7 Best & 7 Worst PC Games

For now, the ones I like... in no particular order:
1: Civilization IV
2: Age of Mythology
3: Sim City/Rush Hour
4: Pirate Hunter
5: The Sims (1 and 2, mainly to build houses, but the 'sims' were interesting for a while)
6: Warhammer 40K and all the expansions of course
7: Diablo and expansions
Of course there are more that I like but these are the ones I still play the most, although it's been quite a long time since I played Diablo or Age of Mythology.

Did you mean Heroes of Might & Magic 4? I thought that was one of the worst. HOMM3 was one of my favorites.

By the way, if you thought LOTR3 was bad, you should have tried Lords of Magic, done by the same people. That was sad. Really sad.

I don't know if I can come up with 7 of each right away, but here's a little of my list.

Best

Wizardry (for the Apple II)
Castle Wolfenstein (for the Apple II)
MUD
Warcraft/Starcraft
HOMM 1, 2 and 3
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 1 & 2
Warlords: Battlecry 2


Worst

Real War (man, that was laughable)
Lords of Magic
Ultima Online, early on. The reason was the player-killing; you weren't allowed to turn it off. Resultingly, that MMORPG was full of a-holes who kept victimizing the peaceful players who didn't want PK. After a long while, after repeated complaints and lost customers (namely me), they finally allowed alternate worlds with PK turned off.
Skeet Shoot and Night Driver (for the Atari 2600). Those were stupid even by Atari 2600 standards.
Morrowind: Elder Scrolls for the Xbox. This is the only game on a console I have ever seen that had obvious bugs. You couldn't save! How can you have a fantasy RPG that doesn't save??

Forgot the Civ series & Sid Meiers.

Civ 4 was the best of the Civs. I enjoyed the artwork, but usually quit shortly after gunpowder was invented. I find GC2 to be much more enjoyable. The combat of Civ 4 was poorly depicted/boring. The gameplay of Civ 4 has not appreciably changed/improved from Civ 1. I would put the Civ series in a middle category of neither good, nor bad. But that's just me.

"A single dream is worth a thousand realities." Tolkien

Sorry,

Yes- Heroes of Might & Magic 4. I liked being able to battle with the heroes, the fact you didn't need the CD to play, the artwork & the music. I remember HOMM 3 was nice; only played it briefly; would like to find a copy.

"A single dream is worth a thousand realities." Tolkien

Best

I like games that constantly challenges you and requires you to use your brain so this list will reflect that.

1. Ultima Online.... the first game that introduced me to the the magical world of massive multiplayer online games. It was truly magical with an open ended game with few limits and most important; it was in a world with thousands of real human beings, not stupid, predictable AI mobiles. The rampant PKing didnt bother me, on the opposite it added a new exciting element to the game where you had to be on your toes, at all times. AI mobiles are dumb and predictable, human players can be aswell but they can also be exceedingly deceptive, cunning and adaptive.
Too bad the genre has gone down the drain with titles like WoW and EQ 2 which are linear and dumbed down MMORPGS.

2. Asherons Call. The second MMORPG that I played and which introduced me to massive scale PvP, again with little or no limits. Played the game for over a year... I think that is a record for me. For those of you played on DT remember Blood, Og, Sagacious, Black Rose? Legends.....

3. Master of Orion 2. This game was good in single player mode but totally awesome in multiplayer mode. Many sleepless nights when playing this game against people from US to Japan. Has a complexity and depth which is lacking in todays 4X games, with the exception of Civ 4. Again because of the "dumbifying" that is going on with todays games.

4. Master of Magic (or was it Lord of Magic). Not sure of the name but it was a totally awesome 4X game set in a fantasy world. What happened to these games?

5. Heroes of Might and Magic. Another awesome 4X game series set in fantasy worlds.

6. Civ IV. Not really my kind of game since I prefer fantasy or sci-fi. But it was so well done it has to be on this list.

Cant remember anymore as Ive been playing computer games for over 20 years, so many good titles that I have forgotten. Only reason GC II is not on the list is because of lack of multiplayer. Sorry but no game released after 2000 cannot not have multiplayer. Maybe in the distant future where the AI can match a skilled player but even then I doubt it. Computer algorithms rather than a real human being? I think not...

