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We have once again updated our list of the best free PC games you can play right now. It's a feast of free downloads and high-quality browser games. Towards the end you'll also find a section dedicated to good free-to-play computer games. These are great games that contain microtransactions we judge to be fair and reasonable value for money.

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Here's a quick guide to how this list is categorized.

In classics you will find great old PC games that once came on disks (or discs) and have since been released as free downloads. In exploration you will find some beautiful worlds to explore. In the story section we've stashed some smart, imaginative interactive fiction. Comedy and horror speak for themselves. Replayable games include brilliant roguelikes such as the original Spelunky, and strange and surprising is where almost everything else lives. We've also included a PCG picks section that contains some on-Steam favourites.

Looking for something a little different? Check out our guide to the best free multiplayer browser games, the best free games on Steam, the annual PC Gamer Top 100, and our frequently updated guide to the best PC games to play right now.

Let's start with some legendary free computer games that you can download right now, no strings attached.

THE BEST FREE COMPUTER GAMES TO PLAY RIGHT NOW

Xonotic—If, like me, you long for a break from the battle passes and season ladders that make up today’s online shooters, Xonotic offers a welcome respite. Its server browser promises a wealth of ways to engage in frenetic battle thanks to a vast mix of modes, maps and mutators. Whichever server you pick, Xonotic offers rock solid gunplay and a quick pace that harks back to the speed and style of Quake III Arena. It’s fast, fun, and incredibly easy to pick up and play. If you’re looking for a purer, more competitive arena shooter, check out Warsow, which is also available for free. Get it at the Xonotic site.—Phil Savage

Twisted Insurrection—A standalone Command & Conquer Tiberian sun mod that surpasses the original game with new units and massive campaigns. A must-try for RTS fans, and free now on ModDB.

Zero-K This real-time strategy game, which has earned itself a dedicated cult following, features terrain deformation and battles on a truly massive scale. Reminiscent of games such as Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander, Zero-K sees you commanding a robot army to take control of large maps. Get it at Zero-K —Andy Kelly

David Lynch Teaches Typing—Allow a convincing facsimile of much loved cult film and TV director David Lynch to teach you typing in this amusing typing game that is in no way officially associated with the man himself. Get it on Itch.io.

Outer Wilds—The full release of this planetary exploration game could be one of the best games of 2019. You blast off and investigate a solar system of quirky, hand-crafted planets, each with their own inhabitants and strange perils For now you can still play the alpha version by downloading it from Fig.

House of Abandon—This now exists as a demo for Stories Untold, which is the game this experiment would eventually become. You start out playing a simple text adventure, but inevitably start to get scary.

Spelunky Classic—The paid-for release has lovely updated graphics, but all the elements that make Spelunky great are right here in this original free download. Enjoy a pixelly version of our 2013 GOTY for free on the Spelunky site.

Dwarf Fortress—A terrific story generator about managing dwarf society in a world that can kill them horribly, and hilariously, in moments. One of our favourite games ever and, somehow, still free to download from Bay12Games.

The Dark Mod—Not a mod, but rather a fully featured standalone ode to Thief with a bounty of user-made levels. If you love Thief, this is all the Thief you'll ever need. Get it from The Dark Mod site.

Cyberpet Graveyard—A quirky game that deploys chittering mini pets onto your desktop. Watch them frolic around and click on them for little interludes and scraps of story that contribute to a darker whole. Grab it on Itch.io.

Frog Fractions—Initially a game about a frog catching flies to save apples, Frog Fractions morphs into increasingly surreal and subversive forms. It would spoil things to explain how, but you can experience it for yourself at twinbeard.com.

BEST CLASSIC FREE PC GAMES

Command & Conquer: Red Alert

Link:Cncnet

Westwood’s alternate history spin-off is still a great RTS, and one of a number of classics in the genre available for free. Visit CNCNet and you’ll find downloads of Command & Conquer, Red Alert and Tiberian Sun, all updated to work nicely on modern systems and integrated with the CnCNet multiplayer platform for easy online play. If that isn’t enough to sate your RTS desires, the brilliant Twisted Insurrection—available from the same site—is a total conversion of Tiberian Sun, available standalone. And, for fans of Westwood’s main competitor, Battle.net lets you download StarCraft for free. —Phil Savage

The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall

Link:Daggerfall

The second Elder Scrolls game is a glimpse of Tamriel before its modern incarnations in Oblivion and Skyrim. This absolutely enormous RPG is literally the size of Great Britain, although the primitive 3D visuals haven’t aged terribly well. Still, this is a big old adventure, with a lot of features that would go on to define the series.—Andy Kelly

OPENTTD

Link: OpenTTD

Transport Tycoon was the ultimate dad game. That’s not to say that all dads enjoyed it, or that you had to be a dad in order to play. Rather, it embodied the metaphysical state of mid-’90s suburban dadness in that specific way that only a game about constructing a sprawling transportation empire can achieve.—Phil Savage

StarCraft

Link:Blizzard store

Two decades after it was first released, Blizzard now offers its strategy space opera free of charge. The bundle also brings you the Brood War expansion’s fresh crop of campaigns, tilesets, units and upgrade advancement. One of the longest-serving games on the esports circuit, the pro scene is largely over for StarCraft, but the top players can still make a few bob in the tournaments that remain. That means in addition to being a free game, you could pump up your actions-per-minute and earn an infinite return on your zero investment. PC Gamer: offering sound careers advice since 1993.—Philippa Warr

The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall

Link:Daggerfall official site

Boasting a 63,000 square mile map, Daggerfall is an enormous RPG set in the Breton homeland of High Rock. It features many elements that remain in the Elder Scrolls series today, including guilds, enchanting and a reputation system. It’s not as accessible as Skyrim, but fans will get a kick out of exploring an early version of Tamriel.—Andy Kelly

SimCity

Link:Archive.org

If you want to drown in nostalgia, head here. There you’ll find the Internet Archive’s MS-DOS software library, which offers thousands of DOS games, all playable through your browser. Maxis’s original SimCity is on there, letting you bring housing and commerce to a land of chunky ’80s pixels.—Phil Savage

Tribes 2

Link:TribesNext

Tribes: Ascend dev Hi-Rez has released every Tribes game for free. If you’re after a singleplayer experience, try Irrational’s Tribes: Vengeance. But for frenetic multiplayer, it’s Tribes 2 that you want. The unofficial patch at TribesNext.com will get you up and running.—Phil Savage

Beneath a Steel Sky

Link:GOG

Developed by Revolution, best known for Broken Sword, this dystopian point-and-click adventure was co-created with Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons. It’s an enjoyable adventure, with clever puzzles that make use of the hero’s body-switching robotic sidekick.—Andy Kelly

FreeCiv

Link: FreeCiv site

First released on PC over 20 years ago, this open source turn-based strategy game is heavily inspired by Civilization. Available in 33 languages, running on pretty much every OS under the sun, for no cost at all, it’s no surprise the game has been wildly successful.—Andy Kelly

BEST FREE PC GAMES ABOUT EXPLORATION

These Monsters

Link:These Monsters site

These Monsters offers an intensely colourful art gallery and monster experience. You explore a structure littered with TVs and pictures of beasts. If you’d prefer procedurally generated artists try Secret Habitat and if you’d prefer to be the artist go with Joy Exhibition.—Philippa Warr

Cube Escape Series

Link:Cube Escape

For the past few years, developer Rusty Lake has been rapidly expanding the surreal universe that shares its name. There are the Rusty Lake games – bigger puzzle titles that come with a price tag – and the shorter Cube Escape series, which hurtle the player from one strange locked room to another. They’re basically room escapes, but with a macabre sense of humour, a touch of Lynchian weirdness, and cryptic stories that have inspired much fan debate. It’s an inspired concoction, with challenging puzzles and an absorbing atmosphere. Lynchian stuff is already puzzling, so why not throw some actual puzzles in there too? —Tom Sykes

Bernband

Link:GameJolt

Still images don’t do Bernband justice. In a screenshot it’s blocky and confusing, but in motion it turns into a future city, complete with hovercars and seedy drinking establishments. While you investigate, your arms waggle and your feet clip clop delightfully.—Philippa Warr

Outer Wilds

Link:Fig

Finally released as a great full game, Outer Wilds has been attracting attention for years. It’s already won two IGF awards, including the Seumas McNally Grand Prize. The alpha for this delightful first-person space exploration game drops you into a little solar system that’s stuck in a time loop and leaves you to choose what you do with that time. I remember hopping from planet to planet before discovering that trying to land on the sun was a bad idea. Even though this build is presumably out of step with the main game, it’s replete with little surprises and mysteries to uncover.—Philippa Warr

