Question Top 100 PC Games archive?

[Fragsteel]

I recall that PCG puts out a list of the top 100 PC games of all time once a year. But I looked and looked but can only find the latest one.

Does anyone know where I can find an archive of the past ones?

I used the WaybackMachine to find the one from 2022, but this took quite awhile to find since I wasn't sure when exactly it was posted. And when I copy the link without the WaybackMachine prefix (which is just the URL for the 2024 version but with 2022 instead) it goes nowhere. I found the 2011 one as well, which uses a different link scheme.

My interest is that I remember that Deus Ex took #1 basically every year long past its release date, but eventually lost that place. I'm curious how long it held the top spot.

Thanks!

 

[ZedClampet]

I'm not aware of a digital archive. I believe you can find many of these on reddit, though it will take some searching around.

 

[Zloth]

My interest is that I remember that Deus Ex took #1 basically every year long past its release date, but eventually lost that place. I'm curious how long it held the top spot.

I was wondering the same thing when a PC Gamer headline implied Disco Elysium held it the longest. I believe Deus Ex was #1 in the very first top 100, which was years after the game released. (At least here in the USA.) It stayed somewhere on the list for a very long time - until the 2020's somewhere.

Oh weird! Look at this article from 2020:

Watch our video showcase of this year's PC Gamer Top 100

A handful of picks from the top 100 list for your viewing pleasure.

www.pcgamer.com

There's a link in there to the list of the top 100 games, but it goes to the 2024 version!?

Well, I've got an alternate source. The stack in my bedroom. (Wow, talk about dust!!)

OK, so the first I have is actually at Top 50 from 2001. It puts entire series of games in single slots, though. Deus Ex was down at number 10, Half Life 2 took top spot. Civ 2 got #2 and X-COM: UFO Defense got #3. Chuck Osborn called the others heathens for not including Zork.

Oh rats, there's a big hole between 2004 and 2012. I'm sure there somewhere, but I can't find them.

(It would be VERY nice if PC Gamer would just put a spreadsheet out there!)

 

[ZedClampet]

(It would be VERY nice if PC Gamer would just put a spreadsheet out there!)

I suspect it would be very inconsistent if you saw them one after another.

 

[Pifanjr]

(It would be VERY nice if PC Gamer would just put a spreadsheet out there!)

I'll just do it myself!

Work in progress:

PCGamer top 100s

docs.google.com

 

[Pifanjr]

I'll just do it myself!

Work in progress:

PCGamer top 100s

docs.google.com

One thing that's quite a bother is that video game titles are often written in different ways between different years. For example, I've seen both Civ IV or Civilization IV and GTA IV or Grand Theft Auto IV, Oblivion or The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and Thief II or Thief II: The Metal Age and roman numerals or regular number and dashes or colons being used.

Feel free to add comments on the sheet if you spot any problems.

 

[Pifanjr]

I've added a statistics page sorted by the number of times a game has appeared in a top 100 list, but I'll need to fix all of the titles before it's usable. It's 1 AM here now though, so I'll have to do that later, together with adding the rest of the top 100 lists, if there are any more.

If anyone feels like helping just let me know. I locked down the sheets to prevent anyone from accidentally messing them up, but I can give editing access if anyone is interested.

 

[Zloth]

That is really cool! Thanks for doing that!

I see what you mean about the names. Divinity: Original Sin II got the #1 ranking and then vanished, but Divinity: Original Sin 2 got several rankings.

I do expect to see a lot of inconsistencies, though. Writers come and go - and maybe come back again. They changed how the scoring system worked at least once, too.

 

[Pifanjr]

That is really cool! Thanks for doing that!

I see what you mean about the names. Divinity: Original Sin II got the #1 ranking and then vanished, but Divinity: Original Sin 2 got several rankings.

I do expect to see a lot of inconsistencies, though. Writers come and go - and maybe come back again. They changed how the scoring system worked at least once, too.

I think I've fixed all of the names, though if you spot an error feel free to leave a comment on the spreadsheet. There are some tricky ones with prefixes like "Civilization" or "Sid Meier's Civilization" where I might have missed one, or stuff like "The Witcher 3" or "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt" where I'm not sure whether the second one is a DLC or the same game. I know for The Witcher 3 it's the same, but I might have overlooked it for a different game.

Btw, the worst inconsistently written title I saw was this:

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines
Vampire: The Masquerade--Bloodlines
Vampire: The Masquerade—Bloodlines

I also put the statistics into a proper table now so you should be able to sort it to your liking.

I couldn't find the 2006 top 100 by the way, so if you manage to find that issue let me know. I only found a forum post where the top 5 were listed. I'll see if I can add 2005-2000 today if I can find those.

EDIT: I can't find 2005-2002 either. I did find the top 100 for 2001 and 2000. It seems like the US version didn't publish the top 100 of the UK version until later and the UK versions weren't digitised as well.

 

[Zloth]

Some of those are tough calls. Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition is a different page on Steam, but it's really just a huge patch to Divinity: Original Sin. I think Metro: Last Light and Metro: Last Light Redux is the same sort of thing.

I don't know how to track Doom. 1993 Doom seems to really be getting on the list again. Doom 2, though?? I'm not sure what Doom 2: Hell on Earth is about - maybe @Frag Maniac knows?

Anyway, left a bunch of comments. Got up to Monster Hunter (are Rise and World the same?) so far.

Btw, the worst inconsistently written title I saw was this:

That is sad - because it was "Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines"! {grinning, ducking, running}

Dragon Age 2 got 94th place one year? ROFL!!! 94 was the score it got in PC Gamer all those years ago, if I remember right. Somebody is messing with us!

 

[Pifanjr]

Some of those are tough calls. Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition is a different page on Steam, but it's really just a huge patch to Divinity: Original Sin. I think Metro: Last Light and Metro: Last Light Redux is the same sort of thing.

I merged most remasters/enhanced editions.

I don't know how to track Doom. 1993 Doom seems to really be getting on the list again. Doom 2, though?? I'm not sure what Doom 2: Hell on Earth is about - maybe @Frag Maniac knows?

Apparently "Hell on Earth" is just part of the name of Doom II.

Anyway, left a bunch of comments. Got up to Monster Hunter (are Rise and World the same?) so far.

Thank you very much! I found a bunch more myself as well (like a couple with or without "The" at the start).

Monster Hunter Rise and World are two different games.

That is sad - because it was "Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines"! {grinning, ducking, running}

Not according to the internet.

 

[Fragsteel]

@Pifanjr wow, that's so cool that you're doing this! I got busy and forgot about this post for a few days, and now there's a whole spreadsheet answering my question. You rock!

So Deux Ex actually only got the top slot three times since 2006, but still placed top 10 nine times, which is pretty damn good, considering it was already six years old at the cutoff time.

Anyway, I'm gonna go waste a lot of time reading this spreadsheet. Can I ask how long it took you to get this far?

 

[Pifanjr]

@Pifanjr wow, that's so cool that you're doing this! I got busy and forgot about this post for a few days, and now there's a whole spreadsheet answering my question. You rock!

So Deux Ex actually only got the top slot three times since 2006, but still placed top 10 nine times, which is pretty damn good, considering it was already six years old at the cutoff time.

Anyway, I'm gonna go waste a lot of time reading this spreadsheet. Can I ask how long it took you to get this far?

Probably around 4-5 hours, most of which was just getting the top 100 lists. Some of them I had to type over by hand because I could only find scans of the magazine, but quite a few were posted on old forums so I could just copy them. Though I spend quite a bit on getting the statistics page to work and to clean up the data as well.

 

[Zloth]

Not according to the internet.

Proves I'm right!