Ultima VII

There are more wonderful games being released on PC each month than ever before. In such a time of plenty, it's important that you spend your time as wisely as possible. Thankfully, we're here to help. What follows are our picks for the best PC games ever made.

Tagged with Battle of Britain 2: Wings of Victory, Bernband, best games, Combat Mission: Barbarossa To Berlin, crimson skies, Day of the Tentacle, Dune II: The Battle for Arrakis, else Heart Break, Falcon 4.0, feature, Google Doodles, Inkle, Microsoft Flight Simulator X: Steam Edition, NEO Scavenger, Panzer Elite, Papers Please, Red Baron, Secret Habitat, Sid Meier's Civilization IV, Sid Meier's Gettysburg, Silent Hunter 3, Stick Shift, Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance, The Blackwell Legacy, 80 Days, American Truck Simulator, BioShock, Burnout Paradise, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Cradle, Crusader Kings II, Crypt of the NecroDancer, Dark Souls, Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition, Day Of The Tentacle Remastered, Deadly Premonition, Deus Ex, Devil Daggers, Divinity: Original Sin 2, Doom, Dota 2, Dragon Age: Origins, Dungeon Keeper, Dwarf Fortress, EVE Online, Fallout: New Vegas, Final Fantasy VII, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Half-Life, Halo, Hexcells, Hitman, Invisible Inc, League of Legends, Legend of Grimrock, Minecraft, Nidhogg, No Man's Sky, OMSI, Oxenfree, Planescape: Torment, Portal 2, Proteus, Quake, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, Spelunky, Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, The Last Express, The Longest Journey, The Sims 2, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Thief II: The Metal Age, Thief: The Dark Project, Thirty Flights of Loving, Ultima VII, What Remains of Edith Finch, World of Warcraft, X-COM: UFO Defense.

For a few horrible minutes during E3, it looked like Bethesda might seriously claim that The Elder Scrolls and Fallout were part of the same universe. Thankfully, not. Despite this being an era where Sony wants a Ghostbusters universe and Universal thinks demeaning the Universal Monsters by linking them with a top-sekrit monstah hunting group led by Dr Jekyll is anything other than schoolboy fan-fiction,…

Tagged with feature, lands of lore iii, RPG, The RPG Scrollbars, tides of numenera, wing commander, Fallout 4, System Shock, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Ultima VII.

I forget which game it was, exactly. If I had to pick one, I'd say probably the text adventure Humbug. It doesn't really matter, as it's not really the game's fault, but I still remember the sadness of being told to go into the inventory and realising that while I was thinking of a big room full of bubbling liquids in interesting flasks and other…

Tagged with feature, RPG, The RPG Scrollbars, Two Worlds, Divinity: Original Sin, Divinity: Original Sin 2, Fallout 2, Fallout 3, Ultima VII.

Looking back on System Shock, one part inevitably stands out more than any other. SHODAN. The goddess of Citadel Station. With her words she turned a futuristic maze into a horrific hunter/hunted situation, where survival was about clawing back control and beating the machine at her own game. It’s an impressive achievement… but especially when you consider that really, she was little more than a…

Tagged with clouds of xeen, feature, RPG, speech packs, The RPG Scrollbars, Ultima VIII, System Shock, Ultima VII.

Full disclosure time. I'm about to talk about Fallen London [official site] by Failbetter Games, a game and company that I've now done a fair amount of writing for. Please pause to get the necessary pinch of salt to take with anything that follows, if you wish. However, my love for this crazy Victorian universe goes back a lot further than that, and this week…

Tagged with Failbetter Games, feature, The Elder Scrolls, Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds, Divinity: Original Sin, fallen london, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Ultima VII.

Just before the Christmas break I was trying to catch up on all of the interesting games that I hadn't found time to play earlier in the year. Else Heart.Break() was right near the top of the list, even though I have zero interest in games that expect me to learn how to program in order to have fun. If I learn how to program…

Tagged with feature, NPC behaviour, RPGs, Assassin's Creed Syndicate, Divinity: Original Sin, Divinity: Original Sin 2, Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition, Grand Theft Auto V, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call Of Pripyat, Ultima VII.

Since the dawn of RPGs, two things have remained constant: heroes require armour, and players will always want to find out what happens if they strip it all off and run around. Some would call it a secret test of a game's devotion to world simulation - that if characters react, it says good things about the developers' devotion to detail. Others just think it's…

Tagged with Hard To Be A God, The Age of Decadence, The RPG Scrollbars, Age of Conan: Unchained, Dragon Age: Origins, Fable Anniversary, Fallout 4, Scarlet Blade, Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Ultima VII.

I miss manuals and their kin. They're often still provided with games, I suppose; usually PDFs to explain how to play and to give jerks on forums something to insist you RTF if you dare complain that something isn't clear enough. I'm not really thinking of that side of things though, but the ones that felt like they were part of the overall experience. The…

Tagged with Drakkhen, feature, The Bard's Tale, The RPG Scrollbars, anarchy online, Ultima VII.

Over in Everquest II, they're trying an experiment at the moment - what's that? Yes, Everquest II. People are still playing it. The original as well. I know, I'm surprised too, but never mind. Specifically, they've created a prison server called Drunder. The idea is that instead of banning trolls, griefers and cheaters (presumably up to a certain point), they can simply throw all the…

Tagged with feature, Guild Wars, RPG, The RPG Scrollbars, Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition, EverQuest II, Guild Wars 2, Second Life, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Ultima VII, World of Warcraft.

