PC gamers have always had a huge selection of titles--both
old and new--to choose from, so trying to figure out which ones to
dedicate your precious time to can prove to be a daunting experience.
But never fear, GameSpot is here to give you some suggestions on the
best PC game experiences you can play right now. Since the history of PC
games is both long and varied, we've focused on some of the best games
released in recent years, as well as classics that are still easily
available (and playable) today. So check out our list below of the best
PC games, and then hit the comments below and tell us what you think
(and which games you think deserve to be on this list).
"Age
of Empires II: HD Edition has enormous potential. After all, the base
game is still enjoyable and visually attractive (excepting the units
that were never beautiful), and you can smoothly download content from
the Steam Workshop."
• Read our review • Watch the latest trailer
"Amnesia:
The Dark Descent is undoubtedly going to take a place among the most
frightening horror games ever made. Regardless of length, this is one
uncanny, unsettling, and just plain old scary experience, especially
with the lights out and your headphones on."
• Read our review • Watch the latest trailer
"Even
after more than a decade, this sprawling saga remains the most
authentic treatment of D&D to ever hit a computer. And it is even
better than ever, thanks to numerous graphical tweaks and a pile of new
content that shows how much Overhaul has gotten its act together in
comparison with the problematic release of the first enhanced Baldur's
Gate game last year."
• Read our review • Watch the latest trailer
"Battlefield
3 may not offer much beyond the multiplayer, but there are so many ways
to contribute and feel like a powerful soldier that after hours and
hours of playing, all you'll want to do is play more."
• Read or watch our review • Watch the latest trailer
"While
intimidating, this visceral real-time strategy reenactment of World War
II's Western Front showcases just how far RTS game design and
presentation quality have come."
• Read or watch our review • Watch the latest trailer
"Bottom
line, CS:GO adds plenty, tweaks a little, and keeps the best parts of
the classic multiplayer FPS. If you're into shooters, team-based
gameplay, or just classic games that are updated well, you won't do
better at the moment than CS:GO."
• Read or watch our review • Watch the latest video
"It's
that scale and potential for one entertaining story after another that
make Crusader Kings II so engrossing. There are so many little
interactions for you to experience and so much potential for a payoff
when your planning and scheming finally come to fruition. Crusader Kings
II makes it an absolute delight to rewrite history one small step at a
time."
• Read our review • Watch the latest trailer
"If
you put it all together, Crysis is just remarkable. This is a game that
pushes the envelope in terms of both technology and gameplay and does
so with aplomb. Crysis raises the expectations for every shooter to
follow when it comes to graphics, interactivity, environments,
immersiveness, AI, and gameplay. Quite simply, Crysis represents the
first-person shooter at its finest, most evolved form."
• Read or watch our review • Watch the latest trailer Deus Ex
"All
of Deus Ex's gameplay features and story elements, as well as the
expansiveness of the game's environments and the scope of its setting,
add up to a satisfying and unusual experience. The way in which the
individual gameplay elements are balanced against each other, and the
way the consequences of your actions tend to come back into play, all
help make Deus Ex increasingly impressive the longer you play it."
• Read our review • Watch the latest trailer
"If
you've played Diablo III before and found that it wasn't for you, the
changes Reaper of Souls makes to the game won't be far-reaching enough
to change your mind. Reaper gives those who already liked Diablo III
more of what they already liked about it. "
• Read or watch our review • Watch the latest trailer
"Divinity:
Original Sin's minor flaws include a few bugs here and there, such as
one that might turn a cave into a neverending mass of explosions. Some
idiosyncrasies aren't flaws, however, but rather reminders of how often
we expect games to ask of us the simplest questions and then provide us
easy answers. That it believes in you is Original Sin's greatest
achievement, and given its many achievements, that's high praise
indeed."
• Read or watch our review • Watch the latest trailer
"Doom
II is a dark, disturbing game. And while it may not bring anything new
to the genre, it can create obsession-level loyalty if you tend not to
look beyond the barrel of a gun."
