Every year, I ask the PC Gamer team a question: What are the 100 best games on PC? It's a simple question, but answering it takes months of work—of votes, discussions, negotiations and more than a few arguments. That's because no other gaming platform has the size, scope or history of the humble PC—there are around 120,000 games on Steam alone, itself just one facet of the entire breadth of the PC gaming experience. And that's to say nothing of the fact that different people, it turns out, have different tastes.
This list, then, represents the passion of our global team of over 30 writers and editors—some of them even made Powerpoint presentations in an effort to get a personal favourite into the list. To create it, we first have to ask another question: What does it mean to be one of the best games on PC? Is it the ones that stand out as important and influential—with lasting legacies that make them timeless? Is it those that have attracted vibrant and creative communities who run with an original idea and turn it into something more than the sum of its parts? Is it the games that we'd recommend today—a list of games that every PC gamer owes it to themselves to try out? Or is it just the games that we—the PC Gamer team—loves, and want to celebrate with the world? Ultimately, the Top 100 is all of these things, and so our scoring system has been designed to take them all into account.
Our scoring system
Ahead of the vote, the PC Gamer team can freely nominate games for the Top 100 process. In total, 332 games made the longlist. Each editor was then asked to rate those games across the four weighted categories that comprise our judging criteria.
- Quality: How good is it? A purely personal rating of its calibre as a game. (60% of the Top 100 Score)
- Importance: How noteworthy is it? Its influence on other games, and the wider world. (15% of the Top 100 Score)
- Hotness: How exciting is it? Its ability to retain a lively community that is excited and passionate about it. (15% of the Top 100 Score)
- Playability: How playable is it? Its accessibility to modern audiences, and a measure of how easy it is to get running on modern systems. (10% of the Top 100 Score)
The weightings are a function of the Top 100 as an annual list. Too much weight to Importance, and the list stays stagnant. Too much to Hotness, and there's little consistency year-to-year. Ultimately, Quality is the biggest factor—above all else, we're recommending games we wholeheartedly think you should play.
The sum of each game's ratings is then divided by each voter, and those totals are run through a special formula to produce the final Top 100 Score.
Promotion and demotion
Once the Top 100 Score for all games has been calculated, we order the list from highest to lowest. Then we go about tweaking it. In the interest of variety, we'll usually only allow one game per series—we'll only include multiple if we feel the games are different enough from each other to be worth mentioning both, for instance Doom (1993) and Doom Eternal. Otherwise, the lower scoring game is removed from the list.
For the final step, every voter gets the opportunity to pitch for one change to the list—either promoting a game higher, or demoting it lower. These pitches are then voted on by the wider team based. This is why a game like XCOM 2 is placed higher than its Top 100 Score would suggest. Where that's happened, we've noted the editor responsible for its new placing.
After all of that, we arrive at the final list—the 100 games that you'll find below. It's a reflection of PC Gamer as a team, and who we are as PC gamers. And we'd love to hear what you think—of the list and how we make it. If you've got thoughts you'd like to share, email us at editors@pcgamer.com. Enjoy!
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100. Valheim
Released Feb 2, 2021 (Early Access) | Top 100 Score 213.85, promoted by Jacob Ridley
Sarah James, Guides Writer: Valheim is still brilliant. It's survival without the endless stress of managing resources. It can be as relaxing or as difficult as you want it to be, depending on how you play and is a game I regularly return to if I want to unwind.
Jacob Ridley, Managing Editor, Hardware: I've returned to Valheim's shores in 2024. It's as excellent as I remember it being in 2021. There have been a good few additions to the game since then, including the mistlands, which I've been very brave to venture into. I've died a lot. Most of all I'm enjoying visiting towns I built with friends years ago—returning with ideas of how to make it all so much better.
99. Guild Wars 2
Released Aug 28, 2012 | Top 100 Score 214.10, promoted by Phil Savage
Phil Savage, Global Editor-in-Chief: It's been 12 years, and Guild Wars 2 is still a quietly revolutionary vision of what an MMO can be. There's no subscription, no FOMO-inducing scarcity, no penalty for taking an extended break. Everything it adds remains relevant, which means in a standard play session, I'm bouncing between maps developed years—sometimes even a decade—apart. Every new expansion simply adds more, and now ArenaNet is making a new one every year.
Fraser Brown, Online Editor: Phil is largely responsible for my current Guild Wars 2 obsession, wearing me down for ages until, a few years back, I finally jumped back in—having not played since 2013. I'm extremely glad he did. It's one of the most lively and diverting MMOs I've ever played, where at any time there are always folk doing the activities I want to do, regardless of how long they've been around for. Nothing goes to waste in Tyria. I usually bounce off MMOs and go on extended breaks, but I've been playing GW2 pretty consistently now for at least three years, and I ain't going anywhere.
98. City of Heroes: Homecoming
Released Apr 27, 2004 | Top 100 Score 216.15, promoted by Harvey Randall
Harvey Randall, Staff Writer: After the saga City of Heroes has been through, ending in a legitimate private server with an official thumbs-up from NCSoft, it deserves all the praise I can give. Even a bottom-of-the-list placing is, despite it all, very exciting for me.
City of Heroes is a very special MMO. I'm still best mates with a lot of the people I met there, and Homecoming's received enough updates that I whole-heartedly recommend revisiting it for more than nostalgia's sake.
Fraser Brown: The first death of City of Heroes was a tragedy, but that only makes the second life it's been given by fans so much sweeter. It's very much showing its age now, though the team has done a lot of work in making it both prettier and more accessible, and I can overlook a lot in a game that lets me live out all my comic book fantasies. I've been mucking around with a time-travelling mad scientist cleaning up the streets of his past, as well as playing a fun Cyclops knock-off with a buddy, and while a lot of my delight comes from the nostalgia, CoH is still undeniably a brilliant MMO.
97. Dave the Diver
Released Jun 28, 2023 | Top 100 Score 217.19, promoted by Chris Livingston
Christopher Livingston, Senior Editor: I am, frankly, shocked and outraged that I had to promote Dave into the top 100. Anyone with a heart and a Steam Deck will fall hard for one of the best games of the past few years. Are my coworkers cyborgs? I am investigating.
Robin Valentine, Senior Editor: There's a real joy of discovery in Dave the Diver. Every step you take, some new system opens up to you—what makes the game special is that it's always revealing itself to be bigger than you thought it was, even five, 10, 15 hours in.
The game's other great stroke of genius was centering that experience on a chubby, middle-aged diver who just wants to retire in tropical bliss. Dave is such an immediately lovable character, a guy who feels like he's just as vaguely bemused by all this weirdness as you are.
Christopher Livingston: OK, Robin, at least, is not an unfeeling automaton. And I agree about the joy of discovery—there's a surprise just about every time you pick it up and play for a bit. What starts out as a charming game about hunting fish and serving sushi goes places I never expected it to, from high speed boat chases to stealth segments to a seahorse racing management sim that only arrives after more than 20 hours of playing. It's also the first game to come along in my entire life where I found myself wishing it had more cutscenes because its anime-inspired interludes go hard as hell.
96. Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines
Released Nov 16, 2004 | Top 100 Score 219.68
Jody Macgregor, Weekend Editor: People assume you had to have played Troika's modern-day vampire RPG when it was new to love it, but Bloodlines launched in such a state some people who played it brand new still have trauma. I took years to get around to it, after the unofficial patch, and it immediately went on my all-time list where it's stayed after two replays. I don't finish many games twice let alone thrice, but Bloodlines is a blast to replay. Each vampiric bloodline feels completely different, whether you're a smooth-talking debauchee, goth wizard, or crazed visionary.
Joshua Wolens, News Writer: Gotta be fate that Bloodlines and KotOR 2 ended up next to each other. Just proof that it doesn't matter if your game is practically falling apart: You can't hide greatness.
Andy Chalk, US News Lead: Like Jody, I don't replay many games—who has time?—but I've been through Bloodlines twice, and in many ways the second time was better than the first: Same world, same story, but experiencing it through the eyes of a Malkavian after first playing as a Brujah, I was blown away by just how different it all was. What I especially love is how Bloodlines is so carefully crafted to support the oddball clans. Lots of games let you play as unconventional characters but more often than not it's a pain in the ass—in Bloodlines, it's the only way to fly.
