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| Spoiler: no half-life, sorry. |
Look I'm going to tell you straight away, this list is kind of a lie because I have no real idea what my favorite is. I'm not a big PC gamer, but I've had quite a lot of time with it off and on in my gaming fun, but yet despite being more personally drawn toward Playstation and just the allure of general consoles I still find it ridiculously hard to pinpoint my favorites on a secondary platform that should be straight forward since I don't play as many games on it. I don't know if its because there were too many great moments, or because there wasn't a great enough moment that stood out that made X game rise above Y game, but numbering these amazing games was far more difficult than it was on PS3. So don't take it too seriously, but I gave it a try anyways and I'd like to give you my list. Some of these games have been modded (some need to be modded), some haven't been played in forever despite being amazing, and some that should be on this list will miss out because I have a low end card or haven't played my entire PC library yet. So overall this wont be a very competent list, but at the same time it was kind of fun to do it and I do have some sincere note to some of the positions these games have reached. Anyways without further intro, here is my attempt to name my top 15 favorite PC games.
15) Heretic: Shadows of the serpent Riders
One of the best oldest FPSs that I've played. This is just my favorite barebones 90's game, though I'll admit I haven't played doom modded yet so... yeah. Still once you have heretic up and running in Zdoom it is amazing. Great atmosphere and reskinned doom weapons, awesome power ups, great fantasy vibe, fun enemies, and secrets everywhere. I just had a lot of fun playing this and managing through all the resources and craziness. Oh and the speed... just wow, this was fast paced insanity. Full of secrets, fun, and chaos in one of the fastest pacings I've played an FPS campaign in... this game just rocks. I just couldn't get into its more RPG heavy sequels as easily, so the original remains the best in my book.
14) Dust: An Elysian Tail
It may be a combination of elements from genres I usually wouldn't bother with, but the result was just awesome. Dust is a 2D sidescrolling metroidvania hack 'n slash fighter with an RPG twist played out in between some anime scenes. I don't particularly care for any of those elements, but it all came together fantastically. I love the style and creative disney-like world (it'll be weird to see it turn anime in cut scenes), love the how fluid and smooth yet fast paced and graceful the combat feels, the super power charged extra attacks, the exploration between well set stages, and the inventory management and side quests that add more depth into something already pretty great. I guess the metroidvania bit didn't hook me so much, however it didn't bother me either as backtracking was hardly a thing and collectibles may one day push me to 100% this game. The challenge is actually surprising as the core combat and fighting is easy while the platforming is quite difficult, however I'm glad it went easy on me in the brawls as its not my thing and the platforming wasn't frequent enough to be annoying and it was all fair in its challenge. I also really enjoyed the story and humor that game had as well as the soundtrack whenever I was adventuring. The game had its share of issues, and its ok length was actually welcomed after it got a bit tiresome, however nothing stopped that game from really leaving a strong amount of fun value. I plan to go back and replay this again soon, but for now I'll just put it on the list as the ton of fun it gave me during my initial playthrough.
13) Area 51/Far Cry
Ok its a tie, and a bit of a cop out. Sue me. However both of these each held strongly as amazing corridor shooters with their own changes that accompanied their amazing and unique settings. Far Cry takes place on an island where you must destroy some made scientist before he unleashes insane and evil creatures on the world that he can hardly even control. You fight through mercs, aliens, and others as you push on through a lengthy and challenging but fair FPS. It had good weapons, an amazing and tense use of health system, amazing effects for its time and one of the few shooters to this day that actually has bullet hole textures in character models, and it was a blast. Some enemies are a little too bullet spongy though, but oh well its a great game anyways.
Now for Area 51, I'll admit I haven't played this in a while, yet I'm kind of surprised no one talks about this game anymore. For its time it had a high production feeling, great gameplay, and a surprisingly solid story. Overall its one of the better examples of my favorite type of corridor shooter. Health packs, aliens, small moments of allied NPCs and strong enemy variety, solid gunplay and weapon selection, and a generally great ton that set up some memorable moments. I remember replaying the PS2 demo to death before eventually stumbling on the full thing on PC and ran it pretty well having a blast through the campaign. Oh yeah and then there's the twist that around the middle point you get to become an alien mutant yourself for limited bursts of time. I also got to say it lives up to what you'd expect from the name as well providing an awesome alien and conspiracy filled experience. Overall its a great shooter I had a blast with on PC and I'd feel bad if I left it off this list.
