Question What was your "Golden Age" of PC Gaming?

[McStabStab]

For me it's the year 2000. I was in my Freshman year of High School and spent a good amount of time playing:

• C&C Red Alert 2
• Counter Strike 1.6
• Diablo 2
• Shogun: Total War
• The Sims

There were many other titles that year that I played later like Deus Ex, but 2000 was where it's at for me.

What's your personal Golden Age for gaming and what were you playing?

 

[Ryzengang]

This is a bit of a difficult question for me. When I was younger I mostly a console gamer (Xbox + Xbox 360), although I did play a few titles on PC, such as the WH40K Dawn of War games. But I didn't become a primary PC gamer until somewhere like 2018-19, I don't recall exactly. My friends threw together a "frankenstein" build consisting of old parts they had + a secondhand 720p monitor to get me started.

Since then I've gotten really big into tech and gaming and I have built and rebuilt my PC a few times. I suppose the most accurate answer to your question is pretty much "now". I have a high end rig and I play an eclectic range of games. In the last few years I've played a ton of classics/high rated games and there have been a lot of great experiences. For example, I played The Witcher 3 for the first time last year and it is probably my favorite game of all time.

I will say, though, if we do not include PC gaming, the year 2007 was a banger for me and my friends. Halo 3 and CoD Modern Warfare. I played the hell out of those games on Xbox live with my friends. Halo 3 remains one of my favorites FPS games of all time.

 

[Sarafan]

That will be probably 2003-2004 when I played for the first time Planescape Torment and Baldur's Gate 2. Better late than never. Basically I wasn't a fan of RPGs before that. Fallout 1 and 2 (which I played for the first time after the year 2001) were the games which convinced me to the genre. That's why I decided to get PT and BG2 and after that... I finished the first one three times in a row and the second one two times in a row! To clarify things a bit, in the next 17 years there was a lot of beautiful moments in gaming, but 2003 and 2004 were the years that defined me as a gamer and their influence is visible even today. That's why I decided to pick this period of time.

 

[Mazer]

Mine's definitely 1997-1998.

- The first GTA, Fallout and Baldurs Gate games came out
- Blood brought the build engine games to their highest levels as 2D FPS and Quake 2 and Half Life heralded a new era of 3D FPS
- Thief invented a new genre
- Curse of Monkey Island and Grim Fandango were the swansong for a generation of Lucasarts adventure games
- Age of Empires and Starcraft set the benchmark for modern RTS

On top of that there were classic entries like Jedi Knight, Dungeon Keeper, Carmageddon, Interstate '76, The Last Express, Blade Runner and Abe's Oddysee to mention a few.

Also, I was young and thin and my knees didn't hurt.

 

[Alm]

The games that come to mind are games like half life & quake 3 arena. Which was 1998/1999.

I always imagine my golden age is still coming as I imagine that one day I will be a lot better at games the more I play. But I think this is probably denial or me just being an idiot.

 

[ZedClampet]

I guess mine would be either 2014 or now.

In 2014 I had taken a long break from gaming, many years, and came back into it with a rush, and there were all these amazing games that I had never played (or even heard of) and I got to play them all one after another, like Half-Life 1 and 2, Portal 1 and 2, all the Mass Effects...

As for now, I've had a great time this year with some of my favorite games ever, plus some sequels coming out in the next 6 months that I can't wait for. In the last year, I've played Conan Exiles, Satisfactory, both Subnautica games, Craftopia, Farming Sim 19, Car Mechanic Simulator 19 and 21, Forza Horizon 3, 4 and 5 plus Motorsport. All of these are among my favorite games of all time, and I can see myself playing them for a long time to come. Then you have sequels coming up to some of my favorite games, like Total War Warhammer 3 (put almost 700 hours in the 2nd one), Farming Simulator 22 (comes out next week), Ark 2, Sons of the Forest, and Dying Light 2. And some new games like Elden Ring, Calisto Protocol, etc. I really can't ask for more.

 

[ZedClampet]

The games that come to mind are games like half life & quake 3 arena. Which was 1998/1999.

I always imagine my golden age is still coming as I imagine that one day I will be a lot better at games the more I play. But I think this is probably denial or me just being an idiot.

Don't know how old you are, but if you are talking about getting better at Quake competitive, you better practice more now because old age doesn't help you one bit.

 

[Alm]

I'm already past it for twitch shooters (38). I can but dream.

 

[COLGeek]

My "golden age" hasn't stopped since my first computer experience approximately 50 years ago when I was in the 3rd grade and was selected for a special education program. Stuck with me throughout my lifetime.

Currently, trying to get the hang of BG3 and (still) playing too much Diablo 3. Went through a recent Skyrim phase where I apparently completed the main quest way too early and then got bored trying to complete a bunch of the side quests.

 

[Zloth]

I'm with @COLGeek. I started back in... well, back before the term "PC Gaming" made much sense and I've been going strong ever since. There was a time (mid 90's?) where a lot of our prized developers jumped over to the console side, then another bad time when a bunch of developers jumped over to do mobile games, but new developers grew up in their place pretty quickly.

My guess is that future generations will call the gaming "Golden Age" the time between the start and when VR/AR finally took off.

 

[Colif]

Colgeek has been using PC longer than they existed, amazing**
I don't think I saw my first computer until I was 16 (I knew of one but it was size of an entire block of my school), and I haven't stopped looking at them since. I use consoles for about as long as I have PC so I don't see a distinction, especially now. Only difference now is input method.

I don't know answer to question, its all been fun. Everyone will have their own definition, its subjective.

** IBM PC anyway, Personal computers or micro computers as they were known, existed before IBM made their mistake. If it had been all their own parts, would it have been so easy to copy?