Im tempted to put RTS games on the good list but they are too much of "twitch gaming" for my taste.

As for worst titles? I really cant remember because I try to forget bad titles as soon as possible but recent titles that are really bad:

1. WoW. Yep, the final blow that killed of the MMORPG genre as it once was; free and open ended with only the really dedicated ones who reached the highest levels. With this game its only a question of time, anyone can reach cap level and get the best gear as the game is almost as linear and easy as any 3D shooter games. And the PvP is artificial, stale, boring, uneventful not to mention completely safe with nothing to lose. Nothing ventured, nothing gained...

This game is enigmatic of the problems in the gaming industries these days. It's the equivalence of fast food; quick, easy and unhealthy for you... well not sure about the last thing but you get the point. It's made for the masses of gamers that wants instant gratification with little effort, no risk and most importantly, no skill or intelligence what so ever required.

2. Any 3D shooter/fighting game. A monkey could be trained to be good at these. Takes absolutely no brain power, a child could beat an adult (and often does).

3. Sims. First time I heard of this game I thought it was a joke, a bad one.

4. MOO 3. The devs of this game should be shot (no, I dont mean that literally). To take such an excellent series and turn it into such a piece of shit is quite an effort.

Yep, that's about it.

My first experience with MMORPG were the MUD's. Since it was freeware there were many MUD's out there, some with PK and some not. I chose one that was not. What I hated was that the devs didn't give you the option, and they clearly knew about MUD when they developed it. They made the non-PKers fodder for the a-hole PK'ers (not all PK's are jerks--some just have guild wars and don't target innocent bystanders. I'm not talking about those). An online game that rewards you for being a jerk to real, innocent people gets my vote for the worst. If some people like PK to be kept on their toes, more power to them. They should have that option.

Im all for the choice of participating in PvP or not but you cant call them jerks for doing what the game allows them to do.

Also, contrary to other games like DAoC, you always had a chance to escape being PKed in UO if you were alert and had your recall runes handy.

In no particular order, the games that hold a specail place in my heart...

Star Trek: Armada 1: Armada 2 was a complete and total let down, but the original is still one of the best Trek games out there depite being 3 quarters of a decade old.

Conquest: Frontier Wars: Great gameplay, surprisingly good graphics and an above average story line. If you're a sci-fi fan, CFW is a great (but little known) choice.

Populous: The Beginning: Developed by Bullfrog almost a decade ago, Populous is still a great game to play. Inovative gameply that still holds up today along with fun graphics and sounds make Populous an absolute joy.

Total War series: Medieval II had some horrendus bugs, but regardless, the Total War series is an awesome concept executed in awesome style. Kudos to the Creative Assembley.

Civilization series: A simply fantastic series of games, especally 4. Civlization is a complex and in-depth game with plenty to offer. Who wouldn't want to rule the world?

Pharaoh/Cleopatrah expansion: Games like Pharaoh are best described as 'the Sim City of ages past'. Its easy to while away the hours when your engrossed in building a grand Egyptian city.

Homeworld seires: Oh, hell yea! Homeworld was a truely amazing game. It featured one of the greatest story lines of any game ever released and, despite the fact that it was a pre-2000 game, had good graphics and fantastic sound (particularly the sweeping musical scores). Its biggest draw, though, was its innovative 3-D gameply, which has never, to the best of my knowledge, been matched to this day.

Sim City series: While I'm only just starting to realise how best to stop myself going backrupt, building one's very own city is a more than attractive prospect executed in fantastic style.

Galactic Civilizations: Would I be here if this didn't get my tick of approval? Gal Civ's gameplay, while not as complex as Civilization's, is still a lot of fun and the ship designer is nothing short of amazing.

