PC/Windows Vista

PC GAEMS FROM 2007 TO 2008

Picture	Title	Genre	Year Released	Description	Where To Buy
	Aquaria	Metroidvania	2007	Massive award-winning indie title created by Spelunky programmer Derek Yu and Crayon Physics Deluxe composer Alec Holowka. Aquaria features huge underwater environments with an emphasis on exploration, challenging-but-not-stupid boss battles and an absolutely phenomenal soundtrack. Before you ask: yes, there is a nude mod. An absolute must-have for any Metroidvania fan.	Steam
	Audiosurf	Rhythm	2008	A block-matching puzzle-type game, where the levels are generated completely from whatever music tracks you choose to play.Fast music gets you quick and hectic stages, while slow music lets you ride easy. Excellent replay value, since unlike other music games, you're only limited by the size of your music collection.Also comes with a set of downloadable music updated regularly if you're a boring person and don't have your own music, and you can scrobble the music you play to last.fm if you're a faggot.	Steam
	Bionic Commando Rearmed	Platformer	2008	A remake of the 1988 classic for Nintendo Entertainment System. Features HD graphics (enjoy your bloom).	Steam
	Bioshock	FPS	2007	The spiritual successor to System Shock (though more on the FPS side of FPS/RPG), set in a failed undersea city. Very atmospheric, can get pretty creepy, and has a pretty decent storyline. Also can be used as a crash course in Objectivism.	Steam
	Cortex Command	Action RTS	2008	A crazy RTS-like-side-scrolling 2-dimensional game in which your objective is to defend your brain by controlling an army of hivemind robots. You manually control a single robot at a time but can freely switch bodies at any moment. Features a campaign (unfinished) and split screen co-op with up to four players, in which you must defend your brain for as long as possible. Also boasts a massive amount of mods which add new weapons and levels. Has an active modding community linked in the main site, but beware, they're the most cancerous forumites you'll meet.	Steam
	Cryostasis	FPS / Survival Horror	2008	You are Alexander Nesterov, a Russian meteorologist, tasked to investigate the North Wind, a nuclear icebraker that has become shipwrecked near the North Pole. It soon becomes clear that he is not alone, as the crew as undergone a strange metamorphosis. Has a really nice atmosphere (especially if you like the feeling of solitude in horror games) and a unique gameplay mechanic known as the Mental Echo. Sometimes you encounter dead crewmen and can change their fate by seeing the last moments of their life and correcting the mistakes that lead to their death, thus changing circumstances in the present, such as unlocking a door.	Steam
	Crysis	FPS	2007	Unfairly maligned game that is actually a lot of fun. The nanosuit gives you multiple ways to advance through each section of the game. Traveling around the island is relatively freeform. Plus this game might still have the best graphics (you just have to turn on the secret "ultra" options in a config file). Used as a benchmark for performance PCs.The Warhead expansion is also well worth it adding more of the same with some extra weapons.	Steam
	Dead Space	TPS	2008	A well-made third person shooter set in space (of all places) fighting space zombies (of all things). Notable for its dismemberment mechanic, where to kill an enemy, you have to cut their limbs off. Also, it has no HUD, instead displaying all relevant information inside the game. Uses some good scare tactics, but misses out on some opportunities it had. Also on 360 and PS3.	Steam
	Elona	Roguelike	2007	Wacky eastern roguelike/fantasy life sim that pretends its from the west. Easier than probably every other roguelike, but offers a shit ton more stuff to do other than dungeon crawl. Also, Shena's ass is the best. Homepage
	Europa Universalis 3	Strategy	2007	A very good game that lets you play as any country in between 1399 and 1820, and unlike other paradox games this one actually has some tutorials in it! You can take little known countries like Ryukyu and make them into giant empires that cover the world, or take giant empires that cover the world and keep it from falling into decay and destruction, like the Timurid empire, or to a lesser extent the Byzantine empire. It is much easier to play than paradoxes other games and you can (after doing the tutorials) jump right in and if you still have any confusion you can just read the EU3 wiki.Oh and make sure to get Europa Universalis 3: Chronicles, otherwise you'll be missing out on ALOT	Steam
