Your favorite pre-2010 games

[Aldarion]

So what are your favorite "old-ish" games, as in, ones that were published before 2010 (so before last 15 years)?

Mine are as follows:

• Civilization 2 (1996). First game I ever played, and still one of my favorites. As much as I love Civilization IV, there is simply something about the minimalist graphical design and interface that tugs at the heartstrings.
• Warcraft 2 (1995). Still the best Warcraft, in my opinion.
• Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2 (2002). First racing game I had ever played, and still my favorite. While I had played other games in the series since - Underground (2003) and Hot Pursuit (2010) - Hot Pursuit 2 is my favorite, and honestly also the best looking one (sue me, I love old graphics).
• Homeworld 2 (2003). Another one of the firsts, it was the first 3D RTS game I had played, and in fact one of few such games I regularly played. It is also my favorite RTS game, which is funny since I generally prefer medieval or fantasy RTS such as Battle for Middle Earth or Total War series.
• Battle for Middle Earth (2004) and Battle for Middle Earth 2 (2006). My first Lord of the Rings games, and the best I had played so far. Unfortunately don't seem to work on new Windows.
• Halo: Combat Evolved (2001). First HALO I had played, and also one of few multiplayer shooters I genuinely enjoyed.
• Rome: Total War. My introduction to the Total War series, in fact - but replaced on the favorite spot by the Medieval 2. Originally I liked fighting battles the most while I left everything else to the AI, but over time I came to appreciate the empire management part of the game as well.
• Medieval 2 Total War. I don't know why, but Medieval 2 simply feels better than the Rome. Perhaps it is the more diverse scenarios - I really love the Crusades campaign, playing as Byzantine Empire.
• Devil May Cry 4 (2008). It is the first DMC game I had played and, in my opinion, is still by far the best-looking Devil May Cry game. Devil May Cry 5 has "more realistic" graphics which simply don't fit the insanity that DMC should be. And just as importantly, I really prefer the medieval / Gothic and natural landscapes of DMC4 over the "modern city" ugliness that is Devil May Cry 5. Games should be escapism from ugly reality, so why bring ugly reality into the game itself? Level design itself seems far more varied in DMC4 than in DMC5, which appears to be a single level repeated ad nauseum (though I only played latter at friend's so I didn't pass the entire game).

Thoughts? What are your favorites?

 

[ZedClampet]

Without getting into as much detail as you did, I loved the Total War games, Resident Evil 4, Need for Speed Carbon (and whichever one came after that), and Neverwinter Nights.

 

[Brian Boru]

Welcome to the forum

Games should be escapism from ugly reality, so why bring ugly reality into the game itself?

Amen brother!

Civilization 4
My fav game of all time, first Civ to grab me—and it didn't let go for ~5 years!

C&C Generals Zero Hour
Generals' Challenge mode made this the best from the RTS golden age.

C&C Red Alert 2
Best RTS campaigns.

Crysis Warhead
Excellent FPS with nanosuit fun which still looks great today 17 years later.

Deus Ex
I'm not a RPG *spits* guy, but took one for the team with this stylish masterpiece.

Far Cry
Stick around, you'll see me mention FC once or twice a year
My fav FPS franchise, especially the recent ones with so many choices and freedom.

Half-Life 2
A bit like Deus Ex in that I didn't particularly enjoy this FPS, but the experience was phenomenal—some truly iconic scenes.

Lemmings
I had tons of fun with these little guys, just hit the sweet spot for fun and charm and design.

Portal
Got it with the famed Orange Box in '07, and what a brilliant puzzle game!

Prince of Persia
First game with somewhat realistic humanlike movement that I played—that just captivated me.

Royal Envoy
This casual strategy-builder-puzzle series is one of the best game designs ever, especially RE3 which has QoL improvements and the best levels.

The Operative: No One Lives Forever
Cate Archer the female James Bond, resplendent with an array of cute spy gadgets and witty dialog.

Total Annihilation
The other big RTS from the golden age—too many units, but still a load of fun.

Wolfenstein 3D
Nothing great about this other than it was the first 3D title I played—that was compelling at the time.

