30 PC Games to Play Before You Die

Lemmings

Developer: DMA Design
Year: 1991

It’s honestly more than a little mind-blowing that the same team that developed Lemmings would go on to create the wildly controversial Grand Theft Auto games, but it does at least prove the talent of the studio.

A true computer game classic, Lemmings is one of the most pure and brilliant strategy games ever conceived and the nonsense franchise somehow spawned a long-running series or sequels and merchandise. Lemmings was so popular they even tried to make gamebooks about it.

The original Lemmings is arguably the best even if it lacks the Super-Lemming that appeared in Lemmings 2 and its success is undoubtedly down to the devilish difficulty curve. That and the theme tune which works itself inside you head and continues to ricochet around inside your brain for days. Dada-da-da-dum...


Your mission to save the lemmings starts off simple; a blocker here, a basher there. By the time you’ve reached the Taxing difficulty though you’ll understand why the original game came with a warning that read “not responsible for loss of hair, sanity or sleep” and why we consider completion of Lemmings a sign of a true gaming veteran.

Portal

Developer: Valve
Year: 2007

If Lemmings is too difficult for you though then Portal has got the other extreme covered. Where as DMA’s pixelly puzzler rapidly escalates in challenge, Portal is so perfectly paced that you’d be forgiven for not believing it’s the first major project of designer Kim Swift.

Set somewhat strangely in a sealed off section of the Half-Life universe, Portal is part puzzle, part love-story and part minimalist artwork. The game tells the story of Chell, a perhaps unwilling inductee in a series of tests put forth by an unstable AI called GlaDOS. The scientific presentation meshes perfectly with the puzzle-based gameplay, with the goal of each level being to navigate successfully across a room by using extra-dimensional portals.

Culminating in a surprise musical finish, Portal may only be a few hours in length, but it’s an experience that stays with you thanks to the razor-sharp writing and humour that has become the title’s trademark. A sequel is currently in development but details are still scarce, so until Valve eventually brings out The Orange Box Mk. II this will have to do - thank god for the thriving mapping community, eh?

EVE Online

Developer: CCP Games
Year: 2003

World of Warcraft may be more popular and more colourful, but true PC gamers will know that it’s EVE which is at the cutting edge of the MMORPG genre. The game, which has been running since 2003, has gotten so vast and complex that it’s actually spawned a political system and economy of its very own, complete with wars and elections.

Let’s put it this way – there’s no other game out there which we know of that’s got to the stage where the developer has had to setup an internal affairs unit to investigate CCP-led in-game crime. That fact alone makes EVE unique enough to warrant your attention, in our opinion.

With major content still coming out via new updates and packs, the amount of in-world space about to be expanded and new players still rushing to join up we’ve got no doubt that EVE Online is the most exciting MMO that’s currently active. World of Warcraft may be the most well-known MMORPG and PlanetSide might have had a few really interesting ideas, but EVE Online is the only game that really fulfils the exciting promise that sits at the core of an MMO model - an entire online universe.

Sure, you could say the same about Second Life we suppose, but who wants to play in an online universe filled with furries?