	Fallout 3	RPG/FPS	2008	Beginning with your father asking you what gender you are (and the option to change your mind at the age of 19), this sandbox RPG has been described as Bethesda's Oblivion, but with guns. Explore a post-apocalyptic wasteland as the Lone Wanderer after escaping the Vault your father left you to die in. Butthurt optional. Adds Karma to the mix, allowing you to be either a saint or a total asshole who enslaves children and blows up a town. Obtaining the Game of the Year Edition is highly recommended, as there are a number of excellent DLC quests, as well as the Broken Steel expansion, which allows the game to continue after the original ending. Also available on PS3 and 360.As usual, has a HUGE modding scene, which can be abused to dramatically improve your gaming experience, but isn’t for everybody, since you probably will have to read a bunch of stuff in order to not fuck up your game.	Steam
	Fortune Summoners: Secret of the Elemental Stone	RPG	2008	From the localizers of Recettear, created by Lizsoft, recentley trasnlated and put on Steam. Arche, having moved to a new home in the town of Tonkiness, ended up attending the only school in the area. It is the school for children aspiring to be magic users: the Minasa-Ratis Magic School. Despite the innocent appearance of the game, the gameplay itself is quite unforgiving, requires you to think and use what abilities you are given in order to win so button mashing doesn't work. The combat is very fun and you can switch between any of the party members, all have a different set of abilities.	Steam
	Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved	Shoot 'Em Up	2007	Fun and flashy arcade-style shooter with graphics that might just give epileptics something to wave their arms about.	Steam
	King's Bounty: The Legend	RPG / Strategy	2008	Rrrruskie RPG/Strategy hybrid (NOT SRPG). There are stats, classes and items for your hero, but combat plays out like a SRPG with different troops beating the shit out of each other. Good fun.	Steam
	Left 4 Dead	FPS	2008	Co-operative multiplayer FPS involving zombie hordes and an AI "Director" that creates situations intelligently based on the players' conditions and actions. Headshots are superb, and the game can feel wonderfully epic when the numbers of attacking zombies reaches its peak. Casual, but due to being easily accessible for all gamers, lots of unobtrusive hand-holding and non-competitive gameplay make it a great entry point for getting friends and family away from the Wii and into 'real' gaming.	Steam
	Mass Effect	RPG / TPS	2007	You play Commander Shepard in Bioware's first fully voice-acted game. The gameplay is a not-always-polished hybrid of an RPG and a third-person cover shooter, with technological and 'biotic' (psychic) abilities usable by certain classes. The game has a well-structured narrative and draws heavily from 70's/80's sci-fi. Highlights include the detailed lore which paints the Mass Effect universe as particularly hard sci-fi and the wide variety of equipment customization, along with the 'feeling' of an epic space opera. Downsides include the clunky interface which gets cluttered with hundreds of nearly-identical guns, a lack of strong variation in sidequests, and simplified role-playing compared to previous Bioware games. It was Bioware's last game as an independent company, before becoming a subsidiary of EA. Take that as you will. Also available on Xbox 360.	Steam
	Mount & Blade	Action / RPG / Sim	2008	Recently re-released as Warband, with a new faction. Extremely active mod community. Roam around a large world, equipping a small army, and unique companions, to fight for your king- or for yourself. Siege castles and pillage towns, compete in tournaments or charge into battle with as many as 150 or more troops on the battlefield.	Steam
	Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer	RPG	2007	Despite the disappointing original campaign, Neverwinter Nights 2's first expansion pack, Mask of the Betrayer, provides one of the most compelling and intriguing stories since Planescape: Torment. Cursed with an insatiable, spiritual hunger that devours you from within, you must attempt to put an end to your condition, a quest that, depending on your decisions, can propel you to utter damnation or unimaginable power. Thanks to Obsidian's knack for writing, those decisions include a whole host of exciting and believable evil choices that never fall into the usual clichés.	Steam
	The Orange Box	FPS	2007	Comes with 5 games. Team Fortress 2: arguably the most fun of any multiplayer game with cartoonish graphics and game-play filled with constant explosions and hats pure chaos. Goes great with loud music. /v/ has an active server as well.Portal: a game that just about everyone loves involving unique gameplay and a strange plot where you play a sort of lab rat being run through a series of sadistic test chambers by a PMSing computer overlord. The Half-Life 2 games still offer a splendid single player experience after all these years. And all of that for a pretty good price. Although available on consoles, the PC version is highly preferred as there are frequent free updates whereas the 360 version may be receiving updates as paid content and the PS3 version will never be updated.Also available on Xbox 360 and PS3.	Steam
