Which game can i play on my pc: What Can I Run · System Requirements Test

Elite: Dangerous‌. Remake of a very old game. So old that its gameplay could be described as «a triangle attacks a point with a wand.» The player was asked to see this as a space battle, but that was normal: it was 1984. 36 years later, you’re roaming space in your Sidewinder in 4K, and the galaxy is the size of a real one: there are 500 billion solar systems in the game. No, you don’t have to fly all over to pass. But playing with the feeling that you will never be able to grasp the whole game is what the gaming industry has evolved for all 36 years.

What about the Nintendo Switch?

Almost all of the above games have been released on the Nintendo Switch. However, if you are going to buy this console, then immediately start playing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild — an out-of-competition hit.

Text author: Pavel Shlyapnikov

Games that you need to complete at all costs — Games on DTF

We impose our favorite games.

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Each of us probably has a list of games that I would like to advise everyone. Of course, it is subjective, and the games there are not even always good.

Let’s not hold back this time: tell us in the comments about three games that you would like to impose on the entire DTF. Try to convince the rest and do not be shy in the methods — suddenly it will work out. Well, we’ll start.

Vadim Elistratov

The Last of Us

Previously, I always wrote Half-Life 2 in such collections, but those days are gone. Valve’s revolutionary game has finally disappeared into the air, disintegrating into thousands of small nuances, without which no modern release can do.

The new «Half-Life 2» for me was The Last of Us. This summer, Naughty Dog will be six years old, but the industry is still learning how to build a narrative the way Naughty Dog did, and so far it’s mostly done by mastodons like Sony Santa Monica and Rockstar, but simpler studios fall into the mud over and over again in the face.

The Last of Us, like any game that almost immediately achieved the status of a classic, has many critics now, but the way Naughty Dog managed to create a connection between the main characters through a routine, and then effectively break it, causing me very strong and conflicting feelings, still delights.

I don’t think I’ll ever find a common language with people who whine about pulling stairs and «boring beginnings». They don’t see the forest for the trees.

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

There are games that forever divide your experience into «before» and «after», and Hellblade is definitely one of them. And it’s not just that this is an incredible audiovisual experience, but also several gameplay tricks that the developers resort to to get their point across — from the illusion of eternal death to the final battle, which ends with a grandiose revelation. Hellblade needs to be experienced by everyone and everyone.

Stanley Parable

A little indie trivia that suddenly turns out to be a deep and at the same time extremely concise statement about free will and interactivity in games as such. Stanley Parable has been on my mind for years. She is a genius without any exaggeration.

Oleg Chimde

Contra: Hard Corps

I sincerely believe that a person cannot say that he loves action shooting games if he has not played this masterpiece of game design. Gorgeous level design and constantly changing game mechanics, crazy dynamics (of the last one, only Vanquish can compare with it), non-linearity, music, one of the best in games in general, unique bosses, each of which needs its own approach.

And, of course, hardcore. As a child, I went through Hard Corps with almost no deaths, but now the passage is already difficult. Be sure to play, in any of the available ways.

Silent Hill 2

I have a similar opinion about the second Silent Hill, only in the case of psychological thrillers and horror. Maybe I’m a bore, but when someone tells me that he understands horror, the first thing I ask him about is Silent Hill 2. If you haven’t played, you have no right to say that you understand the topic.

Part 2 still looks and plays great and is worth playing by all means.

Alien 3 on NES

But Alien 3 is hardly important for the industry. The NES version is also crooked — the camera moves with the player, but with a delay. Because of what you never see what lies ahead for you. In addition, the timer is running out: game locations are labyrinths in which cocoons with people are cunningly hidden somewhere. If you do not know the location and location of the «hostages», then you will never pass the level the first time.

But all this creates an amazing experience — painful and incomprehensible, but unique. You die first, and only then do you understand how to play (no, not like in Dark Souls). You resign yourself to losing, death in Alien 3 on NES is your middle name. A very gloomy feeling that rarely gives a game.

Artyom Kaleev

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

I’m probably writing this in a rush, because Breath of the Wild just came out yesterday. But the emotions never faded, and therefore the first thing I decided to put on this list is Zelda. I hope I don’t regret it later.

Breath of the Wild took a very long time to accelerate. At first, it seemed that all it had was an unusual style, a simple plot, and a non-standard view of the gameplay. For the first five or ten hours, I could not understand why the game was being praised so much, but I made a promise to myself to finish it — because, in fact, for the sake of it, I took the Switch.