Now for Area 51, I'll admit I haven't played this in a while, yet I'm kind of surprised no one talks about this game anymore. For its time it had a high production feeling, great gameplay, and a surprisingly solid story. Overall its one of the better examples of my favorite type of corridor shooter. Health packs, aliens, small moments of allied NPCs and strong enemy variety, solid gunplay and weapon selection, and a generally great ton that set up some memorable moments. I remember replaying the PS2 demo to death before eventually stumbling on the full thing on PC and ran it pretty well having a blast through the campaign. Oh yeah and then there's the twist that around the middle point you get to become an alien mutant yourself for limited bursts of time. I also got to say it lives up to what you'd expect from the name as well providing an awesome alien and conspiracy filled experience. Overall its a great shooter I had a blast with on PC and I'd feel bad if I left it off this list.
12) Garry's mod
The ultimate sandbox experience that I think has ever been made. Gmod is actually a great and stupidly straight forward name as it has its theme in it... its one big mod for more mods so you can mod them into whatever the heck you want. You basically throw yourself into a map with the source engine and let your creations and tools fly loose and command the world around you. Its a heavenly place for machinima, ragdoll foolery, or playing with insane user made weaponry, or just making your own out of basic props. You can end up making your own car out of a recliner glued to a bathtub with motorized saws attached to it. One of my favorite things with it though was NPC wars... setting up masses or specially scripted sets of enemies and allies trying to build your own wars or corridor shooter levels. On the down side the game was as buggy as you'd expect, updated could break stuff, and one of the most interesting things I find myself hating is that a full sandbox experience just isn't that interesting of a game in itself. As with my love of certain adventure games or corridor shooters, I love things that have been pre-set in a massive atmosphere with certain rules that make you think, discover, and work with them to interact with the world. A sandbox as open as Gmod is, is mostly about what you do yourself and how long you're entertained by it and... well that's just not my main form of gaming. Regardless I do get a lot of fun out of this game in between other games that come with that sort of developer made strengths,and I love the amount of freedom and playfulness that can be done in such a big canvas of a game as Gmod. It really shows the strength of the source engine and the PC modding community, and then hands over the reigns to the individual. I just can't let that sort of experience go unnoticed on this list, even if its in a broken and unplayable state for me right now.
11)Terraria
10) Cortex Command
It was a tough call to figure out where to put this on the list. My first major involvement with an indie game ever, and it really showed in the best and worst of its kind. Putting aside all the lack of base content, the insane list of bugs, and the total lack of polish and poor care from the developer, I still got a massive amount of fun and joy from this game and it left me feeling inspired that I really hope I see its mechanics again some time. The game is basically one of the best war games out there giving you in control of any unit you order down, equiping them with insane loadouts and tools to help their survival and your goal, and every single piece of them and their gear is open to destruction and has some value to the field. Helmets, vests, and shoulder/knee pads can block bullets and degrade over time, troops can use their weight to smash lighter opponents, heavier weapons or armor mean heavier soldiers and less jetpack mobility, and your weapons and limbs can all be blown away leaving the soldier to bleed out unarmed on one leg if they just barely made it out of a firefight. That alone is amazing and worth a lot of your time, and I haven't even gotten into the details on terrain, vehicles, extra scripts, and most importantly the mods. The amount of mods and creativity added on top of this game's amazing engine and mechanics is just outright insane and worth a lot of time and investment for anyone who can put up with the game's faults and learning curve. An overall great game that has one of the most fantastic concepts and set up I've ever seen in a game, and if it had been handled better or brought into a 3D FPS it would have felt much more like it.