Off-peak

Link:Steam

Off-Peak is like visiting a scrapbook made from a jazz fusion dream. It’s a strange but brilliant space, furnished with all manner of oddities. There’s the former viola player who now treats his ramen counter as a string section, and the whale which hangs in the main space, dwarfing everything else as you steal pizza slices far below.—Philippa Warr

Orchids to Dusk

Link:itch.io

Pol Clarissou’s contemplative alien landscape experience is more at the meditating end of the exploration spectrum than the clicking end. All you can do is guide your character around the world for a few minutes as your oxygen runs out. Will you head for a distant oasis, or settle down in the sand as you brace yourself for the end?—Philippa Warr

BEST FREE STORY PC GAMES

A Raven Monologue

Link:Steam

I t’ll take you less time to play this textless tale than it will take for me to write here why you should. It’s a tiny storybook about a raven interacting with villagers while a bittersweet song loops. It’s easiest to think of A Raven Monologue as a short, sharp burst of emotion, not a million miles away from one of those pre-movie Pixar shorts in terms of its impact. Mechanically speaking, your only interaction is moving back and forth between the wonderfully illustrated panels, but there’s an ambiguity to the tale which means that puzzling out your own interpretation of events is a significant part of the action.—Philippa Warr

Butterfly Soup

Link:itch.io

I ’m only partway through Butterfly Soup myself but it’s here because of the heartfelt nature of the recommendations that caused me to pick it up. When a game causes people to email me saying that the way it represents Asian-ness and identity is relatable in a way no other piece of media has achieved for them, that’s worth celebrating.—Philippa Warr

Birdland

Link:Birdland site

Birdland is a Twine game which marries a deliciously bizarre series of weird bird dreams at summer camp with a coming-of-age story. You play as Bridget and must attend odd classes by day and navigate bird interrogations by night. These sections intertwine with dream decisions, changing your character stats and options.—Philippa Warr

Galatea

Link: pr-if.org

Emily Short’s interactive fiction game strips out many of the verbs associated with the genre. Instead, the action is centred on a single in-depth conversation. It’s a modern retelling of the Greek myth of the same name, featuring a detailed dialogue system.—Phil Savage

Emily is Away

Link:Steam

Party like it’s the early-’00s in this narrative game set in a chat client. You’ll get to know fellow high school student Emily through snippets of online conversations about life, love and indie rock music. If you enjoy this, paid-for sequel Emily is Away Too is worth checking out.—Phil Savage

BEST FREE COMEDY PC GAMES

Northern Soul

Link:Itch.io

A musical adventure game bursting with jokes. This Yorkshire-set point-and-click game is fully voiced so you can enjoy that regional accent to the fullest. You play a curmudgeon called Steggy who is on a mission to ruin Mandatory Singing Day with a song that will destroy the competition. It's only a few screens large, but it's full of quirky characters and a few lovely tunes.

Dog of Dracula 2

Link:Gamejolt

Set after the condiment prohibition of a now-overthrown tyrant, and with the world now largely jacked into the cyberbahn, Dog of Dracula 2 takes you into the seamy, neon world of Nuevo Tokyo. Follow the tale of a friendship gone awry—of your link to a little pup in a Dracula cape who’s sporting a green mohican and a range of cyber implants. The text spits out lines like, “The neon glow of her e-cig illuminates her rain-stained onesie,” and your orange-suited avatar can peer at USB ramen before entering a dive bar containing pastries of easy virtue. Dog of Dracula 2 dives headfirst into ’90s pop culture references and fantastically daft cyberpunk tropes with nothing less than total commitment.—Philippa Warr

Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden

Link:Tales of Games

Neo New York is reeling from the devastation of a Chaos Dunk. Falsely accused of the crime, former NBA player Charles Barkley is on the run from Michael Jordan. This is the basis for an absurd JRPG that delights in sending up the genre’s tropes.—Phil Savage

Stick Shift

Link: Stick Shift

As creator Robert Yang says, “Stick Shift is an autoerotic night-driving game about pleasuring a gay car.” It’s part of an anthology with Hurt Me Plenty and Succulent, covering eroticism, politics and more. Stick Shift is funny while also offering food for thought.—Philippa Warr

Murder Dog IV: Trial of the Murder Dog

Link: Harmonyzone

The Murder Dog is on trial at the Hague for crimes against humanity. You, the Murder Dog, are definitely guilty, but court proceedings and the in-game legal system mean that there’s still the chance of a not guilty verdict. You can dispute accounts, call witnesses and eat evidence as you try to wiggle out of a death sentence.—Philippa Warr

Icarus Proudbottom's World of Typing Weekly

Link: Holy Wow Studios

There’s something inherently satisfying about typing, even if you’re just copying sentences on your screen as fast as possible—maintaining accuracy to build up a gauge that lets you activate multipliers for points. This arcade tapping is played over a hilarious episodic mystery featuring a robot detective and a spirit owl.—Phil Savage

BEST FREE HORROR PC GAMES

Cry of Fear

Link: Steam

A Half-Life total conversion from 2012, Cry of Fear is impressive for the sheer number of things it tries to do with the aging GoldSrc engine. It doesn’t take place in a series of grey, blocky corridors, for one thing (rather, a grey, blocky city), and it even boasts a basic inventory system. It’s a game about running from spasmodically jerking not-humans as you explore and solve puzzles and generally feel bad about your situation. It’s scary, primarily due to jump scares but also because of its relentless tension. Despite some rough edges, this is an ambitious eight or so hours of quality horror.—Phil Savage

Slender: The Eight Pages

Link:IndieDB

Based on the internet legend of the Slender Man, this horror was catapulted to notoriety by shrieking YouTubers. It involves wandering a dark wood collecting pages, avoiding Slendy, and its claustrophobia makes it genuinely difficult to endure.—Andy Kelly

My Father's Long, Long Legs

Link:Correlated Contents

Michael Lutz weaves a disturbing tale of a father with an obsession for digging the ground beneath the family home. The pacing and tension ensure that you’re gripped until the very end, never quite knowing where it’s leading you.—Philippa Warr

2:22 AM

Link:Umbrella Isle

Created for a contest with the theme Public Access Television, 2:22AM encapsulates that guilt when you’ve stayed up too late and ended up on the odd channels. The world feels weird and there’s a headache building behind your eyes as you dig a grave or fry an egg.—Philippa Warr

House of Abandon

Link:Steam

This story of a person playing a text adventure takes a sinister turn. Originally standalone, it became the first episode of eerie, atmospheric adventure Stories Untold. You can still play it for free by heading to the Steam page and clicking “Download PC Demo”.—Phil Savage

Chyrza

Link:itch.io

Chyrza’s brand of horror is that unsettling strangeness you get with ruined alien desertscapes and mentions of a strange and terrible pyramid. But it’s not just Chyrza. Kitty Horrorshow’s back catalogue thrums with eerie and creepy experiences.—Philippa Warr

BEST FREE REPLAYABLE PC GAMES

Spelunky Classic

Link:Spelunky World

There’s a good chance you know what Spelunky is. The paid-for remake was PC Gamer’s 2013 GOTY and a sequel is in the works. But 2009’s original is still free and worth playing. It’s a dungeon platformer that tasks you with collecting gold and gems as you plunge deeper into a dangerous subterranean world. You’ll die a lot, but as you do you’ll learn to avoid each bat’s awkward approach angle, or to not jump in front of the obvious traps. Then you’ll clear the caves and emerge into a jungle, where you’ll start dying again.—Phil Savage

Dwarf Fortress

Link:Bay 12 Games

This is almost certainly the most ambitious game on this list. Dwarf Fortress can be played as either a management sim or an adventure roguelike, letting you carve out your place in the procedurally generated world, or just explore it. The community-created graphics packs can help you make sense of its interface.—Phil Savage

Hyperrogue

Link:Hyperrogue

While the concept is mildly terrifying, in practice this is one of the more approachable roguelikes, as it streamlines the genre to focus on movement and combat. You’re hopping around a mathematically tricksy sphere here, far bigger than its surface area and encompassing wildly differing geographical regions.—Tom Sykes

HETS

Link: HETS

Spelunky meets Contra in this murderous platform game where you explore one randomly generated level after another. Right away you’ll be grabbed by the impressive lighting effects. But you’ll stick around for the guns, which push you back with their hefty recoil, shake the screen and turn enemies into pixel confetti.—Tom Sykes

The Dark Mod

Link:The Dark Mod

Don’t let the name fool you. While originally a total conversion for Doom 3, The Dark Mod is now a standalone tribute to the Thief games. A healthy community has crafted a library of levels set in a variety of dark towns. From one-off missions to multi-part campaigns, if you’re looking for recommendations, check out our round-up.—Phil Savage

Double Action: Boogaloo

Link:Double Action Boogaloo

Is it enough to just kill your foe? Far better to gun them during a slow-mo dive off a balcony. That’s the joy of Double Action: Boogaloo, an action shooter with acrobatics and bullet time that somehow works as an online deathmatch.