And, as usually happens in such stories, it was not in vain. It was worth getting involved in Zelda, forcing myself to go through a couple of story quests and get used to the setting, and I could not tear myself away from it. The game has a strong sense of exploration — each foray into the open world was like an adventure in itself. And this is almost without activities and side quests, of which there are hundreds per square kilometer in modern service games.

In addition, Breath of the Wild itself is an example of outstanding game design. The entire vast Hyrule is like a continuous test for the player, no matter which direction you go. Zelda forces you to think outside the box and rewards you for taking an unusual approach to the next task, whether it’s fighting monsters or climbing a mountain.

I haven’t had such a feeling for a long time when I don’t want the game to end. Breath of the Wild is the first Zelda I’ve played, but I can’t wait to touch other parts to feel that sense of freedom and fairy tale again. I think I now understand what it’s like to slowly become a fan of Nintendo.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

At first I didn’t want to include games from Naughty Dog because it’s a kind of cheat — name any title and everyone will agree with you anyway. But in the end, I couldn’t resist.

The second part for me is not the best installment in the series, but it is thanks to her that I fell in love with Uncharted. It for the first time appeared what everyone wears Naughty Dog on their hands for — incredible cinematography and amazing attention to detail. Fascinating firefights in the middle of falling houses and temples, ancient mysteries, a slight touch of mysticism and an almost “cinematic” level of cut-scenes. All the key moments of the game, including the level on the train and the shootout in the mountains, I went through with my jaw dropped.

And, of course, the plot. He became truly dramatic only in the fourth part, but in the second — on the level. Drake and Sally are arguably one of the best protagonist duos in adventure games, and that’s why it was very sad to part ways with them in A Thief’s End.

minecraft

A great game that combines limitless possibilities with addictive gameplay that can keep you hooked for hours. This is an exemplary “survivor”, which, although not too complicated, is deeply thought out — and you want to understand it.

And Minecraft wouldn’t be so great without its unique style. What other game will almost every gamer recognize just by the texture of a block of grass? Or the first notes of the soundtrack as the sun begins to set? The music from C418 still has a calming effect on me — and even though I’ve heard every track thousands of times, it doesn’t get boring at all.

In general, I’m madly in love with this game. Minecraft will be ten years old this year, but it’s unlikely to ever get old. At least for me, for sure.

Andrey Vereshchagin

Earthbound

Even if you hate JRPGs, Earthbound is still worth a try. Formally, all the signs of Japanese role-playing games of the nineties are here — turn-based «combat», grind, a party of several characters and all that. However, there are no knights, no super magic, no confrontation between people and gods, which Final Fantasy loves to refer to.

The plot of Earthbound takes place in the 20th century, so the environment here is as familiar to us as possible, but damn unusual for a JRPG. However, this is not the main merit of the game, but the way it handles the video game format in general — this is a truly postmodern game that came out four years before Metal Gear Solid. She masterfully juggles genres and 1990s industry tropes, turning them upside down, making fun of them, and constantly making the player feel stupid.

It’s an amazing experience and a must have. In addition, without Earthbound there would be no Undertale, and this also says a lot.

Another World

When talking about cinematic platformers, Prince of Persia is most often mentioned first, but only because it was a pioneer in this genre. However, Another World does everything the Broderbund game does, but a hundred times better.

The main advantage of Another World is its narrative. It is linear, it takes about 30 minutes, there is not a single dialogue and not a single note explaining the plot, but in the end you still feel the scale of the fantasy world in which the main character finds himself. In half an hour you have time to get acquainted with the flora and fauna of this place, with its culture, population, order and technology. And when, finally, the time comes to leave this world, the heart becomes heavy.

Realms of Arkania: Star Trail

At first glance, this looks like a standard RPG with discrete movement from the nineties in the spirit of Wizardry or Might & Magic. In fact, Star Trail provides the player with a freedom that is not even in Fallout or Daggerfall. At first it’s a little confusing and you have to relearn how to think not in terms of RPGs, but in terms of real life.

Do you think that a bard, according to the laws of the genre, can only inspire your heroes in battle with his songs? That’s how it is, but he can also sing a couple of songs in the tavern and earn your team some money. Do you think that a character of the «hunter» class is only good for shooting opponents from afar? Yes, but you can also really send him on a hunt to get food for the rest of the heroes.

