In the recent Half_life sub-reddit thread Shocking how many people haven’t played the whole series, or even ANY of it. There was an interesting comment: The_Dook said In my opinion, you’re not a pc gamer until you’ve at least beaten one of the main Half-Life games. and it got me wondering…
If we had to recommend 10 PC games that a person must play in their life, what would they be?
I am not qualified to answer this because my gaming experience is pretty limited but there are plenty of RTSL readers who have played a LOT of PC games.
I’d like you to list each game and say why each game should be played. Please don’t put “Because it’s Awesome” because that doesn’t help anybody.
We see enough of these sorts of lists for movies and books, and I know they are available for PC gamers too but I have never really read or looked for them.
Looking for to seeing your suggestions.
Ten is a big number… I will need to take some time to think about this. 😛
Well, if ten are too many, start with a few.
Commander Keen, Abuse, Wolfenstein, Doom & Doom 2, Civilization, Sim City 2000, Duke Nukem 3D, Rise Of The Triad, Quake, Half-Life & Half-Life 2. Honorable Mentions; Deus Ex, Syndicate, Grand Theft Auto, Carmageddon, Destruction Derby, Blake Stone, Blood, Hexen, King Pin, Shadow Warrior, Star Wars Rebel Assult 2, I can’t stop, there are so many!
Tell us more about Abuse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9pUaHdtlMA
loos ok for a old pc game !
Brian, I could easily have searched and found videos etc, but I wanted him to tell me what he thinks is cool about the game.
Abuse was the first gritty, scary, platform game I ever came across. I had played doom before ever playing Abuse, but never played a platformer that could insight the fear that doom was always good for. The keys to move, and mouse to look was very responsive and tight, the atmosphere was nerve wrecking, traps that shut off lights and sent hords of aliens ( yeh, and they actually looked like aliens from the aliens movies! ) made your heart pound as your brain had to unscramble to find a way out of the mess. I never beat the game, but the emotions it incited and overall experience has stuck with me my whole life since.
sorry phillip …
No need to apologize, I just didn’t want you to think I was too lazy to search myself.
no.. if i can do some work ( eg search for video,s for you ) then this saves you the hard work … how is your injury by the way … i know you were unwell mid year and i hope you are feeling better .. ! .. have you had any contact from leon brinkman .. as i posted i had a message saying “the closure” would be complete for release before xmas … !
Thanks. My injury seems to have been an isolated incident, so fingers crossed.
I have occasional contact with Leon but don’t know any more about his latest mod than you. I suspect we will wake up in a few weeks and see that it has been released.
1) half life 2 … first real pc game i played and never put it down … one thing that stands out to me is the control system and the havok physics
2) bioshock infinite .. this is a experience .. thats all i can say … it immerses you into the game ( much like hl2 ) but the storyline is second to none …. graphics are simply stunning and ive even purchased the add on games ( burial at sea )
3) wolfenstein (2012 ) .. this was slaughtered by the critics .. however i love it .. so easy to grasp and a half decent storyline ..
4) rage .. made by id ( famous for doom ) this is outstanding …. another excellent storyline and loads of little add ons avalible … quite vicious at times
5) bulletstorm .. another game were you simply slaughter your enemy …. some really funny quotes such as “how can you kill my dxxk ”
6) you am empty .. this is a game many wouldnt of heard of and another hammered by the critics .. its made by 1A software and is a bit like marmite ( you will either love it or hate it ) .. dont expect amazing graphics,but just good fun
7) doom bfg … i wont include doom in this list as doom bfg is doom 3 with enhanced graphics .. a oustanding fps game which also inlcudes the original doom and doom 2… if you want some good shooter fun this is a must
8) alien vs predator (new release ) … this was a game i was allways meaning to buy and on the recent steam sale i purchased it … the one stand out feature i like is the way you can play one of three characters ( marine,alien or predator ) …. good shooter fun and excellent graphics
9) call of jaurez the cartel … why is it i like games the critics hate ? .. coj the cartel was thorougjly enjoyable and gives you hours of gameplay .. i actually prefer this to the original
10) Hitman absolution …. this was the first of the hitman series i managed to complete and its not like the other hitmans were not good .. it was just “hitman absolution” was better ….
thats my list …
happy xmas guys !
Here is my TOP 10:
1. Counter Strike Source
2. Half Life 2
3. Call of Duty 1+2
4. Deus Ex (first game)
5. Doom 1+2
6. Project I.G.I.
7. No One Lives Forever 1+2
8. Far Cry 3
9. World Of Guns: Gun Disassembly
10. Medal of Honour: Allied Assault
Why have you chosen each one?
