PC Video Games: what games do MeFites love the most?

May 24, 2005 9:34 AM

What PC video games would you consider "best of the best"? Any genre from any era is fine: FPS, RPG, adventure, anything. I'm trying to expand my gaming horizons.

I know we've had similar questions in the recent past, but I think this is different enough to warrant asking. Tell me what your absolute favorite games are in any genre. The only requirement is that they be PC games.

posted by cosmicbandito to computers & internet (69 comments total)

Out of This World and Flashback
posted by Capn at 9:38 AM on May 24, 2005

Ultima 7 (parts 1 and 2) are, IMO, the best RPGs ever released for any computer, ever.

That's the only genre in which I have a firm opinion that there is indeed a best of the best.
posted by Kattullus at 9:42 AM on May 24, 2005

Civilization II, SimCity 2000, Half-Life, Warcraft II (or Age of Empires II)
posted by ruwan at 9:45 AM on May 24, 2005

Quake, Half-Life, Diablo, Nocturne, MDK.
posted by white_devil at 9:49 AM on May 24, 2005

M1 Tank Platoon (back in the 286 days), Half Life, Doom, Close Combat 2: A Bridge Too Far, Age of Empires, Call of Duty.
posted by bondcliff at 9:51 AM on May 24, 2005

Grim Fandango, Longest Journey, Deus Ex, Half Life/Half Life 2, Diablo 2, System Shock/System Shock 2, Unreal/Unreal Tournament, Nocturne, Max Payne/Max Payne 2, Myst.
posted by lucien at 10:01 AM on May 24, 2005

Day of the Tentacle. To prevent a future where evil alien tentacle beings roam (or rather, awkwardly hop around making sticky shbop shbop sounds) the earth, three slackers must travel through time, with the help of a mad scientist, Ben Franklin and a little furry rodent. Hilarious. (Point-and-click 2D adventure game. Make sure you get the CD version, which contains a voice soundtrack; the game features some of the best voice acting ever done in a video game.)

The game was made by LucasArts, George Lucas' video game company, back when the company harboured creative talent, and adventure games were considered cool and bankable. LucasArts later made the great, instantly classic Grim Fandango, a beautiful, hilarious and oddly touching noir adventure about high-level corruption in the Mexican Land of the Dead. Again, wonderful voice acting. (Point-and-click adventure game in 3D.)

While Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee was initially a PlayStation title, it also exists for the PC. About a cute little green guy's quest to save his fellow oddworld inhabitans from destruction, it's one of the most amazing platform adventure games ever made, featuring Pixar-quality animation cut scenes (narrated in rhyme!), excellent voice acting and addictive gameplay, and a sweet story to boot. (The sequel, Abe's Exoddus is great, too, but they should be played chronologically for maximum story payoff.) (2D platform adventure game.)

Common qualities of these three games are depth, intelligence, surrealism, charm and well-written stories. They don't make them like this anymore.

I second the recommendation for Out of This World (aka Another World). It's the closest I have seen to a Moebius comic book come alive; amazing polygon animation.
posted by gentle at 10:06 AM on May 24, 2005

Everquest: There is a reason that its still going strong 6 years later and people have oriented their entire lives around it.

Civ II: Its 5:30 AM and you are saying 'just. one. more. turn.'

Age of Empires: Will be on many lists.

Doom: Didn't matter if it was a sunny day at college, I was playing Doom in a darkened dorm room.

Magic the Gathering (original non-subscription version 1997): Overlooked classic. Had many flaws, but the addictive play trumped the problems.

Sid Meier - Gettysburg: Partial to this due to being a cival war buff, but I found this game to be immensely enjoyable and was massively disappointed to find that it is not very compatible with newer operating systems. Needs a modern-day successor.
posted by sigbigups at 10:08 AM on May 24, 2005

For WWII sims: Combat Mission II: Barbarossa to Berlin; Hearts of Iron.

Turn-based strategy: Heroes of Might and Magic III.

RPGs--The Bard's Tale (the original one from Interplay, not the recent console game); Fallout.

