This is actually probably a good point. How many people started gaming because of these two games?
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
The 50 most important PC games of all time (PC Gamer)
- Thread starter inm8num2
- Start date
This is actually probably a good point. How many people started gaming because of these two games?
kinaesthete
Member
Off the top of my head, popular roguelike influenced games, mainly action based ones, that came directly in the wake of Spelunky:
Binding of Isaac
Nuclear Throne
Rogue Legacy
Risk of Rain
FTL
Invisible Inc
Not all of them were directly influenced by Spelunky of course, but I can't think of anything else that drove this wave of interest in randomized permadeath games. They've played a similar role as Minecraft in the rising popularity of game streaming and Youtube, with people liking to share unique experiences within a familiar framework.
mcz117chief
Member
To me it is just an average game where you run around breaking blocks and collecting stuff. It doesn't strike me as anything more than that. I played it on a ps4 since it was part of PS+ and I didn't find a single fun or unique thing about it. Guess it is not my kind of game. I definitely enjoyed Binding of Issac more (like the poster above mentioned that is one of the games that it spawned), but that game feels like it was inspired by games like Zelda not Spelunky.
mcz117chief
Member
Or Operation Flashpoint. That started the whole "games for the army" thing.
Vulcano's assistant
Banned
Games aside, one thing that may exist the way it is now because of Broken Age's campaign success story:
Oculus Rift
Oculus Rift
Teknopathetic
Member
"Or Operation Flashpoint. That started the whole "games for the army" thing."
No, that would be Delta Force.
No, that would be Delta Force.
FlyingSaucer
Banned
It's actually a good list. I'm shocked.
Zero ? They were pastimes for the office back then, nobody ever started played RPGs or simulations because of them.
Zero ? They were pastimes for the office back then, nobody ever started played RPGs or simulations because of them.
Robert at Zeboyd Games
Banned
There's no controversy there. If I'm not mistaken, before Double Fine Adventure went up on Kickstarter, all kickstarters that were for video games (not video game websites, magazines, or movies) made less than $100k with the vast majority making less than $10k (Code Hero made $170k but it ended after DFA started). Double Fine Adventure then proceeded to make $3.3 million. It was a complete shift in how video game crowdfunding worked. It was night & day from about a year earlier when we did our first Kickstarter and few people even knew that Kickstarter existed.
Far Cry was the prototype. Crysis was the finished product.
If you were gonna pick a Telltale game, it would be The Walking Dead for sure. That game was huge.
mcz117chief
Member
Maybe Runescape instead of Ultima Online? Since there were a few big online games before like Meridian 59, while on the other hand Runescape was the first big thing when it came to online games. Back in the days all high school kids played Runescape all the time, it was the first time a free to play mmo became super huge. I think Runescape did more for the mmo genre than Ultima Online.
It is a legendary 10/10 game but it honestly didn't move the industry anywhere. It just perfected Wing Commander/X-wing.
It is a legendary 10/10 game but it honestly didn't move the industry anywhere. It just perfected Wing Commander/X-wing.
Felix Lighter
Member
I'd like to think Descent deserved a spot but that might be a skewed perspective from what I've experienced. The 6 directions of freedom of movement aspect was really interesting and new to me at the time. Also the series ultimately led to the Freespace titles.
Vulcano's assistant
Banned
Imo, I wish more games copied Crysis, but no one really did more than borrow a few things. The games had not much of an impact other than the cultural impact of being the last PC exclusive that looked a gen ahead of consoles when it came out, that was something already going on before the game came out, so it is more of a symptom than anything.
disappeared
Banned
Great read. Brought back some good memories.
Prevolition
Member
Decent list, but Dark Forces/Jedi Knight is missing
Jane's Combat Simulations games were earlier, if you would count that.
StrategyFan
Member
i'm not qualified to judge the really old stuff, but this is probably the least wrong list i have ever seen from "journalism"
j_k_redtail
Member
Homeworld is missing.
zombieshavebrains
I have not used cocaine
How can you have dota and world of warcraft but not warcraft 3? Warcraft 3 is easily the most influencial game of the 2000s. League of legends, world of warcraft, dota, and even elements of starcraft 2 only existed because warcraft 3 existed.
StrategyFan
Member
dota takes its place
warcraft 3, the RTS game, was not important
i think if both warcraft 3 & dota were important, it would be there like half life & counterstrike are both there
Same day. All versions released November 14 1996 in the US, though the Saturn version hit a couple weeks early in the UK.
Totally agree. I've been playing this game for the first time, and it feels super awful to play a third person game in 3D without any kind of analog control at this point, but the game holds up.