	Overlord	Action / Adventure / Strategy	2007	Take the role of the titular evil Overlord and command a legion of gremlin-like minions to take over the world and defeat seven corrupted heroes. Plays pretty much like the Gamecube game Pikmin, but with more attention towards the action-adventure part. Lots of tongue-in-cheek humor and some good puzzles inbetween looting and pillaging. As for the strategic elements, this game WILL punish you for acting recklessly, specially on the Legendary difficulty: Rushing into battle alone is a sure way to get yourself killed, just like mindless sending minions against large groups of enemies is guaranteed to thin your troops quickly, since it doesn't take long for the game to introduce enemies with special moves that can kill dozens of critters with a single hit, if they are close enough. The expansion, Raising Hell, adds a few new areas and a new endgame that ties the story into Overlord II.	Steam
	Penumbra: Black Plague	Survival Horror / Adventure	2008	Continuing the story, you can expect more of the same mindfucking and puzzles, except now there's no combat, fuckers. Best be learning how to run.	Steam
	Penumbra: Overture	Survival Horror / FPS / Adventure	2007	A FPS set in 2000 where a scientist is led to Greenland in search of his dead father. He falls into a mineshaft where he is only equipped with a flashlight(which runs on batteries) and a glowstick. The game blends a very unique physics element where you must click and drag items to pull them open/closed. Enemies include wolves, giant spiders, giant worms, and humanoid like creatures. Only weapons are a pipe and hammer. Has tons of puzzles.	Steam
	Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale	RPG, Sim	2007	YOU PLAY AS AN ADORABLE LOLI. Your adventurer father has run off and left you in debt. To pay it off, you have to open an item shop for the adventurers of the world to shop in. Manage sales, special orders and the store layout, hire heroes to explore dungeons and find treasure, try to survive against the ever-increasing weekly payments. Deciding which items to sell and which to equip on your heroes is an important factor. A really charming and original game.	Steam
	S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl + Clear Sky + Call of prypat	FPS	2007	A very atmospheric game. Amazing FPS with freedom being the key gameplay element. Explore the forbidden zone scavenging and bartering for weapons and items etc, taking missions, and trying to avoid all the seriously fucked up shit that is going down near Chernobyl. Has some great mods, such as AMK, L.U.R.K and Oblivion Lost, that overhaul the game. Hard as balls. No, don't get Oblivion Lost, it stole features from AMK. The best mods for ShoC currently are LURK, AMK, ZRP, and Complete. The sequels are more of the same as the first but with improved graphics and minor gameplay differences here and there. Play the three of them by the order seen on the title for INFINITE PLEASURE. Now, get out of here, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.	Steam
	Sins of a Solar Empire	RTS	2008	Epic scale RTS. Control one of three factions and try to annihilate your opponents. The map is arranged into a web of specific zones like planets, asteroids, stars etc interconnected by phase lines, in other words routes connecting the said zones. You colonize, upgrade planets; build defenses; manage fleets etc. Shit gets crazy with large maps as you try to strategically place your fleets and defenses. However, could use some more unit diversity. Nonetheless definitely for the seasoned RTS veteran. Note the slow game process (a short game can go for up to 5 hours). Also has space pirates. Recently re-released as Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, which is a stand-alone expansion that enhances and adds much and includes all of the previous expansions along with the original game	Steam
	The Witcher	RPG	2007	One of the best Hack-and-Slash RPGs to come out in recent years. Based off of The Witcher novels, which are recommended to be read before playing this game. Great combo based battle system, and a very well done story make this game well worth playing. Protip: get the Enhanced Edition as it adds tons of fixes, like faster loading, improved script and voice acting, and generally makes the game much better.Also, boobs. NOTE: Enhanced Edition is available as a free patch if you bought this game before the massive update was release.	GOG Steam
	Tomb Raider: Anniversary	Action / Adventure	2007	Great remake of the first Tomb Raider with new areas added, too.	Steam
	X3: Terran Conflict	BIG Space Sim	2008	One of the best space simulators, you fly ships (any ships, from small to capitals), you trade, you fight, you build your own stations ( and empire ) you do missions, you pirate, you hire pilots to do things for you ( like sending them on trading runs ). Learning curve like in dwarf fortress, but its worth it. Note: This game is a bitch to play. Your starting ship is a piece of shit if you play custom games.	Steam