Non-genre awesomeness--if you don't try any of the games I've listed, then at least get your hands on The Sentinel and run it with a Commodore 64 emulator. The description on the linked page says it best: I can't comprehend how Geoff Crammond conceived this game. It is an immaculate conception. 100% original. It is unique. There has never been a game like it and there never will be.
posted by Prospero at 10:18 AM on May 24, 2005

Freespace and Freespace 2 (Both from Volition). Great space shooters, and since Volition opened up the source code there are third-party (read: fan) campaigns as well, some very good and bigger than the original game.
You don't even have to pay for either anymore, since the debut of the Freespace Source Code Project. One of the player mods is a re-work of the original Freespace campaign for the Freespace 2 engine.
posted by Dipsomaniac at 10:19 AM on May 24, 2005

Wizardry 1.
posted by boo_radley at 10:21 AM on May 24, 2005

Medieval: Total War
posted by Mayor Curley at 10:26 AM on May 24, 2005

FPS has been a steady progression -- I'd say the following were the "best" within their era:

Castle Wolfenstein 3D -- the grand-daddy of 'em all
Doom -- deathmatch!!
Doom2 -- introduced "strafe" (side-to-side) movement, and with it, "circle-strafing"...
Hexen -- introduced looking up and down, albeit via keyboard
Duke Nukem 3D -- introduced mouse-look
Quake -- the first fully 3D FPS
Thief -- a first-person *sneaker*, this was a great change of pace from the twitch-fest FPS games thus far
Half-life -- took single-player FPS to a whole new level with scripted events, a real *plot*, etc.
Half-life 2 -- I've only played through the intro levels, and I'm already blown away by the immersive, interactive environment
Duke Nukem Forever -- haha, just kidding...
posted by LordSludge at 10:31 AM on May 24, 2005

I'm a fan of Sims 2 and the Myst games myself.
posted by geeky at 10:34 AM on May 24, 2005

- rpgs: fallout 2 (this is probably my favorite thing on this whole list), planescape: torment, arcanum
- first person: thief 2, thief, system shock 2, deus ex
- starcraft
- older ones: quest for glory 1,3,4, starflight 2, eye of the beholder, zork 1, adventure/colossal cave, space quest 1-3, king's quest 3, think quick, heaven and earth, monkey island 1, flashback, prince of persia, and probably others that I can't think of.

You should also check out the current interactive fiction scene - some really fantastic games if you like that kind of stuff.
posted by advil at 10:58 AM on May 24, 2005

Myst and Riven
posted by Staggering Jack at 11:02 AM on May 24, 2005

Seconding Planescape: Torment and Grim Fandango. And all my friends with free time and money -- the ones who aren't still in school anymore, basically -- love World of Warcraft and City of Heroes.
There was a similar, but not identical, question asked previously.
posted by librarina at 11:03 AM on May 24, 2005

Except for the low-poly models and slight learning curve, System Shock 2 is damn near perfect. Best villain ever. The first also comes highly recommended, but the controls make it hard to get into if you can even get it running.

For pure action, it's hard to beat Mutant Storm.

If you like shoot-em-ups, I posted about the Touhou series a while back, but no one seemed to care. Said you wanted to expand your horizons, though...

Also, thirding Planescape: Torment. Best writing I've seen in a game.
posted by squidlarkin at 11:09 AM on May 24, 2005

I've been hooked on games since I had to load them from a cassette tape. Through the years, the following have sucked productivity from my life:

Infocom text adventures (any and all)

Civilization II, my all-time favorite game

Starcraft

Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast

World of Warcraft, which I've had to quit cold turkey because it's fucking up my life
posted by jdroth at 11:13 AM on May 24, 2005

Oh, forgot to add about Mutant Storm: sadly, if you don't have a dual analog controller, it's just not the same game.
posted by squidlarkin at 11:13 AM on May 24, 2005

Star Control 2
Tie Fighter

(Older games, but total classics. The recent releases have already been mentioned numerious times)

