Best Computer Games 2000-2010

[cDnStealth]

Originally Posted by codynw

Why would you pick these two Call of Duty games? There were at least 4 better COD games released in the 2000s than those ones. The series went downhill fast after Black Ops, but the stretch from COD4 to Black Ops were some of the best FPS games ever made.

Take a look at the games I listed and I bet you can find a theme that would answer this question. The second World War is perhaps my favorite setting. RtCW and Enemy Territory deserve to be mentioned as well. CoD 2 was perhaps the pinnacle of the series in my opinion. Killstreaks were the single worst addition made to the series and the lack of dedicated servers on a lot of the titles after are a huge negative.

[Muta]

For me, there's only two time periods for war games that really do it for me - WWII, and current day (with accurate geopolitical climates).

The original Call of Duty was awesome when it came out, same with Battlefield 1942. You felt like you were actually part of history when playing that game and the weaponry was easy and fun to understand.

[Mike F]

Originally Posted by Otto-matic

Baldur's Gate 2

Still my favorite game of all time! Great mechanics, beautiful hand crafted areas, and an epic story trumping everything else in terms of game development.

The last great cRPG before the genre became dumbed down and action-ized to appeal to consolers

[Violator]

1.command and conquer generals/zero hour
2.Bf2
3.Heroes of Might and magic 2,3,4,5
4.Sudden Strike
5.Age of empires
6.Rome Total War

[Erick Estrada]

This is going back to early 2000 but did anyone ever play Severance: Blade of Darkness? I loved that game as to me that was the original Dark/Demon Souls.

[Jason14h]

Originally Posted by Mike F

Still my favorite game of all time! Great mechanics, beautiful hand crafted areas, and an epic story trumping everything else in terms of game development.

The last great cRPG before the genre became dumbed down and action-ized to appeal to consolers

Pillars of Eternity is solid if you haven’t given it a go

[Mike F]

Originally Posted by Jason14h

Pillars of Eternity is solid if you haven’t given it a go

I played through a lot of it, but the underlying mechanic wasn't as good as 2nd Ed. D&D, and the story and characters didn't grab me.

Still, a good game though, and I'd probably finish and play the sequel if I decide to invest in a new gaming PC to replace the one was outdaed and eventually bricked

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by Mike F

Still my favorite game of all time! Great mechanics, beautiful hand crafted areas, and an epic story trumping everything else in terms of game development.

The last great cRPG before the genre became dumbed down and action-ized to appeal to consolers

I feel like there's a legitimate question as to which was the best Forgotten Realms isometric cRPG. Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate 2, Icewind Dale, Icewind Dale 2, Neverwinter Nights, Neverwinter Nights 2, all the expansions...

Incidentally, this goes back to my hobby horse from the 1990s PC games thread, but have you played Planescape:Torment?

[SebC]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

So, yet again, serious issues here. First, Mass Effect rather than ME2? You can pick ME2. It came out in 2009 and is better in every way. I mean, I'd probably have left both of them off because I consider them to be primarily console games, but if you're including the first then you can clearly include the second.

A bigger problem is that Dragon Age: Origins isn't on there. Now, there IS a game that is very clearly a PC-first game, it's a better version of everything done in KOTOR (minus the Star Wars theme), and coming out later in the decade had about as good a visual experience as you were going to get. Great voice acting, too. I know people have nostalgia for the KOTOR games, but as time went on, Bioware got better.

Portal is an obvious omission, even though Portal 2 is again better. They straddled the decade cutoff though.

But here's the biggest problem, and it's basically an instant disqualification: Deus Ex. It was released in 2000. It was obviously the best PC game of the 2000s. For the longest time it was considered the best PC game ever - most notably, PC Gamer had it as the best PC game ever made at the end of the decade, which says something.

