The Greatest PC Games Played

Time Frame

I've been playing PC games since primary education. There were many good games I've played during those young days, although I did not possess the maturity of mind to appreciate those games to the fullest. Mental maturity arguably came to me during secondary 3-4 (heh heh, still think I've got alot more maturity to catch up), when I got a blazing 386DX-33 PC & suddenly had access to all those cool games unplayable on my rotting XT PC. That was just in the transition period from 1991 to 1992 (my 'O' levels year!!!!!). Eversince then, the dollars kept depleting as the games kept rolling in.

I play way too many games. I just like to play anything that is a good game, almost regardless of genre. That IS a problem. I play so many games that I hardly have time to be particularly good in any of them. :) Of course, there those really lousy or buggy games that were a horror to behold, let alone play. Then again, there were those of exceptional quality & content that were truly captivating experiences - these are the games I remember after all these years, because they represent the best in PC entertainment for their respective times. All the below information came straight out of my brain's memory banks, so they're to the best of my knowledge. Should you fine any inaccurate fact regarding the games or companies you can refresh my memory. And don't expect full-length reviews here, this is just a short momento about the games I played that were way too cool.

XT, before 1991

Ancient Art of War at Sea, naval real time action-strategy by Broderbund
This is simply 1 of the best games of all times. I liked it as a kid, I still like it as any adult. Pitting you against a rival naval force, you had to conquer your enemy by strategically moving your fleets into positions for favourable engagements. The tactical combat was really fun, with several ways to finish off your opponent. Blast them till the holes start flooding in water, ram them (which u might sink too), hit their magazine (which resulted in a brilliant eye-searing explosion), or you could grapple the enemy ship & engage in a very fun pirate style crew versus crew engagement. Although not as customisable as games like Quake, it had a scenario & map editor, and I still wanted to play this game even after I upgraded to a 486DX2-66 PC. Being a game designed in the 8088 era, the programming did not cater for the outrageous speeds for future CPUs - running the game in 'fastest' setting almost ends the game immediately the moment you begin the scenario. Although future prettier games made it look colourless, the fun nostalgic gameplay is unsurpassed.

Battlehawks 1942, WW2 Pacific theatre simulation by LucasArts (then Lucasfilm Games)
An engaging sim on the carrier air battles of the Pacific. This sim taught me the basics of deflection shooting - the need to pull lead on the enemy target to hit him. Nothing more satisfying than to dive bomb 90 degress on a carrier & claim a ship kill on your pull out.

Gunship, AH64A Apache simulation by Microprose (bought over and name used by Spectrum Holobyte)
Real steady & fun to rip enemies to shreds with the awesome firepower of the US Army attack helicopter back then. Although it's only a single player game, it was even fun to have 2 persons playing together on the same PC where 1 flew the aircraft and the other did the firing. When I upgraded my graphic output to EGA, I played it all over again just to witness the game in glorious 16 colour...heh.

Pirates!, hybrid adventure/RPG/strategy/action game by Microprose (bought over and name used by Spectrum Holobyte)
What a mixed bag.....and it actually worked fantastically! Fancy a life-time career as a West Indies buccaneer? You could do almost anything the pirates of those days did - ship warfare, sword fights, plunder & booty management, ship management, trade, politics & diplomacy, port invasion, treasure hunting, secret missions & assignments for governors, and even courtship & marriage. At the end of it all you can sell everything, split the booty and retire to see the status in society you've earned from all the hard work of your career.

Bandit Kings of Ancient China, mythical China turn based strategy by Koei
I rarely play turn based strategic or wargames, because most of them start to get boring after a while. Romance of 3 Kingdoms & Nobunaga's Ambition bored me, but this exceptional game is the only one from Koei which I like. Based on the Chinese novel "Shui Hu Juan" or "Water Margin", Koei did a good job of implementing the story & characters into their now familiar strategy engine. This was 1 of the few games that had me caring for the characters (although not vital to plot) of the game, which is seldom seen in strategy games. Satisfaction comes when I use the best heroes of the game to bring the pathetic Gao Qiu to his weak kness.

