Got your ticket there for the best PC games of all time? Ah, you do. Welcome – come inside. You can hang your jacket on one of those vectors jutting out from Elite over there, and we do ask that you leave all electronic devices inside this improbably large PC game box from 1997. Look out for all the mouse balls and serial cables underfoot. We’ve tried clearing them out, but they grow back at an alarming rate.
As custodians of this PC gaming corps d’elite, we must lay a few ground rules before allowing you into the great hall. The first pertains to timeliness: PC gaming history spans several decades and many of its most revered titles released during the 1990s, whose incredible tech breakthrough saw leaps forward in both fidelity and ideation. But let’s be real: even if you did decide to go and play the original 1993 version Syndicate after seeing it on this list, which you wouldn’t, getting it to run properly on modern hardware would be quite an undertaking. Therefore, older games must be both playable and still genuinely enjoyable to make the cut, not simply ‘important’.
Secondly: franchises. The industry’s tendency to iterate on its most popular names and ideas means good games are often built on the foundations of great ones – so even though the real innovation might have happened nine years ago, we’re still inclined to put the best overall experience on a pedestal. Often, that means the most recent.
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With our methodology explained, we just need you to sign this waiver that absolves us from responsibility for any injuries incurred by falling CD-ROMs and any attempt from John Romero to make you his – well, you know, and we can now let you into the great hall.