Depending on how far back in time you want to go, Elite.
posted by -harlequin- at 11:20 AM on May 24, 2005

Some of these are pretty dated:
Wasteland (RPG)
Baldur's Gate II (+ Throne of Bhaal) (RPG)
Master of Magic (Civ-esq)
Fallout Tactics (Tactics)
Victoria: An Empire Under The Sun (RTS-sort of)
Command HQ (OLD RTS)
posted by absalom at 11:22 AM on May 24, 2005

For me, it's hands-down Master of Magic, a turn-based game from back in the days of MicroProse.
It's based on CivI/II (also at the top of my list) but throws in the extra element of an RPG with heroes and troops that gain experience plus spells to make it a true classic in my book.

I was also HIGHLY addicted to the first Diablo. One of the few games I invested enough time into to be l33t.
posted by jmd82 at 11:23 AM on May 24, 2005

squidlarkin writes "Also, thirding Planescape: Torment. Best writing I've seen in a game."

Yes.

I forgot: I also liked CivIII (though I never played CivII), and Dungeon Keeper 2, which is a fun take on the sim/strategy games -- you're the bad guy!
posted by librarina at 11:23 AM on May 24, 2005

Building on gentle's suggestions, I'd include all of the classic LucasArts adventures. Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Full Throttle, The Dig, and Sam and Max hit the Road account for some of my fondest gaming memories.

Also: The Longest Journey, the Half-Lifes, the System Shocks, the Fallouts, Deus Ex, and TIE Fighter.
posted by ludwig_van at 11:27 AM on May 24, 2005

Everyone will list newer stuff, so I'll go older:

Star Control II - the melee mini-game was so entertaining that my entire dorm floor played it non stop for months... and then one of us discovered that, oh, there's an actual ADVENTURE in here, we've just been messing with the extras. Skip the sequel and prequel, they're not in the same league.

Master of Magic: Very underrated mix of Civilization and Heroes of Might and Magic, addictive and tons of fun... but make sure you got the "final", because the release version was awful, and the later patches "made" the game.

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri: Overlooked by a lot of folks, but a great Civ II "sequel." Playing it will spoil you for Civ III, though, because the diplomacy engine is a joke compared to SMAC's.

On preview: guess I'm seconding MoM and SC2, but they're worth it.
posted by Pufferish at 11:27 AM on May 24, 2005

Wow, great topic.

RTS: Total Annihilation, Warcraft 2, Civ 2
RPG: Ultima Underworld, Wizardry 8, Bard's Tale
FPS: Doom 1 and 2, Duke Nukem 3D, Natural Selection
posted by eas98 at 11:27 AM on May 24, 2005

Starflight and XCom, for sure! Worms II also ruled. Ultimas I, II, and III.
posted by abingham at 11:32 AM on May 24, 2005

Seconding (Thirding?) Alpha Centauri, Star Control 2, and Tie Fighter. These three games deserve to be in any top five 'best games ever made'.
posted by Jairus at 11:38 AM on May 24, 2005

Civilization II (though Civ III is still good) and Tie Fighter or X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter. For me, those are the game which I've spent by far the most time on - life defining games, if you will. Freelancer is a very fun spaceflight sim as well.
posted by adrianhon at 11:39 AM on May 24, 2005

No One Lives Forever is a fantastic game that combines a few genres into a satisfying gaming experience. Your character is a female spy out to prove herself in a campy 1960s world. You get to shoot lots of people with a myriad of weapons, use cool spy gadgets, and try real hard to sneak around undetected. Good times.
posted by TheGoldenOne at 11:40 AM on May 24, 2005

(Star Wars pedant) It's not a game about a bunch of neckties fighting each other. Although "Tie fighter" might be an interesting concept in its own right, TIE stands for Twin Ion Engine. Hmph. (/Star Wars pedant)
posted by ludwig_van at 11:41 AM on May 24, 2005

Lemmings.
posted by FreezBoy at 11:54 AM on May 24, 2005

I'll see a lot of what's here already, and raise you Morrowind.
posted by gnomeloaf at 12:02 PM on May 24, 2005

RTS: Dune 2, with Warcraft II a strong runner-up. Battlezone is also damn good.