SimCity, city-building real time strategy "software toy" by Maxis
Lego would appear real boring if implemented on PC, so Maxis gave us the tool to build & manage an entire city as we please. Your city is populated by 'simulated' citizens, which comes along with a whole list of real-life issues related to city development - residential development, commerce, education, crime, fire protection, trade & industry, traffic, pollution, unemployment, tourism, health care, funds & tax.... you name it. If you were confident in managing crisis, you could opt to have disasters turn your beautiful city into a wasteland with earthquakes, floods, aircrashes, fires, tornadoes or even monsters. Fail to manage properly and you'll see your much needed population leaving for a better refuge. I started playing it again when I upgraded to EGA graphics. Building cities never got this close & personal.

Their Finest Hour, WW2 Battle of Britain simulation by LucasArts (then Lucasfilm Games)
The sequel to Battlehawks 1942, and even bigger & better than before! Updated graphics (EGA then) & flight modelling made this sim much more engaging. You could even fly the Luftwaffe medium bombers and wreck havoc among the RAF airfields and downtown London, or you could dive bomb shipping with the Junkers Ju87. Bagging kills was easy in single missions but campaigns were really a challenge. A truly rewarding experience to see the constant promotions & medals in return for good combat performance.

XT -> 386DX-33, 1991

Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe & aircraft expansions, late WW2 European theatre simulation by LucasArts (then Lucasfilm Games)
LucasArts just gets better with each installment of their WW2 sim series. This 3rd incarnation feature much more detailed cockpits, better flight model & more aircraft to dogfight with. It was truly immersive to fly all the way from England to bomb Germany and come back with bullet holes, a deteriorating & overheating engine & oil spilling around the canopy. Turning the volume way up while flying the B17 would make your neighbours swear a bombing raid was happening outside. Best were the flying wonders of Germany's arsenal. Really cool to fly the Me163 Komet armed with the vertically mounted Jagfaust rockets that fired automatically into bombers above when they blocked the sunlight. Landing (or should I say balancing) the Me163 with a skid instead of convention landing gear was a real challenge. As if it wasn't enough, P38 Lightning, P80 Shooting Star & He162 Volksjäger expansion packs were released to provide more variety.

Red Baron, WW1 simulation by Dyanmix, Sierra
I remember this as the 1st ever WW1 sim to grace the PC market. It was truly an exhausting experience just to pilot those flying wooden crates back then! Those fragile planes stalled or broke up easily if you push them beyond their truly limited performance envelope. It offered a pilot career throughtout the course of the whole war, and if you were a real good ace with many kills, enemy aces will actually proposed a 1 on 1 duel! There was even a time when a dishonourable ace actually brought 2 wingmen along. What a cowardly scheme. I made them pay for it, of course.

Falcon 3.0 & Mig29/Hornet expansions, F16A (+ Mig29 & F/A18) simulaton by Microprose (then Spectrum Holobtye)
"Anything else closer is classified" - which meant the only thing realer than Falcon 3.0 during those days was the actual F16 simulator USAF uses to train pilots. I was shocked one day when I was merely reading through the F16 chapter of my uncle's detailed book on several combat aircraft. The pictures illustrating the F16A's APG-66 radar screen & its symbology were exactly the same as featured in the game's hi-fidelity radar! Nothing else during those days came close to the modelling & campaigning standards of Falcon 3.0. Reading the manual was a must or else you all you could do was just crash & burn. The manual's tutorials were helpful in explaining how to manage 'driving' a F16, but combat tactics were truly a difficult feat to master. The enemy AI possess some obviously unrealistic advantage over you, so you really had to think like a fighter pilot & possess the same quality of airmanship & discipline to win in this game - just like the real thing, well...almost. To improve situation awareness, a 'padlock' view was introduced where you could look around the cockpit in 3D space. No longer was I stuck with fixed 2D views of the outside world but able to 'turn' my head to track a plane. Furthermore, the plane orientation cues in the padlock view actually worked in telling me at attitude of my aircraft. Other sims have attempted to feature padlock views but failed to provide those all important cues to clue you on how your plane is oriented in relation to Earth. To me, Falcon 3.0's padlock is still the best. Even Falcon 4.0's new padlock system doesn't really provide orientation as well as Falcon 3.0's. This game was also the 1st in my life that I came across a 'patch' (what's that???). And it wasn't just 1 patch but a whole series of patches leading to Falcon 3.01 - a sign that the games to come will get so complex in design that it's not possible to meet the deadline with a flawless, bugless version. And just when you thought you were good, they threw you Mig29, complete with primitive avionics & NO fly-by-wire controls (Hornet had advanced avionics but a harder flight model to fly than Falcon 3.0). All those manual trimming made flying the F16 kid's stuff. Flying this aircraft is for men, not boys. Period.