1. Counter Strike Source — In my opinion the best Online-MP — best physical gameplay
2. Half Life 2 — The atmosphere of this game hogtied me, even today
3. Call of Duty 1+2 — Best WW2 Shooters
4. Deus Ex (first game) — Same as HL² — Mix of genres fascinates me too
5. Doom 1+2 — It is a classic like Wolfenstein, I am shooter addicted, not fanatic!
6. Project I.G.I. — Good Shooter, good atmosphere, nice story
7. No One Lives Forever 1+2 — I like that parody style
8. Far Cry 3 — Best Open World Shooter, a little bit genre mix
9. World Of Guns: Gun Disassembly — Good training for reactions and remembering things
10. Medal of Honour: Allied Assault — it feels like a prequel to COD — Sound and gameplay were awesome
quick one .. does anyone remember a game on the commodore 64 called “impossible mission” .. this was the first computer game that i really liked … it was 2d but the game was so addictive … it was also one of the first commodore 64 games to have speech built in … it said “say a while… stay forever ! ”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivHFP3dJAkM
Yes I remember back in late 80s I played this and never came to an end…it was a nice but hard game.
Call of Duty and United Offensive are spiritual successors to MoH-AA because they were made by the “same” people.
My list can’t possibly be comprehensive as there are entire genres I’ve ignored over the years (RTS, MOBAs, MMOs, most western RPGs). But rather than list 10 different shooters, I’m just going to make a short list of the games I feel are the most important.
– Doom
Doom really needs no introduction. Even if it wasn’t the first FPS, it was the granddaddy of everything that followed. Today, it’s still a really fun game. With Doomguy’s blistering run speed, an array of powerful weapons, and simple-but-effective enemies, Doom has become less about sci-fi horror and more about twitchy arcade action with devious, cleverly designed levels. This is a game that can make the simple act of opening a door feel like the most epic thing in the world.
– Half-Life
Half-Life is arguably the second most important FPS ever made. But honestly? I think it’s blown out of proportion at this point. To me, what makes Half-Life special isn’t the game. There’s nothing wrong with the game, but by modern standards, there’s nothing that special about it either. No, what makes it special is the community. It’s you guys and gals. The reviewers, the fellow modders, the video makers, and Phillip. If none of that was there? I’d play HL once and be done with it. So, it doesn’t surprise me when people play HL today and just don’t “get it.” As cliche as it sounds, “you had to be there.”
– Civilization V
Civilization V isn’t a game. It’s a time machine. You boot up the game and, before you know it, 5 hours have gone by. Or was it 6? It’s a game with huge ambitions: build a civilization that can stand the test of time. You must guide your empire from the hunter-gatherer age all the way to the near-future. You discover ships and chart a course around the world and meet other empires, who may become valuable trading partners or bitter rivals. You witness how gunpowder changed the face of war, the industrial revolution. And then you do it all over again in another randomized setup. Or play it in multiplayer.
– A Fallout
War. War never changes. Fallout takes place in an alternate universe where the 1950s never ended and eventually led to a nuclear war. In the post-apocalyptic suburban wasteland, you scavenge, explore and discover all the twisted stories on offer from factions destined to repeat the same mistakes of the past to fallout shelters that conducted heinous experiments on those they were supposed to protect. New Vegas is my favorite, but it’s probably not the easiest one for newcomers to get into.
– XCOM
XCOM is a tactical turn-based game that has you leading a squad of elite soldiers through various Earth locations to stop an alien invasion, all while constructing a base and trying to appease the nations funding you. These types of games usually don’t appeal to me, but XCOM has something special. Maybe it’s the fact that it takes place in a real-world setting. Maybe it’s the subject matter. Either way, this is an engaging, addictive game that’s probably a great introduction to the genre.
– A Shock
A BioShock game or System Shock 2. The series got more simplistic as it went ahead, but they all share a penchant for twisted storylines and first-person shooting with RPG elements, exploring a single imaginative world, whether it’s Rapture, Columbia or the Von Braun. Deus Ex is another franchise worth mentioning which arguably was just as influential as this series, if not more, but I have enough shooters on this list as it is.
– A LucasArts Adventure
LucasArts adventure games were very special to me growing up. I didn’t understand a lot of the humor at the time, but the vibrant, cartoony graphics are still pretty awesome. Unlike most adventure games of the time, LucasArts games don’t allow the player to fail. That doesn’t make the puzzles less forgiving, but it does mean you are free to experiment without consequence. Notable examples are Sam & Max Hit the Road and Day of the Tentacle.