Actually hearing that there are more human enemies in Tomb Raider 2 makes me want to play it less.
those lists are pretty 90s heavy. I get that this was the age of games journalism(particularly for PC Gamer), but there were some really good games between SpaceWar and Quake that the PC Gamer camp never seemed to be aware of but the Computer and Gaming World folks were always on top of.
damned shame the lesser publication won.
Jeff Green knows about those guys.
damned shame the lesser publication won.
Jeff Green knows about those guys.
Sho_Nuff82
Member
I know it made honorable mention but Dark Souls really should be in the top 50 for opening the floodgates of Japanese console games to PC. Has completely changed the dynamic of the platform in the past few years.
Teknopathetic
Member
"Jane's Combat Simulations games were earlier, if you would count that."
The Jane's games (and the Microprose sims which were even earlier) were combat aircraft sims, I'm assuming that poster meant more along the lines of infantry simulation which Delta Force is certainly the earliest I can recall.
The Jane's games (and the Microprose sims which were even earlier) were combat aircraft sims, I'm assuming that poster meant more along the lines of infantry simulation which Delta Force is certainly the earliest I can recall.
The list is great, and it's just the nature of the beast that you can't include everything in a finite list in something with as rich a history and diversity as video games, even if only a section of it.
Thanks for putting it together, and thanks for acknowledging Counter-Strike and DotA as 'games' even if they're mods. It's the experience and not the development model or monetization that matters and Lord knows those games were enjoyed by millions before becoming retail games.
A game that happens to be the most popular RTS in history, whose diverse mod scene gives birth to two of the most popular genre today (MOBA and TD), is not important? Fine.
I don't think you can draw much correlation between the games each magazine covered in the 90s and what we cover today or in this list. Completely different staff, PCG US and UK were wholly separate entities at the time, and it makes sense that historically CGW would've covered older games: the magazine started almost 10 years earlier!
When I started doing research for this list, I did actually look back at two or three different CGW lists of the best games of all time. There were a lot of great games on them! But there have also been a ton of important and influential PC games in the late 90s and 2000s that we're really seeing the effects of today.
I've got no dog in a PCG vs. CGW of old fight, though. Jeff Green was the first person I thought of that I wanted to get to contribute writing to this list.
<3
I've got no dog in that fight either. CGW shut down 8 years ago. And I'm friends with the PCG guys, past and present.
Nah I still recommend TR2 heh. There some annoyance, but the amount of human enemies is not that bad overall. There still a very nice focus of exploration, puzzles and such. Alot of the levels are still pretty sweet, especially Tibet and China levels. TR2 has one hell of a second half.
Aztechnology
Member
Given the criteria which they judged Broken Age. I'm suprised we didn't get Star Citizen as a honorable mention considering it has gone on to be the most successfully "crowdfunded" games in history. Currently sitting at $106,044,294 raised.
Whether Star Citizen succeeds or fails it will have a massive impact on future crowdfunding which is now a big part of game development, especially for PC gaming.
I'm going off the fact that it doesn't technically state it had to be a completed game or even playable. Or did I miss that?
Whether Star Citizen succeeds or fails it will have a massive impact on future crowdfunding which is now a big part of game development, especially for PC gaming.
I'm going off the fact that it doesn't technically state it had to be a completed game or even playable. Or did I miss that?
Tower defense and moba maps existed in Starcraft first (dota was based on aeon of strife)
Can't really argue with their choices, once I actually read the justifications.
That said, I feel like you just had to fit the original System Shock into the 1994 list. It was utterly mindblowing, in that year.
SS1 has suffered such a sad fate; forgotten in time due to birthing such an amazing sequel. Does the progenitor not deserve its due recognition, as well?
Maybe the remake will cause eyes to once again gaze upon this masterpiece. I know mine never stopped.
That said, I feel like you just had to fit the original System Shock into the 1994 list. It was utterly mindblowing, in that year.
SS1 has suffered such a sad fate; forgotten in time due to birthing such an amazing sequel. Does the progenitor not deserve its due recognition, as well?
Maybe the remake will cause eyes to once again gaze upon this masterpiece. I know mine never stopped.
Hari Seldon
Member
Rob Zachnys blurb on Oregon Trail is fantastic lolol. Great article! I would have some changes but this is a great read nonetheless.
Shadow Broker
Banned
Not really a PC gamer but I came in here expecting to see The Oregon Trail on the list and I'm happy.
Whenever I get my situation together and I decide to build a gaming laptop that Will be the first game I buy.
Whenever I get my situation together and I decide to build a gaming laptop that Will be the first game I buy.
Ludendorkk
Member
Other than the odd omission of Cave Story (grandfather of the indie boom), list is extremely solid. I expect Dark Souls to move out of the honorable mentions sometime in the next few years.
Indeed. Sad that we're coming up on two decades without an entry in the series.
It represents a case where a developer went from not knowing there was a PC audience to PC becoming their single highest selling platform.
Similar threads
- Poll