Wasteland
Fallout
Fallout: New Vegas
Doom
Zork Trilogy (It’s really one story in three games and aspects from the original mainframe Zork are incorporated throughout the trilogy)
Ultima
Wizardry
Deus Ex
Half-Life
Portal Series
Monkey Island Series (the second was the best)
Mass Effect 2
Bioshock
System Shock 2
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (the sequel is arguably better, but only after all the community patches)
Planescape: Torment
Myst
Persona 5 Royal
Grim Fandango
Divinity: Original Sin II
I tried to limit it to PC exclusive or PC first games. Like Final Fantasy 7 is a top 20 game, but that isn’t really a PC game despite getting a 90s release on PC. Likewise, From Software has at least one top 20 title, but the PC versions are trash.
I picked a lot of sequels. It’s the nature of things since they’ll invest more in a proven winner and technology advances to allow more things. Realistically, the top 20 PC games were probably all made in the last 10 - 15 years as result. I tried to do it based on how I felt about the game at the time. Apex Legends is a much better game than Doom, but relative to the times, Doom was something else.
That said, I could play any game on this list forever.
World of Warcraft
Half-life 2
StarCraft
Stardew Valley
Diablo II
Sim City 2000
Doom
Fallout 2
Skyrim
Total Annihilation
Terraria
Unreal Tournament 2K4
Counter-Strike
Battlefield 1942
Rollercoaster Tycoon
Witcher 3
Dota
Team Fortress 2
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Freespace 2
My list starts with games from my childhood before moving to more recent titles but it’s not in a specific order.
Elite
King’s Quest
Project Space Station
SimCity
Railroad Tycoon
Wolfenstein 3D
Microsoft Flight Simulator
Secret of the Silver Blades
Civilization
Roller Coaster Tycoon
Sid Meier’s Pirates
The Sims
Freespace 2
Deus Ex
Lego Star Wars
Black and White
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Tropico
Kerbal Space Program
Crusader Kings 2
I pulled my list from games that I’ve spent a lot of time playing over the years so I really appreciate being able to merge some of my choices into one series. Makes it much easier to deal with something like Kings Quest where I would have a tough time picking an overall favorite.
Freespace 2 is part of a series but Descent: Freespace is the only other game that I’ve played all the way through. I still play Freespace 2 from time to time so I’m going to vote it in alone.
I didn’t include any sports games on my list since I exclusively play sports games on consoles now and they didn’t start popping into my head until I hit about number 17 or 18 on the list. I used to play a lot of sports game on the computer when I was in college but that was nearly 20 years ago.
Counterstrike is a valid game to vote for. HOW it got made isn’t relevant.
Most of my picks have already mentioned. I’m just going to list ones I haven’t seen listed yet…
Planetfall
State of decay series (but mostly 2)
And uh…others. I’ll post again later when I’m not as distracted.
Weirdly, almost every game on my list is a sequel. I guess I prefer polish over originality.
Speedball 2
Doom 2
Diablo 2
Quake 2
Civilization III
Half-Life 2
Rome: Total War
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Portal 2
Witcher III
Total War: Warhammer 2
Borderlands 2
Mass Effect 2
Saints Row IV
Horizon: Zero Dawn
Rude! I assume @RickJay will read your list and use his fingers, just like the rest of us.
I’ll make my list later; gotta decide what criteria I want to use.
Thank you, I need this on my list. Doom 2 was a massive step forward in gaming and should have been on my list(or Doom 1, I guess).
Also a great choice. I played the legendary edition and ME2 is clearly the best one.
