Over the coming week the PC Gamer team will be counting down to their favourite game of all time. Today, we look at 75-51.
To vote for your favourite game, check out the PC Gamer Top 100 website and the magazine will reveal the results this autumn.
75 Syndicate
You're managing a death-squad in a sci-fi city, but back then it didn't seem quite so horrific. Even when you're flame-throwering enemies and civilians alike. The appeal lives on despite the shabby visuals, in the personalities and stories you develop in your head, and the essential feeling of ownership over your customised squad.
Jim says "Flat out one of the great games ever made. Even now some of the tiny violence you're able to dish out is shocking. A masterpiece."
74 Frontier: Elite II
The most playable updated version of the space sim that started it all: Elite. Any game that offers you the freedom to pursue a freelance career in a totally open world is appealing; one which gives you a spaceship, the opportunity to upgrade it and chance to be a hero or evil pirate in a whole open universe is a sure-fire winner. Yet all most people remember is whether they were ranked 'Elite' or just plain 'Dangerous'.
Craig says "This game turned me into a vampire. I blocked out the windows, barely left my room and hissed whenever anyone came close. Frontier consumed my life for a whole summer, and currently sits on my USB stick for whenever I need a nostalgic jaunt to Barnard's Star for robots."
73 Far Cry
Crytek's original still earns our love for its sense of freedom and breathtakingly beautiful scenery. Now that we've surgically removed all our memories of the Trigens and the ending, it remains one of our favourite shooters ever, if only for the opening few hours.
Ross says "I love the binocular-tagging. It encourages you to scope out an area, register where each enemy is, then work out the most fun way to take them down. My favoured method is to pepper them from afar with a gunboat, then launch myself up the beach, leap out and mop up survivors."
72 Ground Control
Bucking the trend of the time by not including base-building or resource management, GC's future war is a mix of delicious long-range artillery and sci-fi warfare.
Jim says "A wonderfully refreshing avenue of resource-free strategic combat. Ultimately unsatisfying though, even if the journey is beautiful."
71 Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
At its heart it's a platform game, but the Prince's otherworldly athleticism makes even elementary movement a joy. Rewinding time when you die? Cheating has never felt so right.
Craig says "It was like a bomb going off: after this, clunky, fiddly platformers became instantly obsolete. Why squint for pixels when you could abandon the shackles of the old Tomb Raiders and run perpendicular to the wall."
70 Uplink
A hacking sim seems such an obvious idea now, but only because Introversion went and made it. Simple in concept and execution, it played to the tiny team's strengths: hacking corporate networks and evading cyber-cops is portrayed minimally yet totally convincingly.
Ross says "Former Editor Matt was so convinced that he literally pulled the network cable out of his PC in terror just as he was about to be caught mid-hack. Now that's simulation."
69 The Secret of Monkey Island
Comments
12 comments so far...
Dajmin on 1 Aug '08 said:
I wondered where part two was until I opened this story - might wanna look into fixing the title on the main page.
There's some top games here, really low down in the list. It's making me really curious what's going to be at the top.
Defcon is a weird one. It's one of those games I didn't have any expectations for and as a result I found myself feeling guilty when I grinned at seeing stuff like 5,000,000 killed appearing on the game map. The sound effects make it sort of creepy.
I also found Guild Wars far more fun in beta than it ever was after it went gold. If you ask me, the calculators ruined it. Needing to go and farm specific skills so that people would take you in a group ruined the who relaxed casual feel that it started out with.
Jabbanobadda on 1 Aug '08 said:
Yay, syndicate was in there somewhere. Football managers ? I don't get them but I can see why they should be on this list. TIE fighter, courageous nomination and I wholeheartedly agree. However........
Craig says "Girls Aloud - Biology, Ninja Mono. Go on, give it a go. It's perfect. Audiosurf added colour and verve to the grey palette of PC games, flickering neon to all the beats of my favourites. Even Radiohead seem joyous when filtered through Audiosurf."
I have a new person on a list to hunt down and either humiliate or dismember. GIRLS ALOUD???!?!? GIRLS AF***INGLOUD?????? DOes this man possess either ears or genitals? Plus Radiohead is ALWAYS joyous! Tragically beautiful. I hate people whining about how depressing it is.
Anonymous on 1 Aug '08 said:
gears of war?
get this console s**t out of the pc charts.
Jellybeans on 1 Aug '08 said:
If it was just the music then the man needs some help, but with the video its forgiveable
Rakhdeep on 1 Aug '08 said:
Monkey Island so low down in the chart???!?!?!
PCG craigp on 1 Aug '08 said:
Radiohead are wonderful, by far my favourite band, but they're not joyous. They're intricate, obsessive, fearful, insightful, but hardly joyous.
And my ears and genitals are in working order. I listen to more good music than bad, but there's always room for bumpy pop music. At least give Audiosurf a go with Biology: you won't be disappointed.
pcgamer4765 on 1 Aug '08 said:
its a good selecton but the problem is i haven't received my mag yet even though i'm a subscriber and haven't seen the whole list, i'm a sad panda
twistedfiend on 2 Aug '08 said:
Gears should be in here! It's a far better game on the PC anyway. Granted, it is shown for what it is on PC - a run of the mill shooter with superlative visuals - but it's still lots of fun.
humorguy on 2 Aug '08 said:
You know what magazine I would subscribe to? Where games like Good and Evil and Warcraft III were in the Top 20 rather than the bottom 20!
johnman on 3 Aug '08 said:
Well i am a happy bunny at the moment, This all seems about right. Monkey Island has dropped alot thought, and so has ground control...
justforkicks101 on 4 Aug '08 said:
gears isnt a bad game
Anonymous on 8 Aug '08 said:
Disgusting that PoP and BG&E are so low. Booooooooooooooooooooo.