
Also, of the flagship Sierra adventure games, King’s Quest 6 stands miles and miles above the rest.
And I also second Freedom Force, Grim Fandango, VVVVVV, Lemmings
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Talking of old school, how about Sopwith? I could make do with a modern 2D dogfight simulator with relaxed physics :)
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adventure:
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
air combat:
F15 Strike Eagle II
Falcon 4.0
interactive fiction:
Photopia
Galatea
platform:
Knytt Stories
Prince of Persia
Commander Keen 4
puzzle:
World of Goo
Braid
rpg and alikes:
Space Rangers 2
Resident Evil
Knights of the Old Republic
racing:
Formula One Grand Prix
Stunts (aka 4D Sports Driving)
sport:
Kings of the Beach
Sensible Soccer
sim:
Sim City 2000
The Manager (aka Bundesliga Manager Professional)
strategy:
Rome: Total War (tbs)
X-COM: Enemy Unknown (tbs)
Age of Empires II (rts)
Crusader Kings (tbs)
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Come on, Fate Of Atlantis? What about The Dig? Or DotT?
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Eye of the Beholder, first proper dungeon crawler I remember playing
F29, first easily accessible flight sim I remember playing
Frontier. goes without saying, we wouldn’t have things like EVE and the X games without it.
Dune 2. As above but applied to the modern RPS. No Dune 2 = No C&C, no Starcraft, No SupCom.
Neverwinter Nights. The first truly faithful translation of the DnD ruleset to a computer, even allowing you to DM games in a limited fashion
Beneath a Steel Sky. Because everyone seems fixated on Monkey Island while this gem is always forgotten.
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F29 Retaliator was very nice indeed and I almost included it, but I preferred F15 SE II over it (both published in 1989, according to wikipedia).
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I’m astonished and I think people need to think back a few more years.
I’d start with mentioning Monkey Island again as the first time it was mentioned just wasn’t enough ;)
No matter how much bashing it has got sometimes for only looking pretty, I’d add Myst to the list too. and Spellforce for adding a new concept at least to my plate.
Not sure if Witcher has been mentioned yet either.
Need to think more…
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Roughly in order of appearance:
Lemmings
Monkey Island II
Sensible Soccer
Sim City 2000
Day of the Tentacle
Doom II
Civilization II
Half Life
Tribes 2
Team Fortress II
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Mass effect 2: Shooty game AND talky game.
Farmville: It’s the most prominent hugely mainstream PC game.
The hitman games: Clever assassination simulator.
The Civ games: So many hours spent.
Garrys mod: a sandbox that really lets you do anything.
Diablo 2: A large part of my childhood.
Lastly I would like to argue agains oblivion because it’s rubbish compared to morrowind.
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I vote that instead of including Oblivion, the Oblivion modding scene be included. It’s just ridiculous how many mods there are for that game (finished, too, in contrast to something like HL2 that has 1,000 mods but only 10 finished). It’s a shame that by the time one installs all the mods necessary to make it not suck, it slows to unplayable levels and is bugged up the wazoo. Bethesda need to fire their animation department, yes, but they also need to write a new bloody engine – Gamebryo is so teasingly open to modding yet appallingly fickle at accepting mods.
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The first Vampire (the Masquerade – Redemption),
although it is quite obvious, please don’t forget WarCraft III (+TFT). (custom maps: Tower Defence)
Half-life 1 addons?
Colin McRae (1,2,3)?
Unreal Tournament (1)
Serious Sam (1)
Flight Simulator (any year)
Settlers (1,2,3)
Red Alert (1)
and if you make a top1000 list, “Z” (RTS game). Then, I’d also enjoyed bad arcade racer as Screamer (1995)
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Ultima 7 and 7 part 2 !
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Get this man a chunk of blackrock and Rudyom’s Wand!
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Keeping it to 5:
TIE Fighter
Planescape Torment
Deus Ex
World of Warcraft
Half Life
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TIE Fighter. A brilliant piece of storytelling married to arguably the greatest space sim of all time, all set in the geek-paradise that is the Star Wars universe. And the mine field clearance mission… it still sends shivers down my spine remembering the first time I played that.
It’s a near perfect game IMHO, and still bears up remarkably well today.
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*Mission critical craft under attack*
*Mission critical craft shields down*
*Mission critical craft has been destroyed*
Big love.
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Already been mentioned a few times, but just to make sure,
Operation Flashpoint – best game ever imo, but as long as it’s somewhere on the list I’ll be happy.
I’ll also add Swat 4, Boiling Point, and the first Call of Juarez. All brilliant games.
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Penumbra/Amnesia, and not only for being “the scariest games ever” (it’s also so clever, and thinking out of the box)
Pathologic/The Void, for the way they put you in alien worlds and have you learning their rules
Stronghold, because I like apple trees <3
System Shock 1, the blueprint for so many things to come later
Grim Fandango !
I was quite fond of Dark Earth, that french, post-apocalyptic adventure game. A great universe, and an actually not too predictable story (although not a masterpiece either)
Clock Tower (yes there was a Windows 95 version :p)
The Sims series, because it's still, strangely, a very unique game, using specificities of the medium cleverly.
ArmA2, because it's on of those rare games war-related where you're not a hero surrounded by dummies and shooting targets
Dwarf Fortress, the insane simulation super hero (oh! now i want an insane super-hero simulation)
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And Just Cause, just ’cause
(I had to do it.. but I actually only played the demo :p)
(Boiling Point was actually more interesting)
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Classic PC games are Tetris, Minesweeper, WoW, Quake and all Quake variants (like Modern Warfare), .. the RPG classics like Baldurs Gate, Fallout, Diablo, Morrowind, Kotor, Mass Effect.. the RTS classics like Command Conquer, Dune 2, Starcraft,.. classid adventure games like The day of the tentable, Teen Agent, … I don’t think you can make a list of all classic PC games with only 100 titles. And I don’t know a fraction of the classic games. My gaming culture has holes in it.
But you are not asking for that.. you are asking for ..”the greatest PC games of all time”. Maybe I sould exclude games that are not that great now.. like Dune2. Is not great now. I would not recomend it and say “he.. play this, is great!”.
Temportal revised list of the great and greatest PC games:
Morrowind, Baldurs Gate, Doom II, The Day Of The Tentacle, Diablo, Eve, Battlefield 2,….
Some classics removed from the list:
Dune 2 (too old, feel inadecuate and small), Quake, Wolfestein, Anarchy Online, WoW( I don’t know it enough, so I can’t add it), Other battlefields games (BF2 added as representative)
Maybe I sould focus on the remove list, and make a list of 100 classic titles that are not great anymore, but still classic. Then use this list to “filter” other people list.
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Spelunky. I cannot tell you how much time I have sunk into this brilliance.
Fable – The Lost Chapters. Seriously flawed, but still better than either of its’ successors.
Homeworld 2. Still gorgeous to look at even now. Go ahead, load up a skirmish match against the AI on the Jadeth map, and tell me that seeing your massed ion cannons ripping into the hull of the enemy mothership, while tiny fighters swarm like angry bees against the backdrop of that beautifully lit planet in the orange nebulous depths of space isn’t one of the greatest things you can experience.
Hitman – Blood Money It may have taken them four attempts to get the mechanics right, but when they did, assassination became an art form. So much variety in the ways you can knock people off. The level on the streets of New Orleans during carnival time… damn, I have never before or since seen that many NPCs on screen at any one given time, and I could run this smoothly on an old machine with a Radeon X300S. If there is one crime associated with this game, it’s that nobody ever took the time to use the suburbs mission as the basis for a machinima recreation of the video for REMs’ “Imitation Of Life” with 47 as Michael Stipe.
Quake II Amazing opening cinematic with a soundtrack by Sonic Mayhem and Rob Zombie, a level on a low gravity space station, a railgun that left trails of blue spirals, and a hidden area where a Tank was a pimp for two Iron Maidens. Still my favourite of the Quake series. IV doesn’t even come close.
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I agree that some Hitman belongs on there, but I actually thought Blood Money was a little less interesting than Silent Assassin and Contracts, which had fewer scripted ways to kill people and felt more organic. I also thought they were a little bit more atmospheric
Except those first two bloody terrible Japanese mountain levels in Silent Assassin. And all the levels taken from Codename 47 in Contracts.
I guess actually each of the Hitman games has one major flaw.
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Okay, PC-Games…
Monkey Island
Civilization
Masters of Orion 2
Fallout 2
UFO: Enemy Unknown
Half-Life
System Shock 2
Silent Storm
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Spelunky
Possibly Minecraft but alas! It’s not even finished yet!
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+1′s for:
Prince of Persia
Formula One Grand Prix
Wolfenstein
Tomb Raider
Half-Life
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault
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Terranova.
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Ultima Underworld 2 and Baldur’s Gate 2 – both fantastic RPGs which were better than their predecessors. In fact, UU2 was the game that really got me into gaming in the first place.
Other than that,
Lemmings 2
Worms United (anything after they went cartoony is apocryphal)
Dungeon Keeper
Freelancer
Morrowind
Deus Ex (because.)
Knights of the Old Republic
Unreal Tournament (original and 2004)
Call of Duty
Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
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Yeah, Lemmings 2: The Tribes. The best of the series, and too often forgotten.
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New Vegas
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On any other site I would fiercely argue for the importance, greatness, and quality of Men of War, but here it’s clearly not going to be a problem. Is it? IS IT?! Don’t make me shoot off your hat!
Two other games I want to make an argument for are Ultima VII and Starflight. Both have one thing in spades all too few games possess, a feeling of absolute freedom to do what you want. Sure, both had a central storyline, a damn good one, but fundamentally they left you alone to go wander about a huge world full of cool, interesting stuff. Ultima IV may be the acknowledged classic (understandably) and Star Control II may be better remembered, but both U7 and SF deserve a look-in, SF for its importance in the development of science fiction games, and U7 because it’s the most replayable and fun of the Ultima series. I’d go so far as to say that it’s Richard Garriott’s crowning achievement as a game designer. I played through parts 1 and 2 a couple of years ago, and, besides being fun and engaging, I the whole thing seemed like a philosophical exploration of different moral systems. It’s very refreshing in comparison to the karma bar approach of modern RPGs (though you never really don’t play the hero… but there’s more to morality than “do I give the puppy to the adorable child or kill and skin the puppy in front of the child?”)
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PlanetSide
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Yes. A thousand times yes.
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Count me in for a thousand and one times.
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Uplink(!!)
Half-Life 1&2 + Portal (obv.)
Left 4 Dead 2
Mirror’s Edge – For trying something different and imo succeeding brilliantly.
Mass Effect 2
Civ 4
EVE
MS Flight Sim X
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Uplink! I still remember playing through the demo many, many times. Definitely in my top 10 PC Games ever.
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I LOVED MIRROR’S EDGE. Just wanting to second the sentiment, because, seriously. So amazing. More games that are shorter, more innovative, and better quality please! Not to say it wasn’t flawed, because of course it was, but having waited a long time to buy it, I was warned at length about the combat and story, so I knew to simply skip the cutscenes, play on easy and avoid combat. What was left was one of the best experiences I’ve had in PC gaming.
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Anachronox
Morrowind
Baldur’s Gate
Carmaggedon
Half-Life 1 (and only 1)
Blood 2 (bring it back, please.tnx)
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Paradroid
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Tribes
Men of War
Planetside
Arma Series
Joint Ops
Damn I could go on
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Don’t forget Dungeon Keeper! and Rollercoaster Tycoon! and Rairoad Tycoon 2! and Europa Universalis!
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Because it hasn’t been mentioned so far: Independence War 2: Edge of Chaos. Absolutely the most immersive space sim I’ve ever played. It even beats TIE Fighter and Freespace 2 in that respect, although these games have better mechanics.
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All my favourite PC games have already been mentioned, except one:
Linley’s Dungeon Crawl
The greatest roguelike and a continual source of fun and inspiration for me. The Stone Soup project has kept it balanced and interesting. Talk about narratives emerging organically from gameplay – this is the game!!
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I think the vast majority of mine have already been said, so I’d just like to enter Machinarium and especially Startopia for consideration.
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Under NO circumstance should Fallout 3 go on this list. The game was a technical disaster, and everything it did well, had and has been done better.
I hope to see a lot of Valve games, though.
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I’d like to agree, yes it has its problems, but…
I don’t think I have sunk more than 100 hours into any other (single-player at least) game in the last 20 years.
So it has to go in.
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A lot of these will likely have already mentioned, but I’ll stick my oar in anyway… In no particular order…
Syndicate (or maybe everything made by Bullfrog, except The Flood).
SimCity 2000 (would be my choice, I did enjoy 4… but it could be quite clumsy and the community was a little obtuse).
Baldur’s Gate Trilogy (this should be a given).
Morrowind (I’d put it over Oblivion anyday).
Total Annihilation.
Alpha Centauri (my favourite Civ style game, though I’d be happy if you went for Civ2 instead).
Rome Total War (I think this was the game were CA got pretty much everything right, while they hadn’t started getting things quite so wrong).
Half-Life (obviously).
FEAR (It was just a linear, corridor shooter… but damn, was it a good linear, corridor shooter).
System Shock 2 (although some people may argue for the original, they are wrong).
Thief (Deadly Shadows would be my choice).
Operation Flashpoint.
AI War: Fleet Command.
Homeworld.
Jedi Knight 2 (Only game that got light saber combat right).
Duke Nukem 3D Shareware version.
Wing Commander.
The Drunken Axe Throwing at the Wench’s braids minigame from Heimdall.
Dystopia (it’s a mod, but it’s brilliant).
Mechwarrior (2: Mercenaries, 3 or 4: Mercenaries)
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I knew I’d forgot something…
Flashback (although you may go for Another World).
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@Unaco:
Euuurgh, no, RTW was where they first got things wrong. They changed the campaign map from the simple abstract *map* that it was in earlier games, where it *worked*, in that it allowed and encouraged some kind of strategic troop movements, into a wannabe-Civ game that just meant there were single units spread out all over the map, instead of fewer, bigger stacks. And so the most of the battles degenerated into Rome: Minor Skirmish. Then of course, they butchered the unit variety that earlier games had, and many of the features that made it such a striking and, well, brutal, game. Gone was the ability to take prisoners during battle (and execute them during battle), or the ability to assassinate your own generals/king, and the terrain suddenly seemed to have a lot less impact. No more hills that were actually steep enough to *make a difference* during battle, for example. And in a stroke of genius, the game prevented you from playing other factions than the three Roman ones until you’d completed the campaign (or modified the config files, of course). Oh, and your generals suddenly earned new traits on a weekly basis, watering the concept down a bit from earlier games where the traits were semi-rare extras lying on top of your command stars.
No, I really don’t think RTW should be on the list. I get that to a lot of people it was the first TW game they played, and so it has nostalgic value. But it wasn’t “the game where they got it right”. It was the game where they started getting it wrong.
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Sacrifice hasn’t been mentioned yet. I don’t think there’s ever been a game quite like it before it or since.
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That game was quality fun, especially when the fights got huge. Wasnt there a spell that created a volcano?? more games need volcano creating!!
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Yes!!!! And also by Shiny that deserves to be on this list Giants: Citizen Kabuto. The storyline was hilarious and lengthy, but the true gem was the multiplayer. It was a three-sided RTS with resource gathering and construction… PLUS JETPACKS!
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100%. Sacrifice is my favourite game of all time hands down. Cool story, excellent voice acting, sensational character design and brilliant game mechanics. Nothing beats the whackiness of Bovine Intervention.
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Populous: The Beginning was truly something else. I am waiting for the day a game like that is released again.
Also, Deus Ex.
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I hear that! Populous: The Beginning was the first game I got in 1997, when I got a PC for Christmas. I have replayed it many times since, and is still one of the best PC games I have played.
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Amiga:
It came from the desert
Lost dutchman mine
Yo! Joe!
SNES:
FFVI
Actraiser
PC:
Outcast
Pathologic
The Void
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One game which I’ve spent more time with than any other is Guild Wars. One of the most consistently fun and challenging games I’ve played and still very different to most stuff on the market. Argue all you want about whether it’s a proper MMO or not, it’s still a bloody great game.
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My all time fav : System shock 1
Also:
System Shock 2
Thief series
Unreal Tournament
Daggerfall
Ultima Underworld 1 & 2
X Wing/Tie Fighter
XCom UFO Defense
Myth 2 ( didn’t play Myth 1 )
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A few that I don’t think I saw mentioned yet:
Scorched Earth
Startopia
Nox
Death Worm
And if mods are allowed then Painkeep for Quake would be in there for me too.
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Well it’s totally obvious but Half-Life was literally the reason I bought a PC. That led to my teenage years being taken up by Team Fortress Classic which always gets forgotten but was (still is?) brilliant for clan gaming. Best Half-Life Mod Ever. Never gets any credit.
Shogun: Total War was a massive deal when it came out. CA have slowly eroded a lot of goodwill people had towards them but Shogun was a proper milestone.
Also, Thief. A thousand times Thief. Thief 2 as well.
If you’re looking for negative comments then I don’t get EVE and never will. Actually that includes anything like X2 or Freespace or Space Station Docker 2010.
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Oni, not Marathon, is Bungie’s greatest game of all time.
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Interestingly, Oni was developed by a different studio (Bungie West) and was their only game.
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For older games, I think the various Quest games from Sierra (King’s, Space, Police, Hero’s) always get overlooked.
For something more recent, Battlefield has to be represented in some form or another (my vote would go to BF2), and I think UT2K4 deserves a nod as the pinnacle of the twitch genre.
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@Joe
King’s Quest III deserves special praise for its alchemy system and Police Quest II for its attention to detail in police procedures (and not making you drive your car around in a top-down minigame).
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Well, overlooking the obvious titles that spring to mind (Planescape Torment, Dungeon Keeper, System Shock etc), don’t forget Little Big Adventure for being french and fruity or AI Wars for being new and good.
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Actually, I feel as if I should expand on LBA’s nomination as briefly looking above I don’t see it mentioned;
You played a Quetch (French for human) in a blue tunic. You could walk, run and sneak (with comedy sound effects) and throw your multicoloured balls and cloned Grobos (French for Elephant). Somewhere along the way you become the mesiah and take down a dyspotic regime. You do this by throwing your balls and (later) stabbing people. It is the only adventure game I can think of where the protagonist is voiced by a eunich.
I can’t count how many hours I lost to playing this as a youth – I also remember how I got the final stone monument thing, didn’t realise that you had to pour the holy water on it, became convinced my being stuck was a bug and restarted the entire thing. This was near the end of the huge game.
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The two that come to mind immediately for me,
Dungeon Master (Atari ST)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeon_Master_(video_game)
Freespace 2
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For adventure game maybe
Out of this world.
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I’d like to recommend Commandos 2. The pinicple of it’s genre. Music is utterly superb and cannot be overly recommened – I fear it may be too sad to admit that I listen to it outside the game so I won’t. The graphic hold up well enough for a game so old and being able to rotate the camera (albeit on a fixed 4-point axis) took the game to a who new level.
The level design is fantastic, large and detailed maps that are monsterously tricky to pick apart – that is until you learn the Spy trick and the game becomes that much easier.
A true classic, one that everyone should play.
Sticking with tactical WWII games, my other recommendation is definitely Hidden and Dangerous 2. I believe it was a Mr John Walker in his ‘They’re Back’ review section that said “play it before it becomes to old.” And he’s absolutely right. It’s a game that holds all the rough-around-the-edges charm of many games coming out of Eastern Europe and learning to gently exploit its quirks is part of the strategy. AI can be wonky at times and various other bugs may pop up but never in a way to ruin the game.
Some of the levels are massive and co-ordinating a four man SAS attack never gets old. Maps are often open to snipers to lay down support with the scope for careful stealth approaches that take several minutes to put to action. It’s a game I recently resurrected on my hard drive and not a single game got a look in until I’d finished the main game and its expansion.
If I may be indulged to recommend another it would be SWAT 4. Now, I’m a huge fan of SWAT 3 and played it do death in the late 90s and beyond but SWAT 4 really blew me away upon release. Many people will tell you of the crazy fun to be had pepper-balling the crap out of hostages in Co-op (and it is) but that’s taking away from the excellent single player campaign. The Rules of Engagement are extremely strict of law enforcement agencies and seeing a gun is not reason enough to shoot. Taking a split second to weigh up the options gives the FPS genre a whole new slant and one that was handled superbly by Irrational.
H&D and SWAT are both in desperate need of sequels. They’ve got plenty to offer and should not be franchises that are allowed to die. Commandos 2 was the peak of its sub-genre (sorry Commandos 3). It had taken the series as far as it could go without destroy its core elements. Games like Soldiers: Heroes of WWII and beyond have taken the concept futher and have pushed it in a more frantic direction but as a Stragety/Puzzle/Nazi Punching masterpiece, you will not find finer.
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I was thinking about Commandos 2 but decided that it didn’t really stack up against other great games outside its genre. Its a big fish in a very small pond
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Yes, yes, yes. Tactical FPSes are very strong, uniquely on the PC and should all be included.
But I’m writing to say, if you really enjoyed Commandos so much, you might be interested in playing “Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood”. It was a hidden gem for me, so maybe it will be for you aswell.
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Fantasy General – lost so many hours to that, played it over and over, my favourite turn-based strategy.
Diablo – dripped with atmosphere (at the time), loved the multiplayer. Don’t play it today though, it feels limiting.
Tabula Rasa – not that’ll put the cat among the pigeons. Was brilliant!
[plus Deus Ex, FFVII]
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My goodness, this list swelled by 100+ posts since I started pondering my list. I’ll just try to pick out things I haven’t seen mentioned yet (though knowing me I missed them al being mentioned in the first comment):
Frontier — I played Elite from 1986 to 1993, then Frontier til 1997. No other game has come close to demanding that kind of attention from me, with the possible exception of TFC and TF2.
Falcon 4 — The be-all and end-all of flight simulators. The only game that’s come close in the past ten years was Sturmovik.
Sim City 3000 — The zenith of the series, with just enough new complexity (unlike some, I liked the added plumbing etc) without fucking up the game
Midwinter 2 — Nothing to do with winter, but everything to do with a vast-seeming (then) open-world adventure game
Thief and Thief 2 — Almost certainly mentioned elsewhere in these comments, but I have to point out that these are about the only games to do difficulty settings right. No half-arsed “enemies do more damage and you do less” rebalancing like happens in most lazy shooters, but instead making the game harder by making the requirements for success more strict (don’t kill people, steal more schtuff, etc).
Far Cry — Yes, even the bits after the mutants show up. I’ve finished the game probably more than ten times and I’m not sick of it. I love the super-saturated island setting, the structure of the game with its gradual day/night cycle through the levels, and the feel of the weapons. Most of all I love that even after so many playthroughs I still find new paths and new ways to play a level.
Sad as it seems, I can’t really think of many recent games I think are worthy. TF2 and Stalker seem to be about it. Possibly Civ 4, but that’s hardly “new.”
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If it was in my power to nominate midwinter, I would, but I don’t think it came out for pc, did it?
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Rather than Falcon4, I’d like to nominate FreeFalcon in its place. There is hardly reason to put Falcon4 on a list such as this, as it won’t serve anyone well if they try and go play it today. FreeFalcon is its modern equivalent, updated substantially (and continously still), and as such should be played by anyone looking for the best of the best in combat avionics sims.
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CALL OF DOOTY BLOPS NUMBER ONE! STRAIGHT UP BEASTIFYING!
(Sorry, I have watched this video (courtesy of PC Gamer’s Tom Francis) _way_ too many times today:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBDfPVe-S7U
P.
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Here be my contribution (apology for dupes but I got bored after reading the first twenty suggestions).
Paint
Excel (enough PC ‘jokes’)
Minesweeper
Swiv 3D
MDK
Darwinia (duh!)
Syberia 1 or 2
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I second MDK, amazingly good fun.
The skydiving start to the levels where you could pick up extra guns was excellent and it was one of the first games (that I ever played at least) to feature a sniper rifle.
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Kana: Little Sister
If you’d played it, you’d understand. Plot might be gamplay’s bitch but this is a medium that still hasn’t found it’s feet. Nothing is more important right now, in my opinion, than the attempt to engage the audience on a more complex emotional level. It’s how the medium will truly move forward. This being the case, we have to honour a game like this which, despite (because it’s not very interactive) not being a blueprint for the future, shows just how deeply you can affect your audience. In some of the most vital ways, this is the best game I’ve ever played. Maybe the best of all time.
Eroticism aside, you should not ignore the ways in which visual novels show the capabilities of this medium. You need at least one poster child for your list, and I recommend this one.
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Oh man, I had completely forgotten about visual novels.
Kana certainly is one of the best, but it’s also one dealing with one of the most controversial and taboo topics in existence.
I definitely think it should make it on the list.
I’d also like to mention OMGWTFBBQOTL and Crimsoness, which although are “jokey” VNs they stand out for doing things differently and being entertaining despite the “shallow” gameplay. Oh, and Brass Restoration was good too.
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OK, hear me out here:
Gunbound
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Loved Gunbound, but players using ridiculously precise Boomer shots ruined it for me.
Also, aduka shot2 only on that straight field map. Oh man…
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Two that might be overlooked and should go in:
Anachronox: a beautiful, horribly broken game that was part adventure, part JRPG and yet was somehow excellent. (I know it has been mentioned, but needs saying again).
Quest for Glory (the whole series, but if I had to pick one… 2 or 4). Another adventure/RPG hybrid, it does what I think all class-based RPGs should: it makes your class matter, beyond different ways to hurt enemies. Truly, we need more games like this.
Oh and I’ll add my voice to the Vampire: Bloodlines lot.
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Battlezone I + II
HL1: Natural Selection
First FPS+RPS-hybrid-games
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Quickly scanning through, I don’t think anyone’s mentioned Far Cry 2.
It’s one of those rare games that comes close to creating a fully living, breathing world. Somewhat ironically, nearly everything in the world is constantly trying to make you less living and breathing.
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Grim Fandango, and Startopia
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Sry, must be “FPS+RTS-hybrid Games”
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Controversy time.
Half Life 2 is not one of the top 100 PC games of all time. Its interminable length is made up mostly with forgettable sequences which most of us screen out. Play it again if you haven’t for a few years. Most of it is pretty dull. There’s bits you completely forgot and now wish you could skip. Its replayablity is minimal because it’s so heavily scripted. Its much vaunted physics was used better and with more subtlety in other games previous to its release (actually I might have trouble backing that one up). Most of the functions of the gravity gun appeared in physics toys or mods of previous games of the period which were cheaper and more entertaining. The shooting is fairly dull. The AI is dumb. The level design is barely an elongated increment on the puzzle-shooter level design from ten years earlier, with the addition of some scenery and “educational” physics puzzles seen on the Edison Twins or the Curiosity Show (can’t think of and English equivalent right now. Krypton Factor maybe? Something for kids would be better).
And despite its lengthy development it seems they hadn’t learned a thing, still committing genre crimes like robbing the player of their weapons and forcing you to make obviously stupid decisons (urinating all over their own much vaunted immersion). So what if it’s popular. So what if it looked pretty good at the time. The game does nothing of any particular note to further the genre beyond those things. It is the Bon Jovi of PC games. It is The Da Vinci Code of PC games. It is the ‘Neighbours’, the Oprah, the Andre Rieu of PC games.
We can think of 100 more worthy. Give it 101.
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I’m scared to ask you what kind of game would you put on the top.
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You have a point, in terms of gameplay and level design HL2 is pretty unremarkable – but in terms of atmosphere and setting it’s astounding. For my money, that makes it worthy of notice.
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Absolutely agree
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I’ve got to give you some credit for making the effort, but I’ve literally never come across anyone more wrong. I’ll replay HL2 at least every year or two probably for the rest of my life. The degree of fine craftsmanship in every corridor and set piece is staggering. It’s the manifesto for Valve’s way of telling story through self discovery, making something that is at once cinematic and yet pure game in a way that still nothing else has rivalled.
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Totally disagree with the sentiment, but totally agree with the lucid argumentation. If HL2 weren’t my religion, you’d have convinced me.
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I clearly recall leaving HL2 mid-way through – somewhere in Nova Prospekt I think – because I was bored, and coming back to complete it almost a year later.
Just before returning to it though I had played FEAR, and I remember being astounded at how incredibly dumb the HL2 AI was in comparison, with particular reference to enemies running in straight lines directly into my sights
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This’ll probably get lost in the crush, but whatever.
I am being somewhat contrarian with this. I’d happily make an argument that Stalker is an all time classic, despite its many flaws, on the strength of its design and atmosphere alone. It’s that good. So it’d be unfair to not give HL2 its due in that department.
I do think HL2 is overrated, but that’s a fairly bland thing to say. It’d be nice for it to get a more critical appraisal now and then though, instead of being the default number one since just about everyone played it and at least thought it was ok. No history of PC gaming could be written without it. I think its safe there. We can look at it a few different ways in lists like this. I think Thief and System Shock are greater acheivements than both Half Lives, even if their impact isn’t as clear (I think Thief’s marriage of story, scene setting and gameplay is almost unsurpassed and the sort of artistry that goes by completely unnoticed. And it’s depressing they felt the need to water it down in subsequent games).
There was one of those ‘greatest albums of all time’ shows in Aus last year (I think), it was on the ABC and had all the art and music critics making the arguments. In the end they came up with the usual suspects; Sargeant Peppers, Exile on Main Street, some Velvet Underground, Roxy Music. Lots of art rock. The big markers that music historians pick in your text books from uni.
A few weeks later one of the commercial channels did the same thing, in a sort of populist/class war manouver to find what “real Australians” care about. Their list was somewhat different: Bon Jovi, Meat Loaf, The Eagles, Duran Duran, Abba, ACDC, Fleetwood Mac (Midnight Oil and Cold Chisel were on there, so that’s ok).
I think mostly when game lists come up we’re still on the latter sort, for the most part (although Deus Ex is a bit of an ‘arty’ choice really). I think there’s enough thought about games now that we can make the former sort list too, and there I think HL2 falls down the order a bit (OK, maybe not to 101, but some).
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No One Lives Forever has to be on the list, probably one of the best FPSs i have played.
Crysis is another good one, some people just call it a tech demo but the freedom of the first half is pretty damn good.
Morrowind definitly, much better then Oblivion.
Half Life the original(if you put HL2 on i will kill you! I really think that game is pants)
C&C1- just brilliant
Prince of persia
Sky Roads!
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Oh, and Rainbow Six: Raven Shield — that game was tight, and I keep having to force myself not to re-buy it on Steam every now and then. It had a wonderful feel, and was full of nigh-unbearable tension. It had a perfect ending mission too — no artificial difficulty spike, no ludicrous boss, just a mission where you had to use everything you’d learned so far well and efficiently.
The genre seems to have died, but I’d love there to be another game like it, SWAT 3/4, or Hidden and Dangerous. In this age of L4D-type co-op, I’m sure such a game could be successful. Get on it, developers!
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How the sweet hell did I forget Raven Shield? Completely second this one. The last great Rainbow Six game before the Xbox Live generation got their hands on it, stripped away everything that was good about it and made an arcadey shooter out of the name.
If anyone wants to get back to the roots of the series with a new game I’d pay handsomely for a copy.
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SPELUNKY
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While I consider myself überPr0 H4rdCoR3 FPP player I think those games should appear on the list:
Dungeon Keeper – build dungeon, do evil stuff, punch minions, kill good guys
Theme Hospital – watch people die in funny way, make money
GTA 1 – grab a car, run over several people, repeat
Trine – jump all over the place, watch nice graphics, listen to climatic narrator, feel like you’re 5yrs old again
and if I’d have to pick one FPP to appear on the list, I’m sorry but it won’t be Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake but:
Call of Duty 4 : Modern Warfare (MW1) – bullet penetration, overall feel, just perfect
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From a purely personal point of view and in no particular order I would vote for
Doom
HomeWorld
Sacrifice
System Shock 2
Morrowind
Rome Total War
Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare
If you are including mmorpgs then I guess WoW, Guild Wars and EVE but I am not sure it is fair to compare.
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Put Portal 2 as the greatest game ever created in all time and space.
I know it hasn’t been released yet in our timeline but I just received a phonecall from my future self and I said to me that it’s the greatest game ever, and was acclaimed as being the Godfather of gaming (unfortunately I also said that Half Life 2 ep 3 still hasn’t been released, Gabe newell made an official E3 conference that every time someone called him fat he, in fact, delayed the EP3 release by a day which means it won’t be released this century
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Your future self didn’t happen to mention seeing any horse races or sporting events at all? Just wondering…
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Oh come on, you don’t care about our stupid opinions.
