The top 10 PC games of all time

No RTS games?

Making a top 10 list would take some serious thinking, which I'm frankly too lazy to do right now. It also depends on what criteria you use to define "top" or "best". Units sold? Critical acclaim? Gameplay? Graphical quality? Storyline?

Anyhoo, I tend to rate "greatest" in terms of longevity and impact on the genre. Hence, a few of the games I would feature (in no particular order) are:

Dune II
Command & Conquer
StarCraft
Doom
Half-Life
Wing Commander
Civilization

I may add more later as I think of them.

on top of my head.....based strictly on personal experience -
1. doom 2
2. duke nukem 3d
3. gta san andreas
4. gta vice city
5. gta iii
6. need for speed - ii, iii, most wanted, hot pursuit
7. commandos - i & ii
8. x men legends - rise of apocalypse
9. mortal kombat 4
10. max payne i & ii

Best PC game to me means, best PC exclusive, or at least exclusive on release.

Here are mine in no particular order.

Age of Empires
Heroes of Might and Magic 3
Command & Conquer
Company of Heroes
Total War Series
Half Life 1 & 2
Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic
Deus Ex
Counterstrike
Red Orchestra 2

Im am a fps games player and i liked :
Max Payne I & II
Sniper Elite
Doom
Borderlands
Call of Dutty series all
Crisys all
Half Life
and the most played games series TOMB RAIDER all series.

Good points and a good list!

Good list! I would personally put AoE2 ahead of AoE but that's just me.

Oh, and I don't know how I forgot about Kotor.

I don't think I can rate the games I've liked over the years from top to bottom, but here's the list of the 10 that I liked most:

- Half-life (1,2) + CSS
- Starcraft (1-2)
- Heroes of Might and Magic (2-3,6)
- Jagged Alliance 2
- Vanguard Bandits
- C&C:Red Alert 2
- Warcraft 3
- Assassin's Creed (1-2)
- Witcher
- Metal Gear Solid (1-3)

All great games, no doubt about that.

But the MGS series, while absolutely amazing games, aren't PC games.

hmm, I coulda sworn I've played at least one of them on PC, oh well maybe not haha

mgs series was first released for consoles but they had pc versions too. i've played the first mgs (the 3d one) on pc. i saw the another one (sons of liberty iirc) but at that time it was beyond my pc's specs. they had quite a bit of a learning curve with the keyboard controls. but the gameplay and the story was awesome. also had some nice easter eggs.  

No quake or unreal tournament on anyone's list?

10 off the top of my head:

Doom
Warcraft 2
Starcraft
Quake
UT2004
Falcon 3.0
Myst
Kings Quest 6
Civilization
Duke Nukem

I listed AoE over AoE 2 for more personal nostalgia reasons more than anything else.

Age of Empires was my first PC game, and is also probably the game that I have spent the most time playing.

Kotor is an amazing game isn't it, I'm currently playing through it once again for like the 100th time lol.

Good to see another Heroes of Might and Magic fan

that hot seat man. back when i was in 5th grade or so, we used to play that with like 3-4 friends all the time

Kotor is brilliant. You would think that with Mass Effect and Dragon Age, Kotor would be no fun, anymore.

But it is still great fun, thinks to the D&D rule set incorporated into the game, the Star Wars universe, and the awesome story with very different paths. Even though it only has two endings, you can't really play that game the same way twice.

Batman Arkham Asylum
Half Life 2
Warcraft 3
World of Warcraft
Unreal Tournament - the original and 2003/2004
Battlefield 3
Baldur's Gate 2
Civilization - all of them
COD 4 Modern Warfare
Colin Mcrae Rally - the first one

In no apparent order - listed, Batman or Half Life would probably top the list.

Honorable mentions:

the GTA series
Portal 1 & 2
League of Legends
Worms
Sim City
Railroad Tycoon
Wolfenstein Enemy Territory - goddamn I played that game a lot back then
Mafia - the first one
Max Payne 1 & 2

Good list, I agree with UT04, Civ, Baldur's Gate 2, Half Life 2, Sim City, WET.

I thinks it's almost impossible to have a top ten for a true pc gaming fan. But if i had to name ten of the best games they would have to be as follows (in no particular order).