Ahem...
Emporers: Battle for Dune- A great game, plently of stuff to blow up.
1503 A.D.- A great strategy game. I also like the newer version, 1701 (took me a while to get used to though)
Empire Earth - One of my favourites, and one of the first games I got for the computer.
Civilization 4 - Alot of choices and freedom in game creation.(Particularly for the moddability)
Cossacks: The Art Of War - Fun, I loved the economy system. Although a bit slow and cannons are over powered.
Battlefield 1942+2 - Mainly because of the cheesiness of explosives.
Stronghold: Crusaders - Great game, fun to build castles and economic systems.
Alpha Centauri - Galactic Civs2 reminds me of this game slightly because of the unit customization. Also a great game.
Galactic Civilizations 2 - I gotta say this one, I am afterall at it's website... I like for multiple reasons.
Age of Mythology - Funny game, although my joy was slightly ruined by some "bugs" such as not being able to heal the special dragon unit and (not a bug) not being able to use spells more than once.
Worm's World Party - Always loved the worms series.
Morrowind GOTY - Great rpg game, loved the story lines. Oblivion would be one of my favourites too but it lacked the storylines Morrowind did.
Railroad Tycoon - Not Sid Meiers. I forget which company made this, but I love the combination of railroads and politics.
All Total War games: I loved this series of games, have every one. Although these games always have the problem (atleast with me) of starting with a negative income then jump starting to the thousands mid to late game, I liked everything else.

Now that I think of it, I really have had many favorites throughout the years.
So I think my 7 biggest favorites of all time would be:
(in order of appearance)

1) Civilization
2) Star Control II
3) Colonization
4) Master of Orion II
5) Heroes of Might and Magic III
6) Rise of Nations
7) Civilization IV

The orginal GalCiv was good but not good enough to make it to my all time favorite-list. GC II on the other hand seems great with the only drawback beeing that its unfortunately almost unplayable on my current system.

I should get my new hardware delivered before this weekend so I predict many GC2-heavy weekends in the near future.   

It will be intresting to see if GC2 manages to replace one of my old favorites on that top-list.
(I just wonder witch favorite it might replace?   )




The biggest dissapointments I remember are mainly only theese few titles:

1) Civilization: Call to Power
2) Master or Orion III

Rise of Nations:Thrones & Patriots was a good one. If only it came with more campaigns! I would go back to playing it right now.

Ahh Homeworld!

Homeworld was the most beautiful & innovative RTS spacegame ever invented. Its 3D space & space travel - combat remains the standard to beat in 2007. The colors, the music.....

Converseley, the resource management was unforgiving. If you purchased one ship too many, - end of game. The space travel was rightly difficult; how many times I could not find my fighters in that vast 3D universe. The Mother Ship was beautiful, & functioned as a moveable, or stationary space station (an idea for GC3?). Negatively, Homeworld had no difficulty play levels (that I recall); it also had no Random Map playability.

That I could not play Homeworld beyond the first few missions does not invalidate someone with superior reflexes from loving the game.



"A single dream is worth a thousand realities." Tolkien

Sorry,

I forgot to mention that I would love to see a GC3 with the Homeworld innovations of (1) 3D Universe & (2) real time space battles. Let's have a GC3 with turn based building & decision making combined with more exciting space & planet warfare on a realistic 3D universe. The fine people at Stardock can do it.

My grandmother taught me not to be afraid to ask.

"A single dream is worth a thousand realities." Tolkien

In no particular order:
Best:
Master of Orion II - just liked it more than the original, however I think this may be replaced by GC2

Master of Magic - totally awesome game, unfortunatly the AI was kind of crap and the diplomacy was total chaos.

Quest for Glory series - sorry had to put the whole series. An old Sierra product, a combination between King's Quest style adventure play and a good character based RPG, (If anyone likes RPGs and has not played these, I highly reccommend.)

Fallout 2 - more expansive than the original and just totally cool.

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magic Obscura - by the same people who did the fallout series I belive, totally huge world with tons of quests and secret stuff, cool steampunk concept wherein magic and technology rival each other.

Starcraft: probably my favortie RTS of all time, although W40K Dawn of War and expansions come close

SM Alpha Centarui - I always found the Civ series too boring because its based too much in reality for my tastes, but I thouroughly enjoyed this game.

Bonus #8
Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind - While I liked Daggerfall it was just too massive and unfocused, to me Morrowind is the perfect blend of freedom and goals.

Worst/Most Dissapointing:
Warcraft III: I liked Warcraft I and II and Starcraft. But it seemed to me that the only way to win in warcraft III was to target the most powerful units with all your units one at a time. Just and excersise in tedium (thats one reason I like the W40K RTSs a bit more, you can't do that) all in all I've been very dissapointed with RTS in general and Warcraft III just epitomizes the problems in my mind.