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A lot of people think this is a voting exercise. It’s not. This is a bunch of post-it comments “Remember Homeworld 2″, to spark the memory of the RPS-list-o-matic, who will decide the list single handedly.
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Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory was the closest to the perfect multiplayer shooter I’ve seen so far.
v561
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Oh, and I’d like to chime in on the No One Lives Forever suggestion. Captured the 60′s spy feel perfectly (in the funniest way imaginable), and was a pretty good FPS too.
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v57 !!!
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Jagged Alliance 2
Civilization IV
Solium Infernum
Baldur’s Gate 2
Fallout 2
XCOM/UFO: Enemy Unknown
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Lots of great titles here that bring back memories (and lots of redundant ones that have been on every Top 100 since the beginning of time).
My personal vote would be for Galapagos on the PC
Sort of like a 3D Lemmings with only 1 lemming (in the form of a robot spider) who ‘learned’ as he went along (ie send him sailing off enough high ledges and he’d learn that gravity hurts and would keep away from steep drops in future).
Frustrating but very original game, and isnt that want this list is about?.
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GALAPAGOS! I’ve been trying to remember what that was called for YEARS now!!!
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Left 4 Dead and Team Fortress 2 for the coop experience
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The List needs a roguelike, and while Nethack is the go-to classic, Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup is better in just about every way. If I had to give up all games but one, that’s the one I’d keep.
Not a lot of 2D shooters being mentioned. I nominate Perfect Cherry Blossom.
And +1 for System Shock 2. Obviously.
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Grim Fandango
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Machinarium.
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Carmageddon (1 or 2)
System Shock 2
TF2
one of the MechWarriors
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two yet underrepresented genres in this ‘list’ would be space shooters and racing games.
these may be very subjective, but even though i agree there hasn’t been anything that could rock freespace’s throne, Freelancer did bring some interesting innovations to the genre.
Also, in my childhood days, i remember playing some DOS or Win3.1 racing title called Stunts, where you could build your own tracks consisting of jumps, loopings and steep corners and then race them. It might have been an epigone of some similar early racing game, but i loved it and it was hours of fun. maybe someone remembers something.
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I second freelancer! The game was sooooo far ahead of its time.
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My list definitely has Particle Systems’ I-War on, but that might just be me. It is a parallel pinnacle to Freespace 2, in a very different direction, and I am fond of it in many ways.
I would also put onto a list (although not a list of five or ten) Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri, which is surely due some retro attention soonish, and is just another of the many peaks of Looking Glass’ career.
Otherwise, almost anything I’d say has either been mentioned or is cross-platform and not really unique on the PC. (I’m also excluding IF from the list).
Oh: I know Nethack’s come up already, but I still think Rogue is better.
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Oh man, I’ve not thought about I-War in forever. That was a great game.
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I would definitely add Flashback, loved the SF background general atmosphere, and animation smoothness.
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I liked that game where you had to shoot things and people in the face very much.
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It truly is a wonderful monologue of the human condition. The oversized shooty-gun representing repressed rage, ascribing the impotence of the individual. It constantly questions the player’s own morality and their deep, dark desires to impose themselves as the alpha within society.
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Half-Life 2
Portal
Quake 3: Arena
Worms Armageddon
Monkey Island 1 & 2
BomberMan
Constructor
Transport Tycoon
GTA: Vice City
And most recently… Super Box Crate
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Knights of the Old Republic
Knights of the Old Republic II (because turning everyone into Jedi / baddies is amazing).
7th Guest
11th Hour
Mixed Up Mother Goose
Vampire: Bloodlines
SimCity
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The Longest Journey
Hogs of War
Sim City 4
Zoo Tycoon
All I must have missed on my skim through the comments.
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Planescape: Torment
Fallout
System Shock 2
Deus Ex
Portal
Psychonauts
Half Life
Arcanum
Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
THAT IS ALL.
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Anti-votes:
Deus Ex is great … for a while. But doesn’t the last third of the game just drag on and lose focus and pretty much spoil the magic that the first half of the game created? Also: greasels. Fucking greasels.
Metro 2033 is a game in which you have fun for five minutes, really get into the atmosphere, and then have all of that ruined by having to wait to load the next area.
Plus vote:
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time – one word: Charm. Three words: Charm in bucketloads. I’ll forgive the shonky combat (download a trainer that grants one-hit kills — it improves the game immeasurably), because the game gave me the wonderful “I’ll meet you at the baths/which baths?” monologue, and made me almost cry with happy joy at how much care had been put into how the character was presented. “Shall I tell you a story” indeed.
The other modern Prince of Persia games can fuck off though.
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You have my vote on Sands of Time. I somehow forgot to mention it in my other post.
Magical game, felt like I really played a fairy-tale. Charm in spades indeed.
Did not like the other PoPs as well.
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The Legacy of Kain series (Soul Reaver 2 in particular).
There are few games out there that can deliver a story so well with characters drawn to the most minute gesture. The game was brought down by it’s poor controls and camera, but i consider it one of the best written and best voiced IP’s of the late 90′s and early 2000′s.
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It needs mentioning again, Sacrifice ftw.
I really can’t think of a game (never mind a strategy game *gasp*!) with as good a campaign/story/voice acting. Okay well maybe a few, but hell it was all crazy modular! You could replay it a million different ways! Also, a legitimately challenging end boss that is still fun, you know how rare that is?
So yeah, put sacrifice on the list please.
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Caesar 3 Trying to create that perfect roman city block is so compelling.
Weird Worlds: Return To Infinite Space The game doesn’t change, you do – and that’s the fun bit.
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Well, I thought I had a sleection of games noted that might not be ‘obvious’, but reading a few posts above, seems they are. Anyway, trying to represent the genres on PC i like, i’d throw in:
XCOM, Fantasy General, Alpha Centauri (The best civ game!, closely followed by the original ‘colonization’), System Shock (1 just pips 2, although it does look old nowadays), Albion (old blue byte RPG), Elite 2:Frontier, Thief 3, Deus Ex, Half-life, planescape, ground control (possibly my favourite RTS game – no bases! So actual tactics required rather than build queue optimisation), shogun:total war (the first and purest, IMHO), operation flashpoint (still somehow better than the sequels, probably due to the novelty at the time), carmageddon (2? Probably 2 as it refined the pure joy of the first one), GTA:Vice city (arguably console, but still fun). There are probably at least a hundred more, but they’re the first ones I think of. Watch me continue to reply to my own post now as I keep thinking of more…
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The Void. It’s the most immersive sim and innovative in so many ways.
Woo woo woo. You know it, Jabroni.
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I was glad to see the No One Lives Forever games already mentioned. They didn’t invent any genre, sold poorly and weren’t supported well afterwards, but they had something. Charm. Fun. Cool.
Same goes for other games of that era, like Beyond Good & Evil, TRON 2.0 or Startopia.
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Republic Commando: Very short, and quite often flawed, but at times brilliant. Rarely do game characters come along that I genuinely become attached to, and Republic Commando brings three at once.
Also stabbed flys in the face is great fun.
Some guy called Alec Meer wrote about it once: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/05/24/re-retro-republic-commando/
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Original trilogy of Level 9 adventures, dubbed the Jewels of Darkness and comprising Colossal Adventure, Adventure Quest and Dungeon Adventure, particularly this last one. Okay, I originally played them on the BBC B but they were ported to the PC later. To be honest there were loads of great Level 9 adventures.
And in a similar vein the Infocom Game, Lurking Horror was a great blend of computer geekery meets Cthulhu.
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here’s my 2 cents for the List:
- DreamWeb
Totally unique cyberpunk thriller. it was very mature for it’s time and again, imo, totally unique.
- Syndicate
I don’t have to explain why, do I?
- Ascendancy
I’m not much of a strategy games buff, but this is, next to Civ etc., my all time favorite space strategy game.
- Assassin’s Creed
I just dig it. It features an interesting and contemporary story, interesting concept and the coolest game hero ever.
- Little Big Adventure
This game was so captivating, clever, well executed and simply stunning. Beyond Good & Evil always reminded me of it for some reason.
- BioForge
Ahhh, remember the glorious days of Origin Systems! BioForge was one of the earlier games I played and it was one of the very few games with a mature enough theme and a very cinematic presentation. Sure, it was inspired by Alone in the Dark a lot.
- Alone in the Dark
No explanation necessary, I hope. It was just “new”, one of a kind in its time.
- Diablo
Oh man, how I loved this game. It was refreshing, very mysterious from the get go and mind numbingly good.
- Wing Commander 3
Epic is all I can say. I played through it in one sitting, I remember how my arms were aching from the huge joystick I used to play it :) Certainly not the first of its kind, but just epic.
- X.Wing: Alliance
I don’t know why this isn’t mentioned more often, but imo the best Star Wars space sim ever. I haven’t played any other Star Wars games that captured the feel of flying the Millenium Falcon along the length of a Super Star Destroyer any better than this. Love it.
- Crusader: No Remorse
Another Origin Systems jewel. I thought the whole setting, the hero, the gameplay were, as Barney Stinson would say: Legen … wait for it, wait for it … Dary!
- Blade Runner
A often overlooked title which, though it had it’s fair share of problems, was a milestone in adventure gaming. The different outcomes depending on how you played the game, that the game was different every time you started a new game and thus got to see completely new locations, different NPCs, cut scenes etc. was grande.
- Myth: The Fallen Lords
To this day my favorite RTS game. Different, challenging and hauntingly good. My favorite part was the voice over introduction to each mission. The feeling of dread that the game got across to the player is again, legendary.
- Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Best Indy game and best adventure game ever, imo.
- Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge
2nd best adventure game ever.
- UFO: Enemy Unknown
Simply a classic that tied different gameplay styles into a functional, entertaining and extremely satisifying whole.
- Pirates!
I don’t know how many hours I spent playing this splendid game, but all of them were well spent.
- Jedi Knight II
Incredibly deep and notoriously long FPS, with a cool story where you get to be a Jedi. Need I say more?
- Unreal
Unreal was, well, unreal. I’ve seldom felt such suspense playing an FPS before. The beginning of the game is totally awesome. It had some of the scariest enemies to date and an interesting albeit well hidden backstory.
- GTA: San Andreas
Best GTA game imo. It was huge, full of content, funny, ironic, had incredible music and voice work. “I’m gangsta!” as OG Loc would say.
- Operation: Flashpoint
Hands down best military simulator ever created right up until Arma 2, I suppose. I don’t like the military and I don’t like military games in general, but if it’s a fairly accurate depiction of war you’re looking for this is it. Huge scale, packed to rims with content combined with an engaging story line. It was love at first sight.
- Knights of the Old Republic
Amazing Star Wars game, with a great story, great characters and best Jedi game I know of. Period.
- Mafia
This game has one of the best storylines ever conceived for a game, even if it was blatantly stolen from Good Fellas. 5 stars.
- Farcry
Instant classic. I probably played through the demo of Farcry more times than I care to count. A real pity they had to throw in those stupid monsters in the middle of the game.
- Carmageddon II
Carpocalypse now! :D Call me weird, but it was fun to dismember things with your car, like hell!
- Tomb Raider
The first time playing Tomb Raider was like the very first time playing a videogame. It was a life changing experience (okay, okay, I’m pushing it), but it definitely raised the bar on what is considered “awesome”.
I’m sure there are many more games I consider the best of the lot, but I can’t think of any more right now. Man, I fuggin’ love games.
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Blade Runner is a rarely talked about game that’s talked about surprisingly often.
Hugely ambitious, it tried to reinvent the adventure game, focusing on finding clues and interrogation rather than puzzles.
Some of it’s most ambitious features probably go unnoticed, like the “real-time” plot progression that I only just discovered by reading Wikipedia.
Also, Cuddy from House is in it.
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I second Unreal, if only because of the huge role it played in my childhood. The world was amazing and so immersive. My foray onto Na Pali has always stuck with me.
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First, want to agree with others that Lemmings, Worms, Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead all have good arguments but I’ll leave the final decision up to you editors depending on how selective you’re being.
Secondly: Braid. BRAID!! It wasn’t PC first but it’s on it and is astoundingly good. I’m going to just copy in something I wrote elsewhere on it:
“For me Braid is incredibly special in that it has some element to it that surpasses what games are normally able to aspire to through just mechanics and even normal story. It’s puzzles are beautifully crafted and ingenious, but that is not what makes this game special. It is the perfect marriage of this gameplay with the moving, slightly cryptic story behind it that sets it apart. It creates a unique and special atmosphere which culminates in an incredible ending with a twist that changes everything. Even beyond that it seems the story might hold greater significance than you first think, and whatever the truth is of what it’s a metaphor for, the game seems to have extra weight once you’re aware of this. This is almost my perfect game. I mean it to be more than mere hyperbole when I say it transcends almost any other game ever made.”
I want to add a few more words about the atmosphere and tone of the game which is truely excellent. The art, music, animation work together coherently and for my money created an almost magical playing experience.
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Thief 2, System Shock 1 & 2, Total Annihilation, Star Craft, Quake II, Duke Nukem 3D, Syndicate, Dungeon Keeper, Half-Life with mods (inc CS), Planescape: Torment, Operation Flashpoint, Warcraft II, Command & Conquer + RA, Sim City 2000, Fallout 1 & 2, Tie Fighter, Stalker, Doom I + II, Max Payne, Theme Hospital, DoTT, SoMI, Portal, Homeworld 2, Jedi Knight 2, Diablo II, Batman AA, TF2, Company of Heroes, Dark Reign, Little Big Planet, Rainbow 6, Aliens vs Predator, Commandos 2, Sin, Battlefield 2, Freespace 1 + 2, Wing Commander IV, Mafia, Hitman
That’s my PC gaming zeitgeist as far as I can remember for now, I’m sure I will add more as I think of them. Depressingly few of them are from the past 3-5 years…
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Not that Little Big Planet wasn’t excellent, but if only it’d had something to do with Little Big Adventure (which is the PC game I’m guessing you meant).
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Very true… LBA of course!
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Oh my… how could I forget Tribes?????
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ooo ooo Battlezone – the modern one of course… (But the first)
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MDK, and I meant Jedi Knight, not JK2.
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NOLF 1 & 2, Shadow Warrior
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Without too much pondering.
VVVVVV
Mirror’s Edge
X-Com UFO Defence
WarCraft 3 + Frozen Throne
Max Payne 2
Thief 2
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Fahrenheit.
Compelling and batsh*t mental.
There I said it.
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I guess I’ll go chronologically from where I started and highlight the games that shined the brightest for me…
Thexder (okay, I know it started as a Nintendo game, but I played it off floppies – and come on, robot turns into a jet = fucking awesome)
Doom 2
Descent (SO GOOD – FPS with no discernible up or down? how about fuck yes?)
Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight (with MOTS expansion – lightsaber vs AT-ST fights are funnnn)
X-Wing vs Tie Fighter
Fallout
Heavy Gear (better than Mechwarrior, IMO – flame on)
Fallout 2 (that’s right, listing both of them. If I have to pick one, gotta go with 1)
(here is where my computer got outdated and I subsisted on console gaming for several, several years until I could afford one myself in college)
Morrowind
Planescape: Torment
Diablo 2
KotOR (I played it more on Xbox than PC, but I think it still counts)
WoW (I know it’s lame to like WoW, but as popular as it is I would definitely call it genre-defining)
Portal
Oblivion (Give me Morrowind’s world with Oblivion’s interface plus better voice acting and you’re getting close to the perfect RPG)
TF2
Tribes 2 (late exposure, I know – was using it to get pumped for Section 8, which WOULD be on this list if the devs hadn’t abandoned it after release)
Deus Ex (Yes, it took me THAT LONG to finally play it)
Mass Effect
Just Cause (seriously – I got it for a buck from GoGamer, and got AT LEAST 100 hours out of it)
Braid
The Void
Mass Effect 2
Minecraft
There are probably more that I enjoyed as much or more, but going and searching my steam catalog or bookshelves feels like cheating – the ‘best games ever’ should stick out in the mind.
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Oh god! Worms World Party! How could I forget that?!
Sooooo many wasted hours with friends. Best PC party game EVER.
Also Thief 2. I played it after trying Splinter Cell, and it’s still easily my favorite stealth game ever.
I’d also like to throw in an honorable mention for Myst – I didn’t enjoy it at the time I first played it, but when I went back when I was older with some more patience, I LOVED it.
I’d also like to include GTA: Vice City. It was another that I played mostly on Xbox, but I have the PC version as well. Easily the best GTA game out there. The atmosphere in this one was sooooo much better than 3 or San Andreas (Saints Row 2 does San Andreas better than San Andreas does – just sayin’) and I’ve done a 100% completion on it TWICE. I can boast 100% completions on very, VERY few games EVER, but Vice City was one of them, because it’s just that fun.
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IF games!
Beyond Zork
Planetfall
Starfall
Those are all good ones. But –
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the Infocom IF game
DEFINITELY deserves a place on this list.
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RPSers, I am disappoint. It has to wait for comments page 4 and me to mention Master of Magic? A brilliant game that inspired the much beloved Age of Wonders and other games? A most excellent melding of 4X and RPG? What gives?
I’m adding my voice in support of the NWC King’s Bounty/ Heroes of Might and Magic series. One of the most recognizable TBS series out there, and very popular in Eastern Europe – which I hope will result in more gems like KI King’s Bounty.
Scorched Earth – a prime example of hotseat multiplayer.
Rise of Nations & Rise of Legends – best execution of the epoch advancement RTS, along with some brilliant game concepts like the campaign map.
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Scorched Earth was the perfect computer lab game. Nothing better than being able to watch the reaction of your roommate when you get a direct hit with napalm.
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Yes to Master of Magic! Witness the pre-release buzz around Elemental: War of Magic, billed as the spiritual successor to MoM. Granted, Elemental was by all accounts a bit of a bummer for all concerned, but that’s hardly MoM’s fault and I can’t think of many other ancient games whose remake has inspired such anticipation. And after sixteen years! I don’t know exactly how one defines a classic game, but anything provoking demand for a sequel after that length of time surely demands consideration.
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+1 for MOM, I loved that game!
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Freedom Force
Populous II
Eye of the Beholder I
Wizardry 8
Jagged Alliance 2
Panzer General
Tie Fighter
Dungeon Master
Syndicate
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There are gaps in the online man shooters in this list:
Battlefield 2 and mods Point of Existence 2 and Project Reality — I don’t think BF2 has any competition for modern-theater team-based man shooters. The variety afforded by the vehicles and classes feels similar to the variety present in TF2, and with a full server of team-minded people (Tactical Gamer!) it is my favourite online gaming experience. Closely followed by:
Counter Strike (the horror!)
CS (I’m mostly focusing on :CZ and 1.6 – I’ve barely played :Source), on a server of friendly and team-minded people is perfect bite-sized gaming. Short rounds and solid mechanics make for an utterly compelling experience. On any other kind of server the game is interminable and you couldn’t pay me to stay there for more than a couple of rounds.
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Startopia
Syndicate wars 2
Black and White
Sacrifice
Daikatana for being so utterly terrible that it defines what a terrible FPS looks like and the dangers of a poor designer with a loose grasp of fundamental mechanics.
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I couldn’t agree more with Black and White. One of my late childhood games. I have very fond memories of it and my dumbassed Tiger killing everyone in a village and then repopulating it. Fantastic game. Just like Bloodlines, it was as much a failure as it was a success.
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Bioshock 2
I personally found the story, pacing and gameplay to be far above the first one. It doesn’t have twists, it doesn’t have the backstabber, it has no cliches. It’s the story of a father trying to get he’s daughter back and that’s it. I know most people will start swearing at me for saying this, but I sustain my argument by admitting that I cried like a girl who’s dog just died at the end of Bioshock 2. Aside from the twist in Bioshock one, it didn’t really get me emotionally involved.
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I’ll use PC games in the sense the RPS gods intended: stuff on personal computers, no matter what the mark. Not consoles, not arcades and not network terminals (So Jetfight and Moria, I’m afraid, will have to go). I’ll keep to the 1980s, since they are underrepresented.
A Mind Forever Voyaging (Infocom): Steve Meretzky’s classic. AMFV shattered the whole Interactive Fiction-as-puzzle-game mold to present a vision of a world led to ruin by Reagan-style conservativism. The game’s only puzzle comes at the end, and that one is sufficiently easy to be foregiven.
Archon. Come to think of it, I’d include the first six Electronic Arts games. At the very least: Archon, Pinball Construction Set, One-on-One and M.U.L.E. Archon and M.U.L.E. are great multiplayer games that still can and should be played. PCS was the first truly successful game built around giving the player a toybox. One-on-One was the first sports game that resembled the sport. All of them (and Hard Hat Mack) were, I believe, released in EA’s first, year, with the names of the development teams featured prominently. For the first time, there was a company not afraid to market games as having artistic value, instead of just silly escapism for kids.
Earl Weaver Baseball. The first version came out when? 1987? It’s now on the iPhone. In the intervening decades no game has even come close to challenging its ability to capture the spirit and the rules of baseball. The secret? cutting-edge sabremetrics and well thought-out imaginations.
The Seven Cities of Gold: sure, Rescue on Fractalis had procedurally generated terrain, but nobody cared. Seven Cities was all about exploring it. Just an amazing classic from Bunten and crew and what amazing possibilities emerged from the terrain it generated.
Sid Meier’s Pirates! Another awesome New-World game, sailing around the Carribean looting ports. How can you not include this?
SimCity. The original. ’nuff said. Well, you could make an argument for Raid on Bungeling Bay, I suppose (and I probably have), but that’s really a proto-masterpiece.
If I were to pick an Ultima game, it would be III — cities appearing by the phases of the moon, squad combat, being able to loot towns. Ultima IV got too preachy.
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Jagged Alliance 2. Silent Storm.
Just tossin’ those out.
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Freespace 1 and 2
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In all lists GRIM FANDANGO deserves a placing much higher than it’s ability to remain in our popular culture’s collective consciousness would indicate.
It wasn’t just the last great LucasArts adventure game, it was the best LucasArts adventure game. Tim Schafer’s magnum opus that in twelve years he hasn’t come close to besting.
I haven’t played it in over seven years, yet despite it being a game that is rarely talked about these days (merely spoken of, referenced, mentioned) the memory of Grim Fandango remains vivid in my mind.
It is a game of tremendous design, a game the art team truly owned. A game full of such colour and verve that it instils a greater sense of character and place into a single room/scene than most games fit into their entire world.
There is a current trend in games criticism that devalues the role of storytelling in videogames.
Story belongs to films and novels they argue. Plots should be unintrusive and thus wafer thin. They should be communicated through audio logs and other uninteresting devices while the player can continue playing the real game, accumulating weapons, high scores, level ups and so on.
Story in games is not a raison d’etre, but merely serves to propel players onto next set piece, right?
Well no.
Despite wearing its cinematic influences on its sleeves, Grim Fandango was a stunningly innovative game for it’s time.
Today I still find it a joyous, fun and occasionally enlightening experience – which is pretty much the only reason I play games in the first place.
Speaking of fun and enlightening experiences, if there is one game that shouldn’t be included in the list on a purely principled note, than it’s World of Warcraft.
The game shows little respect to it’s players, it’s designers seek only to make an addictive experience to perpetuate it’s subscription fee.
A stunning commercial accomplishment yes, but not an artistic one. Don’t do what edge did.
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Battlefield 2 – More hardcore people will probably say 1942, but Battlefield 2 was the first one I played and as far as I know, seen as the pinnacle of the series. All the obvious reasons, moving FPS multiplayer from beyond just shooting, the commander and all that jazz.
and
Neverwinter Nights – A game that’s all about user-generated content and the existence of a DM client in of itself? It wasn’t genre defining sadly because otherwise MMO’s would be a whole lot more interesting to me… but err. Yeah. NWN, if you can think it, you can build it. If you want to create your own story for a RPG, just go a head. If you want to be godlike overlord over your friends and carefully plan out encounters and plots for them to blither into and spoil, you’re free to do so.
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Didn´t read all the comments so I don´t know if somebody said it already but:
-Another World
-MDK
-X-COM Enemy Unknown
-Jagged Alliance 2
-Dune
-Z
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-Gothic 2
-Dungeon Master
-Civilization III
-Champ Mnager 01-02
-Test Drive 4
-Europa Universalis III
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Deus Ex!
Beyond Good & Evil!
Half-Life 1! Half-Life 2!
One of the Command & Conquers!
Freelancer!
And, for some reason, Canabalt. … just feel right…or does it?
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Dune (the first one): I’m not sure how to justify it, but I played it for the first time maybe 5 years ago (and so it must have been at least a decade after I played Dune 2), and you know, it was a much more interesting game than its sequel. And yet it’s almost entirely ignored just because its sequel invented the goddamn RTS genre.
Speaking of which, Dawn of War should go there for breathing new life into a genre that had been stale and unchanging ever since StarCraft perfected the “traditional” RTS formula.
Beyond Good & Evil: for being sheer magic.
How about the first Hitman? Seems like no one’s mentioned that yet.
And please don’t say Oblivion, Morrowind or Fallout 3 or Rome: Total War, or I will have to punch you in the face.
I’m not too sure about Psychonauts. I never completed it, so it’s possible that I just missed the one moment that made it all worth it. But as far as I’m concerned, it was really just a platformer with color-rich graphics and mediocre gameplay, set to a 5-year-old’s idea of “what people’s minds are like (“there’d be, like, old trunks with memories and probably cobwebs that you’d have to clean out/collect and stuff”). It wasn’t revolutionary or groundbreaking. It was a missed opportunity to do something *really* interesting. And somewhat symptomatic of Schafer, really.
Oh yeah, and anyone nominating games solely for “being better than their predecessors”, I’m going to veto anything you ever say. Just fyi.
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You almost certainly never made it as far as The Milkman Conspiracy.
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Or Lungfishopolis.
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Very likely (I can’t remember, to be honest. I bought it on GoG recently, so I’ll probably give it another go as soon as I have time.
It just bugs me that Schafer seemingly has this ability to take the most zany, creaty ideas, and nail them down into 15-year old gameplay. (See also Brütal Legend, which sounded interesting right up until the idiot in an interview says “and then there’s this guy who plays the bass which heals you”. At which point the magic just evaporates. You had a fun idea, and you just had to break it down into the traditional “healer/tank/whatever” archetypes? Can’t you think of anything more interesting for a bass player to do than heal people?)
But yeah, maybe I just missed all the amazing parts of Psychonauts. Like I said, I’ll give it another go when I get the time.
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… or the hidden room in Milla’s head.
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“Dune (the first one)…”
Yes. YES! It is such a shame that you have to add that suffix, as most people will immediately assume you’re talking about Dune II, but why would one do that when you could speak about the first game, the better game, the game in which you played as Paul Atreidies and explored this enticing and mysterious world of intriguing politics and interesting characters!
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Quick vote for Star Control 2 because it’s charming, well-written, unique, demonstrates a huge fondness of classic SF and space opera, has excellent MOD music and neat artwork, has a combat engine that remains entertaining, an epic plot that enthralled me as a teenager, has one of the most dedicated fan communities I’ve seen (now long in decline but still extant), has been released open source and further work on that project is ongoing, and was a labour of love for its creators to the extent of investing $20,000 dollars of their own time and money to finish it after Activision cut the purse strings. The latter point is highly unusual for a game with a major publisher, to the best of my knowledge, and that such an excellent game was produced in 1992, chiefly by two people, verges on the astonishing.
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I really hope that the Hivemind doesn’t pass up Star Control. The huge open ended galaxy, all the various unique races, the fun combat, the really interesting story and subplots…. So good!
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Scoched earth, the mother of all games :)
And if flash games count :
- The space game missions
- Morning star
- Maybe Flash Element TD for bringing TD to flash games
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More recent YAYS to add to my list of classics:
VVVVVV
Minecraft
The Void
Braid
Mass Effect 2
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What? Mass effect??? NO,no,no,no..no
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One negative count here for Vice City. Widely praised, for me it’s the weak link among the PS2-era GTAs. While 3 defined the series (and even sandbox games in general) and San Andreas took it to its ridiculous maximalist conclusion, Vice City was little more than a slim refinement entirely reliant on a thin veneer of ’80s cheese for its popularity (that the player character was hatefulness personified also didn’t help).
For the “essential, must-play, genre-defining, superlative-defying, consciousness-calibrating masterpiece” among the GTA series, I’d be sorely tempted to put forward GTA4. But really GTA3 most fits those parameters for successfully extruding the appeal of GTA1 and 2 into three-dimensions, and then some.
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As have all been mentioned (I’m happy to see):
Arcanum: A wonderful RPG which I bought on sale one day because it had (3rd ed rules) while not being a DnD game. It was a great adventure with a variable progression based on alignment and ability determing what NPCs would talk to, trust and follow you, with any number of different ways to deal with any given situation. I replayed it many times and consider it one of my best chance off the shelf purchases.
Morrowind: I don’t think much more needs to be said about this. At the time, while agonising over the boxes in the shop I bought Neverwinter Nights instead. Eventually a PC Gamer review of the GotY edition led me to buy it and subsequent expansions and I still play it to this day.
Neverwinter Nights: I loved this game and played it solidly for a long time including its many multiplayer incarnations and still work on an active nwn mod. Its very much in the vain of Baldur’s Gate, I know, but Baldur’s gate never really held my attention. I was a nwn boy.
Desu Ex: an explanation would be redundant.
Albion: I loved this game like I have loved no other. I played the demo from some magazine coverdisc and played it thoroughly. Some years later I spotted a review of it online and felt such a great wave of nostalgia and joy that I sought it out and baged the only boxed copy of it available in Dublin at the time it seemed. This list is quite RPG heavy I’m aware but Albion was a very engaging story with some good innovations and mixes of gameplay in a very richly realised game world. Not even Morrowing has given me such a sense of exploration and discovery as I felt on the first continent.
Starseige: I loved the Earthsiege series. Earthsiege 2 captured my heart before mechwarrior 2 got a look in. I eventually went back and played all the rest and love them all (except anything after Mechwarrior3. they make me want to weep). But while Mechwarrior 2 was a story of battle with some moments of melancholy (the cutscene of the dropship taking off the head for the last, likely suicidal, mission to the moon was quite stark and chilling at the time) Starseige was one of political intrigue.. and battle. It had two parrallel campaigns as the various human forces or as the machines. The news feed on the two campaigns being completely complementry until the very final missions was a very nice touch and filled out a wonderful story. I lament the lack of Starseige 2.
While I’m on this franchise I’ll throw in:
Cyberstorm: turn based strategy game of the above, or or less. I played it to death and then finally managed to get a copy of the sequel imported from the states.
Heavy Gear 2: Some of the best gameplay its ever been my pleasure to lose hours of my life too. Also the environments were excellently constructing and beautifully atmospheric. Being able to chose weaknesses to offset vehicle feature costs was a touch of genius and made the game all the more engaging, fun and, crucially, interesting.
Homeworld 2: for the design of the ships, the gameplay, the story and the general feel of it all combined.
World of Goo: for a game about so little the strange story was a thing of beauty.
Psychonauts: While parts of this were unbelieveable tedium and knuckle chewing frustration, it was a great game with a great sense of humour and a great story and great set pieces. Black Velvetta as a level is still, I think, jaw droppingly beautiful.
Star Wars: Jedi Knight: For that Star Wars feel. It let me explore the Star Wars universe which I greatly appreciated and it occupies a large warm fuzzy space in my heart.
X-Wing: my first real flight simulator. I loved the whole X-Wing thing and being part of a real campaign that led to up Episode 4 felt entirely engaging.
This is turning out longer than I expected so I’ll curtail myself here with:
Duke Nukem 3D. I played this demo to death and then got it for Christmas. It was actually my first “3D” game that I got on my PC and it took up a lot of my time with the game and with the build engine.
I think I’m gonna have to call it quits there before I start lamenting over Frontier First Encounters… Elite 4 now please!
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If I judge my greatest hits list by hours spent on a game, a few things bubble to the top: Minesweeper, Freecell, Solitaire.