Freelancer (my childhood, also i have a great love for space games and anything space related)

Supreme Commander+Forged Alliance (me and my friends have spent hundreds of hours lanning this game, we do still)

Warcraft 3 (even to this day i play this game, it's a classic)

Mass Effect 1 & 2 (as i said i love space games but besides that the storyline is simply amazing, better than watching a movie imo)

The Elder Scrolls series (I love how all the games are connected, each new game just adds to the big archive of lore to the Elder scrolls universe)

Dragon Age Origins (love the game mechanics, storyline and the whole feel to it) PS. they totally f*** up with Dragon Age Awakening and Dragon Age 2 imo

Batman Arkham Asylum (Usually they ruin Marvel games like they did Iron Man and the Spiderman games but with this one they really made me smile "which is rare nowadays")

Call of Duty World at War (The campaign was simply awesome for me and also me and my friends have lanned the zombie maps more times than i can count)

World of Warcraft (i never liked mmo's until i played this game, it basically stole 2 years of my life, i stopped playing now but the only reason is because of schoolwork and sports, it was truly a sad day when i closed my account)

Anno 1404 and Anno 2070 (these two games are simply amazing, Anno 2070 is quite possibly the best game i've played in 2011)

Crysis and Crysis 2 (the storyline is surprisingly good and the overall First Person Shooter feel of the game is pretty fun, not to mention the amazing graphics)

Gothic 3 (Besides the vast array of glitches this game managed to steal a good half year of my life)

Gears of War (the pc version, this is quite simply and Epic shooter/alien invasion/blood and gore/hardcore chainsaw gun and teeth grinding game)



Sorry about the long list, i got carried away lol

My lists go vary far back, so this will be hard for me to recall them exactly, but a few of you definitely brought back memories.

Kings Quest series got me into gaming.
Dune II was the first good RTS I'd played
Ultima and Ultima Underworld got me into RPG's
Elder Scrolls - I've played all of them, Arena was awesome, Daggerfall and Morrowind too. Only Oblivion was a bit disappointing to me.
Wing Commander series, they were all great.
Baldur's Gate was awesome
Dragon Age Origins felt like a revitalization of Baldur's gate.
Star Wars Knights of the Old republic
Warcraft
Starcraft
Falcon 3.0 definitely was the best flight simulator game I've ever played
Farcry is my favorite first person shooter
Diablo

There are a few more I can't even remember their names anymore, so I guess they don't make the list as a result.

Good list, and you are not the first person to put world of warcraft in there - I left it out because I see MMO's as more of a social network game than game game.

Very good list.

Morrowind is my favorite Elder Scrolls game.

I think Oblivion is better and funner all things considered - that is why I put it in my list instead of Morrowind or Skyrim. It is the better game, in my opinion. But I personally liked Morrowind the most - and here is why...

You get to play the role as the "chosen one", giving the player an "I'm destined", Messiah-esque feel. No other game I ever played made me feel like God incarnate. That is what you are in Morrowind, basically. God in the flesh.

10.Jane's series combat flight simulator games. They were all beast.
9.Mass Effect 2
8.Quake
7.Portal
6.Bioshock
5.Battlefield 3 (based solely on the multiplayer experience)
4.Wolfenstein 3-D
3.Crysis (entire series, I liked Crysis 2 in addition to the other games quite a bit)
2.Deus Ex
1.DOOM & Doom 2


honorable mentions: 7th Guest was cool for its time, Arkham City is really impressing me and a lot of old text MUDs that are gone now but sorely missed by me.

Great list, and I agree with mostly everything there.

I did think Doom was a lot better than Doom 2. I didn't like the Doom 2 levels.

Not in any particular order:

Star Wars Tie Fighter
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic
Half Life I
Civilization II
Far Cry
Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
Master of Magic
Master of Orion I
Fallout 2
Mass Effects I

Half life 1, 2: HL will always top the list for me. My uncle gave it to me when I was 9 and I was scared like all get out. Picked it up again when I was 11 and from that moment on was a HL fan through and through.

Ive probably put more time into AoE the original than any other game. I used to spend hours and hours lanning with my sister, I had those strategies down pat!

After that I would have to say CoD 1. Back in the days before modern warfare 1 I was a champ at CoD online. One of my proudest moments was being asked to join the SoC clan... ahh yeah.

Id then have to go with WoW. Too much time put into that game on both private and retail servers to leave it off this list.

Just Cause 2 was also an amazing game to me. The open world and completely ridiculous stunts made it so fun to play.

Some extra's that Ive loved: TF2, CSS, (I hate to admit it but MW2).

Id say the baseline here is SO MANY GAMES SO LITTLE TIME!