Wes Fenlon, Senior Editor: Interview with the Vampire is hot again all of a sudden, which makes now the perfect time to go around shouting about this being the best vampire game and the closest thing to a steamy Anne Rice novel in RPG form. I assume most of the show's current fans were about three years old when VtMB came out.
Ted Litchfield, Associate Editor: Well Wes, I was actually nine years old when VtMB first came out, and it's actually had the opposite effect on me: Bloodlines was my gateway drug to watching Twilight and both Interview With the Vampire adaptations with my partner.
Unfortunately, VtMB falls into the ineffable category of "crusty RPG" for her (I totally get what she means), so this unfortunately won't ever be a two-way exchange. But if you can brave Bloodlines' tangle of fan patches and tabletop-accurate skill bubbles, you'll find one of the best, most unique RPGs to ever do it.
95. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2
Released Dec 6, 2004 | Top 100 Score 220.13
Wes Fenlon: Dril was talking about KotOR 2 when he tweeted "the wise man bowed his head solemnly and spoke: 'theres actually zero difference between good & bad things. you imbecile. You fucking moron'" (Still love it, though).
Joshua Wolens: Yeah yeah, people poke fun at its sermonizing, but it's still the smartest Star Wars game out there, even though it released half-finished and on fire. Luckily, you can mod its missing bits back in.
Plus, Kreia is one of the best RPG companions in any game period. Not because she's so wise and correct, but because she's such a brilliantly rendered bitter, cranky old woman nursing old hatreds to the point that they consume everyone around her. The foremost boomer Force-user. Rant about the Jedi as much as you like, Kreia, you're ultimately just another kind of sclerosis threatening to do in the entire galaxy.
Ted Litchfield: I played other RPGs before KotOR 2, but Obsidian's opening salvo, "Planescape: Torment In Space" was the first to make me realize they were good for more than simple wish fulfillment.
Meanwhile, its notoriously incomplete launch version gave me this weird sense of loss when I first played it—my first clue as to the real costs and pain of making a videogame, as well as a demonstration how modders and hobbyists will always be the real heroes of preserving the medium's history.
Sean Martin, Senior Guides Writer: It's got a Sith Lord who literally eats planets. What more could you want?
94. Dragon Age: Origins
Released Nov 3, 2009 | Top 100 Score 220.30
Robert Jones, Print Editor: For me, and I'm sure thousands of other PC gamers around the world, Origins is still the definitive Dragon Age experience. And it's easy to see why that is, with this game delivering a 3D CRPG experience that remains true to the legendary 2.5D classics that founded the genre, such as Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale and Planescape: Torment. Not only do you have old school, full fat combat and character speccing systems, but also incredible NPC characters (with Morrigan, we're talking a GOAT candidate), writing, music, and cinematics. The world-building is second to none, too, with incredibly rich in-game lore that knits the world of Thedas and the Fade together wonderfully, imbuing it with a reality unmatched in lesser titles. A mature, complex fantasy RPG then, and one that refuses to treat gamers as children. As such, Dragon Age: Origins still remains a fantastic gaming experience today in 2024 and one of PC gaming's greatest ever fantasy RPGs.
Harvey Randall: Every single companion character in Dragon Age: Origins is a complete home run—a feat that Bioware hasn't quite pulled off since. Also you get a dog that can tank for you, what's not to love.
Robin Valentine: Origins was such a watershed moment for the genre, combining the glossy, cinematic feel of big budget action games with an unapologetically deep and expansive RPG experience. You don't get to Baldur's Gate 3 without this game laying the groundwork.
And I genuinely think it's still the best one in the series to go back to—a rich and mature adventure, confident in its world-building and its old school mechanics.
93. Left 4 Dead 2
Released Nov 20, 2009 | Top 100 Score 221.63
Harvey Randall: You know a game's good when it basically invents a whole genre. L4D2 is the cell culture stuff that other bangers like Vermintide 2 and Darktide 2 grew out of. Respect your elders.
Phil Savage: Yeah, this got the highest Importance score of any game in the bottom 30 of the list. I'm unlikely to play it today over something like Vermintide 2, but it's still one of the best four-player co-op shooters around—one that very few of its many imitators can match.
Rich Stanton, Senior Editor: I don't think gaming has ever improved upon smacking a zombie in the face with a giant skillet, and then smacking another zombie in the face with a giant skillet. For all its subsequent imitators, I don't think any has quite recaptured that mix of panic, hilarity, balls-to-the-wall holdouts, and the satisfaction of making it through as a team.
Robin Valentine: Though I loved Left 4 Dead 2 at the time, and lost far too much time to it, I'm going to be the dissenting voice and say I don't think it's aged very well. The hitscan shooting feels very unimpactful in 2024, and the pacing is pretty flat and relentless compared to modern co-op games.
92. Ghost of Tsushima
Released May 16, 2024 | Top 100 Score 221.76
Robert Jones: For going on a decade throughout the 2010s, fans of the Assassin's Creed series begged Ubisoft to make an entry set in Japan, only for those requests to fall on deaf ears. So when Sucker Punch Productions, in partnership with Sony Interactive Entertainment, went and produced not just an Assassin's Creed-style game set in Japan, but one with a level of historical authenticity and class that the Assassin's Creed series had never got anywhere near previously, Ghost of Tsushima's huge critical and commercial success must have been a violent wake-up call for Ubisoft. A wake-up call that has only got more audible since the definitive version of Sucker Punch's modern classic, Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut, was released on PC earlier this year.
Because here we are, four years after Ghost of Tsushima first hit store shelves, and Ubisoft's own Assassin's Creed game set in Japan, Assassin's Creed: Shadows, is incoming. The thing is, though, there's serious concerns right now that Shadows is far too little and far too late, with Ghost of Tsushima lingering, like Banquo's ghost at the feast, over its launch. That's because it's going to take serious quality to outshine Ghost of Tsushima, which delivers superb assassinations and swordplay, along with a gripping narrative, beautiful visuals, an evocative soundtrack, a quest-filled open world, and tons of period-accurate detailing. Ubi is going to need to be at the top of its game to win this impending duel.
Nick Evanson, Hardware Writer: Does a game have to be revolutionary or unique to stand out? Ghost of Tsushima is a perfect example of something that doesn't really bring anything new to the table but what it does offer is a moving story, told through finely-crafted gameplay and replete with sumptuous scenery and vistas. The fact that it runs so smoothly on all kinds of gaming PCs is no trivial matter either, especially after so many disappointing PC ports we've all had to endure. It's the only samurai game I come back to, time and time again.
91. Dead Cells
Released Aug 6, 2018 | Top 100 Score 221.85
Rich Stanton: Dead Cells was a great roguelike at launch, but the way it was subsequently built-upon through early access has made it an all-timer. Best of all was how the game subtly changed over time, increasingly focusing on the bizarre and wonderful combinations of weapons/perks you could obtain on each run and, no matter how OP you manage to get, almost always killing you anyway.
Phil Savage: This has become my #1 Steam Deck game by some distance, even though I will never come close to completing it.
Wes Fenlon: What a great run of expansions Dead Cells had; I know its original developer wasn't happy to see the support wrap up, but I think it was better to call it a complete package and move on after seven years. But after that Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania DLC, can we just go ahead and give Evil Empire a full Castlevania game already? Get with it, Konami.
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90. Outer Wilds
Released May 28, 2019 | Top 100 Score 222.02
Robin Valentine: I'm not sure any game has nailed exploration to the degree that Outer Wilds has. Its solar system is in truth a little clockwork diorama, stuck in a 22 minute long time loop—and yet within that tiny sandbox, the feeling of discovery is so big and so rich. Every expedition you make, you're learning and piecing together how things work, who came before you, and how you can turn your environment to your advantage—or you're dying in ridiculous and embarrassing ways, and laughing all the way to the next loop.
Tyler Colp, Associate Editor: No other game has made the endless expanse of space feel so warm and small. Outer Wilds is a game about hope and despair in equal parts and I don’t think I’ve played a game that balanced the two so well. It’s an extremely clever game that deeply cares about letting you poke and prod your way through it on your own so every discovery is yours, and I think that’s what makes it one of the most special games I’ve played.
89. Death Stranding
Released Mar 30, 2022 | Top 100 Score 222.09
Rich Stanton: Death Stranding is 100% a vibes game. Though I watched the cutscenes my first time through, and am always interested in teasing out Kojima's themes, this is an experience that (like hill-walking itself) needs a certain mindset. It's a game I've been through twice and is now one I return to just to be in that zone again for a couple of hours, totally relaxed as I plan out my route, long past the stage of caring about timings or grades and even BTs.
