Using real-time Bing data to allow you to fly to and from any place on the entire planet has raised the bar for simulations to heights never seen before. Accessible to anyone, or as realistic as you want, this is open-world at its most literal. Free-flying around the globe, participating in landing challenges at some of the world's most famously difficult airports, or just sightseeing, Microsoft Flight Simulator is an unparalleled achievement.
Don't forget to grab one of the best PC joysticks to make this flight-sim experience that more immersive. The marvelous PC port overhauled and further enhanced the gorgeous wild western atmosphere of Rockstar's most recent open-world adventure and added even more activities, unlockables, and impossibly fine details to its expansive map. It's possibly one of the biggest and best single-player PC games ever and it has an extensive multiplayer mode too.
RDR2 on PC is handily a must-play for anyone with a rig beefy enough to run it. Through its relaunch and subsequent three expansions FFXIV has slowly morphed from a relatively generic good-versus-evil plot into a sprawling, political, and fantastical thriller. Story missions are intended to be tackled solo, and even instanced dungeons now have an option for you to enter with computer-controlled party members instead of forcing you into a group with strangers.
Square Enix had to temporarily stop selling FF14 upon its release, as the expansion's popularity exceeded the company's server capacity. As well as transplanting the dice-rolls and deep dialogue options from Dungeons and Dragons into a lesser-seen noir-detective setting, it offers entirely original ways to play, such as such as debating against 24 different sections of your own brain, each representative of a different skill or trait.
Your down-and-out detective is thrust into circumstances where you must solve a murder, but with all great stories its not the conclusion that is solely gratifying, but the journey you took to get there as its ludicrously detailed world and cast of characters drive it along, supported by some of the best writing seen in a game.
Nier: Automata is, by all accounts, a game that shouldn't exist. Director Yoko Taro's original Nier flopped back in , but it nevertheless developed a ravenous fanbase — and for good reason.
To put it simply: Nier: Automata does what the original sought to do, learning from its failures and building on its successes to create a blend of hardcore and fluid combat, bullet-hell shoot 'em up segments, and visual novel stylings.
It all coalesces into something entirely new. Despite a frustrating PC port that the fanbase had to fix themselves with the all-but-mandatory FAR mod, Nier: Automata's staying power is etched somewhere within its philosophical musings of humanity, pain of existence, and ability to find the humor in between. Each of its big story moments is punctuated with a haunting soundtrack courtesy of composer Keiichi Okabe.
All of that makes Nier: Automata a game that needs to be experienced from beginning to end — and not just ending A, but endings B, C, D, and E as well. Those multiple endings build to something no other game has ever dared to attempt with apologies to the original Nier. But this one just hits a little different, you know? It has the same tension of going from a technologically inferior underdog to powerful war machine, with the constant threat of the permanent death of your customized soldiers looming over every decision.
However, it turns the formula of defending Earth from alien invaders on its head by boldly recasting XCOM as a guerrilla force attempting to liberate the planet from alien occupation, making the situation feel even more desperate than ever. This bigger, deeper sequel adds not just complexity in the form of new and more powerful soldier classes, equipment, and aliens, but also a huge focus on replayability. Procedurally generated maps keep you from falling into a repeatable pattern in tactical missions, frequent random events on the strategic map shake up your build and research orders, and of course mods galore.
Next up for Firaxis is Marvel's Midnight Suns , which will be released in the second half of The free update follows Franklin and his new "celebrity solutions agency" years after the events of GTA V. Dre composed new music for the game and will be featured as a character. It masterfully mixes pieces of classic cRPGs with more modern mechanics and designs, feeling old and new at the same time.
The sequel has improved upon its predecessor's already incredible combat by deepening its systems while simultaneously simplifying and smoothing out its clunkier bits - not to mention it introduced some brutally smart new AI. There's also an overwhelming amount of game here to play. With six different origin characters, custom tags to make your own, and over 74, lines of fully voiced dialogue, this massive RPG has more than enough to keep you coming back to it.
In a roguelike, variety is king: Slay The Spire 's constantly changing decks of ability cards, powerful relics, and the three drastically different playable characters keeps these turn-based battles fresh and engaging for far longer than they have any right to.
Watching your character's attacks, defenses, skills, and powers evolve across its three chapters is a journey, and throwing your hand in at the end of a run knowing you may never see its like again can be like saying goodbye to a friend you were only just getting to know. Of course, the possibility of getting an even better combination the next time through makes it tough to resist hitting the New Game button, and the randomized Daily Climb runs give even veterans a new and interesting way to play every day.
Just as the first Half-Life proved you could tell a story in a first-person game without taking control of the camera away, and Half-Life 2 pioneered physics-based puzzles and combat, Half-Life: Alyx has set a new standard for polish in virtual reality shooters and is a truly unique experience for VR headset owners. Its full-length campaign pulls out all the stops for an amazing and horrifying battle against alien soldiers, zombies, headcrabs, and three-dimensional puzzles, and it even turns the simple act of reloading your weapon into a desperate life-or-death struggle.