– A SimCity or Cities: Skylines
Maxis’ Sim games were so popular that they spawned a myriad of spin-offs, from SimAnt to SimTower. And, most notably today, The Sims. But it all started with SimCity, a game where you must manage and construct a city, balancing the needs of citizens, services and growth with your own personal sandbox. Today, Cities: Skylines is the worthy heir of the series, but I’ve whittled away countless hours in SimCity 2000.
Or be HERE.
Here goes:
1. Half Life
2. Half Life
3. Half Life
4. Half Life
5. Half Life
6. Half Life
7. Half Life
8. Half Life
9. Half Life
10. Half Life 2
My gaming life has been a bit stunted, honestly, particularly in comparison to anyone who’s ever played ‘since childhood’. Since MY childhood didn’t have computers, and I didn’t actually own a personal computer until I was in my 30s, I’ve had to pick and choose from those games which have existed, and recommended by friends, until I finally found my PC gaming zen to so speak.
** Half Life – not just 1 or 2, but Half Life, all of it. As I came into the HL universe from another angle (Portal) I’ve gotten to enjoy it from a different perspective. I got 2 first, then 1. So my enjoyment of them is actually two-fold: the story and artistry of 2, and the amazing game design that revolutionized gaming in 1. I have an appreciation for 1 that some newer players might not, in that I’m not looking for something to ‘be’ revolutionary NOW, in fact I don’t even prefer that. But as a historical data point, Half Life 1 is invaluable.
** Portal – specifically 1, but also 2 because story is awesome and inclusion of PETI is important overall. Portal 1 is a game that drew a lot of newcomers, and from as far as I can see, a lot of *women* who would not otherwise be first person gamers, into the fold. ‘It’s not really a shooter’. It’s a puzzle game. But it’s set within the engine rules, AND within the universe of that very important Half Life game. The visuals and soundscapes of Portal 1 show how mood can affect the entire game. The mechanic of portals certainly did a lot for it to wedge this game into any top-ten list. But also the humor, the method of story telling. Those are why I go *back* to it.
** Fear – specifically 1. Many things about this game are absolutely amazing. The enemy AI, and the lighting for instance, are stunning even today and it’s been 10 years since it came out. As Portal did, the story telling in Fear 1 is pure psychological horror. I’ve seen people complain ‘but if you have a gun it can’t be survival horror!’ well, they’ve clearly never played this game. The sense of sick realization as you uncover the plot, the choices that you know had to have been made along the way in that universe, there’s only so much that shooting can achieve. That said, it has one of my very favorite guns, the Penetrator (lol) and operates just like the crossbow in hl2. 😉
** Fallout New Vegas – specifically that one, because while 3 and 4 are pretty amazing, and I’ve not played fully 1 and 2, NV has a much more coherent story and background at the same time as it’s remarkably more creative in terms of how you get around to that story. With believable characters and a whole lot of exploration to do, plus really fun DLC, I’ve played NV a lot and enjoyed it tremendously for its variety. I still rank FO4 better than 3, and what I’ve played of 1 and 2 leaves me cold because I just don’t like their format at all. I know people think they’re awesome, but the isometric / still shot conversations just make me cringe. I’m glad that they got made, but I’m much more glad that 3 and further installments were made *better*.
** The Sims – pick one. Personally I’ve had 1 and 2 and little interest in 3 and 4, because even 1 was a money grab after a while. But the games themselves have hardly changed since their inception, and in concept are still “doll house”. I like making characters. I love breeding them. And yes, I have neighborhoods filled with nothing but offspring of characters that I’ve made… But it’s not just that – the game does plenty that I don’t bother with: I’m not into micromanagement so I usually just cheat up a boatload of money and let my characters study cooking or cleaning so they have things to do in the meantime while they’re not breeding for me 😉 But the fact that you CAN send your little critters off to college, and make them into world-class politicians, and then kill them in a kitchen fire, that is hilarious and fun.
** Peggle – omg a casual. Yup. I’ve put more hours into Peggle Extreme (that came with my Orange Box collection I believe) than basically any other game I own. I love pachinko, and have a machine (over at a friends house now sadly). I don’t mind that kind of brainless repetition, because it’s not really brainless. I remember disagreeing with Yahtzee about the game, because for whatever reason he didn’t understand that you can *get good* at the game, it’s not just luck and it’s not just ‘chaos theory’ (lol it’s *programmed physics*, dude, it can’t BE chaos) causing the ball to fall a certain way. Like many ‘simple’ games, you can just fart around with it for a few minutes, or you can learn how to use the different tweaks and characters to make the game more and more complex.
