30 years of PC games: 30 years in 30 games – 2016 to 2018

One should celebrate the festivals as they come, so let’s stick to it: PC Games is 30 years old and most of us in the editorial team have been on board as readers for years, some even since the first issue 10/92 . Accordingly, we want to extensively celebrate these 30 years of gaming history in this series of articles. We take a journey through all 30 years, from the beginning of the magazine to today, with a focus on what really matters: the games. Therefore, every editor grabbed the years with which he associates special memories – the first game ever, discovering love for the genre, first attempts at online or multiplayer, the first contact with the favorite series. It continues with the ninth part of “30 years in 30 games”, which covers the years 2016 to 2018. Have fun browsing!

You are also very welcome to enter our big 30th anniversary competition, which we are holding in cooperation with Alternate! You can win complete PCs, gaming chairs, SSDs, headsets and much more!

The previous parts of “30 years in 30 games” can be found here:

2016: An indie king, a missing cronie and a glorious farewell

By Maci Naeem-Cheema

The most important titles of the year

• The Witcher 3: Blood & Wine
• Forza Horizon 3
• over watch
• XCOM 2
• Dark Souls 3
• titan fall 2
• civilization 6
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
• hit man
• doom
• Tom Clancy’s The Division
• Grim Dawn
• Stardew Valley
• dishonored 2
• Inside
• Factorio
• Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun

When I think of 2016, three gaming gems immediately come to mind: First, it would be one of the best indie titles out there. Developed by Playdead, Inside combines a smooth gameplay mix of adventure and jump-and-run elements with an outstanding, bizarre and overwhelming story.

A little boy on everyone’s lips: Inside triggered a huge hype and is considered a masterpiece of indie game development.

Source: PC games



In addition, the Limbo developer uses an artistic and distinctive 3D look, which is composed of gray tones, blur filters and artistic lighting – one of my all-time favorites to this day. Back then, the second title was a friend of the past, believed dead and greatly missed, which was breathed new life thanks to the thriving indie scene.

Of course we’re talking about the “Harvest Moon” clone Stardew Valley, which has far more on the box filled with fruit and vegetables than simply feeding our nostalgia with dusty memories. The third game is…well, less of a full-fledged game, but it does offer at least as many impactful moments and highlights as most full-price titles.

The Witcher 3: Blood & Wine is the last major expansion to the acclaimed witcher adventure and takes us to the vampire-infested Mediterranean province of Toussaint. The grippingly written story of the witcher Geralt, filled with a number of great quests, was told to the end exactly as it deserved – gloriously!

It doesn’t get any better: With Blood & Wine, CD Projekt Red’s Witcher trilogy was brought to an outstanding conclusion.

Source: PC games



But apart from my really big highlights, there was of course much more. Forza Horizon, one of the best Xbox brands of the last ten years, opened up a new league in the fun racer segment with part 3, the varied location Australia and many improvements within the Forza Festival.

The forefathers of the first-person shooter, id Software, also did the honors and thundered such a mesmerizing and bloody heavy metal performance onto the global gaming stage with Doom that even hardcore fans of the 93 original were amazed. And Germany was also able to play a large role in the interactive games arena. So big and so loud that it finally echoed beyond the country’s borders.

Developer Mimimi delivered an impressive real-time tactics game with Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun. A genre that was believed to be dead caused euphoria worldwide – the 1998 model Commandos and a number of fans say thank you.

I would also like to mention two titles that are considered to be of mixed quality, but have personal value for me. For example the action-adventure Recore, which was conceived by Keiji Inafune.