1992

Indianna Jones and The Fate of Atlantis, adventure by LucasArts
As if you don't have enough of Harrison Ford in the movies. This really cool & funny adventure lets you take the role of Indy (as well as Madame Sophia) to discover the true nature of Atlantis. Typical of LucasArts adventure games, it was full of humour & invloved many interesting & logical puzzles. The MIDI music, although pretty plain in instruments, were nicely composed & set the right mood for adventure. What made the game distinct from other adventures was that while it was still linear, there was a point in the game where you have to decide 1 of 3 ways to complete the rest of the adventure - almost effectively having 3 games in 1. All the 3 paths eventually led to underwater city of Atlantis, but each provided a unique perspective & approach to the adventure. Even the last portion of the game in Atlantis differed slightly based on which path you took. This probably the most replayable adventure I've come across.

B17 Flying Fortress (?), B17G simulation by Microprose (bought over and name used by Spectrum Holobyte)
Dash I can't really remember the exact name of the sim, but it should be as above. Regardless of name, it was truly one wonderful simulation of not just the B17 itself, but also of being the crew members themselves. It was pretty clear the emphasis wasn't on the technical aspects of the sim, but squared on capturing the feel of being the crew. In fact, you don't spend most of your time in the cockpit - the pilot will fly the plane & keep it in formation itself. The only time you really need to fly the plane constantly was when it needs nursing terribly due to heavy damage. Unlike other sims where you just jump position to a nameless (& souless) gunner or bombardier, you can actually direct any crew member to any part of the plane, and it takes time to travel through the cramped fuselage of the plane. Even navigation was featured. Although it wasn't authentic, it was still difficult and really made me wonder how navigators navigated in the 1st place. The missions/battles themselves were not exciting since there were so few aircraft, but it really gives me a glimpse of what the crews went through during those bombing runs - braving the flak & fighters to deliver their loads, and if damaged, having to nurse the plane back home and continue to keep watch for bandits. I could really feel that awesome sense of relief & thankfulness as I bring the plane to a safe touchdown on the runway - not because of mission completion but because we're safe at home again. No other sim in this list made me feel this way. Other sims win for technical, campaign or combat excellence. This one wins for its human touch.

Wolfenstien 3D, WW2 first person shooter by id Software
The 1st '3D' shooter to grace the PC. Actually it can be argued it's still a 2D shooter since there's only forward/backward & left/right but no up/down. Most people just call it a '2.5D' game. Whatever the technical arguments, this game really rocked when it 1st came out as shareware - what a totally cool concept! Cool music & cool sounds also served to make it a real exciting experience, not to mention scary at times when a German would just spring on you from a corner. Even the yuckish feature of drinking a puddle of blood (the sound was disgusting) to regain 1 point of health felt kinda funky, but pukey! I still remember clearly the cries of "Achtung!" & "SchultzStaffel!" and happily gunning down the masses of German troops with my chaingun. Of course, kicking Adolf's ass was the biggest kick of the whole game.

386DX-33 -> 486DX2-66, 1993

X-Wing Fighter & B-Wing Fighter expansion, Star Wars Alliance space simulation by LucasArts
The dream come true for all Star Wars fans of the starfighters - to finally be able to experience for oneself 1st hand space combat with the Empire. The missions, some which were a real pain to complete, were nonethless closer to reality as most of their objectives were other than to "kill all enemies in sight". The story driven missions did succeed to bring the Star Wars feel into the sim. The music was close to the orginal scores' themes and was integrated well into the action. The skill of finally being able to blow up TIEs with precision shots was really a cause for intense joy. And the space didn't just blow up, they broke into spinning pieces & deteriorated into space - a nice touch Larry Holland (lead designer) made sure was done well. The last mission of campaign 3 was perhaps the most exciting - the actual Death Star run into the trench & lobbing in a few photon torpedoes into that absurd exhaust port (can you say "missile up the tail-pipe"?). A pity I only played a little of TIE Fighter, or else I might also include it too.