** Saint’s Row 3/4 – I didn’t come into the SR universe until 3, and have zero connection to 1 and 2’s characters. I understand the complaints about how ‘stupid’ 3 felt, but it did something that 1 and 2 didn’t – it played smoothly on PC and had fun stuff to do. The tongue in cheek method of story telling really works for it, imo, particularly in 4 where you get effectively the ‘history of gaming’ as a lesson in the end-game. It’s a wonderful romp through games, and you can have a dildo-bat as a weapon. I will admit that my soft spot for SR4 is that it came out right around the time City of Heroes the superhero MMO had been cancelled, and SR4 *has super powers* in it. Not quite the same, but an adequate replacement in many ways, and improvement over certain parts too. (We never could run up walls in COH, but you can in SR4!) Also, the character creation and lack of ‘gendered’ roles has always struck me as being far superior to a LOT of other games where you even HAVE your own character to make. Fallout 4 did a very good job of this too, but only in as much as physical face creation. SR3 and 4 went positively crazy with it.
** Lego creation games – Lego games are slightly better on the console I have to say, but the PC versions can help you create things in the real world that you’d otherwise never be able to figure out. It’s more a tool kit than a ‘game’ to me, though.
** Deus Ex Human Revolution – I’ve tried playing the first DE game and… failed miserably. That’s more a fail on my part than the game’s, as I have seen plenty of reasons why I really need to finish playing it (or more accurately: get through the first mission… and get to the rest of the game). But that said, HR is among the games I’d consider to be ‘flawless’ – to a point that the one thing about it that did ‘fail’ in my mind can easily be avoided entirely just by not choosing to speak to one specific character. The music, visuals, and concepts that are in this game are, as I’ve stated elsewhere online, “as close to being in the Blade Runner universe without paying royalties”. The characters are extremely good, the voice acting is brilliant, and the fact that you CAN go through it full stealth, pacifist, guns-blazin, or anywhere in between, producing a unique playthrough each time, they’re the basis for an incredible experience. Visually and the sound scape though, those are the reasons why I melt whenever I even think about the game. I have the entire sound track (not just the one you get by buying the game) in my music directory and whenever a piece comes up… I just have to stop whatever I’m doing and listen with all my heart. The story is compelling to me, because it deals specifically with things I write about (also why I love Fallout 4, but that’s a different discussion).
** Borderlands 2 – while B1 was a hoot, B2 took what little plot there was, and actually MADE it into a proper story. Everything about Borderlands 2 is ‘better’ than 1, in my mind. It is an incredibly fun shooter overall, though I would always prefer it be more PC-like and give us proper save abilities rather than checkpoint-only saves. The enemies are varied, hilarious dialog is found everywhere, and the skill trees up until the raid bosses make the game incredibly fun to tweak. The down side is that if you WANT to grind end-bosses and raid bosses, you HAVE to have specific items or you just can’t do it right. It’s fun in coop but that’s not how I choose to play most games which have it, because I get tired of not setting my own pace and missing out on story bits. A very large world, with an incredibly good cast of voice actors, and (until they ruined him in every other later release) one of the best villains ever produced for a video game, Handsome Jack. Jack in Borderlands 2 is absolutely on par with GLaDOS in Portal. The terrible things he does to my beloved Mordecai’s bird made me actually cry. The DLC for the game is also really, really impressive, particularly Tiny Tina’s dungeon – the exploration of a young girl dealing with the loss of her best friend is a lot more deep than you’d imagine a game like this could ever pull out, but they do it, and beautifully. For the record, I hated the Pre-Sequel with a passion, and would choose to take a couple things it did right (the low-gravity boosts, and some of the guns) and just scrap the entire thing for something better.
** Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic – this game stands on its own in the Star Wars realm, it’s got its own little quirks (why can’t you jump? ever?) but along its way it really does introduce a lot to the SW franchise. It shows a good amount of flexibility with the character interactions you can manage, and has far more believable characters than some of the movies…
** Insert something here about Mass Effect. I haven’t played them, but I will. I really will. I know I’ll like them, but I just have played everything else on my steam list before them 😉
Note that I don’t have a lot of fantasy games on my list. I don’t care for them at all, really. But that’s not saying other people wouldn’t swap out Skyrim for FO3, or a Lord of the Rings game for something else.