It caps it all off with a fantastic ending that made the wait almost feel worth it. A "visually and technically enhanced" version of The Witcher 3 is coming to PC in Q2 and will include new content inspired by Netflix's The Witcher series — the second season of which is now streaming.
Portal 2 claims the top spot because, in the past decade, nothing else has struck so many chords so perfectly. No game accomplishes so much so well. Whether you're building up a huge tower or exploring the depths of the perilous mines, Minecraft remains an exciting time that can be enjoyed with friends or by yourself. Just make those Creepers don't get too close to your house.
See our Minecraft review. Overwatch quickly became a household name in the realm of competitive shooters. With the expert design philosophies of Blizzard and a familiar foundation from the likes of Team Fortress 2, Overwatch provides a deep and intense team-based multiplayer experience. The nuances of their abilities leads to tactical considerations that deepen the experience beyond simply being an FPS.
Overwatch's presentation will draw you in with colorful, detailed maps and heroes you'll grow to love just from playing them. Like any ongoing multiplayer game, balance is always shifting, but Overwatch always seems to strike it extremely well while fostering a sharp focus on the team.
It has a rich history of seasonal content and special events that keep it fresh, and even after five years, it's going strong. See our Overwatch review. Portal 2 remains one of the funniest and most inventive puzzlers in games. It successfully built on the mind-bending multidimensional ideas of the first game and somehow elevated its storytelling and characterization to become incredibly fun and memorable.
Those things alone would make Portal 2 worthy of your attention, but there's additional content that comes with playing the game on PC. Not only is there online and local co-op that extend the game beyond its single-player offering, but there's a huge amount of user-created content that includes whole story campaigns.
Portal 2 is great fun no matter where you play it, but with modding and puzzles built by other players, you get a superior experience on PC--and a ton more Portal to play for free. See our Portal 2 review. After years of development, developer Double Fine's sequel to its cult-classic mind-warping adventure Psychonauts was finally ready to be unleashed. An absolute triumph of imaginative visual design and emotional storytelling, Psychonauts 2 confronts topics of mental wellbeing, regret, and grief in a way that is both heartfelt and touching, but never disrespectful to anyone who can relate to the issues being discussed.
Fun and emotionally educational. See our Psychonauts 2 review. Rainbow Six Siege is an adept mix of first-person shooting, strategic planning, and tactical teamwork. Two teams of five vie for control of a building, where the goal is to capture an objective, defuse a bomb, or secure a hostage. The brilliance of Siege comes in learning these buildings in and out and knowing how to work with your teammates to get in and out most effectively.
Map knowledge can trump twitch shooting in the most dire of situations, rewarding its players for smart thinking and careful play. Siege is available on consoles, but the definitive way to play it is on PC with a keyboard and mouse. See our Rainbow Six Siege review. A prequel to the original game, the story delivers some eye-opening revelations about the wider Red Dead universe. The gameplay and world-building are incredible, with lots of freedom available for players to do whatever they want as they set out onto the frontier as Arthur Morgan.
The game is also gorgeous , especially on PC for those with a capable enough rig. The sweeping mountain visits and bubbling rivers shine on PC, making Red Dead Redemption 2 one of the best games we can recommend on PC.
See our Red Dead Redemption 2 review. See our Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice review. It starts with an old broken-down farm and a handful of seeds. You clear out the weeds and rocks until you get tired, and then you do it again. You get into the rhythm of daily life--visiting friends, watering crops, occasional light spelunking. Before you know it, it's been 75 hours and you're mostly managing your complex irrigation system and planning for next season's harvest.
Stardew Valley is a friendly, relaxing experience that also somehow manages to be endlessly addicting. Fans know the feeling of assuring themselves they'll play just one more day before bed. And while it's appeared on just about every platform, PC often gets the first chance to test all of the little quality-of-life tweaks and new features that come with patches--most recently the massive 1.
Plus, there's a huge library of mods that let you tweak various gameplay elements, give the game a new aesthetic, and even add extensive new content and characters see: Stardew Valley Expanded. Keeping up with Stardew Valley on PC is the best way to make sure your farming life never gets stale.
See our Stardew Valley review. It's true that since its release in , The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has been ported to just about every platform that can play games, including Amazon Alexa speakers and smart refrigerators. But the king of all Skyrim versions is the one on PC, and it's not even close. That's because the PC version gives you access to years of mods created by the Skyrim community.
From adding serious RPG story content to providing ridiculous possibilities like replacing all dragons with Thomas the Tank Engine, the PC version of Skyrim adds nearly endless options to an already expansive, enormous game. You absolutely should play Skyrim on PC if you haven't, and you absolutely should mod it to see how the game has become so much more than it was when it was released. The Witcher 3 puts Geralt on a quest to find Ciri, a witcher in training who's like a daughter to him.