The days of being a hero deliveryman are over: now I'm just Sam, out for a walk with BB and the camera, luxuriating in a virtual world that feels made for contemplation. The great poet William Wordsworth once said he composed while walking, that steady pace its own rhythm for the mind, and in Death Stranding at its best you know how he felt. I'm not sure whether Kojima Productions set out to make a zen simulator but, after living with this game for years, that's somehow where I've ended up with it.
Lincoln Carpenter, News Writer: When Death Stranding released on PC, it was just a few short months after I'd quit my six-year stint as a deliveryman during the height of Covid lockdown. At the time, a prolonged meditation on mortality through the eyes of a courier wandering a disaster-struck America hit a little too close to home. Just picked it up recently, though, and hey: turns out delivery work can be really enjoyable when it's not a personally existential concern.
Not every game could make a satisfying experience out of stumbling down a rainy hillside, but the greatest strength of any Kojima game is its unwavering commitment to the bit. Here, that means devoting a AAA budget to making the most engaging Puttering Around Moody Vistas Simulator possible. It's a pretty good bit.
Wes Fenlon: Kojima's games always teeter on the edge of devolving into self-indulgent bullshit, but Death Stranding strikes the perfect balance between goofery and wankery. It's all preachy, long cutscenes in one moment and slapstick comedy the next, as soon as you trip over a pebble and fall over in a knee-high creek. I think Chris Livingston hit on the essence of Death Stranding when he ranked Sam Porter Bridges the worst- and best-named protagonist in videogames circa 2020. Bring on the sequel.
88. Pentiment
Released Nov 15, 2022 | Top 100 Score 222.30
Andy Chalk: Pentiment starts at a slow burn, but that's what set the hook: Out of nowhere, I was suddenly immersed in a world filled with living, breathing people whose names I knew and lives I cared about. I tried so hard to do the right thing. And in the end, that's all I can say—I tried.
Jody Macgregor: Dragon Age 2 had this great idea where instead of traveling the land you'd stay in one place as it changed over the years. Only it didn't really change in any meaningful ways because EA gave BioWare a deadline of like three weeks to make the entire thing. Pentiment is that same great idea, only Obsidian had enough time to cook. You get to know a 16th century Bavarian town and the people who live there as you work to solve a murder mystery, then you see it change over the decades due to the consequences of your actions. Everything that goes wrong? Probably your fault. You're as bad as EA.
Joshua Wolens: Sorry to everyone I got executed for murders they probably didn't do. My bad.
87. The Case of the Golden Idol
Released Oct 13, 2022 | Top 100 Score 222.36
Robin Valentine: The only thing more fascinating than Golden Idol's intricate mysteries, is the grotesque, gurning faces of its cast. A twisting, complex, and fascinating story of murder, magic, and authoritarianism, told in a truly unique way that compels you to pore over its every detail. Make sure to play the excellent DLC mysteries too.
Christopher Livingston: It's fascinating to me how novel and original Golden Idol is, while at the same time feeling so familiar for anyone who loves murder mysteries. You've seen this before: a woman dead in the parlor of a fancy-ass mansion while a cluster of eccentric onlookers (aka: the suspects) look on in horror. That's where you come in to dig through the scene as it lies frozen in time before you, to examine clues and assess motives and even dig through the pockets and personal items of the suspects and victim. Brilliantly, there's even a detective on the scene and you can pore through his notes, too. If you enjoy murder mysteries and detective fiction, The Case of the Golden Idol is not to be missed. It's the rare game that would make a fantastic novel.
86. Ultrakill
Released Sep 3, 2020 (Early Access) | Top 100 Score 222.90
Ted Litchfield, Associate Editor: We're still waiting for the third and final episode of this high-flying, combo-focused FPS, but Ultrakill is already an absolute heater in Early Access: An absurdist retelling of Dante's Inferno where you play a blood-powered omnicidal robot invading hell in search for fuel. It plays like Doom Eternal running at 1.5x speed.
My favorite level remains the luxury Titanic-style yacht floating on the Ocean Styx—it's overflown on account of all the killing you've done, you see—and makes use of one of my favorite level design shticks. You go through the ship as expected in the first half of the level, but then it starts sinking and you have to trek back through upside-down. De_rats funhouse stuff might be the quickest way to my heart, as far as level design goes.
Wes Fenlon, Senior Editor: I accidentally played Turbo Overkill instead of Ultrakill. Lest you make the same mistake I did: Turbo Overkill is the one with the chainsaw leg. Ultrakill is the one where you heal by showering in your enemies' blood. Hope that helps.
85. Destiny 2
Released Oct 24, 2017 | Top 100 Score 222.91
Jacob Ridley: I mean we're all still playing it, right?
Tim Clark, Brand Director: Yes Jacob, yes we are. If you'd asked me this time last year whether Bungie had any realistic prospect of sticking the landing with The Final Shape, I wouldn't have taken any bets. But stick it they very much did. The new subclass is an all-you-can-eat buffet, the story actually got tied off satisfactorily, and there were some genuine emotional beats landed. Briefly, the community was even… happy.
Phil Savage: Destiny 2 has had plenty of ups and downs, but right now, thanks to The Final Shape, it's absolutely worth playing.
Sean Martin: Definitely, as Phil says, Destiny 2 is in a very good spot right now in terms of content. The introduction of the new prismatic subclass, how it interacts with older exotics, and the new exotic class item combining multiple exotic perks has really contributed to build variety in a massive way. Players seem a bit unsure about Destiny 2's future, but as it stands there are more than enough reasons for me to keep playing.
84. Inside
Released Jul 7, 2016 | Top 100 Score 222.98
Robin Valentine: Still maybe the best ending in videogames, right?
Elie Gould, News Writer: I absolutely despise getting chased, be that in real life or (more often) in games, so Inside was never easy for me to get through—that one section where you have to outsmart the dogs hunting you down still haunts me. But even with my irrational fear, Inside may still be one of my favourite games to pick up again years after release. Its puzzles are simple enough that I can do them under pressure yet creative enough that I feel accomplished once I figure them out. Couple this with the beautiful locations and you have a pretty unforgettable game.
Sean Martin: Inside remains one of the best side-scrolling puzzle platformers ever made, showcasing the potential of the genre in a way few have achieved since. I just wish there was more news about Playdead's next game.
Rich Stanton: A flawless gem. Inside is a brilliant puzzle-platformer, and supremely clever in how it combines brain-teasing challenges with immediate threats. But what really sticks with you is how the facility slowly unfolds itself, the looming horror on all sides, and the awful question of just who you are: and what you're doing here. A masterpiece.
83. Sid Meier's Civilization 5
Released Sep 23, 2010 | Top 100 Score 223.06
Nick Evanson: Sure, Civ 6 is okay and all that jazz, and Civ 4 is very good, but number five? Now that is perfection and probably the only 'real' Civilization game that matters. All the little things that annoyed me in 3 and 4 were swept away to be replaced by a structure that just works, and it almost certainly defines the phrase 'just one more turn'. Even the DLCs are great, especially Brave New World, and how many games can you say that about? If I was ever going to be stuck on a desert island for the rest of my life and could only take one game with me, it'd be Civ 5.
Phil Savage: If you're new to the series, Civ 6 is probably the one to play—especially following its many updates and DLCs. But I have more personal affection for Civ 5, and have lost many, many more nights to its compelling 4X loop.
82. Hotline Miami
Released Oct 23, 2012 | Top 100 Score 223.29
Jake Tucker, Editorial Director – PC Gaming Show: Ostensibly about combat, Hotline Miami is a puzzle game where the conundrum is how you can better murder an army of criminals in tightly designed levels. The throbbing soundtrack, endless parade of white-suited mobsters and vicious ultraviolence combine to create a flow-state fever dream. Stacks of indie games have tried to emulate the split-second brutality of Hotline Miami, but nobody does it better than Dennaton Games.
Tyler Wilde, US Editor-in-Chief: The M.O.O.N. songs on Hotline Miami's soundtrack remain in my regular rotation. Night jogs, night walks, night drives, night train rides, night workouts, sitting on the couch and looking at your phone (at night)—whatever you're doing at night, you can trust Hydrogen or Paris to make it feel like you're winning. The game is pretty good, too.
