A couple of days back we covered the games that should be ported to the PC. Now it’s time to go the other way around, which is not that easy as PC exclusives are rare and those rare ones are comprised of real time strategies, something that is almost impossible on consoles. In most cases the PC version may still be better but the thing is that console owners should also get to enjoy these games which they otherwise cannot.
- Note: People expecting Counter-Strike here should know that a version is also on the Xbox. Here are those games which people played only on Windows (or MAC OS).
5. Diablo II (2000), Blizzard Entertainment
When we say Blizzard, we say Warcraft. But that’s not all they have to offer. Diablo II was released at the end of the century and it was a phenomenal success all over. It is an action role playing game with dungeon hack and slash. Both, the single player as well as the multiplayer versions of this game were loved a lot. In fact this game is in the list of the top 30 best sellers. In the single player mode there are 4 acts and you play as a hero traveling through the dungeon like lands and caves and for every act you have one boss to defeat.
Diablo II has an isometric camera angle and highlights on combat. The monsters and some of the land are randomly generated but get fixated afterwards. The main character is not fixed either and we get to choose our hero from among five classes namely Necromancer, Amazon, Paladin, Barbarian, Sorceress. Each class has different skills and abilities right from the start.
As every other RPG this is full of items which you collect to enhance your gameplay which actually works well. You have the ability to hire AI mercenaries which follow you and attack the enemies when they charge. The game does not get boring and is neat enough throughout. However, it did not come to the consoles.
At that time the game was not released everywhere and especially a game like Diablo II which was definitely multiplayer oriented, was difficult to have on the PC and consoles and incorporates a multiplayer among the two at the same time. The game has achieved 88/100 on Metacritic.
4. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl (2007), GSC Game World, THQ
GSC Game World is a Ukrainian game developer which gave us this FPS. There has been a fictitious second nuclear explosion at the Chernobyl plant and it has thus led to the mutation of flora and fauna there. Having all kinds of adverse effects on human beings, the player is left in the midst of all pandemonium where even the laws of physics have changed.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. stands for Scavengers, Trespassers, Adventurers, Loners, Killers, Explorers, and Robbers. We play as “Stalker” in the game having lost our memory and our quest is therefore to regain it. There is an intensive amount of NPC (Non Playable Character) interaction which gives us missions we can choose to accept and decline.
The game is non linear and sandbox style therefore giving us a hybrid of an RPG and a FPS. There isn’t a significant amount of RPG elements such as items and achievements as you advance through choice based quests but the game is definitely non linear.
The graphics are at par with other games of the same time and the engine can support HDR rendering for improved visuals. The AI of NPCs are non scripted thus there are numerous tasks which will be randomly generated and given to us and we can go about them in any fashion and give up on them if they are just too tedious to continue, like looking for some treasure which we just can’t seem to find.
Tactics to advance through the game include all the three main ones, which are rushing, stealth or sniping beforehand. Due to popular demand the game supports native widescreen resolutions. GSC did think about porting this game but they started for their prequel on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. However at the end of 2007 it was confirmed that an Xbox 360 version is under development. Game Rankings gave this 83% on 51 reviews, which is one percent more than Metacritic who gave 82/100 on 44 reviews.
3. Black & White 2 (2005), Lionhead Studios, EA
Black & White 2 is a game that everyone must play. In this game you play God which can be good or evil in his actions. The scope to which we get to play God is quite prolonged enough for an engulfing gameplay experience. EA gave out this game in 2005 and it was literally like a real time strategy game where, as we mentioned before, you play God.
The game starts off in a cartoon land and has bright graphics. You are called upon to help some people caught in a warzone and then get them to safety, then build another civilization with them. The mouse pointer is a “hand” quite appropriately and you can just mess around in the real world i.e. throw around nature objects and human beings.
Ok quite sinister enough. You can also play good and answer people’s prayers by removing a rock from their garden or something. This is a sequel to Black and White, a similar game that did not have as many elements as the second one. In this game you actually have to help build the village and then the city. It can get tedious too. You have to assign villagers their task of collecting resources, building structures or maybe breeding more villagers for your place.