Syndicate, futuristic real time strategy by Bullfrog, Electronic Arts
Evil syndicates battling each other to gain full control of the world. Using agents to do your dirty job of captures, escorts & assassinations, you strive to keep other rivals at bay with an arsenal of totally cool weapons & equipment. The real fun wasn't in the mission objectives, however - it was the killing of the bystanders in a variety of ways that made it real cool. I believe there were 2 versions to the game - the earlier version had explosives which were incendiary while the later version's explosives killed with blast effects. I preferred the earlier version - the completely dud civillians (or police or enemy agents for the matter) will blindly walk into the fire & set themselves ablaze. And to see the little specks of fire running around panickly, giving out a hilarious screams, was absolutely entertaining (now don't get me wrong here... I'm no sadist). There was mission where there was a whole crowd of civillians lined up on both sides of the roads in welcome of some VIP. I had an equipment that enabled me to mind control people close to my agent, which made them follow him. I gathered every single person in town and made everybody enter a tank (don't ask me how hundreds can squeeze into it) - and BLEW it up from within - what followed was a concentric ring of screaming 'fire' emitting from the tank - go figure what that 'fire' was, or were. Killing was fun.

Doom, futuristic hell first person shooter by id Software
The next shooter game by id Software was raditude man! Right from the 1st level with the beginning funky action score, I knew this was gonna be the biggest game ever - so big companies started banning it from being played by employees because they started clogging, and crashing, their LAN's bandwidth while playing multiplayer. I believed many people scorned the game because of its demonic & satanic background story & feel. Well, we gotta have something evil for the hero to get rid of, right? To me, I was kicking their ass. Yea, I was the good guy, and it felt good to cleanse Mars (or Earth for Doom2) of those mindless demons. Of course, it was even more scary then Wolf3D when jumped by demons, since Doom featured lighting - or should I say the absence of it. Demons aside, the technological leap in terms of design & gameplay was way ahead. The environments also considered the 3rd dimension, something which Wolf3D didn't have. To emphasise on that, the levels were really tall, or deep. New weapons introduced into the game were awesome - to see your own hands pumping in another round into the shotgun barrel was really cool & felt personal. Or when you laid your hands on the ultimate BFG, dig your character's evil grin as you prepare to give it to them. As if it wasn't enough, you could play it multiplayer with 3 other friends if you were lucky enough to have access to a LAN (we did it in Poly when the technical officers weren't looking. hahaha). Letz kick Cyberdemon ass!

1994

Wing Commander 3, space arcade-simulation by Origin, Electronic Arts
Yes, I didn't play Wing Commander 1 & 2. I only had a hands-on experience of those 2 old versions in my friend's PC because I only had a XT - far too weak to power those games. Had I played WC1 & 2, you can be sure I'd have mentioned it in this page as well. To my relief, my 486DX2-66 just "made it" to be able to run this monster of a game. I actually ran into alota technical difficulties for this game, not to mention the horribly long mission load time. But nonetheless, the game was an enjoyable one. One which drew me on & on for "just 1 more mission" so that I could get closer to annihilating those freaking cats once and for all and save mankind from further bloodshed. The movies inbetween missions did a very good job of drawing me into the universe of Wing Commander & having me take the mission briefings seriously. I even took Blair's love triangel seriously. I would choose Rachel anyday man! It was satisfying to complete the final "death star run" on Kilrah & blow those obnoxious cats with attitude problems to smithereens...yeah!

Aces of the Deep, WW2 U-boat simulation by Dynamix, Sierra
Underwater pressure, bad air, low battery power, depth charges being dumped into the sea - ain't U-boat life cool. It really took guts to be part of the U-boat crew during WW2. My salute to those brave Germans souls. The threat of the water pressure caving in the U-boat's hull is really something fearful to behold. Yet, Dyanmix managed to make the game kinda fun despite the lengths of realism they went - right from starting from your port & sailing for days (literally if you put the time x1) to hunt for victims on Allied shipping lanes & coming back with several tens of thousands of tonnage kills to your credit. It was challenging, and also required lots of patience & practice - better be good at mathematics so you can calculate where torpedoe can meet your juicy target ship based on its bearing, range, direction, & speed. You could even tune your torpedoes' rudders so that they turn as they swim through the water (more calculation involved...argh). It was really, like Microprose's B17, a great sense of accomplishment & relief to make it back to port. You're home again, and you pray you can make it back again on your next sail.

X-COM, hybrid strategy by Microprose (bought over and name used by Spectrum Holobyte)
CGW claimed this to be the no.1 sleeper hit of all time. I concur. When my brother was playing it I was wondering what the heck is this alien game all about. Then I started trying it out myself.....and went into a gamelock. I wasn't stoppin till I kicked the alien boss' ass hard. The graphics & sound wasn't exactly cool but it really gave a believable environment that made all those popular cult myths come true to life... and for you the blast off with your guns. The AI combat logic was way unfair, but the rest of the gameplay was too engaging to...disengage. The assortment of weapons, equipment & vehicles available to your soldiers & pilots keep increasing as you capture alien technology and conduct researches to convert it for your own use. The researches will also reveal more & more of the alien story so that you can finally launch the assualt on alien home ground (with all the coolest weapons & armour). If you loved Earth, you had to play this game to defend it.