Most FPS. I say most because there are some I have enjoyed ( the original Doom, Half-Life, Starsiege Tribes, Halo) but there just so many of them and they all do the exact same thing, they're killing the creativity of the game industry.)

Final Fantasy VIII - I've been told by many that 8 is a perfectly fine game, but after playing 7 I couldn't help but compare, and it was just crap, never got past the very beggining of the second disk, the story just didn't draw me in (and he story is essintial to those totaly linear JRPGs) while in conrast FFVII actually made me cry at one point.

MOO3 - I actually upgraded my computer to play this turd. If only I could purge the memories.

I can't think of any more bad ones right now

Of course there are many more wonderful games, thats just a sampling from off the top of my head.

I liked the Warcraft III campaigns, but not the multiplayer. Same with the expansion.

Master of Magic was hands down the greatest game I have ever played...

Runners up -

MOO2
Imperium Galactica 2
XCOM UFO Defense
Civ Series
Elder Scrolls Series

Worst -

MOO3
And many many more...

Oh thats right, somehow I forgot about X-COM, a great great game.

Best -

Alpha centauri is still the king! This game has so many brilliant concepts all packed into one game, there is nothing that comes close to being as good. So you think the ship designing concept in galciv2 is good? Sorry, already been done years before in Alpha centauri! Terraforming is brilliant, units are brilliant, technology is awesome, global effects rock, the only shortcomming is the AI but considering how old the game is, i mean you know, it is still the king of all turn based games.

Total Anihilation, love that game, it has been around for a long time but still nothing has turned up that is better in it's game category.

X2 the threat is totally brilliant! x3 seems better, should be better but somehow just dousn't make it there, dont quite understand why i don't like it, i mean to say i should like it but i don't?

All the age of empires games, the first one being the most fun still.

Love all the civilisation series except civ4 which i hated due to the nerfing of bombard feature.

Lords of the realm 2 was indeed brilliant, lords 3 i played once and immediately dropped it like a stone! Lords 3 being so different from lords 2 that it's just beyond a joke!!

battlezone 2 combat commander is brilliant - fantastic for multiplayer online

Dungeonsiege is brilliant as well as Lionheart.

unreal tournament was fun, so was quake1 because of the team mission feature

The good:
1. Civilizations (all-series, this game is classic!)
2. Command and Conquer (all-series, another classic)
3. Supreme Commander (the newest RTS game very hot)
4. Diablo (all-series, one of the best action games ever)
5. Sim City (all-series, Will Wrights brain child)
6. Madden 200X (best football game on the market)
7. Grand theft Auto (What can't you do)
The Bad:
1. sword of the stars (gag)
2. doom/quake/duke nukem (the same since 1999)
3. myst (yawn)
4. Dark Avatar 1.50x.068 (for the Fog of war bug)
5. disney video games (god help me if i have to watch my nephew play another.)
6. Star trek legacy (half finished game)
7. command and conquer: renegade (what was this all about)

So many good games, I have to back up most of them. Too many of them to individualy point.

Best, no order.

Diablo 2
GalCiv 2
Civ4
Black and White 1
Tribes 2
Warcraft 2
Company of Heroes
Worms World series
Knights of Honor (Hard to find this game anywhere )
Nethack (I play this today still, god its impossible!!!)
UFO defense
(Sorry for the long list, these games rocked, eh, still rock!)


Worst

Black and White 2
The Sims
Might and Magic 4
Age of Empires 3
Warlords 4
GalCiv1

The best

best is pretty hard to define since you've got to take into account what was out at the time the game came out, a lot of the older predecessors of newer games still held my interest more than some of their flashier clones due to sheer originality.


1. Starcraft - still the best RTS of all time, great story, fantastic balance, perfect implementation of the "easy to learn, hard to master" philosophy that has seen so many Blizzard games become successful. Still no RTS has achieved such balance with such different races within the same game. Then there was Battle.net, which has yet to be matched for multiplayer competitive gaming.

2. MOO2 - My favourite turn based strategy game of all time, the difference in races due to the custom picks hasn't been matched in any TBS game yet. Multiplayer gave it longevity.