Realms of Arkania: Star Trail has a rich and very flexible role-playing system based on the German board game Das Schwarze Auge, which gives you incredible freedom to play. If you always thought it was impossible to identify yourself with the characters in party RPGs, then just try Star Trail.

Daniil Cortez

Heroes of Might and Magic

I think the Heroes series is a must-have for any self-respecting gamer. Despite the fact that it was far from HoMM that invented the turn-based strategy genre in its classic form (this is the merit of the original King’s Bounty), it was this series that popularized all the features that have become the gold standard for the genre. It’s no joke, but after all, HoMM is just a spin-off, and in the end it overtook the original Might & Magic RPG series in popularity.

Obviously, I will advise the third part: it was in it that the developers brought all the ideas to mind, introduced a lot of necessary chips (for example, a dungeon and quick battles) and made a legend out of the Heroes — the «three» is still actively played . However, I will not recommend the original HoMM III: absolutely everyone, both beginners and oldies, I recommend the HotA fan add-on, which eliminated many in-game errors, fixed graphic jambs and introduced a lot of pleasant and useful things.

And besides HoMM III, there are decent games in the series — and each has its own pace, mood and atmosphere. So if you want something different within the series, I highly recommend the second and fifth parts.

Warcraft III

I’ve been thinking for a very long time which strategy Blizzard would recommend as a «must have» gaming experience. After all, she created StarCraft, which is largely responsible for the emergence of eSports, and StarCraft 2, the first campaign of which is currently (in my opinion) the benchmark for RTS game design.

But if you choose one thing, it’s still worth stopping at the third part of Warcraft. A revolution in the RTS genre, timeless graphics and a story that fans still remember. Few people do not know about the tragic history of Arthas, the feat of Grommash, or the conquest of Durotar by the Horde. And not only the campaign in Warcraft is good: multiplayer with a dozen different battlefields took countless hours of life for millions of players, and a flexible map editor made it possible to popularize entire genres: MOBA and Tower Defense.

Due to its incredible depth, the highest quality and a monstrous variety of game elements, Warcraft III brought up generations of gamers and spawned one of the most important conflicts on the Internet — Horde vs. Alliance.

Spore

A great game with a very sad fate. A poor start, broken promises, and some other minor problems cast a big shadow on the game, but over the years, gamers fell in love with it — which, however, did not save the franchise from oblivion. And despite the fact that instead of the promised simulator of life in a vast universe, players received a collection of funny mini-games with a very cool editor, this still does not take away the title of a unique game from Spore.

Yes, a lot of things that were promised didn’t make it to release, and some stages in it are frankly boring. But for some reason, many people forget that in the game, which was released more than 10 years ago, there was a fully implemented simulation of not just a pack of animals or a tribe of funny monsters — Spore imitated the entire process of evolution. Personally, it’s still hard for me to realize this, although I played the game three times.

The Spore gem is her editor for everything from animals to spaceships. It is flexible, easy to learn and very fun: as soon as you add an extra limb to your protégé, he will immediately begin to examine it and, what is most incredible, correctly use it during the game — no matter where you put this hand to him. What can I say, the game can be played with a worm, which has nothing but a mouth and an eye.

Whatever monster you create, whatever empire you build, it immediately enters the game. Let’s say you created a race of fishmen for fun and saved it in your collection to show your friends. And as a result, the game itself, without any additional settings and commands, populates these same fishmen in your game world as soon as you save them. And you can interact with them, communicate, make friends and fight! All in all, Spore is an entire pocket universe that you use as a sandbox for fun. And it’s really fun.

Leonid Moyzhes

King of Dragon Pass

This game is called a strategy game, but it would be more correct to say “decision making simulator”. The player controls a tribe of barbarians in the fictional universe of Glorant. He resolves the problems that arise before his people, organizes campaigns and raids, trades with neighboring tribes, builds sanctuaries for the gods and builds relationships with various strange races.

The game is unique in how sensitive it is to the player’s choices: individual decisions lead to new and new tasks, the image of your village changes greatly depending on the decisions made, and so on. In addition, the game makes you really feel like how its universe works. For example, in order to receive the blessing of the local gods, the player must perform rituals in their honor, during which he must demonstrate knowledge of the fictional myths of Gloranta. In a word, a very responsive game.