1995

Jagged Alliance, turn based strategy-role paying by Sir-Tech
X-COM in the contempary modern-era? Not really. Jagged Alliance is a really good game in its own right. It has its own unique look & feel, so I don't see anything that is 'borrowed' from X-COM. Hiring a group of 8 mercenaries out of a possible 60 definitely calls for the game to be replayed several times. Ok, to be honest I only completed the game with 1 group, but I did try out the other individuals just to see how each of them behaved - yes, they all had their own unique personality. Some personalities even clash & they refuse to work with each other around, or some will quit you if too many mercs have been dying, or some even desert if you had to hang onto some cash you found during the day! The number of keys you hang onto was a real menace, but the weapons you pick up just keep getting bigger, better & meaner - a must since the cheating AI always carry weapons 1 grade higher than you and shoot with unbelievable precision even when injured..... makes me wish I hired those guys instead of the mercs I'm stuck with :) . Despite the AI, it was interesting to be able to play the game at your own pace & will instead of following linear missions. On top of that, the game will throw in key events & separate objectives once you reach a required status in the game - a nice touch. While X-COM had better technicality, Jagged Alliance had better personality with its mercs.

Command & Conquer, futuristic real time strategy by Westwood
If you wonder why I didn't include Blizzard's Warcraft 2 in this page - this is the reason. C&C spoilt my gaming interface tolerance. It feature a smart single-click logic that considered what you have selected, and automated the appropriate action depending where you were clicking on (on enemies will initiated an attack, on normal ground will initiate move). Ok, so at that time I didn't know Warcraft 2 could do that too with the right click, but it's more than just that. I initially didn't like Warcraft 2's sharp cartoonic look since I was impressed with C&C's blurrer & realer look. And you could simply select as many unit as you like at the same time & move them all at once (Warcraft 2 could only have max of 9...argh). You could even assign preset groups to them + a whole lot of other keyboard commands that made gameplay much more efficient than its predecessor Dune 2. The animated cut-scenes were nicely done too (but not those with actors). The impression was so strong I nearly bought the Win95 version when it was released but decided that I be more responsible with my cash... :) .

EF2000 & TACTCOM/Graphics+ expansions, Eurofighter simulation by DiD
Even in 1995 I was still playing Falcon 3.0 & its expansions. No other modern jet sim could unseat it from its throne even after so many years. Well, late 1995 came along EF2000. And it did nearly unseat Falcon 3.0. Many gaming publications would say the same thing too. Nonetheless, EF2000 was darn cool to fly. With an exotically new plane with a fresh campaign background, it was really different from other sims I've flown recently then. The graphics was awesome, the radio speech had English accent (cool!), and much of the game was very intuitive (although you still need to read the manual to fully understand). The game even had..gasp!...mid-air refuelling! That was a first! Yes, this authentic feature of prolonging combat readiness was more challenging than air combat itself (although exteremely boring). The sim also feature different styles of padlock views which worked well, but still didn't give cues for my plane's attitude. Overall, it was a joy to fly such a plane, and the TACTCOM & Graphics+ (for 3D hardware) upgrades made an almost new version of the game (which DiD did market as a whole new package called EF2000 2.0), breathing new life that made me flew it all over again.

486DX2-66 -> Pentium-120, 1996

Quake, futuristic interdimensional alien first person shooter by id Software
After Doom 1 & 2, what else could top it off??? Well, id outdid themselves again, this time with a fully 3D polygonal environment and boy, did it look good. Yea, I know, it actually looked super dull with all the brown & grey & purple... but it still looked good. Although this was the game that introduced 'mouselook', I was playing the game by keyboard only. It was only when I finally converted to the mouse in Jedi Knight & Quake 2 and played Quake again did I realise how easy it was to frag the monsters which I had so much difficulty with the keyboard. During that time I did not know much about the awesome power underlying the game's console & the sheer customisability of the engine and thought it to be boring compared to Doom. But when I saw what people were doing with all the custom mods & skins, practically changing it into entirely different new games, did I realise I was wrong. This was the game which launched the 'engine' trend, where other game developers licensed the core Quakeprogramming modules but created their own models, weapons, & levels. Furthermore, Quake was designed primarily to be played multiplayer (something which I did rarely back then). And it shows. Just a 1-on-1 deathmatch with a friend was so much more exciting than slaughtering the monster hordes. Take that and expand it with the team-based Capture The Flag or Teamfortress mods, with sometimes up to 64 players (!) and you witness the absolute chaos people with an intend to kill bring. So great was this game (or should I say engine) that many die-hard fans refused to move over to Quake 2 when it was released. Kudos to id for such technological brilliance.