Hi Zekiran
fallout new vegas is one of my recent purchases but i cant get into it … what are the aims or goals of this game .. can you direct me in what i should be doing ?
i also recently purchased saints row 4 .. wow is that one crazy game … im currently up to were you need to fly the aliens craft … however up to there was amazing … its not the sort of game i would of bought from a game store but it looked a good deal on steam so what the hell !
borderlands 2 is another game i own … now thats a awesome game …. the cell shaded graphics make borderlands what it is and im still midway through this game
the only deus ex game im currently playing is deus ex the fall … quite difficult and very stealthy in parts but should be a challenge
would you believe i also have “peggle” .. i got this free on the EA game client “origin” .. now thats a addictive game .. i try to avoid playing this too much as hours of my life dissapear ..( you know what i mean )
and lego .. no i dont own any lego games,allthough when i was young ( in the 1970,s ) i owned a massive box of lego and managed to build the empire state building … also had a go at the tower bridge in london
some good choices there Zekiran … take care and happy xmas !
Oh god no, The Fall is the *very worst game I own*. Oh. God. I’m so sorry. No, no no. You need to get HR. The Fall is … a bad, bad BAD app port. BAD. BAD APP. *hits it with a rolled up newspaper*. It is only backstory for characters who appear in HR. I wanted to play it, really I did, for the back story and information it might contain. And then, tried to play it. Almost a year later when they finally released an ‘update’ doubling the size of the game install and adding things like ‘keyboard customization’ and other such bits that should have been there in a PC game in the first place, *no one* has played it since, and my steam forum thread about whether anyone HAS tried to play it has gone without reply. I’m not touching that garbage with a fork. HR on the other hand… *made me want more back story* in the first place, which is why I even own it!
As for NV, the idea is that you wander about looking at the different groups, chatting with people, getting to know them, and eventually you WILL get into Vegas itself, with much more of an idea of what to do. It’s more or less free format up until then, but once you’ve gotten TO the plot, you’ll know. There’s a tremendous amount of exploration and fun to be had before then, really. If you have the DLC, I’d warn away from Honest Hearts, but only because it’s ridiculously easy to break by going the wrong direction or killing the wrong person. Old World Blues… well, if you love Half Life, there’s a LOT to love about that one. 😀
SR 4 is just pure stupid fun. In 3, I drove quite a bit because you had to, but in 4 even though there are plenty of achievements to get for driving and some mini-games with it, once you have super speed, you don’t need to get IN a car let alone use one to drive. Climb to the top of a tall building and *glide your way across the whole island*. THAT was why I found myself misty-eyed at the loss of City of Heroes, because flying over a gorgeous realistic looking city scape… sigh.
As far as Lego goes, my housemate bought an XBone specifically with the Lego Dimensions game. It was well worth the price, because Lego + Valve + Warner Bros + everyone else under the sun = one incredibly fun game that even a console n00b like myself could enjoy. The Portal portions of it truly match with the Valve games, more than enough to consider them to be ‘as canon as it gets’ – given the PETI I feel that ‘every’ mod is canon for Portal.
*raises a toast* to everyone have a great holiday season!!
Wait … are there people that didn’t play THE WHOLE Half Life franchise + portal and portal 2 and are still begging for Half Life 3 ? I really want to scream now to these internet ‘gamers’ that hype hl3 so much are the reason why valve is afraid to release it .
If you go into your Steam library’s achievement comparison page, you can see the percentages of people who have never completed the games. It’s really sad, actually. Of course, it’s also really sad that even though my ex showed me Half Life 2 to begin with, HE never bothered finishing it. It set me on this course long ago, once I remembered ‘oh hey I did see that! I have to play that now!’ after playing Portal.
The achievement list though, it’ll show you that only a certain percentages of people have the ‘final battle’ achievements – their names escape me but you know them when you see them. I mean, i can’t fault anyone for not having the Neighborhood achievement in episode 2, I’ve never been able to get that one. But I did FINISH it, and plenty of people never got halfway through.
Ok, I’ve had some time to think about this and here is my list. It’s not quite 10 games, but it’s the ones I recommend.
FPS – Shoot things in the face!
Half-Life
This is THE first person shooter. The first game to truly bring story into the first person genre and it handles it in such a way that it is nothing short of sublime. Sure, the sequel and episodes continue that story, but they are nowhere near as atmospheric as the hallowed halls of the Black Mesa facility. While they do a good job conveying the devastation the original disaster had on humanity, Half-Life 1 puts you right in the middle of it all as it unfolds. Combined with the frankly ridiculous catalog of mods and maps that are now available, there is no reason not to love Half-Life. Even if the graphics are too dated for you, you can buy Black Mesa instead, which follows the same story in a mind boggling example of dedication by a team of developers from around the world.
