It was a pretty good year for PC gaming with quite a few major games seeing PC iterations. It’s also safe to say that in terms of PC gaming hardware, most midrange PCs of the year would be able to outperform the current generation consoles, provided the developers put the effort into their PC ports.
We also had a few great PC exclusive games in the massively multiplayer, strategy and casual gaming genres. Overall the PC games that came out this year really tend to highlight how PC gaming is evolving. DRM controversies aside, digital distribution is really becoming the order of the day for the rapidly technology embracing PC gaming community.
Though we might not have had too many noteworthy exclusives here are 7 games that we feel the PC gaming community will remember as another incredible year of gaming draws to a close.
1. Warhammer Online:
When one thinks massively multiplayer, World of Warcraft is of course the first thing that comes to the mind. Its popularity has continued to grow by leaps and bounds over the years since its release. EA and Mythic entertainment this year decided to enter the fray with Warhammer online which is based on the popular tabletop games of the same name. Warhammer, while it might not quite be a Warcraft killer plays on its strengths well enough. It’s an MMO in which there is always plenty to do. It’s visually very diverse. And its Player vs. Player, Player vs. Enemy and Realm vs. Realm gameplay types meshed together well in its world. All in all, Warhammer has been off to a fairly smooth start and makes an interesting alternative to World of Warcraft.
2. World of Warcraft Wrath of the Lich King:
4 years and 10 million subscriptions later, World of Warcraft is most certainly the king of MMORPGS. It is perhaps appropriate that the latest expansion has the word king mentioned somewhere. Released towards the tail end of 2008, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King still managed to be one of the best selling PC games of the year. Wrath of the Lich King was an eagerly awaited release by Warcraft fans. It featured a wealth of new content, though accessible only to players leveled above a certain point. So players will have to work their way through some of the previous expansions to access the newer stuff. The new continent of Northrend is huge, impressive looking and brimming with quests. The new Death Knight class is fairly compelling with an interesting array of skills that they can wield. All this and more make Wrath of The Lich King an impressive expansion and one that still runs very well across a wide range of systems.
3. Sins of a Solar Empire:
Sins, besides being a great strategy game, was also in the news because of its stance on the issue of DRM. It was a DRM-free game that also managed to garner some impressive sales. It was a space strategy / 4X game in which you controlled a certain race and tried to dominate the galaxy through diplomacy, economics and military might. All this is presented to you through the use a beautiful graphics engine and an intuitive interface that runs very well even on older PCs. What will also impress you is the massive scale of everything on your screen. The effect achieved when zooming in or out at any time is undeniably impressive. Sins of a Solar Empire is one of the deepest, freshest and most compelling strategy game to come out in years.
4. Spore:
Spore was another PC game in the news this year. It’s most dubious distinctions being it was proclaimed a victim of the hype machine, it’s annoying DRM issues and also its status as the most pirated PC game of the year. Though it might not quite have turned to be Will Wright’s magnum opus, certain aspects of it worked incredibly well. Its creation tool is perhaps Spore’s greatest asset. It’s intuitive enough to let anyone with even a little imagination mix, match and pretty much slap together any combination of parts to create the most fantastical objects possible. Since all your creations can be uploaded for the world to see Spore lays the foundations for a very strong community driven experience. Sure the core gameplay feels underdeveloped in certain areas, but it’s something an expansion might be able to address. So many games try to provide us the ultimate user content driven experience. Spore will at least be remembered for giving the easiest set of tools for its users.
5. Audiosurf:
Audiosurf is that charming 10 dollar casual game that was introduced through Valve’s steam service. It was a game that essentially allowed you to ride your entire music collection. You racked up points by avoiding or riding over various colored blocks with some variations on that basic theme depending on the mode you choose. Every new song got its own leader board created so you could see how you were faring against players all over the world. Even if you weren’t playing it to compete against other people, just free riding songs from your own music collection never got old, thanks to the dynamically changing visuals and speeds with which you moved along the tracks. It’s a game you can just pick and play for a few minutes at a time and Audiosurf will always seem refreshing.
6. Crysis Warhead:
Crysis Warhead was 2008’s greatest gift to PC gamers by Crytek. It was the most visually breathtaking game of the year on the PC or any other platform. This is one series that PC gamers are the only ones privy to. For a budget priced game, it had incredible production values and Crytek did manage to address some issues from the original Crysis to make this game worth your while. It still offered some fantastic sandbox style game play while managing to enhance the graphics, improve the pacing, tighten the AI routines and ratchet up the tension a few levels. Crysis Warhead could well be called the number one PC exclusive game of the year. Let’s hope Crytek has another gem in store for us come 2009.
7. The Witcher Enhanced Edition:
Technically The Witcher was released in 2007. Polish developer CD Projekt RED, however, released in the year 2008 a special edition called The Witcher: Enhanced edition. The original Witcher game was a well received RPG popular with both gamers and critics to a great extent despite some niggling technical and other minor issues. For The Witcher Enhanced Edition, graphics were improved across the game. Thousands of lines of dialog were rerecorded for this edition. This really helped bring some clarity to a lot of elements in the story. Most importantly, the horrendously long load times were reduced. This edition also included to new adventures and a music CD with the background scores used in the game. All these additions will surely help the The Witcher establish itself as one of the premiere RPGs of this generation.
Do to tell us about your list of the top 7 PC games of 2008 in the comments section below.
- By Shantesh Patil