Su27 Flanker, Su27 simulation by SSI, Mindscape
So, I thought Mig29 was hard to fly. This was WORSE. Not only was the flight modelling ultra hardcore (there was no easy mode at all!). The whole cockpit was 'encrypted' in Russian text as well! I believe hardcore fans would've taken up Russian lessons to feel closer to their bird. Many people considered this to be the sim that uprooted Falcon 3.0, and I don't really disagree. Right from the start you could tell this was serious - there's no intro sequence at all, something 99% of all games have. Who needs a useless pretty intro when we all know the substance is in the flying? And that's what SSI gives you straight away the moment you start it up. The avionics & radar were even more primitive (but still powerful), which took me awhile to actually understand what was going on. I actually spent more hours on this game just flying around than fighting. The Su27 was a joy to fly, also joy to see it go outa control in stalls & spins. Graphics were based on flat-shaded polygons - dull by then's standards. But it's obvious graphics is not the point here. This is for the hardcore, and all hardcore know what sims should be squared on - flying.

AH64D Longbow & Flash Point Korea expansion, AH64D & A simulation by Jane's Combat Simulations
Yup, this time I thought Su27 was hard to fly. Then came this. Boy, when the last rotary-wing sim you flew was in 1988 and all the other sims inbetween were fixed-wing, you really got a problem adjusting to a truly authentic to the bone AH64D sim. After crashing several times due to reasons I did not know, I decided it wise to read up the physics behind helicopters..... and I was convinced I need a throttle controller soon. Fixed-wing aircraft suddenly felt easy (it was still difficult, but this really changed my perspective alot). And this is no arcade shooter. I crash so often (choppers fly extremely low) just because I was minding other things when I should be concentrating on flight. I also got shot up alot. And all this happened simply because I didn't employ strict military discipline & attitude when flying the missions. I was flying like 130Kts + to get to the objective faster, but that's not how the professionals do it, and you'd better learn the professional way if you wanna survive with a 'success+' score. Sims these days..... I think by the next millenium sim developers will need to conduct external sim courses complete with practicals & tests to certify customer competency in their products. :P

Diablo, action-role playing by Blizzard
My friend was telling me, "Go get Diablo when it comes out! Then we can play on Internet for free!". And I was going, "What's Diablo anyway?". So..... another RPG. The last RPG I played was Ultima 5. I never really liked traditionally RPGs, but after buying it and playing a few minutes into the game I realised this is NO traditionally RPG - this was THE GAME that occupied my life for the 1st half of 1997 (I know it's released in the last days of 1996, but I bought it in 1997). It was Battle.Net the moment I was got home from my training (I was under NS training back then). Working so hard to raise the experience levels of my characters, and having ramming Diablo's soul shard into my brain for the umpteenth time, I really played this game to death. I just couldn't get enough of it... so many cool weapons, so many cool helmets & armours, so many cool rings & amulets, so many cool spells, so many monsters for me to trash.....and that weakling Diablo.....this was one the worst gamelocks I ever had.

Pentium-120 -> PentiumMMX-166, 1997

Total Annihliation, futuristic real time strategy by Cavedog
The first RTSG to be fully 3D. Not only was the graphics beautiful, the nature of the 3D engine actually made gameplay more realistic than 2D RTSGs - which was a delighted welcome in a world full of arcade like action RTSGs. The game was so realistic (to be taken lightly) I actually drew more fun & pleasure from claiming more kills (& points of course) over human opponents than actual final victory itself. Although the units for both sides were pretty much the same, there were really ALOT of units to play with, with even more that could be downloaded from Cavedog's website. The game also featured alot of cool features that even Starcraft doesn't offer - the ability to set several multiplayer rules (including handicapping), and unit/resource sharing between allies, etc.