9) Might and Magic: Dark Messiah
Probably my first real play and source of enjoyment in an RPG game, and the only one I actually completed at a decent rate. Dark messiah took the imagination and adventure in a typical RPG and turned it into a perspective that draws inspiration from a corridor shooter with a strict linear path with a focused story and sets of enemies and perils, as well as attacks and fighting that took place in first person. You still had swords and spell casting, enchantment and pain of the elements, an inventory, and a level up system complete with stat building. So it was still an RPG, just one tried in a new perspective by an ambitious developer. And it paid off. Before there was a dragon's dogma or Kingdom of amalur or even a dark souls with good combat and skill or choice to sword swings, there was at least this. Most of the attacks were still a bit barebones and down to clicking, however the perspective and feeling to it really gave me the hope that this was progress to what I wanted and made the experience more enjoyable and playable to me in a perspective that was perfect for me. The game also used source meaning it ran well and used outstanding physics that were just a joy to play with. I had a lot of fun just kicking stuff around at people, pushing goblins off cliffs, or even giving ragdolls some sort of funeral. Oh yeah and source meant it had a command console full of cheats, so that's nice for replayability. Between the playful interaction, perfect change in perspective, cheesy and well made world, and the solid RPG gameplay I just had a lot of fun with this and enjoyed it the whole lengthy ride despite my usual distrust and poor reception for the genre. It was a step in the right direction and one of the most unforgettable gaming adventures I've had. Meanwhile the developer went on to make another one of my favorite games with Dishonored. Sadly Dark Messiah suffers from some glitchy aging, and ubisoft dictated some rather odd decisions ranging from the tacked on "Might and Magic" license to the lack of modding support which probably hurt the game's potential. Still it deserves good recognition as a PC favorite of mine.
8) Serious Sam
This is the ultimate old school FPS stereotype whether you stand on the opposing side that looks on and mocks it or adrenaline fueled fan side. Being a big FPS fan that knows it has more than what it looks like on the surface, I tend to be on the fan side. Serious Sam will plunge you into waves and waves of endless enemies of a ridiculous and insane caliber with just enough raw firepower to kill them all in between manly moments of attitude. Its cheesy, its gamey, its old school, its destructive, and its classic fun that will have you grinning big. However one thing bugs me about people that only see it for its loud and proud guns blazing attitude is that they only think of it as a mindless immature shooter... and these are probably the same people making the same overgeneralizations as pretending FPS is the only genre that is oversaturated or think that Mario is only for children. Games are around for more than their surface value, especially ones older back when they didn't mind pulling in a niche or used strong rules to make up for primitive tech. In the case of shooters you had to handle resources, platforming and precise movement, a sense of discovery with secrets and hidden bonuses, the creativity of the world or enemies to make up for the lack of story, and the depth in your obstacles and tools. A good shooter was just as much about strategy and intelligent planning as it was about explosions and reflex. Serious Sam is one of the best uses of every single one of these mechanics from 90's shooters adding them all together while being a bit unique in how it presents them to distance itself a bit from the common 90's shooter form. It has more open outdoor environments and enemy scale than something like doom or quake, while being more silly and better paced over the post-infant stage corridor shooters like half-life or halo. It was a genius use of some of the strongest FPS mechanics and provided them under the surface of the most cheesy and insane style it could possibly come up with. Now the drawback to the series is that it isn't so easy to tell one from the other as they mostly don't advance from its roots... and honestly it shouldn't either. It provides good atmosphere and creative settings with a couple weapon and power-up tweaks in between long waits from each sequel to a series that already mastered the roots of a good old school FPS, so it doesn't really need to change all that much. However this also means that I couldn't come up with one that was too greater than another and honestly I'm just going to have to slap the series name into this PC favorites spot.
7) Worms 4 Mayhem
One of my favorite Strategy games ever made. Worms 4 was a gameplay upgrade over the brilliant worms 3D and played out the strengths unlike the fort spin-off that tried something totally different. As for the 2D games... they're good but not in my preference. Worms 4 unleashed a full fledged story driven campaign that was a nice fun to go through before setting you free into a massively customizable multiplayer masterpiece of turn based strategy. Worms 4 did take a couple steps back in a couple features, which would later be the downfall of the overmilked series, but in this case it added so much more options and fun ideas that thrilled my young imagination back then that I didn't really care too much if I lost the ability to choose the time of day on my map. You could edit massive amounts of weapons, the wind and other game defining mechanics, set values of each team, build your own weapons and team outfits, and destroy the competition with funny weapons or glide around the map in interesting challenging ways during gameplay. I used to love this series not only for its great strategy mechanics, but its customization lead to sort of build my own stories and tournaments with teams and items and their adventures across a ton of maps. And this game... this game did the series its best service if you ask me. Basically its the best worms game in my opinion, and considering how much time it sucked up and how much enjoyment worms was back in its older days, I can say this truly deserves a big spot on the list of my favorite PC games.