 

[COLGeek]

Colgeek has been using PC longer than they existed, amazing**
I don't think I saw my first computer until I was 16 (I knew of one but it was size of an entire block of my school), and I haven't stopped looking at them since. I use consoles for about as long as I have PC so I don't see a distinction, especially now. Only difference now is input method.

I don't know answer to question, its all been fun. Everyone will have their own definition, its subjective.

** IBM PC anyway, Personal computers or micro computers as they were known, existed before IBM made their mistake. If it had been all their own parts, would it have been so easy to copy?

That is true! Thus my "computer experience" vice PC comment earlier.

Just had the "knack". In high school, I was both a computer science student and teacher. My first big programming effort was coding a game (BASIC on Apple II) titled "Polaris". It was a submarine shooter to sink surface vessels while dodging depth charges.

I also spend way too much time on TH and TG moderating with Colif (Space, as well).

 

[Colif]

One of my brothers friend's parents had an Apple iie, I don't know if I knew about it before I saw my first one in college. it might have been same year or earlier, I don't know. I do remember playing Castle Wolfenstien (the original) on it as well as Wizardry. And Beer panic... that was really early 80's though. IBM PC wasn't a games machine in its first years. One of the things that turned me off it.

TH = Toms Hardware
TG = Tom's Guide

 

[Brian Boru]

I guess I had 2 golden ages. The first was '95 to early '00s, when C&C launched in '95 followed by RA and both their sequels—that's when I changed from casually having fun with games to being a PC gamer, those just drew me in and have never let go—I had a blast again last year with C&C Remastered. Total Annihilation and Dark Reign get honorable mentions in this era too.

Second was soon after, 2004 to end of 00s. I enjoyed '92's Wolfenstein 3D and 02's C&C Renegade because of the C&C universe, but 2004 was what got me into FPS with Half Life 2 and Far Cry—especially Far Cry, because it was also my intro to open world which has been my strong preference ever since.

I had tried the earlier Civilization games from '90 to '00, but it was 2005's Civ4 which hooked me in line and sinker, and became my gaming obsession for the next 5 years—still my all-time fav game. Add in 2007's Supreme Commander as a nice bonus.

Happily I've had plenty of fun since too, PC gaming has such incredible variety that there's always plenty when I need a break from my usual staples. It's a wonderful hobby!

 

[Mazer]

Dark Reign

I always forget about that one, such bad luck to come out around the same time as TA, Starcraft and AoE.

 

[Pifanjr]

I think 2007-2009. My brother moved out around this time, so his bedroom became my computer room. I had my own computer and an older computer in there and most of my free time, of which I had a ton, was spent playing games with my friend who lived next door. He'd either come over to my place to play in my room or we'd go to his house to play on his Xbox 360 which was hooked up to the biggest plasma TV I've seen. At some point we even hooked up the computer at his house to my computer at my house with a very long Ethernet cable.

I think it was around this time I also had the best LAN party of my life with several of my friends. We had my father's office building all to ourselves, zero parental oversight and access to a deep fryer. We played games all through the night and played music as loud as we wanted, as we didn't have to worry about bothering neighbours.

This is also when I first played Assassin's Creed and Mass Effect, both of which I ended up falling in love with and the only series I've bought a Deluxe version for. Some other notable games I played include Portal, Oblivion, Fallout 3, Civilization IV, Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-Earth 2, Medieval II: Total War, Europa Universalis III, Left 4 Dead, Borderlands and Prototype.

 

[Colif]

Maybe the period between when original GTA 3 was released and when the Definitive edition was released.

 

[DXCHASE]

Before I read this thread i already knew that the "golden age" for most in replys was gonna be pre-2004 ish and I was not disappointed haha. I would say my "golden age" in gaming was just when i was able to play games and have a good time and put all my energy into being ''good''. Which... was pre-2004... nowadays i cant do this. I can play but now i just feel like im not doing something i should be when i do lol.

 

[flashn00b]

I guess 2004-2006 would be about what i'd describe as a golden age for PC gaming.

Thinking back at around the PS2/Xbox era of gaming, there are a few signs that consoles were still behind what PC can do, but something like Red Faction's glass house didn't really drive the point home at the time. It wasn't until Half-Life 2's release on PC where the graphical and computational differences between PC/PS2/Xbox became glaringly obvious when it came to multiplatform releases.

 

[Volley]

If Golden Age can be a few years: 1993 to 2001. Nearly all of my top 10 games of all time are within that timeframe. Just an excellent near-decade overall for PC gaming. Just to name a few favorites off the top of my head:

1993 - Doom
1994 - System Shock
1995 - Descent
1996 - Duke Nukem 3D
1997 - Dark Forces II Jedi Knight
1998 - Unreal
1999 - System Shock II
2000 - Deus Ex
2001 - Aliens vs Predator 2

 

[JCgames]

I'm in the camp that we are in the golden age right now. So many great titles from the past can easily be played and so many new ones based on old classics or in that style that are just worlds better.

While i might like some games from the 90's I'm not playing them much. I much prefer newer games with updated gui's and just the simple things we are all used to. So instead of playing a Classic Serria game, I'd much rather grab something like Kathy Rain, or something from wajet eye.. Or take a game like wasteland II/III verse the classic from 25 years ago.

Still, Freedom Force, Tropico, and baldur's gate manage to find a way into my play lists..

Now if you want to ask me about vintage, I'm gonna have to go with Castle Wolfenstien 2D or zork, and the 1k's of hours i spend playing donkey kong, smurfs and lady bug


But when you see games like Dead in vinland, Banner sage and the new Strat games like crusader kings III of Gal Civ IV.. games that weave together great stories, great gameplay, good graphics and easy to use gui's How can this be anything but a golden age!