For some people, PC Gaming is a way of life. And while you may or may not relate to that sentiment, you have to admit that games for the PC platform are getting better and better with every year. You can pretty much pick up any title these days and know that you're going to have a very good time playing it.
But while you can't go wrong with many of today's PC titles, there are still those that can be considered the cream of the crop. The titles that you absolutely must have in your collection, or must play through at one time or another. If you're going to play any PC games at all, I've listed the top ones that you should consider. Read on for what I consider as the very best games of 2009.
#5: Need for Speed: Shift
The Good: Lots of cars, lots of tracks, beautiful landscapes, awesome multiplayer mode
The Bad: Known problems with some Logitech racing wheels, can get too serious at times (read: boring)
Best played: on a Saturday night while drinking beer (you can go nuts)
Need For Speed: Shift offers a racing experience that's about as real as it can get. There are a total of four different camera modes while driving, and one has you looking through the windshield from inside the driver's seat with a very real dashboard sitting in front of the steering wheel.
Every car in NFS: Shift is a real car that's available in real life, so with a racing wheel and proper adjustments to the settings, you can pretty much consider yourself test driving all those wonderful luxury cars.
The best part about NFS: Shift is you can take part in the online multiplayer races and test your skills with other drivers from all over the world.
[Visit the web site: Need For Speed: Shift]
#4: Left 4 Dead 2
The Good: Lots of zombies, lots of guns, lots of playability, funny quips from new main characters, new weapons
The Bad: New zombies are a bit too colorful, not as scary/gloomy as original
Best played: After a long work day or a fight with your spouse
The fact that this game is a follow-up to what is currently one of the most popular games for the PC platform should have been a dead giveaway for Left 4 Dead 2's inclusion in this list. Left 4 Dead 2 has you playing in much the same way as the original Left 4 Dead -- there's four of you in a team, each with one primary weapon and one secondary weapon fighting hordes of zombies trying to get to the end of the map.
You get to carry the same high-power automatic and semi-automatic weapons you did in the first game and several new ones, plus you have a new arsenal of melee weapons that include an electric guitar, chain saw, samurai sword and even a good old frying pan.
Left 4 Dead 2 sees the introduction of completely new characters, maps, and special Infected, and nearly does away with the whole "haunted house" feel while playing with its hip sound track that coincides with what's going on in the game.
And of course, multiplayer is fun as always, with the choice to become an infected and kill other multiplayer gamers who play as survivors.
[Visit the web site: Left 4 Dead 2]
#3: Colin McRae: DiRT 2
The Good: DirectX 11, very good graphics, great gameplay
The Bad: Can be a bit too hard to play at times, too realistic when it comes to driving
Best played: Same as NFS: Shift
If you want to play an honest-to-goodness racing sim for the new year, look no further than DiRT 2. I previewed this game when its demo first came out and I was absolutely blown away by the visuals and gameplay. And that was just with a DX10 card, the Radeon HD 4770.
DiRT 2 is one of the very first DX11 games to come out, and if this doesn't give you a spanking good time driving on your PC, then I don't know what will. It's a lot more fun as a racing game than the first one I listed in this top 5, and will no doubt impress more people in the same way that it did me.
[Visit the web site: Colin McRae: DiRT 2]
#2: Batman Arkham Asylum
The Good: Original story/plot with lots of twists, many puzzles to solve, fancy weapons, great hand-to-hand combat
The Bad: Problem with PhysX for ATI graphics cards, story mode not that hard to finish, can get repetitive at times
Best played: Exactly 12 midnight, any day of the week
Batman: Arkham Asylum surprised me in more ways than one. In this game you get to become the Dark Knight himself, playing through a story that has the Joker take over Arkham Asylum, an island penitentiary where he intends to collect a secret formula that will help him in his evil deeds. The game starts out with the Joker's arrest, which in the end turns out to be part of a master plan.
As Batman, you get to carry several weapons which include a special explosive glue that you can use to break down weak barriers and stun enemies, batarangs that you can easily throw at anyone to temporarily stun them, and the trusty bat claw that will not only let you climb the tallest buildings but also pull on enemies to stun them for a few seconds.
In case you're wondering why all of Batman's weapons merely stun the enemies when used to strike, it's because Batman has to finish them off with his bare hands. The fight scenes (between batman and up to fifteen enemies or more at a time) are a lot like those from Tekken: there's a lot of power in the punches and it's very exciting to watch.
[Visit the web site: Batman: Arkham Asylum]
#1: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
The Good: Continues the story of the original, lots of emotion, great multiplayer, awesome weapons, varied levels/missions, awesome weapons (yep, they're so awesome that I had to mention it twice)
The Bad: One very graphic (as in, WTF?!) mission, will leave you begging for more
Best played: Any time
Modern Warfare 2 is a sequel to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and takes place five years after the first one's ending. The game starts off with basic weapon training, and then kicks off to high gear immediately with you lying dazed on the ground in the middle of crossfire. Campaign mode is divided between a multinational counter-terrorist group that's going after an extreme ultranationist and the U.S. Army Rangers who are defending the U.S. from a Russian invasion.
Modern Warfare 2 offers not only great visuals, but also a great story, wherein you get to meet the character you used to play in the first installment of the game as you climb icy cliffs, ride snowmobiles down a mountain, snipe from the side of a flying helicopter and chase after an enemy with a speedboat while being shot at.
During cut scenes (as you die), you'll still be subjected to a number of great quotes ranging from Ghandi's "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind" to Confucius's "If you embark on a journey of revenge, first dig two graves."
But what I like best about Modern Warfare 2 is how, like the original, it has these real jaw-dropping situations that make you think about what's really going on around you. War is a very real danger in this day and age, and being a soldier in the middle of all the action is no mean feat. At times, during gameplay, Modern Warfare can make you go from saying, "Wow" to "What the f*ck?" and that's part of what makes it suck a little, because at the end of the campaign it leaves you begging for more.
But that's no reason to knock it off the top spot on this list, and thus Modern Warfare 2 is DesktopDave's best PC game of 2009.
[Visit the web site: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2]