My top ten games are

1. Starcraft (Still LAN party this game at school I lost my expansion disk though)
2. Battle for wesnoth (free, fun and massive!)
3. Battleships forever (an amazing space game where you can build your own ships with customs sprites. Although the community has died out. someone released a massive repackage version of the game with most of the communitys sprites and it's freeware too!)
4. Black and white (the mechanics and feel to the game were just so interesting)
5. Warcraft 3 Reign of chaos (the battlenet customs games were a lot of fun)
6. Age of Empires 2 (one of the first games I played and I still have it today)
7. C&C tiberium sun (the first PC game I ever played and me and my grandfather still play together sometimes)
8. Minecraft (I love the freeplay aspect and it's super fun!)
9. C&C Generals (the first game I ever got as a present and it's just so entertaining to get a Humvee filled with rocket troops)
10. Master of Orion 2: battle at Antares (I plan on getting this set up and running with dosbox one day and it's just a fantastic game)
Edit: Thank you PcGamer81 I fixed it! In my defense I wrote this really late last night.

Good list, but when you say World of Warcraft 3, do you mean WotLK, or Warcraft 3? I am almost certain you mean the latter.

Ok I'm adding Amnesia: The Dark Descent to my list. I know I've already listed 10 games but....it deserves a mention, a great PC exclusive, and as far as I can tell, nobody else has mentioned it so far.

Geoff Crammonds GP series, put some serious hours in on those games.   So hard to pick a top 10 though, think the HL2 and Farcry would be on my list also.

Great game - scarier than system shock 2 and better than silent hill.

Geoff Crammonds GP series, put some serious hours in on those games.   So hard to pick a top 10 though, think the HL2 and Farcry would be on my list also.

My top 10 in no particular order. Im bit of an old school PC gamer and not kept with the times.

Unreal Tournament.
Sim City 2000.
Elite 2 Frontier.
Monkey Island 3.
Day of the tenticle.
7th Guest.
X-Wing vs TIE Fighter.
Theme Hospital.
Microprose Grand Prix 3.
Command and conquer: Red Alert.

Oh man Theme Hospital is sh*t hot! I forgot all about that game.

Great shame EA swallowed up Bullfrog and Westwood.

Great games, no doubt. Old but fun.

Especially Sim City.

The 'top ten' of any games list is going to be hugely subjective, and incredibly difficult to reduce it down to 10... But here goes:

In no particular order, but ten games that i think have had the biggest impact on my personal gaming life on the PC:

1: Lord of the Rings Online (MMO)

2: EvE online

3: Tie Fighter (remember the first time you got to pilot the TIE Defender? Oooooh Hell Yeah lol)

4: Age of Empires II

5: Dune 2000

6: UFO: Enemy Unknown

7: Diablo

8: X3 (closest game i've found to 'Elite' yet...)

9: MechWarrior2

10: Half Life


Honourable mentions:

7th Guest (not a spectacular game in itself, but the first to move things 'properly' from Floppy to CD - and the first i can remember to step the graphics up so significantly)

Day of the Tentacle (and Zak McCracken and the Alien Mindbenders! lol)

- Mach

No particular order:
Battle For Wesnoth
Europa Universalis 3
COD 4
Commandos 3
Gothic (played only 1 and 4)
Praetorians
Assassin's Creed series
Runescape  
Can't think of more lol

Not even one Ultima Online vote!? Well that's my undisputed number one. I'll have to take some time on the other nine, but geez, where's the love?

X-Wing vs TIE Fighter .... what a game, I remember the first time it booted and the 'Star Wars' music starting booming out of my Soundblaster AWE32 - magic.

Most of us didn't mention MMO's. I did mention the Ultima and Ultima underworld games, however.

I feel a little bad for not mentioning X COM or Thief.

Is that the second time I seen Battle for Wesnoth up there?

I played that game a while back (it was free if I remember right) and I absolutely hated it. I thought it was a poor man's Disciples. But since then, I have heard good things about it - maybe I should give it a second go...

Well, the base game isn't that good. But there are some absolutely awesome player-made campaigns.

Aw, I see...

Makes sense.

Do you like Crysis? That quote you have at the bottom of your posts is how I feel about Crysis vs everything. Here lately I can't get enough Crysis.

I have played just Warhead, which I didn't like that much.

Well, if you don't like Warhead than you wouldn't like Crysis.

Warhead is like Crysis on steroids.