He reconnects with old flames, friends, and adversaries as he searches far and wide for her. Of course, there's an abundance of side quests and characters to meet along the way, which will undoubtedly keep you busy for hours. Many of these quests require you to slay monsters, a witcher's main trade, and you'll have to prepare accordingly to defeat them by sword, witcher magic, and potions.
All this--and we didn't even get into the two excellent expansions--makes The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt an essential PC game. See our The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt review.
Valheim took Steam by storm, selling more than 5 million copies and earning an Overwhelmingly Positive rating from , reviews in its first months of early access. That may seem unbelievable, but when you step into the world of Valheim and explore its mysterious forests, mountains, and hills, it becomes intimately clear how special it is. Valheim is full of secrets, which you'll discover as you slay monsters, collect resources, and build yourself a Viking village. Slowly peeling back the fog of this world is tremendously satisfying as finding new lands, enemies, and resources that help bolster your crafting menu and arsenal, the latter of which you'll need to master and utilize to fend off the deadly beasts that call Valheim home.
But you won't have to go it alone, as you can invite up to nine friends to join you on your server for Viking adventures and good times. The initial response to Valorant was that it's basically a mashup where Overwatch meets Counter-Strike--and yeah, that's pretty accurate. That's also a good thing, because Valorant draws on many of the strengths of those games to make something unique. It focuses on the round-based demolition-style game mode with two teams of five attackers and defenders on balanced maps with specific lanes and sightlines and an extremely fast time-to-kill.
However, each agent or character has their own unique abilities that add another strategic layer to combat. Team composition plays a major role, and each agent affects what the team is capable of in each high-stakes situation. It's intense and demanding, but so rewarding.
Valorant is still early in its lifespan. But we've seen content updates and changes in its first year and it's been quite successful, so you can expect the game to get more support moving forward. If a competitive FPS with layered tactics, precise gunplay, and intense moments is your thing, Valorant is worth a try.
See our Valorant review. Finding the right balance in a strategy game is extremely difficult, as the best ones are challenging enough to necessitate smart play without being too punishing. Set after the first game, when aliens have nearly completely conquered Earth, XCOM 2 certainly casts you as an underdog, but it gives you the tools you need to take the fight to the invaders with careful planning. You can purchase Forza Horizon 4 through the Microsoft Store. You can gain more and more Yokai skills as you defeat enemies.
You also have quite a bit of customization available to you for deeper gameplay. This sequel is a worthy follow up to the first game, also set in a fictionalized, fantastical version of historical Japan, that will have you either squealing in delight or screaming in anger. From Software is a household name when it comes to designing the best PC games.
The minds behind the critically praised Dark Souls series have transported PC gamers to some of the most forsaken landscapes and through some of the most challenging yet rewarding gameplay. Sekiro places you in the shoes of the Young Wolf, a shinobi tasked with rescuing his young master. The phrase "build it, and they will come" rings truer than ever with Minecraft, the survival-based sandbox RPG that has now been bought more than million times since its release in In it, you can construct your own worlds using resources you find in the wild, or discover existing ones created by other players online.
In Minecraft, you can either limit yourself to the numerous tools and blocks offered by the developer, Mojang, or you can install mods to truly capitalize on your investment. Sid Meier's Civilization VI is the most recent installment in the iconic turn-based strategy game, and it's without a doubt among the best PC games you can play to date. One of the things that make the PC the best platform for gaming on is the sheer breadth of different game genres on offer. And, what Civilization VI has to offer is its massive scope, despite the fact that it might seem slower paced next to the likes of Fortnite.
Spread your empire across the map and crush your enemies. You build up your empire from a simple settlement to a world power, and you can decide to do this through military might, technological supremacy or cultural influence. Since its launch in , it has had two expansion packs that really cement this game as an epic entry in our best PC games list. Still among the biggest games in the world a few years after its release, Fortnite Battle Royale is a natural shoo-in for this list.
After all, it is a global phenomenon and among the best PC games to play right now if you like super-competitive online games. This is a game people keep coming back to, and that's mostly due to its addictive gameplay and regular updates from Epic. Fortnite Battle Royale is actually a game mode for the Fortnite game, but this mode has become so popular, many people consider it a separate game in its own right.
As with other Battle Royale games, the aim of Fortnite Battle Royale is to fight your way through an ever-shrinking map until you're the last player standing.
While that might sound simple enough, there's a whole lot of depth to this game once you start playing. Paradise Lost is a game that will intrigue fans of alternate history. Almost 20 years after that apocalyptic event finds you, playing as year old Szymon, exploring an abandoned Nazi bunker looking in search of a mysterious man. The gameplay is in line with other walking simulators. If you're encountering a problem or need some advice with your PC or Mac, drop him a line on Twitter.
North America. The best PC games are the ones that you remember long after playing them. Matt Hanson. See more Gaming news.
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