What is your Mount Rushmore of PC games?

[cronos]

The AD&D Gold Box series of games. I ended up playing pretty much all of the campaigns (including Buck Rogers and, oh yeah, Spelljammer!), but the first one I played was Pool of Radiance (Forgotten Realms).

I remember that I was in middle school and a lot of times I had to sneak my way to my grandmother's computer (I lived with my grandparents during that time) to play 'just a couple of encounters' (which turned out to be several hours, and got me in trouble).

The Gold Box series are the first computer games I played intensively (before that there was just casual stuff with Digger/Tetris/Sokoban and the likes), and got me really into computer gaming. Without playing them I'll never be the computer gamer I am today.

That's easily more than four games (FR had 4, Dragonlance had 3, Buck Rogers 2, etc), but if they can only count as one, then:

2. Hero's Quest - introduced me to all the other Sierra's goodness (King's Quest, Space Quest, Police Quest)

3. Maniac Mansion - introduced me to all the other Lucasarts goodness (Loom, Indiana Jones, Monkey Island series, and of course its own sequel Day of the Tentacle)

4. World of Warcraft - I left computer gaming pretty much completely for at least 7 years after I graduated college. A free trial of WoW in 2005 hooked me back in.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

A-10 Attack!: I was stuck on a Mac back in the mid-90s, and I got sent this game for free. I was a console player up to that point, so the idea of polygons and the complexity of actually going through systems checks before you got to fly your plane? Holy crap. Sure, the "mountains" consisted of 5 polygons total, and all the vegetation was all sprite-based, and there's a reason real pilots don't fly by keyboard. Who cares? I was absolutely sucked in to what computers could deliver.

Half-Life/TFC: Sucked me in like no other. True story: I had a Voodoo 5 5500 AGP, but I played through Half-Life four times on "Software" rendering because I didn't know I could change over to OpenGL or Glide (Glide ran like ass, mind you, but it still looked better than "Software"). When I figured out about OpenGL, I was STUNNED. I literally spent an hour just firing rockets down hallways on Well2 and screaming about how awesome the lighting was. Made me play through Half-Life a 5th time, along with the expansion packs, just to see all the pretty visuals.

Counter-Strike: Gets its own section, since I've been playing it since November of 1999 and last played it less than 48 hours ago. Barring something bizarre happening within the next couple years, I'll have been playing CS for over half my life. I've played every iteration of the game since Beta 4 and I've gotten pretty good at it. But the real joy that CS brought was introducing me to gaming communities, clans and servers of regulars who know each other and play with each other and hang out both ingame and out. I've made actual friends through CS; how ridiculous is that? Oh, and the gameplay of CS in its prime has never been equaled, that's worth pointing out.

Battlefield 1942: I've enjoyed Battlefield since the beginning. I like BF: Vietnam and BF2 and Bad Company 2 and BF3. But nothing compares to the original in my mind, and it's really not even close. You might as well be comparing Bonk to Mario. BF1942 was the first game I played that truly felt epic, like you were just a tiny piece in this grandiose war. See a vehicle? Guess what: you can drive it. Even a submarine! How ridiculous is that? If I could only play Guadalcanal or Midway or Wake Island or Bocage on repeat for the rest of my life? I think I'd be fine with that.

 

[flyboy84]

Half Life
Deus Ex
Red Alert
BF2

In that order.

 

[Sidekicknichola]

1. Half Life / HL 2

2. TFC / TF2

3. GTA4

4. Diablo (original)

 

[12andy]

SiN (multiplayer): My relatively late entrance into the world of FPS games (although I've played Doom, Heretic, RoTT etc. a bit before). Fun factor through the roof. Played with a joystick + mouse. Dad bought me a Voodoo 2, which proved itself to be orgasm to the eyes. SiN essentially paved the way into my love for Quake 2, UT and onwards.

Indycar Racing: Was amazed at the fact that the roads were textured, with predefined skid marks. Tires blurring in proportion to the speed you were travelling; working suspension. Instant Papyrus fanboy I became. This - along with Nascar Racing - kept me busy for awhile, in the "garage" and on the "tracks".

X-Wing: Many a joystick sensors couldn't stand up to the amount of hours I've poured into this series (alongside Tie Fighter). EBGames knew that when my mom and I stepped into the store, it was joystick replacement time. Various other flight games/ sims (Terminal Velocity demo, MS Flight Simulator, Comanche, US Navy Fighters etc.) were to blame as well.

Mechwarrior 2/ Mercenaries: FINALLY got to realize the full potential of my very-anxious MS Sidewinder 3D Pro. And... that soundtrack....

 

[notposting]

Man, I completely forgot in my already way too long list:

Age of Mythology
Age of Empires...3

Plenty of other games I played and enjoyed, but for long lasting memories (and even some games still being played), that should be it.