6) Duke Nukem 3D
Oh it was a tough time pondering whether or not this or serious sam should go ahead of each other. On one hand Duke nukem's later levels aren't all that great and its a far more linear experience set up in a feeling of less with its poor DOS visuals and awkward 90's style aiming. However on the other hand its just so much damn fun and a blast to play. This is honestly one of the best first person shooters to have existed in my opinion. It delivers on such a strong solid experience that pushed the genre forward a little bit with its style and level of interaction... and arguably its engine but that's kind of hard to say now and after quake hit. The weapons were just perfect, the secrets and set up were just brilliant, the enemy types were fun, duke was memorable for his attitude and for being a good blender of action hero cliches, and the game just delivered in every area for a 90's shooter and has been remade now to the extent of being accessible on nearly every ideal platform. However the best form is on the PC where you've got the extra levels, a ton of good mods and a stronger feeling of control. Overall I think It'd be a shame to leave this out of the list. I'm still not quite sure if I feel good about putting it over serious sam, but in the end I think I've toyed around and spent more time into duke's gameplay and its more linear and close up mayhem feels more satisfying to me compared to serious sam's masses of fields that result in a more repetitive feeling. I've got to give Duke nukem a credit over it and my favorite strategy game for now. Do PC FPSs really get much better than this?
5) Team Fortress 2
Oh yes there is a better shooter: my first and still one of my favorite true competitive multiplayer experiences ever. I love this game, even after all the changes and the giant span of time its endured it still holds up as an addictive masterpiece of a multiplayer experience that has only gotten bigger and better over time. Its a unique class heavy multiplayer experience with unique solid mechanics, undying and loving support, and so much style that combined with the community made machinima its practically its own cartoon show. It was an addictive blast to play even when it was just barebones plus mods. Experimenting with each of every 9 classes each with long list of pros and cons and then adjusting them to each and every map played while running into so many different situations as you could just as easily run into others playing with their own pros and cons. The game had such a powerful learning curve with its unique gameplay of class on class warfare with extremely unique abilities and advantages. However with time there was even more content with hat customization, a lot of different and interesting well balanced guns added, updates that added celebrations and bosses, and it all went up for free on an engine that can be ran on a wide range of PCs. Oh yeah and bot support was added, so there's that to but the game really shined with human intelligence or stupidity ruling the arenas. Despite the influenced and innovation this game brings out, no one has yet been capable of beating valve on TF2's terms over all these years. Its just such a unique and well cared for experience that it is one of its kind, possibly challenged only by the upcoming Plants vs zombies garden warfare which looks to try a super class based shooter and then there's the shameless Chinese rip-off. But lets face facts here, EA doesn't support or love its games the way valve does and TF2 is going to remain top filled with players and fun until it gets a sequel.... assuming even that could top it. I may sound a bit overly hyping this, especially since its only starting the "top 5's", but Team Fortress 2 deserves the praise as it is easily one of the best competitive designed shooters made.
4) Warhammer 40'000: Dawn of war
What more can I say than this is just my favorite RTS games set in my favorite fictional universe. I love RTS games for that feeling of being able to command the battlefield when I want a break from being one guy on it. It gives me a fun sandbox-like experience where I customize my army, configure what types of vehicles and weapons they use, and then get to play god on their strategies and turn them in other directions trying to conquor an opponent with the same ideas in mind. Being a strategy game this also opens and offers different fields of customization and deep mechanics that can be toyed with for your best experience. The genre has plenty of flaws though, but that's not what I'm here to talk about. I'm talking about being able to control armies in the Warhammer 40'000 universe across most of its factions, some of the most memorable and cheesy voice acting in video game history, a strong campaign that integrates tutorials and strategies through the space marine perspective well, and hours and hours of replayability even without mods. However after getting the full expansions and modding it all down with extra content between the codex mod and the extra endurance and customizations of the apocalypse mod, this game is just an absolute blast and is one of the best ways to represent the brutal universe of warhammer in.
3) Chivalry: Medieval Warfare
If you thought I was praising TF2 a little too much, you have no idea. Chivalry is not only an incredible game in itself that has great gameplay mechanics, smart unique class choices, and a solid amount of care and detail put into it, but it also has one of the easiest ways to sell me on a game.... deep melee combat. I adore deep melee combat in games! Being a sword swinging knight that actually has the choice to time and slice the way you want is just a great idea, and it saddens me the main RPG genre that had the best chance of making this happen is stuck trying to figure out numbers instead of fun combat. Dark messiah may have made steps to improve that, but Chivalry took it beyond the sky limits and punched an asteroid with it. Ok goofy metaphors aside, it just perfected the feeling to holding and using weapons in a brutal medieval set-up. You have stabs, verticle and horizontal sliced, can choose to swing from left or right sides, have a pull back and bash move, and a shield system full of its own weird little dynamic options mixed together with a heavy feeling that just feels good with it. On top of all this you have archery at your choice, classes react realistically to damage by armor types (blades and blunt have different effects on different classes), customization, and a few modes that seriously change up the pace. Modes range from changing objectives within a story-ish type of team objective move, then there's team deathmatch, round based TDM, king of the hill, capture the flag, my personal favorite free for all (its just soooo good to just fight anyone with the combat like this), and arguably the most interesting mode: Duel. Duel mode has you set up in special rounds where you sit in a room waiting for a free spot to challenge someone for 3 rounds in a small space. If all this sounds great just wait until you meet the community that uses it.