Dungeon Keeper, EVIL medieval real time strategy by Bullfrog, Electronic Arts
I'm sick of playing hero. I sick of forever resucing the innocent and killing off evil to save the world. Saw what I wrote above in the Syndicate momento? I wanna kill for fun. Bullfrog knew people like me existed, so they produced the right game for us. Ma ha ha! For the 1st time I actually play a RTSG that has a zoomable & rotatable environment. Even Total Annihilation in all its 3D glory didn't allow that very possible feature. Not only that, you could even possess your own creatures & play it like a FPSG. It was really really fun to enmasse hordes of gold, training your creatures, dropping them on other rivals and witness the chaos. There's even "pay day" - I wonder what the creatures do with the cash when I provide everything for them. The best thing about the game was you didn't really have to micromanage every unit in the game. Most of them will do what they're supposed to do without your instruction. But if you're not happy with any of them you could literally slap them to make them wake up their idea! Or even cooler, you could throw 1 of your own creatures into the torture chamber or prison to make the rest of the same type work harder in fear. Enemy minions (even humans) can be converted into your minions through the hilarious toture chamber. Dark Mistresses actually get tortured for entertainment! Cool concept & design, cool 'units' & cool 'structures' make this underground game a very unique RTSG. Love it.

Jedi Knight, Star Wars first person shooter by LucasArts
LucasArts has been pleasing the Star Wars techie fans with X-Wing, TIE Fighter & X-Wing Vs TIE Fighter. What about the Jedi & Force fans?? This is it. A chance to play Jedi & kill other Jedi. This is the game that forced me to learn the mouse - a wise decision. The story game was nice, but the real fun came when fighting on with others. Yea, I lagged terribly, which resulted in a less than enjoyable experience. But it still a good mutliplayer game - lightsabres & Force powers rule. Thanks to Mr George Lucas for allowing his universe to be played in more & more aspects.

Quake 2, futuristic alien first person shooter by id Software
Lemme say that the guys at id are geniuses. Each subsequent shooter gets incredibly better & better (not to mention bigger system requirements). The graphics on openGL was simply stunning. No, it wasn't gorgeous - it was still brown & gray but not dark & moody like its previous version, but still solid. Despite arguments about whether it should be named Doom 3 instead of Quake 2, it is still a very good game. I'm still playing it in 1999 (it was released Dec 1997). Like Quake, this version's updated engine sports the same level of customisability, if not more. I did complete the game, but like its predecessor (again), it's mainly for multiplayer action. Multiplayer rocks - big time. No other game presents multiplayer with so much action & adrenaline. Other games' multiplayer are fun, but this one's rocks.

Wing Commander Prophecy, space arcade-simulation by Origin, Electronic Arts
What a letdown - no multiplayer. But still it was a gorgeous game to play - if you don't have a supported 3D card, best you don't play the game until you get 1, lest you spoil your impression of the game. Ok, the gameplay wasn't really much by itself, but it really differed alot from the last 4 Wing Commander games. Nicely done explosions of alien ships send shock waves that rock your spacecraft and your guns' energy projectiles appear bright as they flash pass. The cinematics were kinda nice too. The pilots' flight suits (shouldn't they wear space suits???) get better everytime... he he he. The story was kinda anti-climax, but it was pretty obvious it's just preparing for the next installment. I'm wondering what they can come up with next.....

Longbow 2, US Army helicopters (mainly AH64D) simulation by Jane's Combat Simulations
So Jane's has already made an almost perfect sim, and even updated it with even more features with the Flash Point Korea expansion. What else??? Add in 3Dfx glide graphics, dyanmic campaign, more helicopters to fly, updated avionics & virtual cockpit. Enough said. There's actually more stuff they added in, and everything works even better. This time, which my experience & knowledge of rotary-wing aircraft, I won't crash so easily.....I hope.

PentiumMMX-166 overclocked 200Mhz -> Celeron-300A overclocked 450Mhz, 1998

F15, F15E simulation by Jane's Combat Simulations
Sometimes I wish Andy Hollis (lead designer) & his team would take a break. They're producing too many good sims at too fast a rate!!!! And I ain't got time to fly so many at the same time! What can I say? Ridiculously authentic avionics & radar, a truly difficult flight model (this F15E is a bear to fly), full suite of A2A & A2G ordnance to pound the enemy flat, mid-air refueling, 3Dfx Glide graphics (of course! yeah!), etc. It also has a cool intro for a hardcore sim. Obviously in this era, this sim outdoes Falcon 3.0 in every aspect other than campaign (F15 featured canned missions but has a mission editor), so it's kinda unfair to judge this 1998 sim against a 1991 sim. I can't remember what was it that made me stop flying this, but I'm gonna start flying it again.

