I've just put together a list of my top 10 PC games of all time, for the PC Gamer Readers' Top 100. These are not necessarily the games which I consider the most innovative or worthy, but simply the games that I've had the most fun playing.
In reverse order, they are:
10. Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords - I would have missed this game had it not received an amazingly high score in PC Gamer. A variant of Bejewelled, with unremarkable graphics, I found its simple and unlikely pairing of puzzle gameplay and RPG mechanics incredibly addictive.
9. Call of Duty 4 - Possibly one of the most cinematic games that I've played. The modern theatre was also a refreshing change from the overdone World War II setting of the previous titles.
8. Rainbow Six Vegas - I feel guilty about including what, on the face of it, is such an ordinary shooter in my top 10. But truth is, I hugely enjoyed it. It really captured a sense of vulnerability (take a couple of bullets and you're dead), making the use of cover absolutely essential to success.
7. Half-Life - To be honest, I've grown a little tired of the Half-Life series over the years and I almost wasn't going to include any of the games in the list. While Half-Life 2 and Episodes 1 and 2 have all been good, worthy games, for some reason that I can't quite put my finger on, they never really grabbed me. But Half-Life was the first game I played on the first PC I owned, back in 2000, and thinking back on it, it was really enjoyable. The introductory title sequence as you ride the monorail into the Black Mesa facility remains one of the highlights of PC gaming.
6. Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn - It's been 8 years since I played this classic role-playing game based on the AD&D ruleset, and my memories of it are admittedly fuzzy. But it was a huge game, and I played all the way through to the end of it, so I must have been having a good time. With a first-class plot and extensive dialogue options it remains the benchmark for single-player RPGs today.
5. Sacrifice - This creative blend of real-time strategy and first person perspective was a gem of a game that looked great and was hugely fun to play. "Your manahoars are dying!"
4. Doom - The first PC game that I played, I discovered it during the time that I was working in Hong Kong. After the working day was over, my friend and colleague JJ and I would sit together at a desk and take turns playing. The PC didn't have a soundcard, so we had to make our own sound effects, but that didn't matter.
3. World of Warcraft - Although I've tired of this game now, I played it for 10 times longer than any other (around 1,073 hours, over a three year period). For me it peaked before Burning Crusade came out, when Blackrock Mountain was the hub of activity and before the Old World became a ghost town. Exploring the vast world for the first time was a real thrill and remains one of the highlights of my gaming life.
2. Far Cry - Choosing your path through the huge, open landscapes was enormous fun, and even the appearance of the mutants didn't spoil it for me. The recent Crysis recaptured some of this feeling, but didn't have quite the same wow factor.
1. Battlefield 2 - Without doubt, the most addictive and fun game I've ever played. I returned to it "just for a quick half hour game" the other week and didn't end up going to bed until 2am.
Honourable mentions, in no particular order: Painkiller, Company of Heroes, Prince of Persia, Civilization IV, Indigo Prophecy (aka Fahrenheit), Warcraft III, Deus Ex, Rome Total War.
