Custom PC's ten hardest games ever

Homeworld 2 can attain 'evil' proportions, yes :p. It calculates the enemies starting fleet based on your starting fleet. So if you are so unlucky to start with 2 battlecruisers (your limit), you are a bit surprised when you see your enemies 6 BC's just floating towards you.

Still, I love homeworld :)

I think Riven should be on that list. Civilization IV in Deity mode is also pretty insane, with AI civs getting Space Conquest victories in the 16th century :)

Operation Flashpoint caused me to burst blood vessels in my retina. You could spend 20 minutes inching your squad to a town, poke your head over a hill and POP! get nailed. It gave you two whole save points per mission if I remember correctly. Ugh..

As far as shooters go, I thought Operation Flashpoint was a real bitch later on in the game. There was one particular mission that stuck in my head, Lone Wolf or something. Stranded alone in a forest with absolutely ridiculous numbers of enemies all around, armed with naught but an AK74 and rocket launcher.

System Shock 2 wasn't all that difficult - it was challenging and ammo conservation was a big part, but perhaps the biggest challenge was the constant respawns. Meant you had to keep moving or slowly run out of ammo.

I'm late for a good subject, that sucks. Okay, where to start?

First, regarding Grand Theft Auto on the list, maybe (since this is a PC list) the controls were bad enough to make the game hard on the PC? That's just a guess, since I haven't played the game.

The only thing that makes Alien vs. Predator hard is the save system (or lack thereof). If you were to compare it to Jedi Knight for example, Jedi Knight is only easier because you can save anywhere, otherwise it's about 10 times harder. But it's okay, because Alien vs. Predator was one of my favorites.

I wonder how they would rank endless games (like old-school arcade games) or MMOs. Would you consider EverQuest hard? Sort of, since it's hard not to die, but then dying doesn't make you "lose" the game, so I don't know how you'd compare them.

Also, what about games with multiple difficulty levels? Are we assuming the player is playing on the hardest level or not? Because Civilization was an easy game, but pretty much impossible on the hardest level (emporer?).

Finally, did anyone else think that the WarCraft 2: Beyond the Dark Portal missions were damn near impossible? Or is that just me being bad at RTS games?

When I was young, I found a couple of the puzzles in "The 7th Guest" to be damn-near impossible. I haven't tried them in over a decade, but that game always seems to stick in my mind as one of the hardest I ever played.

System Shock 2 was tough as well- I never got through the whole thing.

Anam: That's precisely the puzzle I'm thinking about! Glad to hear that someone else felt the same way.

this list is full of crap none of those games are hard. also, i own that family feud game pictured lol

If those are the hardest PC games of all time, that list has made me realize how tame PC games are.

This isn't even close.

How can Descent 2 and X-Com 2: Terror From the Deep be not on this list?

Dune 2000! That game was a bitch!

NetHack. People play this game for years without ever beating it.

I still have Syndicate box at home. Damn, both hard and fun. X-com UFO defense was challenging but the sequel under water was even harder. Without a walkthrough, Lucasarts the Dig was insane, no idea what to do half the time. The later level (around Pluto) in Descent were hard as well. The first Rainbow Six was a great challenge. With the exception of Homeworld 2, which after that radiation level I gave up, all current PC games have very little challenge to me.

Seriously? If those are the hardest, then I laugh at them!

Riven: The Sequel to Myst from Cyan. I was immensely pleased with myself when I finished it. My best friend and I spent an entire Summer indoors with the curtains drawn because of this game. We wandered around endlessly taking notes and drawing diagrams in a sketchbook and trying to understand the Myst Universe's tightly woven story. It was pretty hard, but a walk in the park compared to the *epic* Gargoyles Quest on the GameBoy. I've found classic titles to be a hell of a lot more of a challenge than modern day stuff like the GTA series and FarCry.