Alternatively: Half-Life 2 and Episodes, Bioshock Infinite
Go on an adventure
Fallout 4
I absolutely LOVE the Fallout universe. It takes a fantastic blend of retro futuristic sci-fi and post apocalyptia and throws you head first into it. The game world is simply massive and offers endless hours of things to explore. While I’m not a fan of the original isometric games and their turn based controls, Fallout 3, New Vegas and of course Fallout 4 let you create any character you can think of. You want to be a fat, balding science nerd who keeps to himself and is an expert at hacking into terminals and shooting laser rifles? Fine. You want to go for the muscle bound jar-head who decimates his foes with a sledgehammer? Do it! The world is your highly irradiated and grotesquely mutated, giant oyster. This is closely followed by Bethesda’s other franchise, the fantasy heavy Elder Scrolls series.
Alternatively: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Mass Effect series, Far Cry 4
Play with Friends
Grand Theft Auto 5
While this is certainly available on the consoles, the PC version has much greater graphical fidelity, offers uninterrupted and free online play and allows you to use third party applications such as TeamSpeak to communicate with one another. Grand Theft Auto 5 gives you an entire STATE in the US to play with, including the mighty, LA inspired city of Los Santos, the surround woodlands and deserts and the enormous Mt Chiliad. All of this can be driven through, flown over, parachuted into and run across. Not only that, but you can design your own race tracks, fight in deathmatch arenas, rob banks, shoot machinima, anything you can think of you can likely do it. YES! That DOES include sitting in your apartment with your mates, knocking back beers and watching TV… Like, seriously. When you catch yourself grinning like an idiot, while doing nothing more than driving a flashy car across the state of california listening to a radio station that plays your own custom playlist, something has been done oh so very right.
Alternatively: Garry’s Mod, MineCraft
Compete
Rainbow Six: Siege / DOTA 2
Some games require a little more concentration and demand that you knuckle down and communicate clearly with your friends. I have included DOTA 2 in this entry, simply because Siege ONLY JUST came out and I’ve only played a couple of nights with friends. While these games don’t have you endlessly chuckling away like idiots in the same way GTAV would, they are a thousand times more satisfying when you get that big win. You actually lean into the screen, warning your buddy of an incoming threat, laying down covering fire (or spells in DOTA) to keep him out of danger and helping him up when he takes a hit. If you don’t have five regular online friends, then the matchmaking systems in these games has you covered, but the experience is so very different with randoms who you cannot really communicate with easily.
Alternatively: Counter Strike: Global Offensive
Point and click and point some more
Discworld & Discworld 2: Missing Presumed
Point and Click adventure games are a thing of the past these days, unless you take indie developments into account. Back in the day however, they were THE best option for story driven games, before they became a plague of quick time events and awful voice overs. Naturally, point and click adventures were best played on the PC due to the mouse being the primary controller. While there are many titles on offer, including Broken Sword and the Lucas Arts games (which I haven’t played) Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series always had a special place in my hard. Eric Idle’s unique voice was perfect for the hopeless wizard Rincewind’s sarcastic tone. Certainly a couple of games worth trying out if your into puzzle solving and British humour with a touch of slapstick for good measure.
Alternatively: Broken Sword series
1. Half Life 2 & Episodes: The perfect PC game featuring actual thinking and of course shooting.
2. Deus Ex Human Revolution Director’s Cut: Stealth, Choice, Shooting, Conversations, and terrific level design make this one of my top games of all time
3. Thief 2: An all timer for me in the Stealth genre…such replayability, and all of those fan missions!
4. Dishonored: Another great title, this one features stealth, and a more vertical approach to map making. The “powers” you can use on the enemy and the environment make this a must play!
5. Myth 2 Soulblighter: Terrific strategy and combat.
6. Skyrim: THE ultimate FPS RPG game with a huge mod community to make a great game even better!
7. Far Cry 3 or 4: FPS with guns blazing, stealth and huge gorgeous open world environments.
8. Black Mesa: Half Life updated for “modern” gamers…great level design and story.
9. Hitman Absolution: Setting up the perfect assassination has never been more challenging, and fun!
10. Bioshock: Creepy story telling in a very cool, underwater utopian city…wild combat with guns and powers.
the game “dishounored” is another game i own .. i love the steam punk theme around the game and the weapons are unique to the game … theres alot of stealth needed to complete this ( which i havent yet ) but im glad i bought the game
i also see you like hitman absolution which is one of my ten … a outstanding assasin game with some of the best graphics ive seen in any hitman game
the far cry 3 and 4 choice wouldnt be on my list … i think far cry 2 still reigns supreme in the far cry series .. that was so addictive and i couldnt put it down until i finished it .. 3 and 4 have lost the plot in my opinion … !
finally skyrim is a game i hear rave reviews about but dont know if i would like it … is it worth purchasing ?
good choices zooloo .. happy xmas pal !