3. Neverwinter Nights - Amazing story, and one of the most moddable game ever created, there are literally thousands of hours of gameplay to be had with this game, some of the user created adventures were even better than the original campaign.

4. Doom - the original FPS multiplayer shooter. This game was a revolution and I would have spent 100s of hours playing this against friends over dial up and IPX network.

5. World of Warcraft - I was very reluctant to list this becuase of the nature of MMOs. Eventually, like all MMOs, WoW became a pointless grind. However for the 20 or so days of gameplay it offered before that stage I have to list it, it really fixed up a lot of problems that other MMOs and the PvP aspect gave it a whole lot of depth.

6. Sim City 2000 - One of the most addictive games ever made, still no Sim game has held my interest as long as this one.

7. LBA Twinsen's adventure - Probably no one here has ever heard of this game, but it was a really nice little RPG that came out many, many years ago. The game had such a unique atmosphere and character that I haven't seen replicated since, the music is still my favourite game sountrack of all time and I'd put it on the list solely on that.



The worst -

really hard to put the worst games, because the chances are most of them I played for about 5 seconds and then forgot they ever existed, however there were a couple of games that were a huge letdown after the hype and success of their predecessors.

1. Moo3 - a turd in a box. Unfinished and full of bugs, AI was useless, game mechanics were retarded, a huge disappointment after Moo2.

2. Neverwinter nights 2 - unfinished and full of bugs. Couldn't get past the game crashing every 5 minutes, so dissapointing after NWN1 and the expansions.

My top seven:
Guild Wars - I'm still playing it. It doesn't suit everyone, but as far as MMOs go, it's the only one I've stuck with (partly thanks to the lack of monthly fees).

Age of Empires 2 - As stated above, it remains one of the most balanced RTS games I can think of. My friends and I still hold AoE LAN parties now and then, even after college.

Total Annihilation - Another of my favorite RTS games with an entirely different economic system the rest of the genre. And it was always fun to see big explosions. I'm hoping Supreme Commander can live up to this.

Elder Scrolls Series - All were masterpieces for their time. You could make them as easy or as difficult as you want, and you could spend days doing random things apart from the storyline and still have fun.

Civilization Series - I've played 3 and 4, and subsequently stayed up waaaay too late many nights trying to take that last city, build that wonder, finish that research, etc. I'll throw in the Alpha Centauri pair in here as well, in spite of having more convoluted tech trees, had the same effect of keeping me up well past when I should have been in bed.

Bauldur's Gate 2 - Great fun to be had in a good ol' DnD world. Very well done. It's a shame that the company closed it's doors.

Roller Coaster Tychoon - It's amazing how much fun this simple game was. And when you got bored, you launch the little people to their doom.

Runners up:
Galactic Civilizations 2 is working up there for me, but I still feel a lack of depth in the combat options. Coming from playing Space Empires 4 where you had a wide variety of stuff to put on your ships, I'm still getting used to the simple combat system.

Warcraft 2 introduced me into the RTS world. While I never played any multiplayer, I enjoyed the ease at which maps could be created. Too bad I couldn't find anyone to play the ones I made.

Quake 2 was the FPS I learned on. Simple graphics, simple mechanics, and lots of fun with friends. Sadly, none of the genre have caught me the same way this used to.

Betrayal at Krondor was one of the first role-playing games I ever played and enjoyed. My wife had the same experience when she was a kid, and we both ended up reading Feist's Riftwar saga of books from which it was based.

Worst seven:
Temple of Elemental Evil - While the game was fun, the mutlitude of bugs rendered the game unplayable. I heard a third party made a patch that fixed most of the crippling ones, but I never got into it.

Masters of Orion 3 - Having heard great things about the predecessors (but sadly never having played them), I tried this out. I really tried to like it. But the GUI insanity among other things quickly moved me onto other games.

I can't really think of any more which stand out to me as "bad." I tend to like most games I buy.

Yea i played homeworld, it was a very fun game! Although it is very challenging to controll. Controlling your fleets is the big problem with this game, quite a headache that deters replayability. I won the campaign using those towing ships to capture everything more than using military might!

Can i ask people??

What are some good multiplayer co-operative games that i can play with my wife?

We loved playing Dungeonsiege and Lionheart together.

Diablo is quite good, even if a bit old.

I dont know much about current games.