Let's compile A list of our most loved PC games of all time! It sounds like a bit of fun, doesn't it? Easy. If only we'd known. The following feature has taken the PC Zone team weeks of heated discussions, office arguments, late-night drunken text messages and email abuse to whittle down the PC's entire 20-plus year output of games into just 101 titles - and that's before we even started thinking about number one...
However, the dust has finally settled, the swearing silenced and here we are - PC Zone's 101 Best Games Ever. Enjoy this, numbers 101 to 76, and the forthcoming instalments featuring the crème de la crème of PC gaming, then don't forget to let us know if you agree or disagree by hitting the comments field below...
101. Blood YEAR 1997: The Duke 3D clone that could... And absolutely did. Fantastically imaginative maps, a bizarre steampunk vibe and the best level set onboard a moving train ever. If the sequel hadn't been such an unremitting disaster, the Blood franchise could have lived forever. Toast those zombies! Pitchfork them in the head!
100. Starsiege: Tribes YEAR 1998: It cared not a jot for the single-player, but for truly original green-hill ski fun and remarkably canny foresight into the teamplay required in the online shooters of tomorrow (well, today), Tribes is worthy of its place in this list. Vengeance delivered story, but the original provided that true jetpack glory. We miss you Tribes. Come back soon.
99. Need For Speed: Most Wanted YEAR 2005: Finally emerging into the sunlight after the night-time races of Underground, Most Wanted was a brilliant blend of arcade racing, the obligatory 'pimp my ride' car customisation and car chases that put Smokey And The Bandit to shame. And dropping a giant donut onto a pursuing police car was so satisfying.
98. The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay YEAR 2004: Escape From Butcher Bay is one of the best console-to-PC conversions ever. Vin Diesel was superb as the enigmatic see-in-the-dark Riddick, while the well-crafted story saw you exploring the universe's worst prison, chatting and swapping items with other inmates and enjoying first-person hand-to-hand combat that actually worked. Weapons could be anything from a guard's pistol to an improvised 'shiv' such as a shard of glass, and the stealth element allowed you to sneak up on enemies and push them into rock grinders or snap their necks like twigs. Also featured one of the best end-of-game levels ever. Shine on.
97. N YEAR 2005: Fun and free Flash platform game featuring simple graphics and chucklesome ragdoll physics. Control a stick-figure ninja, as he jumps, slides and bounces around the levels, avoiding mines, missiles, electric fences and other nasties - fail and you'll usually end up as a pile of detached bloody limbs. Includes replays and online high scores. Unmissable.
96. Worms YEAR 1995: "Incoming!" The original - and still the best - version of the seminal multiplayer tactical battle game from Yorkshire-based Team 17. Four teams of four worms take turns to fire a twisted assortment of weapons, including the Dragon punch, Uzi and Bazooka, to wipe out each other. Simple, addictive, hilarious and still great today.
95. NetHack YEAR 1992: In NetHack, you play a @, fighting through dungeons with your trusty d(og). NetHack was ASCII adventuring - based on the 1980 game Rogue - at its finest, with gobsmackingly deep gameplay for a game you can find on your keyboard. You could win favour with gods, research dozens of scrolls and potions, even train your pet. Version 3.4.3 was released last year, and these days, you can use a graphical interface. If you're scared of capital 'D's, you big baby.
94. Hidden & Dangerous 2 YEAR 2003: "Bugged, but brilliant" was our assessment of this hardcore WWII tactical shooter back in issue 136. Created by Illusion Softworks (makers of gangster hit Mafia), H&D2;'s huge variety of unscripted levels - from stealth missions in the Burmese jungle to full-on assaults in the African desert - keeps it in our 101 best games list.
93. Hitman: Blood Money YEAR 2006: One of the PC's great underachievers, the Hitman franchise finally spawned a classic. Easy to pick-up-and-play, with great level design, including a hugely-populated Mardi Gras. However, it was the accidental deaths that proved a stroke of genius, allowing you to drop targets into shark pools or set them on fire with barbecue fuel.
92. Grand Prix Legends YEAR 1998: The Steve McQueen of racing titles, Grand Prix Legends captured the romantic feel of the 1967 season, complete with staunchly authentic detail such as the rocket-on-wheels cars and handlebar moustaches. Incredibly hardcore, but packed full of adrenalin rushes from a time when safety was a secondary concern for the organisers of the World Championship.
91. Splinter Cell YEAR 2003: The Splinter Cell series, coupled with the Thief series, is one of the crowning jewels of the stealth genre. While later titles have brought even greater things to the table, the first was a genuine leap forward for PC gaming. Plus, with its 24-style narrative, gripping plot, Bond-beating gadgets and undeniably cool acrobatic moves, it's still brilliant fun to play today.
90. Silent Hunter III YEAR 2005: "We all live in a WWII submarine," sing the jolly submerged Nazis, just before a depth charge condemns them to a watery grave. Silent Hunter IV is the kind of game that only the PC could champion - join the crew of a U-Boat in a tense and hardcore simulation. Das Boot-iful.