81. Kentucky Route Zero
Released Feb 22, 2013 | Top 100 Score 223.50
Andy Chalk: Kentucky Route Zero is an incredible vibe. A man, a dog, a truck, a delivery to make, fate skulking in the sweaty corners of twilight: A slow drift along a mystical highway cutting through the heartland of America. Gameplay, well, that's a little more basic. You wander around moody, sharp-angled set pieces, clicking on this and that to see what's what, occasionally engaging in brief chats with NPCs who have other things on their minds; there's no right or wrong, and everything gets you where you need to be eventually.
But it's the experience that matters, and Kentucky Route Zero has feels a-plenty. "Haunting" is an overused cliche, but it's also the perfect descriptor for KRZ, which grows progressively darker and more emotionally difficult over its acts and interludes. Pretentious post-modernism for ennui junkies? I don't think so. Action junkies need not apply, but for those with a taste for unhurried, meditative trips, Kentucky Route Zero is a moving journey through a world unseen that at times threatens to become uncomfortably familiar to us all.
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80. Caves of Qud
Released Jul 15, 2015 (Early Access) | Top 100 Score 223.80
Lincoln Carpenter: Caves of Qud is a traditional, tile-based roguelike that has a nontraditional fascination with chrome spindles, transdimensional excretions, and books full of procedural gibberish. It's a game where every run has its own layered, surreal history to uncover and every cave could contain a cybernetic implant that lets you conjure unlimited force knives. If you love imagining possible worlds and possible builds, Qud is a terrible, beautiful beartrap.
Wes Fenlon: With Qud's exit from early access imminent, I fully expect it to move far higher up the Top 100 next year. It's the closest thing to Dwarf Fortress's emergent, simulated storytelling we've got in a roguelike, with the addition of tons of fantastic, bespoke writing in the "weird fiction" sci-fi vein. There's nothing like it.
79. Baldur's Gate 2
Released Sep 26, 2000 | Top 100 Score 224.13
Robert Jones: Legendary. That sums it up, really. Baldur's Gate 2 remained the fantasy CRPG of all time until Larian Studios went ahead and made its jaw-dropping sequel. But, while many gamers may consider the third entry in the series the overall better game to play today in 2024, there's no doubting that it is this second entry, from the CRPG masters of old, BioWare, that is the most influential in the fantasy RPG genre.
The memorable writing and characters, the deep-but-approachable game mechanics, the stunning Infinity Engine graphics, the cinematic flair, the great voice acting (David Warner as evil wizard Irenicus is perfect), and a world depicted with genuine love and care, all set the template for later fantasy RPGs to follow. Without Baldur's Gate 2, there's no Dragon Age, Elder Scrolls, Divinity: Original Sin or, yes, the new fantasy RPG king, Baldur's Gate 3.
Joshua Wolens: Not many games can boast what Baldur's Gate can: Every entry in the series is unalloyed gold, and this 24-year-old Infinity Engine game can still hold its own against its much-feted successor from last year. Clever, epic, and with a power curve nothing has matched before or since, this is still a must-play in 2024.
78. Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon
Released Aug 24, 2023 | Top 100 Score 224.32
Wes Fenlon: Fittingly FromSoftware's first 120 fps PC game, Armored Core 6 blends mecha cool, sci-fi dystopia, and truly vast build variety into its most straightforward action game. Tinker, tailor, solder, smash.
Also, if you never got into any of the Souls games because you thought the stories were just too vague and esoteric? Well, AC6 is for you: it's a straightforward sci-fi story full of characters with large personalities, betrayal after betrayal, and multiple endings with a story that reveals its full breadth after multiple playthroughs. This is one of the most rewarding NG++'s you'll ever play.
Harvey Randall: Armored Core 6 is brave enough to ask: what if FromSoftware didn't make you pay to upgrade weapons or respec? Turns out, a ton of great stuff.
77. Deep Rock Galactic
Released May 13, 2020 | Top 100 Score 224.73
Robin Valentine, Senior Editor: There are a lot of co-op games these days, but few force you to truly cooperate like Deep Rock Galactic does. Each player is armed with their own distinctive set of excavation and exploration tools—only by combining yours with everyone else's in creative ways do you have a chance of making your way through the game's alien caverns.
It's also one of the few games that in my eyes really does something special with procedural generation. Every level it spits out for you is unique, creating a sense of exploration but more importantly ensuring you always have a fresh challenge to take on together. Unlike many co-op shooters, Deep Rock Galactic's missions can never be "solved", and there is no perfect approach—all you can do is improvise in the face of whatever's in front of you.
Sean Martin, Guides Writer: If you like Helldivers 2's little minigames where you activate fuel pumps or launch ICBMs while fending off waves of enemies, you'll adore Deep Rock. If anything this game is even more tactical since you have to balance building with defence, as you tunnel through rock to lay a pipeline or repair some malfunctioning contraption while beset by bugs.
76. Dishonored 2
Released Nov 11, 2016 | Top 100 Score 220.25, promoted by Fraser Brown
Fraser Brown: Ignore the number—Dishonored 2 will always be a top 10 game. Arkane's gift to humanity is the pinnacle of immsim stealthy sandboxes: freakishly flexible, devilishly smart, and god damn is it a looker, with a bold art direction that's refusing to age. I broke my rule about not responding to emails on holiday to make sure this bad boy stayed on the list—that's how much I love it. No sacrifice is too big for Thief's greatest descendant.
It's the type of sandbox whose wonders unfurl slowly as you experiment and gently nudge or vigorously push the world and watch the dominos scatter. It's one of the only games where I actually enjoy watching other people play, if only to get some creative ideas about how to use the incredible suite of skills we've been given. The unbeatable level design elevates this even more, planting us in these amazing spaces full of secrets and quirks and fascinating mechanics. Arkane's had a rough time recently, but I pray this isn't the last we'll see of Dishonored.
75. Chivalry 2
Released Jun 12, 2022 | Top 100 Score 225.00
Tyler Wilde: This multiplayer medieval warfare game is both extremely unserious—there's a key dedicated to shouting and you can beat your enemies to death with flaming chickens—and 100% serious, with thoughtfully-designed melee combat that gives outnumbered sword fighters a chance, at least if they're skilled enough (and some are). It's the perfect combo of sweaty and silly, and is still getting regular updates: a new map and weapon were added in May.
Natanael Albuquerque, Social Media Editor: You jump in expecting Middle Ages scuffles, and immediately get owned by a bard wielding a wooden lute with 5,000 years of knight-slaying experience, screaming “Dodge this, you bastard!”. Mastering the swordplay is an art form by itself, unmatched by other medieval combat games.
Evan Lahti, Strategic Director: When I string seven kills together with the war axe, if you looked in my skull you'd just see the "He can't keep getting away with it!" meme. It's that same guilty feeling you find in Battlefield, a combination of luck and flow resulting in a chain of decapitations you can't help but immediately clip.
74. Max Payne
Released Jul 25, 2001 | Top 100 Score 225.00
Jake Tucker: Max Payne lit a fire inside me like a bottle of hot sauce poured down my throat, a time when I insufferably talked like a half-baked noir character and wondered if it would be faster to get everywhere by shootdodging instead of the pathetic walking I’d done up until that point.
Payne, emblazoned with the ever-grimacing mug of Remedy creative director Sam Lake, is a trauma-ridden cop having the worst night of his life, and by the time it’s done you’ll have killed every mook in New York in a series of brutal and frenetic firefights. It’s a dumb '90s action movie in video game form, but you’ll smile through every second of it.
Andy Chalk: I don't think Max Payne has held up overly well over the years—James McCaffrey's voice acting seems particularly flat compared to his later work—but the game that gave us bullet time, Dick Justice, and some of the best faux-noir quotes in videogame history will always be a favorite in my book. "He was trying to buy more sand for his hourglass. I wasn't selling any." Perfection!
73. Papers, Please
Released Aug 8, 2013 | Top 100 Score 225.19
Harvey Randall: One of the few games I've played that actually makes choosing to suck at it a mechanic itself. Papers, Please plays with the space of failure in games—often a mere punishment—and asks you just how many hits you're willing to take to preserve goodness in a drab and heartless world.