So I took everyone list and used the amount of times a game was said to make a top 10:

1. Half Life with a score of 10 (Steam Page)
2. Doom with a score of 9 (Steam Page)
3. Starcraft with a score of 6
4. Crysis with a score of 5 (Steam Page)
5. Half Life 2 with a score of 5 (Steam Page)
6. Deus Ex with a score of 5 (Steam Page)
7. Warcraft 3 with a score of 4
8. Far Cry with a score of 4 (Steam Page)
9. Star Wars: Tie Fighter with a score of 4
10. C&C Red Alert with a score of 4
11. Dune 2 with a score of 3
12. Civilization with a score of 3
13. Max payne I with a score of 3 (Steam Page)
14. Max Payne II with a score of 3 (Steam Page)
15. Command & Conquer with a score of 3
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cut off point
I think we are getting too many games with a score of 3 so I'm cutting it off at 15.

Under the line is a complete list from the beginning of this thread to the end.
I ignored series votes and I may have missed a couple. The ~x# is how many times I saw a game.
Edit:
1.1: Alphabetized the games list.
1.2: Added 2 download links for free games.
1.3: Linked all the games to Wikipedia
1.4: Updated to page 3 & Added some steam links.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A:
Amnesia: The Dark Descent ~x2
Age of Empires I
Age of Empires II ~x2
Age of Empires III
Anno 1404
Anno 2070
Assassin's Creed I
Assasin's Creed II

B:
Baulders Gate
Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn ~x2
Battle for Wesnoth ~x2 (Download)
Battleships Forever (Download)
Black and white
Batman Arkham Asylum ~x2
Battlefield III ~x3
Battlefield II
Bioshock
Borderlands ~x2
Battlefield 2142
Battlefield Bad Company 2

C:
Commandos I
Commandos II
Commandos III
Crysis ~x5
Crysis II ~x3
Command & Conquer ~x3
C&C: Red Alert ~x4
C&C: Red Alert 2 ~x2
C&C: Tiberium Sun
C&C: Generals
Civilization ~x3
Civilization II ~x2
COD 4 Modern Warfare ~x3
COD World at War
COD Modern Warfare 2 ~x2
Colin Mcrae Rally
Company of Heroes
Counterstrike ~x2
Championship Manager
City Of Heroes

D:
Diablo ~x2
Diablo 2
Deus Ex ~x4
Doom ~x9
Doom 2 ~x2
Dune II ~x3
Duke Nukem ~x2
Duke Nukem 3D
Dragon Age Origins ~x2
Day of the Tentacle
Delta Force I
Delta Force II
Descent
Dungeons and Dragons online

E:
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind ~x2
Elite 2 Frontier
Europa Universalis 3
EvE Online (MMO)
Everquest II

F:
Fallout I
Fallout II
Fallout III ~x2
Far Cry ~x4
Freelancer
Falcon 3.0 ~x2

G:
GTA San Andreas
GTA Vice city
GTA III
GTA IV
Gothic 1
Gothic 3
Gothic 4
Gears of War

H:
Half Life ~x10
Half Life 2 ~x4
Heroes of Might and Magic 3~x2
Heroes of Might and Magic 2
Heroes of Might and Magic 6
Hellcats over the Pacific

J:
Jagged Alliance 2

K:
Kings Quest 6

L:
Lord of the Rings Online (MMO)

M:
Metal Gear Solid I
Metal Gear Solid II
Metal Gear Solid III
Mortal kombat 4
Max payne I ~x3
Max Payne II ~x3
Mass Effect I ~x2
Mass Effect II ~x2
Master of Magic
Master of Orion
Master of Orion II
Minecraft
Myst
Microprose Grand Prix 3
Mech Warrior 2
Monkey Island 3

N:
Need for speed II
Need for speed Most Wanted
Need for speed III: Hot Pursuit ~x2

P:
Portal
Portal II
Praerorians (No Wikipedia article found)
Planet Side

Q:
Quake ~x2

R:
Red Orchestra 2
Runescape (MMO)

S:
Sniper Elite
Star Wars: Rouge Squadron
Star Wars: Tie Fighter ~x4
Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic ~x3
Star Wars: Battlefront II
Starcraft ~x5
Starcraft II ~x2
Supreme Commander
Sim City 2000 ~x2
Swat 4

T:
Total War
Theme Hospital
Team Fortress 2 ~x2

U:
UT2004 ~x3
Unreal Tournament
Ultima
Ultima Underworld ~x2

V:
Vanguard Bandits

W:
Warcraft 3 ~x4
Warcraft 2
Warcraft
World of Warcraft ~x2
Wing Commander ~x2
Witcher
Wolfstein 3D

X:
X-Men legends - Rise of apocalypse
X-Wing vs Tie Fighter
X-Men: The Last Stand

#:
7th Guest

Awesome post TheFoxyBox. Great idea.

That's awesome, FoxyBox.

Thanks guys and Ill update the list with new votes and games when they are posted!