In that vein, I nominate one of Everett Kaser’s games: Honeycomb Hotel. It’s an incredibly addicting puzzle game despite its lo-fi aesthetic. (It practically screams “I was developed by an engineer and am running in a virtual machine of his own devising!”) One of Mr. Kaser’s key insights was to take deductive logic games (“the man in the red house does not eat onions, and lives next to the house with the elm”) and make them spatial and iconic instead of tabular and textual. Further thoughts here: http://playtechs.blogspot.com/2007/06/everett-kasers-games.html
The Thief series has been mentioned several times already. What really drove up my cumulative playtime on the first two, though, was the excellent fan mission community that sprang up around them. Thief’s focus on environmental storytelling (found documents, architecture, lighting) meant it was possible to create a compelling, atmospheric mission without resorting to custom animation, character modeling, or recorded dialog. Several fan-made missions handily eclipsed the shipped game.
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Ceville. Can’t believe how underrated this brilliant gem of adventure is.
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No Particular Order:
Mass Effect 1/2
Diablo 1/2
Titan Quest
Doom
STALKER: SoC (Haven’t played the others yet, so can’t rate them)
Half Life 1/2
Hitman: Blood Money
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
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Let me add my support for the inclusion of:
- Psychonauts
- Grim Fandango
- Dune 2
- Commander Keen
- Alice
If the mega super ginormo list that appears to be brewing has room for it all.
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Since we’re talking about ALL TIME, let me mention some old ones that might go overlooked:
Starflight (and possibly Starflight II)
Enchanter
Planetfall
Suspended
Bard’s Tale III
King’s Quest VI
Space Quest IV
Archon
Wing Commander II
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Vampire Bloodlines
Fallout
DOOM
Silent Hill 2 (yes, a port)
Deus Ex
Master of Magic
Arcanum
Ultima VII: The Serpent Isle
Thief
Jagged Alliance 2
and
GOD HAND (running on an emulator)
Please, no overrated shit like: HL2 (not as good as HL1), SS2 (ditto) and Baldur’s Gate 1 & 2.
Also, did someone just mention Ascendancy? It was a pretty game, but the AI was complete toss IIRC.
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Gonna start with some that people haven’t listed much. These are all must plays.
Cave Story – Absolutely amazing storyline and platforming. An absolute must play.
Thief II- As Yahtzee says, the only good stealth game.
Aquaria – Insanely immersive and great storyline/world.
VVVVVV – Veni Vidi Vici. Need I say more?
Marble Drop – absolutely amazing puzzle game.
The Path – Just… so…. >.<. It's just so… Indescribable. So good I can't think of a reason for it!
World of Goo – Everyone loves it. Everyone.
Battlezone 2 – Amazing FPS/RTS that had great mod support.
Perimeter (one, NOT two) – Amazing RTS game that did something totally different with the genre.
GTA 3.
Prince of Persia, Sands of Time. Great combat and puzzles.
And the ones everyone knows and (possibly) loves.
Portal 2.
Team Fortress 2
Starcraft:Broodwar
Morrowind
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I would like to suggest a line be drawn in the sand here. I accept that a “great” game is entirely subjective as a concept, however there has to be a defined level a game should attain. For me if a game is to be considered “great” you HAVE to be able to mention it in the same breath as Deus Ex without wincing, embarrasement or caveat (I pick Deus Ex as it’s pretty universably accepted as the greatest game, more or less).
If you can’t do that, if it can’t stand up on it’s own alongside Deus Ex, I’d say it’s not a great game. It might be a really good game. It might be great compared to others in it’s genre, but if it’s not up there with Deus Ex then it shouldn’t go in the list.
Anything I’d pick has already been mentioned, but I’ll smack a few down from my own list, in no order, that I’d happily mention in the same breath as DE (I’m not a big RTS or MMO fan).
Tie Fighter
Grim Fandango
Psychonauts
XCOM – Ufo Enemy Unknown
System Shock 2
Thief – Deadly Shadows
Freespace 2
Civilization 2 or 4
Half Life
Portal
Morrowind
Warcraft 3
Planescape Torment
Baldurs Gate 2
Doom
Games that I love (and are wonderful) but didn’t make my cut,
Vampire Bloodlines
Jagged Alliance 2
TF2
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
Quake
Unreal Tournament
Halflife 2
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Isn’t that like stating that any great band needs to be comparable to the Beatles? Let’s face it, the Beatles were important to the music industry but musically they wondered far too often into the self indulgent and when they weren’t most of their work was a collection of throw-away pop ditties.
The problem with universally accepted bastions of quality as they more often than not end up being the perverbial albertros around the neck of creativity and diversity; so consistently are we dragged back in their direction.
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Yeah, but someone suggested Black and White as one of the greatest games of all time….
Black and White.
I mean, come on. There needs to be some sort of quality bastion, otherwise any old rubbish wll be allowed in. :P
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I really enjoyed Deus EX, Full Throttle, Fallout 2, Baldur’s Gate 2, etc etc etc. I don’t believe I need to explain why those games are so good. Other gentlemen can do that for me.
But I’m also quite the advocate for Counter-Strike. Yes.
I find CS to be an incredible multiplayer game. It is great for both newcomers and veterans mostly because it combines a steep learning curve with the luck factor. So even if you are not the greatest player of them all, you can always get lucky and manage to score a visually incredible kill. That’s the major difference I see in CS compared to other FPSs. Luck is practically ruled out of the equation in games like Q3 and UT, which were released by the same time CS got popular. Other games, like Call of Duty or Day of Defeat, included luck as a factor, but it just seemed to random. I guess what I’m saying is that CS got the perfect combination, the right dosage.
Oh, and I’m talking about CS for HL1. Not CS:Source.
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Ben There, Dan That and Time Gentlemen Please. Modern funny and clever point-and-click adventure games paying tribute to the golden era of the genre.
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Let’s not forget educational-ish games:
Oregon Trail
Rockey’s Boots
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erh..
1. Diablo 2
2. Half-Life 2
3. Team Fortress 2
4. Starcraft 2
5. Plants vs Zombies
6. Oblivion
7. World of Warcraft
8. Warcraft III
9. Mass Effect 2
10. Portal
That’s pretty much it ;D
Bioshock
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Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit
Descent II
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Wow, yea. I was waiting for someone to say hot pursuit. The progenitor of the cat-and-mouse racer. Also the first person (i think?) to mention a Descent game.
Bravo.
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I hope these aren’t redundant:
Sanitarium
Earthworm Jim 2
A Mind Forever Voyaging
Thief 1 and Thief 2
Crusader No Remorse and Crusader No Regret
System Shock 1 and 2
The Commandos series (minus Strike Force)
The original Unreal single player game
Last Bronx
and finally ……..
Homeworld
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very yes for Sanitarium
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I’d love to read all the way through these comments but sadly I can’t find the time right now.
My tupenny’s worth:
C&C Red Alert
UFO: Enemy Unknown
Quake 2
Operation Flashpoint
UnReal World
Oh, and Minecraft, obv.
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You really have to mention AI War: Fleet Command, if only for the amount of support it’s received from a 3 to 5 person team.
Also, Team Fortress 2.
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Also, the TrackMania games. Nations Forever was what introduced me to PC gaming.
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Don’t forget to give the Indi-games some love.
LASER SQUAD NEMESIS – Bad pricing structure prevented this one from being a greater hit than it deserves. I know you’ve played it, so I don’t need to tell you how cool it is.
SOLIUM INFERNUM – I dare you not to include this.
DEFCON – My favorite from the Introversion gang, but I will still be happy if you include one of the others instead.
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This is a tough one…
Half Life 1 & 2
Still has one of the best Sci-Fi stories in gaming and certainly one of the PC’s most iconic main characters. Both of them did something very new and interesting. They are not the best shooters of their days (although both spawned a version of CS…), but certainly were unrivaled in the “this is a plausible place, and it’s so easy and fun to really be there” – department. Also lots of Valve cleverness, etc.
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
I know, this is debatable, just because it’s so recent, but I’d really like to see this game on The List. Amnesia is by no means perfect, but certainly does a whole lot of things right. Frictional have identified what is unique in Horror and bravely tossed out all the baggage, that comes with the “game” moniker. The end result is still a game, of course, but one that caters to the medium’s strengths instead of getting held back by it’s restrictions. This is a game that does tell a story and not just bolt it on top, that doesn’t want to you to have “fun” all the time, but shit yourself pantsless and that allows your mind to be engulfed by the dark, sticky shadows of it’s HPL-inspired world.
Time and budget restrictions do show here and there, but that is the reality of an Indie developer. They deserve their place in the hall of fame.
That’s it for now!
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Leasure Suit Larry 3
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I’d be amazed if more than one or maybe two of these make the list but they’d make mine and I don’t think anybody else has mentioned them yet so I want to throw them in: -
Vangers because there’s nothing quite like it and until The Void came along it was the only game I could thing of that really just threw the player into a complete alien world and said “deal with it”. If I could choose only one to remind you of it would be Vangers.
Blueberry Garden because it was beautiful.
Gumboy: Crazy Adventures which I feel would have been a true classic if it hadn’t suffered under the weight of the dumbest name ever.
TrackMania because it had the sense to be a completely skill based racing game that wasn’t tied to recreating the boring old real world.
Plants vs Zombie and Peggle because I’m big enough to admit that these two games have stolen far to much of my life not to be mentioned.
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I’d list all the same games as everyone else, but they’re all so universally loved there’s no way you’re not going to include them. Instead, I’d like to put my hand up in favour of including major mods on the list. A few examples:
-Rome: Total Realism
-Fallout Wanderer’s Edition (single-handedly makes FO3 not suck, which is much more than can be said for any single mod for Oblivion, for example)
-The Nameless Mod (as one of the hivemind nodes said, the closest we’ll ever get to having more of that game people seem never to mention here)
-S.T.A.L.K.E.R. SoC Complete 2009
IMO these represent one of the PC’s greatest strengths, and really deserve to be on any list as much as the amazing games everyone keeps mentioning.
Actually, now that I think about it, there are a few games I’d like to add support to, just in case they get missed in this huge thread:
Machinarium
Men of War
Victoria
Dwarf Fortress
Trine
Day of the Tentacle
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To depart from the mostly older titles that others will suggest…
Spelunky!
I grew up playing classics like Lemmings, Doom, Duke Nukem, C&C, Half-Life, Civ, Deus Ex, etc., and Spelunky blew me away with its simplicity, emergent gameplay, replayability, and addictiveness. It goes at the top of any list of best indy games, and it should definitely be on the list of best PC games.
Spelunky is monument to the fact that it doesn’t take a large production team many years and millions of dollars to produce a game that can draw you in and keep you there for hundreds of hours.
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Non-obvious ones? Birthright : The Gorgon’s Alliance. It was a turn based grand strategy game in the D&D Birthright setting, included first person RPG adventuring and total war style battles (four years before Shogun was released). The object of the game was to amass enough influence to be crowned Emperor, and there were hundreds of ways to achieve that, from economic domination to questing to retrieve legendary artefacts or besting the big bads in combat.
It’s really the complexity of the various aspects that made it stand out. Developing provinces for example brought in greater income, but doing so reduced the magic power which could be drawn from the province. Not only did this give a conundrum for your own kingdom, but the ability to lease, loan or sell holdings to other kingdoms threw in another meta game – develop your province to boost your income and risk annoying the neighbours who are paying for the magical resources therein? Regent classes all had different abilities; rogues could use underhand shenanigans to disrupt and even take ownership of the trade networks, wizards and priests could cast spells.
The battles were nicely done, with the map divided into a four by four square grid in which you deployed and ordered units to move in real time. Heroes had their own units which could hurl spells, utilise magic items and similar. This being D&D as you’d expect the fantastical units made a showing, skeletons being decent fighters and almost immune to archers for example, but having a tendency to crumble if a cleric was brought to bear.
The Adventures were the weakest aspect of the game, though still immense fun. It utilised a modified Doom 2 engine as you led your handpicked team of heroes to complete the quest, usually involving roaming a castle or dungeon in search of an artefact, kidnapped noble or similar. Hilariously, it wasn’t unusual for your regent; lord of an entire kingdom; to resort to swiping anything not nailed down including the cutlery in an effort to boost the national treasury.
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Darwinia! God.
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Sorry, 5 pages of posts and no Giants: Citizen Kabuto?! Will somebody please think of the Smarties?
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Timmy!! Timmy??!!Timmy!!!!Timmmmyyy!!!!!!!!
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This.
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The first third of the game was amazing, the rest…not so much.
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If The Void and Pathologic aren;t in, something’s gone very wrong somewhere.
Also Amnesia.
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Your wrong is my right.
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Hopefully a few of these are great/not-reundant/games:
Grim Fandango
Little Big Adventure 2
Mechwarrior 2
Warcraft 3
Command & Conquer: Red Alert
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Let’s see:
Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri.
Photopia. (do interactive fiction count?)
Hidden and Dangerous 2.
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My vote for possibly forgotten gem goes to Europa Universalis II (and/or its latest incarnation, For The Glory). Easily the best historical strategy game ever made, with pretty much infinite replayability and a dedicated modding scene still working on and improving it. It is the only game that has made me buy history books just to try to learn more about the nations it displays. Awesome, awesome stuff.
I still play it today. Heck, I’m playing it now. As Burgundy, France is a major pain in the ass. Damn French.
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“Obscure” additions:
- Realms of Arkania series
- Gobliins series
- Cannon fodder series
- Jagged alliance 1 and deadly games
- Heroes of might and magic 1 and 2
- The Incredible Machine
- Settlers 1 and 2
- Anno 1404
- Simon the Sorceror
- Ecstatica
- Die by the sword
- Snake/Nibbles
- Gorilla
- Raptor
- Goldenaxe
- Double dragon
- Operation Wolf
- Maddog Mcgree
- Ski or die
- Mother goose
- Sokoban
Turns out they’re obscure “additions”, so it seems…
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I know Elite is the original, and the second game is really a better game all around, but my personal experience playing Privateer was one of the first games that really blew my hair back. They’re a little less likely to be overlooked, but any list of PC greats would be incomplete without Homeworld and Wing Commander 2. Finally, lest y’all think that I am lost in space, let me finally demand that Myth 2 be put on the list as one of the truly great RTSs.
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I have CTRL-F’ed through all the comments and no one appears to have mentioned one of my favorite gaming experience of all time:
RIVEN, the Sequel to Myst
(though someone used the word “driven”, at some point).
I haven’t found a game that conjured up that sense of immersion and fascination since. The Myst series in general needs a spot on every PC Gaming List, in my opinion.
Anyway, don’t forget these, either:
- Little Big Adventure 2 (Twinsen’s Odyssey). The first game I ever bought and still quite, quite brilliant.
- Psychonauts
And I’m sure you’ll remember these:
- Portal
- Dungeon Keeper
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@Coren
I figured you’d be the one other person to mention Little Big Adventure 2, so I’m +1′ing that.
Other games too, obviously – but they’ve all been mentioned countless times.
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Holy cow, Riven +1! One of my biggest gaming regrets is that I discovered this too early in life and walkthroughed my way through it rather than figuring it out for myself. I would kill for a game to match Riven in immersion, back story (have all 3 Myst books, written by the devs, which are pretty decent), and the kinds of puzzles it uses.
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Dwarf Fortress for me is without a doubt the no. 1 in my list, it takes so much invested time, thousands of hours perhaps, but the beauty of it is incredible when it’s eventually unlocked. A masterful piece of work.
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Largest RPS thread ever coming up. As for my picks;
THE PRECURSORS
The seeds that sprouted industries:
NetHack – the roguelike
Doom – classical FPS
Myst – original casual puzzle game
Master of Orion II – the original 4X masterpiece
Half-life – dawn of the modern FPS era
Thief – invented the first person sneaker
Command & Conquer – the first hit RTS
Total Annihilation – first modern RTS
Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines – created the tactical puzzle genre
Quake 3 – first online FPS
Unreal Tournament – first modern online FPS
Bejeweled – the original modern casual game
Braid/World of Goo – the Dawn of Modern Indie
THE ULTIMATES
The highest expressions of PC’s greatest genres:
The Curse of Monkey Island – graphical adventure game
Fallout 2 – classical RPG
Counter-Strike – classical online FPS
FreeSpace 2 – the sci-fi sim
Diablo 2 – hack’n'slash
Serious Sam Second Encounter – classical FPS
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time – the action adventure
World of Warcraft – the MMO game
Cave Story – classical platformer
TrackMania – casual racing game
Galactic Civilizations II – modern 4X game
Team Fortress 2 – modern online FPS
World of Goo – modern puzzle game
Spelunky – modern platformer
Plants & Zombies – tower defense (haven’t played Immortal Defense yet)
King’s Bounty: The Legend – only proper modern tactical roleplayer
Dwarf Fortress – modern roguelike
Mass Effect 2 – modern RPG
Just Cause 2 – the sandbox
ArmA 2 – modern war simulator
Men of War – modern war game
Amnesia: The Dark Descent – survival horror
STILL NOTHING QUITE LIKE IT
Either the only such games made, or the others are their sequels:
Planescape: Torment
Homeworld
Portal
STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl
The Last Express
Pathologic
Anachronox
Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri
Worms
X-COM
System Shock
Deus Ex
No One Lives Forever
Clive Barker’s Undying
Star Control II
Dungeon Keeper
MDK
Psychonauts
Outcast
Beyond Good & Evil
Darwinia
Minecraft
SPECIAL MENTIONS
Although the games are valuable individually, the franchises matter more:
Call of Duty series – charted the rise and fall of the modern FPS
The Sim series – from SimCity to the Sims and Spore, all special games
WHAT’S MISSING
I’m not versed enough in these genres to feel comfortable picking:
Large scale strategy games – Civ, TOAW, Total War, Europa Universalis
Interactive Fiction – from Infocom to Plotkin, Cadre, Short, and others
Flight & other simulators – IL-2 Sturmovik might go here, had I played it
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Surely Master of Orion is the original 4X, not it’s sequel?
(Stuff like STARS! preceded MOO2 I think as well)
Also, how is Quake3 the first online shooter, and UT the first modern one? They were both released at the same time (near enough), and the original Quake had internet play…
How about Delta Force for kicking offf the “realistic” shooter? etc
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I put Master of Orion II simply because it’s the peak of its lineage.
Q3 and UT did come out close to each other, but it’s not a chronological thing – Q3 took the step of concentrating exclusively on the multiplayer, which was groundbreaking, but it was an evolution of existing Quake gameplay. UT, with the imaginative weapons, various game types, and especially mutators, foretold a new era in gameplay variety. Like I said, Q3 perfected what existed, while UT ushered in something new. Remember that Team Arena didn’t come out until later; for a time UT was the most diverse thing in the genre. On the other hand, Q3′s perfection makes it a competitive sports game to this day. It’s sort of apples and oranges.
I can’t speak to Delta Force because I haven’t played it, but if I were to put another game there, it would sooner be Flashpoint – also a classic in its own right.
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You see, you’re saying one thing and then doing another effectivley.
You call the category “The seeds that sprouted industries:” and then append “first” or “original” in the description of a lot of them, but then when I say – “wait, what?” you change your mind to merely saying they were the best example, or perfection of what already exists – so not really the first.
Not that I’m suggesting the games picked are bad choices. Just that your stated rationale doesn’t seem to fit with what you actually have.
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You’re still referring to Master of Orion, right? Well, feel free to disregard that ‘II’ in my list then. You’re not wrong, I admit I shoehorned it a bit there. The sequel simply felt more relevant. I haven’t played much of the first one, admittedly.
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Oh, I just figured it out – you mean if I say ‘first’ and ‘original’ then why aren’t they the actual first game in the genre? A lot of them aren’t strictly first, but they were the genre codifiers that everyone remembers. They had all the elements of their genre as we know it now, executed them masterfully, and if they hadn’t come along, their genres might have arguably fizzled. They were the first to do it right.
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Silver.
One of my favourite PC games of all time. Good story, good characters and engaging gameplay.
It’s got that RPG feel but without the turn-based combat.
Played it once and then again about 8 years later and was still so over the moon with it that I played it another 1 1/2 times.
Also I don’t know a single fantasy game where losing your mentor is so well done.
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If its save system didn’t suck all the fun out of the game, I’d agree with you. You basically can only save at checkpoints, and once you did save at one, it vanishes. They’re placed generously at the start, but become rarer and rarer the more you progress. Like the game wasn’t hard enough already.
Too bad, it’s so wonderful otherwise…
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I would nominate …
Little big adventure 2: Revolutionary 3d graphics for its time. One of the first adventure games (along with lba 1) to feature a real time world simulation with several concepts such as sneaking, npc interaction, different levels of notoriety, puzzles, item use and a broad set of combat options at once – and all of this in a highly polished and fun to play game. I also think it has a very striking and memorable visual design.
Escape from Butcher Bay: Has a brilliant and original user interface that provided all the necessary solutions for how a minimalist design should look in a first person action game. It also had very complex npc interactions, especially with the prison guards at different levels of alert. I think the way you played through environments several times with different levels of enpowerment and different levels of guard activity gave the level design a depth that few other action games have. Finally the game had an original and highly tactile hand to hand combat system.
World of Goo: I guess this one is a rockpapershotgun favourite anyway but it really deserves a lot of credit for being the first indie game to production value wise beat the big companies at their own game. Also the visual design/story/progression make the game unique.
Mass Effect 2: A very noticable improvement on the first game that basically provided solutions for most of the annoying aspects of the rpg genre. Examples of those solutions include compartmentalisation of story, removal of inventory managment, absence of unpredictable fail states, shift from passive to active combat and probably much more.
Hitman Blood Money: The changing clothes mechanic makes the Hitman series the unquestionally most complex stealth simulation out there, possibly with some minor competition from Thief. Before BM the games were too full of bugs to be fun, but BM somehow straightened the concept out.
Other games: Bloodlines, Far Cry, Fallout, Outcast, KOTOR, RE4 (although I guess the pc version sucked out of the box), Minecraft, Deus Ex (lol), Mirror’s Edge, Portal, Half-Life, GTA San Andreas, Mafia
Probably: Batman Arkham Asylum, Dead Space
Possibly: Assassin’s Creed 2, COD MW, Fallout NV, Stalker CoP, Mafia II, Crysis
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Now see, I agree with most of what you say (and actually, with nearly every title listed in all posts).
But ME2? It’s overshadowed by games that are 10 years older! Look for a deconstructions of it, they are hilarious in a painful way.
Don’t be a fanboy :P
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Wait. Dead Space?
You’re trolling. That game was pretty much unplayable with a mouse, and had nothing System Shock 2 didn’t do way better.
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I have to stand by Mass Effect 2 on this one. As a completist type gamer I felt incredibly relieved to just be able to enjoy the game. You get the bioware mega rpg experience but without all the second guessing. I like the classics in the genre as well but ME2 deserves credit for quite successfully attempting to modernize the crpg.
Dead Space was maybe a somewhat hasty addition to the list. The pc port as you point out is not very good. Moreover I might be guilty of overestimating it because of my obsessive hunt for a worthy successor to re4. In accordance with this shift in reasoning I retract Dead Space from the probably list and put it in the possibly list where I guess it truly belongs.
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I always get confused with lists like these. Is it the most influential games, the best games or the ones we remember most fondly?
To me, the only point of doing a list like this is to list the games that have stood the test of time in terms of gameplay, regardless of when they were released. It would be a list of games that you could fire up right now and say “Yup, this is still a great game to play”.
I haven’t looked up the list to see if these are here, but here are two that I feel very strongly about.
As you might tell from my avatar, the Thief games get one of my votes. Quite simply, they are the best stealth games ever made, and they are my favourite games ever. Mechanics-wise, the stealth is perfect. If you get spotted, you must use your arsenal of thiefy tools to escape from the situation. Fighting back is often suicide; and it is this element which, for me, puts in on a pedestal above other stealth games. It is a pure stealth game – about not being seen, which is a fascinating game mechanic in itself. Thief also stole my heart because of the pseudo-medieval world it is set in. The weird history of the city, the mysterious keepers, the crazy hammerites – I loved it all. And Garrett of course, voiced brilliantly by Stephen Russell (he’s playing the new protagonist in Bioshock Infinite); his cynical observations were a key part of the games as well.
Natural Selection for Half Life 1. The sheer weight of ideas in this mod just made my jaw drop when it first came out. An incredibly ambitious mod that deserved to have the same level of interest as Counter-Strike. At it’s simplest, it’s Aliens vs Marines, but describing it like that doesn’t do the game any justice at all. First off, it’s not just an FPS, but an RTS as well, which puts it in a very different bracket to most other ga … Y’know what, bollocks to this, I’m just going to list everything that comes into my head as to why I love this game:
The random hive (alien spawning point) start locations, the interface for selecting upgrades and evolutions, the commander’s order waypoints, the alien hivemind with it’s legitimate wallhack, knowing instantly if a teammate or structure is under attack as an alien due to the hivemind, parasiting enemy marines so you can see where they are at all times, the weldable bulkheads for accessing different areas, gestating into another lifeform as an alien, the alternate routes for aliens through vent shafts, successfully sieging an alien hive, having to construct buildings as a marine, destroying a resource tower, being a skulk (scout class) and killing a marine after hiding on the ceiling, taking down an armoury as a skulk and setting the marines’ research back by five minutes, forcing the marine commander to deploy a distress beacon by attacking their base – allowing a successful defense of a sieged hive, flying around on a jetpack, flying around as a lerk (alien support class), killing a skilled fade (alien assault class), having a motion tracker and feeling like you’re in the film ‘Aliens’, walking into a dark part of the map as a marine and nearly soiling yourself, winning your first game as a commander of the marines, beaconing in for a shotgun rush on an enemy hive, being part of a group of marines in heavy armour and clomping around the map (all aboard the heavy train! Choo Choo!), thwarting an early shotgun rush as aliens en route to a quick victory, thinking you’ve won a game as the marines only for an enemy hive to pop up elsewhere while you were distracted, the EPIC games that sometimes lasted for over an hour, getting three active hives as the aliens and hearing ‘Now we Dance’ – meaning the marines are fucked, The sheer thrill/horror of seeing an Onos (giant elephant-sized alien) for the first time and thinking “OH SHIIIIIT!”.
Okay, the expletives are starting to emerge so I’ll shut up now.
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Natural Selection anti-vote:
NS was fun for the first three or four months after release. As soon as “ideal” build orders were discovered, all the enjoyment was sucked out of the game by ragequitting idiots screaming “why’d you build X before Y” and having to play the same two or three strategies every single map. Good idea, decent implementation, poor balancing, Oni made no sense as the plural for Onos, you had to bind a key to /stuck if you wanted to play as a Fade because map geometry was fucked, and the community was often elitist and newbie-unfriendly.
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I’d still say there’s good cause for NS.
Sure, build orders were reasonably entrenched (Def/Move/Sen for Kharaa, A1/W1/W2/W3/Protoype for Frontiersman). But there was still plenty of tactical flexibility beyond that for both sides. Harrass rez or attack base? Bunker down on choke points or rush tech? Left hive or right hive? Relocate? (inc emergency)? The sheer joy that was pre 3.0 Bast?
I do feel that in a lot of ways the attempts at balancing the game killed it. Sure, they got it to the point that both teams had a similar chance of winning, but in the drive to avoid stalemate games, they made every match a straight-up shootout. There was no point in building turrets or OCs as they were useless. So there was no point in siege, no hard points to attack or defend etc. In the older days, for every >1 hour game I had that was a tedious stalemate, I also played a >1 hour game that was simply an epic struggle. When I last played it was rare to see a game go beyond 30 minutes.
Still, it was/is an excellent and unique experience.
Also this
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I agree that some of the community wasn’t as helpful as it could have been. Map balance was absolutely crucial in NS, moreso than in most other online shooters. The amount of times the maps were changed over the years, and the constant bickering over whether X was overpowered or Y was unbalanced, didn’t do the game any good. I also didn’t like the way the devs steered the game towards shorter rounds rather than the hours-long games that were the norm when NS first came out.
The point is, that for every dozen crappy games of NS that I have had over the years, I have had one that has provided me with fantastic memories of the game; a titanic struggle over varying sections of the map with a combination of improvised tactics and individual heroism. That’s why I rate it so highly.
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UT2004
There are a handful of other games I like equally but UT2004 is the only one that doesn’t always make this kind of list, probably because not that many people saw how amazing it became with the extra maps and mods.
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Defense Grid!
I have never been as compulsive about Gold-Starring every level of a game as I have with that one. Love love love that game, and it does EVERYTHING it does so very well – it has a narrow focus that let them really deliver AAA quality with limited resources.
Otherwise I would say try to keep the list out of ancient games that can only really be enjoyed with nostalgia goggles firmly in place. Game design has improved and developed so much today (not just graphics, but interface, mechanics, AI, etc.) that a lot of the games from the 90′s are the equivalent of silent films – there’s still a lot of interesting things in there, but they can be a struggle to get through unless you are a true fanatic. It doesn’t mean you aren’t sophisticated if you enjoy Dragon Age more than Baldur’s Gate, or Torchlight/Borderlands more than Diablo. That’s not to knock those games – they’re great, certainly, but they are a much more rarefied taste today.
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Repeating as there’s a lot of anti-competitive gaming folk around on RPS (though I trust Jim to get it included):
Counter-Strike
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It depends weither you count ‘Best Games’ as the ‘Best overall experience’ or ‘Ones which might be a bit crap but I spend so long playing It’s nearly unhealthy anyway’.
In the former camp:
Deus Ex
System Shock 2
Diablo 2
Bioshock (The first one, I found the sequel to be fun but somtimes a bit tiresome)
Left 4 Dead 2 (although lets be honest they’re both so similar It might as well be one game)
Starcraft 2 (Playing this online has already taken up more of my life than any other RTS on record)
Company of Heroes
Batman Arkham Asylum (My scanning through previous comments didn’t pick out this, shame on everyone)
Half-Life (entire series)
Plants Vs Zombies (Damn PopCap for coming up with a game which is so good we can’t hate them anymore)
The latter category:
Dead Space (Loved the hell out of this, inspite of the fact no one else in my circle of friends seem to)
Anything with Call of Duty near its title (MW2 might have been little more than a incredible victory of marketing, but I can’t deny I enjoyed the single-player a damn sight more than the new MoH reboot)
Dead Rising 2
Zombie Shooter (1+2)
Duke Nukem 3D
Alpha Protocol
Best game ever:
DOOM (still play it to this day, usually my GoTo game when stressed. Get a modern source-port, crank up the resolution and its a gem)
There are probably more I’ve forgotten….. bound to be.
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I can’t help it, I already want to sort titles into categories. I would suggest:
Icons: titans of gaming who can still be replayed today, ie Grim Fandango
Natalists: Games that launched a genre or series which may not hold up well today, but it’s descendants surely do, ie Civ1, SimCity, or Elite
Oddities: titles which are uniquely interesting and worth visiting, but stand quite alone
I’ll have title suggestions when I have more time later.
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Can’t bother to read through all the comments, so forgive me if this has been said: Dark Messiah.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: The game has a poor and immature story. This is true. But it also has the best swordfighting in any game ever™, and as such, it deserves a place on The List.
And Sacrifice should fit into The List to, because it is such a good fusion of RPG and RTS and it’s quite creative when it comes to graphical design to boot.
Aside from that I can’t think of anything that isn’t obvious, or that an RPS member will most likely already wish to include.
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+1 – I’m currently on my fourth playthrough of DMoMM.
I don’t usually replay games, but there’s something satisfyingly tactile about it that appeals to me.
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Die By the Sword had the bast sword fighting but Dark Messiah is really great – maybe the best FPS/RPG since Deus Ex? Not sure why it’s hated.
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Talking of which: I would seriously nominate Die by The Sword.
While the adventure mode had its problems (plenty of them, to be honest), it was the arena where the VSIM-system really came to shine. It did not support any reasonable way to team up with random people in death matches – but as somebody who has played it to lenghts against people on null modem, I can assure you that you seriously can get good at it. Like in, seriously precise. It’s not just “I mash buttons and my avatar does all those fancy moves” – it was more like “That orc is standing on a bridge, trying to bring down its axe while jumping (for more momentum) any moment, so I have to take a step back and bring my sword up right this second, so I can chop of its head”. It was not only about timing, but also about spatial awareness, so to speak, in three dimensions.
Maybe that whole VSIM-system couldn’t live up to its own ambitions completely (it’s true that wildly swinging your weapon could take you a long way), but it WAS hugely ambitious for its time – and IMHO, it was never bested, up to this day, motion controllers be damned.