I will limit myself to entire game series ranking doesn’t play a role for me they’re all must play titles.
1. Mass Effect series – A science fiction gaming series which offers wonderful graphics, music, an amazing story plot, one that I haven’t seen such as this in any game or movie before. And life like characters both animation and voice wise. In essence you grow really accustomed to your fellow npcs and care for them. They’re currently working on Mass Effect4 (ME: Andromeda) absolute must play.
2. Tell tales Walking dead series – A classic point and click adventure series just like with Mass Effect it offers wonderful music multiple choice selection what ever you decide may result in different outcomes regarding character deaths. Wonderful music, incredible voice acting just like in Mass Effect. This is only a must play if you do like the tv or comic series.
3. Back to the future – If you liked the movie series you should also give a try to the Telltale game series which expand upon that story line “Back to the future”. Kinda cool and with the original doc brown actor talking and somebody who sounds exactly like Marty did.
4. Unreal series – Possibly one of my first shooters I played along with the Quake series. It had an intense story line in Text format but was unlike Half-Life a solo shooter so no npc backup (unreal1 & Return to Napali Addon U2 had npcs in it). 🙁 In any case the graphics back at the time were outstanding and so was the game play. Even still today it’s pretty to look at. And those games had a similar strong modding community than Half-Life had. So tons of mods and graphic enhancement kits are out there waiting for a download. You can buy it for few bucks on GOG.com
5. KKND series – Just like Dune2 the grandfather of modern RTS it was another RTS game series which was kinda fun to play. It played 100 years after a nuclear war when the survivors of that holocaust left their bunkers just to discover that mutated former humans now occupy the Earth. Conflict is guaranteed . 🙂
6. Homeworld Series – Just this year a remake as been released of Homeworld1 & Homeworld2 polishing up the graphics and adding tons of new modding support. You can get it on steam. It’s once again RTS but this time in 3D and you basically build massive fleets of ships out of your mothership and shipyards. The Homeworld series has possibly some of the most intriguing storylines ever It’s just wonderful and you truly feel responsible for your fleet. If you like the Battlestar Galactica plot then you will feel at home right away in Homeworld as the plot of the first game was somewhat similar yet more complex. Those games won over 50 game of the year awards back then.
7. Atlantis series – There is a total of 5 games of it. They had a lovely story line in which you played an Atlantean a member of a already flourishing culture while the rest of humanity just started forming their governments and exploring the seas etc.. It was full of twists and mystic and ancient knowledge etc.. The games are listed in the 3D Adventure category.
8. Star Trek Elite Force series 1&2 – If you like Star Trek you should give this one a try. The first contained the voices of all original actors (at least in the German version) and the 2nd featured Picard & Tuvok only. Both games were written like additional episodes of their respective television shows. Both games run with the Quake3 Engine so graphics & game play are also kinda good.
9. Battlezone series – Once again a lovely story though not ground breaking yet the game play was incredible even still today Battlezone 2 has a small modding community like 15 years later or so. The specialty of this game was that you could build bases in Ego perspective, 3rd person perspective or in rts mode if you had a relay bunker. The unit management was also kinda cool x9 units per squad and a maximum of 11,12 squads. It is a science fiction game and plays on unknown planets or also on planets such as Pluto etc.. (Honorable mention: Armored Command – a game similar in style but very old)
10. Duke Nukem3D + Series – I don’t think I need to say much about this one. That along with Quake were possibly some of the first real shooters after Doom. 🙂
honorable mentions:
Roller Coaster Tycoon series (game 4 coming soon)
Army men series (as a kid back then)
Serious Sam series (Great coop fun)
Star Trek Armada Series (Great story line worthy of additional tv episodes.)
Sins of a solar Empire Rebellion (must play regarding certain Star Trek, Star Wars, BSG mods)
Company of Heroes series (must play if you like RTS and ww2- sp+mp)
Armed Assault series (Used to do intensive modding for that game 7 years straight. Everything you can imagine is possible in it with a very easy to handle ingame Editor)
Half-Life series + Black Mesa (Obviously I didn’t add it to the list as we already know these titles and love em.)
starship Troopers: Terran Ascendancy (replay the events of all movies and of the novel – based upon the movie version costumes)
Theme Hospital (Look for CorsixTH “Freeware” continued by dedicated fans and new content)
Settlers II (Look for Return to the Roots continued by dedicated fans and new content)
c&c series & Dune 2000 (open ra & The Dawn of the Tiberium Age “freeware” nice standalone mods.