 

[Smellincoffee]

Partial list:

Civilization III. My introduction to turn-based games.
Star Trek Elite Force. Still play matches against bots.
Star Trek Armada. ""
The Sims 1, The Sims 2. I still play Sims 4 to this day.
SimCity 3000. Still play this (am doing a success game with someone at CivFanatics)
Pharaoh: Rise of the Middle Kingdom. Superb music & voice work.
Age of Empires II: Age of Kings.
Mafia (2002). Even though I have Mafia DE now (not to mention Mafia 2), I still play this from time to time. My introduction to Django Reinhardt & Mills Brothers.
GTA Vice City, GTA San Andreas. My introduction to SO MUCH GREAT MUSIC.
Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2.

 

[Frindis]

Welcome to the forums, Son of Trees!

• Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis - Excellent adventure game with good puzzles, story, humor, and voice acting.
• Phantasmagoria - My first interactive movie game with an extremely gory and cool story. Extra plus for awesome music!
• Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within - Except for a couple of bad puzzles, this game is amazing!
• Mega Man 2 - Superb platform game and to this date one of my favorites.
• Arkanoid - One of the first games I played on the Atari 520ST. Fun game with memorable music scores.
• Worms: Armageddon - The best worms game ever made! I used to annoy my friends by using the blowtorch, digging deep into a mountain, and then barricading myself.
• Morrowind - On my top 10 of all-time favorite games. The exploration feel in this game is just something else.
• KOTOR - Story, combat, exploration, Pazaak, Wookie, and lightsabers. You can't go wrong with that.
• WOLTK - Best WoW expansion and unfortunately the last good one.

​

 

[Brian Boru]

Welcome to the forums, Son of Trees

You callin' the OP a nut? That's not nice

 

[Frindis]

You callin' the OP a nut? That's not nice

No, no, I wasn't referring to the cuckoo nest, merely the Quenya translation of Aldarion.

​

​

 

[Zloth]

X3: which I go on about plenty in the forums, so I'll leave it at that.

City of Heroes: Still going strong on donations! I hardly ever play it, though. 5,000 hours is enough. Or was it 10,000?

Final Fantasy VII: Witcher 3 has the best stories ever, but this game has the second best and is far older. Currently being remade/re-imagined/whatever to pretty good effect if you can't deal with lego people or the horrible control scheme. Combat is somewhere between real time and turn based.

The original Doom: The splash that game made when it came out was astounding. I even made a WAD.

Thief 1 & 2: I loved the sneaking around and I really loved shooting arrows that didn't fly as straight as lasers.

Baldur's Gate 1 and especially 2: Still my favorite Infinity Engine games.

Deus Ex: Much sneaking about as in Thief (at least the way I played it) and a fun story to go along with it.

Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, which I enjoyed a lot more than Morrowind.

Galactic Civilizations 2: Space 4X game where I could win without firing a shot.

Sword of the Stars: Space 4X that was almost all about the battles. Even though they were real time with pause, the massive depth in the tech tree made the game really fun for me.

Master of Orion 2: Better than the first game and oh so fun! Modern day games improve on it a lot (no more death stacks roaming the galaxy), but it was incredible at the time.

Air Warrior: Online multiplayer back in the late 80's and 90's! Of course, it cost $6/hr, but it was crazy fun.

Shadow Hearts: Covenant: Console-only, but I loved the humor, and I really loved the battle system.

The Talos Principle
Interesting difficult puzzle game, excellently presented and narrated.

Came out 10 years ago... or will have once we get to December. No up vote for you!

 

[Colif]

Roller Coaster Tycoon 1 (1999), 2 (2002)
Diablo 2 (2000)
Throne of Darkness (2001)
Sacred 2 (2008)

off top of my head. Probably forgotten something in that time. (such as Wow)

 

[Hveðrungr]

• Rome: Total War. My introduction to the Total War series, in fact - but replaced on the favorite spot by the Medieval 2. Originally I liked fighting battles the most while I left everything else to the AI, but over time I came to appreciate the empire management part of the game as well.
• Medieval 2 Total War. I don't know why, but Medieval 2 simply feels better than the Rome. Perhaps it is the more diverse scenarios - I really love the Crusades campaign, playing as Byzantine Empire.

