Best PC game you ever played?

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Baldur's Gate 2 hands down the best

 

14.5 year thread necromancy is impressive! When this thread started I had no children, and had only been married a short time. Back at this timeframe BG2 was my favorite game.

 

What about now?

 

When this thread started I would have been around 11 years old and have never heard of any of these games. That's some high level necromancy right there.

 

Nearly 15 years is pretty impressive for thread necromancy. By a guest, no less.

Anyway, when favorite games when this thread started... hard to tell, don't quite remember what I was playing back then. Probably Morrowind and Red Faction. Not sure if I'd even played BG2 back then.

Favorite games now... also hard to say. Filtering to games I've at least played in the past, say, five years (which disqualifies games such as Fallout, Planscape: Torment, and Morrowind):

• Jagged Alliance 2. Still playing this off and on, it is perhaps the best turn based combat I've ever played.
• Stalker series. The original just oozes atmosphere, and has without a doubt the best post-apocalyptical atmosphere of any game.
• Saint's Row 2. A GTA clone that does the sandbox gameplay better than GTA. Really my benchmark for this type of sandbox games.
• Medieval 2: Total War. Given my post history, it would be remiss of me to not to mention this game.
• Alpha Protocol. Enjoyable stealth gameplay, one of the best choice and consequence implementations I've ever seen in an RPG.
• Legend of Grimrock 2. Improves on the original in every way, great art and sound direction as well as enjoyable gameplay.

I could think of many more, but this will suffice for now.

 

My greatest top ten:
Jagged Alliance 2
Divinity: Original Sin 2
Baldur's Gate 2
Diablo 2
Dune 2
Heroes of Might & Magic 2
Flame Dragon Knights 2
Overwatch
Monster Hunter: World
Soul Calibur 6

Notable mention: Darkest Dungeon

There's a lot of "2's" there hahaha

 

It will always be BG but BGII and IWD were just as good if not better

 

I wasn't even aware of this thread and I've been here over a decade.
I can't believe nobody has included Dungeon Master on their list. It is one of my all time favorites. It has even aged decently as the graphics are passable even today compared to some web-based or freeware ones I've seen, although the animation is minimal (hardware limitations at the time).

1. Dungeon Master
2. Baldur's Gate series.
3. Icewind Dale series
4. Final Fantasy 7 & 8 (not sure if this counts, I have both installed on my Windows 98SE/XP computer)
   
5. Neverwinter Nights series
   
6. Knights of the Old Republic series
7. [Janes/SCS] Fleet Command, especially with the NWP mod.
   
8. SimCity 2000 (haven't been able to get SC3000 to work for more than 5 minutes before it crashes, never tried 4. Glad I only payed $2 at the "book sale" for SC3K)
9. Civilization II (the graphics on Civ 3 seem to make me squint for some reason even when it is on the same computer I played 2 on)
10. Diablo series

The following haven't aged as well due to poor graphics by today's standards. By the standards of 1992 or earlier they were awesome:

1. Gold Box games
   
2. Strike Fleet (Fleet Command mentioned above could be considered a spiritual successor. I also liked the predecessor PHM Pegasus)
   
3. Bard's Tale series
   
4. Might and Magic I and II (haven't gotten my hands on the rest, played the Apple II versions and M&M3 was never ported)
   
5. Sierra AGI games like King's Quest, Space Quest, Gold Rush, Police Quest
   
6. X-Com (original flavor) series
7. Explorer games for the Apple IIGS. RPGMaker could be a spiritual successor, although RPGMaker is closer to a spiritual successor to Stewart Smith's "Adventure Construction Set" which had potential, but I never found any games for it online, just the ability to make your own. It didn't help that I would not get a 1200 baaud modem until 1996 and got ACS as a gift in 1989. ACS had the potential to make this list.
   
8. Sea Dragon
9. Skyfox
10. Magic Candle
11. Ultima 1-IV (the later ones were never ported to the Apple II)

Honorable Mention:
Wizardry

 

I also am stunned that I never posted in this thread. I have to go with (in no particular order)

Diablo
Diablo 2
Wizardry 8
Master of Orion
Master of Magic
Rogue
Chip's Challenge
Harpoon- I'm ashamed I forgot this one. I wish I could replay it.

For a little clarification. While I loved all of the infinity and gold box games, I find that I tend to only play CRPGs once so it was hard to put them on the list. Wizardry 8 is about the only CRPG that I have played multiple times and that is why it made the list.

