Support NeoGAF

[inm8num2]

http://www.pcgamer.com/most-important-pc-games/

The most important PC games of all time changed how we make games. How we play games. And they changed us. To celebrate them, we did something a bit different on the following pages of this feature. We reached out to game designers—look out for Richard Garriott, John Carmack, Sid Meier, Chris Avellone, Jane Jensen, Tim Schafer, Cliff Bleszinski, Warren Spector and more—plus many former PC Gamer editors and a few other writers you may recognize to help celebrate the legacy of the PC. Enjoy!

Here's the list, but there are some interesting quotes to go along with each entry.

Spacewar! (1962)
The Oregon Trail (1971)
Colossal Cave Adventure (1976)
Rogue (1980)
Zork (1980)
Wizardry (1981)
Pinball Construction Set (1983)
King's Quest (1984)
Ultima IV (1985)
SimCity (1989)
Commander Keen (1990)
The Secret of Monkey Island (1990)
Civilization (1991)
Dune II (1992)
Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss (1992)
Wolfenstein 3D (1992)
Myst (1993)
Frontier: Elite 2 (1993)
Doom (1993)
Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger (1994)
UFO: Enemy Unknown (X-COM: UFO Defense) (1994)
Quake (1996)
Tomb Raider (1996)
Diablo (1996)
Ultima Online (1997)
Half-Life (1998)
StarCraft: Brood War (1998)
Starsiege: Tribes (1998)
Thief: The Dark Project (1998)
Baldur's Gate (1998)
Everquest (1999)
Counter-Strike (1999)
System Shock 2 (1999)
Quake III: Arena (1999)
The Sims (2000)
Deus Ex (2000)
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (2002)
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (2002)
Battlefield 1942 (2002)
DotA (2003)
EVE Online (2003)
Second Life (2003)
Half-Life 2 (2004)
World of Warcraft (2004)
Dwarf Fortress (2006)
Team Fortress 2 (2007)
Spelunky (and Spelunky HD) (2008 / 2013)
Minecraft (2009)
League of Legends (2009)
Broken Age (2014)

Honorable mentions:
Microsoft Flight Simulator (1982)
M.U.L.E. (1983)
Wasteland (1988)
Prince of Persia (1989)
Another World (1991)
Outcast (1999)
America's Army (2002)
Unreal Tournament 2004 (2004)
Crysis (2007)
Mass Effect (2007)
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011)
Dark Souls (2012)
Kerbal Space Program (2015)

 

[Tenrius]

Reminds of the book 1001 Games You Must Play Before You Die.

Also

Spoiler

Bloodborne got robbed

.

 

[dugdug]

Hell of a list. Really like that they went way back and covered all the eras.

 

[Megatron]

Did tomb raider release on oc the same day as on saturn/ps1? Or was it a late port?

 

[fresquito]

Broken Age? What am I missing here?

 

[Tecnniqe]

Im missing a few games but at least they got Dune up there.

Heroes 3 got robbed.

 

[mclem]

I'd put Wing Commander 1 over 2, simply because it was perhaps one of the first games to say: Yes, the PC can do arcadey fun stuff as well.

Edit: In fact, it's not 2 on there, it's 3! 3 was notable for the CD-ROM side of things, absolutely, but WC1 was a watershed, if I remember correctly.

Broken Age? What am I missing here?

I suspect that's less the game itself and more the circumstances of how it was funded, and the openness of the development process.

 

[CecilRousso]

Broken Age? What am I missing here?

You didn't read the text about it?

 

[dugdug]

Broken Age? What am I missing here?

Why it's important: Changed the way games could be financed in a flash, and over the next several years gave fans a more detailed look at the process and challenges of game development than ever before.

Fair reasoning, IMO.

 

[vocab]

Broken Age? What am I missing here?

Probably its success on kickstarter.

 

[Wanderer5]

Broken Age? What am I missing here?

Probably has to do with its success at Kickstarter.

 

[Jimmyfenix]

Did tomb raider release on oc the same day as on saturn/ps1? Or was it a late port?

It came out in north america on all platforms on the same day but for whatever reason Saturn users in EU got it a month earlier than EU users for PS1 and PC

 

[ViewtifulJC]

Broken Age? What am I missing here?