Fraser Brown: Look, it's just fun to be really depressed and perform menial tasks under the yoke of an authoritarian regime. Hang on a minute… no it's not. Yet Papers, Please remains exceptional—one of those special indie games that forever changed the texture of videogames. It's still often imitated, spawning plenty of other games about endlessly working miserable jobs while dealing with tyrants, but it's never been outdone.
72. Cyberpunk 2077
Released Dec 10, 2020 | Top 100 Score 221.05, promoted by Robert Jones
Wes Fenlon: After Phantom Liberty, Cyberpunk 2.0 deserves even higher placement! I bounced off completely at launch but found myself fully immersed in Night City last year. The reworked RPG skill trees thread wonderfully into different combat styles. The way mocapped characters lean against walls or constantly move in cutscenes is so stunning I even accept having to hear the word "choom" ad infinitum.
Joshua Wolens: Sticking Keanu Reeves' angry, angsty ghost in your head is the best idea CDPR ever had. Johnny Silverhand makes Cyberpunk for me, and your developing friendship with him takes it from 'great RPG' to 'personal all-timer'. Johnny starts out as an abrasive egotist and he, well, remains that, but a heart of gold shines through. You're welcome in my brain anytime, Silverhand.
Harvey Randall: It took me a long time to get around to playing Cyberpunk 2077. Living in an age where games are often only good months (or years) after the fact doesn't sit right with me—but I can't deny the fact that this game is really, really good when all is said and done. Also, I got to make a build entirely around throwing knives.
Andy Chalk: I was furious about Jackie. And it's literally impacted how I play the game—which, for the record, I only started recently. Up to the end of the prologue, I was being carefully merciful with non-fatal takedowns, doing my best to avoid inflicting any real harm. But now? You get in my way, you get a bullet. Night City's gonna burn.
71. Alien Isolation
Released Oct 6, 2014 | Top 100 Score 225.29
Rich Stanton: The only Alien game ever made where I am actually scared of the Alien, and a perfect corrective to Hollywood's mismanagement of the series. This was a labour of love for its developers, and that shines through in the bravery of building the whole thing around one Alien, and an environment that actually feels like a lived-in and functional space station. The superb 'Crew Expendable' DLC taking us back to the Nostromo was honestly just showing off.
Fraser Brown: Just in time for the Top 100, I finally did it! I finally, after a decade of trying, finished Alien Isolation. It's only taken me this long because no game has made me feel so sick with terror, kicking me right back to the first time I watched Alien, far too young, before I spent the next year having nightmares about xenomorphs bursting out of my chest. I am relieved that I will never have to play it again.
Phil Savage: Hmm, yeah, about that, Fraser...
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70. Strange Horticulture
Released Jan 21, 2020 | Top 100 Score 225.30
Jody Macgregor: There's a mystery subgenre about detectives with unrelated day jobs—a retired cop who runs a restaurant, a pair of gardeners, etc. Strange Horticulture is that, only you've inherited a plant shop where half the mystery is what the unlabelled flowers are. While solving that with the help of a book of plant lore, you're roped into a mystery with poisonings and druid rituals that can conveniently be solved by someone who has suddenly become an expert in occult botany.
Christopher Livingston: There's such pleasure in the tiny little mysteries of Strange Horticulture. Each day a handful of customers will come in looking for a particular type of plant, knowing only a tiny shred of information about it. Based on a description of its flower or leaf or scent or medicinal properties, you pore over your book and examine the unlabeled plants in your store with your magnifying glass until you figure out what it is and what it's called. The reward? More unusual flora added to your book to help you solve the next round of mysteries, until your shop shelves are jam packed with beautiful (and now labeled) plants.
69. Signalis
Released Oct 27, 2022 | Top 100 Score 225.30
Tyler Colp: Signalis is a grimy, psychological horror game that looks a lot like an old Resident Evil. Although it may feel small, its world is vast and surreal and an unforgettably haunting setting for a touching story about androids. Playing it is surreal and confusing in the kind of ways you want a good horror game to be and the payoff for taking your time to piece together its dream-like story is superb. Signalis is more than a retro-feeling horror game, it’s a rollercoaster of stunning imagery and tense exploration with an unwavering vision.
Jody Macgregor: When a long-running series of horror movies goes sci-fi it's usually not a good sign. And yet, even though Signalis is essentially the Silent Hill equivalent of Leprechaun 4: In Space, it's a masterpiece.
68. Titanfall 2
Released Oct 28, 2016 | Top 100 Score 225.35
Jake Tucker: Titanfall 2’s campaign is a selection box of fantastic FPS ideas. Every level does something new with the theme or mechanics, sparking the sort of curiosity and joy usually reserved for Nintendo games. The timey wimey fun of Effect and Cause is popular enough to give the level its own Wikipedia entry, but the game is littered with shining ideas like this and you get to pilot a mech. Perfection.
Fraser Brown: One of the last times I really clicked with an FPS campaign, Titanfall 2 is one of the greats. The level of creativity is right up there with Dishonored 2, one of my all-time favourite games, and each mission displays this unexpected sense of whimsy and joy, creating this experience that is so much more than just shooting things with your BFF, who is also a mech.
67. Monster Hunter: World
Released Aug 8, 2018 | Top 100 Score 225.66
Wes Fenlon: Monster Hunter Rise is called the "anime bullshit" Monster Hunter, and even with my extremely high anime BS tolerance I prefer the weightier World, which emphasises the natural ecosystem and doesn't demand I literally herd cats and dogs.
Robin Valentine: Rise definitely felt like a throwback, more suited to handheld—on PC, World is still the definitive Monster Hunter experience, an incredible modernisation of the series that makes its deep and nuanced systems more accessible than they've ever been before. There are few rushes in gaming as intense as bringing down a mighty beast together with your friends, and World makes it look and feel better than in any other entry.
Kara Phillips, Evergreen Writer: I swore by Rise for a while when it launched, but after pouring an almost ungodly amount of time into World it's hard to hold Rise on the same pedestal. Monster Hunter: World does all it can to put you into the shoes of the hunter, offering a huge variety of beasties to slay in enchanting labyrinthian maps that you'll get lost in no matter how long you've been playing. Even hundreds of hours in you just don't get bored, and I finally respect the grind of wanting a specific weapon or set of armour. As much as I adore Rise, World has filled the Monster Hunter sized hole in my heart. For now, at least.
Lincoln Carpenter: After becoming incurably Monster Hunter-pilled with the 3DS titles, the breakout success of Monster Hunter: World had the heartwarming feeling of watching the world fall in love with my best friend. And how could it not? I might be playing more Rise nowadays, but in my heart, World remains the best showcase for the balletic rhythm of bread-and-butter Monster Hunter combat—and of Capcom's clear passion for making a t-rex with a molten sword-tail feel like a piece of a believable ecology. The monsters are the soul of Monster Hunter, and they've never been better realized than in World.
If you're a Soulslike fan who hasn't yet caught the Monster Hunter bug, you owe it to yourself to give it a try. You'll find a similar momentum in fighting Capcom's catalogue of lizards and—while it might be a bit less punishing—it's no less rewarding.
66. Kerbal Space Program
Released Apr 27, 2015 | Top 100 Score 225.77
Phil Savage: Here's a phenomenon that I've noticed about Top 100 voting over the years: A disappointing sequel can also ruin the placement of its better, more beloved predecessor. It's almost as if the stink of the sequel's failure taints our perception of a game we once loved. See the lack of Cities: Skylines in this year's list as a prime example.
Not Kerbal Space Program, though. The early access sequel may be being beasted in the Steam reviews, but the original sandbox space sim is still holding its own in our list. It's still a magnificent, almost perfectly formed playbox—an entertaining engine for physics-driven slapstick. Not even a bad sequel can spoil that, because Kerbal is already an endlessly enjoyable sandbox for building rockets and trying to fix the rocket-based disasters that result.
Natanael Albuquerque: I'm not a NASA engineer and have incredibly limited experience with space shuttles, so it took me around 25 hours to land on Mun successfully with my little green friends. Patience is a key factor in KSP. You'll need a lot of it to withstand the early trial and error. Fortunately, its active online community is always ready to support you and the Kerbals' mission in conquering space.