BTW...SimTower will install and run with no problems on Windows 7 x86.

 

[Dijeangenie]

Warcraft 3 (Played 2003/4)
Pharaoh (Played ~ 2003)
Age of Empires 1 (Played 2003)
Rise of Nations played (2004/5)
World of Warcraft (Played mid 2007-late 2010)

 

[zinfamous]

What is my mount rushmore? Uh... probably LA Noire, because both are only good for one visit and even that visit is pretty boring

I wanted to post something like that. Mt Rushmore is probably the most uninspiring let-down of a monument or "destination" that I have ever encountered.

I get more value out of stopping at a random gator ranch in Florida.

 

[datalink7]

1. Planescape Torment
2. Total Annihilation
3. Freespace 2
4. Half Life
5. Civilization
6. Rome: Total War
7. Masters of Orion

4 of those 7.

 

[KidNiki1]

my answers to this thread are the same as they would be to the other thread that inspired this one

Myst
World of Warcraft

borderlands 2 is a distant third.

 

[mooncancook]

WarCraft 2: got me hooked into RTS
Diablo: couldn't stop playing
Civ 2: my brain still thinking about the next moves when I was in bed
Transport Tycoon Deluxe: best tycoon game ever, still play openTTD today

 

[Possessed Freak]

I have only ever been addicted to one video game, so it gets my vote: Subspace/continuum.

 

[mmntech]

1. Wolfenstine 3D
2. TIE Fighter
3. Grim Fandango
4. Sim City 2000

 

[KeithTalent]

1. Deus Ex - Still awesome after all these years.
2. Dune II - My favourite RTS game of all time and the only one I was ever good at.
3. Team Fortress 2 - balls out fun and a game I can play for a quick 15 minutes or 8 hours straight. Also one I can leave for a couple of months, then return to and play like I never left. Great stuff.
4. Half Life 2 - I've always preferred the sequel and it's another one I can replay over and over and never grow tired of.

KT

Edit: apparently I like sequels. :hmm:

 

[BoberFett]

Civ 2 & 4
Quake 2 DM
Counterstrike
WoW

 

[BoberFett]

Star Wars Galaxies was by far the most impressive game that I've ever touched.

So much potential, dashed to pieces by Koster's "vision".

 

[Ashenor]

Everquest, Diablo I, Utlima Online, Duke Nukem PC (Orginal)

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Red Storm Rising (Amiga)

A-10 Tank Killer (Amiga)

Tie Fighter (IBM PC compatible)

 

[Rhezuss]

First game I was hooked was Crusaders of the Dark Savant. Being a french canadian of 16-17 yo having to write complete english sentences to get past some puzzles was awesome lol.

Then, when I bought my first computer Baldur's Gate was just released...so bought it. Played this damn game like it was my last day on earth...playing until 1-2 am and then realising I had to finish some homeworks for the morning. Was awesome!

 

[raildogg]

I really liked playing Command and Conquer Red Alert parts 1 and 2. In fact, they got me into PC gaming. I used to play C&C RA 2 multiplayer for hours. I liked the 2 vs 2 games. In Yuri's Revenge, they had the 3 vs 3. Still great. I would spend around 3-4 hours at a time or more sometimes.

Sim City 3000 was also a game I played quite a bit. I used to like to build cities really big and strike deals with neighbors. Sometimes spent 3 hours at a time playing them.

The game I've logged the most hours by far has been Return To Castle Wolfenstein multiplayer. In fact, I just got off playing it . This game is from 2002 but it is one of the most crisp and personal online FPSs. I love the interaction between players, the audio soundbytes, the fast paced fragging style. I've tried Battlefield and some others but they don't even come anywhere close to delivering the amount of fun. There is something about personal interaction in online games and Wolfenstein delivers it.

There are other games I played quite a bit on Super Nintendo and Gamecube as well.

 

[Zeze]

Look what you made me do.

 

[chalmers]

Look what you made me do.

Haha, nice! I'll respond in there.

 

[crisium]

Battlezone (1998)
The most underplayed AAA PC game of the 90s. First Person Tank Shooter / RTS. I still play the unofficial 1.5 patch.

StarCraft
Obviously.

Half-Life
The single player masterpiece and the countless hours spent on TFC, CS, and DoD.

The Sims
12 year-old me could not get enough of this game.

 

[natto fire]

Simcity 2000
Warcraft II
Command and Conquer (red alert too)
Dungeon Siege II
BF1942 + desertcombat

LANs, hacking/editing configuration files, and the superiority of the keyboard/mouse as an input device for many games, have made me appreciate PC gaming since the 386/25 days. That said, consoles still held a place in my heart for story telling and ease of use until the late Xbox days.

 

[queequeg99]

Doom
Doom II
Duke Nukem 3d

and

Quake (after I got my first Voodoo card, I just couldn't turn the damned machine off).