The community behind chivalry is an interesting one. Sure you have jerks and trolls, and they really can stink, but there are a ton of people that go around using the game's load of tools as a canvas for comedy or good sportsmanship. You'll have people running in and out of the tavern climbing all the way up the stairs to jump out the window while screaming "help me!" with in voice commands, boxing rings, people who dare to challenge your sword with their fist.... and sometimes win! There are people just spamming fire pots whenever they spawn with it just to set fire to stuff. Then you have people who actually try to establish their own chivalry code within the game. All this within a very brutal and brilliantly well done atmosphere with fun physics, deep and rich gameplay mechanics, and a really entertaining game overall. This is honestly going to be remembered as one of my favorite online games of all time. However with all that being said the last time I played this it was still buggy as hell despite plenty of patches, and bots are just plain awful in every way imaginable. So its not without its faults, but it is still a fantastic game and one of the greatest online games I've played... and one of the best PC games I've ever played for certain.
The community behind chivalry is an interesting one. Sure you have jerks and trolls, and they really can stink, but there are a ton of people that go around using the game's load of tools as a canvas for comedy or good sportsmanship. You'll have people running in and out of the tavern climbing all the way up the stairs to jump out the window while screaming "help me!" with in voice commands, boxing rings, people who dare to challenge your sword with their fist.... and sometimes win! There are people just spamming fire pots whenever they spawn with it just to set fire to stuff. Then you have people who actually try to establish their own chivalry code within the game. All this within a very brutal and brilliantly well done atmosphere with fun physics, deep and rich gameplay mechanics, and a really entertaining game overall. This is honestly going to be remembered as one of my favorite online games of all time. However with all that being said the last time I played this it was still buggy as hell despite plenty of patches, and bots are just plain awful in every way imaginable. So its not without its faults, but it is still a fantastic game and one of the greatest online games I've played... and one of the best PC games I've ever played for certain.
2) Torchlight 2
While I don't think I actually got around to posting it, this got my personal pick of game of the year in the same year as Dragon's Dogma, Dishonored, and Journey... all of those on the top PS3 game list, and two damn near the very top. While I wont say that makes it a better game, it was certainly saying a big message about how fantastic this game is and honestly that hasn't changed over time. Torchlight 2 is a reminder of why I play games though oddly in a genre I usually don't enjoy... freedom, interaction, player choice, depth in mechanics, interesting worlds, and a feeling of just raw joy and fun without interruption. That leads it to being a pure joy to play again and again. I kept coming back experimenting with builds, toying with brilliant mechanics, trying to look for fun quirky little easter eggs, or discover any traits I could about the world's monsters. The intense and deep character building leads to a lot of interesting direction you can take the 4 main classes in, and it didn't place any locked content over your head dictating your playstyle over some silly artificial barrier most RPG games will make up to force a feeling of "difference" over your classes. Screw that, you make the differences here. This all lead to a game that was never stale, never too hard, never too easy, and always fun and enjoyable. The adventure was long, the story just entertaining enough, the sound design and music were quite interesting and had an edge of mystery and magic to them, and I just adore the steampunk influences over a colorful mystical fantasy world. Oh and this game has one of the most epic dragon fights I've probably ever seen in gaming. I just freakin' loved this game, and it had me hooked and addicted until I hit that 44 hour mark.... and then I came back to sink more time in until I hit around 80. This is all without mentioning mods of course, but it gets even better there. I guess I could complain about the 90% mouse control feel to it, the lacking feel of the lore, and some nitpicks on things like how shotguns feel like the got the short end, but overall none of that comes close to taking away the value and pure raw fun I got out of this game. Torchlight 2 is a PC favorite of mine, possibly my favorite indie game of all time, and a true masterpiece.
1) Unreal Tournament 2004
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