RPG: Fallout, bar none. The sequel was OK, but had a very unfinished feel (and tons of bugs) since most of the development resources got poured into some fantasy RPG. Ultima 4 is probably the best of that popular series, though U3 was also pretty enjoyable.

Multiplayer FPS: RTCW is the only multiplayer shooter that ever really hooked me. The singleplayer game is, eh, mediocre, however. I used to play a lot of multiplayer LAN Duke back in the day, but most of the level designs haven't really aged well.

Singleplayer FPS: Doom 1 and Max Payne are both very good shooters but Serious Sam is the best.

Space shooter: Freespace and Sinistar Unleashed are the titles I return to. I actually liked the original X-Wing more than TIE Fighter or X vs T, but all are good games.

Strategy: Master of Magic.

Tactical: XCOM:UFO. The original.

Adventure: Sam and Max Hit the Road, period.

Action-Adventure: Star Control II. Also Pirates!, the original. I haven't played the recent remake.
posted by majick at 12:20 PM on May 24, 2005

Oh. Mustn't forget The Neverhood, too! Good luck getting your mitts on a copy. Sadly, mine is now lost.
posted by majick at 12:23 PM on May 24, 2005

I fourth Alpha Centauri over all of the Civ games. I've always loved Civ, but the micromanagement and tedious unit manipulation ruin it for me. The Alpha Centauri team added very useful context menus and extra control options to get around the weaknesses. I was quite dismayed to find that Civ 3 did not include these improvements.

Alpha Centauri forever!
posted by agropyron at 12:32 PM on May 24, 2005

sigbigups writes "Magic the Gathering (original non-subscription version 1997): Overlooked classic. Had many flaws, but the addictive play trumped the problems."

Can be played (for free) on OCTGN. [via Cardfloppers] OCTGN can work for other collectible card games(CCGs) too, but so far only M:TG has a widely used cardset (there may be a Star Wars cardset out there somewhere.) Here's to hoping someone sets up cardsets for Illuminati, Chez Geek, or any other awesome Steve Jackson game. If this sounds interesting to you, email me for help if you need it.

Back on topic:
Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares
Planescape: Torment
posted by schyler523 at 1:02 PM on May 24, 2005

Since its only been said once I will say it again: Morrowind.

As the other greatest games of all time have been mentioned already I will suggest the leaders of the current packs:

MMORPG: World of Warcraft / Guildwars
RTS: Warhammer40k (incredible, try it if you like rts)
FPS: HL2/Mods
RPG: Wait for the Morrowind sequel due out later this year.
posted by sophist at 1:41 PM on May 24, 2005

Ludwig_van:

No, Tie fighters were originally dubbed tie fighters by the people working on the movie Star Wars because they were shaped like bow ties. The same way Ree-yees got his name from the similar functional description "three eyes". It's only in some tie-in books written many years later that some author bends over backwards trying to come up with (what he thinks is) more starwarsy (and quite contorted) retro-fitted explanations for all these things, like why tie fighters are called that, what Solo meant by doing the kessel run in under 12 parsecs, etc etc. (I personally happen to think the revisionism in the tie-in books is lamer than the original reasons).

/end threadjack

Back to game: I also second abe's oddysee and Abe's exodus. Wonderful games.
posted by -harlequin- at 1:43 PM on May 24, 2005

I'll fourth the recommendation for Star Control 2, and also add a link to the sourceforge version of it since it seems like no one else has yet.

Sourceforge Version

It seems they created a new release this past weekend that has the ending cinematics, so I definitely recommend that you go check it out! Not only is it great, but it's (legally) free!
posted by C^3 at 1:49 PM on May 24, 2005

XCom:UFO/UFO: Enemy Unknown
Deus Ex
Thief 2
Half Life (& 2)
Football Manager
the Mysterious Journey series
Call of Duty

This last week I've been playing XCom, a game predating Win'95, for the umpteenth time and not sleeping. Remind me not to do that, will you?
posted by NinjaPirate at 1:53 PM on May 24, 2005

I am digging Far Cry
posted by Livewire Confusion at 1:57 PM on May 24, 2005

Dungeon Seige 1/2 also deserve honorable mention here.