Do you play Total War: Warhammer III? I posted a thread about it here:

Something Rotten In Kislev || Total War: Warhammer III Co-op Campaign

I am an avid (though not especially good) Total War: Warhammer III player. I would love to try the special 3-player co-op scenario, “Something Rotten In Kislev”. Co-op battles are an excellent way to play the game (you can really focus on your micro), and I like trying different ways to play...

forums.pcgamer.com

 

[Brian Boru]

Came out 10 years ago … No up vote for you

Oh ouch, that'll teach me to be more careful about editing copied lists! Edited—thank you, Eagle Eye!

 

[Zimbaly]

@Smellincoffee I think there's still some Elite Forces servers going. There were last time I checked.

For me.... let's see..... oh look Left 4 Dead 1 and 2. 🤘

Halflife because of the mods that were in it.
Jedi Academy cause of the Movie Battles 2 mod.
Unreal Tournament 1, 2k4 and 3
Original X Wing and Tie Fighter
Microsoft Combat Simulator
B-17 Flying Fortress
Red Baron
BF 1942
Scorched Earth
Nox
The Crescent Hawks Inception *i'd sell someone else's soul for this game to still be around*
Earth Siege
Mech Warrior 2
Mission Force Cyberstorm

I'll leave it there.

 

[Smellincoffee]

@Smellincoffee I think there's still some Elite Forces servers going. There were last time I checked.

For me.... let's see..... oh look Left 4 Dead 1 and 2. 🤘

Halflife because of the mods that were in it.
Jedi Academy cause of the Movie Battles 2 mod.
Unreal Tournament 1, 2k4 and 3
Original X Wing and Tie Fighter
Microsoft Combat Simulator
B-17 Flying Fortress
Red Baron
BF 1942
Scorched Earth
Nox
The Crescent Hawks Inception *i'd sell someone else's soul for this game to still be around*
Earth Siege
Mech Warrior 2
Mission Force Cyberstorm

I'll leave it there.

Thanks for the heads up! I'll have to check and see if any come up for me. And I forgot to mention Jedi Academy! I remember freaking out when Katarn started using force lightening, thinking that was strictly a Sith thing.

 

[Aldarion]

Do you play Total War: Warhammer III? I posted a thread about it here:

Something Rotten In Kislev || Total War: Warhammer III Co-op Campaign

I am an avid (though not especially good) Total War: Warhammer III player. I would love to try the special 3-player co-op scenario, “Something Rotten In Kislev”. Co-op battles are an excellent way to play the game (you can really focus on your micro), and I like trying different ways to play...

forums.pcgamer.com

I haven't.

I played Total War: Warhammer, but game was so clunky I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. In fact, it put me off the TW:W series at all.

How is the III?

 

[Hveðrungr]

I haven't.

I played Total War: Warhammer, but game was so clunky I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. In fact, it put me off the TW:W series at all.

How is the III?

TWWH II and III are maybe the best Total War games they've made, imo. Have you played other TW games? Do you enjoy fantasy settings?

 

[Aldarion]

TWWH II and III are maybe the best Total War games they've made, imo. Have you played other TW games? Do you enjoy fantasy settings?

Oh, I definitely enjoy fantasy settings, but I only ever played historical Total War games.

 

[Hveðrungr]

Oh, I definitely enjoy fantasy settings, but I only ever played historical Total War games.

Okay, if you like Total War and you like fantasy then you should like TWWH3.

 

[DXCHASE]

Kinda hard to narrow it down since pre-2010 (actually 2007) was my golden years of gaming (before family/a real job/RESPONSIBILITIES)

90s (for home games, was a huge arcade player then)
Mortal Kombat
Doom
Duke Nukem 3D
Goldeneye 007
Mario Kart 64
Risk (1996 Hasbro version)
Robert E. Lee's Civil War Generals (or just Civil War Generals) 1. Probably my favorite best "grand strategy" game but cannot find a version thats playable today
Marvel vs Capcom 2
House of The Dead
Virtual Cop

"pre-2010s"
Halo
Ghost Recon 1 / Island Thunder (MLG CLAN)
Rainbow 6 vegas and vegas 2 (MLG CLAN)
Gears of War (competitive player)
Elder Scrolls Oblivion
Left For Dead 2
GTA 3

i can go on

 

[Zloth]

Oh ouch, that'll teach me to be more careful about editing copied lists! Edited—thank you, Eagle Eye!

Like given - 20K likes should happen soon!

 

[nicksb0ringlife]

Left 4 Dead 1