89. Sid Meier's Pirates! YEAR 2004: An update of strategy king Sid Meier's 1987 classic Pirates!, this is a buccaneering adventure taking elements of role-playing, trading, naval warfare, stealth and even rhythm action romantic dalliances to create a charming whole. Wonderfully engaging and accessible with great humour, this is pure buried treasure. Thar be gold!
88. Supreme Commander YEAR 2007: Big stompy mech robots destroying shit with lasers. Always good in our book - and Supreme Commander (created by Chris Taylor, the bloke behind Total Annihilation - see no.72) gives you the ultimate all-powerful walking turret to destroy your foes in this ambitious RTS. Humongous battlefields, tons of units and tech trees, exciting skirmishes and cracking multiplayer.
87. Grim Fandango YEAR 1998: What's most memorable about Grim Fandango? The humour? The still-unique voodoo-tiki art direction? Or the fact that is was so hard that most people snapped in excess of 500 pencils before even getting to their car? Not hard like the obtuse nonsense that went on in the riddles of Discworld and the like. No, Grim Fandango had great logic. Which only made you feel even more stupid when you finally cheated. Which you did.
86. Cave Story YEAR 2005: A Japanese freeware action-adventure platformer in the vein of Super Metroid or Castlevania with lovely old-school graphics, great level design and neat weapons. Escape from a complex underground cave network, while helping the cute rabbit-like inhabitants. Cave Story could easily be mistaken for a lost classic from the 16-bit era.
85. Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 YEAR 2004: Peter Molyneux created Theme Park. Chris Sawyer created Rollercoaster Tycoon. David Braben then drew the spiritual strings of both together in a neat bow to create Rollercoaster Tycoon 3. A game your kid-sister would play, it also had the depth required to capture your bitter heart too. The real-life manager of Alton Towers must be a happy man indeed.
84. Descent YEAR 1995: "Which way up am I? Is this the ceiling? Maybe I'll just rotate around a bit... Argh! It's one of the rocket-y ones!" All these experiences and more were part of the Descent play experience - a 360-degree shooter of panoramic robot-induced terror. And occasionally nausea. Its like shall not be seen again...
83. Soldier of Fortune II YEAR 2002: Notorious for its 'Ghoul II' technology that allowed for the gory blasting off of body parts, Soldier Of Fortune II was a brilliantly brutal shooter - especially in multiplayer. Whether real-life 'military consultant' and star John Mullins had ever crouched down and attacked a headless corpse with a knife while giggling is still unknown...
82. Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis YEAR 1992: Everyone bangs on about story-telling these days, but so often it boils down to a witty line or a third act reversal where aliens turn out to be quite nice after all. The Fate Of Atlantis did so much for gaming so far before its time that no bugger seems to realise. Like Half-Life, it had a game introduction you played through before the game kicked off; like the best roleplayers, it had different story strands to follow; and like Half-Life 2, it had a female sidekick you felt genuinely in cahoots with. Plus, it had Nazis. What's not to like?
81. The Movies YEAR 2005: It should have entertained so many more. The sheer joy of creating your own dumb cinematic masterpieces in The Movies has never been rivalled before or since. Single-player was a sideshow, admittedly, but with the mindblowing Stunts And Effects expansion in tow, your efforts, if not consummately professional, were never short of hilarious.
80. Clive Barker's Undying YEAR 2001: Your favourite haunted house level extended over an entire game and punctuated by some of the creepiest sound effects rendered on CD, Undying was a relentless and brilliantly scripted affair. A first-person Alone In The Dark whose dank brilliance demanded a sequel, but instead got diddly squat.
79. F.E.A.R. YEAR 2005: Spooky girl + paranormal special forces x slo-mo bullet effects/corridors = shitted trousers. F.E.A.R. is developer Monolith's most recent jaunt into the old ultra-violence, and managed to combine ridiculous gunplay with creeping unease and a handful of shocking moments. Japanese horror-movie-influenced and really rather proud of it.
78. Team Fortress Classic YEAR 1999: It looked like Half-Life and sounded like Half-Life, yet had a taste and smell all of its own. Namely: 'teamy', 'tactic-ful' and 'absolutely raving bonkers'. With classes that fitted your personality in zodiac fashion, it's the little mod that could, would and then bloody well did. Roll on Team Fortress 2!
77. Frontier: Elite II YEAR 1993: The enormity of space is oft-commented on, but has never been felt quite as acutely as it was here. Its progenitor may have cleaved its mark more firmly onto history, but with an increased roleplay feel to its trading, piracy, Viper-baiting and slave-shifting, as a mag we prefer Frontier. Plus: less silly 'ship in letterbox' docking procedures.
76. No One Lives Forever 2 YEAR 2002: Immaculately designed, bravely pioneering and with a cracking script: the demise of NOLF ranks as one of the highest tragedies in gaming. Seamlessly merging its '60s setting with its gameplay and putting as much emphasis on dainty footwork and stealth as on blasting - Cate Archer is sorely missed.