65. Rust
Released Feb 8, 2018 | Top 100 Score 225.80
Andy Edser, Hardware Writer: Rust is humanity distilled down to its purest components. By which I mean creativity, paranoia, and utter brutality. There you'll be, merrily gathering resources for your ramshackle base, only to pause like a fearful gazelle. What was that? A shadow? Must be nothing. Seconds later, gunfire and a fade to black. Your corpse is looted. You have been Rust-ed. It's pure paranoia that'll drag you back in, again and again, and a game that stands as a testament to why we're a terrible, terrible species. Sorry, did I get all philosophical? Rust will do that to you. It'll also encourage you to throw your monitor off of the nearest tall building.
64. Diablo 2
Released Jun 28, 2000 | Top 100 Score 226.00
Rich Stanton: I'm not going to say that dungeon crawling loot-em-ups never got any better than Diablo 2, but hear me out: maybe they didn't. Diablo 2 is perfectly happy just to let you build a little murder person, and run around with other little murder people spamming the bejesus out of attacks that turn all monster crowds into bloody gibs. And then it lets you do it again.
Tyler Wilde: The supposedly "dark" Diablo 4 looks like a video slot machine next to Diablo 2, which was so literally dark you couldn't see to the edge of the screen. It felt lonely and dangerous.
63. Resident Evil 4 (Remake)
Released Mar 24, 2023 | Top 100 Score 226.05
Elie Gould: After spending half of 2023 complaining about all the uninspired remakes we were getting, Resident Evil 4 not only made me look like a fool but completely changed my mind about remakes. There aren't many games that can make you feel so effortlessly cool, but playing as Leon backflipping around the Spanish countryside while fighting off plagued villagers ticks all the boxes. It managed to retain most of the original's quirky personality while making sensible changes and improvements—I'm still so happy they got rid of the strange Facetime calls where Saddler and Salazar would just call you an idiot.
Sean Martin: It's a testament to the quality of this remake that it plays exactly how I remember the original. It wasn't until later that I realised quite how much had been added, including new weapons, puzzles, and improved horror sequences, plus even a little shooting gallery where you can earn charms for your gun case.
62. Nier: Automata
Released Mar 17, 2017 | Top 100 Score 226.29
Mollie Taylor, Features Producer: Hi, it's me, the person who gushes about this game every dang year. Nier: Automata has everything: A gripping story, immaculate post-apocalyptic vibes and a button that lets you explode the skirt off one of the main characters. There's rarely a dull moment throughout, its story beats constantly surprising me or leaving me in suspense. It's all pulled together by some fantastic action combat that looks and feels satisfying to play.
Wes Fenlon: Kind of wild that this many years after Automata, few games have done anything remotely as creative or ambitious with the way its multiple playthroughs hop between protagonists, show you the story from different angles, and build to a grander, wilder ending than you could imagine going in.
I'll be honest, though: the original Nier's pairing of companions Kainé and Weiss is still my favorite, much as Automata is the stronger game on the whole.
Joshua Wolens: One of the best endings, and actual, meaningful climactic moral choices, in any game anywhere. If you didn't choose the selfless option I'm afraid we can't be friends.
61. Team Fortress 2
Released Oct 10, 2007 | Top 100 Score 226.69
Elie Gould: I was a bit late to this party—Team Fortress 2 was released in 2007 when I was just seven years old. But having TF2 as the first real FPS my friends and I played together means it has a very special place in my heart. Years later we would try hopping back into lobbies every now and then, and thanks to Valve stepping in we're finally seeing some action taken against botting. We can finally enjoy it again without being sniped from halfway across the map while standing behind a 10-foot wall.
Phil Savage: Please don't make me have an existential crisis about the fleeting nature of time and existence on a Monday afternoon, Elie. At least TF2 is immortal.
Evan Lahti: Frankenstein's monster. TF2 has seen 798 patches at time of writing, an amount of surgery that would have any game walking very strangely. And though I stopped playing it a long time ago, PC gaming owes 13% of its modern state to this spectacular guinea pig. Deadlock is one of its many descendents, built on the almost two decades of experimentation on design, storytelling, monetization, and turning the characters into anthropomorphic birds.
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60. System Shock (Remake)
Released May 30, 2023 | Top 100 Score 226.88
Ted Litchfield: This is the best entry point into the entire 'Shock series in 2024, both System- and Bio-. The Remake may not have System Shock 2's creepy biological horror or Bioshock's high falutin' notions about Objectivism, but it's an incredible first person shooter whose cyberpunk aesthetic feels fresh even with the genre's overexposure. It's also a masterclass in how to remake a game, what to change, and what to leave alone.
Andy Chalk: It broke my heart a little to let the System Shock remake be held up as 'Shock champion over the brilliance of System Shock 2, but Ted is right: This is the one to play right now. It's a brilliant remake of a groundbreaking immersive sim that feels as new and vital as any more recent additions to the genre.
59. Unavowed
Released Aug 8, 2018 | Top 100 Score 227.10
Robin Valentine: A masterful combination of classic point-and-click adventure with BioWare-style companions and moral choices. It feels like an experiment in how a very old-fashioned genre can be made to feel fresh and relevant in the modern gaming landscape, and the result is something really striking that I wish had been more influential than it was.
Its urban fantasy world—where djinn and demons lurk just under the surface of mundane life—is so enthralling, and the perfect setting for a story that effortlessly weaves between moments of lightness and humour, and truly dark and terrible crimes. That central narrative is bolstered by developer Wadjet Eye's extensive experience creating supernatural mysteries in the Blackwell games, but feels more ambitious, expansive, and complete than any of its past work.
Fraser Brown: Play this, and then go and play every Wadjet Eye adventure game, especially the Blackwell series. Like Robin says, this one's more ambitious, but bickering crime-solvers Rosa and her dead pal Joey get stuck into some exceptional mysteries bolstered by some best-in-class puzzles (and, admittedly, a few absolutely infuriating ones). Adventure gaming at its absolute best.
58. Fortnite
Released Sep 26, 2017 | Top 100 Score 227.24
Nick Evanson: It's just a game for kids, right? One for parents to rage about and the media to knock up stories about how it's the doom of humanity. It's none of these things, just a perfectly balanced multiplayer game that's fun, easy to play, and has masses of free content to keep you occupied for hours on end. It was a kid who got me into playing it but it's my partner, a fully grown adult, who insists we hammer out a few rounds each night. Countless others have tried to emulate its success but few have succeeded.
57. The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind
Released May 1, 2002 | Top 100 Score 227.37
Joshua Wolens: Before the Dragonborn, there was the Nerevarine, and they're on a quest to assassinate god because a shirtless skooma addict asked them to. Sometimes broken, often unintuitive, and always gloriously strange, Morrowind was Bethesda at its most narratively and mechanically ambitious, set in a world built on belief systems as alien as its house-sized mushrooms.
Andy Chalk: Morrowind was peak Bethesda: Janky, weird, and fearless, the work of a studio on the cusp of greatness—and, unfortunately, the subsequent slide into caution that so often sets in when ambition is supplanted by mainstream expectation. The Elder Scrolls at that time still felt loose and breezy, a place free of the ossified lore (ugh) that's built up over subsequent years, and Morrowind was so much more interesting for it: Yeah, the Dark Brotherhood is cool, but have you ever tried the Morag Tong?
56. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege
Released Dec 1, 2015 | Top 100 Score 227.38
Tyler Wilde: It's buggier than the underside of a log, but Ubisoft's tactical shooter remains one of my go-to games for casual competition. Its gadget-heavy SWAT tactics lead to great moments where my Discord crew's plans fail or succeed spectacularly, but I also favor Siege just for being the rare competitive shooter with a genuinely low time-to-kill and lethal headshots.
Morgan Park, Staff Writer: I'm continually impressed by Rainbow Six Siege's longevity—it really is the little FPS that could—but its best strength is adaptability. Ubisoft has shown an uncommon willingness to upend Siege's rules in response to player behavior. Years ago I would've told you that giving defenders assault rifles, adding a hard-breaching secondary gadget, or letting attackers repick operators before the round starts would throw Siege's balance all out of whack, and I would've been wrong. Siege turns 10 in 2025, and I have no reason to believe it won't live on for many more years.
55. The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
Released Nov 4, 2014 | Top 100 Score 227.90
Elie Gould: The Binding of Isaac is the kind of love/hate relationship that I look for in all my roguelikes. The ever-changing layouts, gross enemies, and fun builds have always been enough to absolutely capture my attention. Whenever I have enough time to launch it again I'm always surprised to discover just how engrossed I become, and how much effort it takes to try and make my way to the end. The writing may not be for everyone but the gory art set the bar back in 2011, and over a decade later, I'm pressed to find a roguelike I enjoy more.