There are unique elements in Black & White 2, like our conscience in the form of a tiny old guy sitting on a cloud (the good one!) and an evil red pig like devil. They keep floating around the scene keeping us company. Then we have a creature which is an animal like a wolf or a cow which is our representation present in the world.
Now the commendable thing is the creature’s AI which actually learns from our actions and keeps doing what it feels necessary and of course if he is heading in the wrong direction then we can teach him a lesson. The game is available only on Windows and since it’s not a fixed isometric camera angle real time strategy it can be quite interesting to try this on consoles.
The camera can be rotated and zoomed into quite a distance and zoomed out to see the complete cartoonish landscape which looks grand. The game keeps you engulfed in the Godly business and you go about being good and evil, whatever the way you prefer and face the consequences. Console owners never got to taste this and most likely will never be able to. It was followed by a fairly successful expansion in 2006. Game Rankings give this sandbox title 76%.
2. The Witcher (2007), CD Projekt RED STUDIO, Atari
The Witcher is an RPG from the Polish CD Projekt RED exclusive to the PC. It follows the story of Geralt of Rivia who is a witcher. A witcher is a person who has unnatural powers and they hunt monsters for living. But sadly here Geralt does not remember anything. Just like the guy from S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Geralt too is rescued from somewhere by his fellow witchers who remain few in number and he is escorted back to the witcher home of Kear Morhen where he realizes he is amnesiac.
The game features a fantasy medieval world and has stunning RPG gameplay elements along with an equal number of faults at the same time. Starting off, the game has three different camera angles which are actually cool because it suits whatever the player wishes. One is an aerial top-down view, another one is similar but more zoomed in and finally there is over the shoulder view and we can then actually control the character movement with arrows or mouse clicks.
There are again three combat styles which are uniquely required to deal with the different types of enemies. Thus this RPG features a good combat and movement system instead of just the RPG non linear mechanics. Alchemy is an imperative feature of the game and we have to build potions for health and power increment using items we collect throughout the game (and then maybe give them to others for rewards).
The storyline is decent enough and during the dialogue choice, Geralt, our main character speaks the dialogue we choose. I know that’s not a huge thing, but since many games like Oblivion don’t, it feels nice to have this to support our character’s substance. The game’s huge disappointment was its loading time despite having a powerful configuration. That and stuff like standing still while speaking with NPCs, compelled the developers to start making an enhanced version of the game which would overcome all this. Therefore porting to consoles was not given a thought by them.
And for now, The Witcher is just on Windows. Console owners indisputably missed this great piece of RPG title. Game rankings gave it 81% and Metacritic too gave it 81/100.
1. Crysis (2007), Crytek, EA
MAXIMUM GAME. That’s what the game says with the Crytek Logo loads in the beginning. And it feels good because Crysis is a giant achievement in the FPS games after a long time like Half Life 2 etc. Crytek is a company based in Germany and they don’t give a damn about your PC configs. All they want to do is build a game with stunning graphics.
And that is evident enough from what PC gamers have witnessed. The jungle we have infiltrated has overwhelming amount of details right from the trees down to their leaves. It is easy enough to get lost there. The game’s unique feature is our nano suit. The time is futuristic and nano suits are developed which allows Special Forces to increase features like speed, strength or armor.
Or maybe engage into cloak mode which renders us invisible. The realism in all this is so elevated that it would drop your jaw. The amount of unique gameplay that can be achieved is also glorious as a guy, who is at a distance, can be sniped while cloaked or we can choose Maximum Speed to rush towards him and then choose Maximum Strength to grab him and throw him ten to twelve feet ahead. Stuff that I did a lot!
You play as a US Army Delta Force soldier codenamed NOMAD and the game is set in 2020 and we are infiltrated to a tropical jungle environment (similar to Far Cry), which looks stunning under a sun if you have a couple of graphics cards to spare.
This was a confirmed PC exclusive from the start by Crytek and they had no intention to bring it to consoles, which actually turned out as a plus point for PC and added a colossal amount of detail to the game.
However this title will not most likely come to the PC. The next Crytek ventures of Crysis sequels are confirmed to multi-console by them after the huge success of this one. Metacritic gave 91% to this game based on 56 reviews.
-By Anubhav Priyadarshi