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You don’t need to learn to avoid getting shot if you can shrug off a bullet. You don’t need to learn to fight asymmetrically if you’ve got more tanks than the other guy. You don’t need to learn to dogfight when you’ve got Sidewinders. You don’t need to learn how to drive if you can bounce off concrete walls. Some games take you on a lovely, fun-filled tour around a magical land where your character romps and stomps at will, fearing nothing, for he is the alpha and omega and there’s always a health pack in the next crate.
Other games take you into their world, give you a character and then they kill that character. They kill him over, and over again. They kill him so often and so ruthlessly that you want to throw the game away in disgust, but you can’t, because it’s fun. So you get better. You get sharp, you get steely eyed, you think that extra move ahead, and you become a better player.
This list comprises the best of these games: ten brilliant PC games that are so hard they should have come with a hair loss warning. Complete all ten and yours is the world and all that’s in it, and what’s more you’ll be a man, my son. Even if you were female when you started playing. Make of that what you will.