Plus, the whole “I can beat you to death with your own limb that I just surgically removed from your body”-humour didn’t actually hurt the appeal, either.
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Half-Life — There is absolutely nothing wrong with this game. It is perfect…until Xen…
The Original Unreal — Game changing beauty, clever AI for its time, multi-use weaponry
Deus Ex — Story, multi-linear, engaging characters, beautiful set-pieces.
Battlezone (the 1998 version) — Brilliant combination of vehicle sim, FPS, and RTS. It has been released into the wild for free so you have no excuse for not playing it.
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Battlezone… I loved every moment with that game. I redownloaded it 3 or 4 months ago and had a blast with it.
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Dude, Xen was awesome! I really hope we get to go back some day.
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These are the PC games that have most impacted me:
Little Big Adventure 1 & 2 [wonder distilled isometrically... overthrowing evil dictators has never been this much fun]
Outcast [greatest open-world game, still]
Prince of Persia
Lost Vikings
Deus Ex
Half Life 1 & 2/episodes [narrative action at its best]
Portal
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines [the world, the characters]
Jazz Jackrabbit 2 [modding and multiplayer]
Gish [opened my eyes to indie games]
Gothic 1 & 2 [RPG with character, substance over scale]
Braid [design philosophy]
Monkey Island
Grim Fandango
Starcraft [singleplayer]
Indiane Jones and The Fate of Atlantis
King’s Quest VI
Prince of Persia, Sands of Time [though I prefer the controls on PS2]
Psychonauts
Mount & Blade Warband [the freelance cavalry]
Assassin’s Creed [unique setting, climb EVERYTHING]
Beyond Good & Evil [Propaganda!]
Batman Arkham Asylum [closest thing to being Batman, short of prowling the rooftops in tights]
Left 4 Dead [zombies: NO... AI-director: YES]
Team Fortress 2 (vanilla) [personality, art-direction, design]
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The Last Express (best experience ever)
I added this to the list, but then I thought it deserves more than that. It deserves to have the number 1 spot. I actually wrote the paragraph about BG&E first, but I copied-pasted it all the way down. It shows us a path of gaming that has been abandoned. Less rigid, in the sense that it plays incredibly fluid and that it is nearly freeroaming – within the constraints of the train. One of the few games that makes you live the adventure instead of merely playing. It deserves the highest praise a game can get.
Some personal favourites I’d like to mention:
Alpha Centauri (need I say more?)
Dwarf Fortress (unplayable to most gamers, but oh so important)
Gabriel Knight (high point in graphical adventure storytelling, that and it has Tim Curry)
Beyond Good and Evil.
The most underrated, and oft-forgotten game, of all time. A mature, in the intelligent sense of the word, game, that doesn’t need a brownish-grey colour palette to convey that. It mixes the incredible charm of an eighties cartoon with the intelligence of a philosophical novel. It’s varied gameplay fits the game, while some parts have some flaws, you are on to the next section before they have any negative impact. You have to play it to experience it, whether it’s the lovely setting or the incredible characters, it will appeal to all but the most jaded fans of Jim Raynor. I could go on for a bit, but I will leave that to the professionals on this site when they give BG&E it’s rightful place in the top 10.
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Yes! Yes! “The Last Express!” I figured I’d have to be the one to recommend it, and I’d probably be alone. One of the best experiences of interactive narrative I’ve had, and hands down my favorite graphic adventure. Should have, in my opinion, a far more prominent place in the cannon than either “The Longest Journey” or “Grim Fandango.”
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@KillahMate
“Quake 3 – first online FPS”
“Unreal Tournament – first modern online FPS”
o.O
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Is the PC version of Psychonauts any good ? It’s been on my list of games that I need to finish some day for ages but my ex-gf took the PS2 and saved games when she moved out. New gf has a PS2 but no Psychonauts save files. It’s now in my list of games I need to replay from the start, only maybe on the PC if it’s not too poorly ported.
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Yes.
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Escape Velocity. Discovered on a cd back in 1996, featuring top-down view, spaceship combat, trading and engaging storylines. Also supported user-created content by ways of add-ons. Excellent game.
Marathon.
Fallout.
X-Wing.
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And yes, EV is a mac game. So what? Macs are a breed of superior PCs (in some ways).
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Escape Velocity: Nova is PC, and might be the same game? It deserves a mention just for being an open-world, top-down space shooter, and I think it had randomized missions and plot. Same vein as Space Rangers 2, but real time.
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Most games have been ported to PC … so what are you saying? PC first? PC only?
Does Dungeon Master count? (notably Amiga / Atari game but was available later on PC)
Instead of a list, do a tree diagram with all the branches and parent games, that way we can see where the new exciting milestones in gaming are.
So, I would say Amnesia is a new branch for REALLY BLOODY SCARY GAMING.
Braid – not sure if that has been mentioned but its still genius.
And Monaco looks to be pretty fresh.
I mean, Doom and Ultima Underworld are classic ground breaking PC games, but you could say they have been superseded now (then again maybe not!)
Also have a list for technical innovation (Eg Doom, Outcast Voxels) or games which push technical boundaries?
Maybe not but just some thoughts, a straight up list it a bit boring? I guess its useful for reference though and visitors.
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-Portal
-The Neverhood
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Oh man, The Neverhood! That game was brilliant.
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The Neverhood +1! Adorable claymation, interesting story, intuitive puzzles that make one feel brilliant for solving them. The only thing it does wrong is be difficult to acquire these days.
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Trying to think of older, non-mentioned, non-obvious games and failing. Mind-spooge list below, but these aren’t neccessarily classics so much as games I have fond memories of.
Railroad Tycoon & Transport Tycoon
Battle Isle & Historyline 1914-18
Master of Magic
Battlehawks 1942
Gabriel Knight (Not the 3rd one!)
Betrayal at Krondor
Castles
Lords of the Realm
The Settlers (it used to be good)
Heroes of Might & Magic 2 (whatever you think of the franchise now, I think it was solid and influential)
SSI Gold Box D&D games e.g. Champions of Krynn
Realms of the Haunting
Drakkhen
Dungeon Master 1 & 2
Eye of the Beholder
Bards Tale games
Legend of Kyrandia
Fade to Black
Master of Orion
Fragile Allegiance
Heimdall
Heretic / Hexen
Laser Squad
The Mechwarrior games
BattleTech – The Crescent Hawk’s Inception / Revenge
Megatraveller 1 & 2
One Must Fall
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Most definitely Age of Empires 2, Stronghold (first one + Crusader), Men of War and Dwarf Fortress.
Age of Empires might not have been that renewing, but it’s without question a true classic. I still play it after 7 years or so.
Stronghold had some great features and a real medieval feel to it. It was nice to actually have to make weapons and food and train peasants into soldiers instead of the spawning pits that most RTS’s barracks are.
Men of War should be included for the amount of detail it has in environment, combat and soldiers/vehicles. The RTS framework combined with the soldier/vehicle inventories and detailed physics make for some thrilling/hilariously random gameplay.
The same can be said for Dwarf Fortress, at least on the details part. It’s huge list of features/details and complexity never cease to amaze me and sometimes provide highly entertaining situations.
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Add to that TES4:Oblivion.
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I think The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy should also be considered if it counts. It was at least ported to PC and Wikipedia says it was released for PC back in the day but on the other hand Wikipedia doesn’t seem to realise it was released for Tatung Eistein which is what I played it on originally. Stupid wikipedia.
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What about Pong and Breakout and Asteroids?
Streetfighter anyone?
R-Type.
If you say World of Goo I’d say Bridge Builder.
Audiosurf is a must play for everyone looking for music generated content imho.
Serious Sam, Armed&Dangerous, something like that. Postal…
Just making random suggestions here. ^^
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I forgot DotA and DektopTowerDefense.
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Desktop Tower Defense is great. I think developers can probably stop making Tower defense games because DTD nailed it.
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Definitely Company of Heroes, one of the first RTSs I played with a real sense of atmosphere and realism – C&C Generals sort of did but it was too silly: CoH really nailed it.
Also a Total War game and maybe FEAR 1
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Company of Heroes-
This game has a phenomenal single player campaign and introduced some great mechanics to multiplayer RTS gaming. The way they discouraged turtling and encouraged early engagements with resource collection being tied to map control instead of dirt farming, their mechanics of cover, suppression, retreat and reinforcing and the way that armor on vehicles was handled all combined to make an extremely fun RTS that felt fresh. The game has a strong focus on tactics without requiring high APM to play and still allows for more broadly strategic play as well.
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HYPERSPEED – This was a Microprose gem released in 1991. Anyone who played it is probably still obsessed with its simple, yet unparalleled mechanics to this day. Basically, you’re the captain of a dreadnought dumped into a hostile star cluster, tasked to make it safe for an imminent colony ship from Earth. You explore and mine planets, but the major portion of the game was in navigating all the different alien politics, making friends, fighting, and backstabbing along the way. Every alien species (and there had to have been around 30) was radically different from the next, from behavior to ships, weapons, and strategy. I’ve never been impressed so much with how far ahead of its time a game has been, but to this day I’ve yet to see its sandbox complexities matches in any game.
Half-Life, Alpha Centauri and Deus Ex are obvious, MASS EFFECT 2 maybe not so much but should be, and otherwise, THIEF, SYSTEM SHOCK 2, and OUTCAST should all be recognized.
Let’s also not forget Myst-style adventure games. Most sucked, but RIVEN and ZORK: NEMESIS were both phenomenal, with atmosphere to spare and complex puzzles that actually made sense within and felt inherent to their worlds.
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I find the lack of mentions for Arx Fatalis disturbing. *smokes pipe and looks smug*
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I am not sure whether I would recommend UW 1 and 2 over it though. Possibly. What do you think?
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I would say UW1 trumps it on an overall scale, although Arx had a special charm of its own and did some really nice things with the item combining and spell system (frustrating as it could be, it was an amazing idea and felt really cool for the less impossible to draw out spells).
*takes puff from pipe*
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Obvious:
X-Com (the first one)
Thief (the first or second one)
Stalker: SHOC
Ultima (seven probably)
Maybe Less Obvious:
Blood
Loom
Painkiller
GHOST MASTER (THE definitive “$2.50 at every single Steam sale” title, I completely adore this game)
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also, seconded on Ghost Master.
Adorable, clever, and a seriously fun puzzle game, often with a choice of carefully planned hauntings or haphazard seat-of-your-pants horror.
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Metro 2033. Because it is the only shooter with an anti violence message.
Stalker for scaring me. And it’s free roaminess and survivalist feel, which puts FC2, Oblivion and Fallout 3 too shame. ALL AT ONCE.
Mechwarrior. Obvious.
The Witcher. Bassicly because it is the biggest “THIS IS HOW IT SHOULD BE DONE’ message to all other RPG developers in the terms of player interaction with the storyline. Which is what RPG’s are all about.
Shogun: Total War. A milestone and a revolution in the RTS series (Company of Heroes and World in Conflict are too, but they are probably mentioned already).
Team Fortress 2. Because nobody takes it seriously, the multiplayer athmosphere is just awesome!
TrackMania. Because of it’s multiplayer roots and emphasis on making your own maps, endless challanges and endless replayability.
Wings of Prey for being well balanced towards all kind of flight simmers while still offering plenty of action.
Wing Commander 3 and 4 in terms of great storytelling
Freespace 2 in terms of the brutal awesomeness of the missions and the gameplay.
Mods:
Research and Development for the awesome gameplay.
Minerva. There is a reason Valve hired the creator of this mod. His work is better then Valve’s.
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There are other games I’ve had massive fun playing. Some of them do come close to greatness, but barely miss it. Such as Mass Effect. The RPG emphasises choice but you will have to wait one or two seqels later to actually see the consequences… I was really, really doubting about Baldur’s Gate 2 too.
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Dark Forces 1 and 2!
Syndicate …
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I super-disagree about Stalker feeling more free-roaming than Oblivion or FO3. For me, the division of the world into little pockets linked by loading-screen corridors makes it feel very confined and non-immersive. That’s not to say that it’s not a better game overall, which it almost certainly is. I just find it less open, is all.
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TIE Fighter
Day of the Tentacle
Morrowind
Half-Life 2
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It may have already been mentioned, but Company of Heroes needsto be on there
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I’ve got some OLD ones to suggest (Wikipedia them if you don’t know):
Alley Cat: It’s like Warioware Inc, but for the IBM PC in 1984!
Rocky’s Boots & Robot Odyssey (technically two different one-offs with no story connections, but RO is the follow-up to RB): Exposure to these games are a big reason why I study programming today.
Stunt Island: predated The Movies by a decade and was also a flight simulator
Captain Comic: primitive graphics, but excellent level design and tight controls which is all you need for a good adventure-platformer.
Adventure Games Toolkit: limited to what we now call IF, but it was way better than BASIC for learning to program adventure games and Inform didn’t exist at the time
That crazy educational game that I forget the name of that had you running around real world locations and collecting crystals to cure people of a zombie-like plague (predated Left4Dead by about two decades)
Super Solvers: Challenge of the Ancient Empires: a deep logic tutorial disguised as an action-puzzle platformer (WHATEVER HAPPENED TO HARDCORE EDUTAINMENT!?!? *SOB*)
Number Munchers: Speaking of hardcore edutainment, this.
Castle of the Winds: One of the first ever roguelikes to sport tile graphics by default and a (non-dynamic) storyline, and way, WAY more accessible than Nethack.
Kye: An obscure but highly original puzzle game that came with it’s own level editor and ran on pretty much everything from Windows 3.1 to XP, somehow. My younger brother is pretty much obsessed with this game, though I like it too. There’s tons of fan-made Kye levels if you look.
Hexxagon: Loosely based on Ataxx, the hexagonal board makes such a difference in strategy that and my brothers consider it to be a completely different game despite Wikipedia lumping it in the Ataxx article. We have played many, MANY hours of Hexxagon and it was one of the few Shareware games we actually registered. Many modern Hexxagon ripoffs exist, but the first one was inspirational.
Jetpack: deceptively simple-seeming platform game where you have a jetpack. I’m still hoping Adam Pedersen finally releases the updated version he was working on.
Digger: updated version currently available on Playstation Network, we played the original PC version a LOT.
VGA Miner: It’s basically a 2D Minecraft game, but MUCH harsher and no overworld. Most common deaths: drowning, followed by cave-ins. (Incidentally, pretty much any game with VGA in the title is worth tracking down; it was the “[something] 64″ of the 80s PC era)
Invasion of the Mutant Space Bats of Doom: One of the best shoot-em-ups I’ve played on the PC.
The Chaos Engine: crazy steampunk shooter action fun.
Ken’s Labyrinth: This family-friendly Wolfenstein 3D clone isn’t that much better than other early FPSs, but extremely notable because it led to Ken Silverman being hired to make the engines for Rise of The Triad and later Duke Nukem 3D. (Also, the commercial version had a lot more emphasis on puzzle solving than you’d expect from a FPS.)
Fury of the Furries: action platform-puzzler in which you need to switch between several different “Tinies” (who are furry) to get past obstacles.
Joust: The DOS port was pretty fun.
The Legend of Kyrandia series is easily as good as the best Lucasarts point & clickers
Ultima VII + Serpent Isle: for obvious reasons
Ultima Underworld & UW2: for obvious reasons
Final Fantasy VII: lest we forget that at one point it took a Playstation port to revive a dying genre. (At the time, the existence of the first Diablo and the absence of ANY new title in ANY of the established franchises for over a year had many mourning the death of the turn-based RPG. Then FF7 showed us that turn-based combat RPGs could be radically different to what we knew, and today we take the genre for granted.)
…and that’s it for now.
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Your suggestions remind me of The Incredible Machine. Certainly a classic to consider in the puzzle space.
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Dwarf Fortress:
Ballsy, uncompromising, an incredibly detailed simulation that still maintains warmth and character and somehow makes you care about a small bearded thing being savaged by the letter C. What is more PC than Dwarf Fortress?
Losing is fun.
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I skipped the blatantly obvious, here’s some of my all time favorites. “All time” meaning the 90s.
Tyrian (I still play this in dosbox every now and again)
Full Throttle
The Commander Keen games
Epic Pinball
Stunts (also known as 4D Sports Driving)
Big Red Racing
Death Rally
Interstate 76
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Interstate ’76! Glad someone mentioned it. Still my favorite game of all time. It just had that right combination of great story / voice acting, great music, and a simple but deep gameplay system.
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Thief: The Dark Project!
Outcast!
Elite!
Yes.
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I’ll do my list, but first, a plea for a turn of the 80s/90s classic that I think deserves recognition. Microprose’s M1 Tank Platoon. What specifically blew my mind on this one was two things, which I’d not come up against in simulators before
1) that crew would maybe get better as they stayed with you, which meant your tank operated better
2) the recon view from any vehicle on the map, which in the case of the PC version at least meant the A1 warthog and (I’m presuming) the apache gunsip.
3) the progressive damage. bits of the tank would stop working. like tracks. fuck, that was bad.
When I got back into PC gaming after a long hiatus, and read about Operation Flashpoint, M1 Tank Platoon came to mind. It was the first game I ever played that gave me a sense of being stuck in the midst of a battle, that horrible and thrilling feeling of the plan going wrong and the need to adapt, combined with a sense of strategic freedom. It seemed hard at the time, although maybe it wasn’t.
I’m also going to big up Lucasfilm Battle of Britain, because the campaign mode in it was gripping, and the recording of your dogfights ruled. I’ve not played flight sims in a very long time now, but again, there was a commendable sense of tactical freedom in that game.
I see now that midwinter did also come out on the PC. I’m going to say that word again. Freedom. But also combined with a complex set of personal relationships which gave the game real character, without involving a whole lot of dialogue. Midwinter was taut and gripping and you always felt up against overwhelming odds. The hangliding ruled and it always felt FUCKING FREEZING when you played it.
When I got back into PC gaming in 2003, I had a lot to catch up on, and since then I’ve been hooked on atmosphere of a well-constructed FPS game, and my love of stealth games, although I’m shit at them.
Undying and Morrowind for their unique worlds. Undying had a great grasp of weird light in some of its scenery that I’ve only really seen matched in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl. The giant fanny monster did wreck it somewhat, but that’s a minor complaint.
Thief, for the scariness, the sound design and the consistent tone to the world. I’m still stuck in the catacombs level at the moment. Seriously.
I don’t do adventure games much anymore, and I wasn’t the biggest fan of monkey island, but grim fandango made me believe I should, again.
Call of Cthulhu Dark Corners of the Earth for the tension, and dated engine aside, the horrible looking and sounding people of innsmouth. really makes my skin crawl.
STALKER. I will never forget my first hours in that game. And the light. jeezo, the light.
The original splinter cell, especially for the level where you break into the pentagon or the cia or whatever it was. It frustrated me, but I kept trying at it, despite the shitty story, because I wanted to be better at it. I wanted to be as athletic and quiet as the game would let me be.
NOLF for what seemed like tough stealth mechanics that I could barely ever nail, the consistent tone to the world and the variety of levels.
Vampire the masquerade, because it successfully manages to be seedy, and grimy, and just not very pleasant. I will forgive it it’s shitty sewer section for that. I have only played through twice now. I’ll wait a long while ‘fore I do it again.
Freedom Force, because I could hit people with streetlights. Again, production design and game mechanics were spot on and worked well together for a lovely world.
All the other stuff has already been mentioned.
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I won’t linger on the obvious choices like Deus Ex and Vampire: the Masquerade – Bloodlines, so I’ll mention two that may not be the greatest games of all time, but do deserve a playthrough from anyone.
Dear Esther: Yes, it’s a mod, but it’s easily a hundred times better than most AAA games. Besides, we’ve all got Half-life 2 already anyway. Dear Esther is unique in having no gameplay; it tells its story through the environment and through a confused narrator. It’s very well written, superbly acted and the music fits perfectly as well. It made me wonder whether interactive experiences on the computer are really made better by being games.
The Void: It’s worth playing for the art direction alone. Well, for so far as you can attach value to every individual element of this game, because art, sound, gameplay and story aren’t just interwoven, they’re one. Every bit of The Void breathes atmosphere, from beautiful melancholy to ugly sadness. The game constantly reminds you that you have no idea what is right and what is wrong in this alien world, and that you have no idea of the consequences of your actions. It can get a bit tedious, and I think it’s too long for its own good, but the first fifteen minutes already leave more of an impression than any CODBLOPS (I wanted to say it too) or what-have-you.
But aren’t exactly ‘fun’, but profoundly sad, and I like that for a change.
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I’ve already posted, but I just wanted to pop in and add Syndicate.
If I had to narrow it down to a particular version, it would be the Mac one, definitely. I mean I absolutely hate to sound like a twat, but really it WAS the better version. There shouldn’t even be any argument about it; it looked smoother, played better and was just… better. Okay so the PC version was more popular, but I think that was just the number of people playing.
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Oldies (I think the rest of mine will probably make the list regardless…think best RPGs):
Another World/Out of this World
Escape Velocity
Prince of Persia (original)
Lemmings
Unreal (original)
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Without particular order:
Mafia
The Witcher
Duke Nukem 3D
Half-Life
Thief 2: The Metal Age
Metal Gear Solid 2
Max Payne
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Sacrifice and Giants:Citizen Kabuto, because they were products of the golden age of PC-Gaming, when good(!) 3d graphics were still new and everything seemed possible. Before we were all drowned in brown.
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Giants was a pretty amazing game – pretty damn flawed as well, but really ambitious and fun. Not sure it’s a best-PC-game-ever candidate, but definitely worthy of an honourable mention.
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Planetside – buggy as hell and had a learning curve like a cliff, but was wildly ahead of its time and featured some truly great game design. Above all, it is a great game because it offered an experience that was not simply great – but was (and is) completely unique.
Alpha Centauri – sci-fi Civ with fantastic writing and a ton of imagination. The constant succession of new Civ games produced without ever pausing to produce a sequel to this is a terrible crime against gaming.
Homeworld: Cataclysm – for my money, the best of the Homeworld series. The rags-to-riches (or at least scrappy mining ship to galaxy-saving battleship) nature of the story completely makes up for the somewhat clichéd assimilation aliens and ends up with it having the best narrative of the three games overall. Also: it has the funkiest selection of units and the coolest mothership.
Freespace 2 – I loved X-Wing and Tie Fighter but this is just better. Better game, better story and so much atmosphere it’s untrue. Just thinking back to those missions in the nebula, and the events that unfold after your scouting mission to the far side, gives me goosebumps.
UFO: Enemy Unknown – Every other turn-based strategy game is still so far behind this. Why?
Dark Forces – the best Star Wars game ever, and a revelation for the whole FPS genre. Also, as mentioned above, concussion rifles are the best gun ever. Also also: way better than the buggy, fan-servicey sequels that refused to believe that any Star Wars character could be cool without being a Jedi.
Honourable mentions to Portal, TF2, HL2, KotOR, Total Annihilation, Starcraft, Dawn of War, and probably loads of other stuff I can’t think of offhand…
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I’d like to second the brilliant Alpha Centauri.
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Indeed, Outcast didn’t pass the test of time. Neither did Deus Ex. Both stink from a nowadays perspective and weren’t that great back in the day either. VVVVVV is what I want to see on the list.
Unlike most other games, it stands on its own two feet, _without_ being boosted by nostalgia. Screw all your childhood memories, seriously.
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Very tempted to be a troll here and make some sarcastic remark involving general wrongness, but I’m just going to say I very strongly disagree with that sentiment.
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I don’t see how Outcast aged badly in any way, save for the occasional ill-fitting arcade-like element (i.e. the boulders that roll endlessly from one slope to another with the same momentum) that were just thrown in for the challenge, but get in the way of an otherwise relatively realistic portrayal of an alien world.
Deus Ex on the other hand…I always find the convenient placement of explosive barrels hilarious. Or passwords, even bank account data that just lies around in open spaces….it’s rather….silly? Oh, and the HUGE airvents…
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Alpha Protocol: I doubt this’ll get any love but I think it was genuinely ambitious and innovative in a way very few other games in the RPG genre have been. It certainly didn’t get everything right but it was a valiant attempt and in my opinion 1 of the greatest games ever made (yes really).
Homeworld series: I didn’t actually like the gameplay all that much but the style and atmosphere were second to none. 1 of the very few games where I actually noticed the music and sound.
Hardwar: It’s basically an Elite type game set on the surface of Saturn’s moon, Titan. It seemed way ahead of it’s time (the implementation, not the idea) to me at the time (although this could just be because I didn’t play that many games then). Lovely design, amazing (maybe not always for the right reason :D) FMV and great gameplay. I think you could even setup persistent multiplayer servers for it too.
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I liked the gameplay in the Homeworld series, basically just because it took solid RTS gameplay convincingly into three dimensions – and because you retained your fleet between missions. Regardless of that though, I definitely agree that the music, atmosphere and presentation were truly outstanding.
Actually, the more I think back about game I’ve really loved, the more I think a good enough atmosphere can make up for a ton of other flaws.
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Planescape Torment, of course.
Sacrifice
System Shock 2
I know you guys hate WoW, but it does have to be on there.
Kingdom of Loathing (it still grabs my attention after 5 years of playing it)
Pretty much every Lucasarts adventure game deserves a slot on there (Except for Monkey Island 4. And yes, I’m including The Dig in this list).
Dark Forces (even though I liked Dark Forces 2 more, i think 1 is the better game)
Does PC gaming mean computer games, or specifically DOS/Windows machines? If it can include Mac games, I nominate 3 in Three, a devious, fun puzzler that took my 8 year old self a couple years to solve.
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I just finished The Dig for the first time a few days ago, and I really don’t understand its getting less love than other LA adventures – it was one of the best games I’ve ever played! Seriously a 90s Lucasarts adventure game with original concept by Steven Spielberg, dialogue by Orson Scott Card, and starring Robert Patrick – it’s a recipe for win! The atmosphere was custard-thick, the music beautiful, the puzzles logical and intuitive, the dialogue cliche-free and very sensical, the character development unique and interesting, the artwork a haunting mix between Picasso and Roger Dean. About the only thing I didn’t totally love was the slightly-too-Hollywood ending.
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In no real order save the first 5 are my top 5:
Baldur’s Gate
Baldur’s Gate II
Fallout
Fallout II
Jagged Alliance 2
Syndicate
Mechwarrior II
Civ 1
Civ 4
MineCraft
Age of Kings
L4D2
Portal
Mount and Blade.
Space Quest (VGA)
I can go on all day, but those are some off the top of my head that really stand out.
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Discworld noir.
(I just wanted to mention something no one else did. But I do think its underrated, or at least, under-played and under-mentioned).
But just for the sake of it:
Deus ex, Half life 2, TF2, Portal, L4D, Wolf ET, Call of Duty (the first one), Monkey Island, Grim Fandango, Beyond Good and Evil, Planescape Torment, Theme Hospital, Diablo 2, Mass Effect, Age of Empires, Trackmania, GTA 1, Doom, and many other blatantly obvious things that I can’t think of off the top of my head…
And now for my favourite game of all: Captcha wars!
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I completely agree with Discworld Noir.
It was a very good game that for some reason or other never got the recognition it deserves.
It must be on the list.
It must!
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Shouldn’t a MUD be on the list? It would be ridiculous to try and pick one from the whole family (maybe DikuMUD as a codebase?) but there would be no WoW without MUDs and multiplayer text-based games really don’t lose much when compared to their graphical counterparts, they stand the test of time very well.
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Master of Magic
Unreal Tournament/TacOps
Portal
Plants vs Zombie
Minecraft
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Master of Magic!
I knew I’d forgotten something from my list! That was a truly amazing game – another one that was really ahead of its time. It moved the 4X genre on by a huge amount – or it should have done, if anyone had actually noticed it…
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Question (which may have been asked/answered on another page of this endless response thread):
Are you planning to lump sequels in together (a la PC GAMER UK a number of years back), or treat each game separately? My instinct suggests the latter, but pragmatically you may have a more interesting and varied list of you opt for the former.
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Dungeon Keeper, Trackmania, Thief:TDP and for me the Witcher are games I wasted obscene amounts of time with. Thief kinda created the First Person Sneaker Genre, DK and TM redefined their genres and the Witcher was just great within its genre. Also, Minecraft, which, considering it does not really have a genre could most certainly be seen as genre-defining. Oh, and Angry Birds, but that one’s not on PC…
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Lets see now, games I haven’t see mentioned much:
- Strike Commander : Origin at their peak with at the time world beating graphics and a compelling near-future storyline
- Geoff Crammond’s Formula One series : You only have to look at the struggle Codemasters had to match these games this year to realise the greatness of it.
- Lords of Chaos: Better than Laser Squad, precursor to Xcom, startlingly good at the time
- X-Wing Alliance: Tie Fighter gets all the plaudits but I found the fourth game the most complete product.
- I-War 1 & 2: The most wonderful space games arrived just as the genre died. Freespace 2 often overshadows their brilliance.
- Ultima Ascension: Yes I was one of only 10 people that could play it without problems but the open world experience heralded 3D acceleration and blew my socks off.
- F22 / Total Air War: For me the best flight sim ever, and one of only two games (the other is Falcon) to create a working dynamic compaign within which to fly a modern jet. That no one has attempted it since is telling and also very sad.
- Eve. So often ignored, it will take over the world one day.
Oh yeah and Hostile Waters? Didn’t much care for it, if you weren’t directly controlling your units the AI was terrible, found it really frustrating.
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Hmm. I war 2 was a bit repetive in places (the piracy). It never really seemed to ‘suck me in’ that much as opposed to FS2. I liked it’s complexity, but I felt that I kept shooting at cargo ships before I got to do a proper mission.
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Second X-WING Alliance. It was the best star wars game for making you feel like you were in star wars.
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The ones I haven’t seen mentioned yet;
Syberia.
Discworld: the trouble with dragons.
Medal of honour: Allied assault.
Gangsters 2 Vendetta
Nominations I support:
Planescape Torment
Morrowind
World of Warcraft
Civ 4 and Civ2
GTA:SA
Arcanum
Hitman bloodmoney
Mafia
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Haven’t seen it mentioned yet.
Archimedian Dynasty a.k.a. Schleichfahrt
Ah, the countless hours I spent in the world of Aqua. Played through it dozens of times. Brilliant sci-fi-submarine-shooty-sim. Too bad they turned it into an underwater FPS for the Aquanox sequel. I’d love to see that remade, maybe with an open world approach.
Just watched the intro again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heMuzF5LOOQ
I think it’s time to install it once more.
Also, Wing Commander: Privateer and Privateer 2: The Darkening
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What do you guys count as a “PC game”? Is this restricted to games running natively on the Microsoft Windows platform (Win32 or .NET)? Or will you consider every game that you can play on PCs?
The latter would include Linux games, OS X games, Android games, games that run in an emulator (NES/SNES/etc) as well as flash and web games.
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I’m pretty sure all console games, emulated or not, are disqualified on the grounds that they have their own lists.
DOS and Windows count, obviously. Apple II, PCjr., Amiga, BBC Micro, Tandy, Acorn, (there were one or two games worth playing on the Acorn), and other now-deceased home computers may also count.
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This’ll inevitably be repeating others, but in no particular order…
Frontier: First Encounters, as mentioned before.
Master of Orion 2
Mechwarrior 2
S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl (because you don’t need to be an RPG to do more with a first-person perspective than a 3D, mouse controlled version of Mad Dog McCree.)
Total Annihilation and/or Supreme Commander
F15 Strike Eagle II and Their Finest Hour: The Battle of Britain, for all those hours spent playing them at below 10 frames per second on an 8088.
GT Legends, as much as I’m rubbish and it hates me and wants me dead.
Lemmings
Medieval: Total War
ARMA II
Hostile Waters
Sacrifice
Red Alert 2, which’d deserve it just for the first Allied mission with Tanya, but also because it’s the last time I was good at an RTS.
Earth 2150, for having the best campaign system in an RTS (you have to collect enough resources to escape the planet, not slog through the list of missions; you might win half-way through, if you’re good, and you don’t have to win any mission – it’s only Game Over if you’re still sitting on this rock when it boils).
I-War
Puzzle Quest
Unreal Tournament (which was always better than Quake 3; UT was fun when you were losing, Q3 still wasn’t fun when you were winning.)
