Since we’re apparently not mentioning non-PC stuff at all, I don’t have too much to say here (I grew up with shareware DOS games, most of which the 2014 me can clearly see are garbage, then had a huge console/handheld/emulation-only gap for several years due to having a series of crappy PCs and being a teenager with no money), but the later Commander Keen games (4-6) hold up surprisingly well.
Yeah, I agree with pretty much everything already posted here. In general, I will continue to play whatever was the best game in a genre/setting, even if it’s old and clunky. For example, Freespace 2 still holds the space sim crown, although I do have a bit of a hankering to go back and see if I can get some version of TIE Fighter running again.
All of the Infinity Engine RPGs are excellent, especially if you can find high-res mods. That reminds me, I should really finish Planescape Torment one of these days. Then there’s Arcanum, which I keep thinking I’ll finish, but every time I play I remember why I stopped.
So yeah, my list of replayable classics has a lot of "2"s in it.
Fallout 2
Half-Life 2
Freespace 2
Jedi Knight 2
Star Control 2
Icewind Dale 2
Baldur’s Gate 2
Panzer General 2
Quest for Glory 2
Jagged Alliance 2
No One Lives Forever 2
The Secret of Monkey Island 2
Has anyone mentioned Populous yet?
Most of the older games that immediately came to mind have already been said, so I’ll limit myself to:
Beyond Good & Evil
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
I’d say Populous 2 over the original. Not least because the actual playable area on 1 will be absolutely tiny on a modern screen.
Ghost Recon (including mission packs). The graphics are of course atrocious by modern standards, but not so much as to make the game unplayable and the game itself is still extremely good. The lobby for setting up custom multiplayer (and in particular co-op) missions is still the best I’ve seen. There are tons of mods that add variety of weapons and maps, but they’re not essential.
Rally Speedway from 1983 is still awesome 2player fun.
I never could play the Ghost Recon series because of the lack of a visible gun in front of you. I think it’s the only first person shooters I know of that do that. It’s definitely a very bold choice. That never bothered you Krise? I just couldn’t even give them a chance because of that. That bothered me too much.
Seeing this reminds me that both SWAT 3 and 4 are still worth playing.
Covert Action.
Divine Divinity.
Such a great and funny game. Love the attention to detail, which I hope they’ve brought with them to Divinity Sin.
Age of Wonders (original as long as you play good maps with leaders off)
Heroes of Might and Magic 2
Heroes of Might and Magic 3 + expansions
Thief 1-3 (especially 1 and 2)
Warlords 3: Darklords Rising
Ultima 5 (best plot of all the Ultimas I played, which was up to 6)
Freespace 2 (especially with the FSOpen mod)
Master of Orion 1 & 2
Gothic 1 & 2
Oh yeah, did anyone mention Kohan? I played some AG this past Summer and still had a blast.
I just started playing Wizardry 8 having never played a game in that series. It holds up remarkably well and is really freaking cool.
Fallout is a game I played for the first time a few years ago. It held up much better then I had expected. Pretty easy to play with a few moments of annoying directionless-ness to get through, but less then I was expecting.
As for classics I often replay: Chrono Trigger, Civilization IV, and Okami are games I’ve played a bunch, but it’s hard to separate nostalgia from actually holding up on those.
Another +1 for Infinity Engine games.
Pretty much any Civ game still works.
Pretty much any Sim City game except the newest.
Master of Orion 2.
Diablo 2 still holds up.
Starcraft Brood War.
The OP’s said 2005, which means that Half Life 2 falls in there, and that’s just barely showing its age. But I’d also throw in Half Life (1); hard to look at now, but the game-play still rocks.
Alpha Centauri.
- Asteroids
- Ms. Pac Man
- Warlords (Atari 2600)
- Ultima V (1988)
- Unreal (1998)
- Unreal Tournament (1999)
- Tetris (1987)
- Morrowind (2002) - mods help a lot
I’m sure there are more; this is just all I can think of at the moment.
Planescape: Torment (1999)
Fallout (1997)
Doom (1993)
Duke 3D (1996)
Blood (1997)
Thief: The Dark Project (1998)
Anachronox (2001)
It’s sad that Magic & Mayhem (also released as Duel: The Mage Wars) isn’t available for download on Steam or GOG. With all the Gollup love directed at X-Com, it would be great to have this around again.
System Shocks 1 and 2.
The Thief games.
Fallout 1 and 2
Morrowind
All of the Infinity Engine games
Really most “classic” RPGs after the mid to late 80s. (Before a certain point they’re just so primitive in gameplay and so light on narrative that it’s not worth going back.)