• Read our review • Watch the latest trailer
"The
experience of playing Dota changes day by day--some evenings will be
exhilarating, while others will kick your morale to the curb--but there
are few games as worthy of your time investment as this. Those who
choose to commit to Dota 2 will find many happy hours within this
immaculate update."
• Read or watch our review • Watch the latest trailer
"Europa
Universalis IV easily provides hundreds of hours of gameplay for those
who develop a taste for it. There are very few games remotely like this
out there, making it a must-get game for people who want to "fix"
history."
• Read our review • Watch the latest trailer
"Consistency
of vision, commitment, and support are no small achievements in the
winter of the massively multiplayer online role-playing game, when young
games are born, live, and die, all in World of Warcraft's shadow. In
the face of such competition, EVE's languid pace would seem a detriment,
and yet, like the universe, EVE is ever expanding outward."
• Read our review • Watch the latest trailer
"Fallout:
New Vegas is an expansive and complicated RPG that encourages you to
see and do as much as you can. This is an explorer's game, always
lavishing new and interesting quests on you and giving you a lot of
flexibility in how you approach many of them. If you crave an expansive
and flexible adventure in which your choices actually matter, this is
one gamble that will pay off. "
• Read our review • Watch the latest trailer
"Far
Cry 3's intelligent and elegant open-world structure balances exciting
action with the joys of free-form adventuring, making it one of the best
shooters of the year. This is an ambitious and finely tuned adventure
that gets better and better as you play."
• Read our review • Watch the latest trailer
"Undeniably
old-fashioned yet still somehow fresh and original, Faster Than Light
is a great new take on a couple of old genres that will take over your
life for many, many hours. Tense combat, easy-to-handle ship management,
and fast-moving campaigns make this a game that is far more than the
sum of its parts, despite a few shortcomings with mission variety and
the remorseless nature of the (mostly) save-free game design."
• Read our review • Watch the latest trailer
"Sports
Interactive has crafted a game as predictably exhaustive as Andre
Villas-Boas's gameplan, but as brutally effective as one masterminded by
Mourinho. Football Manager has long since attained cult status and this
release serves only to further stimulate that dedicated subculture."
• Read the review
"The
reason to play Gone Home is not for its importance. It's for the
elegance with which its tale is constructed and communicated, and the
captivating way that it makes you an active participant in peeling back
the layers of one family's ordinary lives as their home tells you their
stories. Like many of our own memories, those stories cut deep."
• Read or watch our review • Watch the latest trailer
"When
you combine the strong single-player campaign of Half-Life 2 with the
popular online play of Counter-Strike, the result is one of the most
complete and compelling first-person shooter packages available. While
Half-Life 2 breaks little new ground, it's still a superb and engaging
first-person shooter, as well as an amazing technological
accomplishment."
• Read our review • Watch the latest trailer
"Blizzard
delivers here, particularly for the massive segment of the populace
that's never played a collectible card game. If it's dumbed down, then
it's in good hands. If any developer's good at weeding out the chaff of
more robust games in a particular genre, surely it's Blizzard."
• Read our review • Watch the latest trailer
"While
the underlying stealth action is mostly unchanged from the previous
Hitman games, a diverse sequence of imaginative scenarios gives Blood
Money its own fair share of violent thrills."
• Read our review • Watch the latest trailer
"Hotline
Miami is a discotheque of death that's very hard to walk away from, and
a fantastic twitch shooter with a confident sense of style. Many games
attempt to use story to explain away the massacre of outrageous numbers
of victims. Hotline Miami bathes in the thrill of murder, and cares
little about justifying its actions."
• Read or watch our review • Watch the latest trailer
"Even with its problems, its excellent combat system and sense of style make Jagged Alliance 2 very easy to recommend." • Read our review • Watch the latest trailer
"League
of Legends is a fantastic game with something for players of all skill
ranges to enjoy. Once the game has its hooks in you, don't be shocked to
find you've spent a few hundred hours seeking digital fame in one of
video gaming's finest battlegrounds."