An entirely objective ranking of the 50 best PC RPGs ever released. Covering the entire history of computer role-playing games is a daunting task and attempting to place the best games in such a broad genre in any kind of order is even more daunting. Thankfully, we are equal to all tasks and below, you will find the best fifty PC RPGs of all time.

Tagged with Anachronox, Avernum: Escape From the Pit, Baldur's Gate II, Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition, best games, Best RPGs, Betrayal At Krondor, Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition, Din's Curse, Dungeon Master, Eye of the Beholder, feature, FTL: Advanced Edition, Legend of Grimrock II, NEO Scavenger, Neverwinter Nights™ 2 Platinum, Pool of Radiance, risen, Shadowrun: Dragonfall Director's Cut, Space Rangers 2, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Game of the Year Edition, The RPS Bestest Best Games, Ultima Underworld, Wasteland 2 Digital Deluxe Edition, Wizardry VIII, ZangbandTK, ADOM, ADOM (Ancient Domains Of Mystery), Brogue, Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition, Darkest Dungeon, Darklands, Deus Ex, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Diablo II, Divinity: Original Sin, Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition, Dragon Age: Origins, Dwarf Fortress, Fallout, Fallout: New Vegas, FTL: Faster Than Light, hand of fate, Mass Effect 2, Pillars of Eternity, Planescape: Torment, Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale, Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic, Sunless Sea, System Shock 2, The Banner Saga, The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Titan Quest, torchlight, Ultima VII, UnReal World, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, Wasteland 2.

Every Sunday, we reach deep into Rock, Paper, Shotgun's 141-year history to pull out one of the best moments from the archive. This week, Adam's celebration of videogame cartography, from cloth maps to digital records of procedural worlds. This article was first published in 2011. Some of my earliest memories of gaming are not of the games themselves but of the things that came bundled…

Tagged with feature, From The Archive, infocom, maps, maps in games, Grand Theft Auto IV, Silent Hill 2, Ultima VII.

Every Sunday, we reach deep into Rock, Paper, Shotgun's 141-year history to pull out one of the best moments from the archive. This week, Adam explores his own gaming history to understand why he plays and why he writes. This is my first week back from a holiday, during which time I barely looked at an internet, let alone wrote on one. I didn't play…

Tagged with feature, From The Archive, Ultima Underworld, Crusader Kings II, Dwarf Fortress, Minecraft, The Sims, Ultima VII.

In a year potentially chock full of amazing classic-style RPGs (Wasteland 2, Pillars of Eternity, the beginnings of Torment, etc), it's easy to overlook Divinity: Original Sin. That, however, would be a tremendous mistake given that the Ultima-VII-inspired Kickstarter darling looks to have depth and personality in spades. I corralled Larian in my very own (adoptive) hometown of San Francisco, and we played the opus-in-the-making's…

Tagged with A Game and a Chat, feature, Larian Studios, video, Divinity: Original Sin, Ultima VII.

This is my first week back from a holiday, during which time I barely looked at an internet, let alone wrote on one. I didn't play any games either, unless you consider freezing to death on a remote Welsh hillside to be some sort of game. As is often the case, not doing something for five minutes has made me think about why I do…

Tagged with feature, Ultima Underworld, Crusader Kings II, Dwarf Fortress, Minecraft, The Sims, Ultima VII.

I was only young when I played Ultima VII but I had already ventured to the depths of dungeons that dripped with dread, partaken in interstellar war and defended my home planet from invaders. Like Roy Batty and all people who grew up with games, I had seen and done so much. Between adventures in space, I’d rezone my commercial districts or build a new…

Tagged with feature, gaming made me, origin systems, richard garriot, RPG, Ultima VII.

Some of my earliest memories of gaming are not of the games themselves but of the things that came bundled in the box with them. Whether it was a hefty manual, full of lore and encyclopaedic listings, or a little extra something. Most of my games don't even come in boxes anymore, although sites such as Steam Covers can help to keep the physical alive.…

Tagged with feature, infocom, maps, maps in games, Grand Theft Auto IV, Silent Hill 2, Ultima VII.

Young people. Good grief. Your ignorance is as plain as those spots on your greasy face. Don't you know anything? Can't you be bothered to learn anything? Did you even read the words of esteemed colleagues Rossignol, Walker and Smith detailing the first three parts of this Olympian list of The Most Important PC Games Of All Time? I am quite sure that I, Deacon…

Tagged with Aliens vs. Predator, Audiosurf, Blade Runner, Command-&-Conquer, Darwinia, Dune II: The Battle for Arrakis, feature, Freelancer, Minesweeper, Sid Meier's Colonization, The Very Important List Of PC Games, Total Annihilation, Warcraft II, Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War, BioShock, Deus Ex, Diablo II, Dungeon Keeper, Fallout, Fallout 2, Grim Fandango, King's Bounty: The Legend, Mass Effect 2, Minecraft, Peggle, Planescape: Torment, Plants vs. Zombies, Spelunky, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, The Sims, Ultima VII, World of Warcraft, X-COM: UFO Defense.