The problem with many of these old-school games is that yes.. they are great but if you have never played them before the graphics, UI, and controls are going to seem horribly outdated and frustrating. The proper question perhaps is "What games stand the test of time best?"

For my money, i wouldnt go back further than about 5 years unless you can find it free or supercheap on the net. I tried playing Baldur's Gate II a few months ago and while it is a great game the genre has grown by such leaps and bounds that I just couldnt get into it. Think long and hard before jumping into an established mmg if you dont have friends to help you. In my opinion, RTS-type games tend to stand the test of time best (Civ & Starcraft are still great even if you somehow missed them 10+ years ago), while FPS games die off very quickly once the next generation of graphics make them obsolete (1-2 years), and RPG games occupy a shady middle ground still pick-up-able after 3-5 years depending on your patience.

If you find something that looks interesting, at least check out some screenshots from google's image search. I am by no means a graphics whore, I just think you will save yourself some time and $$$ by being picky.
posted by sophist at 2:08 PM on May 24, 2005

To ask a really stupid piggyback question: with some of these older games (say, X-Wing Vs. TIE Fighter), would it be silly to expect them to work decently on recent systems?

Oh, and I vote Civ III for greatest game, with strong showings by Civs I and II.
posted by COBRA! at 2:18 PM on May 24, 2005

Cobra:
Good point. I think modern hardware is fine, but the operating system is trouble. A lot of dos games work best (or only) on dos. A dos boot disc or something is probably much easier than trying to get them running under a modern operating system. There are free dos systems availible online, anyone want to recommend one as good for this (old school gaming) purpose?

Also: Star Control 2 had an option where you could turn off the game timing function and it would run the game as fast as the computer was able too, instead of at the intended pace. Back in the day, this might not have been any faster, but a few years later, it was insanely fast, and today... I'd love to select the AI for both sides and watch the battle on modern hardware!
posted by -harlequin- at 2:28 PM on May 24, 2005

Actually, a stupidly simple, graphically crude (text mode), but highly highly addictive older game, was called pyro (I think). The idea was to burn down the building. The screen would depict a floorplan, with a few barrels of explosives already placed (plus you have a few you can drop yourself), and you would move your character (a coloured square) around the floorplan leaving a lit fuse behind you which burns ever shorter. When the lit part of the fuse passes a barrel, it explodes igniting all walls within the radius, which will spread the fire to other walls. Fire will kill you (so you can't walk into a burning wall, or let yourself be caught in a barrel blast radius when it goes off, or wait around until the burning fuse trail you leave behind catches up with you). The object was to set up the fire such that it would burn as much (or all) of the floorplan as possible, yet you would escape in one piece (which means setting it up so you can reach the exit before the fire spreads to that area, if you're aiming for a perfect score).

Kind of a real-time puzzle game, lots of fun. It was shareware, so never a smash hit, but surprisingly good.
posted by -harlequin- at 2:40 PM on May 24, 2005

Civ II and Riven.

Also, maybe Unreal Tournament just for its polishedness and straight fun multiplayer. Beats the hell out of Quake any day of the week.
posted by devilsbrigade at 2:47 PM on May 24, 2005

Betrayal at Krondor, a chapter based RPG. Who doesn't love digitized actors running about in their bathrobes?

One Must Fall 2097, a fighter. Robots that kung-fu fight! And they go CLANG when they hit!

Trade Wars 2002, a BBS trading game. A friend started one up on a personal server a few years back and it was like 92 all over again!
posted by robocop is bleeding at 2:47 PM on May 24, 2005

I can't believe that no one mentioned Wing Commander II, or WC Privateer.

There are free dos systems availible online, anyone want to recommend one as good for this (old school gaming) purpose?