Brogue

Link:Brogue game

A SCII roguelikes have a reputation for being impenetrable. Brogue, despite staying true to the genre, works hard to feel approachable. The controls make navigating its dungeons a breeze, and the elegant shading makes its symbols atmospheric and readable.—Phil Savage

Giraffes Volleyball Championship 2016

Link:itch.io

Taking place in the distant past of 2016, this game allows you, a waggly-legged ruminant, to showcase your staggering ability to head a ball over a net. Or to gaze into the abyss of inadequacy as you fail time and time again. Either way.—Philippa Warr

BEST STRANGE AND SURPRISING FREE PC GAMES

Cyberpet Graveyard

Link:Cyberpet Graveyard

Unleash a gaggle of adorable, squiggly mini-pets on your desktop. Cyberpet Graveyard has a lot of components. There's a text adventure, there are text files containing scraps of lore, and windows where your pets live. Considered together, these elements combine to tell a story about the little creatures bouncing around your computer. Sweet, dark, and funny.

A Museum of Dubious Splendors

Link:Oleomingus

A Museum of Dubious Splendors is both a storybook and exhibition space. It elevates objects by supersizing them, by connecting them to the game’s collection of tales, by putting them in a museum space, by making them beautiful and weird, dangling in space. It’s part of Studio Oleomingus’s bigger project; a narrative experiment called Somewhere. The drip-feed of its facets illuminates a search for the mythical city of Kayamgadh. Studio Oleomingus offers a vibrant world of uncertain fictions and exploration. It might be the most exciting studio in game development right now.—Philippa Warr

Muscle World

Link:Itch.io

Prepare yourself for an unsettling journey into a world of gym people trapped in some sort of gym purgatory. In this RPG you and your competing muscle men have to dangle-walk from vast ceilings, traversing between points of respite where you can recharge your stamina. Other gymgoers will put you down and try to kick you to your death in the infinite darkness below. Can you survive their taunts and master muscle world?

Frog Fractions

Link:Twinbeard

At first, Frog Fractions appears to be an insipid edutainment game about a frog that’s trying to teach you maths. But as you unlock new upgrades, things become surreal, until you finally break out into weirder and more inventive adventures. Just when you think you’ve got a handle on what it actually is, it turns into something new.—Phil Savage

Slither.IO

Link:Slither

Steve Howse’s multiplayer browser game smooshes Snake and Agar.io together. Your task is to grow the longest worm on the server. Outmanoeuvring opponents, especially when they have you caught in their own trails is incredibly satisfying. Turning into pellets when you coast from that success straight into another snake is less so. PW

Skeal

Link: itch.io

Recommending Skeal is a tough job because the absolute best experience is to go in with zero idea of what to expect. To that end, it’s a downhill skiing experience which becomes transcendental the longer you ski and the more reveals you trigger as the jape unfurls.—Philippa Warr

Universal Paperclips

Link:Universal Paperclips

When you start, you have zero paperclips. Creating new ones is laborious, but… well, I won’t ruin the surprise. Like Cookie Clicker, it starts as a game about making a number bigger, but turns into something far more sinister.—Phil Savage

BEST STRANGE AND SURPRISING FREE PC GAMES

Zineth

Link:Zineth

It’s worth digging through the entire Arcane Kids catalogue. Its manifesto—“Make the games you wish to see on the Dreamcast”—informs its anarchic output, and has resulted in such oddities as Bubsy 3D and the unsettling Sonic Dreams Collection. But my favourite remains student project Zineth—a skate-’em-up that pays homage to Jet Set Radio. Traversal feels great, as you jump, grind and wall-run your way to uncontrollable speeds, rewinding time whenever you make a mistake. The memorable soundtrack and abrasive, cel-shaded aesthetic serve to enhance Zineth’s unique sense of style.—Phil Savage

Lost Constellation

Link: itch.io

Tangentially related to Night in the Woods, Lost Constellation is an adventure about an astronomer who journeys through a forest to see ghost of her dead lover. The tone will be familiar to fans of Night in the Woods, as will its mix of warmth and melancholy.—Phil Savage

Sacramento

Link:itch.io

Dziff’s interactive sketchbook leaves you to explore a watercolour world just beyond a little train station. Wander amongst the flamingos or lily pads, or head on over to the big greenhouse and take a peep inside. When the sun sets you’ll be scooted back to the station and sent on your way.—Philippa Warr

Google Doodle

Link:Google Doodle

Google Doodles transform the company’s logo on its search page. Sometimes it’s a still image to highlight a holiday or memorable event, but plenty have interactive elements, becoming games and toys. These seed games into people’s lives in a way that’s different from purposely going to a gaming site. You went to look up a recipe for banana loaf and suddenly you’re solving a Rubik’s cube. Or you wanted to find out what’s so great about yachts and now a cricket minigame has ruined your productivity. These are games as unexpected delights, rather than sought-out distractions.—Philippa Warr

Google Earth VR

Link: Google Earth

While VR is yet to hold my interest, there are a few free experiences worth seeking out. Chief among them is Google Earth VR, which lets you fly across the world, sticking your nose into its satellite maps. It also incorporates Street View—letting you stand in front of a static, 3D image of your house from the comfort of your actual house.—Phil Savage

Twisted Insurrection

Link:Twisted Insurrection

It’s Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun, but better. This is a standalone game that adds new buildings and units, and features completely new campaigns. It’s a treat for fans, taking a lesser-loved entry and turning it into something essential.—Phil Savage

Shootout, Inc

Link:itch.io

This began life as a mashup of Hotline Miami and Superhot called Superhotline Miami—a top-down shooter where time only moves when you do. It inspired its creator to push the concept further, making an original game with a cool, minimalistic art style.—Andy Kelly

Where To Get Free Games For Pc

Coloratura

Link:Made Real Stories

In this award-winning text adventure, you play as a lifeform captured by Blind Ones, (or humans, as we humans would call us). It excels by asking you to take the role of a creature you don’t understand, manipulating creatures it doesn’t understand.—Phil Savage

David Lynch Teaches Typing

Link:itch.io

Featuring a fantastic impression of the director, this is not a game about teaching you typing. It uses its premise to confound you in a number of clever ways, and pays homage to David Lynch’s love of messing around with your head.—Andy Kelly

BEST FREE TO PLAY GAMES

All the games in the list so far have been completely free. The following games are supported by in-game microtransactions or paid-for updates. In this category we have chosen games that offer a lot of entertainment without having to pay anything.

Fortnite Battle Royale

Link:Epic

This phenomenally successful third-person shooter throws 100 players into a map and shrinks the borders of the playable area until only one individual, or team, is victorious. Once you've parachuted in you need to raid buildings and loot chests for weapons. You can also build structures anywhere you like. The best players are able to build and battle at the same time in remarkable shows of dexterity.

Dota 2

Link:Dota 2 site

The sequel to the Defence of the Ancients WarCraft 3 mod is one of the biggest games on Steam. Two teams of five pick from a huge roster of heroes and fight to smash each other's ancients. It's one of the most intense competitive games around, and features a cosmetics-only microtransaction system.

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

Link: Hearthstone site

An outstanding, dangerously moreish digital card game. Regular events and card drops keeps the meta bubbling. The density of the card collection available is daunting but you can keep up with our round-up of the best legendary cards.

Warframe

Link: Warframe site

You play a sci-fi ninja in this third-person co-op action game. Warframe has been quietly growing in popularity as new updates and challenges have been added. The game has even gained massive open world zones in addition to the many, many missions that make up its planet-hopping campaign.

League of Legends

Link:League of Legend site

Two teams of five battle across three lanes in this colourful MOBA. Summoner's Rift provides lengthy, intense competition, but you can also jump into the Howling Abyss for some All Random All Mid action.

Team Fortress 2

Link:Team Fortress 2 site

We gave it a massive score of 96 when it was released in 2011, and that was before loads of new modes and maps were added. It's a team shooter with a timeless Pixar-esque aesthetic. The cosmetics have gone wild in recent years but a close game of payload is still a magnificent thing. The nine distinct classes are varied but beautifully balanced.

World of Tanks

Link:World of Tanks site

This long-running team-based tank combat game successfully adapts traditional FPS modes to a much larger scale. It's much more accessible that traditional tank sims, but the unlock process can be quite a grind, so expect to spend money at some point for premium boosters.

