system-shock posts

A while back Irrational Games asked people to call in and give their guesses about the next game that the folks behind the original BioShock are working on. Today a new episode of Irrational's official podcast had the best of the fan's guesses (we really liked the Myst Babies for the Nintendo DS guess).

Then the podcast turned serious as the podcast confirmed that a GC trailer for the unannounced game will be shown on Thursday, August 12. That's the day after a planned press event will be held in New York City to reveal the game to the media for the first time. The podcast then talked to a number of Irrational team members about how excited they are that they will soon be able to talk about what they have been working on for the past few years. Stay for the full podcast to here one of the fan's suggestions of a rather ... interesting ... ideal for a game.

Sometimes you just need to sit down, slide a floppy into your A: drive, and enjoy gaming retro style. We know this all too well! That's why we have a list of the best and brightest from days long gone. These are some of our favorite games of all time, and we're sure that you'll love them as much as we do, if not more. Welcome to Boot Disk, and enjoy the retro ride!

If you are an avid PC gamer, chances are you have played the 2007 underwater epic BioShock. If you are an avid, ancient gamer, though, you probably have more fond memories of its spiritual predecessor, the incomparable and influential System Shock 2. Whether or not you are old enough to remember the first game makes no difference, as System Shock 2 stands on its own, explains all of the backstory you need, and innovates in ways that the FPS genre rarely saw. Its critical (although not commercial) success paved the way for other hybrid games like Deus Ex and the aforementioned BioShock. And while the graphics certainly haven't aged perfectly, the gameplay is as robust as ever, and serves to inspire games for generations to come.

There have been thousands of PC games released in the past few decades but let's be honest: Most of them are not that original. Oh sure, some are professionally made and even entertaining to play but in the end very few bring anything new to the table.

There are some games, however, that attempt to break the envelope of normal gameplay and take things in new directions. Sometimes these games are big hits. Other times the ideas are used and refined by other titles even if the original game wasn't a sales success. These titles influenced many other titles since their original release.

Big Download has decided to give our picks for the top 20 most influential PC games of all time. These selections are not necessarily the best selling games ever made or even the best from a developer's point of view. However they all have elements that were original and/or popular enough to see their designs used in many other games. We are counting down from 20 to 11 today. Be here on Thursday when we reveal our selections for the top 10.

Click on the image above to continue reading about the top 20 most influential PC games (20-11)

Wow. It looks like our readers love going back down memory lane to speculate on bringing back some of their favorite PC game franchises. We have put up not one but two such installments this week and they have been some of our most popular features we have posted on our site.

The nice thing is that there are still a number of great franchises that we would like to see come back and we think you might agree as well. So let's head back to the Wayback machine to see what other PC games would be good for an eventual comeback. Among our choices this time are a sci-fi multiplayer shooter, a medieval sneaker game and a classic adventure title.

Click on the image above to read more on another 10 PC games that need a comeback