DOSBox is pretty much the gold standard of DOS emulators for gaming.
posted by vorfeed at 2:53 PM on May 24, 2005

Compiled List:

Turn Based/Sim
Civilization I/II/III, SimCity 2000, Magic the Gathering (Original), Alpha Centauri, Master of Orion II, Fallout Tactics


FPS/Action/Adventure
Half-Life I/II, Unreal/Unreal Tournament, Dues Ex, Doom, Quake, Max Payne/Max Payne 2, Thief 1/2, Duke Nukem, Call of Duty, Far Cry, Catle Wolfenstein, Max Payne, Serious Sam, No One Lives Forever, Grim Fandango, Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee

RTS
Starcraft, Age of Empires I/II, Warcraft Series, Total War Series, Dungeon Keeper 2, Dune 2, Total Annihilation, Warhammer 40k

RPG
Diablo I/II, Baldur's Gate II, Morrowind, System Shock 2, The Bard's Tale, Planescape: Torment, Ultima 7, Wizardry 1/8, Shadowrun, Fallout, Master of Magic, Dungeon Seige 1/2,

MMG
Ultima Online, World Of Warcraft, Everquest


Other/Dont Know:
Out of This World, Flashback, Myst, Riven, Nocturne, MDK, M1 Tank Platoon, Close Combat 2, Longest Journey, Nocturne, Day of the Tentacle, The Sentinel, Freespace 1/2, Mutant Storm, Touhou, Infocom, Star Control 2, Tie Fighter / XWing, Victoria: An Empire Under the Sun, Worms 2, XCom, Lemmings, Battlezone, Freespace, Sinistar Unleashed, Sam and Max Hit the Road, Pirates!, The Neverhood.
posted by sophist at 2:55 PM on May 24, 2005

I just can't believe that nobody's mentioned NetHack yet.
posted by Dipsomaniac at 3:22 PM on May 24, 2005

planescape torment.
fallout2.
star control 2.

don think I've seen this one mentioned:
little big adventure 2: twinsen's odyssey (i think. twinsen's something anyways). a low poly early 3d 3rd person action-adventure.

sophist:
there was a shadowrun for the pc?
posted by juv3nal at 3:39 PM on May 24, 2005

Here we go: Pyro ][: World Terrorism
Burn down the IRS building (and others) in Washington DC.
"Avoid burning self for high score"

Heheh. Times have changed.
posted by -harlequin- at 3:40 PM on May 24, 2005

I'll see a lot of what's here already, and raise you Morrowind.

I lived loved Morrowind, but there was something more captivating about Daggerfall in the end, atrocious bugs, primitive graphics and all.

Yet more votes for Planescape: Torment, Dungeon Keeper 2, Civ II and III and Alpha Centauri. Also: Trinity.

Wait for the Morrowind sequel due out later this year.

I'll be really surprised if Oblivion actually ships this year, given Bethsoft's track record. Morrowind was something like three years late, if memory serves, and their Call of Cthulu game (which looks pretty awesome) has already been pushed back a bunch of times too.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 3:53 PM on May 24, 2005

Sophist: The problem with many of these old-school games is that yes.. they are great but if you have never played them before the graphics, UI, and controls are going to seem horribly outdated and frustrating. The proper question perhaps is "What games stand the test of time best?"

Again, I have to go with Civ2. I still play it several hours a month. Who gives a rats ass about the graphics? It's all about the gameplay.

Harlequin: No, Tie fighters were originally dubbed tie fighters by the people working on the movie Star Wars because they were shaped like bow ties...it's only in some tie-in books written many years later that some author bends over backwards trying to come up with (what he thinks is) more starwarsy (and quite contorted) retro-fitted explanations for all these things, like why tie fighters are called that...

While there's a lot to what you say, I've never heard the "TIE Fighters are named for bow ties" story (though I do not doubt it may be true). I have, however, heard the Twin Ion Engines thing ever since Star Wars was released. It's in either Alan Dean Foster's novelization, the comic book adaptation, or on the back of the bubble gum cards. It's not a retrofitted explanation.

