PC Best old 90s/2000s pc game?

[CyberRabbit]

I’m curious, it feels like nobody ever talks about these games ever

 

[SliperyHippo]

I'm a big fan of my dark RPGs and I love me some Planescape Torment (1999). If that's not approachable enough of an RPG for you, going only about 5 years into the future you could play Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines which is an all time classic!

 

[qw90700]

Well perhaps the most important thing to say about this topic is some old games were way popular at the time compared to how some old games got popular later as if only they were popular. For example when people imagine early days of PC FPS they think Half-Life 1 was some hot shit but I personally disliked the game but instead liked this game lol: https://store.steampowered.com/app/328460/Redline/

And after internet got popular reading reviews it seems like paid reviews created a hype so hard it distorted the reality of people in a way they are biologically programmed to believe "only Half Life 1 was a good FPS at the time on PC" lol. Dude you can even drive cars in Redline and it can shoot too lol. Maps are interesting, fun missions and it doesn't feel like you are buried in six thousand feet underground like Half Life 1 lol.

Other than a FPS game mostly point and click games were popular to people who loved them but it made most people not interested in early days of PC games. At most there were CRPGs but these games made people think "PC gaming is for nerds" so they naturally leaned on arcades and video game consoles for action games. This is the way why that era in gaming is not mentioned much and when people talk about it they just mention the most popular ones that has relation to today like The Elder Scrolls series, Diablo, Doom, et cetera. Otherwise we can talk about The Last Express, Deja Vu: MacVenture Series, Life & Death series, Street Rod series, King's Quest series, Space Quest series, Monkey Island series, et cetera but these games could hardly interest people who never experienced the era because since 2000s video game industry got more focused on generic action games or character drama simulators further so today's people may cannot understand why I seriously played surgery simulator game and had fun thanks to Life & Death series lol. Now people are biologically programmed to believe games are supposed to be some NPC talk and you should care, so when they ask you to bring an item you should otherwise it's the end of the world lol. And then you just always have to kill someone/something between A to B walking and follow direction of some NPC to follow some generic revenge story and/or looking for someone and/or some evil endangering life of many people lol. I assure you video games were beyond this back then lol.

 

[RanmyakuIchi's icon RanmyakuIchi RanmyakuIchi]

DOOM, still with an active community making new content to this day.

 

[thanonyx thanonyx]

Wolfenstein 3D is a classic, shootin' Nazis never gets old.

 

[CyberRabbit]

DOOM, still with an active community making new content to this day.
View attachment 88198

Wolfenstein 3D is a classic, shootin' Nazis never gets old.

View attachment 88199

Besides the obvious

 

[qw90700]

Besides the obvious

You won't even see people talking about Necrodome. Either Doom or Wolfenstein like it's what they learned lol.

 

[ciro64]

 

[Ons2k6]

 

[heywusuh]

Wolfenstein 3D is a classic, shootin' Nazis never gets old.

View attachment 88199

Have you seen the wolfenstein port for the arduboy? lmfao

 

[thanonyx thanonyx]

Have you seen the wolfenstein port for the arduboy? lmfao

That tiny ass thing? You can play it on that?

 

[heywusuh]

That tiny ass thing? You can play it on that?

Bro, I love hobbyist gamedev lol

 

[RanmyakuIchi's icon RanmyakuIchi RanmyakuIchi]

You won't even see people talking about Necrodome. Either Doom or Wolfenstein like it's what they learned lol.

Or ya know, some of us were actually alive when it came out.

 

[Don Patch]

There is no "Best 90's/2000's PC game".

Only "Best 90's/2000's PC games".


And on that note, if you're looking for recommendations really anything Id Software or Epic should do ya good.
Can't really say the same for those places now, can we?