Path of Exile

Link:Path of Exile site

This is a crunchy and detailed Diablo-like with remarkably deep character development and progression systems. It's not the most beautiful action RPG in the world, but it is engaging and rewarding in the long run. The microtransactions aren't too intrusive either, which makes this a must-try for fans of Diablo 2 and its ilk.

EVE Online

Link:EVE Online site

CCP's atmospheric space MMO is one of the best story generators on PC. It dropped the monthly subscription fee a long time ago so if you like space, betrayal, and some of the biggest multiplayer battles ever seen in a game, this is your next download. To access all of the skills you will need to sub at some point, but there's a huge amount of game on offer before you get there.

On this list you'll find the best PC games we're playing right now—recent singleplayer hits, thriving esports, and a few modern classics that would improve any game library. We'll continue to update this list as new games release, removing older favorites and replacing them with our latest obsessions. Rather than an ever-expanding list that reaches deep into the past, we're shooting for a practical answer to the question: 'What new PC game should I get?'

If you're looking for a more comprehensive list which includes our favorite games from the past few decades, check out our yearly Top 100 list or our list of the most important PC games. For an up-to-date look at the year's upcoming games, we've assembled the new games of 2019. For budget options, check out the best free games on Steam and best free browser games.

Need a new system to play these games on? Here's our advice on what kind of gaming PC you should get, or take a look at our best graphics cards roundup to upgrade your GPU.

What to play right now

Auto Chess-style games are the latest craze, with both Valve and Riot quickly releasing their own versions: Dota Underlords on Valve's end, and Teamfight Tactics in the League of Legends launcher. They're both interesting, as is the original Auto Chess mod (a standalone version of which is on the way). Here's a comparison of all three.

We're still loving Mordhau's hard-to-master medieval combat. Meanwhile, Apex Legends remains the best new battle royale game, an all around improvement on what's come before, and it's now entering its second season.

Looking for something a bit slower? Observation is a sci-fi thriller from the creators of Stories Untold, in which you play as a space station's AI.

We're also still playing Sekiro. It's a slight departure from the Souls games, but still feels like a FromSoftware game: challenging and mysterious and strange in its own ways. Check out Tom's Sekiro review for more on why we love it.

Amid Evil also scored high marks recently. If the idea of using planets as grenades and pinning demons to walls with spikes appeals to you, check it out.

More of our favorite recent (and ongoing) games can be found in the list above. Below, we dive a little deeper into the PC Gamer staff's current favorites.

Competitive online games

Apex Legends
Released: 2019 Developer: Respawn OriginOur review

Apex Legends is the best battle royale game available now. The map is fantastic, the 'ping' communication system is something every FPS should have from here on, the guns and movement are great fun (no wallrunning, but sliding down hills feels great), and it's free-to-play with nothing to pay for except cosmetics. It isn't the game we expected from Respawn, but we're glad it's here. Check James' review for more.

Rainbow Six Siege
Released: 2015 Developer: Ubisoft Montreal Humble Store, Steam Our review

Counter-Strike's sexier cousin. Siege might lack the sharp hit detection and purity of CS:GO, but it's a more accessible and modern FPS that rewards clever timing and coordinated teamwork as much as aim. Siege's learning curve is a result of all the stuff (characters, gadgets, elaborate maps, and guns) that's been added since December 2015, but eventually you find yourself picking operators, map spots, and roles that you're comfortable with. Ubisoft continues to support Siege, dropping four major updates per year along with regular fixes.

Overwatch
Released: 2016 Developer: Blizzard Battle.net Our review

With Overwatch's colorful characters and bright, inclusive world, Blizzard brought the world of team-based hero shooters to an entirely new market. Teams of six take the roles of tank, DPS, and healer to battle over objectives, not just who can get the most kills. It's a game that rewards—if not requires—teamwork. And with a growing cast of now 27 heroes to choose from, there's a character to fit just about any play style.

Fortnite Battle Royale
Released: 2017 Developer: Epic Official site Free-to-play Our review

What started as a sterile PUBG imitation has evolved into the Minecraft generation’s arena shooter. Fortnite’s building system rewards good aim and an eye for architecture equally, extending battle royale shootouts from green pastures to impromptu skyscrapers slapped together in a minute. With ridiculously frequent updates from Epic Games that introduce new weapons, traps, tools, and skins, Fortnite is easily worth the price of admission, and even then, worth the time it takes to master such an obtuse, irregular building system.

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds
Released: 2017 Developer: PUBG Corp. Humble Store, Steam Our review

100 murderous hopefuls skydive onto an abandoned island, grab whatever weapons and ammo they can find, and fight to the death. Rinse and repeat. Though the concept wasn't new (PlayerUnknown himself is responsible for multiple battle royale modes and mods), PUBG made the battle royale genre into the phenomenon that it is today. As a third- or first-person shooter, PUBG is more realistic and less arcadey than Fortnite. The joy of it is how it forces players to move and take risks as an ever-shrinking forcefield funnels surviving players toward each other until a winner climbs out of the wreckage. Every instant of every game is a flood of important decisions to make, and any one of them—even a minor one—could lead to your doom.

Rocket League
Released: 2015 Developer: Psyonix Humble Store, Steam Our review

The best and only synthesis of hockey and soccer than you can play with rocket-powered battle cars. Where most esports rely on gunplay or clicky top-down wizardry, Rocket League is all physics and speed. Simply put, you're trying to smash a giant soccer ball into a goal with a car. But the cars can jump, and flip, and fly into the air once you get the hang of it (which will take a while). Even after three years, Rocket League players are still inventing new moves and tricks—if there's a skill ceiling, no one's bumped it yet. It's intimidating and your first matches will probably be rough as you learn to steer and backflip and ride the walls, but since there are so many other new players at any given time, as well as training modes and bot matches, you can still get up to speed even if you're entering the arena late. Note that while you can play Rocket League with a mouse and keyboard, and some good players do, most prefer a controller.

Hearthstone
Released: 2014 Developer: Blizzard Official site

Despite the departure of game director Ben Brode, he of the flannel shirt and megaton laughter, Hearthstone remains in relatively rude health. The game's last two expansions—The Boomsday Project (August 2018) and Rastakhan's Rumble (Devember 2018)—have rightly been criticised for failing to freshen the meta sufficiently, but nonethless it's possible to build a deck with any class and pilot it successfully on the ladder. Those looking to try-hard on a budget should consider Spell Hunter, which is relatively cheap to build, whilst those looking to make instant enemies may prefer the ultra aggressive Odd Paladin, which remains obnoxious despite a recent nerf. For those of you with ladder anxiety, Hearthstone also now includes a rich suite of single-player content in the Solo Adventures section. There you'll find Rumble Run, Puzzle Lab, Monster Hunt and Dungeon Run—plenty of fun, without the pressure of a turn timer.

League of Legends
Released: 2009 Developer: Riot Games Official site

MOBAs are hard, rewarding competitive games because they demand teamwork, quick reaction times, and knowledge of beginning, middle, and endgame phases that vary with the role you play. And if you're going to play one, LoL is the best place to start. League of Legends has had remarkable staying power as one of the most popular games in esports for a couple simple reasons. One, it strikes just the right balance of depth and approachability for a MOBA. A gargantuan roster of heroes means you could spend years learning the ins-and-outs of the game, but mechanically it's less demanding than Dota 2, and more involved than Heroes of the Storm. Two, Riot Games hasn't been afraid to make significant changes to the map, characters, and other systems over the years, so there's always something new to learn.

If you can, play with a team of friends—it's far more fun (and effective) to coordinate on a headset than deal with randoms over text chat. If you bounce off of LoL, Dota 2 is of course extremely popular as well, and both are free-to-play, so give it a shot.

More competitive games

Dota 2
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Mordhau
Dead by Daylight

Battlefield 1 and Battlefield 5
Released: 2016/2018 Developer: DICE

While Battlefield 1 diehards insist that it's the superior game, we recommend both BF1 and BF5. On BF5's side, EA has done away with paid seasons passes, and is releasing all new maps free, plus there's a battle royale mode now.

Meanwhile, though, Battlefield 1 is included with Origin Access (both Basic and Premium) and is pretty cheap otherwise, so if the World War 1 setting appeals to you, it's a low-cost entry into the series.

Here's our Battlefield 1 review, and our Battlefield 5 review.

