30 PC Games to Play Before You Die

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Year: 2003

One of the first modern games to deal in time-control mechanics, The Sands of Time was a re-invention of Jordan Mechner’s classic platforming series and proved successful enough to get two sequels and a series reboot simply titled Prince of Persia. It also happened to have some of most memorable and well-written characters ever seen in a computer game – impressive considering only one of them is ever named.

The game opens with the young Prince of Persia being tricked by an evil Vizier into opening an hourglass of magic sand while visiting a foreign kingdom and the majority of the gameplay then centers around the journey to redemption. The Prince wants revenge and redemption, pairing up with the Princess Farah in his quest to undo his mistake.


Using an enchanted dagger, the Prince learns he can control time to turn the tables on his foes and he and his Princess set out to traverse the booby trapped palace and pursue the Vizier. Romance blossoms along the way, culminating in one of the most moving game endings ever. We won’t spoil it for you, but we will recommend it.

Mirror’s Edge

Developer: EA DICE
Year: 2009

The youngest game on this list by a long, long way, we’ll be forever baffled by the fact that Mirror’s Edge debuted on consoles. The speed and precision required to play it properly demanded that it would always play better on PC, surely? Apparently not, as Electronic Arts decided to release this free-running extravaganza on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 first.

Release details aside though, Mirror’s Edge is definitely one of the most immersive and effective attempts to create a human racer that we’ve yet seen on any platform. The game perfectly captures the exhilaration and grace of parkour, or free-running, parcelling the gameplay up inside a futuristic storyline with plenty of police chases.

Mirror’s Edge has drawn scorn for being so short and throwing in the odd fist-fight to help pad things out, but that doesn’t matter to us any more than the flimsy storyline about skyscraper-hopping couriers. What does matter is the fact that there’s not been any other game yet which has so perfectly captured the feeling of movement, nor the fear of falling. Play Mirror’s Edge for a few hours and you’ll soon start believing you can actually do half the moves you pull off in the game!

Garry’s Mod

Developer: Team Garry
Year: 2006

Depending on how you look at it, Garry’s Mod might not be a game at all, but that won’t stop us from putting it on this list. It’s simply too much fun to be left off. Well, it is if you use it right anyway. Let yourself get carried away and you'll soon be running around calling people mingebags and randomly deleting their carefully crafted creations. And that's just mean.

Garry’s Mod has no story. It has no aims. It has characters. It’s a sandbox game, but not in the same way that Grand Theft Auto IV claims to be. In GTA IV you can go anywhere, but you can still only do what the developers will let you. In Garry’s Mod that isn’t a problem, as if you want to do something new then all you have to do is create a new LUA code to do it for you.

Starting out as a simple physics mod for Half-Life 2, Garry’s Mod is now a full retail product which lets players take content (either fan-made or from any owned Source game) and...do whatever they want with it. Build huge robots or pose your favourite NPCs, drive cars or have huge deathmatches – the sky’s the limit in Garry’s Mod. Player creations are often mighty disturbing, but if you ask us then that in itself is a reason to give the game a look before the grim reaper visits.

Have we missed something off the list, something you consider utterly essential? Then let us know your thoughts in the forums!