• Read our review • Watch the latest trailer
"Left
4 Dead 2 is best enjoyed with friends, and every mode is seamlessly
integrated online. Though the core gameplay remains pretty much the
same, there is more than enough new content and improved action to make
this zombie apocalypse highly recommendable."
• Read our review • Watch the latest trailer
"Legend
of Grimrock II is similar to one of its many well-designed riddles:
While solving it may be a long, arduous process, approaching each
obstacle with newfound understanding and hearing the victorious click of
gears finally turning gives you a feeling of profound pride and
accomplishment."
• Read our review
"This
is a galaxy you want to explore that is populated with characters you
are glad to know. Mass Effect 2 is the kind of game that you return to,
not just because it's fun to play multiple times, but also because its
universe is a place you wish you could call home."
• Read our review • Watch the latest trailer
"Metro:
Last Light is not an endless barrage of bullets and beasts. It takes
the time to let you breathe in the choking atmosphere and allow the
chilling fog to seep into your bones. Last Light is notably superior to
its predecessor, merging storytelling, shooting, and sneaking into a
remarkable and cohesive whole."
• Read or watch our review • Watch the latest trailer
"Even
in its current form, Minecraft remains one of the most conceptually
impressive indie games out there. It's a game changer to be sure and one
that will live on in the annals of gaming history for a long time to
come."
• Read our review • Watch the latest video
"Monkey
Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck's Revenge is an adventure well worth
adding to your inventory, no matter how stuffed with hubcaps, voodoo
dolls, and cheese squigglies it may be."
• Read our review • Watch the latest video
"Papers,
Please will stress you out. At times it may even make you hate
yourself. And while it's weird to call such an experience "enjoyable,"
the gameplay itself is not a miserable time. It's worthwhile for the
same reasons a depressing novel or a bleak movie can be worthwhile.
There are lessons to be learned from Papers, Please, if only to remind
ourselves how much worse off we could be."
• Read our review • Watch the latest video
"Considering
that Path of Exile costs you nothing beyond some Internet bandwidth, it
provides an embarrassment of pleasures. Many mysteries still await me,
even in the savage regions I've already charted."
• Read or watch our review • Watch the latest trailer
"It's
easy to apologize for Torment's many programming flaws, which cause the
game to become excruciatingly slow at times and some of its dozens of
quests to become unsolvable on occasion. It's true that bugs in computer
role-playing games seem almost as conventional as spells and hit
points. Fortunately, Torment's aren't so drastic that they actually ruin
any single part of the game."
• Read our review • Watch the latest video
"Planetside
2 is a consistent blast, and a monument to emergent, player-driven
gameplay. Battle can take many different forms: intimidating tank
invasions, interior infantry shootouts, open air long-range
distractions, and more."
• Read our review • Watch the latest trailer
"The
thrill of exploration and puzzle-solving is still intoxicating, and
it's amazing how Portal 2 manages to tell a better story with
disembodied voices and spherical robots than most games can with full-on
humans. Your return to Aperture Science is a joyful one in this
immensely appealing, laugh-out-loud funny, and thoroughly satisfying
sequel."
• Read our review • Watch the latest trailer
"Sid
Meier's Civilization V's core values--expansion, exploitation,
exploration, extermination--are as strong as ever. But the newer
tactical combat and addition of city-states give strategy veterans new
ways of tackling their goals, while a friendly interface and expansive
Civilopedia help newcomers get up to speed relatively quickly."
• Review our review • Watch the latest trailer
"Though
not as polished as it could have been, SimCity 4 is still a complex and
detailed strategy game that can entertain you for hours on end. "
• Read our review • Watch the latest video
"Spelunky
makes excellent use of its random nature to keep you hooked as you
strive to dive ever deeper into the mysterious depths. And if restarting
from the beginning seems too much punishment for you to bear, there are
shortcuts to open if your skills are honed enough. The best lesson you
can learn is to be humble. As Spelunky proves, hubris spells the doom of
many a greedy explorer."