Singleplayer and co-op shooters

Doom (2016)
Released: 2016 Developer: id Humble Store, Steam Our review

The original Doom—back in 1993—is the most influential shooter of all time. With a pedigree like that, 2016's Doom reboot could have coasted by on the family name, had some fun, and called it a day. Instead, Doom surprised us all by being a spectacular shooter in its own right. More than that, Doom abandoned a lot of the storytelling conventions and cutscenes we've come to associate with modern games: about 30 seconds into the first level, the main character physically throws the plot across the room and shoots a demon in the face. Doom has a singular purpose, and if you're not a gun or a demon's face, it doesn't care to know you.

The remarkable thing about Doom is how eagerly it embraces ridiculous ideas as long as they're fun. Punch a demon until extra ammo pours out? Yes. Infinite stream of high-explosive rockets? Absolutely. The entire game is a crescendo, a heavy metal guitar solo that just gets louder and louder. Speaking of heavy metal, that soundtrack? Phwoar. What a game.

Warhammer: Vermintide 2
Released: 2018 Developer: Fatshark Humble Store, Steam Our review

Like Vermintide 1, Vermintide 2 takes on the format of Valve's classic co-op shooter, Left 4 Dead. Each hero is generally capable but vulnerable on their own. Among the swarms of rats are elite enemies that specialize in ambushing individual players, leaving them helpless until a comrade rescues them. The mutual need for protection makes Vermintide unusually dependent on good teamwork, and sharp spatial awareness and generous instincts are better for survival than perfect aim.

There are five heroes to play, and each has three subclasses and a long list of possible weapons and specialty skills. Every successful mission rewards players with random weapons and loot, and a surprisingly deep crafting system helps players customize their heroes. Random matchmaking to find groups is fine, but Vermintide 2 is a real joy when played with friends, like a corporate team-building exercise with swords and axes.

More shooters

Titanfall 2
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat
Prey
Killing Floor 2
Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus
See our full list of the best FPS games.

Dusk
Released: 2018 Developer:David Szymanski Humble Store, Steam

If you have any nostalgia for DOS-era shooters like Doom and Quake, Dusk has got it all: finding color-coded keys and secret chambers, a metal soundtrack, and high-speed strafing with dual-wielded shotguns while blasting the faces off of demons. An ideal way to spend an afternoon. Check out our Dusk review for more.

Resident Evil 2 (Remake)
Released: 2019 Developer: Capcom Steam Our review

A superb remake of the survival horror classic, with a mix of nostalgia and newness that Andy called 'tense, challenging, and beautiful' in his review.

Action games

Grand Theft Auto 5
Released: 2015 Developer: Rockstar North Humble Store, Steam Our review

GTA 5 runs beautifully on PC, and its open world is still the best of any game, a gorgeous sprawl that replicates everything we associate with Los Angeles: the flat heat, the atmosphere, the fact that the city is so damn big. The campaign is the series' best ever, punctuated by ambitious heist missions involving all three protagonists. It's a lot of fun to spend time in this world.

If you want to take things further, GTA Online is waiting for you with an absolute ton of stuff to do. Not all of it is amazing, but with a few friends, it's great fun to knock through the Online mode's bespoke heists, and owning a business feels pretty cool too. There are plenty of ways to play this game forever, including all of these great mods.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey
Released: 2018 Developer: Ubisoft Montreal Steam Our review

Ubisoft nailed the latest in the Assassin's Creed series, fully embracing the roleplaying genre and retooling its typical open world to-do list into an adventure full of quests worth doing—all set in its grandest world to date.

Dishonored 2
Released: 2016 Developer: Arkane Studios Humble Store, Steam Our review

The best immersive sim around, with sprawling, complicated levels that are wonderful to unpack, as well as a couple of high-concept missions that you'll never forget. It's like Arkane made a sequel based on how much everyone loved Lady Boyle's Last Party in Dishonored—most of the levels here are just as good. The option to play as two characters, with their own version of the story and sets of powers, offers even more replay value.

Crucially, too, Dishonored 2 offers more non-lethal ways to play if you're not a perfect stealth player. Being able to block enemy sword attacks, get them into a chokehold, shove them over then boot them in the face, knocking them out, is the best fun. Likewise, using Emily's domino ability to knock out multiple enemies at once feels incredibly empowering. And that's just one of many ways you can play.

More action games

Far Cry 5
The Evil Within 2
Bayonetta
Ruiner
Check out our list of the best open world games, too.

Hitman 2
Released: 2018 Developer: IO Interactive Steam Our review

Agent 47 has been taking contracts and knocking off targets in games for almost 20 years, but the latest in the series is his best work yet. What's extra great about Hitman 2 is that if you didn't play the previous Hitman reboot (also great), you can purchase upgraded versions of all of its levels. And if you do own 2016's Hitman, you can have those for free. For more on why we love Hitman's latest incarnations, head to our 2018 award for Best Stealth Game.

Action and turn-based RPGs

Nier: Automata
Released: 2017 Developer: Square Enix Humble Store, Steam Our review

This offbeat action RPG focuses on extremely stylish androids who've been sent to Earth to make it safe for humans again by wiping out the dangerous machines that dominate the landscape. But the story isn't as straightforward as that—and not all of the machines you face are brainless automatons. Some of them have hopes, dreams and orgies (!). The story in Automata is surprisingly fantastic, with multiple endings that change your perspective on your characters, and well-written sidequests.

This is one of those games that overreaches slightly, but is better for having done so. As an action game, it's not quite Platinum's best—that mantle still belongs to Bayonetta—but it's still satisfying to batter robots with a big sword in washed out open world environments. A deserved cult hit, even if the game still hasn't been properly patched on PC (there's a fan mod that smooths out a few performance issues).

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Released: 2015 Developer: CD Projekt RED GOG Our review

The Witcher 3 follows Geralt, the world's grumpiest monster-slaying bounty hunter, as he fights and magics his way across a medieval fantasy world. It tells a well-written, clever story, but more importantly, The Witcher 3 is the best open-world RPG you can explore right now (and quite possibly the best there's ever been).

The Witcher 3 is great mostly because it's so full of things to do. It's a huge world chockablock with ghouls, vampires, and wraiths—and the people can be pretty nasty, too. The size and depth of the world gives every quest context, an anchor that feels like it stretches back into history. Investigating a haunted farmhouse, for example, turns up clues about the type of spectre involved. Choosing the right weapon and brewing up a special potion feel like steps in a centuries-old ceremony. The Witcher 3 is a triumph of worldbuilding.

Besides the world, Geralt himself is the star of the show. He's frequently dour and funny and jaded, and he's an appealing character to spend time with. Some of the storylines will mean more to long-time fans of the Witcher books and games, but even without playing the earlier games in the Witcher series, The Witcher 3 is worth several hundred hours of your time.

Divinity: Original Sin 2
Released: 2017 Developer: Larian Studios GOG, Steam Our review

A classic-style isometric RPG that feels completely modern, with four-player co-op, great characters, and super-challenging turn-based combat that makes heavy use of physical interactions: cast a rain spell to put out fires, for instance, or splash oil around to spread them. With big open areas, interlocking quests that can be completed in any order, disguises, status effects, and the freedom to whack any NPC you feel like, it's worth putting up with a little wonkiness (which has been improved with the Definitive Edition update) to experience such a creative, freeform campaign. The writing and roleplaying are also top-notch, giving you a real emotional investment for a campaign that can easily stretch to the 100 hour mark.

OS2 also includes built-in game master tools for running your own adventures, and separate, free mod tools that give you full access to the engine's capabilities and all of the included assets.

Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom
Released: 2018 Developer: Level-5 Humble Store, Steam Our review

One of the prettiest and most ambitious JRPGs on PC, Ni No Kuni 2 follows Evan Pettiwhisker Tildrum, a young half-cat king who sets out to build a peaceful new kingdom—and a new circle of friends—after his rightful crown is stolen from him. Ni No Kuni 2 channels Suikoden and Studio Ghibli, pairing an expansive open world with exciting realtime third-person combat, and grounding them in a satisfying kingdom building sim. Scout new citizens by visiting fantastical far-off kingdoms, earn better gear by tackling secret dungeons and minibosses, then bring everything back home to improve your own kingdom. The kingdom sim is enjoyable in its own right, and every other part of the game benefits from it, from exploration to combat. Ni No Kuni 2 is a cute fairytale wrapped in complex systems that connect in meaningful, interesting ways, and there's not an ounce of fat on it.