Robin Valentine: For me a lot of its edgy and scatalogical humour has aged pretty badly, but its core roguelike mechanics, with their emphasis on discovering new wild and exciting builds every run, are still solid—and it's easy to see how influential they've been on the rest of the genre.
54. Warhammer: Vermintide 2
Released Mar 8, 2018 | Top 100 Score 227.97
Harvey Randall: Vermintide 2 took the ball Left 4 Dead 2 threw and ran with it past the finish line, out the stadium, and touched down in an entirely different ballgame (I don't know sports). An exceptional addition to the core machine that made Valve's work sing.
Lincoln Carpenter: Straight up, cleaving through a crowd of ratmen with a charged attack from Bardin Goreksson's greataxe is the peak of first person melee combat.
Wes Fenlon: If you haven't lately, give Darktide a chance—I adore its mega crunchy boltgun and revamped skill trees. The new hotness to Vermintide 2's old reliable. Both are great, and Vermintide has the volume of stages and stuff to do on its side at this point, but Darktide really upped the presentation, weightiness of weapons, and is full of guns that feel appropriately devastating for 40K. My go-to co-op game.
53. Control
Released Aug 27, 2020 | Top 100 Score 228.17
Robin Valentine: Equal parts SCP Foundation and David Lynch, Control's strange and unsettling adventure feels like a real watershed moment for Remedy. One of gaming's most idiosyncratic studios was finally able to get as weird as it wanted on a grand scale, in the process kicking off its own connected universe (laying road for the even better Alan Wake 2, found higher up in our rankings). The world is definitely the biggest draw—the more you explore the Federal Bureau of Control, learning its secrets and witnessing its wonders and horrors, the more enthralled you become. But there's also plenty of fun to be had in its chaotic, scenery-destroying combat, especially once you earn enough psychic abilities to turn it from sometimes frustrating 3rd person shooter to full on telekinetic power fantasy, hurling objects and enemies around with abandon.
Phil Savage: Yeah, the standard complaint about Control—hell, about many Remedy games—is that the combat is a chore. And sure, it can be a drag—the gunplay is nothing special. But after I'd put enough points into upgrading my telekinesis and levitation abilities, I was having a good time floating around the map, turning office equipment into deadly missiles.
52. Wildermyth
Released Jun 15, 2021 | Top 100 Score 228.43
Harvey Randall: I only have kind words for Wildermyth—XCOM rendered as a cosy storybook, this thing's charming story vignettes add just enough flavour to your characters to project all sorts of stories onto them, often dramatically changing them in the process. It helps that it's a solid tactical RPG, too.
Robin Valentine: I don't think any other game evokes the feel of a rambling tabletop RPG campaign as well as Wildermyth does (sorry BG3). The way your heroes grow and change over the course of the adventures is always delightful and surprising, and even the often slightly off-kilter writing only enhances the scrappy, friends-around-a-table atmosphere.
51. Spelunky
Released Aug 8, 2013 | Top 100 Score 228.71
Joshua Wolens: No game has hooked me like Spelunky, the most moreish roguelike of all time. I spent much of 2013 just-one-more-running my way through several hundred hours of Spelunky, switching from sheer triumph to utter despair as the game's perfectly honed balance alternated between punishing and uplifting me. So when I finally got through the game's secret ending after however-many tens of hours, you'd think I'd be done, right? Wrong. I subsequently spent, oh, a few hundred hours over several years chasing after every achievement on its list, just to have an excuse to keep playing.
Oh, what sights I saw. I've done literally thousands of runs in Spelunky, but its wacky physics and endless array of creative deathtraps means it never ceases to find creative new ways to kill me. A stone on a jump pad lands on your head, knocking you out and sending you careening into a yeti who chucks you across the level and into a landmine, which detonates and sends you crashing into a shopkeeper who blows your head off with a shotgun? That's just Tuesday in Spelunky.
The sequel is great, sure, but something about the way the first game is balanced meant I kept coming back for more, where death in the second game inevitably ends with me sighing in defeat, putting the controller down, and walking away.
Evan Lahti: I just need to chime in with a contradiction and say that Spelunky 2 is so much more fun, easy on the eyes, and replayable than its ancestor. The 94-level proc-gen marathon finale alone is a creative achievement. Mossmouth is such a special outfit, a team taking aspects of classic games they adore and arranging them in ways that feel novel and native to this decade. UFO 50 (which released after our voting had been conducted) may make an appearance on the Top 100 next year, a sincere and expansive love letter to late '80s games.
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50. Hitman World of Assassination
Released Jan 20, 2022 | Top 100 Score 228.76
Lauren Morton, Associate Editor: I've only played Hitman 3, but I can say that part, at least, is top notch. There's a real joy in the well-built sandboxes that Hitman evokes over and over again with its intricate levels and deep stealth system. The answer to "can I kill this target in this way?" is almost always "yes" but the more fun question is how on earth to make it work. Solving those puzzles is what keeps me up for hours, never growing bored even as I'm crouched on the second floor landing of Dartmoor's stuffy library.
Phil Savage: It's definitely worth investing in the previous game's missions, Lauren. Each set of levels has a different flavour—demonstrating the progression of IO as designers as they work to figure out what modern Hitman should be. As a full trilogy package, Hitman World of Assassination has a truly absurd amount of things to do—not least of which is the more recent Freelancer mode, which turns the game into a compelling roguelike that challenges you to switch up how you play.
Lincoln Carpenter: With modern Hitman, IO's managed to grant a sense of lethal, professional gravitas to the slapstick absurdity of hurling a can of tomato sauce at a guard's head so you can wear his special pants. Agent 47 is simultaneously the world's greatest buffoon and the most terrifying apex predator humanity has ever produced, and any room with a throwable object is his hunting ground. Whenever I'm reminded of Hitman, I'm inevitably asking myself, "Why am I not playing more Hitman?"
49. Citizen Sleeper
Released May 5, 2022 | Top 100 Score 228.79
Jody Macgregor: Citizen Sleeper is half experimental RPG, half visual novel, only instead of an anime hero I'm a synthetic who lives in a shipping container and eats only noodles.
Harvey Randall: Citizen Sleeper is such an important game to me—a beautifully written batch of heartache and nostalgia that's as much about finding a new home as it is letting go.
Wes Fenlon: I really didn't expect Citizen Sleeper to grab me the way I did, but I pretty much didn't put it down until I had played through every storyline. The light mechanics added just the bit of tension it needed to make me feel particularly vulnerable aboard the space station I was trying to turn into a home. The storytelling is excellent, but the way Citizen Sleeper plays with the essence of the visual novel is what really makes it special.
48. Doom Eternal
Released Mar 20, 2020 | Top 100 Score 230.32
Morgan Park: Doom Eternal is a minor miracle—a vision of what the FPS genre would have become if people kept making Doom clones well into the 2000s and 2010s. id Software built on the success of the 2016 reboot in Eternal, widening the complexity of the Doomslayer's toolset with platforming, weak spots, and status effects until it landed on a glorious combat loop. Is it a bit much at times? Yes, as I still forgot to swap grenade types through my second playthrough. But I don't hold Eternal's complexity against it as much as others—an overabundance of options is a problem that I wish more games had, frankly, and four years later, we're still in a singleplayer FPS drought. Doom: The Dark Ages can't come soon enough.
47. Frostpunk
Released Apr 24, 2018 | Top 100 Score 230.76
Sean Martin: Frostpunk is one of the most atmospheric games I've ever played—impressive for a city-builder. Whenever I recall it, I can't help but transform into a grizzled Victorian recounting how he survived The Great Storm by eating his shoe leather.
Fraser Brown: Easily the most fun I've had accidentally letting Victorian urchins freeze to death. I'm sorry, urchins.
Christopher Livingston: It's amazing what you can talk yourself into when you're facing complete disaster. I mean, I wouldn't normally suggest children should work dangerous jobs in the coal mining industry. But I also don't want the entire city to freeze to death, so maybe, just this once? That sound you just heard was my morals being ejected from my body as if by catapult, and that's what Frostpunk is: a series of conundrums where every choice feels like a trolley problem and even when you succeed, you feel like at least part of you failed.