As well as the obvious ones: Deus Ex (for being broken or rubbish in about every way, but still probably the best game ever made), System Shock 1&2, Planescape: Torment, the Fallout series, Oblivion (no, you’re wrong, shut up), Doom, the Thief series (even 3), one/all of the Civilization series (but especially IV), Freespace 2, Dragon Age: Origins, Dungeon Keeper…
And one big Just No:
Any Final Fantasy: They’re not games. They’re treadmills. They’re films where you have to keep slogging through perpetual, identical, challengeless encounters just to make the next bit of tedious, melodramatic guff play. They are hellish wastes of time with no redeeming features what-so-ever, even worse than the bottom-of-the-barrel FaceBook busy-work-O-thons because at least those give you somebody to talk to so you’re not gradually dying alone.
(And the one I played (16 hours of – “so you didn’t get to the good bit then”) on the beige box – 7 – was a crap port, too.)
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And Dwarf Fortress. Obviously Dwarf Fortress, so obvious I didn’t need to list it, obviously.
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Mad dog McCree! Now that was an awesome game!
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Oh, it’s really an iPhone game, but Canabalt.
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It’s been nominated before, but I have to mention it myself or there’s going to be drone riots: Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri. I picked up a copy of it in 2000, back when I was a surly teenager, just after it came out on the Mac. (Ours was a Mac household then; I’m on Windows now myself.) I still have the box. Hell, I still have the original Mac CDs–and I’ve bought it twice over for Windows since then. (One copy that didn’t like my upgrading to 7 64-bit, and one that works on 7 and came with the expansion.)
Take or leave the expansion, but the original game remains devastatingly intelligent, addictive, and even a bit funny in spots. There are other brilliant games out there, sure, but none that I’ve been playing for ten years running.
(Speaking of other brilliant games, I’ll toss my hat in the ring for the oft-neglected Outlaws, and Scratches. There’s more I could name but they’ve already been mentioned.)
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Obvious ones:
Deus Ex
Diablo
Quake
Age of Empires Gold
Baldur’s Gate 2 : Shadows of Amn
Solium Infernum
Starcraft II
Personal favourites:
the awesome Commandos 2 : Men of Courage
the awesome Project IGI
the great Might and Magic VII
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and the great ones i shouldn’t have forgotten
The Path
Penumbra : Black Plague
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Wizardry
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JESUS FUCK. NO ONE HAS SAID CRIMSON FUCKING SKIES YET.
FUCKING LANDING ON PLANES AND ZEPPELINS AND SHIT.
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Definitely ArmA 2 for it’s unparalleled realism and diverse engine, and Guild Wars for being a game that everyone from the casual once-a-monther to the 5-hrs-a-day speed-clearer can enjoy.
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Penumbra: Black plague. Same formula as the other Penumbra games, and Amnesia that followed it, but it had much better combat mechanics than the previous one (eg none), and a much stronger narrative than any of the others (admittedly I haven’t yet finished Amnesia).
What I really loved about it was the adventure game feel coupled with the true horror aspect of being completely helpless against your enemies. Very few games see you cowering in a dark corner in abject terror for minutes on end hiding from monsters you can’t even describe because you’ve only ever dared to glance at them briefly in fear of your startled breathing alerting them to your presence. Amnesia has that too, but for some reason the rather loose narrative coupled with the setting doesn’t quite hit my buttons the way Black Plague did (although it’s arguably more jumpy when it does the proper scary bits).
I’m still surprised Frictional are the only people doing this kind of direct object manipulation in an FPS. It seems like everyone else is still stuck at HL2-style gravity gun malarkey, but actually being able to manipulate objects in a tactile and semi-realistic way adds so much to the game, and could be applied to many others.
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Definatly morrowind. It had a fantastic story, and it felt alive, each part of the island really had a distinct culture. Oh, and free-roaming without silly invisible borders.
I’d like to nominate Albion, a old blue-byte game. It’s a bit obscure, honestly, but it’s a very, very charming game with lovely graphics and a very unique story. It has not aged well, however, and the combat is a bit challenging.
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Arcanum and the first Fallout! Brilliant, brilliant RPG’s!
Also, Freelancer! My favorite space game of all time, hands down.
Plus, y’know, the usual stuff. Heroes of Might and Magic III, Planescape, etc. etc.
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I agree with the majority of the aforementioned so won’t champion any of them.
I’ll go a bit left field and say that World in Conflict is a really excellent game. Immersive, polished, clever, slick, enjoyable, requires thought, an excellent example of genre evolution and adaptation. Whether that makes it good enough to make the ‘list’, I don’t know, but it undeniably posses the aforementioned qualities.
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Strife. A game similar to DOOM, but you could talk to the monsters.
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Myth (not Myst). The unit control in Shogun was quite crap in comparison.
Diablo 2. Soooo many hours spent in search of yellow drops.
Thief 2: The Metal Age. I had to take a break every hour to let my heart rest.
Planescape Torment. The best made world. It really was that good.
The Baldurs Gates games. Hours of adventure, and I got surprises, despite knowing D&D in&out.
Team Fortress 2: So smart, and well balanced, and fun, and funny.
Left for Dead games: Multiplayer cooperation at its best. And scary.
World of Warcraft: Just huge in every possible way (and I say this having spent 4 years in EQ).
Dwarf Fortress: Freedom and complexity and real drama. It’s the game I want to play now actually.
Heroes of Might and Magic (while 2D): Hours of multiplayer goodness.
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Don’t forget Splinter Cell. Chaos Theory Ah, stealth games, wherefore art thou.
Also Crimsonland, a smaller game than some of the big hitters here, but anyone who has played it will be nodding in agreement right about now.
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Also mentions of Master of Orion 2 are missing from this whole comment thread.
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Most of my favorites have already been said. Didn’t see:
The 7th Guest
The 11th Hour
Two great puzzle games for their time.
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Also along that line.
Phantasmagoria
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Roller Coaster Tycoon!
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YES
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I’m going to throw my support behind Mount and Blade. It was the first game I played that really nailed combat from horseback. It feels more like a simulation than a role playing game but still has the compulsive stat / army building. Also the developers support a small but thriving mod community.
Also, I don’t know that it should be on the list but I never played anything like Space Station 13 until I played Space Station 13.
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Another underdog I’d like to see make the list: Space Rangers 2: Rise of the Dominators
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Iji is the only game that has ever made me feel guilty about killing the enemies that are allegedly hostile towards me. That’s got to be special, surely.
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Silent Hill 2 – one of the best stories and atmospheres in any game even if it is a port.
Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 – this is the best thing ever.
WoW – sorry.
Some more older games: Settlers 2, Civ 2, Sim City, C&C Red Alert, Sensible Soccer, Carmageddon 2.
And some good recent and very mainstream games: Batman: AA, Borderlands.
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I’m going to be a bit unusual and say ‘Archimedian Dynasty’. Was really the first game that utterly immersed me in a world, you really felt part of the story. The only thing in a similar vein this decade has been Freelancer, which didn’t really hit the same notes (I think it’s the constant underwater sound effects that do it).
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I’ll just add my voice to those who have mentioned Descent and Star Control 2.
Descent: Unprecedented (and unsurpassed) freedom and fluidity of movement. Although it is both first person and a shooter, calling it an FPS feels like a disservice. I still play it today thanks to D2X. It’s difficult to describe just how right the gameplay feels even 15 years later.
Star Control 2: I discovered this one late with the comparatively recent freeware release of The Ur-Quan Masters, but I had been missing more than I had imagined. An adventure game with some great dialogue, but that’s oversimplifying it. Most important to me was the free-form exploration being a central element. As I played I had a sheet of paper on which I scratched down notes about system names, coordinates, even a crude map to help me navigate quasispace. Far from flawless but unsurpassed in what it does well. In fact, if anyone can recommend a game that does it better, I urge you to do so.
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I preferred Terminal Velocity over Descent, if only for the awesomely high-speed multiplayer deathmatch.
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Also Medieval Total War, and with it Shogun, the originals, were simultaneously epic whilst knowing their limits. Both Brilliant.
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I would like to nominate:
Quake 3, and by extension, Quake Live for its pure FPS joy.
Legacy of Kain – Soul Reaver
Supreme Commander (the first one, SupCom 2 is a turd)
Icewind Dale, for the best graphics and art gaming has ever seen ever ever ever.
I would like to argue against:
Bioshock, for being an overrated piece of crap. I regret every minute of that awful game.
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After looking through some of the other comments, I’m going to also give my vote to:
Alpha Centauri – The game that caught my attention far longer than any civilization game.
Populous – Because playing god is fun!
Tribes 2 – Brilliant FPS that set the stage for awesome multiplayer games in the future.
Dungeon Keeper – Because playing Dungeonlord is fun!
Star Control 2 – One of the gaming industries most overlooked pieces of genius.
Unreal One of the most immersive first person shooters of all time that set the stage for my expectations of videogames.
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-Gabriel Knight Series.
I understand that Lucas Arts is the darling around here, and I agree that games like Grim Fandango deserve to be in the list, but no mention of Mr. Knight? Not even one, teensy tiny recommendation? This was Sierra at its absolute best, and all these games are remembered for is that ridiculous cat-hair puzzle? What about the selfish, lazy, deceptively superficial protagonist who is forced into a role that ends up defining him? The genuinely affecting relationship developed between Gabriel and Grace as the series progressed? The painstaking research that went into the historical background of each game? The wonderful puzzles that did not involve using a cat to disguise yourself? I could go on.
-Realms of the Haunting. A masterful action-adventure that begins as a simple haunted house story and turns into an immersive, epic tale spanning multiple alternate dimensions and a journey to Hell and back. Also incredibly under-represented here. Where’s the love, people?
-Discworld Noir. The atmosphere. The jokes. The trenchcoat.
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I’ve seen at least 4 people call it out here which, given how it undersold, is not even that bad! Shame a great studio like Gremlin (partially) went down because of the ambitious ROTH. The world wasn’t ready for its brilliance!
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I’ve never heard of RotH til now. I am intrigued!
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Jonathan:
the (long) intro. The first 2 minutes or so are related to the story but won’t tell you much at first, then it’s FMV.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3idejBykJQg
And gameplay of the really early parts of the game (to give you an idea of what it looks like in-game). The Inventory and 3D models in it are particularly cool. You (ie Adam) can reflect on every item, person or ‘concept’ you met in an inner monologue. You can also discuss about them if you met someone.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq7tCjrDN9o&feature=related
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I played the Gabriel Knight games too late for them to impress me as much as they would’ve done had I played them when they were new, but they are great games. Sins of the Fathers is easily my favourite. The FMV in Beast Within unfortunately just doesn’t hold up other than as a curiosity, though some of the puzzles and the overall story are quite good. The third game actually got really good after the moustache puzzle. And like you said, great characters.
Here’s hoping Jensen gets to make a 4th one day…
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Paradroid: The invention of the minigame (for better or worse.)
In the case of Paradroid, it the mini-hacking game was perfect. It has gotten a little out of hand since then.
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Another voice the Homeworld series, here.
Beautiful space strategy in many ways and a universe that deserves to be better explored than it is.
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Thief 2 even if its already been mentioed, people making fans missions and entire expansions for good reason! Id understand if you’d put TDP but even then if Kieron surely won’t let this slip.
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Throwin’ a couple of opinions:
- Quake 1 (If you use some modern ports this game is still good looking and the gameplay is super fast. Games like these aren’t made anymore.)
- Dominions 3 (never played Masters of Magic, but I heard this is its spiritual successor. It has a bit of a learning curve with its 300-odd pages of manual, but it’s worth reading every word of it. It’s a really beautiful and deep turn-based strategy game. I dare to say that the Heroes of Might and Magic series is a bit shallow compared to this leviathan of a game.)
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Doubt I’ll be adding anything new, but… Quake 3/Live, obviously.
Operation Flashpoint. I’d like to say ArmA2, but I haven’t got into playing it yet.
Freespace 2
Thief: The Dark Project
Terra Nova. Every so often I get together with the people who remember how PCG used to write about the people who get together to discuss Terra Nova. Good times.
And… actually, has anyone mentioned Sacrifice? It always feels fresh to me, and over the years I’ve finished at least once with every god.
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Soldiers: Heroes of World War 2
The single mission demo alone had more replay value than most full version RTS (excluding Men of War of course). And it had such memorable lines as “Want to play Katze und Maus?”
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A ROM of Super Metroid.
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My nominations:
DooM II: Hell On Earth
Quake 1
Quake 3/Live
Baldur´s Gate (Whole series, including expansions)
Starcraft
Warcraft III: Reign Of Chaos & The Frozen Throne
Diablo I
Diablo II & Lord Of Destruction
Mass Effect II
Worms (Pick one of the series, probably doesn´t matter which)
Games that did it for me, but are probably controversial:
Quake 2 (Several mods made it great for me, namely Rocket Arena 2 and Loki´s Minions CTF (LMCTF))
World Of Warcraft
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Whilst UFO: Enemy Unknown is the greatest game of all time, I want to put Hitman: Blood Money in the ring. Hysterically funny awesomeness.
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The Longest Journey
Portal
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Team Fortress 2. For all the good (aurally, visually and mechanically distinct character classes, why has no-one else done this?) and the bad (the insidious item shop), what really elevates this game is the way that it accentuates the slapstick inherent in yer modern man-shooter through brilliant character design, audio barks and top-notch animation (and, lest we forget, lashings of comedy gibs) to provide a near constant stream of silly-fun.
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Also, I forgot Dominons 3 in my earlier post. Dom3 rocks.
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It’s the best turn based strategy game I’ve ever played.
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Medal of Honour (proper spelling, like): Allied Assault. Mostly because it was the ultimate multiplayer ‘in the first-person-shoot-them-up’, Second World War variety.
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Time Gentlemen, Please.
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Really.
There have to be enough suggestions by now.
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The Pub Landlord game?
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@RQH: Hey, I’m an American. I just woke up. I’ll suggest if I please. No game has ever made me happier in my entire life than TG,P.
But I will add Star Control 2.
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So, to clarify, that was not “last call,” but me suggesting the lovely game, “Time Gentlemen, Please.”
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Max Payne 2
Hilarious writing, clever narrative split, fantastic dream/drug sequences, the most over the top use of the Havok physics engine and the harbinger of the shorter, more intense single player game
“He was trying to buy some sand for his hourglass, and I wan’t selling any”
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Ultra Peril Snake is the snake of snakes. A must-play.
Also, Wing Commander.
Most of all – Freedom Force. The first one was THE most perfect superhero game ever – you could make just about any superhero you wanted, with a character creation system that put City Of Heroes to shame, and enough skins and mods to keep you playing long after you’d beaten the original plot. The second one committed the cardinal sin of making you play the same level twice, and also screwed up the stamina mechanic, but the first one cannot be beaten. And it was a pitch-perfect Silver Age pastiche into the bargain!
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Planescape: Torment
System Shock 2
TF2 (‘only’ well done game, crazy support and experiments by Valve)
Starcraft: Broodwar
Cave Story (yes, I’m serious, it’s the best JumpNrun on the PC)
Minecraft
Any NeoGeo Emulator ;)
Psychonauts (while incredibly good, I don’t think it should easily make the cut)
X-COM (the good one)
Tribes
Homeworld
Dwarf Fortress
LBA 2 (surpised how often this is mentioned)
MOO 2 (pretty much the best 4X for a decade)
plus the usual suspects like Half Life or Diablo…
But I’d love to not see thousands of clones of each other. Pick the best and/or most genre-defining one, then skip the rest. Or another good criterium: If the game was better than what inspired it (example: LBA 2 vs LBA 1) and at the same time able to keep the throne of its genre for a long time afterwards, then it should go on the list. MOO 2 is such a case. While it was a second helping, it’s better than it’s predecessor, and better than anything else during the next 5-10 years. Diablo 2 is another such example. Sure, D1 was first, but D2 is still played today.
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If no-one’s already put in a vote for ‘Mercenary’, the wireframe classic from way back when, let me do so. Mercenary. .
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Yes! Indeed! 1000x yes!
And Damocles, the solid sequel with planets, moons, stars, eclipses and relativity… I don’t think it made it to the PC, it just ended up in Psygnosis’ development hell and stayed on the ST and Amiga.
Boy, imagine that puppy with modern graphics… O_o
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I’m going to assume that the usual suspects have been mentioned, and therefore there’s no need for me to advocate my favourite games: Portal, Braid, Deus Ex, Thief 1,2 & 3, STALKER, The Witcher, Morrowind, Minecraft and so on.
I also note that one of my all-time favourite games, Frontier, the sequel to Elite, has also been mentioned a few times, so I’ll let that pass.
I’d vote against Oblivion, for being a dumbed-down Morrowind. Auto-levelling killed the game stone dead for me. Most of the fun I had in Morrowind involved levelling up specifically to whop the ar$e of a foe I’d encountered earleir in the game. Wow, when I killed Snowy that time, that was great. Levelling up further and wiping out the inhabitants of that Daedric shrine, and then nicking their stuff and flogging it to Creeper, that was also damned fine.
I’m going to vote for something a bit leftfield here: Chessmaster 11 – The Art of Learning. I liked chess when I was a kid, and a year or so ago (following a discussion with some guy on the PCGamer forums) I started playing again with Chessmaster. The tutorials are great, and explained a lot of tactical things and principles I hadn’t considered before, and my game is slowly improving as a result. Probably played it about the same amount as I play STALKER: CoP and The Witcher combined. OK, so the plot sucks (opening, middlegame, endgame) and the character dialogue is pants (‘thunk’), but for about £4 (well, it’s cheap now) you can’t really go wrong.
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My votes against:
Oblivion — It’s not even a game; they auto-generated the environment, auto-leveled the enemies and might as well have outsourced the story and quests for how dull they are. Morrowind & Fallout 3 >> Oblivion
Warcraft 3 — Boo.
Mass Effect 1/2 — The more walking/running an RPG requires, the worse it is. Enough with these games that are all filler. (The same applies to everything else BioWare have done in the last decade: Dragon Age, KOTOR…)
Outcast — I played the beginning, and can tell from the voice-acting used for the aliens that this game has absolutely no sense of humor.
Votes for: (coming later).
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I can tell from your post that you are clearly wrong. Outcast has a dry humour throughout, such as using the ga’amsav to save game or the annoying busker ripping off the starwars tune – to mark a game of epic exploring and adventure down as it didn’t amuse you in the opening is ridiculous.
Anyways, outcast definitely. Total annihilation, dawn of war 1, left 4 dead 1, planescape, baldurs gate series, freespace 2, terra nova, masq, half life 2.
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Somehow I imagine this thread has managed to fill 7 pages with none of these:
Papyrus Indy 500
Microprose Formula One Grand Prix
Rally Championship 2000
Grand Prix Legends
Richard Burns Rally
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Also, Out Of The Park Baseball, although I’d list the series rather than an individual title.
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Cave Story
World Of Goo
Puzzle Quest 2
Civilization IV
Neverwinter Nights
Worms
hmmm… just trying to remember what older games I liked when i had my older naffy laptop…
Cave Story!! Again!
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nethack – the only game that i return to every few months/years, since i discovered it about 10 years ago. And then it was already 20 years old or so. Truly a game that does not age.
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Yay roguelikes! They’re so often overlooked in lists like these, it’s an injustice. I love Nethack, but I’m actually partial to Linley’s Dungeon Crawl for that type of RL. Incursion–albeit a bit buggy–is another roguelike worth checking out. Insanely complex in all the right ways, and the best implementation of the DnD ruleset I’ve seen.
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Tales of the Unknown: The Bard’s Tale
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Giants: Citizen Kabuto. It’s the game that changes every time you get used to a mechanic, and never stops being awesome!
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Oh yeah…
Max Payne 2
Half Life 2
Final Fantasy VII (Yeah! Hssss! Boo! Console RPGs hsss! boo!). The PC version sucked but if you’re unfortunate enough not to have a Playstation then you’d have to make do with that. The best JRPG ever.
Reccetear
Sim City 4
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The Last Express, an oft-overlooked adventure game by Jordan Mechner with superb writing, a story that doesn’t hit you over the head with its theme, and the most thorough attention to historical detail of any game ever. Here’s a review by Andrew Plotkin:
http://www.eblong.com/zarf/gamerev/lexpress.html
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I second The Last Express!
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A different take on “best”- games that shaped my idea of what a good game is, and not just being an excellent game.
Exile indie RPG series
Fallout 1 & 2
Not Arcanum, as much as I liked it, because it only did what Fallout with less skill.
Planescape Torment
Baldur’s Gate 2
NWN 2: Mask of the Betrayer
KoTOR 2…maybeish. Yeah, blahblah unfinished, but a Star Wars plot that supposes the Force is bad, awesome.
Freespace 2
Descent series
Crimson Skies
Legacy of Kain / Soul Reaver series, purely for the amazing writing and voice acting. The gameplay itself was kind of meh.
Thief 1 & 2
Hitman 1, 2, 4
I’m not going to say Splinter Cell, because while they were fun, they were never on the same level in terms of level design and freedom.
Mafia I, doesn’t hold up as well today as everything else, but the storytelling was a decade ahead of its time.
Jagged Alliance 2
The Incredible Machine, very ahead of its time with its fakey physics.
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You, good sir, have excellent taste in RPGs. Glad to see Soul Reaver getting some loving in this topic, too.
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The Void, Myst, The Witcher, Heroes of Might and Magic 2, Risen, and Pathologic I would expect to see up there. All of them brought very novel concepts into gaming.
That is all I can think of for the time being.
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Team Fortress 2 – This game stays fresh.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – The world felt so huge, while it was still small enough to get everywhere fast. It felt like you could do anything. Driving to a mountain, and jumping off with a bus, just to jump out at the last second… that was great.
Portal
Plants vs Zombies
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Well let´s see:
1- Carrier Command, pioneered the strategic, tactical and technical simulation all in one, demostrating that a multi-tiered virtual world was possible, in monochrome. Had it have multiplayer we´d still be playing it.
2- Grim Fandango, for me, inaugurated the “adult gaming” genre, featuring “communism”, “martyr revolutionaries”, “corrupt bureaucracies”, “abusing the lantern guy”, and countless stuff that came in handy when I actualy became an adult.
3- Winning Eleven/PES, made my understanding of the real game pay off in the computer game, showing football CAN be modelled and so motivating me to study more and elevating my enjoyment of the real game ten-fold at least. As a side note, football journalism in my country started adopting terms as “4-4-2, 4-2-3-1″ in their descriptions of a game when the PES playing generation started consuming football journalism. This was an educative game.
4- Braid, for being a true metaphysical masterpiece inherently correlated to the core gameplay, providing “interactive reasoning”, including the first ever gameplay-induced epiphany. Truly ahead of its time.
5- And finally the DCS series for their genius business model, that proves how the collective power of the dreams of us simmers can save the mightiest army in the world a lot of money in murder training, while providing us pussies a safe way to experience the Experience.
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I confess to not having read the entirety of this comments megathread, but I haven’t seen either of Anachronox or Ice Wind Dale mentioned by others.
Arguments for each:
- Anachronox is funnier than Monkey Island, and, perhaps funnier than any game has ever managed to be. Great characters, great writing, and good literary genre jumping between Douglas Adams style sci-fi comedy and Sam Spade detectiving. It also happens to be a solid, linear party and turn based RPG the kind of which are few and far between on PC
- Ice Wind Dale is amazing because it is all of the tactical combat and RPG levelling of the other infinity engine games like Baldur’s Gate, but it lets you roll your 6 characters, and gets the slightly rubbish characterisation, chatting, and moralising out of the way. This is not your character, this is your party. It frees up the player to get on with the complex task of building their fighting unit to take on the bad guys. Awesome.
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If Anachronox is supposedly a funny game, why does the first world contain such depressing music that it makes you want to kill yourself?
Honestly, I never listened to a more depressing tune in my whole life! Totally destroys the humor the game tries to bring across. Didn’t find it much funnier later on either though…
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Well…a few that stick out in memory.
The Dawn of Man…
[Atari 2600]
Pacman
Space Invaders
Missile Command
The Really Olden Days….
[Sinclair ZX Spectrum48k]
Manic Miner
Elite
Spy Hunter
Tir Na Nog
Dire Straits: Brother In Arms (Whoops – wrong list)
The Olden Days…
[Amiga 1200]
Dune 2
UFO:Enemy unkown
Syndicate
Civilization
Fronter Elite 2
Days Of Yore…
[Playstation MK I]
Doom 2
Gran Turisimo
Command & Conquer (Yes – my first foray into Tiberium was on the PSX)
Die Hard Trilogy
Back In The Day – To Cutting Edge Shit…
[PC Huzzah]
Medal Of honour: Allied Assault
Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis
Neverwinter Nights
GTA:Vice City
Total War: Shogun (or vice versa)
Command & Conquer Generals & C&C 3
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War & expansions
Half life 2
World of Warcraft
Guild Wars
Kights of the Old republic
Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
Heroes of Might & Magic
Diablo II
Call of Duty I
Return to Castle Wolfenstien
Far Cry
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Dungeon Keeper, Tribes 2, and I dont think it has been mentioned (dont judge me) Tachyon: The Fringe. If only for Bruce Cambells voice acting
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SYSTEMSHOCK!
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EARTHWORM JIM !!!!
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Psycho Pinball: for months, me and my friends were hunting high scores.
Half-Life, all: The whole universe is epic and quite thought through. GJ Laidlaw.
Jade Empire: What a story! Loved the twists!
Team Fortress 2: The most silly fun game I played in (and for) the last years.
Natural Selection: I still remember these 5-hour-long games. Ah good old times…
Anno 1602: This game made me buy my first own PC. Along with..
The Settlers 2: Still the best of the series. And one of the best games out there in general.
Mass Effect, both: Epic.
Age of Empires 2: Fun times were had on LANs.
Fable: Cool game.
Freelancer: Probably the best. I could play it all over again; you get entangled in space politics, dogfight your way out, be the good guy, be the bad guy, who ultimatively is good, and spacebattles with bigger and better weapons everytime. I’ll install it again right now.
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Glad at least someone mentioned this cute creature that is BGE. Anyway, here’s my list:
1) Half-Life 1 — What’s there to say? Obvious #1 of all time for me.
2) Beyond Good & Evil — I sometimes feel like putting this one as my #1. The most brilliant game of all time in so many aspects: great story, adorable characters, an amazing world, stylistically excellent graphis, variety in gameplay, an awesome soundtrack, emotional charge… I could probably go on and on. It is obvious I LOVE this game.
3) Portal — how much more ground-breaking can it be? The game is so different from anything out there with its gameplay, story and stylistics.
Some of my other favs:
Max Payne — when I first played it I thought I was playing a movie. You should have seen my dumb childish smile.
Mafia 1 — The story, the atmosphere… only fondest memories. One of the best stories told in gaming.
Black & White 1 — it had flaws, I didn’t even finish it (shame on me), but it was groundbreakingly amazing! It still gives me shivers of excitement when I remember playing it.
Kingpin — maybe not groundbreaking, but it is one hell of a gem! For its time it was a lot more than a shooter, while keeping the shooter part excellent. Oh, and the swearing!!!!!!!!!!
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Oh, the excruciating pain of shame! I forgot to mention the instant classic that came out of my country — STALKER. You all know reasons why this Ukrainian thing is GRAND, right? ;)
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I can’t believe I’ve only see No One Lives Forever up here once, it’s an amazing game!
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Maybe not enough people played it. I’m still waiting for them to release this on GOG so I can finally try the thing.
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Two I forgot:
MechCommander 1 & 2 (the strategy games, not to be confused with MechWarrior, I didn´t play those)
EarthSiege 2
There´s probably more that I´m not thinking of right now. :-)
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X-Wing Alliance is the one gem always overlooked. It did what Tie-Fighter did for the Empire, but for the Rebels. And it is still exactly as playable today. Really a wonderful game.
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Metric = Total hours sunk:
Baldur’s Gate
Fallout 1
Fallout 2
Half-Life
Diablo
World of Warcraft
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On par with Fallout, JA 2 (and Commander Keen 4…) : Outlaws
Pure greatness
Story, music, gameplay. Right now I just want to bend spacetime to get back to 1997.
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Honourable mentions: Imperialism, the Civilization series, Transport Tycoon Deluxe, Close Combat series
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And the Descent series of course. How could I forget them? Class 1 Drillers still give me nightmares.
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OUTLAWS!!! Are three exclamation marks too many?
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One already is. Music was awesome though.
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Crusader: No Remorse
Need I explain?
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I’m not reading through all of those comments, so I’m sorry if any of these have been mentioned already, at least some of them have been, I’m sure:
Myth: The Fallen Lords & Myth 2: Soulblighter
The Marathon trilogy
The Longest Journey
No One Lives Forever
Dungeon Keeper
Thief: Dark Shadows & Thief 2: The Metal Age
I’m can think of a few others, but I’m so certain that they’ve already been mentioned, I’ll skip mentioning them, since it would double my list.
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Oh! And also Left4Dead! Love this game to pieces :) I think it does enough new things to be ‘significant’ but in terms of polish and playability I think it may be unrivaled for its weird little subgenre of multiplayer squad-based zombie shooter. It deserves a place just for sheer quality and fun. I’m surprised it hasn’t popped up much in these comments.
And another shout out for Defense Grid!
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In no particular order:
Max Payne 2
Freespace 2
Freelancer
Dungeon Keeper
Halo
Warcraft 3
Team Fortress 2
Left 4 Dead 2
KoToR
Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines
Deus Ex
Rome: Total War
Dragon Age: Origins
Mass Effect 2
Fallout 3
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
I can’t really define what got me to put these games on my list. Some of my most played games (WoW, Counter Strike Source, Just Cause 2) are absent as are some games I loved when I first got them (Age of Empires 2, Starcraft 2, Fable) because they were fun but not classic. The buggy and the unpolished still find their own spaces (Vampire, San Andreas) over much more polished games (
I guess it was just that wonderful feeling when you play classic game. if a game has it, it goes on.
Not sure if I should add Crysis, Company of heroes or Hitman Blood Money.
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Add Psychonauts, brining me to a round twenty suggestions.
May I be forgiven for forgetting it.
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Wow, 7 pages of comments. Who has the time to read that? I don’t. So maybe these have been listed already.
Starflight – massive star system exploration, mining, alien encounters, diplomacy, combat, capturing life forms and discovering amazing artifacts. A quest to realize the galaxy is dying, that you can solve the mystery and save it, and to accomplish this task, without a single cutscene or info-dump – it was entirely organic narrative discovery. All on a single floppy disk through the magic of procedural generation.
Ultima VI – Or almost any Ultima. Of course these have been listed already. But amazing morality systems that still haven’t been bested by any game – giving the player the choice, often, between two virtues. A much harder and more meaningful choice than “evil or good” is “compassionate or honest”.
MUDs – I can’t really pick one, but many MUDs had features that MMOs today can’t possibly compete with. Discworld MUD, my favorite, had player-run guilds and governments with various forms of elections, modifiable player housing, player-run newspapers, an infinitely adaptable and open-ended practice-based skill system, different cultures with their own money, goods, and languages (indecipherable until you learned them), and a hundred other things that made the world an incredibly deep place to explore for hours and hours.
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Oops, forgot:
Planetfall
Zork
Karateka
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Someone somewhere will explain to me how that wound up a reply to you. Sorry, sir.
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Discworld MUD absolutely! As a matter of fact I’m logged on as I’m writing this, 12 years after first setting foot there. Few games can boast that sort of longevity (I haven’t actually been logged on for all those 12 years mind). If someone’s never played a MUD and wonders what the big deal is, you could do a lot worse than check out http://discworld.atuin.net/lpc/
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good old discworld mud.
also dark metal.
yes i am a HUGE DORK.
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Question: has anyone seen a suggestion they violently disagree as being a classic game?
Or have you just regarded it as differences in choice and while you wouldn’t pick that game, you could see why someone would.
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Wizardry 8. Last of the great first-person CRPGs. There’s something I find very comforting about controlling 8 people from the same viewpoint; it’s probably the same kind of comfort that comes from having multiple personalities, so I should probably worry.
Either way, it is notable for an excellent levelling up system, charming if patchy voice acting, and honestly what I consider to be the best NPC dialogue system in any game ever.
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Wizardry. God I played the crap out of those.
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I can’t be bothered to scroll through 7 pages of comments to see if this has been mentioned already, but I’ll just go with it. I think flash games need a place on this list! Put “Every Day the Same Dream” on there, just for pure, raw beauty. Flash at it’s best, and hardly pretentious at all.
Cmon. You know you loved it.
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I don’t think these have been mentioned.