• Read our review • Watch the latest trailer
"It's
the chilly ambience and lifelike ecology that should lure you to the
newest S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game, not the ordinary online play.
Well-constructed environments and superb sound design make The Zone as
cheerless and ominous as ever. But it's also rich with resources,
begging you to cultivate its secrets and withstand the hostilities." • Read our review • Watch the latest trailer
"It's
one of the only Star Wars games to truly make you feel at times as
though you're a key player in and a part of this unique and beloved
sci-fi setting. You don't need to be a fan of Star Wars or of RPGs to
appreciate all the impressive qualities of this game--but if you are,
all the better."
• Read our review • Watch the latest trailer
"Starcraft
II: Wings of Liberty is not just an old game with a pretty new face.
It's a varied and full-featured jewel that will keep you stuck to your
computer chair for weeks, months, and even years to come."
• Read our review • Watch the latest trailer
"System Shock 2 both retains the best attributes of its predecessor and provides a fresh experience in its own right."
• Read our review • Watch the latest video
"Staying
relevant even a year after release is rare for a competitive shooter,
and yet, here's Team Fortress 2, still lively after seven years in the
business. At times it feels like the same game you could have played
back then, and at other times it feels like no one will ever quite nail
class-based shooter competition the way TF2 does."
• Read our review • Watch the latest trailer
"The
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim doesn't rely on sheer scope to earn its
stripes. It isn't just that there's a lot to do: it's that most of it is
so good. Whether you're slashing a dragon's wings, raising the dead
back to life, or experimenting at the alchemy table, Skyrim performs the
most spectacular of enchantments: the one that causes huge chunks of
time to vanish before you know it."
• Read our review • Watch the trailer
"The
Longest Journey is one of the best adventure games in years. Like a
hybrid of classic Sierra and LucasArts games, it tells a great fairy
tale filled with characters that you'll remember long after the game is
over." • Read our review
"So
what is it that makes The Sims 3 even more addictive than its
predecessors? It's partially due to the deft handling of rewards; it
doles out new social options, new aspirations, and the possibility of
better furniture and wood flooring at a slow but even pace, which keeps
you tied to your computer for hours at a time."
• Read our review • Watch the latest trailer
"The
Witcher 2 has raised the stakes. No longer need we accept that
role-playing games must sacrifice the quality of one element in favor of
another. Instead, we are allowed to have it all. And how wonderful that
we have it right here, right now, in The Witcher 2: Assassins of
Kings."
• Read our review • Watch the latest trailer
"At
first, Thief II may seem too much like Thief, but on closer inspection
it's a better game. It may lack its predecessor's excellent story, and
the graphics engine may be slightly dated, but no such concerns will
seem relevant when you're sneaking around in Thief II's excellent
environments."
• Read our review • Watch the latest video
"Despite
the clunky combat and other shortcomings, there's a rich world to
explore in Bloodlines, an RPG that allows you to indulge your inner
vampire. " • Read our review • Watch the latest trailer
"World
of Warcraft features an overall level of quality that's typically
reserved for the best offline games, which have always had a leg up on
online games in their ability to present tightly-woven, story-driven
settings. But World of Warcraft achieves this in the context of a
massive, evolving world populated by thousands of other players who you
may choose to interact with, which makes the proceedings seem that much
more meaningful."
• Read our review • Watch the latest trailer
Enemy Unknown is a wonderful and worthy strategy game with a layer of
campy charm that makes the stone-faced seriousness of the game's
characters all the more endearing. The game packs dense amounts of
dramatic tension into each turn. And so it's time to eliminate the alien
threat, commander. Select a location, build your base…and save
humanity."
I have found that this site is very informative, interesting and very well written. keep up the nice high quality writing. Best War Games PC
ReplyDelete