Must Have Played: PC Games
 

It seems more and more that I've missed loads of excellent games for PC over the years...

These are a few that I've recently looked at that seem pretty good:

The Witcher
STALKER
Fallout series
Left 4 Dead
Newer Ultima series
Braid
Deus Ex (how'd I miss this one?! It's awesome!!!)

What are the games that you think are the "Must Have Played" from the last 10-20 years?

I want to include some brief synopsis in the Abandoned Times, so please post your thoughts and suggestions!
:rocks:

Anachronox! :D (yeah I bet Lulu saw this one coming :p)
The Longest Journey and it's sequel Dreamfall are fantastic games
the Thief series
System Shock 2
Starship Titanic
Gothic I-II

And this is where I just shut up, before I get carried away :)

This would've been a lot easier, if I knew what have you already played.

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines
First three X-Com games
Diablo
Starcraft
Dune 2
Doom

Civilization | Master of Orion 2 | Heroes of Might & Magic 2
Ultima 7 | Fallout 1 | Arcanum | Ultima Underworld
Total Annihilation | Red Alert
Diablo | Sacred
Doom | Deus Ex | System Shock 2 | Unreal Tournament 99'
Tyrian 2000
Duke Nukem 2 | Commander Keen series

Not for me, TA - I meant for in general.

The games that you think people should play that are from the last 10-20 years.

Games like Maniac Mansion and Day of the Tentacle; Mario or Sonic (though they are for consoles primarily).

I'm assuming games like HL2 are no-brainers for the list, thus I'm not going to include them. I'll be also limiting myself to only games I have played personally, since otherwise I can write entire books. Also, I'm not going to mention games already posted by the others in this thread.

-Silent Hill series. You can even play the main parts on the PC. The ports are decent. That's not the problem. I think on PC it's less scary, because you can control the characters easier. The game remains scary though, and it's still one of my favourite.
*The first part, even though not released on PC, has an unofficial PC port, which is also decently made.
-Max Payne series. My personal opinion is that the second part is worse than the first.
-World in Conflict. I'm not sure about this one. Of course the game is great, even though really short, but I wouldn't really say it's a must-play.
-Neverwinter Nights series. Some people hate it, I don't.
-Indigo Prophecy (aka Fahrenheit). Great storyline and atmosphere, a bit exaggerated at the end. Mostly an adventure game, but with interesting fighting sequences.
-Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. One of the few western survival horrors. If we consider the Penumbra games as simple adventures, then this one's probably the only survival horror with a first-person perspective.
-Penumbra series. Horror adventure games based on sneaking and isolation. Great stuff.
-Tribes series. Fly and kill.
-Titan Quest. Just because it's better than both Diablos.
-SiN series. An alternative to HL series. Too bad the episodes were cancelled after the first.
-Shenmue series. The only games on this list not released on PC.
-Castlevania series. I changed my mind. Play these too, the ones before 2000.
-Giants: Citizen Kabuto. I was kind of disappointed there were no humans involved in this game.
-Syberia series. Original adventure games. Follow the trace of the lost Mammoths.
-The Suffering series. Action horror games, based on moral choices.
-SWAT 4. Haven't played the rest of them, but this one rocks.
-Age of Wonders series. Found it kind of difficult, but this is definitely a must-try.
-Europa Universalis series. Lost hundreds of hours on these.
-XIII. You might want to try this one, mainly because of the graphics/design. The rest is great too, but nothing that wasn't done before.
-Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened. Great Cthulhu-themed adventure game with free movement and fp perspective, just like in Penumbra.
-Legacy of Kain series. Just because cool people play it. Seriously though, great games.

Also take a look at Dark Earth and Savage: Battle for Newerth, though a bit more polishing was needed for these games.

Lets see, I'll post the games that gave me the most play fun:
***= Still on my HD.

System Schock 2 ***

Keepsake

American McGee's Alice (2000)

Unreal and sequel RTNP ***(still a blast in COOP
UT: only if you're a DM nerd, not for me ......)

Doom*** -of course- (In SP with DoomsDayHQ and to play online: SkullTag)

Doom 3*** (yes, indeed, don't forget to use the OpenCOOP mod, it's a pretty good game online in COOP mode, and of course the Classic Doom mod, gives you the original Doom maps in the Doom3 engine, lovely).

FarCry ***(lovely)
Add Far Cry2, but only if you're a real fan of the genre, the first one was better IMO

Serious Sam*** and Serious Sam: second encounter***. (A blast online!)

STALKER*** (and run it a second time with the excellent Oblivion Lost mod !)
STALKER2 was a bit of a disappointment for me ..... *sigh*

Half Life-Opfor-Blue shift. (If you can get your hands on HL source***: do it)


For the flight sim fans:
European Air War***
Almost all of Jane's
Apache Longbow***
Gunship 2000
Comanche (1-2-3)

And I would add "to try games" if you're a fan of the FPS genre:
Red Faction***, (not that the gameplay is really thàt good, but it's an interesting game with a good game engine. Good online gameplay

Unreal2

[Edit]
Add Penumbra (series) to the list.
And Bioforge (+remake***)
[/Edit]


Games to avoid at all cost:
HalfLife 2 (all of them)
Tomb Raider (all of them)
Crysis. (Neat graphics, great game engine, that's all I'm afraid, gameplay is below zero mark, boooooooooooooooooooring ..... *sigh*)
Halo (Same remark as Crysis)
I'll probably get banned/killed now ...... lmao

[Edit²]
Problem with such lists is that you forget most of them. Damn.
[/Edit²]

Following on from Hunvagy's suggestion of The Longest Journey series, I'd say Syberia (though I've not played the sequel.) Although the gameplay/puzzles aren't particularly inventive, the game is a work of art. An art nouveau cum steampunk treasure :)

And of course, everyone should play Monkey Island one and two, lest I revoke their adventure gamer card.

Hm, I played Legend and Anniversary and didn't find them bad at all. Not exceptional either, though. :p