 

[dropsmegamega]

This thread has plenty of recommendations from the community and its mostly 90s/00s, too bad it wasn't continued

General PC Game Recommendation Thread

Well, here it is folks, a general thread. We have a bunch of assorted PC gaming threads here but since I've been asked more than once for my recommendations I figured we might as well try pooling our knowledge and experience together, especially for the people who grew up with consoles...

retrogametalk.com

 

[Stingy Perry Stingy Perry]

My first PC experience is also my first RTS

 

[otogirisou]

ultimate spider-man, freedom force

 

[Netra]

I never see people talking about Thief, it was a great game.
Monkey Island.
Worms.
Age of empires 2.
Commandos.
Deux ex, I don't remember if it was released in 2000.
And Daggerfall.
I just remember* those right now but all of them are worthy to try almost one time.

 

[tryrushdeppy3]

My favorite might be Alpha Centauri. I think it was first released in 1999.

 

[Tortuga]

The King

 

[ThatOneLum]

Not the best game by a long shot but I love Ripper (1996)

Its an FMV adventure game and is super janky but its got a great cast and is so fuckin 90s cyberpunk that it hurts. If you can get past long unskippable transition animations I highly recommend it.

 

[Kaze01]

Loved Shandalar (1997)

 

[qw90700]

Or ya know, some of us were actually alive when it came out.

"Alive" one thing, experiencing the video games of the time on the PC platform is one thing. So many people may did born in the year 1990 but due to many reasons it doesn't mean they directly started gaming in that era. Lots of people started gaming in 2000s for many reasons, especially as PC gaming. And then tons of 90s PC games were already lost to time and only relatively few made it to future, not because they were the best but just because for many ways they were always the talk of the town so much eventually people started to repeat same few games like a chant as if this is the normalcy of which video games of that era people should like lol.

PC gaming at the time was not so popular so people being aware and playing console games around that time is the usual one while whole idea of "old PC game" from that era to most people is Doom, Wolfestein and whatever most generic popular games around. As an example it seems like in the year 2050 if a guy had asked what's the best PC video games from 2010s people spam Mass Effect and Call of Duty games by even ignoring Bioshock and Dishonored. It means unless you experienced that era of gaming personally (that's outside of the logic of being "alive" but it's meant as being an active PC gamer who experienced most of the games of the time and living with that culture as a life style) you wouldn't get how some games like Redline was actually popular for the people of that era and that era is not consist of Doom, Wolfestein, Monkey Island, Deux Ex and Thief series even if it seems like there are only the most generic point and click games, FMV games and some strategy and related isometric games. So despite "you were alive" at the time it doesn't mean you would have god-like awareness of what was going on in the era you never knew that aspect of it so despite you were alive it doesn't mean you actually had that particular culture you never experienced yourself. For example you may have lived in 70s but it doesn't mean unless you lived in 70s America you wouldn't know how 70s was for America and even reading and watching about such stuff wouldn't make you really "get it".

Another side of the coin is past of the world and human history in many aspects are distorted by wrong sense of time and how the era was as the knowledge of past carried to the future by only some part of it was recorded. For example sometimes I check the whole internet to find a video game but it never exist even in lists that list every game in a platform. There are lost medias despite how popular they were but somehow they are lost in time as if people didn't bother record or talk about it like everyone already knew and it would never get lost in time. Despite popularity, only a few that seems the coolest and those that created a hype around make it to the future by stealing thunder from some video games. For example when Zero Tolerance had exist as a great FPS game I honestly didn't care about Doom, Quake, Wolfestein and Duke Nukem. For many people Zero Tolerance was "peak in FPS" of the time. You could punch and kick people when you are out of ammo which is a "wow" aspect for the genre at the time and when you shoot people their blood was realistically splashed around floors which even in today's FPSs you an hardly see it lol. If internet had never existed I wouldn't ever think other FPSs would be popular now and Zero Tolerance is a forgotten console FPS game lol. Perhaps we were lucky that games could have their own fan bases without being deluded by fans of other games who talk about their favorite games like it was the only hot shit in that era lol. Another aspect of the matter is how some games were a legend until people decided "dude it wasn't actually that great" and opposite of it that how some games around the time it was released wasn't liked much but over time people were like "IDK why I disliked this game at the time, it was actually cool" and often these games carried to future while other legends are forgetten lol. And then another topic is how some games experiencing a late popularity but newer people despite older people ignored the game at the time and they also steal thunder of many other games lol. Not to mention lots of games experience "underdog" threatment as in they were not so popular people felt pity about them so hard they made it popular and eventually they became the "classic games of the era" as if they were the actual hot shit of that era lol.