 

That was my issue with the Sierra On-Line 3D Animated Adventures like King's Quest.
They had very poor replay value.
They were basically interactive novels but had rather liner paths, you just had to figure out the path of the story yourself instead of the author telling you. Of all the ones available on the Apple II[GS], only Gold Rush allowed you to make real choices that affected the story, but it was only in the beginning and only affected the middle of the adventure as once you got to California all three paths converged and became identical. Heck, technically it was only one choice. Still, I believe it was considered revolutionary for the time, or at least one of the first. The problem was that I'd play it a few times, trying for 100% score (no Gamefaqs.com in those days. This was 1988-1992 and GameFAQs was the mid '90s, but I wouldn't have access at home until 1997) and then get bored with it as I'd solved it. Similar to a crossword puzzle book.

I have the same issue with fiction, I have not bought a novel in over 25 years. I found that I'd read it once, then put it on the bookshelf where it would gather dust until my mother (25 years ago I was starting high school) made me pick a bunch of books to get rid of by donating them to the library. I found it was a waste of money to buy them. Instead, I'd just goto the library, borrow the book for free, read it, and then return it.
This left me more money to spend on other things like games and had no effect on my enjoyment of reading novels. What killed my reading for a while was upperclassman high school and college English classes.

 

No order to this list, because it would take me as long to work it out as it took to resurrect this thread:

Baldur's Gate - the original & best. More freedom to wander & explore than BG2, even if that takes so much else up a level, I can't help but prefer this one.
Diablo 2 - everything came together perfectly for this game to define the genre its predecessor created.
Saint's Row 2 - When you out-GTA GTA. Perfect blend of the silliness its follow-ups over-egged & a darker edge that acted as contrast.
Mass Effect 2 - Perfectly paced, the shining example of what BioWare could do with EA's money... before it all went to sh!t
Ultima VII - the game that got me into RPGs. Bugged to hell, but my goodness - that feeling of playing a world, not just a game, was simply magical for my 12 year-old self. Took about a month to get it working in DOS because of its wonky memory manager not liking EMM386, but totally worth it. This game taught me the first steps of BASIC through the need to re-write my autoexec.bat & config.sys files several times, and thus has contributed as much to my continued employment as my Masters degree in Physics.
Doom (1&2) - there still aren't shooters quite like these, even Doom 2016. Ultra-Violence? Ultra-Fun more like
Skyrim - Morrowind, Oblivion & Daggerfall all have their good points (Arena I didn't play until much later, so couldn't rate it). Morrowind, in particular is a better realised world - and probably better game - out of the box. But I don't have >2000 hours in those games combined. I do in Skyrim. Maybe it's true strength is as a modding platform, but bloody hell what a platform it is.
Knights of the Old Republic 2 - Going Watchmen on the Star Wars universe is the kind of move only Black Isle / Obsidian would attempt. OK, they don't quite pull it off (bugs & blatantly unfinished content ahoy!), but this is the deepest and most mind-blowing take on Lucas's mythology ever created. Phenomenal characters & story-telling, Kreia especially.
Planescape: Torment - What can change the nature of a man? My avatar probably gives this away, but PS:T is so memorable, so affecting, that I can't think of much else to compare it with. The videogame equivalent of a brilliant but taxing novel, with a talking skull that makes necrophilia jokes.

 

I'll agree that there are not any shooters currently quite like Doom 1&2, but in part that is also because of the 3D with sprites that Doom had (and many of the shooters in that time period). Shooters like Painkiller or Doom 2016 certainly capture the spirit of the original Doom shooters. They lack that kind of abstract feeling that Doom 1&2 had, but that's because the newer shooters have more recognisable graphics.

 

This thread has been around almost as long as I have. I feel like I should probably post in here just for the sake of completeness.

Here's my list in no particular order:

• Planescape: Torment — Should always come first on any list. A masterpiece in almost every way, aside from its combat aspect (which was irrelevant anyway).
• Baldur's Gate Saga — Not the best RPG ever made, but certainly the one most should probably strive to emulate. It left a monumental impact on many of our lives.
• Knights of the Old Republic — An absolutely fantastic pair of games which really made me a fan of Star Wars. Ruined by going MMO and by Disney making it non-canon.
• Mass Effect Trilogy — If we ignore everything that happens after the death of Anderson, it's one of the most immersive and fulfilling game series ever made.
• Alpha Protocol — It gets a lot bad rep, but even though it might be a bit rough around the edges, it's an amazing stealth action game and RPG... if you're a fan of the "Three Bs".
• Tyranny — Although it's barely half a game, Tyranny really shines at delivering one thing: An "evil" experience. This is how evil characters should be played in RPGs.
  
