Kotaku
As we move from dominant operating system generation to generation, some games will inevitably be tied to their respective popular OSes. Welcoming Windows Vista into the family of questionably necessary upgrades, Voodoo Extreme has posted what they consider to be the best games of the Windows XP era. While they may not be explicity linked to the OS, they were released after October 25, 2001 and represent some groundbreaking, classic video games.
The best part about a list like this one? Most of the games, in the nature of PC gaming, are wicked cheap acquisitions if snagged via eBay. Most contain dozens, if not hundreds, of hours of gameplay.
Sure, one could argue that it relies heavily on two PC-centric genres (first person shooters like Half-Life and real-time strategy games like Civ IV), but we're trying to keep it on the positive tip. Consider this a hater free post!
Comments
Umm I think Battlefield 2 should definitely be in there. It was sooo much better than 1942...
the real irony will be that apart from rts, none of them are games that werent on consoles first, or didnt end up on them and sell twice as well. I used to be a PC gamer but the bottom dropped out sometime around the ps2 arriving. i havent seen a good reason in at least 5 years to own a cutting edge pc. if this is unpalatable to you, i simply refer you to sales figures.
its hard to believe there was not one racing game listed, even the more recent need for speeds, which i thought were good pc games.
Aestheticity:
Wrong. Guild Wars, the World of Warcraft, and Neverwinter Nights, Civilization 4 are on that list. For various reasons, none of those games are suitable for console play.
World of Warcraft and has revenues that puts any console title to shame, plus Guild Wars and Civ4 aint doing half bad either.
aestheticity,
Many PC gamers enjoyed gaming experiances that were beyond the limitations of consoles. throughout the xp era pc gamers will be known for their love for superior input devices (mouse and keyboard for FPS/RTS) and always having cutting-edge graphics. They are a different breed, and I think they more passonate about gaming in general then the "masses" were that bought consoles. PC gamers are willing to invest more time and money into their system, and I think their gaming experiences reward them in turn.
Referring to sales figures is not a valid argument for gauging enjoyment.
I've already "hated" on this top 20 list, and I'll make no apologies for hating on it a second time.
Halo shouldn't be on that list. I don't care how many Ferrari laptops Microsoft sends out.
gotta love their hate for the Great adventure games. :-(
gah...never mind. They are going from 2001 and beyond. Ignore my above comment.
I didn't even have to look at the article to know W.o.W. was going to be #1. Ugh...
Keeping game journalism tradition alive by having an "Everyone Wins" Award list.
I loved Civ IV, but it would take a very interesting sense of reality to consider it "real-time". Isn't it kind of, you know, more "turn based"? Ironically, that's the sort of thing that would make it easier to transfer over to a console, one would think, as there'd be no need for the rapid response time and precision that can require the use of a mouse.
Can someone please post a top 20 list of the most predictable games lists?
I'm putting this one in for my #3 spot.
Civ4 is a turn-based strategy game. Turn-based being the logical opposite of real-time.
The only thing that bothered me was Half Life 2 getting on the list, but not Half Life 1. Am I the only person who thought the first game was far superior?
"I used to be a PC gamer but the bottom dropped out sometime around the ps2 arriving. i havent seen a good reason in at least 5 years to own a cutting edge pc."
I'll sum it up the advantage real quick: 1600x1200
bryanstanton,
This list only covers games released in the Windows XP era, which started October 2001. Half-life 1 came out in 1998.
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