(It cracks me up that I care. I couldn't tell you what any of the new ships or aliens are called, but damn it! I remember all that stuff I learned when I was eight years old!)
posted by jdroth at 4:04 PM on May 24, 2005

The Star Wars Sketchbook by Joe Johnston, copyright 1977, full of production sketches, and sitting in the bookshelf across from me, includes a sketch labeled in handwriting "Twin-Ion-Engine (T.I.E.) Fighter Front", in support of jdroth's point of view.

On topic: I have fond memories of Ancient Art of War.
posted by furiousthought at 5:14 PM on May 24, 2005

The most obvious 'best obscure game' choice is Planescape: Torment, as so many people here have mentioned.

Here's the 50 'must-play' PC games out of the 400+ PC games I've played in the last fifteen years, broken down into four categories and ordered from "best" to merely "exceptional":

RPG:
Planescape: Torment; Baldur's Gate 2; Fallout 2; Knights of the Old Reublic; World of Warcraft; Fallout; Ultima Online;

FPS:
Thief 1 & 2; Tribes; Far Cry; Quake; Grand Theft Auto: Vice City; Battlefield 1942; Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines; Operation Flashpoint; Grand Theft Auto 3; Half-Life 2; Counter-Strike; Half-Life; Doom 2; Jedi Knight 2; Dark Forces;

Strategy:
Medieval: Total War; Master of Orion 2; X-Com: UFO Defense; Jagged Alliance 2; Sacrifice; Age of Empires 2; Myth: The Fallen Lords; Dungeon Keeper 2; Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun; Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri; Castles 2: Siege and Conquest;

Hybrid/Other:
Morrowind; Deus Ex; TIE Fighter; Privateer; Star Control 2; Freelancer; Sam & Max Hit the Road; X-Wing; Hitman 2; Beyond Good & Evil; SimCity 2000; Diablo; Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time; Planetside; Sid Meier's Pirates!; One Must Fall 2097;
posted by Ryvar at 5:22 PM on May 24, 2005

furious thought:

It's also from star wars production art books that I learned tie fighters were dubbed that by the guys that made them after bow ties. And looking online, it's commonly acknowledged elsewhere. But it seems clear that the acronym was thought up for the name a lot earlier than I assumed. (As in, before SW was even released), which I didn't know.
posted by -harlequin- at 5:44 PM on May 24, 2005

Sophist, you say that rpg's grow by leaps and bounds. I've actually found that not to be true. Baldur's Gate, for instance, was markedly less interactive than Ultima 7 (I'm talking about both 1 and 2). Fallout had less background depth. Sure the graphics were prettier, but not markedly. Alright, Morrowind, NWN and such are very pretty, but they don't have the depth of Ultima 7. I realize that I'm coming across as a complete fanboy (which really should be alright in a thread where people argue whether you should capitalize the t, i and e in TIE Fighter or not :) ) but since playing Ultima 7 I always feel let down when I can't read all the books or bake bread or when the NPCs just stand around and don't have daily routines and when no one ever seems to working in fields. I know this might all seem petty but it really helps the immersion. Also, Ultima 7 was really well written and had tons of little easter eggs and fun little surprises you could come across if you went exploring. The game was made by a designer, Richard Garriott who had at that point spent more than a decade making RPGs and was simply at the top of his game (excuse the pun). Ultima 7 is more than 10 years old but it's still the best computer RPG yet made. At least for the PC (I haven't owned a console since the NES).
posted by Kattullus at 5:48 PM on May 24, 2005

The other suggestions in this thread are all very excellent. I'm a big sucker for storytelling, and in my book the best stories I've seen have been System Shock 2 (mind blowing), and Deus Ex (inherits a lot from SS2, but excellent in its own ways). They both merge great gameplay and tell a story that is really effective in video games. They evoked feelings in me that games rarely do. I'm pretty jaded, and tend to see through things, but DX and SS2 hit home.

