ScientificPizza
Banned
wow, this is actually a pretty great list
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The 50 most important PC games of all time (PC Gamer)
- Thread starter inm8num2
- Start date
Missing X-Wing or Tie Fighter.
Day of the Tentacle too.
Maybe Flight Simulator.
Daggerfall > Morrowind
Warcraft 2 > StarCraft
I'm gonna say Monkey Island 2 > Monkey Island
Three Ultimas seems excessive when they only give a nod to King's Quest from Sierra and not Larry or Police Quest.
I'm good with the rest.
Day of the Tentacle too.
Maybe Flight Simulator.
Daggerfall > Morrowind
Warcraft 2 > StarCraft
I'm gonna say Monkey Island 2 > Monkey Island
Three Ultimas seems excessive when they only give a nod to King's Quest from Sierra and not Larry or Police Quest.
I'm good with the rest.
ZeroZeroQuatre
Member
The 7th Guest ?
Alone in the Dark ?
Little Big Adventure ?
Phantasmagoria ?
Kinda sad to see that those titles are among their influences.
Alone in the Dark ?
Little Big Adventure ?
Phantasmagoria ?
Kinda sad to see that those titles are among their influences.
human onion
Banned
I'd say Cave Story belongs in the list, but otherwise it sounds on point.
And yeah, Skyrim is bleh
And yeah, Skyrim is bleh
No one cares whether you like them more or not. This isnt about merit or popularity, its about influence.
I really liked the Tim Schafer bit on Zork!
Joseph Merrick
Member
skyrim's inclusion is questionable, even on the honourable mentions list. it's important because it immediatly made it onto pcgamer's best 100 games of all time or whatever lists. hehehe.
wish they'd included some racing games/sims. a geoff crammond (grand prix or gp2), or a papyrus (indy500, gp legends), or gtr2 or rfactor. or maybe even iracing, maybe.
wish they'd included some racing games/sims. a geoff crammond (grand prix or gp2), or a papyrus (indy500, gp legends), or gtr2 or rfactor. or maybe even iracing, maybe.
Good list. It's a great way to look at the history of PC gaming and it's definitely interesting to see how the game design has shifted and reiterated over the years.
It's a fantastic game, but sadly it hasn't spawned high quality successors the way the games on the list did.
Thanks for posting here - it was a fun article and I enjoyed reading what everyone had to say about these games and their places in PC gaming history.
I'm also shocked this part was not written by Richard Cobbett.
I do disagree with Jeff here:
Myst was different but it was still an adventure/puzzle game. Aside from its multimedia-related appeal, many people enjoyed its blend of challenge and exploration.
That's the way I was commenting. Morrowind and StarCraft are clearly iterative from their trailblazing prequels. Leaving out flight and space shooter sims seems weird.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
ThreePiMatt
Member
I'd say Spelunky and Broken Age are questionable. Though I'd agree Broken Age's importance is largely related to how it got made as opposed to what it ended up being.
I think Command & Conquer and Warcraft could probably find a place on this list. Max Payne pretty much set the standard for third-person shooters. Maybe a MechWarrior game could fit in there somewhere. And definitely Crysis. There was always that cycle where new consoles would come out and they were the new hotness with all the amazing graphical whizbangs. But Crysis was the inflection point. After Crysis, the PC was solidified as the place where high end graphics reigned.
I think Command & Conquer and Warcraft could probably find a place on this list. Max Payne pretty much set the standard for third-person shooters. Maybe a MechWarrior game could fit in there somewhere. And definitely Crysis. There was always that cycle where new consoles would come out and they were the new hotness with all the amazing graphical whizbangs. But Crysis was the inflection point. After Crysis, the PC was solidified as the place where high end graphics reigned.
Vigilant Walrus
Member
Does Medal of Honor: Allied Assault belong on this list?
It started the wave of FPS, but I think Saving Private Ryan was more the cause of that. MoH AA was a good game with terrific sound design, but it doesn't strike me as anywhere near as important as all these other games.
Still, it's a very solid list that you can tell is made by people who have played games a lot longer than the current editors of IGN and Gamespot and their "best games of all time" which seems to think that gaming started in 2001, with a few omissions in the 90s.
It started the wave of FPS, but I think Saving Private Ryan was more the cause of that. MoH AA was a good game with terrific sound design, but it doesn't strike me as anywhere near as important as all these other games.
Still, it's a very solid list that you can tell is made by people who have played games a lot longer than the current editors of IGN and Gamespot and their "best games of all time" which seems to think that gaming started in 2001, with a few omissions in the 90s.
Joseph Merrick
Member
literally not a single racing game/sim on the list :rollin
Except the reason they give wouldnt apply to their parent games. Like Broodwar's asymmetrical design and esports influence or Morrowind's detailed 3D world and influence on console rpgs. Doing it first isnt the only kind of trailblazing.
Turin Turambar
Member
It's about popularity too. Popularity gives influence.
It's why Morrowind is there and not Daggerfall, and the same with Starcraft > Warcraft 2.
You need to read the list again.
I suppose that is true
Always forget that it has that Starsiege name. I retract my bitching. List is perfect.
Robert at Zeboyd Games
Banned
Cave Story would be the obvious choice for that.
Also, they should have listed Broken Age as "Double Fine Adventure" to emphasize that it was its Kickstarter that was important, not the released game (which was heavily delayed & met with a resounding thud).
CecilRousso
Member
I think it's important to note that this is "most important" and not necessarily "best", which is why games that had better sequels are on there, and games that were individually great but didn't really break new ground or set up a paradigm shift didn't make the cut.