• The Sands of Time Trilogy — Remember when Ubisoft made good games? Questionable DRM aside, the Sands of Time trilogy truly defined the modern action adventure genre.
• Beyond Good & Evil — Speaking of Ubisoft, BG&E is one of those rare gems that a lot of people missed out on, but it's one of my all time favorites.
• Aquaria — One of the first indie games I've ever played and also one of the best indie games I've ever played. I will never not recommend this to people.
• Bastion — Another indie gem, but one that got a lot more recognition. Supergiant Games really knows how to make them. If you haven't yet, check out Transistor and Pyre as well.
• Braid — Continuing with the indie game theme, Braid is another example of indie games done right. Though a fairly simple platformer, it carries a lot of weight behind it.
  
• Castle Crashers — Okay, this will be the last indie game on the list, but I've had so much fun playing CC with my friends at parties that I felt it deserved a mention.
• Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth — Playing this at release on my shitty rig at 2 AM with 40°C in the room probably made me lose a few sanity points.
• Overlord — I probably enjoyed this game more than I should have. It might be an average game overall, but running around with a legion of minions was tons of fun.
  
• Psychonauts — Disregarding Tim Schafer's misconduct on Kickstarter, he does know how to make good adventures and Psychonauts is certainly one of the best.
  
• LucasArts Adventures — While we're at it, I think it's safe to say that all of the old LucasArts adventures are, well, works of art. No favorites or anything, just all of them.
  
• The Longest Journey — And if we're talking adventures, TLJ should certainly be on the list along with the others. I'll be replaying it soon in preparation for a Dreamfall Chapters run.
• StarCraft — Still my favorite RTS of all time. It's a shame I decided not to give Blizzard another dime, because a part of me really wants to play the sequel...
• Diablo 1 & 2 — I've spent a lot of time playing and modding these, but what I really appreciate about them is all the games that came after them. Another genre-defining series.
• Unreal Tournament — The best competitive FPS, bar none. If you're a Quake fan, you can eat me. No game has ever managed to recapture UT's glory, not even the sequels.
• LEGO Games — I've been hooked on these since the original LEGO Star Wars. I could spend countless hours smashing and reassembling legos, just like when I was a kid.

Admittedly, some of these aren't "best" at anything, but I've had the best of times playing all of them.

 

I'm not familiar with Alpha Protocol. What do Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms/Berlioz have to do with it?

 

Bond, Bourne, and Bauer. It's a spy game, so the PC is modeled on famous spy characters. In other words, if Tyranny is all about the different shades of being evil, Alpha Protocol is all about the different shades of being an asshole. Probably why I like it so much.

 

And it's very good at representing those different shades of being an asshole. Though the best part about Alpha Protocol is that it's so good in referencing in-game your previous (or current) choices.

 

Going based off general play times:
* Crusader Kings 2
* TotalWar Shogun 2
* TotalWar Warhammer 2 (primarily the combined campaign, which includes the map/races from TotalWar Warhammer 1, and I expect Total War Warhammer 3 to eventually replace this title after it is released)
* Not certain yet, but Pathfinder Kingmaker is a strong contender for this list. It just needs to get a little more patched up with a few content additions to round out the overall experience. My maiden playthrough was glorious!

These days I'm drawn far more strongly to grand strategy/turn-based strategy games than I am to RPGs. For some reason I didn't connect with Pillars of Eternity to the level I originally hoped, or really any of the new-wave of of CRPGs. Pathfinder Kingmaker is an exception to this, as it exactly the the Baldur's Gate follow up I've been waiting all these years for. It's just a little too rough around the edges right now, and Owlcat's patching/hot-fixing process leaves much to be desired, as they are as likely to break things as they are to fix things. I'd like to let the dust settle on this one, and come back to it one day.

Total War games and and many Paradox games are what really inspire me. I also really liked the new Battletech game, but it became a little repetitive for me after a while. Too much freedom and open ended exploration is something I have to learn to be more responsible with.

Baldur's Gate saga, PST and IWD saga (in that order) will always have a truly special place for me, but I've just played them too many times over the years and don't expect I'll be able to push through another full play through anytime in the foreseeable future.

Oh, and hello BoM! It's been a bit. Glad to see ya'll still plugging away.

 

I understand that. I haven't played Dungeon Master in over 5 years for that reason.
Heck, I've gone years without playing most of the games on my own list of ATF for that reason, then I'll pull it out for a single run through (usually over several days as I don't have the time I did as a kid) before putting it away for a few more years.

 

Another vote for Ultima Underworld (1&2), Arcanum, Morrowind, and Daggerfall.

Some I haven't seen mentioned:

Myst
Under a Killing Moon
Return to Zork
Command & Conquer
Total Annihilation
The Elder Scrolls: Arena

And leave us not forget Betrayal at Krondor.

 

BTW, is GOG advertising Arcanum for everyone else? Every time I've checked that site in the last year I keep getting that game suggested to me. The problem is that I already have it on CD, but it is not in their system. Hence why I will not buy it or the original five IE games & expansions from them. I already own them.