Also, it got mentioned briefly in someone's larger lists, but I want to call out the Myth series. This game (and its sequal, Myth 2: Soulblighter) was a mindblowingly great game. I sacrificed my entire high school career (and likely any chances of being cool) to these games. In my absurdly biased opinion, they were hands down the best strategy games ever released for the PC. I'm a big fan of games that are not algorithmic - good players win on instinct and intuition, not following build orders. The strategy operated on a very visible level - it was all about what units you had where, and how you reacted to threats. I find that in most RTS games (specifically starcraft/wc3 style) the real strategic depth is buried. It's there, but you have to sort of hunt to find the core decisions. In Myth, they're front and center.

Besides the brilliant multiplayer (which you can still play online using open source servers, though I'm not sure how inhabited they are these days), the single player in the first game is fantastic. It has a very similar feel as the Black Company books, and is really awesome. As with SS2 and DX, it made me feel emotions I have yet to feel again in a video game. The desperation of holding an important objective against insane odds, specifically, has never left me.

Anyway, sorry to wax all historic. Needless to say, I love this game and wish more people had the chance to play it. It's paced slowly (for reasons that will become clear when you get in complicated battles) so don't give up if you spend a decent amount of time getting places. Spacing things apart in significant ways is at the heart of why this game is great - you have to make real decisions about where to send units.
posted by heresiarch at 7:21 PM on May 24, 2005

(Star Wars argument)

Fair enough, but the game is still called TIE Fighter.

Also, it ocurred to me to second Battlefield 1942. Although the sequel is due out soon, and looks like it'll raise the bar significantly.
posted by ludwig_van at 11:41 PM on May 24, 2005

Operation Flashpoint - the reason being is the huge community with third party addons/missions which completely stun and amaze me in their accurateness and playability. (A game whose engine was released in 2001 and still puts all the Battlefield clones to shame) and System Shock 2 - the only game I've ever played with an engaging and sometimes thoroughly terrifiying storyline..

Both amazing games with still very strong followings.
posted by JGreyNemo at 12:27 AM on May 25, 2005

Hmpf.

Nobody's mentioned Scorched Earth, the Mother of all Games.

FPS: the Marathon series, by Bungie. Started on the Macintosh only.

Other Mac games I loved: Hacker, PT109, Shufflepuck Cafe. I'm not the only one, either--come on out, closet Mac owners!
posted by RikiTikiTavi at 1:07 AM on May 25, 2005

Oh, man, Dark Castle and Beyond Dark Castle. Mac platformers... pure and utter genius.
posted by Kattullus at 1:21 AM on May 25, 2005

First, let me reiterate Deus Ex, System Shock 2, and TIE Fighter. These are absolute must-plays.

Other great games: Day of the Tentacle, Sam and Max, The Longest Journey, Syberia, Homeworld, the Myst series (especially Riven), SimCity (especially 2000 and 4), and Max Payne.

One more: Psychonauts has not yet been mentioned. Absolutely fantastic game that just came out; it's by Tim Schafer, the guy behind Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, etc. Words cannot describe the awesomeness that is contained within. Do yourself a favor and grab the demo here.
posted by The Pusher Robot at 1:51 AM on May 25, 2005

Descent 3.

First person shooter/flyer, in air, in tunnels, in buildings, space-stations, and even in a city. Enemies are robots. Its easy to fly, the controls are wonderful. The skill is how you maneuver and choosing your weapons.

Only PC game I've ever gotten really hooked on. I got it free with a sound card some years ago. (I'm not a big gamer)
posted by Goofyy at 2:24 AM on May 25, 2005

Max Payne 2 is one of the best games I have played, atmospheric, interesting plot, great voice acting and wonderful visuals.

Total annihilation still grabs me as far as RTS goes, although the AI is pretty poor. It's great player vs player.
posted by tomble at 4:52 AM on May 25, 2005

Dipsomaniac: I just can't believe that nobody's mentioned NetHack yet.

No kidding, NetHack was responsible for a degradation of my GPA on more than one occasion over a ten year period and I still fire it up every once and a while. The attention to detail is amazing. _Everything_ works.
posted by Mitheral at 6:35 AM on May 26, 2005