I have a soft spot for the Might & Magic series, not the Heroes ones (which are good too). More people need to experience them.
Ultima VIII (Yes, 8). Often overlooked because of its predecessors. But I think it’s an excellent game in its own right and feel it should certainly feature somewhere in a best games list. I love it, muchly.
Worlds of Legend : Four Crystals of Trazere / Son of the Empire. Never seems to come up on anybody’s favourite list. But it’s one of mine. Isometric, party-based (you control a berserker, a bard, an assassin and a mage. All with their own stats and unique skills), dungeon-crawling, loot-fest with puzzles and an awesome spell crafting system. An overland map for you to roam, where opposing armies attack each other and siege other nation’s cities.
Nobody mentioned Magic Carpet?
Darklands.
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Oh! Oh! I know one! Ask me! Ask me!
Civilisation (I or II). Did someone say genre-defining? It’s frequently spelled with a z, but let’s amend history.
Duke Nukem (not 3D, but the first one): Greatest 2D platformer of all time.
Prince of Persia: Also the greatest 2D platform game of all time, though in a different way.
Dune 2: The first proper real time strategy game. No, Herzog Zwei doesn’t count. It wasn’t a proper RTS (by our definition), and wasn’t on the PC.
Syndicate: Do I really have to “persuade” you to put this game on the list?
Lands of Lore: Brilliant role playing game. The king is voiced by Patrick Stewart. Voice acting! Back then!
Pinball Fantasies: The only pinball game worth playing. Stones’n'bones was pure brilliance.
Stunts: Did anyone else ever manage to perform a lift-off with the indy car on a flat road?
The incredible machine: This game made me. Seriously. I’m an engineer.
Tie Fighter: First person space sim! Being evil! Best combination possible.
X-COM: Still playing it every once in a while. This game ages incredibly well. Also, we need more squad based combat games. I’m going to make one right now.
The Settlers 2: No other game like it. Supports quirky things like two player hot seat, with two mice. For all those who lament the demise of hot-seat PC games, get this one and put it in a dosbox.
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Scorched Earth
Slipstream 2000
NHL Hockey (first one + 2004)
System Shock 2
Civiliziation 2
Thief: Darc Projekt
Warcraft 2
Starcraft 1 + 2
Monkey Island 1 + 2
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Ultima Online
Counterstrike
Heroes of Might and Magic 2
Sim City 2000 (+ Sim Copter)
would be all on my list.
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+1 for Scorched Earth, we actually played that one in school breaks (11th grade, so we had some freedom there ^^) when we found that we had an old 386 in our classroom.
10 player hot seat with time limit for each players move ensured hilarity. :-)
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Also +1 to Scorched Earth.
And while I’m at it, LIERO!!
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Okay, not counting totally obvious ones, I have a few that I’d like to mention.
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
World of Goo
Planetside
NetHack
Dwarf Fortress
Arma 2
Il-2 Sturmovik 1946
Rise of Flight
and, I’ve been playing flight sims for nearly 25 years now and I think this is the greatest flight simulator for home computer ever made (already, even though it’s still in “beta”) :
DCS: A-10C Warthog
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Starcon 2, Escape Velocity: Nova
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A quick glance at the first pages of comments seems to show a lack of games released before the SVGA era and even more so before the VGA era. I hope this will not end up being a list of the second half of PC gaming only. At least have Alley Cat on there ;)
If I had to mention three games from the early 90s that I don’t want to be overlooked it would be Colonization, Ecstatica and Magic Carpet.
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and of course (as mentioned above):
Stunts
The Settlers 2
X-Com 1 + 2
Dungeon Keeper
Max Payne
GTA
aaaand World of Warcraft
no just kidding!
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I didn’t read all of the preceding comments, so in case it hasn’t been mentioned yet:
Please don’t make a ordered list that is not divided by genres.
Stuff like this for example is just ridiculous:
1. X-Com
2. Doom
3. Freespace 2
etc. etc.
It’s not very useful because you can’t really compare games of completely different genres directly.
So either please do not make an ordered list, or if it has to be ordered, divide it by genre.
Even if it’s only broader genres like “Action”, “Strategy” and so on.
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What I look for in game is original and compelling worlds, stories and characters and that allows the player discover each of these on their own.
Fallout 1+2
Planescape: Torment
Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines
Half-life 1+2+episodes
Portal
The Longest Journey
Stalker: SoC
Psychonaughts
The Witcher
Zeno Clash
The Void
TES: Morrowind
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Never played it myself, but I recall hearing that Blade Runner was a significant entry — one of those, imperfect-but-deserves-attention PC games.
Does the Hive mind contain fond memories or does it wave its collective hand dismissively?
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Fond memories of Blade Runner, it was also mentioned a couple times around page 4.
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Startopia — the only fun sim ever made
Heroes of Might and Magic 1 & 2 — and/or King’s Bounty
Bang! Howdy — an excellent game, but not really ground-breaking or well-known
SeizureDome — or something else cactus
Slay! by Sean O’Connor — 20 years of non-random turn-based tactics, and still going
Galcon — the essentials of RTS in a different way than Plants vs Zombies is
Spelunky — contains everything that has ever been good about games (exploration, replayability, heroism or banditry as you choose)
Cave Story — I’m sure it will be on the list anyway
Rise of Nations — my favorite RTS, though I can’t explain why
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More votes against:
The Longest Journey — mostly art, not much of a game
Fallout 2, TOEE, Arcanum — several steps backwards in the development of the computer RPG, painfully cliched
GTA series — not PC, empty world to explore
Total War series — I never understood the appeal of managing fiddly hordes of stick-men
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The other’s I’ll agree with you but TW should certainly be somewhere on a list of the RTS games at least.
It’s pretty much the only major game that makes an attempt to make army moral as important as it should be. In most games, you win by killing off all your enemies, in TW it’s mostly about routing enough of the enemy (and keeping them routed) to win. This makes the combat alot more interesting – it’s all about trying to hit hard in alot of different ways at the same time so you can route a large part of the enemy forces and still win even if you are outnumbered. In most normal RTS, moral plays no role, or it is a gimick (i.e. just calling HP “moral” or something like that).
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Fallout 2 was cliched? If so, they were cliches established only by its predecessor. Even now, black humor from the post-apocalypse hardly seems played out to the point of cliche.
And Arcanum? Maybe we frequent different circles, but I’d be hard-pressed to think of too many steampunk games in the tradition of Victorian magic ‘n flamethrowers.
Mind you, they were buggy as all get out, and maybe not to your taste in RPGs. But cliche? I dunno about that one.
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I didn’t see one instance of black humour in Fallout 2. All I saw was a mass of cliches (“Chosen One” indeed) and a destruction of the atmosphere of the first: skill points up to 300 made one feel like a super-hero rather than a vulnerable survivor as in the first, and Power Armour Mk II is the Second Death Star of the Fallout world. Not to say it isn’t a *good* game, it certainly is that, but it’s too deeply flawed and derivative to be considered a classic, IMO. Everything good about it was better in the original.
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Disagree completely with your evaluation of Arcanum. Sure, the combat was crap and none of the characters were particularly deep, but the setting was one of a kind.
Also, count this as another vote against The Longest Journey. A pretty game–but also a rambling, self-absorbed game with too much infodump.
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Don’t forget Mechwarrior 2. Or Psychonauts.
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I haven’t read the whole of this thread but I guess nobody has mentioned championship manager 2 Italian league?
A couple of mates and I played it about every night for about two years.
I always remember George weah scoring 50 goals for my Milan team in the 94-95 season, on the way to the treble.
I get the impression people are going to gloss over my post and mock me
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Not glossing over, just wondering if you’re my mate Alan.
Me and two mates spent aaages playing that game. I was always Inter, up against AC and Juve iirc. I remember the bug where if you finished second in the league you didn’t get into Europe. That was annoying, especially as I finished second in the league quite a lot. Also, after ten years or so you couldn’t buy any new players due to your squad list filling up with youth players.
Good game.
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this is not a definitive list, but I just wanted to make sure a few titles were on the list:
1. Airborne Assault Highway to the Reich: Revolutionized the operational wargame and artificial intelligence in general. The AI in HTTR is nearly as smart as a human in its understanding of strategy and operational planning – it’s scary.
2. Ultima # (probably 5 or 6): Built the fundamentals for the greatest RPG of all time, Baldur’s Gate
3. Janes whatever – Janes was the first to introduce 3d into flight sims, and set the stage for realistic sim which has persisted up unto this day in games like DCS Blackshark and soon to be released DCS A-10.
4. Combat Mission Shock Force: The most realistic and sophisticated tactical strategy game I have played. It is essentially a simulator for battalion level combat but also manages to excel as a very challenging and exhilarating game. This honor may need to go to Shock Force’s parents however.
5. Dwarf Fortress – not going to comment on the merits of the game, that’s obvious and substantial. However, a note needs to be made on the development model and community involvement. It was the first successful good game funded on donations.
6. Catacombs 3d – the often overlooked father of the FPS. Wolf 3d, contrary to popular opinion, is predated by this seminal game. The game itself was highly creative, and was also instrumental in influencing the creation of Ultima Underworld, another game of note.
7. Operation Flashpoint – The most realistic infantry simulator available, the most amazing aspect of the OFP line of games (arma, arma 2 etc) is the immense scale of the world, the amazing modability of the game and the tactical co-op communities which sprung up from them.
8. Neverwinter Nights – Brought pen and paper gaming to the PC in a way never done before. While the SP was mediocre, the amazing tools allowed D&D campaigns to take place organically in a DM created world, and the multiplayer framework allowed for persistent worlds and borderline MMORPGS. The simplicity but robust power of the mod tools allowed endless creations, and resulted in the biggest community mod scene I have ever experienced.
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9. X-Com: forgot to mention this, but need to in order to drive the point home as per others.
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+1 on the Catacombs 3D. I never hear it mentioned ANYWHERE, it is always ‘Wolfenstein 3D this’ or ‘Doom that.’ It is the true forefather of the FPS. Catacombs 3D was actually a tad frightening too.
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I’m not explaining anything.
Hitman: Blood Money
Torchlight
EvE online
Half Life 2
Portal
Deus Ex
Xcom: Ufo Defense
Syndicate
Doom
Baldurs Gate 2
Star Wars: KOTOR
Privateer
Worms
FF7
Crusader: No Remorse
Desktop Tower Defence
Plants Vs Zombies
Dwarf Fortress
Iji
Zangband TK
N
Fantastic Contraption
THE LIST, IT IS TOO HUGE PLEASE MAKE IT STOP
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Please put in a mention for :
Prince of persia 1- the orginal and prince of persia 2 -the shadow and the flame
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Little Big Adventure
Little Big Adventure 2
Nuff said :}
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At least one LucasArts game from the era when they were kings of the adventure genre should be on the list. I think Grim Fandango would be a good choice, as it’s the pinnacle of their adventure games.
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the typing of the dead
Giants Citizen Kabuto
AVP (1999)
Hard War
Nethack
Grim Fandango
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Sid Meier’s Pirates! (!!!)
Haven’t played any of the newer editions, but as far as the original goes, in my mind it did sandbox gameplay as well as anything that’s been released recently — and it did it with pirates! (!!!) An absolute classic.
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Jagged Alliance 2: it’s quite disappointing to see X-Com/UFO getting all the attention as “last great tactical squadbased turnbased game”, I was really surprised by the lack of knowledge about JA2. Get JA2 + the 1.13 community patch and you’ve got yourself one of the best turnbased games out there. It’s also big on party banter between characters. While not as wordy as a Baldur’s Gate II JA2 easily matches it in terms of likeable and intriguing party members. Add the gun hunt/MacGyver item system, management meta-game and the insane replayability to it and you should start realising this is one of PC gaming’s all-time greats.
PlanetSide: Do some digging guys after the sequel guys, or try to get an exclusive of some kind from SOE. Even though the original failed for a lot of the reasons the potential of it eclipses every known multiplayer shooter in existence. More is better.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines (it’s Deus Ex but with a great setting and a much more accessible interface, poor last third but the first two thirds of the game beat the hell out of any first person/3rd person RPG)
Divine Divinity (it’s Belgian, ’nuff said. Also a great hack&slash title with Ultima influences)
Baldur’s Gate II (this is how you make the best RPG sequel anyone can imagine)
Baldur’s Gate II: Throne of Bhaal (this is how you end a franchise in beauty)
Supreme Commander (strategic zoom changed everything, in a good way)
Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance (less sim city, better feeling overall, pinnacle of RTS design)
Total Annihilation (shook everything up about RTSs, still has the most insane airplane dog-fight moves in any game, you won’t believe what you see in an all-out air battle)
Dark Reign (made a serious case for more advanced UI and AI controls, too bad almost no-one picked it up)
Warhammer 40.000: Dawn of War II (the best RTT since Myth, also Orks)
Diablo I (one of the most atmospheric games ever, best horror music ever as well)
Diablo II (one of the most replayable games ever, flawed because of the number crunching/build searching on the internet but the levels themselves, even though randomly generated, are always inviting, always)
More on the way
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hands down, planescape: torment, fallout 2 (was just a little bit better than fallout 1)
and no one will agree with me, but Uncharted Waters: New Horizons, totally expanded my horizons when I was a child :O
Golden eye has to make the list as well…
Mortal Kombat… cant forget that :3
and then lastly, elite.
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THIEF! (Which, thanks to the fantastic Fan Mission community, I still play on a regular basis.)
I’m sorry, I haven’t read through all 600+ comments to see how many times Thief has been listed, but it MUST be on the list. Thief: The Dark Project, which began it all… Thief: Metal Age which continued the legacy… Thief: Deadly Shadows which was lacking in so many, many ways, but which had one of the most awesome missions ever: The Cradle.
And The Cradle stays with you, forever.
Others for The List:
Fallout
Baldur’s Gate
Morrowind
Dungeon Keeper
Neverwinter Nights
Myst
…must stop…
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shit I forgot diablo II and nethack D:
also Total Annhilation was ok, but I prefered TA: Kingdoms.
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X-wing
Jones in the Fast Lane
Dune
Dune 2
Syndicate
Warcraft 2
Spycraft (may remember it being better than it was. still a unique-ish genre that has been sadly neglected. more’s the shame when so much could be done with it these days.)
C&C
Red Alert
Crusader: No Remorse
Dungeon Keeper +1
Theme Hospital +1
Rainbow 6 series
The Longest Journey
KoTOR 1/2
NWN 2
Age of Empires series
NBA2K11 (seriously)
Football Manager series
Vampire: Bloodlines
Saint’s Row 2 (sheer breadth and depth of gameplay, tongue-in-cheek plot and interaction; co-op flawlessness; BEING ABLE TO PLAY AS MY OWN GENDER rockets this past any GTA title for me)
Men of War
i’ve left out the titles i’d mention if they weren’t almost certain to be included.
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oh yeah.
Mount & Blade.
.. and yes I only read the first page.
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Roughly Chronologically:
Colossal Cave
Elite
Doomdark’s Revenge (and/or Lords of Midnight)
Populous
Civ
X-Com
Command and Conquer
Starcraft
Neverwinter Nights
Morrowind
Knights of the Old Republic
Portal
Plants v Zombies
Mass Effect 2
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Ascendancy. Nobody remembers it, and it was a rather spiffy 4×4 spacey splat thing.
I know you hate Myth: the fallen lords and Soulblighter but you are all wrong and its about time you faced up to the fact and DEALT WITH IT.
Fallout tactics, or I’ll beat you like a black-haired stepchild.
Startopia. Everyone always forgets that one.
Oh and Bloodwych. Just cos.
/Corb.
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I remember Ascendancy, it had the most awesome tech tree of any game I’ve played. I seem to remember one of the most basic weapon upgrades you could research was a miniature black hole launcher. From there it only got whackier.
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The Myth games were epic. some of the most creative works I have encountered.
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wil the magic ‘reply’ button work? maybe, but Corbie – totally agree, Ascendancy was ace!
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Ah, thank god someone else mentioned Paradroid (KilgoreTrout XL). I also saw a mention of Manic Miner – but no Knightlore, no Level 9; someone even tried to say that Elite 2 was better than the original.
It saddens me that although those of my age are for the most part still alive, the first golden age of gaming is being forgotten. Those of us in the vicinity of hitting 40 were there from the very start of PC gaming, which arguably began with Sinclair and Commodore. yes there was Space Wars during the 60s, but it wasn’t exactly widely spread. The Atari and Binatones of the late 70s have more in common with consoles, naturally, though the Atari computers were of course a different business altogether.
I was quite fortunate to have had two Commodore machines (vic-20, 64)and an Atari 600xl.
In particular, the contributions of Archer MacLean, Andrew Haybrook, Jeff Minter etc are massively important to our history – nevermind Julian Rignall, Gary Penn and other journos of note.
Remember kids, there would be no Rock Paper Shotgun without ZZap! 64, or better still, Big K (the first magazine I ever had a letter printed in, back when our internets required postmen.
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I’ve been through the lot, from the Bug Byte edition of Manic Miner, bought off a friend in the playground for £2.50 one lunchtime, through Wizball, Uridium, Heartland, Nodes of Yesod, Cholo and Mercenary on the Spectrum; Damocles, Captain Blood on the Atari ST, Syndicate, Alien Breed and Frontier on the Amiga…
Yeah, the old stuff will get forgotten about if we’re not careful. It’s funny: just last night I was playing Finders Keepers on my Spectrum emulator…
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<_<
"Halo."
*Ducks for cover behind chest-high wall*
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Tribes. Online only, competitive, team-based, jetpacking, skiing, disc-launching madness in 1999.
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Descent (FPS) and Descent Freespace 2 (space-sim) should make it on the list.
Freespace 2 is hands down the best space sim I’ve ever played. Good competitions with X-Wing vs Tie Fighter.
As for Descent, it’s one of those games that I wish spawned more games like it. Sure we finally got Shattered Horizon, but astronauts with rifles just feels like Counter-Strike in space.
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Dystopia.
A great source mod and completely free. It’s varied game mechanics, great emphasis on both team coordination and individual skill and varied/complex maps that require cooperation between different classes to capture the objectives makes it in my opinion the best team shooter out there. Sadly its community’s very small and great at alienating newcommers, but it’s still an incredibly fun, challenging, rewarding and overall good game once you get into it.
Also:
N1.4
Another freeware, though available in the more pimped out version N+ on XBLA. My favourite 2Dplatformer of all time. A bit similar to VVVVVV in frustration and skill requirement levels, though a lot more rewarding to me for some reason.
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I do hope that RPS could make this into a list that we could vote on. that way there wont be as much drama about the placement of particular games.
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My List (in one particular order):
* Deus Ex
* The Last Express
* Gabriel Knight: Sins of the fathers
* Broken Sword
* No one lives forever
* Civilization
* Europa Universalis 3
* Pool of Radiance (the original Gold-box game, not the sequel)
* Half Life 2
* Railroad Tycoon
* Exile: Escape from the pit
* The Settlers
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Sorry, forgot one:
* Thief
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I’ll limit myself to the ones I haven’t seen mentioned yet:
* the Total War series – definitely groundbreaking
* Falcon 4.0 – a revolutionary flight sim with a dynamic campaign (more like a war simulator, really)
* Pirates! – gave birth to the pirate genre
* Sierra’s adventure classics (I liked Larry and Gold Rush)
* Dune 2 / Command&Conquer – launced the RTS genre
* The Witcher – made TOUGH choices and consequences so popular (also has a great story and a game world simply oozing with atmosphere – my all time favourite)
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(Deus Ex….obviously)
ehrm –
1) Unreal 2 Expanded Multiplayer – the best FPS multiplayer ever done, design-wise. jetpacks, flamethrowers, guided missiles, hacking of the door, setting up turrets, tanks, buggies, teleports, giant heights, zero gravity level….. the best FPS multiplayer ever done. And its gone!
2) Generals: Zero Hour – best multiplayer RTS in my opinion – the fun had such a scale – a single hero unit could turn the tide of the battle, giant RIVER of nuke tanks pouring into your base could be destroyed with single strike and the following chain reaction – you could steal your opponents tech and then combine the power of low-tech but hidden GLA with Chinese Overlords…
3) Deus e… and Arcanum – what a GEM amongst all the RPGs of that age. You could do almost anything in that RPG and the world worked. Now it’s gone as well.
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Morrowind
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Straining to think of stuff that probably won’t already have been mentioned. So aside from the usual suspects heres a few games that made me fall in love with PC gaming.
The Longest Journey
No One Lives Forever (1 and 2)
Red Orchestra
Alpha Centauri
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
Giants: Citizen Kabuto
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Football Manager – specifically 2009.
No wait, hear me out!
A familiar scene – deep into my third season of mid-table mediocrity with my beloved Sky Blues, I get tired of the same old questions about my ‘star’ striker from the limited (and still not good in 2011) media engine – will he go? will he stay? God this is boring. I click the ‘walk out of conference’ button.
Next morning the papers are full of rage, “Clip-shameful! Coventry boss David Clipsham storms out of press conference!”
Wait wtf, the game punned my name? Now that is immersion.
Oh, and UFO: Enemy Unknown, obviously.
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‘Little big adventure 2′
It was ‘Black & White’ long before ‘Black & White’ even existed. Since both are french games I believe, it’s hard not to think there was overlap of designers/developers. Both fantastic games.
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World of Goo?
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Games I personally like and will explain:
1) Gratuitous Space Battles: (Just the fact that you don’t move a finger on battle and most of the times your tactics actually work out).
2) Men of War: (c’mon hats!)
3) Laser Squad Nemesis: (Just if X-Com has this way of combat instead of the turn-based it would be glorious)
4) Knytt: (Exploration done right, this is just a fun-relaxing game, a game i might have fun playing)
5) Spelunky: (Exploration done AWESOME, the posibilites are endless!)
6) Unreal Tournament 3: (I know no one loved this one, but it was so good, the best lans I have had)
7) Neptunes Pride: (Intrigue! Friendship! Treason! SPACE!)
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Games that don’t need an explanation:
MineCraft
X-Com
Team Fortress 2
Portal
Galactic Civilizations II
Company of Heroes
Games that might need an explanation (just to remember how awesome they are):
AI War
Quake (Live)
Left 4 Dead
Kings Bounty
League of Legends
Jagged Alliance 2
Total Annihilation
Supreme Commander
Unreal Tournament 2004
Sins of a Solar Empire
Dawn of War: Dark Crusade
Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl
Braid
Games that I have not played, but someone could argue their inclusion:
Distant Worlds
Scourge of War Gettysbrrg
Battle from the Bulge
Plants vs. Zombies
Dwarf Fortress
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Quakeworld needs to be on there fo sho.
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Rise of Nations
Age of Empires 2
Call of Duty 1-2
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault
Command and Conquer: Red Alert: Aftermath
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Games you might forget but must not:
Ultima Underworld 1&2
Freedom Force
Crimsonland
No One Lives Forever
Descent 1&2
Dark Forces
Giants
Heretic 2
Trackmania
Ultima 7 + Serpent Isle
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
Tony Hawk 2
MDK2
Serious Sam
Timeshock Pinball
Rayman 2
Warning Forever
Kamui
Research & Development (HL2 Mod)
They Hunger 1,2, & 3 (HL Mods)
The Strangers (Freedom Force Mod)
Games you won’t miss but I must praise anyway:
Psychonauts
Portal
Minecraft
Half-Life
Half-Life 2
Thief
Deus Ex
World of Goo
Oblivion
Unreal Tournament
Burnout Paradise
Freespace 2
Far Cry 2
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Gunmetal by Mad Genius Software, not the other game by that name.
It was good enough for Half-Life to rip off level architecture from it. Had humor; story twists were excellent and it had customization of loadout and other things which no other game of the era had or did as well.
As for a rougelike to include on the list, Incursion, Crawl: Stone Soup, or IVAN would be my suggestions.
Make sure to include at least one game from glorioustrainwrecks.com, too.
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Need for Speed: Porsche 2000
Need for Speed: Most Wanted
Championship Manager 2 / 97-98
Civ 2
TOCA 2
Medieval: Total War
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
Far Cry
Half-Life, Opposing Force
Hidden and Dangerous
Counter-Strike
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic
Minesweeper
Freecell
The Incredible Machine
Canabalt
Fantastic Contraption
Dark Forces II: and Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
Quake II
Starcraft
Sim City
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
Max Payne
Company of Heroes
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Woah, super late to this comment thread. Hope this gets read.
I have one pet peeve with these lists that I hope RPS don’t fall foul to. When you create a “Best X Of All Time” list, please please please qualify what that means. Are you judging games by their perceived greatness;
1)At the time that they were released. Elite would qualify here.
2) Their comparative worth to gaming right now. Elite would no longer feature as there are “better” space sims out there nowadays, even though they don’t capture gamer conciousness as Elite did.
3) A mix of the above, which would make me cry.
Honestly, I prefer option number 2. The resulting list always contains more gems that I haven’t experienced but would still want to go and experience right now.
My other preference for the list, that it rewards variety. For example I’d rather see Blood Bowl in that list than yet another 1st person shooter.
Also, drama is hilarious. Quake or Unreal must be in there, BUT THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!!!
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2) Their comparative worth to gaming right now. Elite would no longer feature as there are “better” space sims out there nowadays, even though they don’t capture gamer conciousness as Elite did.
A good game is a good game is a good game. Doesn’t matter how old it is, or whether it’s been bettered. Half-Life is still as good as it ever was, still worth playing, never mind that it’s, what, ten years old? I played through Doom the other day for the first time in years, still a good game.
Or, to put it another way, would Metropolis be excluded from a great movie list because of it’s age, and because other films have tried similar things more recently?
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It seems you would prefer option number 1, I would prefer option 2.
What you’re saying seems to hang on the semantics behind the word “great” and our opinions differ. That’s fine, it’s also exactly the reason why I asked that RPS are all on the same page about this definition when they create their list of awesomeness.
If I made half the list and you made the other half we’d end up with option 3 and nobody would be happy.
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I just don’t believe that a game stops being great because it’s old, or because it’s been surpassed. Doom has been bettered in just about every area but it still deserves a place on any list of great PC games. So does Elite.
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Serious Sam: The First Encounter – shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot ad nauseam. What more do you want?
Fatal Racing – a personal favourite which most people would, understandably, wonder WTF? My excuse: I play it now and I still find it both hard and fun.
POD Gold – lovely 3D racer from the early days of Win 95, I got an old laptop just so I could play it again.
GTA: Vice City – “Hello, my name is Fernando Martinez and you are listening to… Emotion”
Doom – everybody remembers the perfectly balanced shooting, but does anybody remember how bloody scary it was the first time?
Total Annihilation – best interface for an RTS, still, after 12 YEARS!!
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory – best of the modern slow-paced team-based FPS.
Portal – beautifully formed, perfect little puzzler that is truly unique and original.
Secret of Monkey Island – “I’m selling these fine leather jackets” still makes me smile.
King’s Quest III – incredibly unfair, hard, brilliant adventure game that gave me a massive sense of achievement when I finally beat the damn thing (before the Internets).
Civilisation IV – slick, compelling strategy game that just about edges out Civ 2 for me.
Championship Manager 01/02 – 11 straight seasons with Glasgow Celtic. That is all.
Thief: The Dark Project – not many games create such a fantastic sense of place. This is one.
Psychonauts – starts poorly but builds to some of the best levels ever made for a platformer, even though they’re actually not that hard. Except for Meat Circus, balls to that level – I lost count of the number of retries at about 35.
Lemmings – brilliant level design, superb game mechanics that, strangely, have not been much copied in the intervening years.
Max Payne – just damn cool. I felt my manliness rise (no, not that, that’s “manhood”!) the longer I played.
Prince Of Persia (original, not fancy 2008 version) – way, way ahead of it’s time. Still got some of the best animation in any game, period.
Grand Prix Legends – realistic racing at it’s most gut-wrenchingly pure, RIP Papyrus Racing.
Unreal Tournament – best of the frantic FPSs, easily beats Quake in my book.
Tetris – a great intro to the wonders of gaming for anybody. Definitely better than trial and error clickathon Minesweeper.
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Also, on the subject of how many games you include … why not go for a tiered/awards approach.
I really wouldn’t care how many games were in each tier, if you guys only agreed that there were 17 “truly great” games then chuck them in tier 1. Tier 1: Seminal, unmissable. Tier 2: Must play. Tier 3: Head and shoulders above their genre-chums. Tier 4: Honourable mentions.
Organise it in a way that floats your boat and helps you reach consensus. Screw narrowing it to an arbitrary number!
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Just to distinguish my tier examples from each other a little better …
Tier 1: Seminal, complete it or be cast into the abyss. Tier 2: Must play.
You got the gist anyway, I’m sure.
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oooh lists. I’ll try to keep redundancy to a minimum:
jedi knight 2: just because it’s a really good, well rounded game.
alien vs predator 2: deserves to be mentioned for the first minutes of the marine and the multiplayer level in which you could play coop against hordes of aliens.
little big adventure: has something magical about it, like a good fairy tale.
gish: the only game that i ever played until i really mastered it.
gta1: and i probably only mean the demo which for 5 minutes let you do everything that you could do in the full game, including running over groups of orange cultists, amassing cars for chain-explosions, being hunted by cops etc. When i moved from the demo to the full game i knew the first city by heart.
master of orion 2: it was just for a long time THE space-4x game. A lot of fun in multiplayer
crimson skies: the gameplay or graphics were nothing special, but the story and characters made it rememberable
commandos: haven’t seen it mentioned yet, which seems strange.
severance – blade of darkness: the graphics are still nice today, the atmosphere is still haunting, walking through empty castles, forgotten cities. But the sword fighting is what made it stand out for me
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just because i thought about it more and forgot some:
messiah, i-war, rebel assault(seriously), uplink, sub culture or archimedean dynasty, kingpin, oni and hamsterball(or marble madness if you want to sound more oldschool).
And one of the best adventures i played in a long time but probably noone has heard of is Edna & Harvey: The Breakout. It’s about a girl and her toy rabbit, breaking out of a mental institute. I don’t know if the english translation is any good, but the original is at the same time hilarious and melancholy.
some games i didn’t mention, because they weren’t my obsession but of someone i know:
creatures, panzer general, blade runner, superhero league of hoboken, myth
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All I beg for is that you include a game from literally every major genre. They all bring something substantial to the table
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Omikron/The Nomad Soul.
It really did something at the time, kinda blew me away. It had David Bowie, clothed sex & instant reincarnation. The very first thing it does is break the 4th wall! It had well sized cities to explore and this art style that oozed dare I say Arab-Punk. Ofcourse there are the awful 1st person shooting sections that make you want to eat your tounge, but I never found the side-on fighting that bad.
David Cage done good.. before he disappeared up his talented but rather large hole.
Golly, I think I’ll go see if it will play on my Vista setup.
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Ultima VII
For some reason this has been missing from so many “best games” lists.
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System Shock 2
Team Fortress 2
Half Life
Little Big Adventure
Medieval: Total War
Morrowind
Operation Flashpoint
Vampire Bloodlines:The Masquerade (deserves a place in spite of its terrible final act)
Thief
Wing Commander IV (the only truly good interactive movie game imo)
Dungeon Keeper
ToeJam & Earl
Command & Conquer (the gameplay, cinematics and presentation of this game blew me away. Even the installer was awesome – the first game I played until daybreak)
I haven’t checked for duplicates in other posts, and these are in no particular order.
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1) Doom – for what it did for the FPS genre
2) Baldur’s Gate – for proving that there’s more to RPGs than Final Fantasy
3) World of Warcraft – for what it has done for the MMO genre
4) EVE Online – for succeeding in spite of World of Warcraft
5) Grand Theft Auto 3 – the most important game of the last 10 years
6) Farmville – possibly the most important game of the next 10 years
7) Half-life
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mpk: I’m curious about why you listed Farmville. The game seems to be noteworthy mostly for its success in business. I think it would be completely unfair to credit the game for the creative rise of browser games.
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mpk: I’m curious about why you listed Farmville. The game seems to be noteworthy mostly for its success in business. I think it would be completely unfair to credit the game for the creative rise of browser games.
You’re right, it probably is unfair, but when something innovative fails no-one remembers it. They remember the successful copycat that stole everyone’s ideas. Besides, the industry is turning more and more to micro-transactions as a means of funding and Farmville is a perfect example of it working. Again, not the first game to use it, but certainly the most famous one, in the West anyway.