Sim Copter (Was one of my ultimate favorite games back in the old days.. You were a pilot in a helicopter and managing all sorts of crisis with your attached microphone and water bucket. Such as dissolving riots, clearing traffic jams, rescuing people of boats, hunting criminals making a run for it in their cars etc.. Wish they’d make a remake of this. You could also play on your own created cities which you just had to import into the game out of Sim city 2000.)
That’s more a collection of things I did enjoy over the years quite a lot while the titles mentioned in the top10 are in my opinion must plays. These days besides Half-Life and Company of Heroes2 I don’t play much anymore due lack of time and morale.
It’s a cool question and here are my games, and a short reason of them
1) HL 1&2, Just amazing story told into the game and opens a whole modding universe of possibilities and also millions of ways which it’s story can be continued OR NOT, in the unknown HL3…
2) Age of Empires 1-3, There can be A LOT of strategy games in history, but AoE start everything about this rich genre of historical strategic combat. Come on!! You just have to try it!
3) Descent Saga 1-3, Possibly not very well know, but is quite fun to play, and has a nice story, is the perfect blend between a FPS and a spacecraft game…
4)GTA SA, there are many GTA games but this is special to my heart, because of the great story in it, very into the mafia hollywood style, but besides that because its modding potential is awesome and they’re a very rich community still doing cool things to keep this game alive.
5) Sim City 4, To me this is like the perfect City Sim ever built. is not even 3D but its modding potential is just awesome, is worthy and is on Steam, I know Cities Skylines, is possibly the worth inheritor to this game due to its modding capacity, but Sim City 4 allways will be a special platform to create some really awesome cool megapolis.
6)Strike Fighters by Thirdwire, ANY of them!! Do you love historic military aviation? Do you like action with not many realistic controls, and also have fun shooting down war birds? Well what do you wait to buy and download any from this cool series, also with a huge and well dedicated modding community.
7) Call of Duty 1-2, those which main topic was 2WW. they are immersive as hell and pretty realistic a cool fun SP WW2 experience without any doubts.
8)Men of Valor, again I shall ask, Do you like Vietnam War stuff? Do you want a cool story and SP FPS experience?, well then you must try this game.
9)Left 4 Dead 1&2, Is simple and that’s why it’s just awesome. just kill some zombies and survive the mayhem of the infection…. is SP and its campaign modding community is just big as hell.
10)Portal 1&2, related to HL Metaverse, also cool and I’d say quite make a revolution in making puzzle games fun…
I’ve got a list of 15 games so far. Need to think really hard to reduce it to just 10.
Listing ten games from the hundreds I have played is impossible! They all had merit in their own time and some even later.
Standouts would be:-
Star Trek- Mainframe computer. The Klingon’s were letter K’s; high graphics for 1980!
Intellivison – Some many games. I could play football with my brother! Amazing sound and graphics! Space Spartans with voices! B-17 Bomber. “Bandits at 6 o/clock”!
Colecovision – Boxing with ‘Boxing glove’ controllers! Worms with a trackball and Turbo. Racing F1 cars with a steering wheel and accelerator pedal, even with pitstops!
Commodore 64 – Ghostbusters. Busting ghosts, driving Ecto-1 even the song with words at the start! I had a huge sack of C64 game cassettes!
Superfrog – Amiga platformer with great graphics and Lucazade powerups. Colourful, musical and easy to grasp . Just a fun game.
System Shock 2 – My first good fps after Half Life. Great graphics and an interesting story. Very creepy in places and so much to explore and discover. I felt like I was on the Von Braun!
Deux Ex – For it’s sheer depth of detail and story this fps had it all; action, adventure, exploration and a satisfying end.
Drakan – Order of the Flame. A 1999 sword and dragon fairytale game with great graphics and the change to fly a dragon! Ground and air fighting in my first non-space 3D adventure game.
Half Life & HL 2 – HL was an amazing and graphical game that made my old PC graphics card throw its hands in the air! But it set a new standard and was truly amazing, even though later sequels stopped me finishing it!
Half Life 2 was simply outstanding in all areas and still is because of the huge number of mods I have played because of it. So many hundreds maybe thousands of hours of game play and variation. I could easily add many mods to a best game list.
I could name hundreds of games I’ve enjoyed and classed as outstanding…