 

[RanmyakuIchi's icon RanmyakuIchi RanmyakuIchi]

"Alive" one thing, experiencing the video games of the time on the PC platform is one thing. So many people may did born in the year 1990 but due to many reasons it doesn't mean they directly started gaming in that era. Lots of people started gaming in 2000s for many reasons, especially as PC gaming. And then tons of 90s PC games were already lost to time and only relatively few made it to future, not because they were the best but just because for many ways they were always the talk of the town so much eventually people started to repeat same few games like a chant as if this is the normalcy of which video games of that era people should like lol.

PC gaming at the time was not so popular so people being aware and playing console games around that time is the usual one while whole idea of "old PC game" from that era to most people is Doom, Wolfestein and whatever most generic popular games around. As an example it seems like in the year 2050 if a guy had asked what's the best PC video games from 2010s people spam Mass Effect and Call of Duty games by even ignoring Bioshock and Dishonored. It means unless you experienced that era of gaming personally (that's outside of the logic of being "alive" but it's meant as being an active PC gamer who experienced most of the games of the time and living with that culture as a life style) you wouldn't get how some games like Redline was actually popular for the people of that era and that era is not consist of Doom, Wolfestein, Monkey Island, Deux Ex and Thief series even if it seems like there are only the most generic point and click games, FMV games and some strategy and related isometric games. So despite "you were alive" at the time it doesn't mean you would have god-like awareness of what was going on in the era you never knew that aspect of it so despite you were alive it doesn't mean you actually had that particular culture you never experienced yourself. For example you may have lived in 70s but it doesn't mean unless you lived in 70s America you wouldn't know how 70s was for America and even reading and watching about such stuff wouldn't make you really "get it".

Another side of the coin is past of the world and human history in many aspects are distorted by wrong sense of time and how the era was as the knowledge of past carried to the future by only some part of it was recorded. For example sometimes I check the whole internet to find a video game but it never exist even in lists that list every game in a platform. There are lost medias despite how popular they were but somehow they are lost in time as if people didn't bother record or talk about it like everyone already knew and it would never get lost in time. Despite popularity, only a few that seems the coolest and those that created a hype around make it to the future by stealing thunder from some video games. For example when Zero Tolerance had exist as a great FPS game I honestly didn't care about Doom, Quake, Wolfestein and Duke Nukem. For many people Zero Tolerance was "peak in FPS" of the time. You could punch and kick people when you are out of ammo which is a "wow" aspect for the genre at the time and when you shoot people their blood was realistically splashed around floors which even in today's FPSs you an hardly see it lol. If internet had never existed I wouldn't ever think other FPSs would be popular now and Zero Tolerance is a forgotten console FPS game lol. Perhaps we were lucky that games could have their own fan bases without being deluded by fans of other games who talk about their favorite games like it was the only hot shit in that era lol. Another aspect of the matter is how some games were a legend until people decided "dude it wasn't actually that great" and opposite of it that how some games around the time it was released wasn't liked much but over time people were like "IDK why I disliked this game at the time, it was actually cool" and often these games carried to future while other legends are forgetten lol. And then another topic is how some games experiencing a late popularity but newer people despite older people ignored the game at the time and they also steal thunder of many other games lol. Not to mention lots of games experience "underdog" threatment as in they were not so popular people felt pity about them so hard they made it popular and eventually they became the "classic games of the era" as if they were the actual hot shit of that era lol.

Not gonna lie mate. The idea that Doom, one of the most influential games ever made, that literally led to the FPS genre being referred to as "Doom Clones", wasn't one of the most beloved games of the era is certainly *a* take.

OP said that nobody ever talks about 90s PC games, so I responded with one of the most talked about games ever, I think you missed the plot here.

 

[Crashbandi]

I spent so much time on these games when I was younger. Recently found the AvP on sale on Steam for less than a dollar. Haven't gotten a chance to play it and see if it holds up...spoilers but it probably won't.