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

Elder Scrolls 3 has many advantages and many disadvantages. But what really makes it unique is how well the universe is built there. On the one hand, Vvardenfell is completely different from our world and the “high fantasy” inspired by it. Own architectural styles, own religion, own cooking, own art, own materials for clothing and weapons.

But at the same time, the developers were able to convincingly show exactly how this fictional society works, why the rich people are rich there, what the peasants do, where the food comes from, what makes the Temple of the Tribunal popular and why it breeds heresies. Unfortunately, neither before nor since has any other AAA-RPG shown such attention to detail in these matters.

Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri

This game came out between the second and third «Civilizations» and was designed to answer the question: «what will happen if the flight to Alpha Centauri, which ends many games, is crowned with success. » In many ways, the game is similar to a regular civilization with gathering resources, building settlements, and developing your faction. But the developers have improved a number of mechanics compared to the second part. For example, the player chooses not a specific new discovery, but the general direction of research, diplomacy has additional options, units can be customized based on the discoveries made.

Why did most of these innovations never make it into Meyer’s subsequent games? Finally, the game is simply very stylish, both visually and at the level of text, with which the developers illustrate the essence of new discoveries and solutions.

Danil Svechkov

Duke Nukem 3D

A first-person shooter from an era when sprite monsters were considered bad manners. A cult game about the once iconic character — Duke Nukem, a guy with the appearance of Dolph Lundgren in his best years, who was engaged only in rescuing girls from alien invaders and drenching caustic witticisms.

For the genre, it is important for a non-standard approach to weapons, for example. I can’t think of another game before Duke Nukem 3D where you could shrink your opponent to the size of a rat and stomp him with a boot. Or freeze it with an ice cannon and smash it into a thousand small pieces with a kick. And here you can give money to strippers. It doesn’t affect anything, but it’s cool, the youth liked it.

Space Quest V: The Next Mutation

A classic mouse-controlled quest from the era when large pixels were considered a necessary evil, not a retro gimmick. The protagonist, space cleaner Roger Wilko, due to a technical error in the academy’s computer, passes the exam with excellent marks and gets a spaceship cleaner at his disposal. Further — pure Star Trek, if the script for it was written by the authors of Futurama.

We fly from planet to planet, get into trouble with killer robots and mutants, and are amazed at how many beings and forces in the universe want to destroy the unremarkable janitor Roger Wilko. A classic, in a word, and the best game in the series. Neither the previous four parts, nor the subsequent sixth did not personally produce such a wow effect on me as Space Quest 5.

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura

Fallout 2, but about steampunk and magic. This is perhaps the definitive description.

One of the most advanced isometric RPGs in the world. Rich lore, deep characters, long dialogues with a lot of answer options and, of course, a character development system that really affects the passage.

If at the start, for example, you make a character with high strength but low intelligence, then all characters will treat your hero as mentally retarded, and you can only answer with phrases like “Mmm? Ooo? I do not understand you?». If you play a woman, then you can get a job as a courtesan in a brothel. If a half-orc, then everyone will consider you a second-class creature. Such nuances in Arcanum are a wagon and a small cart.

Anya Tosca

Papers, Please

Lucas Pope has already proved twice that it is possible to make a game about parsing documents exciting, touching and highly social. His Papers, Please is an example of out-of-the-box and bold game design, and a must-play for anyone who enjoys games with complex moral choices.

On the one hand, Papers, Please is essentially a border guard simulator in a totalitarian state — a game with constantly repetitive gameplay that is easy enough to get tired of. Day after day, the hero sorts out the documents, and the faces of minimalistically drawn people slowly become indistinguishable from each other. On the other hand, Papers, Please constantly throws up new tasks for the player: almost every day, the analysis of documents becomes more complicated, and the hero faces various life difficulties.

The repetitive gameplay serves the game only: combined with a powerful emotional story, it shows that a tragedy for one person is just a routine for another. In Papers, Please, the gameplay doesn’t feel conventional or secondary; it’s tightly woven into the narrative and helps to unfold it.

The Path

Tale of Tales are the pioneers of the walking simulation genre, proving that the almost complete absence of gameplay does not make the work empty, and that the duration of the gameplay does not affect the quality of the product and the completeness of the game’s plot. In their free interpretation of the story of the red riding hood, the Belgian developers violated all the unwritten canons of game design, making it as «incomprehensible» as possible for the average player.