ME2 > ME... nope. ME2 was the better shooter, but ME1 was the better RPG, the better story, and the better game overall. As far as story goes, ME2 was the slow second movement of the space opera. It felt like an interlude, something to tide you over until Mass Effect 3 came out and you'd get to finish your fight with the Reapers.

DA:O > KOTOR... nope again, for me. Though I'll admit that I may not have a sound opinion there, having been completely unable to get into DA:O. I was bored within two hours. KOTOR is great not for it's Star Wars theme, but for its Star Wars story. I'm detecting a pattern here.

Portal 2 > Portal... nope. Sure the sequel is better technically (and particularly for those who suffered motion sickness playing the first, such as myself). But it didn't match up to the experience of playing the first, nor did have the same sort of cultural impact. GLaDOS > Wheatley.

Deus Ex... yup! When you get past the technical view (which will always favour sequels or more recent games), you get it right. Deus Ex should be on the list.

[McG]

nm...put console games when it said Computer Games!

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by McG

nm...put console games when it said Computer Games!

Almost did the same thing. Boy oh boy do I have a lsit ready for the console thread, haha. It's basically all MGS and GTA

[CaptainCrunch]

I'd love to have someone put up a console game list, because as I stated before, I have never been a console gamer. If I put up a list based on personal experience, its going to be Madden, two hockey games, and a couple battlefield games and GTA V.

Honestly I just can't use controllers.

[psyang]

The main computer game I played in the 2000s were the Tiger Woods PGA Tour series. It was a step up from the older Links series I used to play.

On the action front, nothing really appealed to me until I saw the first reviews of Splinter Cell. I always liked stealth over action, and this one hit all the right buttons for me. Something about just choking out a guard (and then having to hurry since they'll wake up) instead of just killing, or using distractions to lure guards away just felt right to me. You wanted to be in and out without leaving a trace. All that and night vision and infra red goggles to boot!

[Jacks]

As others have said Half Life 2 and Dragon Age: Origins are probably the biggest omissions, they would be in my top 5. GTA III was pretty groundbreaking but Vice City was way more fun to play, the soundtrack alone was worth it.

Honorable mention to Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast, just plain fun to play.

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by Jason14h

Pillars of Eternity is solid if you haven’t given it a go

BTW, Deadfire is coming soon.

[CaptainCrunch]

so in theory, I wanted to put this out there.

My next list this weekend was going to be around the best computer games from 2010-now.

However, I was reading while taking an Oiler this morning and I came across an article that talks about these incredibly brilliant jerk moves that people have pulled on in MMO's and I thought that would maybe be a really entertaining list for this weekend.

[Bigtime]

#1 MMO Jerk Move has to be Leeeeeeeeeeroy Jenkins!

The only MMO I really played was EVE Online and there has been some amazing jerk moves/scams that have cost thousands of real world dollars worth of loss to some.

[calumniate]

Test Drive Unlimited deserves a mention. On PC it gave you manual clutch, handbrake, basically all analog inputs. Was super fun to play and the multiplayer races got pretty competitive. The funniest part was that using the clutch made you way faster, however most americans that played had no concept of using the clutch. The europeans were awesome at it the game though

[Ashasx]

My goodness how could I forget this masterpiece

[woob]

I love it when Corsi comes into these games threads like he's the authority on PC Gaming. LoL.

WoW is definitely number 1 for me, and I didn't even play it that long nor was I a hardcore get home from work and play through to unreasonable hours in the morning player. I played beta through to a bit of Wrath and then was done. I've yet to play another game that gave me that feeling I had playing it. I no doubt have far more hours into the Quake franchise, Unreal, and Counter Strike; but playing WoW was just an amazing experience from top to bottom.

But with all that being said, "Best computer games of X era" is such a personal thing, I feel. Sure, one could compile all the reviews, number of copies sold, replay-ability, etc. and come up with a calculated best list, but not everyone loves Call of Duty, not everyone is a dictator in disguise ready to wreak havoc in Civilization, nor does everyone lose their mind over the Sims.