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reply fail. that post was quoted only so I didn’t have to refer back to it. Forgot to delete!
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Evil Genius. and, while we’re talking Elixir Studios, Republic: The Revolution.
Both flawed, but both unusual and different to most of the stuff out there at that time.
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Here’s my (unsorted) list which I whish I had more time compiling because I probably missed a few:
- Ultima IV (the first in the series with EGA graphics on PC. 16 colours at once! And my first encounter with morality issues in a computer game)
- Magic Carpet 1+2 (for teaching me how to strafe)
- X-COM 1+2 (had everything a SciFi turn based combat lover could dream of at the time)
- Leisure Suit Larry (for “spoiling” my childhood and having me look up what spanish fly is – no easy task in pre-Wikipedia times)
- Day of the Tentacle (had a hard time chosing just one Lucas Arts Adventure but if I had to recommend just one graphic adventure game this would be it).
- Simon the Sorcerer (just for making me laugh out loud at the RPG sequence)
- X-Wing (Missions! With briefings! Secret mission objectives! Star Wars!)
- GTA 3 (does not really need a reason)
- Duke Nukem (Hail to the king!)
- Ultima Underworld (first non tile-based 3D-RPG with a great anotatable automap)
- Alpha Centauri (great (!) TBS game)
- Master of Magic (Magic: the Gathering meets Civilisation = nerdgasm)
- Diablo (I still go “hurr!” when thinking of ghouls)
- Master of Orion 2 (Space monsters! Simultaneous turns in multiplayer! Huge battles!)
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Dwarf Fortress – craziest, most amibitious sim/strategy game (evar?)
Mount & Blade (for its modding community) – Action RPG mod heaven
Jagged Alliance 2 (For its 1.13 mod) – TB Tactics Galore
AI War – just that good
Stalker – best FPS I ever played
Turgor – a completely different experience
Alpha Centauri – Sci-Fi at its best
Homeworld – Sci-Fi at its other best
The Longest Journey – Storytelling, Atmosphere, Character Development, Dialogue, and all the other things they don’t make anymore
Freespace 2 – Last and Best of the great Dogfighting Games…in SPACE!
Vampires tM Bloodlines – An RPG the way they ought to be (given that you community-modded it)
IMHO, at least.
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No-one mentioned The Fool’s Errand yet; no puzzle-lovers here?
Or is it disqualified due to being a Mac-only game, only playable (for free!) on an (also free) emulator?
Pity, I know no game like it… Well, a few LIKE it, but none as good.
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It’s on PC-PC, and is free. Speaking of which, I assume you’ve tried ’3 in Three’?
Also, the sequel: ‘The Fool and his Money’ is being worked on. Still.
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Gah I give up. No sense of history here. It’s like MTV talking about the most influential guitarists or something, and starting with Steve Vai.
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Incredible Machine because creativity is fun and was a large part of my childhood.
Rogue (Nethack is also acceptable), because the design of these games and random content are amazingly important, and will only become more important as processing power increases. Has lead us to many, many good things like Spelunky and Dwarf Fortress
Lemmings because, c’mon. It’s a classic.
Elite as a precursor to many many great games
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i don’t have a *list*, because i don’t usually make a perfect chart of what i like.
anyway, i think these games deserve mentioning:
Undying
Severance: Blade of Darkness
Oni
for todays standards they are prolly dead, but for people who like playing old stuff, they are worth a shot.
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Any The List which didn’t give Introversion any credit would make me a Sad Panda. If Greatness is the criterion then Uplink is the main candidate, though if you’re looking at precious vignettes then Darwinia has my heart. As does the DoW2 WHOOSH-STOMP, though otherwise that game is merely wonderful.
Also (in no particular order, in addition to the obvious): Trials 2, Canabalt, Air Buccaneers, Strange Adventures in Infinite Space, Worms, DOSbox and Audiosurf all get love from me. Frozen Synapse is becoming an obsession, too, though I don’t know if I’m ready to call it Great yet.
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Starcraft 2
Far Cry 2
Stronghold
Bioshock
Sam and Max Seasons 1, 2 and 3 by Telltale
STALKER
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Heroes of Might & Magic (series)
Counterstrike
Half-Life 1
Unreal
Unreal Tournament (Original)
TF2
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System Shock 2 – Fear
Planescape:Torment – Immortality
Beyond Good & Evil – Love
Psychonauts – Pure Love
Portal – Genius
Also, Half Life 1 and 2 and Quake II
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and also also STALKER
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Heroes of Might and Magic 3
By far and away the best game I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing, and the only game I own to have been constantly reinstalled every single time I get a new PC.
Freespace 2 was also pretty rad
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I only have to read the first page right?
Didn’t see…
System Shock (1)
Ultima Underworld 1 & 2
Shogun/Rome Total War
Geoff Crammond’s F1GP
Beneath a Steel Sky
HiND
Liero
Fight of the Sumo Hoppers (look it up)
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Homeworld. I don’t know that it started a genre (to the immense loss of gaming), but I still go back to it every now and again.
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Albion
Vampire: Bloodlines
HoMM 3
Little Big Adventure (1 & 2)
That is all
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Oooh, seeing quite a few games I haven’t played before in these posts! <3
My vote for…
Blue Lacuna: For being unbelievably responsive and for combining a character study with the sort of sci-fi drama that had both weighted decisions and liberating bursts of exploration.
The Longest Journey: Because you were never the one.
Fallout 2: For all its cities and cesspools that actually felt alive.
Torment: Oh, I’m just not going to bother. Sigil is a festering scab of a city and I dare you not to love it.
Bloodlines: The DIALOGUE in this thing, gawds.
The Witcher: Pragmatic fantasy! Discussions of racism that end with sex metaphors! Drinking with yer buddies and bitching ’bout girls! I once redid a twenty hour section of the game entirely because I was worried that Zoltan was disappointed in me.
Grim Fandango: I…actually ended up watching a Let’s Play of this, I was so retarded/bad at the puzzles. But the character development, it’s delicious!
Pathologic: It broke me.
I’m on the fence about…
Thief: On one side, THAT cutscene remains one of the few examples of genuine character vulnerability in a western game (which is worrying now that I think about it), but then by the end he’s got his eye back and doesn’t even seem to be that bothered by it. Entirely too many dungeons as well. Hrn.
System Shock 2: I found it repetitive, but Shodan. That bot fucking CLAIMS you, pushing your nose in the fact that your strength is her gift, and that you’d be nothing without her orders and power ups. Few other games compromise you as much as this one, but the ending was rather awful?
Mask of the Betrayer: While an intensely affecting game for me, that’s mostly because of personal choices. Way back in vanilla I’d rolled an atheist, not having any more idea of the consequences of that decision than my character likely would’ve. Subsequently, the entire end bit of MotB for me consisted of desperate attempts to see if there was any way, ANY possible way, to save myself from The Wall. And there was, which was the worst discovery of all. In the end, I couldn’t permit myself to be as cruel as I needed to be to break free, and ended the game with the knowledge that the little red haired lass I spent hours adventuring with was going to face eternal damnation.
Anachronox: The overall experience was good, but not groundbreaking in anyway. Still though, there are few games that give you control of a character with as many flaws and fuck-ups as Sly.
I’m against…
Mass Effect 2: It made me feel like God. No one made their own decisions, dressed themselves, or even bothered talking to each other for the most part. Such power is both exasperating and vaguely depressing.
Also, visual novels!
While I want to put Inganock of the Bright Flame, Sunflower Girl Wheel Country and Cross Channel on the list, only the first of those has gameplay that consists of more than picking choices…and it’s optional. Still, if yer going by Costikyan’s, Schell’s or a few others definition of games, they fit. Still, I’ll put descriptions for those three in a following post, since it’s of questionable relevance.
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Inganock of the Brightest Flame:Ten years ago the Revival destroyed the city of Inganock and warped its inhabitants, turning an almost utopian city into a post-apocalyptic, steampunk-laced slum. It’s an isolated world, with the city limits shrouded in an impassable mist and the sun permanently obscured by ashen clouds, making day and night virtually indistinguishable. Inganock is constructed in tiers linked by a spiraling staircase, the poor on bottom and the rich safely stashed away up top. You, the traveling doctor Gii, usually stick to the smog-ridden lower layers, haunting the Infinitely Crowded Street and factory outskirts. Inganock itself looks dead, but at the same time its crawling with life — orphans, whores and killers all done up in soft shades and lacy gradients. A swan song of a city.
I do mean that, that Inganock is a song, all atmosphere and strange beauty. At the end of each act, a refrain plays out like a ritual. Repetition underlays everything, giving the game not just a cadence in its words but also in its content. It doesn’t take long for you to learn the story’s arc, the way it rises and falls so predictably. Eventually the crescendo starts up in you too, expectations guiding your emotions. Which is why it’s so affecting when things threaten to fall apart. By then the protagonist’s life has become yours and its rhythm a comfort; little things like being woken up every morning to the sound of synthetic bacon frying indescribably precious. Told with lyrical prose and watercolor art, this is a game that gives you something worth protecting.
Cross Channel:This is a game about hedgehogs. Well, no, I’m lying, it’s actually about highschool students, but their problems are remarkably similar. Gunjo is a school for the damaged, those who failed the national psychological test and need to be isolated for the safety of others. Taichi Kurosu is the worst of all, recognized by the government as only 16% human. To put it another way, he’s a monster. Life was never easy for him, but now something is going to horribly wrong, the sort of something that not only kills, but turns people into killers.
People are going to get hurt in this game, and often you’re going to be the one to damage them. It’s inevitable and I love it for that. The characters in Cross Channel aren’t perfect with only the most moe of quirks attached like most of those in eroge, they’re not unbelievably kind, natural geniuses or impossibly determined. They get angry and strike out at each other when stressed, they make mistakes and they misunderstand. Most of them are easy to dislike at first glance, and they’re aggravatingly antisocial in a time when it’s crucial that they come together. They’re human. I don’t know what else I can say to make you play this game, except that this is the visual novel closest to something already inside you, more a concentrated essence than a traditional story.
Sunflower Girl, Wheel Country: I’ll just post the official description for this since, unlike the others, its actually describes the game. Make sure to read it in that movie trailer voice!
“In the near future.
In a not so distant place.
There exists a society where law is based upon deterrence and criminals are assigned “obligations” fitting for their crimes.
Within this society, a man named Morita Kenichi aspires to the position of Special High Class Individual, one who holds authority over said criminals.
For the purpose of fulfilling his ambition, Kenichi returns to the town he once called home. There he will encounter three girls bearing “obligations” and there he will encounter the past he left behind.
Won’t you join him in this story about how people relate to their society?
In this story about how a society relates to its people.
In this story about the girl amid the sunflowers growing in the country spinning like a wheel.”
Though since I hyped the others, I feel I should for this as well. So here goes:
At one point in the game, you’re going to be needed. I mean, it’s a damn visual novel so obviously to get that far in the first place you’ll have to have not fucked up, but this is the first time it’ll be hard. Or at least, it was for me. The funny thing is, even though the game offered me a second chance, I never took it. Even though I’m a fan of the “just fucking live with it” style of gameplay due to the intensity it adds, I always reloaded and tried again. The reason I did that is the same reason you need to play this game. It’s because by that point, I literally regarded the characters on the same level I do myself. I wasn’t playing out their story, I was helping them through it. If I messed up a choice, I was failing them as a comrade and that was inexcusable. At that point, in the final chapter, I had stopped being a player and become a participant. Please try to understand the importance of that, even though my words are weak. I, an actual being who thinks and feels and lives felt that I was on the same, hell, a LOWER level than the bunch of pixels before me. Only art could be this human.
…
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Err, promise this is the end of the WORDS WORDS WORDS, but it seemed worth mentioning that all those three games all have sex in ‘em. Also, excellent as Cross Channel is, the first bit has that strange brand of sexism only found in some types Japanese media. If you’re used to anime/manga it’ll be bearable, though admittedly shit, but those unfamiliar may be unable to get pass the awkward “humor” of the beginning act. I’d say its squick level is higher than that of the worst highschool jokes, but lower than Pynchon’s?
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Glad to see someone else mentioning visual novels. Earlier I made a claim for Kana: Little Sister. I’d also like to see Ever 17. But the important thing is that they list at least one…at least one GOOD one.
Currently playing Cross Channel. Haven’t got very far. I’m finding the dialogue strange and confusing.
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Almost anything on this ingenious picture is a classic for starters. (cartoon-nipple warning for the sensitively inclined with magnifying glasses). Someone remind me who the woman is under Messiah’s Bob-cupid and between Dungeon Keeper’s Mistress and SiN’s Elexis? Soo familiar from late 90′s print-ads in PC gaming mags.
Little Big Adventure (2) – The epitome of ellipsoid Gouraud-shaded gallic world-exploration strangeness. Elephants, dictators with silly names (Funfrock), and sausage-shaped aliens.
Grim Fandango – wobbly interface/controls aside, the apex of LEC adventure-gaming. Before the fall into just licensing the hell out of a certain franchise (the sleeping giant which was waking up).
Sacrifice – Completely bizarre and original element-based pantheon o’ gods RTS gaming.
Starsiege Tribes – What was supposed to be a complementary game to a mech franchise became a very important game. Teamplay with vehicles and jet-packing infantry, selectable load-outs, and base-building. Also, the often overlooked aspect, from a contemporary viewpoint, of seamless both indoor and outdoor gameplay.
Homeworld (2): Gargantuan spaceships slugging it out with small minnow-like craft darting about, leaving trails and performing Pugachev’s Cobra-esque maneuvers, firing in the opposite direction of movement. They’re colourful. Many of them are asymmetrical and striped like The Designer’s Republic’s Wipeout vehicles. Space is also more colorful than ever with massive nebulae filling the entire field of view and backed by ethnic-inspired music (and a certain surprising excellently used, usually overplayed, Samuel Barber tearjerker piece). There’s a Z-dimension (which isn’t especially useful, as ships are always vertically aligned).
Mafia – Set pieces instead of sandboxes, borrowed from the best genre films and set to Django Reinhardt. A superb period race (shut up you!) in a monocoque car with no downforce. Don’t patch it, you’ll lose bullet/car-impact decals and it’ll neuter-handicap the race. The fact that a Thai tuk-tuk has more torque and horsepower than the early Ford T-Models is a *feature*.
Sword of the Samurai – The forgotten Sid Meier masterpiece, begging to be remade. Overshadowed in recognition by Pirates and Covert Action, yet Samurai had a campaign which tied the minigames together superbly. Nevertheless, each minigame was perfectly enjoyable on its own.
Red Orchestra: Ostfront – A bullet- ANY bullet is a scary thing and likely deadly upon impact. Shooting is an inexact science. Cue several dozen players flinging the individually calculated copper-jacketed wasps at each other, having to manually rack the bolts back for every shot from their ancient turn of the century bolt-action rifles. Miraculously it doesn’t turn into a camp-fest. Tanks are positively apocalyptic to anything which is not also tank (and even then there is a pecking order). Superlative feel and immersion. Horrific ragdoll dismemberment from explosions, which manages to not to be exploitative.
Paratrooper – From the bleeper sound version of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor as the soundtrack to the location-based damage of being able to shoot the parachutes off of the overwhelming hordes of titular paratroopers, dropping them onto their brethren below, forming human pyramids in order to blow up my lone AA-cannon. My first taste of a game involving shooting at humans. It was terrifying, despite the neon CGA-colours on my dads IBM 286.
Rocket Jockey – Rocket-bike/sled based polo with grappling hooks (for ripping other rockets/players/balls) backed by a Dick Dale surf-guitar soundtrack. Yes, it’s as good as it sounds. Incredible physics modeling for 1996.
Cannon Fodder – War hurts, is arbitrary and pointless. Like X-Com, your troopers had names, and ranked up. When they inescapably died their futile deaths, their graves littered the hill by your recruiting station above the row of fresh-faced recruits (your all too finite primary “resource” or “retry/lives”).
No One Lives Forever (2) – Selectively stealth-gaming, action and parody done well. With each aspect functioning in their own right. The first one was perhaps a bit too uninteractively talking-heads talkative.
Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight – Superlative level design. A beautiful Star Wars game. A sequel to a great game. The best of the switch-flicking red/blue/green keycard, dodging environmental hazards, interspersed with great pew-pew combat. Had an immensely creative and constructive community back in the day.
Outlaws – So… Lucasarts, in the dying ages of sprite-based FPS shooters decide to take the original Dark Forces engine and make… a stylised Spaghetti Western game? Innovations include mouselook, magnified sniping, manual reloading, and onion-like location-based non-linear levels (a fort is a fort, not a tube. You peel the accesses like onion layers). Clint Bajakian does a fine Morricone-pastiche soundtrack.
Trackmania Nations: Free manic racing with potentially hundreds of other friendly on creative user-made tile-based checkpointed tracks. User-created ranking-based competition.
Bladerunner – Westwood, yes that Westwood, made a license-based adventure game. And it works. Shipped on a then unheard of 4CDs with glorious Syd Mead designed animated backgrounds and CG-FMVs. You don’t play Deckard, but your story is pretty similar. A precursor to Fahrenheit/Heavy Rain with the multiple outcomes/solutions. Who was a replicant/sympathiser could differ from game to game.
Outcast – He wears an orange shirt. I didn’t quite dare to ask my mom to order the orange hoodie from their store at the time. I really should’ve. It’d be my most prized piece of clothing. A varied and beautiful world to explore. Original in every way. Like LBA and Another World, it feels and looks like a continental European bande-dessinée. Great AI ideas: One local won’t speak ill about another local when he’s within earshot. You could surprise them and were rewarded with agency through exclamations of surprise (“Zort!”). It had a cautious neutral faction: the natives in the forest realm. At first they would stalk and cautiously observe you from a distance. It felt tragic when I was eventually drawn into conflict with them.
Anachronox – That other Ion Storm game. The Quake 2 engine at its finest. Japanese “tactics”-esque combat comedy RPG sci-fi RPG. Solidly built world-exploring drawing gameplay from numerous genres, much like Psychonauts. Some shining examples of dialogue-writing, managing to be both touching and amusing, and expertly made ambitious and extensive in-engine cutscenes (look up some of them in youtube). Actually, Mass Effect * Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy + Psychonauts + Tactics Combat wouldn’t be a bad description.
+ Thief (2,3), Soul Reaver (2), Full Throttle, Sands of Time, Myth (2)…
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Plopsworth : Someone remind me who the woman is under Messiah’s Bob-cupid and between Dungeon Keeper’s Mistress and SiN’s Elexis? Soo familiar from late 90′s print-ads in PC gaming mags.
She’s actually also a character from Messiah :
http://www.maxi-fond-ecran.com/fond-ecran/jeux-video/messiah_010.jpg
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All right…
Stunt Racer 2000
Sensible World of Soccer
Dark Forces
TIE Fighter
Commander Keen
First Samurai
Dizzy
Star Trek: 25th Anniversary (no other game has got it so right)
Age of Empires 2
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Betrayal at Krondor
Half-Life
Shogun: Total War
Deus Ex
Giants: Citizen Kabuto
Operation Flashpoint
Morrowind
MDK
Tomb Raider 2
Quake 3 Arena
Team Fortress 2
Half-Life 2
Vampire: Bloodlines
Battlefield 2
GTA San Andreas
Far Cry
Freelancer
Homeworld 2
Portal
Knights of the Old Republic
Beyond Good & Evil
Splinter Cell
Burnout 3
The Longest Journey
Football Manager 2007 (the one I got addicted to. Although I think it’s got better since 3D, and I don’t hold with those Championship Manager ’01 types.)
Oblivion
Fallout 3
Stalker
GTR2/rFactor/IL-2 (I know few people play them but ultra-real sims definitely have their place)
The Sims
Civilization 4
Bioshock
Far Cry 2
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these comments have got up to 700 odd and im not reading them but this is what i think should be in any pc game list.
FF7, one of the greatest games ever made and the first and possibly only game to actually shock me. It was for me the first time id had a similar response to what i would expect in a film or book.
DOOM, cos rather than have you watch a sprite run about the screen the main character become the player.
HALF LIFE, because it took the mechanics of doom and put a great story around it.
ELITE, because it game you a universe to fly about in.
MAME, is this allowed? it should be, its why pcs were invented.
notable mentions, CARRIER COMMAND, TF2, UNREAL XMP <—well i liked it!, GTA4, HL2, COMMAND AND CONQUER – GENERALS, DEUS EX, SYSTEM SHOCK 2, GUILD WARS, PLANETSIDE.
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Ok, wow, I seem to have arrived a bit late! In case you read this far I’m going to through may various hats into the following rings (please see EMBOLDENED titles if you want to skip my reasons why):
PSYCHONAUTS and OUTCAST are musts for me because they’re brilliant examples that PC game designers can do console style games. Psychonauts is our Mario, Outcast our Zelda, and in many ways both are better than their inspirations. Psychonauts especially. So sweet, so witty, so clever. That’s got to be high up any list for me. I’m assuming the other Tim Schafer masterpieces are too obvious to be missed (GRIM FANDANGO and MONKEY ISLAND 2 (not 1!))?
JEDI KNIGHT did a lot of what made Half-Life great before Half-Life (but with light-sabers) so I think needs credit for that. And while we’re on the subject of Half-Lives my vote’s with HALF-LIFE being the better game. Half-Life 2 is slicker, more efficient, but lacks…something. I’d rather go back to Black Mesa than City 17 (and in the game!). It was just a better location and a better story. Even if the gravity gun, Dog and the bit on the canal aren’t there. And I LOVED the way OPPOSING FORCE tied into the original story. That gets a vote for best add-on (or is it DLC?).
One I definately haven’t noticed so far yet is the best point and click adventure AND best movie license use ever, so really ought to be mentioned: BLADE RUNNER. It captured the style of the films perfectly, stole the story from the excellent book and let you BE a blade runner. Have very fond memories of replaying this to get all the alternate endings. Classic game and one which viewed side by side with the book and film you could make a strong argument that the whole existential philosophy behind the idea of the replicants is best explained by the game rather than the other mediums (how often can you say THAT?).
Anyway SPELUNKY is good. Has anyone mentioned that? That strikes me as quite an RPS sort of game to choose. It’s Indie, accomplished and fun/infuriating. I spent an embarassingly long time trying to reach the final level and find the lost city of gold before giving up (I had reached neither).
LEFT 4 DEAD 2 is the best game in the last few years IMO not just for the joy of the coop shenanigans but it’s a brilliantly realised world. The idea that a zombie apocolypse would force you to team up with 3 total strangers and battle your way to the nearest safe place with whatever blunt instrument is lying around is actually spot on, and I think the best way to play it.
I’d remind you how good STALKER: Call of Pripyat is but I imagine Jim’ll have that covered.
FREESPACE 2!
SYSTEM SHOCK 2 did not just give birth to Deus Ex and Bioshock but is actually still really good in it’s own right (I have tested this theory: I started playing it again last week, it’s still brilliant though not as scary as I remember. Though nothing scares me anymore after AMNESIA).
And if we’re talking scares: ALIENS VS PREDATOR. Not the new one, not the original Atari one, but the one in the middle (2000?) by Rebellion. That was just right.
In case you all forget to vote for it again (yes, I read the PCG top100 this year!) PLANESCAPE TORMENT was very good! Do not forget this!
KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC is the Bioware game I remember most fondly (I hated Baldur’s Gate 2), though not sure how it holds up to Mass Effect if I went back to it.
Don’t forget NO ONE LIVES FOREVER 2 either. It was quality FPS mechanics and set-pieces mixed with stealth sections, multiple paths through (some) levels and picking things up with the right mouse button like it wanted to be a Looking Glass Studios game. I thought all games wanted to be Looking Glass Studio games!? Why does nobody do this any more!?!?! Why is stealth no longer an optional style of play in FPSs!?! It’s become a stat on an inventory menu. Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!
I’m going to stop writing now before I despair at how few great games are recent and are all very old. And that I too am very old.
Look forward to the completed list. I love a list!
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+ BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL See Console style games done better on PC
and HIDDEN AND DANGEROUS. So tactical. So glitched. It felt close to a 3D, realtime X-COM.
and UNREAL. The original UNREAL. The single player was ace and so so beautiful, and it was my first introduction to deathmatch, thanks to the bot support. It wasn’t long before I was firing up the 56k modem (or was it more like 28k?) and venturing online.
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Amnesia should be on the list.
As should some sort of tomb raider game, everyone else probably disagrees, but everyone else is wrong.
Oh and thief 2 should be higher than deus ex because it is a more tight game and hasn’t aged as badly.
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I assume mods don’t count but I’m going to say DotA anyways.
As for PC games, I’m going to mention games that I haven’t seen mentioned but are my all-time favs.
Digital: A Love Story – Introduced me to bulletin board systems. And now i wish i lived in the early 90′s.
Blueberry Garden – Because me and my friend played it for 4 hours last night, and couldn’t stop smiling.
The Path – Most intimate experience I’ve had with a game.
The Void – The hardest game I’ve ever played. I had to restart after playing it for 10 hours. But It was lovely.
Uplink – I mean who doesn’t enjoy pretending they can hack.
And I don’t recall seeing The Sims. But if half of my childhood isn’t worthy of being on this list, I’m going to have to rethink my life.
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You mean UPLINk was just pretend hacking? :(
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i hope someone else has already thrown it in, but i’m gonna say arcanum. loved my half-ogre engineer. i was dumb as hell, but my thieving abilities let me steal enough intelligence potions to fill my swimming pool…..with inventions.
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Bioshock
Chronicles of RIDDICK
Borderlands
Call of Duty 4
Civ IV
Minecraft
Mass Effect
Prince of Persia (sands of time)
Red Faction Guerilla
Starcraft 1
World of Goo
Penumbra
Arkham Asylum
Chronicles of RIDDICK
Braid
Burnout Paradise
Cave Story
Fahrenheit
Flatout
Frets on Fire
Garry’s Mod
Half Life
Halo
Kane + Lynch
Dear Esther
Korsokovia
Mercenaries 2
Modern Warfare 2
Chronicles of RIDDICK
Portal
Quake 1+3
Doom 1
Research and Development
Saints Row 2
Serious Sam
Singularity
Splunkey
Splinter Cell
Starwars Battlefront
System Shock 2
Team FOrtress
Theif 3
Timeshift
VVVVVV
Chronicles of RIDDICK
Theres something messed up with my desktop alphabetizer….
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Planescape: Torment and Psychonauts are already mentioned to death, but I wanted to join the love bandwagon anyway.
A more serious suggestion would be Tetris. While Tetris was born on a russian microcomputer, it gained its initial insane popularity on the IBM PC platform.
That little japanese “dot matrix with stereo sound” gadget played of course a significant role in its popularity, but that’s because Tetris was already very popular, thanks to the PC.
Also, PC is the best way to play the modern version of Tetris (and I’m not talking about facebook tetris, but fangames of “Tetris the Grand Master”).
Another suggestion would be Neverwinter Nights. While the game was a little meh by itself, it really shone with the help of its community of players. And that’s where PC is the best — when players begin to fiddle with the games (Counter-Strike started as a mod for Half-Life, we should forget !).
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Planetside, Freelancer, Red Alert 2 all make the top 10 for me.
Garry’s Mod should be on the list somewhere for how original it was.
CAPTCHA: Puwn
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I can say for sure just about the games I played, so here goes:
Fallout 1&2
Baldur’s Gate
Baldur’s Gate 2 + Throne of Bhaal
Arcanum
Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 1 & 2
Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer
Jagged Alliance 2
Incubation
Commandos
Warcraft 2
Red Alert
Starcraft
Z
M.A.X.
Dark Reign
Total Annithilation
Rome: Total War
Sins of a Solar Empire
Homeworld
Battlezone
Wolfenstein 3D
Quake
Half Life 1 & 2
System Shock 2
Deus Ex
Diablo 1 & 2
Prey
There are other very good games out there, some even more significant than the listed ones, but they either came before I started gaming or I haven’t got the chance of trying them yet. Some of them are:
The Ultima games
The Ultima Underworld games
Wasteland
Pool of Radiance
System Shock
Privateer
Elite
The UFO/X-Com games
Boiling Point/Xenus
Pathologic
The Void
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incubation is a brilliant little game, it’s almost a puzzle game trapped inside the body of squad-tactics round based game-thingie.
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Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines, because if I don’t say it nobody else will, although to be fair they may have already, IDK because I refuse to read how ever many pages of comments this has reached to check.
But yea, great game, at the time could have only been done on the pc, sure it had it’s problems… shed loads of them, but what’s remarkable is despite being pretty much broken from a basic gameplay level, all the way to a serious quest will not spawn and the game has crashed anyway, have a nice day level, it’s still brilliant. Some of the best writing ever presented by a game, from setting to plot to characters, it’ll drive you on to grind through the bug, glitches and general ham handedness, and on the rare occasion you receive a blessing from the gaming gods and it all comes together and just works (which will happen maybe once for twenty minutes over an entire playthrough), it’s truly orgasmic.
At the very least it’s the best Vampire game ever, only on pc, and therefore is something we should be proud of.
Also, if you neglect to mention The Longest Journey on this list to end all lists, I will throw a hissy fit… just sayin.
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I think alien swarm (the original probably more-so than the recreation) deserves to be on this list.
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My personal favourites, completely unoriginal as they are:
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time — combined superb gracefulness, a terrific soundtrack, a genuinely interesting storyline, actual CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT (!!), beautiful environments, and decent gameplay. A classic.
Morrowind — I feel that no game ever outdid this for immersiveness. The sheer number of storylines available for you to pursue, the characterfulness of every location (people, design, architectural styles), and level of detail make Vvardenfell unforgettable.
Ultima IV — my personal favourite of the Ultima series, though I’m willing to allow that V is at least on a par with it. Did something with RPG objectives completely different from any game before or since.
GTA3 — Nothing, NOTHING, was as fun as this for sheer recklessness when it came out. It’s still my favourite of the whole series. Its spiritual successor wasn’t Vice City but the Saint’s Row games (which I also prefer to the later GTAs).
BG1 — a much deeper game, in many ways, than BG2 (which, of course, I also like). BG1 gave a much more PnP-ish feel to its campaign because of the sprawling, non-linear geography.
I suppose the counterintuitive points to highlight are (1) I prefer GTA3 to the later GTAs; (2) I feel Sands of Time is light years better than the other Prince of Persia games; (3) I regard BG1 as better than BG2.
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Fie, fie upon you all!
Page upon page, yet narry a mention of Arx Fatalis!
At least, none that I say. So, yeah, Arx Fatalis.
Also a few others I didn’t note appearing quite so often as they deserve, if at all…
* Beyond Good & Evil
* Divine Divinity
* Dreamfall: The Longest Journey
* Fallout Tactics
* Gothic II
* Gothic III
* Hitman: Contracts
* Hitman: Blood Money
* Kult: Heretic Kingdoms
* Mafia: The City of Lost Dreams
* No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.’s Way
* Risen
* Rogue Trooper
* Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines
* XIII
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So there are a million great recommendations, and at this point I’m just adding my voice to the chorus, unless I manage to think of something else.
First, the entire Ultima series was great, and a lot of them were incredibly innovative. My personal favourite is VII for it’s huge, open world, followed by IV for its eschewing of the way RPGs worked, and underworld for being the first truly immersive 3d game, woven with a great RPG. When id was figuring out how to make a game look like it wasn’t based around 2d drawings, Looking Glass had already released a gigantic game in true 3d with multiple levels, the ability to change your viewpoint, and an automap that hasn’t been bettered in nearly 20 years.
Also, I’ve seen lots of people suggest GTA 3/Vice City. I’d put forward the original GTA. I still remember convincing my Grandmother on a random trip to the mall to buy me this game that I couldn’t buy myself. Then once I got into playing it, it was the first time I’d experienced a game so centred around mindless violence. I think it had a huge influence on the games that would follow.
I’ll also throw in my hat for X2 or Terran Conflict. While they’re in no way games that everybody loves, they are unique in their absolute scope, giving the player an absolutely huge sandbox within which to pursue whatever they want, be that economic conquest, capital warfare, or simply flying about exploring.
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To mention one that has not been said yet. I would submit the HL2 mod Nightmare House 2 for consideration.
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Are we including mods/freeware/flash games? I think the list needs to be restricted to commercial/shareware games only just to keep it manageable.
Otherwise, I’d second NH2 in a heartbeat.
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OH LAWD. I managed to get to the end of the fourth page before I gave in.