There is only one task in The Path: to get to Grandma’s house without turning off the direct path. But for the unquestioning implementation of the instructions, the player will be rewarded only with a notification that he failed the task. To start a real game, you need to break the rules and turn into the forest. From this point on, The Path no longer gives any instructions, which creates the feeling that it «broke», and the player seemed to be in some kind of secret location that he should not have seen.

The Path easily sacrifices player convenience in order to better reveal the characters. The heroines here walk and run at different speeds, and some are slow, but each has its own running animation that suits her character. Separately, the moment where the girls go very slowly to the grandmother’s house is remembered. This scene builds up suspense and is reminiscent of going down a very long staircase in Silent Hill 2.

Even if we ignore The Path’s importance for the gaming industry as one of the first successful walking simulators, it is worth playing if only because it is an unusual horror game with a unique visual style and amazing sound design. Music by Jarboe and Kris Force makes the game really creepy.

In addition, The Path remains one of the few games today that is entirely dedicated to the theme of female maturation. Each of the heroines is a person with their own childhood or teenage problems. The developers treated their characters with great trepidation and even created a livejournal diary for each of them.

Braid

A successor to and parody of old side-scrollers like Super Mario Bros., Braid is a must-see as one of the most significant indie games of the 2000s.

First and foremost, Braid is an inventive 2D platformer with a unique time rewinding mechanic that instantly transforms the game from a banal side-scroller into a piece of game design. The gameplay of Braid is closely tied to a seemingly straightforward, but in fact quite ambiguous plot.

But in addition to all its merits, Braid gave fame to its creator Jonathan Blow — one of the brightest figures in the gaming industry. After the release of the incredibly successful Braid, Blow opened up the opportunity to speak publicly not only about the game and its many interpretations, but also about the gaming industry as a whole. His fresh and highly critical view of the work of his colleagues has shaken up the industry as much as Braid itself.

Semyon Kostin

Xenogears

If you’ve played at least 20 JRPGs, then you already know the three main sins of this genre — it’s creepy grind, simple dialogue and naive plots, often designed for teenagers. Another rescue of the world from a stereotyped evil demon, the search for mysterious artifacts, as well as boring talk about eternal love and true friendship.

Twenty years have passed since the release of Xenogears, and still no game has been released that can compete with the deep script from Tetsuya Takahashi. There is no other such JRPG, you can not look for it. No Final Fantasy even came close to the level of the Xenogears scenario. In terms of scale and detail, it can only be compared with Planescape: Torment, Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, and the Legend of the Galactic Heroes anime.

Some themes of Xenogears echo the Neon Genesis Evangelion anime series. The game is imbued with the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, the works of Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud. Xenogears also contains numerous allusions to Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Judaism (mostly Kabbalah), and other religious movements.

Epic intro video

And the most amazing thing is that all this is presented in a very casual manner. There are huge humanoid robots, talking animals, mutants and the typical design from the anime of the late nineties. This may turn some players off, but because of its well-developed story, Xenogears will appeal to even those who can’t stomach anime and JRPGs.

Shenmue I & II

I once heard the phrase that Shenmue is the «Casablanca» of the video game world. Like, the game is certainly a cult, but shamelessly outdated, and now it is better to perceive it as a museum piece. Another popular opinion is that Shenmue influenced the open world in video games and introduced interesting mechanics for its exploration, but today it does not strike as it struck 18 years ago.

I do not agree with such statements. Now, both Shenmue titles are a must-see for their subtle oriental aesthetic and meticulous attention to detail. Compared to modern projects, today’s games often lack interactivity.

In Shenmue many things can be touched, opened, fiddled with, closed and put back in their original place. There are few closed doors in the game, many locations are allowed to enter and explore, even taking into account the fact that they are not useful. Everything here works for atmosphere and immersion. You can’t eat in Shenmue, but you can go to any restaurant, chat with its owner and visitors. For each minor NPC, over a hundred simple lines and responses are recorded. An almost tangible and believable world to the smallest detail — that’s what many modern projects lack.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Symphony of the Night is the best Metroidvania game and the best entry in the Castlevania series. The idea of ​​a platformer with RPG elements in a large open world is a masterpiece. The game simply has no significant flaws. Here is the gameplay for at least 15 hours, and a large open world in the form of two incarnations of Dracula’s giant castle.

This is exactly the beauty of the Metroidvania genre. The player explores both castles, communicates with the characters, and gradually unlocks new abilities to enter previously inaccessible locations.