More RPGs

Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
Final Fantasy 15
Planescape Torment: Enhanced Edition
Battle Brothers
West of Loathing
See our full list of the best RPGs

Dark Souls 3
Released: 2016 Developer: FromSoftware Humble Store, Steam Our review

What Dark Souls 3 lacks in originality—like the Souls games before it, it's an action-RPG that takes you through a baroque, dying world filled with monsters and opaque storytelling—it makes up for in polish. It's by far the smoothest of the series, gorgeous and stable on PC, and that translates to faster, more vicious enemies that will murder you without mercy. But you're also a bit more nimble this time around, keeping the notorious Souls challenge intact but rarely feeling unfair. And like all the Souls games, there's so much here if you plunge into the RPG depths: classes and magic systems, shortcuts and speedrun options, gear upgrading and NPC storylines to follow if you can make the right choices. Conquering Dark Souls 3 once will easily keep you busy for 50 hours, but if it gets its hooks in you, you could keep playing it for years.

Exploration, survival, and building games

Stardew Valley
Released: 2016 Developer: ConcernedApe GOG, Humble Store, Steam Our review

The Harvest Moon farm-life sims used to be console-only. Then indie designer Eric Barone came along and made this tribute so we too can enjoy the pastoral fantasy of chicken ownership and mayonnaise profiteering. In Stardew Valley, you inherit a farm in the countryside and split your days between growing crops and befriending the locals, a colorful cast of eccentrics, some of whom can be romanced. You either get super serious about maximizing your income, creating the perfect grid of profitable crops for each season, or just potter about, taking the occasional fishing trip or delving into the monster mines as the mood takes you. An entire subgenre of farming/crafting sims with obligatory fishing minigames has sprung up in its wake, but Stardew Valley remains the best.

Kerbal Space Program
Released: 2015 Developer: Squad GOG, Humble Store, Steam Our review

You build a spacecraft, and fly it into space. Simple, right? Usually it's not. A lot of things can go wrong as you're constructing a vessel from Kerbal Space Program's vast library of parts, almost always explosively so. But as you trial-and-error your way to a stable orbit, you start to unlock the full breadth of what Kerbal offers. You can build many different types of ship, and use them to edge further and further out into the solar system, enjoying your achievement as you contemplate the vast solitude of space. Kerbal Space Program is equal parts slapstick comedy and majestic exploration—incredibly silly, but evocative where it counts.

Subnautica
Released: 2018 Developer: Unknown Worlds Humble Store, Steam Our review

Depending how you feel about diving, Subnautica can be either a wonderful opportunity to explore an alien aquarium or a straight-up horrorshow. Even with the survival stuff turned off so you don't have to regularly grab fish and eat them as you swim past, its depths contain claustrophobic tunnels and beasts big enough to swallow you whole. The thing is, Subnautica works as both a tense survival game about making it day by day in a hostile alien ocean and a way to drift around meeting strange sea creatures (and eating them).

More building and survival games

Factorio
Surviving Mars
Rust
See our full list of the best survival games

Proteus
Released: 2013 Developer: Ed Key and David Kanaga Humble Store, Steam Our review

Proteus takes nature and simplifies it into evocative shapes and sounds. Curved hills, solid tree trunks, frogs that burble and bounce. Wandering over its island of pastel plants and animals triggers a variety of pleasant noises, a symphony that builds as you chase birds or stand still among the fireflies. It's what every chillout room aspires to be.

Strategy games

Into The Breach
Released: 2018 Developer: Subset Games GOG, Humble Store, Steam Our review

Try to save the human race from an alien invasion, five turns at a time, in the brilliant bite-sized roguelike strategy game from the makers of FTL. Into the Breach feels almost like a puzzle game, because it presents you with clear information on what the enemy is doing every turn, and it's so well-balanced, there's almost always a solution that will get you out of a mission alive. There are multiple teams of mechs to unlock and choose from, and their abilities play off one another incredibly well. In the Rusting Hulks squad, for example, the nimble Jet Mech can drop a bomb that deals damage and envelops enemies with a smoke cloud, while the passive ability on the Rocket Mech causes smoke clouds to deal damage to enemy units. Each squad has its own playstyle, and you can freely mix and match mechs to create your own team-ups. Ending a mission after preventing all damage to the fragile civilian buildings scattered around the map never stops feeling like a triumph.

XCOM 2: War of the Chosen
Released: 2017 Developer: Firaxis XCOM 2 on Humble War of the Chosen on Humble Our review

This brutal strategy game puts you in charge of a resistance force during an alien occupation. The XCOM format blends base building, squad construction and strategic command with tense turn-based tactical battles. As you pilot your enormous home base between territories, you gather materials and research the enemy to unlock cooler space lasers and rad-as-hell armour for your crew.

Vanila XCOM 2 was a tough, lean survival game that held you to account with a doomsday countdown. War of the Chosen gives you even more problems in the form of three minibosses who stalk you throughout your campaign. Fortunately, you can befriend three resistance factions—each with their own suite of gadgets for you to research—and use their leads to track down your nemeses. The result is a layered, engrossing tactical game with a lot of dramatic intrigue. We developed a strong love/hate relationship with the Chosen. Hate to see them messing up our plans; love to blow them up with massive space guns in revenge.

Total War: Warhammer 2
Released: 2017 Developer: Creative Assembly Humble Store, Steam Our review

Warhammer is a dark fantasy setting shared by multiple games, popular because of its grim maximalism (it has two Mordors and about three Draculas). The Total War games are a venerable series of historical strategy games with unit-shuffling battles and large-scale nation management. The combination of Total War and Warhammer is a perfect match. Warhammer's factions are strong mixes of trad fantasy archetypes and oddballs like the beloved ratmen called skaven, who are easily set against each other on a big map. Meanwhile, the abstract scale of Total War seems less odd when removed from recognizable historical events. It's the best of both worlds. There's a campaign where each faction races to control a magical vortex by conducting a string of rituals, each providing a significant boost when performed, but if you want to slow the pace you can spring for both this and the previous game, then combine their maps together into a gigantic life-consuming war for domination called Mortal Empires.

Slay the Spire
Released: 2019 Developer: Harebrained SchemesSteamOur review

A brilliant singleplayer deck builder, Slay the Spire hooked the PC Gamer team back when it was in Early Access, and now it has even more to offer, including daily challenges and custom runs. The joy of it, as Evan explains in his review, is how much power you can accrue through smart deckbuilding. Because it's a singleplayer card game, the monsters don't have to have fun, and your deck doesn't have to be balanced with any other—which means absurd combos are possible. But it's also possible to create terrible decks as you ascend the spire, picking new cards along the way and finding relics that encourage certain builds. There's so much strategy to learn that it can take tens of hours to reach the endgame, but starting a new run always feels exciting.

More strategy games

Civilization 6: Rise and Fall
FTL: Faster Than Light (the precursor to Into the Breach)
Stellaris: Utopia
Crusader Kings 2
See our full list of the best strategy games

BattleTech
Released: 2018 Developer: Harebrained SchemesHumble Store, Steam Our review

Lead a scrappy mercenary company across a half-scripted, half-procedurally generated singleplayer campaign as you complete escort, assassination, base capture, and other missions for cash, salvage, and faction reputation. In the style of XCOM, BattleTech is about sending roster of mechs (and to a lesser extent pilots) into planetary combat, then managing the monetary and mortal aftermath of that spent armor, broken mech legs, dead pilots, and plundered parts of your enemies in the comfort of your spaceship base.

Unlike XCOM, the turn-based combat is a wonderfully granular game of angles and details: mechs have 11 different armor segments, and weapons and ammo are housed in these individually destructible locations. The orientation, heat level, speed, and stability of your mechs matters, and fights between the durable walking tanks play out like heavyweight boxing matches.

On the next page: Puzzle games, great stories, simulations and city-builders..

Puzzle games

Return of the Obra Dinn
Released: 2018 Developer: Valve Steam, itch.io

Our favorite puzzle game of 2018, Return of the Obra Dinn is a detective game set upon a ship once lost at sea. You, an insurance investigator, must determine what happened to the crew. We're sure you've never played anything quite like it (unless you've played it).

Portal 1 + 2
Released: 2007/2011 Developer: Lucas Pope Steam

Portal would be great if it only had inventive puzzles. It would be great if it only had clever writing. Somehow Valve managed to pack both into an unmissable, unforgettable experience that messes with your head in more ways than one. Its titular mechanic teaches you to think differently by letting you instantaneously create paths to almost everywhere, and its underlying story, at once grim and gut-bustingly funny, is constantly egging you on.

Portal 2, meanwhile, delivers more of everything that made Portal great, and a peerless co-op mode besides. Portal 2's world is bigger and its puzzles are more complex, and it doesn't sacrifice any of the series' sinister, sassy humor to pull them off. But the sequel's true triumph is that it invites you to play with a friend—not through some tacked-on bonus levels, but through a handcrafted co-op campaign so good it makes the stellar singleplayer feel like a prelude.