And PC games only? No SRPGs, no Metroidvanias, no Platformers… you’re not really leaving much to work with here. Well, let’s see what I can do…
In no particular order:
Cave Story: …Curly? CURLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY! First game I ever replayed right there on the spot, I think. :’(
Populous: The Beginning: As an RTS, not a god game. I think I’ve spent more time on this, Age of Kings and EU3 than everything else combined. Still haven’t forgiven Walker for giving it a sub-70% mark in They’re Back >:(
Age of Empires 2: Age of Kings: Speaking of Age of Kings…
Planescape: Torment: So now I’m just hitting the easy targets :p
Fallout 2: Take your pick between the first two, I guess, but I preferred the second.
Baldur’s Gate 2: Let’s be honest here, the first one is something you play so you can export your character to 2.
Perimeter: For the plot. You heard me. Or the milieu and the mise-en-scene, at least. Russian Sci-Fi, eh?
Rise of Nations: The RTS-4X hybrid thing needs revisiting, I think. Especially if you skewed more towards the 4X.
X-COM – Enemy Unknown: The first lesson of XCOM: if in doubt, go through a wall. The second lesson of XCOM: you are always in doubt.
Tyrian: Obscure games cred, get? I can’t get it to work properly on modern hardware, which is a damn shame. And seems positively spiteful considering the 2000 rerelease. :(
Sup Com: If for no other reason than that the zoom GOES ALL THE WAY OUT. I can BREATHE again!
Dwarf Fortress: Alpha? That’s no alpha- it’s a space station!
Psychonauts: Even if I never did get past Raz’s Dad.
SMAC: Still the most compelling Firaxis game, even if arguably all its best features have been appropriated by Civ at this point.
Civ 4: I suppose I’m now obliged to mention this. :/
Homeworld 2: So pretty :’(
Europa Universalis 3: I was leery about putting forward a P’dox game, given how unfriendly they are to the uninitiated. But oh, how much time this game has eaten of mine. Vicky is more conceptually interesting, but needs time to grow into itself I guess.
Heroes of Might and Magic 3: Honestly, I prefer 2… but I can’t argue in all good faith that it’s the better game.
Sacrifice: Shiny, gone but not forgotten. :’(
Startopia: Ditto Mucky Foot.
System Shock 2: Never played the first one. Sue me.
Theme Hospital: Is it just me, or did management games just disappear one day? I could have sworn they were a major genre once upon a time.
Perfect Cherry Blossom: I nearly completed it on Normal once. This is one of my proudest achievements *manly tears*.
Warning Forever: Because I realise I need more shmups on this list and because, honestly, GODDAMN. Everything from the aiming system to the enemy’s evolution to the name is pitch perfect.
Abuse: Speaking of aiming, here we have a side on shooter with mouse aiming. And vast sprawling levels and this dark, terrifying atmosphere and- OUT OF NOWHERE, A DRILL. I would make a terrible lawyer.
N: Motion as prayer. A very special, geometric sort of beauty.
Worms: Armageddon: 2 the better game? Perhaps.
EVE: Online: I don’t think I know an MMO that’s done more to create a real sense of world in its… world. Also, I <3 blasterax.
Nethack: The token roguelike. I was going to put Zangband, but this seemed more iconic.
Grim Fandango: “Manny, until now we scraped along the ground like rats, but from now on, we soar! Like eagles! Yeah! LIKE EAGLES… ON… POGO STICKS!” Aheh. And another one that’s finickity on my computer for no good goddamn reason.
Broken Sword: Broken Sword? Yeah, Broken Sword.
The Longest Journey: Dreamfall can come too, but only if it gets rid of that combat.
Freespace 2: DEM BEAMS. So purty. :’(
C&C: Tib Sun: What’s this? Tib Sun instead of Dawn/RA/3? Yes, because big stompy robots. Actually, RA2 can come too. Long live high-camp RTS.
Warcraft 3: For all that I hate micro, this managed to make it kind of fun. Also: remember when everybody thought that the next wave of RTSs would be riffing off the Hero mechanics? Whatever happened to that?
Commandos 2: I’m told this is a stealth game. I, however, preferred to approach it as a puzzle game. The puzzle being, “how do I kill everyone on this map without being seen?” You haven’t played Commandos until you’ve completely broken the underlying design philosophy. :D
Darwinia: Very much akin to P:TB, in that it had a real sense of soul.
Uplink: More Introversion. Are they still around? They need to release Subversion or something soon because I’m in danger of forgetting.
Umineko no Naku Koro ni: VNs are valid? Then we need some OH DESIRE in here. BER-TRII-ZHII!
Commander Keen 4: Secret of the Oracle: Because Dopefish.
I think that’s everything. We’re sure it’s PC only? :(
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ZZT, anyone?
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You’re mad for doing this, by the way. Mad. I love it.
I would like to make a plea not to forget TIE Fighter. Surely not necessary, but you can never be sure. Here’s why it has to be there:
It is common knowledge, and for good reason, that movie tie-ins are crap. It has been so from the 8-bit days onwards. Stupid collections of mini-games tenuously connected to the movie, knocked up by dredged up development houses as fast as possible for as little money as possible.
X-Wing was different. It’s approach was different. You weren’t going to ‘be’ Luke Skywalker, except, memorably, at the end. The game was merely set in that universe. Instead of mangling the plot onto some sort of mechanic, the mechanic was lovingly fashioned around those famous space battles. And lord, did they get that just right. I still, so many years later, remember the first TIE I shot. It twisted in my sights. My blasts seared past its small frame, until I clipped it on the wing as it turned. The wing broke off, and the main body screamed past me spitting sparks before exploding. Just like that one in Empire that got smacked by an asteroid.
It was perfect. The handling of each craft felt right, and somehow, magically, felt Star Wars. You find yourself muttering “stabilise rear deflectors. Just a few more seconds… torpedos away!”, hardly feeling daft at all.
Why TIE Fighter and not X-Wing, or even one of the later sequels? TF was the pinnacle, combining atmosphere, variety, story, and the wonderful frisson of being the bad guy and being damn good at it. Why not Freespace 2? I love the pyrotechnics and the amazing mission scripting, but admit it, the flight model and reticule chasing combat was a teensy, tiny bit flat, lacking the X-Wing series beautiful precision and characterful, varied craft. That’s a very close call, mind, especially as love of the SW universe colours judgement.
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Deus Ex, TF2, Age of Empires, Starcraft and Portal should be on there, but also include some indie games like World of Goo, and possibly MInecraft.
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Scorched Earth – I love the smell of napalm in the morning. Hot seat play, a menu of crazy weapons, bloops and explosions through the PC on-board speaker. Hours of fun for a 10 year old in 1991.
Gunbound – My 2nd favorite artillery game. Free-to-play eight-player perfection over the internet. Multiple tanks with distinct firing styles and special moves combined with heart-stealing, super-deformed avatars.
Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden – Less controversial than Super Columbine Massacre, but way funnier. BSUJG is an incredible feat. It takes one of the most ridiculous notions for a game ever, and then plays it with a straight face. Stranger yet, it builds upon the Barkley mythos of the movie Space Jam. The Chaos Dunk is epic.
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I’m glad RPS doesn’t go list crazy, but such a list as this is nice from time to time.
I’m pretty biased towards FPS games but I will try to make it more variety-centric and comb the abyss that is my memory for some great plays.
Doom (over Wolfenstein 3D as Wolf3D setup a great genre, but Doom brought it into it’s own)
Syndicate (It’s more complex than most games today, whether or not it’s well loved I think it’s fitting to be on this list)
Half-Life (I might be PC for life and might not enjoy HL or HL2, but I can still remember being blown away by HL when it came out, it has inspired so many I’d find it hard to believe it wouldn’t make it to the list.)
Command & Conquer: Red Alert (I’m being a little biased here, as this could easily be beat out by
Warcraft, but C&C:RA was one of the few RTS games that held my attention from start to finish)
Civilization (I only ever played Civ3 but this game has made a pretty big impact I’d say)
Monkey Island series (Personally enjoyed Full Throttle and Sam & Max a little more and definitely warrant mention but i think MI wins out in the case of this list)
Commander Keen (Seriously)
Need For Speed (Seriously again)
Lemmings (Come on, it’s a flipping classic)
I could probably keep going, but I won’t.
Some honorable mentions (that could just make the list, but maybe fall a little short):
Rune (Viking 3rd person hack n slash, with oversized axes, swords & hammers? BADASS! The only reason I don’t include it on my list, is I don’t think many people actually know the title, which is a huge shame!)
Rise of the Triad (Eyeballs flying pass as multi heat seeking rockets gibb enemies, AWESOME!)
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A few more to the list, I didn’t feel like writing so much the other day.
Prince of Persia (The original, I never found the modern versions lived up to the reputation of the classic)
Flashback (Haven’t seen anyone mention it, but it was great fun)
FarCry 2 (More so than any other shooter so far I find that FC2 captured the essence of being a lone gunman against the world, or just Africa. Playing on its hardest difficulty gives you a genuine sense of urgency. Guns jamming, the need to operate on ones self before being able to heal and sometimes even the fire propagation add to the hectic nature of this. Taking the Clint Hocking challenge when playing on the hardest difficulty and dieing means restarting the game from the start gives genuine pangs of fear when you are out gunned without a buddy and little health left. One of the few games i’ve felt like my direct actions changed the out come for better or worse of the battles i engaged in.)
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So many…Went through half, not sure I saw these mentioned.
Alien Legacy
Mix or exploration, research and sim city building…awesomeness
Ascendancy awesome X4 game in 1995 from The Logic Factory
(hell, they are porting it to the iPhone…Please port to Android!, http://www.logicfactory.com)
Destruction Derby
Gave the most use out of the PC wheel controller we had over Nascar.
Red Baron, Monopoly
Before we had a computer with the uber large 256mb HD and windows 3.1, we had a DOS computer and floppies. Red Baron and Monopoly on them entertained for hours… also Bouncing Babies.
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Hopefully this is a useful resource for people looking for old game recommends, maybe if it was put on the sidebar.
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Heroes of Might and Magic 3:
The “other” fantastic turn-based strategy game except this one doesn’t seem to get any love here on RPS (only two mentions that I saw, both on page 9). The scarcity of resources and the well-thought out scenarios force you to make tons of great tactical decisions that so few games have been able to replicate.
Sacrifice:
Such pairing of FPS and RTS is genius, unique and introduces the tactical and strategic dilemmas no other game has. This game just oozes charm and personality, from its great story and narrative to its final battle to endless customization and replayability options.
Syndicate:
Much has been said about this game and it definitely is one of the all-time greatest classics but, for my money, this is also the game that inspired the timeless Diablo franchise. You just know that the guys at Blizzard North were playing the Atlantic Accelerator with one guy and no lasers (the only way to make that game challenging) and were like, hm, if we replace the agent with a wizard and the enemy agents with demons…….. BINGO!!!!
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Was looking through more of my old CD cases…
Might & Magic series
Heroes of Might and Magic 2 & 3
Metal Fatigue!!! (only because it was a RTS with big robots that you could change armaments on)
Your pick of Ultima before 9
Everquest
Outpost 1
(the super plus of putting it into your CD stereo and playing the Mars orchestra track)
Wing Commander: Armada
Descent 1 & 2
Oregon Trail (Apple version and MECC)
Dinosaur Tychoon
Desktop Tower Defense
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Wing Commander I & II
Privateer
Ultima VI
Baldur’s Gate 2
Planescape: Torment
Sam n Max: Hit the Road
Day of the Tentacle
Tomb Raider
Half-Life 1 & 2
Batman: Arkham Asylum (crappy console port or not, this is still one of the best games I’ve ever played)
* and, I must mention the game that got me interested in computer games
Space Quest
(For some reason, I’m really digging sequels)
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Also…
Giants: Citizen Kabuto — For it’s bright setting and fun genre-bending
GunFu Deadlands/The UltraMission — For coolness
http://sourceforge.net/projects/gunfudeadlands/
http://www.indiegames.com/blog/2010/07/freeware_game_pick_ultra_missi.html
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Hmm.. can I suggest NOT to bother making a list?
Any such list will surely have people either complaining it missed some game they like or that it included some game they don’t like. Please leave such stupid lists to other crappier websites/blogs. You can see such lists appearing on Digg almost every day.
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The best game evar is most definitely Goldeneye for the N64!
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That game started the FPS genre!
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You’re both being very silly. Stop it.
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Civilization (1)!
Worms Armageddon!
Quake 3!
Half-Life (1)!
Commander Keen!
Deus Ex!
Machinarium!
Rollercoaster Tycoon!
Lemmings!
Tetris!
The Incredible Machine!
Arguments are for chumps, I’ve got exclamation marks.
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Ooh, and maybe NOLF (the first one).
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Also, VVVVVV
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And Trackmania! I’m partial to Sunrise, but the latest one (Trackmania United Forever Star Edition) is probably better, and it has a truly great name.
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Duke Nukem 3D
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How is it possible that I am still the only person to mention the absolutely superlative Starflight? There has never been a better game produced in this genre, except possibly Starflight 2.
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And, ooh!, I just thought of another oft-overlooked gem:
King of Dragon Pass.
(If you don’t know what this is, you are not a games journalist.)
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Relax, Tom. It’s fine :)
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/11/08/the-list-your-suggestions/comment-page-3/#comment-547130
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Another vote for King of Dragon Pass. Haven’t played another game quite like it, and it’s subtle in ways very few games are.
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I played the demo of that! It was obviously an interesting thing, I usually don’t remember demos.. The game is available for $20 at a-sharp.com, where they will burn you a CD, because the website says “It is not practical to download the entire game (about 450 MB)”. So I’m not sure it’s been updated for a while and the price is kinda up there.
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Allegiance, if it’s not been mentioned already.
(My apologies, the list is quite long, and… by page four I decided I had enough.)
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Don’t forget to mention Space Wars! Admittedly it was around 15 years before I was even born, but I spent hours playing it in a retro arcade in Dublin and it was bloody fantastic.
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My vote goes for a few mentioned and one not. The ones mentioned:
Sim Tower
Theme Hospital
Medieval:Total War
Europa Universalis 2 (Easily the most indepth, though took a while for me to get into)
Not so mentioned:
System Shock 2 (First game to scare the shit out of me)
And one that maybe wasn’t awesome, but it was in my book: Warrior Kings
This game had huge formation-based fantasy battles, supply carts, and some generally awesome strategy and war.
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Yes, late to the party once again, but can’t resist a late lampshade-wearing:
Adventure (Crowther & Woods, 1976) — originally for the PDP, but came bundled with the original IBM PC.
Zork I (1979) — Again, adapted from the PDP version, but still helped garner attention for the IBM PC as a gaming system.
Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards (Sierra On-Line, 1987) — Yes, the PC went there.
Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss (Origin, 1992) — A good story, cool weapons to find, an open world, remarkable level design, quest-giving NPCs, a clever magic system, context-aware music, and even an invented language… and textured full 3D. Wow.
Sim City (Maxis, 1989) — The first great graphical simulation game, since ported to darn near every device on the planet.
DOOM (id, 1993) — How many PCs did this game sell? How many people upgraded from 386DX-based PCs to the 486 because they saw how incredibly smooth the game played? Still the benchmark game for validating the PC as a viable gaming platform.
Civilization (MicroProse, 1991) — If turn-based games never stop being made and played, Civ will be the reason why. How many hours of work have been lost to people still saying, as the sun rose the next morning, “OK, just one more turn…”?
Wing Commander (MicroProse, 1990) — Die, Kilrathi scum! A near-perfect blend of flight sim, arcade dogfighter, and space opera.
Darklands (MicroProse, 1992) — Combined a near-simulation of medieval weaponry with an implementation of magic through the invocation of saints, and switched from an overworld view when traveling to an isometric view of frozen fields or stone dungeons for combat. Incredibly addictive.
System Shock (Blue Sky/Looking Glass, 1994) — Perhaps exceeded only by Deus Ex, System Shock fused sensationally clever systems design with solid open-world gameplay and memorable levels, and topped it all off with SHODAN, arguably one of the greatest villains in all of computer gaming.
Master of Orion (MicroProse, 1993) — Made more strategic than Civilization by shrinking the playing field and increasing the importance of the technology tree through its effect on planetary development and player-designed starships, MoO defined what Alan Emrich called the new “4X genre”: explore, expand, exploit, exterminate.
Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight (LucasArts, 1997) — Jedi Knight improved on the original Dark Forces with clever Force-based puzzles to solve, highly varied lightsaber battles, and some of the best level designs ever seen in any computer game. In particular, “The Falling Ship” must be counted as one of the greatest levels of all time.
Baldur’s Gate (BioWare, 1998) — Introduced BioWare’s Infinity Engine for multi-person isometric RPG play, and built a phenomenally good AD&D-based game with it, mating an excellent story with solid fantasy gameplay, and including some legendary characters (“Go for the eyes, Boo! Go for the eyes!!”).
Half-Life (Valve, 1998) — Between the highly intelligent design of levels and tactical challenges, the thoughtful user interface, brilliant scripted sequences, interesting enemy AI and funny NPC barks, Half-Life permanently raised the bar for what a first-person shooter could be. Valve’s openness to player modding of their games, starting with Half-Life, also makes this an important PC game.
The Sims (Maxis, 2000) — Subversive brilliance, The Sims takes playing with virtual dollhouses (and our willingness to torment little computer people) and uses it to communicate a criticism of materialist consumer culture, but it still manages to be fun to play with just for the crazy things you can do with and to the characters in the game.
Age of Empires (Ensemble, 1997) — Not quite a real-time tactical game like Warcraft, and not quite a turn-based historical strategy game like Civilization, Age of Empires took the best parts of both genres and created something new and wonderful from them.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Softworks, 2006) — Despite the limited number of NPC voice actors, Oblivion signaled a great leap forward for open-world first-person RPGs with high-quality visuals, a large number of quests, and a huge world to explore.
Portal (Valve, 2007) — Portal’s wonderful momentum-based first-person physics puzzles would have made for a good game. The inspired insanity of GLaDOS elevated this good game to an all-time classic.
The Witcher (CD Projekt Red, 2007) — Took the bar for intelligent and mature RPGs and kicked it a mile down the road. The mark of greatness is how many other things are compared to you, and by that measure The Witcher is one of the modern great games.
Minecraft (Mojang Specifications, 2010) — No, it’s not too early to include the alpha version of this game in the list of all-time great PC computer games. It’s already proof that there absolutely is a good market for exploration-oriented games, as well as being a great success story for indie game development.
Runners-up: Wolfenstein 3D, MegaTraveller: The Zhodani Conspiracy, Half-Life 2 & Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri, Star Wars: TIE Fighter, Giants: Citizen Kabuto, Knights of the Old Republic, No One Lives Forever, Redneck Rampage.
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Woot! Big up the Megatraveller!
I’d not heard of it until I got it in a box set with Wing Commander and Elite Plus. Great game.
Have you tried playing it again recently at all? Bloody unfathomable. But I remember having a lot of fun with it back in the day.
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I can’t believe no one’s mentioned the 1984 game Elite (by Acornsoft, ‘coz that’s what it says on the great wiki), for the BBC Micro. I just can’t. Or maybe someone did. A “seminal space trading computer game.” Not the first space trading computer game. But seminal.
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I mentioned it. It was in the context of Frontier, but it was mentioned. :)
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I think no one mentioned
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Betrayal at Krondor… and… Loom? I’m not suggesting them. I was just wondering if that was going to be your suggestion.
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And I also played the original text Adventure game on one of the first IBM PCs in 1984, although technically the PC was running an emulation of a (I think) PDP-10 terminal, so it might not fall within your rules. But, rules. Pah!
YOU ARE INSIDE A BUILDING, A WELL HOUSE FOR A LARGE SPRING.
THERE ARE SOME KEYS ON THE GROUND HERE.
Awwwwwwwsome.
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Not willing to read through 800+ comments but I wanted to post my candidates for listdom:
Toejam and Earl
Mutant league football
The two best games to grace the sega genesis console. I have other more recent titles but I’m sure they’ve likely come up already. (deus ex, system shock, x-com: ufo, etc…)
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lost vikings
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Everything mentioned, and Shadow Warrior.
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Its been said about once a page so far and I’ll say it again.
Total Annihilation
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This hasn’t been said every page, so I’ll said it for the first time:
Total Annihilation was a bad game.
There is absolutely nothing in Total Annihilation that distinctively sets it apart from the Command & Conquer series from which it spawned. Graphically, they’re similar. Gameplay-wise, they’re similar. It was completely unimaginative, and didn’t even come with the cheesy tongue-in-cheek storyline that made C&C endearing.
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Here’s another vote for Total Annihilation, if only to counter the fact that Fergus clearly does not know what he is talking about.
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Shirley, you’re joking. Total Annihilation had 3D terrain, actual line of sight, and a very endearing war between robots. It shall forever be remembered.
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Monkey Island : Already said but I concur
Beyond Good and Evil : Also already mentioned but it’s clearly essential and must-play
World of Warcraft : Criticise all you want, there’s a before- and an after-WoW
and… Loom : I know it’s not so well-known (for a LucasArts game) and it’s not genre-defining since no other game emulated it, but the very simple controls, the beautiful story, the incredible soundtrack (Tchaikowski’s Swan lake) and the brilliant idea of combining music and magic just make it a great game to me.
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Oh, and American McGee’s Alice ! Loved it.
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Alpha Centauri and Master of Orion (1).
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Outcast! Contrary to another poster it does have a dry humour all through it. Terra Nova, Anachronox, Freespace 2, baldurs gate saga, dawn of war and total annihilation are all games that have consumed me, along with streets of rage remake, which I’ll keep mentioning until they day I expire probably.
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I think any games that didn’t define themselves as uniquely x86 architecture games shouldn’t be allowed, my votes are:
Terra Nova
Anachronox
Blade Runner
Alpha Centauri
Sacrifice
Command and Conquer (it did define the PC almost entirely for a decade & remains the only uniquely pc genre left), i’d accept Dune 2 instead though.
Quake also defines a huge part of what the pc was to become.
Dark forces
Kotor (rather than baulders gate because as good as baulders gate is/was it’s game design is frankly horrible)
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also Hard War (which definitly wont make it in, but i feel i should draw attention to it)
maybe the original GTA
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I’ll just add a few none obvious:
- 7 Kingdoms. .
Great, very original RTS.
-Age of Empires 2 .
RTS with a great singleplayer, multiplayer and tons of fun mods.
-Anno 1602. .
Great city builder, start of the series.
-Caesar 2. .
Another great city builder.
-Carmageddon. .
Vroom, Splash.
-Medal of Honor
The first fps I actually enjoyed playing. Foundation of the CoD series.
-Return to Castle Wolfenstein
Poor single player, great multiplayer.
-Rollercoaster Tycoon
Without doubt one of the most fun games I ever played.
-World of Goo.
The game that got me into indie gaming
Plus of course anything by Blizzard/Valve/Bioware.
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Most of the obvious ones have been mentioned already, so I would just like to re-emphasize one or two.
Doom. This is and will always be one of the most simple-yet-sophisticated shooter EVER.
What they did to levels without 3D and how they managed in terms of gun feel with the tech at the time was in-fscking-credible. Also DoomEd and various other hacking and editing tools spawned one of the largest, earliest modding communities ever(you could add Beavis&Butthead, Aliens, etc pp, plus an utter mindnumbing infinity of maps. And with DoomEd you could shoot exploding, on impact burping barrels from the rocket launcher if you so wished.).
Master Of Orion. No more words needed for that one. 2 was also nice.
Final Fantasy 7 was the first genre defining port for the PC(though imho should very well have just been made for the PC as a series in the first place) and had a very well done XG / extended MIDI soundtrack. (A lot of the FF music has been released properly orchestrated and is a thrill, so check it out)
In short, if you had the proper hardware (Voodoo 2 card and XG MIDI addon-board), this game was a big bundle of epicness(and far superior to the console version).
Add to that the classic FF human touch of plot / characters and wide variety of items/weapons/slotting combinations, and you have one classic game, even if it had a very large amount of “interactive movie/novel”.
I can’t help but also point out the BUILD engine game Blood (2 was also nice, but just Lithtech’d more of the same really) as that had the player kicking heads around, using spraycans as flamethrowers and various other fun weapon and gore ideas. While not the most exciting long term play or my favorite game, it always deserves a mention for gore and weapon innovation effort in my mind.
Far too little is being done in this regard these days.
Currently formulaic pistol/shotgun/MG/rocket/laserlike beamweapon/grenades attemt to bore the modern gamer to death.
Sacrifice for superb art for the time, maybe not so much the story, though that was bearable, and mostly the mix of third person shooter and strategy. The best “Commander while in the mix” game of them all imho, and just great in-game mechanism ideas.
NOLF for (the only outside of NOLF1+2?) a very well done spy game that still easily defecates over any modern attempt at James Bond games, with for the time really purdy gfx and engine based cutscenes. Lithtech engine once more.
I am fairly certain almost anything else I could mention has been brought up before.
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Duke Nukem 3D, while revolutionary in terms of talky-ego-shooter fun-ness to me does not stand out as much as DOOM which was the real and for years ongoing mindblower, be it in SP or LAN.
Also we had a whole row of other similiarly styled games that deserve attention(Rise Of The Triad, Shadow Warrior) and tried a bit of the “This guy actually comments and talks at times, too!”).
Still, Duke was very iconic and unique and I still hold him in high regard.
Shame he has now been ruined and neutered(see also:2 weapons limit).
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I’d put a vote in for “The Void” a remarkable work of gaming art, and one that although not necessarily all that fun allot of the time stuck with me in a hunting way. And as for genre defining I still cant really pin down what The Void would really be classed as, anyone else got an idea for that?
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You know, given how much it makes and that it’s free and everything, I kinda think Runescape should be on there.
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Oh there’s so many.
The first ones that come to mind, with brief reasonings (like they are really needed):
Star Control 2
This is such a classic, and hasn’t had a worthy successor after all these years.
Ultima VII
Just simply epic, as most of the series
Ultima Underworld (1&2)
Masterpiece of it’s time, and was technologically quite an accomplishment back then
Civilization series
doh
Master of Orion 1&2
Another classic from the golden age. I wish we had a good modern version of this.
Starcraft
Given the unbelieveable following this game had (has) it would be kind of pointless not to have it on the list. I’m pretty sure that Starcraft has more logged game hours combined in the world than propably anything else. WoW and CS might come close.
Diablo I & II
Sort of created the genre, and the game is still played and updated all these years later.
World of Warcraft
Whether you like it or not, this big boy really mainstreamed and capitalized the MMO genre.
Dune II
Really launced the RTS genre.
Space Quests, Hero’s Quests (Quest for glory), Police Quests, Kings Quests
These are the games many of us grew up playing. Synonymes to adventure gaming at the time.
Laser Squad
oh my god this game was epic. I can still remember names of some of the characters.
Dungeon Master & Chaos Strikes Back
Simply amazing games that paved the way for all dungeon crawlers that followed.
Wing Commanders
Despite being somewhat arcade, the games managed to mainstream a space sim (opera). Impressive also technically at that time.
Sim City
Everyone knows Sim City. Everyone.
X-Com
The first real worthy successor to Laser Squad. They didn’t even need to change the recipe much.
Nethack
Ok really, nethack HAS to be on the list.
Lemmings
We all played it. Yes we did.
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here are some oldies…
===============
Seven Cities of Gold
M.U.L.E.
Star Fleet II: Krellan Commander
Summer Games
Myth II
Darklands
Civilization
Populus
Nethack
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I like to see my text on a webpage.
Also Comanche: Maximum Overkill
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Since everyone has already mentioned Fallout 1, Planescape and various Valve things …
Loom
Aquaria
Hitman 2
Temple of Elemental Evil (purely for the slick D&D combat, something that I previously thought was an oxymoron)
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1. Chaos Engine
2. Counter-strike
3. Carmageddon
4. Mirrors Edge
5. Psychonauts
6. Beyond Good and Evil
7. Planescape: Torment
Seven games that are often criminally overlooked in lists of awesome.
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Oh, and Grim Fandango.
And ‘Chaos Engine’ again. It’s a game I still play after fifteen years, surely that means something. Possibly that I have problems but, y’know, still.
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The Nomal Soul.
Bowie, sex & reincarnation. Nuff said.(I wrote a lengthy shpeel but alas is was ether-bound.)
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^
That’s The Nomad Soul/Omikron.
First thing it does is break the 4th wall! An amazing game.
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I didn’t see any of the gold box games listed so I would like to nominate: Pools of Radience.
Others I have loved:
Privateer
X-wing
Dark Forces
Master of Magic
Mechwarrior
Zork
Everquest
Warlords
Doom2
And a ton that have already been listed many times.
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I loved half-life when I was younger, the first fps I had ever played I believe. I’ve come to realize I got incredibly lucky, I could have easily gotten some doom or quake, lacking all the atmosphere that I crave nowadays. The story of half-life is pretty good, but the mood/atmosphere is what set it apart for me, they did an excellent job of getting you to feel like you were gordon freeman. Although it’s quite possible I was just young and stupid, I like to think it’s virtues as a game are still legitimate.
Also, if mods are an acceptable entry, absolutely loved natural selection for half-life 1, was amazing.
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Sorry, I don’t want to read 10 pages of comments, so these have probably been mentioned 500 times.
Fallout 1 and 2
System Shock 1 and 2
UFO 1 and 2 (i.e. XCOM)
Aliens vs Predator 1 and 2
Doom 1 and 2
Heroes of Might and Magic 2 and 3
Who says sequels are always rubbish?
The Thing
Duke Nukem 3D
The PC version of Dungeon Master
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Half Life 1 (but NOT 2 – too many irritations)
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Worms 1 was quite good at the time, too. I think the follow up on that franchise really diminished our collective feelings for the original game.
The first Unreal Tournament was similarly a blast, but at the time, I only played the demo (over and over and over).
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Worms was actually mentioned a bunch of times over pages 8 and 9. I’m correcting myself here. I might be the only person to have read all of the original comments (as in, no way I’m going back to read any replies that have popped up…).. And I was totally expecting
Red Orchestra to be mentioned more than 1 single time. It really does something that no other FPS would dare to do, and it does it extremely well. It’s the only authentic non-sim war experience out there, and I think for this is deserves to be mentioned one more time.
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Battlezone (FPS/RPG-version from 98) is one of my absolute favorites. It blended those two genres so well. Loved it.
But then there’s X-com: Enemy Unknown aswell! :O
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What that meant to say was FPS/RTS.
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Birthright: The Gorgon’s Alliance: literally three games in one, the whole is a lot more than just the sum of its parts and it’s a criminally overlooked classic. BR is what inspired The Creative Assembly, but Birthright even added a dungeon crawler(!) on top of the turnbased campaign/real-time battles. Politics, the low-magic Birthright setting, the bloodlines, racial rivalries, the big Gorgon threat; it’s the number one game to deserve a sequel/remake and the first (and last) AD&D grand strategy game. Dragonshard doesn’t count.
Imperium Galactica II: the only 4X game that tried to do nearly everything at once, RTS space and ground battles included. Crazy ambitious and awesome random (story) events. Games like GalCiv II feel like the devs were playing it safe after IGII.
Battle Realms: so much ahead of its time it’s scary. Fights look like real fights, it’s bursting with new ideas.
Original War: a unique and engaging roleplaying/RTS/tactics hybrid for all the reasons which make those genres good. OW provides real choices which haunt you back missions later, bases/resources, monkey workers, mannable vehicles/turrets, crawling, time travel, parties and units you grow a bond with.
Warwind II: predecessor to Original War, crazy shit that Dreamforge tried here (multiple choice, very varied races/factions, interesting NPC’s/Heroes, unique resource/population system, perimeter alarms, bridges, underground transports, stun guns) but it went unnoticed by everyone.
Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War: not always properly executed but again, an RTS with so many good ideas: sea transports/naval combat should always be done like this, manning walls and towers idem ditto.
Kohan I and II
World in Conflict (it’s better at teambased action than Battlefield, it’s server browser/matchmaking is also lightyears ahead of everyone else)
Homeworld
Space Rangers 2
Age of Wonders
Age of Empires I:
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Just noticed, the original Tomb Raider isn’t on her, and it really should be.
Also, Descent!
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‘on her’
hee hee
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plumbers don’t wear ties was done so something something about Loughborough and grunge being dead
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No One Lives Forever 1 or 2 should be on that list somewhere.
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