My Favourite Video/PC Games

I've read a lot of “Best Video Games of All time” articles over the years, but I've often been disappointed at the lack of comprehensiveness of the reviews. I've never seen one that lists many (if any) of my favourite games; they generally seem to focus on only a couple of genres or platforms and usually don’t go further back than the mid 90’s.

That said, over the next few weeks (or whenever I’m feeling bored) I’ll be releasing my own evaluation of “the real best” video games of the last 30 years.

Games will be rated on the following categories:

Graphics (compared to other games of the period)

Game Play (pace, interface)

Originality (story, plot, style)

How many hours I've wasted (Re-play-ability)

The Nostalgia Factor (Re-re-play-ability)

I’ll also be using my own rating system for the above categories based on a needlessly complicated and completely arbitrary point award system:

Blargh (Bloody Awful)

Meh (Not bad, could be better, but could be worse)

Narly dude (I was particularly impressed)

Blank Eyed Soulless Stare (It was good enough that during gameplay, I phased out of this reality and entered the universe of the game... my girlfriend has encountered me in this state on more than a few occasions.)

First on the list at Number 16: Warcraft I

Released: November 1994
Publisher: Blizzard

Platform: MS-DOS, Mac-OS
Type: RTS

Graphics: Narly Dude

Game Play: Narly Dude

Originality: Narly Dude

How many hours I’ve wasted: Meh

The Nostalgia Factor: Blargh

This was the very first RTS (real-time strategy) game I remember playing (on an ancient 386 PC). At the time I was blown away just by the concept of RTS games as most games I’d played up to that point had been arcade or 3D adventure types.

Warcraft was the second major modern RTS released (the first being Dune II which was also pretty awesome).  I didn't like the concept of casualties and would spend hours longer than necessary to beat a level without a losing a single unit. I’d usually manage this by taking advantage of the relatively stupid AI and forming up a strong force by a bottleneck and inflicting horrific damage on the units that were trying to simultaneously force their way across a bridge. It was also the first game I’d played that allowed for the construction of roads and some primitive defensive structures and I’d also take time building elaborate and pretty (but essentially useless) castles and defensive systems around my cities.

I remember it being a great and generally well designed game, but recently I tried playing it again for the first time in close to 17 years… the interface was so primitive and awkward I quit the first level after 10 minutes of frustration. Still, if I was forced to pick between playing only one video game for the rest of my life and the choices were Warcraft I and the MMO, World of Warcraft… Warcraft I would win. 

I miss "Rain of Fire".