Opus Magnum
Released: 2017 Developer: Zachtronics Humble Store, Steam Our review

The challenge of Opus Magnum isn't just to figure out how to solve each puzzle, but how to solve it the best way. With programmable robot arms you'll build alchemy machines that are more or less efficient at the transmutation task put before you, and there's an amazing number of ways to succeed—simple parts and simple instructions can produce some not-so-simple machines. If it grabs you, Opus Magnum doesn't let you go easily.

More puzzle games

SpaceChem
Infinifactory
Stephen's Sausage Roll (This one'll infuriate you)
Yankai's Triangle and Yankai's Peak (Nice and relaxing)
See our full list of the best puzzle games

Gorogoa
Released: 2018 Developer: Buried Signal GOG, Steam Our review

The gorgeous, hand-drawn Gorogoa is one of our favorite recent puzzle games. The premise is simple: arrange illustrated tiles 'in imaginative ways' to solve puzzles. The complexity, and the feat of its creation, is in how those tiles interlock with impeccable elegance. As Pip said in our review: 'Chunks of interiors and exteriors match perfectly without seeming out of place in either of their respective scenes, an image in a thought bubble lines up with a balcony scene, a star in the sky is positioned perfectly so that it peeps through the gap in an overlaid tile and becomes the light from a lamp.' It's best to see it in motion, so check out the trailer here.

Lumines Remastered
Released: 2018 Developer: Resonair Steam Our review

The classic musical puzzle game, which was first released on the PSP, returns in top shape and is still great after 15 years. The new version is far superior to the original PC port, and the remastered music is fabulous. Lumines doesn't translate perfectly to PC—it's one of those games that feels like it was meant for handheld devices—but if you missed it the first time around, take any opportunity to play it.

Baba is You
Released: 2019 Developer: Hempuli Oy Steam, itch.io Our review

A wonderful puzzle game in which you rearrange words to create new rules for the world. 'It’s part logic puzzle, part existential quandary, part love letter to how much potential is contained in the tiny building blocks of language,' said Philippa in her Baba is You review.

Great stories

What Remains of Edith Finch
Released: 2017 Developer: Giant Sparrow GOG, Steam Our review

Explore the curious home of a doomed family in this surprising and varied narrative game, which at first feels like a familiar walking simulator but then transforms into something else. Each member of the Finch family has a story to tell about what became of them, and each tale is presented in almost a minigame-like way—some of these chapters are thrilling, most of them are quietly devastating, and you should play this game without having a single one spoiled. You deserve to discover the secrets of this mysterious house for yourself if you haven't already. More than deserving of our GOTY award for Best Story in 2017.

Life is Strange
Released: 2015 Developer: Dontnod Humble Store, Steam Our review

You could argue most videogame stories are Young Adult fiction, but Life is Strange is actually like the kind of story in the YA section of your local bookstore. It's about teenagers, small towns with secrets, and coming to terms with adult responsibilities through the metaphor of being able to rewind time. It's Twin Peaks for teens.

Life is Strange benefited from being released episodically, able to adapt to what players enjoyed about the early chapters and then focus on those elements later. That means you have to give it an episode and a half to get going, and the finale's divisive too, but in the middle it's as affecting an emotional rollercoaster as anything that's about to be turned into a movie and make someone very rich.

Simulations, sports games, and city builders

Forza Horizon 4
Released: 2018 Developer: Playground Games Microsoft Store Our review

Unless you're looking for a hardcore sim, Forza Horizon is still the best racing series around.

Euro Truck Simulator 2
Released: 2013 Developer: SCS Software Humble Store, Steam Our review

A lot of players have the same story about Euro Truck Simulator 2. Lured in by curiosity, we try this ridiculous-looking game about driving trucks back and forth across a low-budget Europe. Then, hours later, we're flicking headlights up and down while driving through the night. It starts to rain somewhere outside Berlin, the sound adding percussion to whatever's playing on the central European radio station. We're hooked and don't even know why. Even on a different continent in American Truck Simulator it can have the same effect, proving that ordinary inspirations modeled well enough can make for extraordinary games.

Elite Dangerous
Released: 2014 Developer: Frontier Developments Humble Store, Steam Our review

Space, to borrow a phrase, is big. Really, really big. In Elite: Dangerous, players can become deep-space explorers spanning the entire Milky Way galaxy, or they can be asteroid miners whose entire world consists of two space rocks and the vacuum between them. Both are equally worthy ways to use your flight time in Elite, an open-world (open-galaxy?) space flight sim that masterfully gives players total freedom. At the high end, you can spend your time being everything from a space trucker to a bounty hunter, but newbies shouldn't overlook the simple joy of being a pilot, of the tactile way that flight skills grow and deepen over time. Anyone into sci-fi or flight sims owes it to themselves to spend time in an Elite cockpit—especially if they can do it in VR.

Football Manager 2019
Released: 2018 Developer: Sports Interactive Steam Our review

The best game yet in the best football management series.

More sims and builders

Cities: Skylines
Planet Coaster
Project Cars 2
X-Plane 11

Frostpunk
Released: 2018 Developer: 11 Bit Studios GOG, Humble Store, Steam Our review

Part city-builder, part survival game, Frostpunk is about making difficult choices and dealing with the consequences. Trying to keep a handful of citizens alive in a perpetually frozen world isn't just about managing resources but managing hope, and to keep people working toward their future means convincing them there is one, often through brutal means.

Unlike most city-building games, Frostpunk isn't an open-ended experience: it takes place over a 45 day period, with narrative events occurring periodically that can throw a wrench in the gears of your city and society. It's a tense and grim experience where you can wind up regretting your finest moments or defending the harshest choices you made. What are you prepared to do to save lives, and what will the ultimate cost be?

Super Mega Baseball 2
Released: 2018 Developer: Metalhead Software SteamOur review

With so few great sports games on PC, Super Mega Baseball 2 gets squished into our sims category for now—though with Madden finally coming back to PC this year, we may need to add a proper sports category. Super Mega Baseball 2 may look cartooney, but look beyond that, because as we said in our review, it's the 'best on-field baseball sim on PC.'

On the next page: MMOs, local multiplayer games, and platformers..

MMOs and online RPGs

World of Warcraft
Released: 2004 Developer: Blizzard Entertainment Official site Our review

World of Warcraft might have a few grey hairs here and there, but it's still the undisputed king of MMOs. Set in the high-fantasy setting of the famous Warcraft real-time strategy games, World of Warcraft is the story of you, a hero who rises from lowly pawn to god-slaying badass as you strive to save your world from all manner of fiendish enemies. With 12 classes and 13 races to play as (and an ever-growing list of subraces), who and what your character will become is entirely up to you. And whether you want to play for two hours a month or two hours a night, there are a nearly unlimited number of places to explore, quests to complete, raids and dungeons to conquer, and items to craft. It's less of a videogame and more of a part-time hobby.

World of Warcraft's latest expansion, Battle for Azeroth, is a bit of a low-point for the series according to its most hardcore fans. That doesn't mean it's bad—the austere mountains of Kul Tiras and lush jungles of Zandalar are evocative and fun to explore—but it is disappointing because World of Warcraft's usually stellar endgame of dungeons and raids are hamstrung somewhat by its wonky gear system. There's exciting news on that front, though: the next update is going to be huge.

World of Warcraft is the jack-of-all-trades MMO that can satisfy nearly any kind of player. Whether you want competitive PvP battles, white-knuckle raids, or just a fun, colorful story to follow along with while you collect mounts, World of Warcraft delivers.

Warframe
Released: 2013 Developer: Digital Extremes Steam Our review

Set in a bizarre science-fiction universe full of esoteric secrets, Warframe sells itself on one amazing concept: You are a space ninja. And yes, it's as fun as it sounds. This free-to-play third-person shooter gleefully taps into the fantasy of being a gun-toting, sword-wielding killing machine through its versatile movement system. You'll air dash, wall run, and slide through levels with up to three teammates as you eviscerate hordes of android enemies in exchange for oodles of crafting resources.

But Warframe's true strength is just how complex it is. Each Warframe (a kind of suit of armor that you wear) plays like its own character class, complete with unique abilities that define its combat style. You might charge into packs headfirst as Rhino or silently assassinate your targets as Ivara. Hell, there's even a Warframe that lets you compose your own music using an in-game sequencer to inflict debuffs on enemies. Learning how to craft and equip these Warframes is a daunting task for new players, but those who endure will find a rich action RPG that can easily devour thousands of hours. What's more, Digital Extremes is constantly taking Warframe in bold new directions, like adding open world zones to explore with friends. It might not be an MMO in the traditional sense, but Warframe is every bit as massive.