The huge precedent it set for Kickstarter, and the perils and promises of crowd-funded video game development

 

[brau]

Broken Age? What am I missing here?

 

[Kezen]

Crysis absolutely deserves to be in the list and not relegated to an aside.
No STALKER is also unforgivable.

 

[Hibiki Kurosawa]

UT04 was only an honourable mention? B-but it's UT04

 

[fresquito]

Was it really the first KS to be succesfully released?

 

[CecilRousso]

Was it really the first KS to be succesfully released?

Nope. Not the first game on kickstarter, and not the first one of them to be released. But it was the one that by far had the most impact.

 

[mclem]

Was it really the first KS to be succesfully released?

No, but it was the first gaming one of that scale.

 

[dh4niel]

No games between 2010 - 2013? Really?

 

[Kusagari]

They either need to put DotA on there separately or put Warcraft 3 on there to represent it.

 

[NumberThree]

They either need to put DotA on there separately or put Warcraft 3 on there to represent it.

Check again.

 

[Syf]

Looks like a good list for the most part. Surprised no Warcraft 3 given what it birthed.

 

[SkeptiMism]

No games between 2010 - 2013? Really?

Games from the last 10 years are pretty few in the list anyway. It's not the best games of all time, but the most important ones.

 

[Wellscha]

Why isn't Star Control 2 on the list?

 

[Danneee]

I'd argue that Command & Conquer was more important to RTS than Dune 2. Even though Dune 2 was the first modern RTS C&C made it mainstream, accessible and really inspired a load of clones.

 

[Sammy Samusu]

Reminds of the book 1001 Games You Must Play Before You Die.

Also

Spoiler

Bloodborne got robbed

.

I saw that book yesterday, lol. I never knew such thing existed.

 

[espher]

I'm actually impressed by how on-point this list was. There are a few things I would consider removing (I'd take out Q3A, though I'd need to read their rationale, and put Prince of Persia in, to name just one example), but... pretty good.

 

[Wanderer5]

Did tomb raider release on oc the same day as on saturn/ps1? Or was it a late port?

Same day I think (via DOS at the time).

Also having been recently playing this game, I really agree on the quiet exploration. I still LOVE something like Tomb Raider 2 where it can get pretty busy with human enemies, but the isolation in TR1 is just godly when it just about Lara vs Environment sans a couple human enemies as you explore the levels to uncover their lost secrets.

 

[Nugg]

Looks like a good list for the most part. Surprised no Warcraft 3 given what it birthed.

They chose to put directly DotA there (the original mod, not Valve's DotA 2)

 

[Empty Space]

That seems like a pretty reasonable list. The historically significant release for PC have always pretty clear cut in a way that console stuff never has though. I think Portal probably belongs on that list, at least in my mind it way a different way to do narratives in games and it's one of the first games I felt got kind memed to death. If outside factors like being the first major crowd funded game can cause Broken Age to be on the list, then it can apply to other games too.

The list also probably could use something to represent the YouTube gaming era, although I have no idea what game that would be. I guess Minecraft is sort of that, but personally I see it as a precursor to the trend. Starcraft setup esports as a thing and League made it big globally. The YouTube stuff needs its League equivalent if Minecraft is Starcraft in this analogies. Maybe that game doesn't exist yet?

Crysis absolutely deserves to be in the list and not relegated to an aside.
No STALKER is also unforgivable.

Stalker is a great game by all counts but it's hard to give it credit for changing the gaming landscape in a significant way at least as far as I can tell. I played it way after the fact, so maybe there something lots of games are taking from it that I missed.

EDIT: I guess one could argue that it brought about the survival fad that got big with Day-Z, but I still question if that stuff will stand the test of time considering none of those have called themselves feature complete yet.

 

[Fuz]

Decent list. I would have put Daggerfall instead of Morrowind, but nevertheless it's pretty well though.

 

[Compsiox]

DayZ changed how we make games by basically spawning a new genre and defining it.

I know there was STALKER but I think DayZ definitely revolutionized the genre.

 

[The Lamonster]

Nice to see DotA (2003) on the list. That's the original popular MOBA. I would have also had Warcraft 2 or 3 on the list.

