The 32 best PC games revealed

When it comes to gaming, the PC beats any console hands-down. We've put together a list of 32 must-have PC games.

28: Grim Fandango

As the last great adventure game of LucasArts' golden age, Grim Fandango commands a slice of our pastime's history. The brainchild of Tim Schafer, it told the noir story of Manny Calavera, a skeletal travel agent in the Land of the Dead. Aside from being among the first adventure games to venture into 3D space, Grim didn't innovate so much as it polished and perfected the genre's gameplay. Its writing was superb, its visual style was exquisite, and its presentation was nothing short of masterful. Although Escape from Monkey Island came out two years later and was a great game in its own right, Grim Fandango was unquestionably the pinnacle work of adventure gaming's greatest developer.

27: Deus Ex

For its conspiracy-ridden story and awesome, diverging plot, it's been labelled a masterpiece. For its pervasive RPG elements and first-person immersion, it's been heralded as an eternal classic. It's won universal acclaim and been named among the best games of all time over and over again. It doesn't matter if you hate shooters or can't abide RPGs. You simply must play Deux Ex anyways. There are too few games in the world that can capture your imagination and unravel it across a narrative like this to risk missing it.

26: Command and Conquer: Red Alert

Well, Hell March, for one. That was a freaking amazing theme song. There was certainly a lot to love about Red Alert besides Hell March - Tanya, tank rushes, and Tesla coils, to name a few. But the game's title track oozed a style and tone that permeated every level, and it was that style that won our hearts. More so than the Tiberian series and even Red Alert 2, the original Red Alert was simple strategic pleasure. And to top it all off, you got to watch Albert Einstein screw over the entire world by killing Adolf Hitler. C&C's First Decade compilation is worth getting for this game alone.

25: Half-Life

Strange as it may seem, until Half-Life came along no one had thought to just let a story unfold around you as you played a shooter. It was new and different and somehow refreshing to spend the first minutes of the game just standing in a train car, watching a world pass you by. It was the first time we'd seen narrative devices such as foreshadowing used to such effect, and yet Half-Life itself foreshadowed a new era of FPS gaming. There's never been a more ridiculous ending to a game than a giant floating feotus trying to kill you, but it's hard to care. Half-Life gave us the crowbar, the G-Man, and Team Fortress Classic. We'll cut it some slack.

NEXT PAGE: Indigo Prophecy and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow

1. The games no PC owner should be without
2. Grim Fandango and Deus Ex
3. Indigo Prophecy and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow
4. Fallout 2 and Supreme Commander
5. Battlefield 2 and The Longest Journey
6. Sins of a Solar Empire and Diablo II
7. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Starcraft
8. Our must-have PC game

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