I love Star Control 2 and TIE Fighter as much as anyone (both games are on my all-time Top 5), but they wouldn't make my list of 50 most important either. :3
That being said, Q3A is a weird inclusion on this list (esp. over UT99 or UT2k4) for this reason. It didn't feel like it did much to make it "important" when compared to Q1 or Q2.
I love Star Control 2 and TIE Fighter as much as anyone (both games are on my all-time Top 5), but they wouldn't make my list of 50 most important either. :3
That being said, Q3A is a weird inclusion on this list (esp. over UT99 or UT2k4) for this reason. It didn't feel like it did much to make it "important" when compared to Q1 or Q2.
ViewtifulJC
Banned
It basically comes down to Q3 vs UT for this kind of list. Q3 won the war, sorry Tekno
Yeah I guess you could also define important as the most popular.
The Lamonster
Member
Let's not forget SkiFree.
ShadowSwordmaster
Banned
I thought at least one of the Total War games would be on the list.
That is a good point actually. At least an honorable mention would have been nice.
While its one of my favorite games of all time, I dont know if its important. It didnt cause a seachange in videogames ushering in an era of sci fi RPGs (although I wish it did... ... ...)
mcz117chief
Member
The Spelunky one is weird
there have been literally hundreds of other and arguably better roguelikes before it, I never understood the appeal of Spelunky and I can't imagine it had a major impact on the video game industry but I could be wrong. Can anybody explain, please?
there have been literally hundreds of other and arguably better roguelikes before it, I never understood the appeal of Spelunky and I can't imagine it had a major impact on the video game industry but I could be wrong. Can anybody explain, please?
MrCunningham
Member
Broken Age can be looked as as a landmark title for what it did to video game crowdfunding. This game broke $3,336,371 dollars in 2012, which was pretty extraordinary. It got the ball rolling for multi-million dollar crowd funded games.
I kind of feel like Cave Story needs to be on this list. It always felt like a pre-cursor to the current indie scene. Otherwise, this is a good list.
I don't care for it, but it's probably a combination of a) 'breakout' title in the genre of roguelike-likes (I know some friends that hadn't played a roguelike before it and have gone on to play many roguelike-style games that came after it) and b) not being a garbage quality Game Maker game (establishing that good things can be done with 'limited' tools). I don't know how many more RPGMaker/Game Maker successes there have been since (0?) and it does strike me as a weird inclusion on a list that seems to be driven by impact on the industry. Maybe I'm just overlooking some of the stuff that was spawned by it.
Reflextions
Neo Member
No gmod? That seems like a pretty big oversight.
CecilRousso
Member
I think Telltale ought to have one place there, but I'm not sure exactly which one to pick. But their episodic model have influenced many other games, and revitalized the adventure genre, even if it became more like old FMV adventures in terms of gameplay.
Well, the difference is that it isn't actuallya roguelike, but a game that mixed influences from roguelikes in a new genre, in a game that was noticed and impacted many others.
Well, the difference is that it isn't actuallya roguelike, but a game that mixed influences from roguelikes in a new genre, in a game that was noticed and impacted many others.
I love the shit out of Cave Story, but I can't remember if we considered it for this feature or not. It did play a big role in the independent movement of the early 2000s. And what a hell of a game!
Sports, sims, racing and wargaming are underrepresented and no doubt there are examples from those genres that are worthy of inclusion. If we'd formatted the list to highlight the most important games from each genre, they'd certainly be there. But trying to look at PC gaming as a whole, there were none that stood out to us as much as the games that made the final list.
Would love to see which games in those genres people consider as important as the games here. Maybe we'll revisit the list in a few years and they'll show up.
Great shout.
Sports, sims, racing and wargaming are underrepresented and no doubt there are examples from those genres that are worthy of inclusion. If we'd formatted the list to highlight the most important games from each genre, they'd certainly be there. But trying to look at PC gaming as a whole, there were none that stood out to us as much as the games that made the final list.
Would love to see which games in those genres people consider as important as the games here. Maybe we'll revisit the list in a few years and they'll show up.
Answer: it's seriously one of the best designed videogames ever made, and has exerted a huge influence on its genre in particular and game developers in general over the past half decade.
ShadowSwordmaster
Banned
An honorable mention at least in my opinion. I wonder if they had a limit to which type of games was going to be on the list.
Joseph Merrick
Member
apart from old champ manager or sensi soccer, I can't come up with any important sports games on pc. maybe I'm blanking on something important. and those were kind of more amiga games anyway. today it's pretty much only football manager still popular and left of sports games. so maybe old champman should be on there.
but sim racing is a whole thing, with a lot of history, and they're still very popular and there's more choice and range than ever. papyrus and dave kaemmer, microprose and geoff crammond. test drive series, need for speed series. isi and rfactor/rfactor2. assetto corsa. project cars. iracing. reiza studios and other mod teams turned full developers.
I can see why they ditched the whole flight sim scene, as it just isn't as popular anymore, but they at least gave a nod to it with with mention of msfs. but racing games are really popular still, and there are quite a few of them with a really good active mod scene.
CecilRousso
Member
Hotline Miami and Super Crate Box were also made with Game Maker.
I think Spelunky led to a (re)surgence of procedurally generated games, and as such is pretty influential. Like before Spelunky as a games researcher I always thought research in procedural generation was a nice pipe dream that was not going to lead anywhere worthwhile. Now even though I'm still not a fan I can see they had a point, as it spawned a sizeable market.
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