World Cup 98, France 98 World Cup soccer action by EA Sports
After World Cup ended, I felt I couldn't just leave it as it was and started forgetting about it. What else could anyone do other than wait for another 4 years, you ask? I got World Cup 98, that's what I did. I didn't get FIFA 98 because I didn't owned a 3Dfx board back then. No one else but EA Sports are able to bring computer soccer ALIVE in your screen. Animated actions so life like, it's almost like watching a real match. Not to mention the absolutely cool soundtrack too. This game forced me to buy the 10-button Gravis Gamepad Pro so that I could play it to the fullest potential. And I did not regret it.

Final Fantasy 7, futuristic/fantasy/mythical/sci-fi role playing by Squaresoft
This could almost be the best game I've ever played in my life, but I do not have such a logic within me that can say something is exactly better than something else because all things are unique, just like the games listed here. However, the experience with Final Fantasy 7 was so great & intense I was motivated to dedicate a whole section to it. Read it up in my FF7 tactics page.

Starcraft & Brood War expansion, futuristic real time strategy by Blizzard
In terms of technology & game engine design - this is pretty much the same as Warcraft 2 - which I didn't like at all. I was pissed after the 1st few Terran missions - what I saw as a graphically updated Warcraft 2. But that's besides the point. The whole point of the game, in terms of gameplay, was the strategy involved in those 3 very unique races. Now you know why it took so long to come out - it must have been an excrutiating process for the developers to iron out the play balancing issues. Even the patches that were released fixed many play balancing stats. Multiplayer is (I'm still playing it) fun but I'm losing terribly to those who play nothing but Starcraft/Brood War everyday. But looking beyond the tremendous strategic improvement Blizzard has achieved, I really felt a strong message coming from the single player episodes which tell the story of the 3 races entangled in conflict with one another. Looking at the almost absurd reasons why people (not just the Terrans) go to war, it gives me the proclamation that war is senseless (but still fun to pound Zerglings & Hydralisks into pulp with siege tanks... ha ha), and how many countless lifes are wasted on the battleground just because the opinions of their leaders differ - a truly sad scenario that is very real in our world.

Need for Speed 3, super car racing arcade-simulation by Electronic Arts
Absolutely gorgoeous super cars. Absolutely fast speeds. Absolutely captivating environments & driving feel. I do not have any other racing car game because I don't haf a steering wheel controller. You've guessed it - this is the game that made me buy MS Freestyle Pro (because I can't lug a bulky steering wheel with me to Australia). Enough said.

Shogo : Mobile Armour Division, anime mecha first person shooter by Monolith Games
I know I'm biased here - I love anime. Heck, if it were possible I'd marry one of those really gorgeous anime babes. When I started this game I didn't really know what it was gonna be like, then suddenly came the song - I've not heard it before but it had a very very familiar style in it's music. And gosh! Japanese singer!! Am I watching a TV series or what??? Cool!!!!!!!! Anime aside, the Lithtech engine that runs the game is pretty good compared to Quake2 engine. The important thing is it's got it's own look & feel - anime style, of course. The action is pretty fun, human gun rounds are LOUD, and MCA combat is rad (but we could do without so much smoke) with all those cool weapons - anime style, again. Even the story is styled like anime! The only thing that doesn't make it authentic is that speech is in English..... just imagine if it was in Japanese.......

FIFA 99, FIFA soccer action by EA Sports
Roughly the same as the 98 engine, but with an updated graphics engine. A few new moves here & there. Doesn't sound like much of an improvement? You gotta witness the new graphics.... just when you thought it couldn't get any better. Cool funky soundtrack once again. This new version made me shove World Cup 98 aside. Anybody wanna buy over my copy? :)

Falcon 4.0, F16C Block 50/52 simulation by Microprose
Ok, the thing is I've not flown enough of Falcon 4.0 to give it my full comments. I still haven't started training on A2G weapons delivery! Don't even talk about the campaigning! My 1st impressions of the game are - wow. The graphics are impressive - expected in this era of 2nd/3rd generation 3D cards. Look at the manual.....looks like I'm gonna spend alota time on this one....

1999

Play now.....report later

 
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