Also worthy of note - Half-Life appears to be the only series where more than one game made the list.

edit: and yeah, where's Crysis?

 

[h0tp0ck3t]

Good list but come on, no Fallout 2?

Edit: Ooops nevermind misunderstood the article

 

[Azar]

Hey all,

This was my baby for the past seven months or so. It's been a long time coming. If you're at all interested in the history of PC gaming I hope you read the actual article, because I think who we got to write entries about these games, and what they had to say, is the real treat. Anyone can make a list of 50 games. But I really wanted us to have something to say about them, and for some real heavyweights to have their voices included.

Getting Paul Neurath (Ultima Underworld, System Shock), Chris Avellone (Planescape Torment, KOTOR 2), Sid Meier (Sid Meier's), Jane Jensen (King's Quest V, Gabriel Knight), Jeff Green (CGW, once our main competitor!) and some other amazing people from the games industry to write about why these games matter was, well, pretty cool.

 

[JawesomeJaw]

The only thing I could think that is missing is something that stands as a comment of the proliferation of independent games in the early part of this decade. Spelunky kind of fits in that space, but is probably more on here for the roguelite lineage. I want to say something like Braid or World of Goo fits in there, but they seem a bit too slight for this list.

 

[Rizific]

Why is broodwar on there but not the original SC? And why is Dota on there but not wc3?

 

[SteveO1683]

X-COM 94 made the list, this is fine.

 

[impact]

ctrl+F counter-strike

all is well here

 

[GavinUK86]

Deus Ex? Check. Half-Life? Check. Half-Life 2? Check. List is ok in my book.

Like the Mass Effect mention. Not an important PC game but an important game nonetheless.

 

[Tenebrous]

Surprised Ultima VII didn't make it. List looks solid, though.

 

[rashbeep]

I'm glad America's Army got some recognition. That game was the tits.

 

[vocab]

Jane Jensen (King's Quest VI, Gabriel Knight)

Fixed.

 

[mothball]

Seeing that list makes me miss when PC gaming was PC gaming and not just shinier console gaming.

 

[Empty Space]

Why is broodwar on there but not the original SC? And why is Dota on there but not wc3?

Broodwar is what made esports big not the base version Starcraft. Starcraft is an expertly crafted game but outside of that doesn't bring a whole to table. The same can be said of Warcraft III it did a lot right but the truly lasting legacy there is WoW, which got its nod and Dota which also got mentioned.

The only thing I could think that is missing is something that stands as a comment of the proliferation of independent games in the early part of this decade. Spelunky kind of fits in that space, but is probably more on here for the roguelite lineage. I want to say something like Braid or World of Goo fits in there, but they seem a bit too slight for this list.

Portal while published by Valve and not really an indie game is kind of that in my mind considering it's beginning as a student project. I very much feel like Portal was the vanguard for the $20-$40 dollar indie games we see today the same way Braid was for the $10-15 stuff on the 360 and eventually everywhere else.

 

[Pantaghana]

Crysis absolutely deserves to be in the list and not relegated to an aside.
No STALKER is also unforgivable.

Sadly, STALKER's impact on the FPS genre as a whole has been non-existent.
Currently replaying the entire series (just cleared X16 a few hours ago), both the lack of impact and the fact that we are not likely to get a proper sequel is criminal.

 

[Psychoward]

But they're missing the best RPG of the last decade Dragon Age 2!

 

[squidyj]

....man, now I want to play some MOHAA.

 

[kinaesthete]

Some nice writeups in there, especially ones from devs talking about games that directly influenced them like Tom Francis on Spelunky and CliffyB on Doom. If there's anything conspicuously missing here I'd suggest Cave Story based on influence alone. Aside from being a great game, it was a vanguard for the one man devteam explosion in the late 00s and was a significant influence on the community that spawned Spelunky and Minecraft which happen to be on this list, and Undertale which would probably be on it if this list was made in 2018 or so.

Also worthy of note - Half-Life appears to be the only series where more than one game made the list.

Ultima IV/Ultima Underworld/Ultima Online are also on here but those are pretty significantly different things. There's also Quake/Quake III, but Quake III seems kind of redundant here except for popularity.