Numbers 51 to 75 in the best 101 PC games ever coming soon...
BLood at 101 SO F.E.A.R is better than blood? you guys need to get off the drugs
List has clearly been done by the cleaning lady or its an late/early aprils fool joke. TO have need for speed in the top 100 is a fbottom anyway, nothing more than an average racer ported from the ps2.
just to reiterate whats already been said, but**s quite dismaying to see three of my favourite games , and some of the best games of all time, are already here - nolf2, the movies, and grim fandango?! and soldier of fortune II is better than grim fandango? ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MINDS!? youd prefer fun but shallow and repetitive shotgun dismemberment over a beatiful, achingly unique and stunningly crafted, dark, funny,and uttlery incredible work of art!? whoever made this list is the peter o'hanraha-hanrahan of list compilation
Sorry but Grim Fandango, so soon and Fate of atlantis was super amazing, even though i played it on the amiga it makes me think - what about the old style monkey island games???
There's never going to be a perfect top 100 of anything. It all depends on you and your personal preferences. So go and get a magic marker and a piece of cardboard and put Grim Fandango in the top 10. No one will care, but atleast it will be perfect in your eyes.
I share the dismay shown by others that Grim Fandango is already listed. But I think the list is impossible to compile! Its good to see someones opinion though i guess.
One of my favourite games of all time was Wild cup soccer and hardly anyone had heard of it:/ . Basically you played football but not just with humans there were monkeys, bears, lizards, rhinos etc and each of them could carry swords, shotguns mortars etc. Anyway that was on the amiga 500 and wouldnt therefore be in the list anyway .
I hope that Curse of Monkey Island features very high up (it might be lucky to feature at all given how un-like most PC games it is) and, even though it is multi-format, Beyond Good and evil too. Resident Evil 4 should feature relatively high (although the Cube version is the definitive one, even without the PS2 extras). Half Life 2 will feature very high of course.
looks like alot of people have nothing better to do on a sunday then have a go cvg. That said...
So when are going to see this top 100 gamers list. I expect big boy barry from games world to be near the top, as was that old granny who was strangely good at columns on the megadrive. And just to cause a bit of Controversy (a la Total Annihilation and grimfandango style) on the comments thread. why not put Jet at number seven. Remember Jet - gladiator turned supposed games expert. she used lie on a bed in her 'games boudoir' and give away cheats on a thursday...anyone remember this or did i just dream that last one up?
I lay odds now that the majority of the games in the Top 10 will be A) FPS or FPS hybrids and B) Involve lots of killing.
And we wonder why PC gaming has never become mainstream!!!
the majority of games on the market are FPS
b******s to the mainstream, haha. i quite enjoy the killing
but anyway...... god of war, gears of war, manhunt, thrill kill and the list goes on..... so please dont try to blame video game violence for anything
but now i come to think of it.... where would we be without such quality non-killing titles such as...... the sims, the sims2, the sims: pets, the sims: growing pains or the sims: apocalypse
i'd play more racing games, but they dont allow me to kill people
besides, i bet u play either sim:train or mine sweeper
Like many of you, i severely disagree with the list so far but to be honest, i dont care what CVG think about the best 101 PC GAMERS
If it was ME, i'd do a different order obviously, to suit MY taste. But regarding this list, although i'd choose a different order like i said, I fully respect their choices as, at the end of the day, it is THEIR favourite 101 PC Games. Although I do think they should change the title to CVGs top 101 etc. You get the point, you're bright enough
---------------------------------------------------- For a free Xbox 360, click this link. For more info, message me. Help me out guys, It's Totally FREE! P.S. Choose LoveFilm…Free DVD rentals for 2 weeks then cancel http://www.360giveaway.co.uk/images/360userbar.gif http://www.channel4.com/music/myband/paulhudd
We should compile a top 101 PC games that should never be in a top 101 PC games list.
1001 games more like it, i see games in this list based on what they could be rather than what they are.
well said, i feel ALOT of these kind of lists r based on "could be". not just on CVG, but right through the mystical community of video game journalists/wizards.
I have a lot of favorites in there, games that raised me up as a gamer. Starsiege: Tribes for sure, good times there, FEAR was a favorite, couple others. I'm getting nostalgic...
You can say you don't care about the mainstream, but the fact that PC gaming is now not the mainstream because of lack of genres and practically no games that allow the option of not having to kill (interesting that those games that do exactly that, like Civilization,the Sims, and Zoo Tycoon are the highest selling PC games by a long way!)
iv had a long hard think about this & u r right, but.....
the games u mention, i believe, are more likely to b played by the kinds of people who are not so clued up on piracy thus earning these games alot more sales.
normally i get jumped on for mentioning the 'P' word, but its what i believe
Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, UK BA1 2BW England and Wales company registration number 2008885
Anyway that was on the amiga 500 and wouldnt therefore be in the list anyway .