Path of Exile
Released: 2013 Developer: Grinding Gear Games Steam Our review

Get Into Pc Games Gta

A free-to-play spiritual successor to the beloved Diablo 2, Path of Exile is a dauntingly complex action RPG that will make even the most zealous theorycrafter weep tears of joy. Behind that familiar loop of dungeon diving and looting are several dozen features that each feel like the Marianas trench of progression systems—they're that deep. Skill gems can be chained together to create practically limitless spell combos, while the passive skill tree has hundreds of nodes to choose from that each shape your character in their own small way. And then, of course, comes the gear, which is a whole separate school of learning that can take months to fully understand. Path of Exile is certainly daunting and it won't appeal to everyone.

It's good news then that it's also fun as hell. There's 10 acts to explore, each one touring you through desecrated temples or corrupted jungles full of the walking dead. It's a grim place to be, but the kinetic combat and enticing rewards make the journey worth it. Every few months, Grinding Gear Games rolls out a new temporary challenge league that introduces entirely new progression systems, cosmetics, and enemies but requires starting a new character. Normally that'd sound like a chore, but Path of Exile is so robust that starting fresh is just a chance to learn something new.

EVE Online
Released: 2003 Developer: CCP Games Official site Our review

Brutal, uncompromising, and intimidating—there's a good chance that EVE Online's reputation precedes it. While its players will say that it's mostly hyperbole, there's no denying that EVE Online isn't an MMO for the faint of heart. But in return for a considerable investment of your time and energy, EVE Online achieves something remarkable: It feels alive.

The galaxy of New Eden is an ever-evolving virtual world full of merchants and pirates, mercenaries and warlords, and, yeah, the occasional spy. It's a thriving ecosystem grounded by a player-driven economy where players are encouraged to group together to achieve long term objectives like conquering territory or just becoming filthy, stinking rich. To participate, you'll need to contend with a hopelessly unintuitive user interface and familiarize yourself with a daunting number of systems. But it's worth it. The focus on player-driven experiences creates stories that just don't happen in any other kind of game, and being apart of those narratives is thrilling. It's an experience that is so absorbing, there's a good reason why EVE players joke that quitting for good is 'winning at EVE Online.'

Pc War Games

More MMOs

Black Desert Online
Guild Wars 2
The Elder Scrolls Online
See our full list of the best MMOs.

Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn
Released: 2014 Developer: Square Enix Steam Our review

Final Fantasy 14 is a dream come true for Final Fantasy fans who don't mind the rigamarole that comes standard with MMOs. Set in the high fantasy world of Eorzea, you play as one of the series' iconic classes, like a black mage, and set out to help the locals defend themselves from constant invasions by the evil Garlean Empire. It's as generic a Final Fantasy story as they come, but FF14 lives up to the series legacy by populating the world with an endearing ensemble of characters that grow significantly over the course of its two expansions. If you like story-driven MMOs, Final Fantasy 14's sweeping epic is undoubtedly the best.

Square Enix doesn't try to reinvent the wheel when it comes to being an MMO, though. Final Fantasy 14 is formulaic in its progression and the equipment system is pretty bland. It is by no means boring, however. The story reaches some surprising highs and Final Fantasy fans will be pleased to hear that FF14 has a nearly endless supply of memorable boss fights to work through. It might not be as expansive as other MMOs, but Final Fantasy 14 is beautiful and charming.

Local multiplayer games

Nidhogg 2
Released: 2017 Developer: Messhof Humble Store, Steam Our review

Some say Nidhogg 2's clay-monstrosity art style and added weapons marred the elegance of the first game, but they're both great in their own ways. Whichever one you choose, the basic format is the same: two players duel across a single screen, attempting to push their opponent left or right into the next screen, all the way to the end of the map. That's a big part of the brilliance of the series: get pushed all the way to your corner, and it's still possible to make a comeback and finesse your opponent all the way back across the map for a clutch win. Pure thrill.

The fighting itself is great, too, like an ultra-lo-fi Bushido Blade. Kills come in one hit as you thrust and parry and throw your swords with simple controls that result in complex dances of stance and aggression. It's exciting, hilarious, and tests the hell out of your reaction time and ability to predict your opponent's moves. There's nothing quite like either Nidhogg.

TowerFall Ascension
Released: 2014 Developer: Matt Thorson GOG, Humble Store, Steam Our review

As cool as bows and arrows are in games like Tomb Raider, TowerFall does them best. Whether played by four people against each other, or two in co-op against waves of monsters, TowerFall makes leaping from a ledge and skewering somebody with a perfect shot easy to do. It also makes shooting at someone above you, missing, and then impaling yourself as the arrow falls back down easy to do. It's as chaotic as it sounds, but the clean pixel art and expressive animation makes it simple to follow, and every triumph and screw-up is visible to all.

More local multiplayer games

Castle Crashers
Enter the Gungeon
Gang Beasts
See our full list of the best local multiplayer games.

Overcooked 1 and Overcooked 2
Released: 2018 Developer: Ghost Town Games Steam Our review

We hate Overcooked. Wait, no: We hate anyone who gets in the way in Overcooked, or doesn't bring us our damn tomatoes when we need them, pre-chopped. This four-player kitchen catastrophe simulator sets up some brilliantly simple basics—working together to prepare ingredients, cook basic dishes, and turn them in on a tight timetable—and then mercilessly complicates them with devious kitchen hazards. In one level, on the deck of a pirate ship, some of your counters slide back and forth, forcing you to switch up tasks on the fly. In another cramped kitchen, there isn't enough space for two characters to squeeze past one another, forcing you to coordinate all your movements or get into shouting matches about which direction to go.

There's a lot of shouting in Overcooked, but barking orders, properly divvying up jobs, and setting a new high score feels so good. The controls are intuitive enough that infrequent gamers can get onboard. Just beware of playing with anyone with a truly explosive temper. While both are great, if you haven't played either we'd recommend Overcooked 2, which adds online play.

2D platformers

Spelunky
Released: 2013 Developer: Mossmouth GOG, Steam Our review

Spelunky deserves much of the credit (or blame) for the boom of roguelikes in the 2010s, but none have bettered the rich interactions of this game, which sees you adventuring through mines, the jungle, caverns, and even Hell in search of riches and escape. You'll die many, many times along the way—sometimes suddenly, sometimes hilariously, and often because of your own stupidity. But that arms you with knowledge of what not to do and how to exploit the game. Can you trick two NPCs into fighting each other? Can you use a damsel you should be rescuing to instead safely set off a trap for you? What's the deal with the Ankh, anyway?

These are all things you'll discover as you play more Spelunky. Half the game is 2D platformer; the other half is a rich simulation packed with secrets and interlocking pieces that make the entire game feel like a living organism designed with the express purpose of killing you. That's what makes pulling those pieces apart and using them to your advantage so endlessly satisfying.

Celeste
Released: 2018 Developer: Matt Makes Games Steam Our review

In this age of quick saves and infinite lives, action-oriented platformers need to be difficult. And this difficulty almost always becomes the talking point, even for games that seem to hide something more profound beneath their mounds of countless dead (see: The End is Nigh). But no one talks about how hard Celeste is—or at least, that’s not why we talk about it. Even if you roll your eyes at the masochistic appeal of Super Meat Boy or N++, you might find yourself seeing Celeste through to the end. Sharing the vibrant, chunky pixel-art of Matt Makes Games Inc’s TowerFall, Celeste charts its protagonist Madeline’s efforts to scale a gigantic mountain. She’s not going up there to save the world, she’s going up there to save herself. It’s hardly a visual novel, but the light narrative dabs make progress more meaningful than “simply wanting to do it”, and its set-piece moments are really spectacular. It feels great too: Madeline can grab onto walls and quick-dash through the air, and there’s never a lack of new environmental challenges to ward off monotony.

More platformers and Metroidvanias

N++
Ori and the Blind Forest
Super Meat Boy
The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human

Hollow Knight
Released: 2017 Developer: Team Cherry Humble Store, Steam Our review

Hollow Knight is still slightly too new to be regarded as highly as Nintendo's genre-defining Super Metroid, but it might actually be the better game (gasp!). It's at least the best game to follow in Metroid's footsteps in a decade (if you want more games in this vein, make sure to play Cave Story). You play as a small explorer venturing through the remnants of Hallownest, an underground bug civilization, with remarkably little hand-holding showing you where to go. Subtle environmental clues and smartly doled-out powerups will help you find your path through the world, and from the first moments the 2D essentials of jumping and attacking have a perfectly tuned weight and snappiness to them. That's what will keep you playing Hollow Knight long enough to be pulled into its world, and then there's no turning back.

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