Ive been without a gaming PC since before 2007. Since then the vast majority of my gaming has been on consoles with some minor PC games my laptop can handle (WoW runs less than 5fp/s i higher end dungeon content for example and I was playing the original Kotor at low settings and bad framerates) so I have played most of the "big" games but the PC has always had its own special breed of games. I have played a lot of the good PC games as console versions, like Battlefield 3 or Left 4 Dead, but that leaves a lot of PC only games I missed.

So I ask you what are the Quintessential PC games to play? What games are so much the better on PC or only exist on PC that I need to play. Ill start the list:

1 - Team Fortress 2

Though there is a console version of this class-based shooter its evolved on PC to be almost a diffrent game. Expanding on the original concept by adding extra modes, weapons and loot drops. The PC version allows for the developers to tweak, upgrade and add to this game at such a ferocious pace, completely for free, that it renders the console versions obselete.

So what would you guys say are the essential PC titles?

STALKER SoC and CoP

Infinity Engine games, especially Planescape: Torment and Baldur's Gate 2.

Doom.

Is it on other platforms? Yes. Is it on every platform? Possibly, yes. But if I had to pick one game in gaming's long history that gave the personal computer notoriety as a gaming platform, Doom would be it.

I have been exposed to PC gaming since I was a weee little lad. My best friend and I would spend HOURS playing Carmen san diego on his good old Tandy.

Also, Aliens online.

Though its nice to list the old great games, ive still yet to play Baulders Gate and I must get to it, like I said in the original post i was looking for games from the past 4/5 years. I have been out of PC games for about that long and I want to know what I missed.

@MrKlorox said:

STALKER SoC and CoP

Those. Also I would recommend Metro 2033 and Cryostasis. Probably even the bethesda games just because of mods.

@MrKlorox said:

STALKER SoC and CoP

YES!, these games are one of the best first person shooting I have ever played along with the original Farcry

System Shock and System Shock 2.

Sid Meier's Civilization V and StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty if you're a strategy fan.

Do you want only reasonably modern games, or can I pull from my extensive back-catalogue?

• Sanctum
• Nuclear Dawn
• Company of Heroes and the Expansions
• Warhammer 40k Dawn of War and Dawn of War 2 plus expansions
• Nexus: The Jupiter Incident
• Evil Genius
• Civilization V
• Shogun 2: Total War
• Frozen Synapse
• Magicka
• Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale
• Dragon Age: Origins

Some of them are older games that not enough people know of, more people need to know about Evil Genius, and a couple may have had console versions, I only follow the PC release so I can't say for certain on a couple, but all of those are great on PC.

Witcher I & II. Metro 2033 is pretty sweet too, but if you can wait for a sale, it drops to mere pennies on Steam every time.

@mlarrabee said:

System Shock and System Shock 2.

Sid Meier's Civilization V and StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty if you're a strategy fan.

Do you want only reasonably modern games, or can I pull from my extensive back-catalogue?

Theres a lot of older games I plan to get back to but I can play them on my crappy laptop, anything that plays on that laptop I plan to ignore for 6 months since I just spend ~£500 on a PC.

Thief: Dark Project and Thief II: The Metal Age, Curse of Monkey Island, F.E.A.R., Grim Fandango, Fallout and Fallout 2.

These lists go absolutely no-where.  You have to make some rules for posting, otherwise you'd get 100 people posting their 2000 games of all genres and generations.. 
  
For example:
@crusader8463 said:

• Sanctum
• Nuclear Dawn
• Company of Heroes and the Expansions
• Warhammer 40k Dawn of War and Dawn of War 2 plus expansions
• Nexus: The Jupiter Incident
• Evil Genius
• Civilization V
• Shogun 2: Total War
• Frozen Synapse
• Magicka
• Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale
• Dragon Age: Origins

@AhmadMetallic said:

These lists go absolutely no-where. You have to make some rules for posting, otherwise you'd get 100 people posting their 2000 games of all genres and generations..

In the original post I asked for games in the past 4 years that only existed on PC (or were made significantly better on PC like TF2). Most people didnt notice that I asked for recent games. The list crusader posted seems to be the best list since it tends to recent games (excluding two, one of which he made an exception for) and only one of the games have a console counterpart but from what ive heard (especially as a criticism for DA2) its made a lot better on PC by being able to pull the camera out and aim using the mouse.

So far this thread has been helpful in reminding of games I forgot about. I definately plan to play the Stalker games, I hear it looks great stuffed with mods, and Metro 2033 and Cryostasis. All three of them seem like game styles you dont really get on consoles, though Metro 2033 was on consoles I hear its near unplayable in sections, that id really like to get to.

Dawn of War 2 and Total War seem like great games to get to. The gameplay dosent seem to exist on consoles and the notion that Total War is incredibly hard on PC's is exciting.

I got back into PC gaming late in 2010 and haven't regretted it for a second. The games I've spent the most time with and consider to be quintessential PC games are:

Strategy games: Civilisation 5, Total War: Shogun 2, The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom

RPGs: Dragon Age: Origins, The Witcher, Mount&Blade: Warband

Shooters: Team Fortress 2, Crysis, Left 4 Dead 2

@Atlas said:

I got back into PC gaming late in 2010 and haven't regretted it for a second. The games I've spent the most time with and consider to be quintessential PC games are:Mount&Blade: Warband

I had completely forgotten about Mount and Blade. I only know about it from watching the Quick Looks with Dave but it looks crazy! Id likely only play Mutiplayer but I think I can have a lot of fun there.

I'm assuming dude is only asking for games from 2007 to now and not all time. Here's a list of games you should play, if you're interested in, that came out from Jan 2007 to Jan 2012 (or, you know, you could just say fuck it and play the games that are coming out):

• STALKER games
• The Witcher games
• Crysis games
• Sims 3
• Metro 2033
• Dragon Age Origins
• Amnesia
• Starcraft II
• Gemini Rue
• Terraria & Minecraft
• Machinarium
• The Binding of Isaac
• Trackmania 2