230 Premium: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl

The Zone is a strange place with wondrous promises. It's full of atmosphere and lead, as bands of Stalkers and mutants fight over its strange artifacts, hoping they don't get torn apart by pockets of anomalous physics. Loosely based off of a famous Russian novel and film, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl caps off our Desperation month. Though you quickly get over the resource curve and find your Zone-legs, it remains a demanding shooter throughout... until it gets too demanding, but you probably expected that from a PC game of this vintage.