Tougher than I thought:
Sid Meier’s Civilization 4 (a tough choice but I love this version)
X-Com: UFO Defence (Original game -not the prequel to the next choice)
XCom 2
Deus Ex
CoD Modern Warfare 2
Kerbal Space Program
Fallout: New Vegas
KOTOR II (Clearly released in an unfinished state, still excellent story and combat)
Portal
Subnautica
Unreal Tournament
Guild Wars 2
Dune II
Mass Effect 2
Master Of Orion 2
Middle-earth: Shadow Of Mordor
I might think of a few more later…
Oh man. I wanted to look at the previous posts, but convinced myself not to. Honestly, I can’t even remember so many of the games that I played on Commodore and Atari 800, so I don’t know if I’ll even include any. I’m going off the top of my head (and will probably forget so many and be mad about it later), so in no particular order:
Half Life
Half Life 2
Doom
Total Annihilation
Age of Empires
Dungeon Keeper
Fallout 2
System Shock 2
Baldur’s Gate
Quake 2
Borderlands 2
Dishonored
Sim City 2000
Command and Conquer
Fallout: New Vegas
Diablo
Thief (The original)
Warlords 2
Subnautica
Scorched Earth
While there might not be one right answer, I do think there are wrong answers. For instance there are several series that have PC ports of part of the series (Metal Gear Solid 1, 4 and 5 are on PC while 2 and 3 are locked on consoles. Persona 3-5 are on PC while 1 and 2s aren’t. Shin Megami Tensei 3 is on PC but not the rest of the series Monster Hunter has more on consoles than the 2 and expansions that are on PC.) Would those count as a series for PC games?
Also what if only some or one of a series is “worthy”. I see votes for Deus Ex, but I really doubt any are for Invisible War or Deus Ex Go. Is your vote gonna be for Elder Scrolls Arena and Battlespire along with Morrowind and Skyrim?
Personally I would prefer just having nominations/votes be for individual games. But I’m also in favor of a big hall mentality over small hall.
Simcity
Doom
Counter Strike Global Offensive
Myst
Battlefield 1942
Command & Conquer
Team Fortress 2
Age of Empires II
GTA V
Half Life
And with the community patches, is a completely playable game with not many bugs.
And Krea is one of the greatest characters ever conceived of in a game. Her unwavering devout loyalty to the protagonist throughout the entire story, even when it seems she’s working against him but is really working in what she perceives is in his best interest is a thing of beauty. And the mechanics of her always being neutral in the light-side/dark-side scale while everyone else is pulled in the direction of the protagonist is explained perfectly.
I don’t want to go into too much detail because Krea’s story is something that needs to be experienced, but the layers of understanding she has and her constantly being two steps ahead of everyone (including the player character and the player themselves) comes across as a genuinely inherent thing to her, and not just mere plot convenience.
You are welcome to edit your ballot later if you think of something.
I didn’t find KOTOR II buggy so much as unfinished. I haven’t tried it with the community patches and am not sure how to get those. Hell, or how to get KOTOR II again.
It is a shame they went in the direction of the MMORPG Old Republic game, which could have been transcendently awesome but is, in truth, just WOW reskinned and is too easy to really be any fun in story mode. KOTOR III is a game I’d die to play but will likely never exist.
That is in fact what we are doing. We may merge some later, but if the OP didn’t make it clear enough, I ask you vote for individual games.
KOTOR and KOTOR II are both available on Steam. The ‘community hub’ tab for KOTOR II will tell you where to go for the restored content mod.
I think the Doom vs. Doom 2 question highlights how people are interpreting the question differently. On the one hand, Doom 2 was certainly better than Doom (and Hexen better than either of them). On the other hand, though, Doom 2 and Hexen were relatively small incremental improvements on Doom. The difference between Doom and what came before (say, Wolfenstein 3D) was bigger than the difference between Doom 2 and Doom. I interpret that as meaning that Doom is the one that belongs on the list, while others are apparently interpreting Doom 2’s superiority as meaning it belongs on the list.
I adopted a mixed approach (and not entirely consistent for each entry). In my view, Doom belongs on the list instead of Doom 2 because it was the one that blew my mind back then and because it still holds up as a game. Wolf3D blew my mind too, but doesn’t really hold up today. Doom 2 may be better but was too incremental. Doom achieves both.
I put Doom 2, but do agree about Doom. I still remember the first time I turned on Doom, a life memory formed right at that moment. It’s hard to explain to a current generation. I also had played Wolfenstein 3D, but Doom…I know what it really looks like, but we thought it was so real. It was amazing.
I still know the cheat codes.