How do you rate an animal like playing on a PC? There is a wide selection of titles from decades (and also the first port of call for most indie titles). Playing on your computer (almost always error-free) increases the advantages of backward compatibility and graphical performance over the console – if you have a coin for it. We have expanded with our recommendations on purpose. There are many great games for your computer; consider these few starting points. We’ve added controls that replace League of Legends for our winter update.
XCOM 2: War of the Chosen
There were lively discussions about which XCOM game we would include in this list, but in the end, War of the Chosen won. The expansion from 2017 to XCOM 2 is the latest and greatest innovation in the XCOM series. All the staples of a classic XCOM game are here. You are the commander of a ragtag group of elite military units. You command these units in short missions against an incredibly large alien force and carefully move them around a grid map to take out the enemy one by one. Completing missions advances the story and allows you to upgrade your units — this is where XCOM’s party trick comes in.
XCOM has permadeath. That is, as soon as a character dies, he is dead. This keeps the stakes high and inevitably leads to some really painful moments. One wrong move can send your high-ranking, ultra-adapted soldier, who is not named after your associates, to his death, to be replaced by a novice, who is even more vulnerable. Honestly, you should also buy XCOM: Enemy Within from 2013, but War of the Chosen is one of the best examples of a turn-based tactical game ever played on PC.
The Witcher 3
It could be the best open-world role-playing game there is. Although The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is several years old now, it’s a dense action game that acknowledges the player’s maturity with several — occasionally harrowing — storylines, decisions that have consequences, and almost too much play to wrestle with. It’s not perfect; the combat system is rough, the frustrating death comes in the form of a fall from just a few meters away, and there are a lot of quest fillers in addition to a lot of incredibly thought-out distractions.
Return of the Obra Dinn
This is an unforgettable ghost story slash crime thriller with a distinctive old school graphic style. It’s unlike any game we’ve played in a while, with a low-key score and a puzzle-solving style that looks like a satisfying, grisly puzzle. In return for the Obra Dinn, you will be taken on board a ship alone. However, there is a corpse near the captain’s cabin. While following the last steps of the deceased, which lead to even more cruel endings, you need to find out what happened. Who killed whom? And who is still alive? Of particular note is the sound effect that sets in every time you solve the fate of three crew members.
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
Many were ready to write off the Resident Evil series after the disaster of Resident Evil 6. What started as a horror game on the original PlayStation had become a bloated mess of an action game. Instead of throwing the whole franchise in the trash and forgetting about it, Capcom carefully examined what was not working, what — surprise! – basically, everything thoroughly restarted the formula. Based on Kojima’s PT and in some ways on Alien: Isolation from Creative Assembly, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard is horror by fainting. For the majority of the game, there’s nothing you can do but run away from your enemies or stop them. And that’s what makes it so good.
The Outer Wilds
While most games have a “gameplay loop,” developer Mobius Digital took this concept literally with the science fiction adventure The Outer Wilds. The game is based on a time loop, meaning you will explore and discover the world (or worlds) in about 20 minutes. It doesn’t hold your hand, and some of its puzzles can be confusing sometimes, but the feeling of satisfaction when you solve puzzles and learn something more is tangible. It is reluctantly one of our favorite games of the year.
Nier Automata
Nier Automata takes up the razor-sharp fight of a Platinum Games title and puts him in a world created by Yoko Taro, the most beloved madman. Don’t worry; you can mostly just run, shoot and punch your way through the game, but when you’re done and finish and finish this game, you’ll get sucked into a special narrative that’s never been done before and probably never will be done again. It is fair to say that the PC version, unfortunately often the case, was not exactly the best, and there is still a notable lack of options, but it is at least stable now, and trust us when we say that this version is impossible to miss.
FTL: Faster Than Light
Who hasn’t wanted to control their spaceship? Well, after a few hours of FTL: faster than the light, you could reconsider your life goals. FTL is a roguelike, meaning every game starts in the same place. All you have to do is travel through a series of star systems, recruit crew members and collect scrap as you make your way to a showdown against a stupidly overpowered ship. The gameplay is roughly divided into a map view, where you can take as much time as you like to find the most efficient way to your destination and combat events that play out in real-time (although you can and will use a pause button to slow things down).
The real fun comes into play in the narrative, which takes place in two ways. There is the structured page where from time to time, you will be asked to make decisions that could improve or hinder your chances of survival. And then there is natural history, which they create for themselves since, for example, they have to decide whether it is worth sacrificing a crew member for the common good.
Doom (2016)
It’s fair to say that not many people were enthusiastic about Doom. The popular series from id Software had essentially been absent for over a decade, and a pre-release beta showing only the multiplayer of the game was harshly judged by critics and gamers alike. However, within a few minutes after the launch of the single-player campaign, it became clear to everyone that he had nothing to worry about. It has successfully updated an antiquated formula for modern gamers, creating a unique first-person shooter.
Doom is great because it makes players play the game the way the developers intended. The Glory Kill system, originally written off as violence for the sake of violence, became an important part of the gameplay. While other games make you retreat and take cover, Doom forces you to kick the enemy in the face, or more precisely, to knock his face off. If you do this, you will be rewarded with items that will allow you to finish off the dozens of enemies you will inevitably be surrounded by. It’s an adrenaline rush disguised by a game, and it’s a must-have for anyone who loves (or can endure) tremendous violence.
Beat Saber
Beat Sabre is a euphoric gaming sensation that makes the most of virtual reality. They will swing their unofficial lightsabers at incoming boxes, cut them to the soundtrack’s beat, and strike. Like the legendary rhythm rail shooter Rez, which has its own VR iteration, Beat Sabre often gives the feeling that you are creating the music while hitting your cues. We may have had initial reservations about the soundtrack at launch, but new tracks and adjustments continue to add to the challenge. Even a level creator for PC gamers makes this the final version.
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