46. Into the Breach
Released Feb 27, 2018 | Top 100 Score 231.01
Wes Fenlon: Into the Breach is chess against monsters, only you choose whether your chess pieces have big guns, laser whips, or cleverer weapons that trick kaiju into killing each other.
Evan Lahti: One of the less-spoken-about appeals of roguelikes is the way they lay out a highly-modular set of nouns for you to unlock, plug, and unplug. Balatro is like this. Slay the Spire, Monster Train, and Enter the Gungeon are like this. It's such a pleasant structure to have these discrete things that incrementally alter the experience, and Into the Breach is one of the best-ever delivery systems of that feeling—when you unlock a new squad like the Mist Eaters and instantly click with their fighting style, it's like having a new martial art downloaded into your brain. (I love this game so much I commissioned art of my favorite mechs.)
And the way it expresses difficulty is so special. Reflecting the desperate story, there are genuine no-win scenarios. The possibility space is perfectly arranged on that 8x8 grid: you have an intuitive sense of what you can do, when a situation demands sacrifices or offers exactly one perfect solution.
45. Grand Theft Auto 5
Released Apr 14, 2015 | Top 100 Score 231.19
Morgan Park: If GTA 6 is as good as we hope it'll be, this might be one of GTA 5's final appearances on this list. Not that it'd be any less deserving—Rockstar's last mainline GTA is still an all-timer, with memorable missions, characters, and an undeniable open world that's just a joy to drive around.
Tyler Wilde: Despite Rockstar's reluctance to fully embrace the PC, it's where GTA 5 has really flourished, especially in modded roleplaying servers. Without them, we'd never have published classic PC Gamer headlines like "I posed as a lawyer and tried to clear a serial killer of murder" and "I tried to rob a jewellery store as a blind drunk Bad Santa."
44. Deus Ex
Released Jun 22, 2000 | Top 100 Score 231.22
Ted Litchfield: One of the most beloved games of all time, and somehow still an underrated work of science fiction. Its more absurd or goofy elements belie a cannier understanding of the world than its self-serious 2010s reboot, and I still think Deus Ex deserves a Metal Gear Solid 2-style reappraisal for what it had to say about surveillance, the internet, and the co-opting of public institutions by private wealth. I'm glad we all already agree it has phenomenal gameplay and vibes, though.
Jake Tucker: That phenomenal gameplay has somehow stood the test of time, and Deus Ex is as fun to play now as it was back in 2000, if not more relevant for its anti-capitalist, anti-surveillance messaging. Honestly though, I like it because it’s a science fiction sandbox where you’ll feel like a cinematic super-spy that can do everything. As long as that everything involves blowing up a load of robotic government agents with a GEP gun.
Andy Chalk: I realized (or recalled) a few things the last time I played Deus Ex. It looks kind of shitty, the voice acting is terrible, and the story is a barely-coherent mashup of '90s conspiracy nonsense that would make Chris Carter shake his head and leave the room. And it is so great! I do not understand it. I mean, I do to an extent. Its flexibility and reactivity are second to none, and if you want to get all cerebral about it I suppose its themes do resonate with contemporary fears of corporatocracy and the creeping surveillance state, which are even more relevant now than ever.
Capturing the zeitgeist or whatever the brainiacs want to call it is all well and good, but it still doesn't explain how the many clunky parts of Deus Ex came together in such a perfect whole that's as good today as it was in 2000, and for that I really don't have an explanation. Warren Spector did a deal at a crossroads, maybe? Whatever the reason, 24 years on Deus Ex is the Bret Hart of videogames: The best there is, the best there was, the best there ever will be.
Joshua Wolens: The thing about Deus Ex is that its politics are actually incredibly weird: the kind of baffling ideological smoothie that only the post-politics, pre-financial crisis era of the late 1990s could have produced. Its heroes are an alliance between the Situationist International, Chinese organised crime, and a right-wing militia from the Idaho panhandle while its villains are… a militarised UN backed by Bill Gates? Great. Sure. Whatever you say Deus Ex. Shine on you crazy diamond.
43. Animal Well
Released May 9, 2024 | Top 100 Score 231.30
Shaun Prescott: In this post-Hollow Knight world it's exceedingly tough to stand out among modern metroidvanias. Animal Well adopts the timeworn pleasures of filling out a vast, interconnected map, but replaces increasingly yawn-inducing Soulslike combat with puzzle-solving. That doesn't sound super inspiring as a concept, but the game's success is all in the loving details: the cryptic subterranean ambience, the imsim flexibility of your tools, and—not insignificantly—the fact that the world's secrets go so much deeper than most players will ever realise. Once the credits roll the real Animal Well begins, though you're going to need the help of other players to see its end.
42. Prey (2017)
Released May 4, 2017 | Top 100 Score 231.45
Andy Chalk: I will never not be angry that Prey didn't get a sequel. I will never not be angry that Arkane Austin is closed. With all due respect to Phil, I will never not be just a little bit irritated that we scored it a paltry 79% in our review. Prey is the real successor to the System Shock crown, a game that should have heralded a golden age for the immersive sim genre. Its Talos-1 space station was a joy to explore, tense, terrifying, and believable in equal measure, the deadly Typhon haunting its halls are marvellously alien, and it served up one of the most wonderfully awful oh no endings I've ever been hit with. Prey is a great game, and Prey deserved better.
Robert Jones: Unapologetically sci-fi and sciency, with physics puzzles and plenty of immersive sim goodness, Prey is the thinking person's FPS, partnering tense and violent combat with plenty of cerebral storytelling. Its mimic enemies, which are capable of changing form into anything, remain one of gaming's best baddies, too.
Joshua Wolens: A game which invites you to break it and gets giddy when you do. The most immersive sim to ever sim, and an all-time favourite for me.
41. Divinity: Original Sin 2
Released Sep 14, 2017 | Top 100 Score 231.97
Wes Fenlon: Original Sin 2 now feels a bit like the pencil sketch of a masterwork, but fantastic characters make it an RPG worth playing even after Baldur's Gate 3. Especially in co-op, where you have to outwit your friends in the finale to become the one true Divine.
Harvey Randall: Warts and all, Original Sin 2 only looks average when compared to one of the best RPGs of the decade, and is still spectacular on its own two feet.
Lauren Morton: This is the game that proved Larian Studios had the grit and vision to pull off Baldur's Gate 3. It doesn't have the same level of glorious talking right at your beautifully motion-captured party members fidelity, but the hectic sandbox combat, open-ended and open world questing, and irreverent humor are all packed in here. I knew Original Sin 2 was going to be excellent as soon as I started realizing just how many ways there were to escape from Fort Joy. And for the fandom folks: The Red Prince walked so Astarion could run.
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40. Vampire Survivors
Released Oct 20, 2022 | Top 100 Score 232.69
Fraser Brown: For a very long time, my Steam Deck was essentially a Vampire Survivors machine. It existed purely to let me fill the screen with gaudy effects and deadly projectiles as I tried to murder death, and anything else in my way. I lost so much sleep fighting my way through this bullet hell, and it felt like heaven.
Elie Gould: Vampire Survivors got me through a very difficult and draining Masters degree, so for that I owe it my life. After days where I'd spent my time dragging around a two ton broadcast camera (often in the rain) all I'd want to do once I got home was turn my brain off and have some fun, and there's no better way to do this than by fighting monsters in Vampire Survivors. It's one of the few games where I'm too scared to look at my Steam play time, but that hasn't stopped me popping back in every now and then to test just how strong the garlic weapon is (spoiler: it's still pretty strong).
Joshua Wolens: The actual cause of the productivity crisis.
39. Return of the Obra Dinn
Released Oct 18, 2018 | Top 100 Score 232.71
Jacob Ridley: Immediately sucked in by the art style of Obra Dinn, you'll stick around for the engrossing story. A murder mystery that requires genuine thought and careful consideration to complete, or at the very least to partially solve, I found myself hooked for hours playing Obra Dinn and thinking about it in the hours I wasn't. No doubt it's a great pick for a long flight with a Steam Deck or ROG Ally.
Richard Stanton: The best detective game ever made, and one of the few I've ever had to play with an IRL notebook to go along with the in-game one. I honestly don't know how Lucas Pope kept all the chronology and moving parts in his head.
Wes Fenlon: Obra Dinn is a brilliant mystery game for sure, but I really get a kick out of it having an extreme attention to detail while also making one character a walking French stereotype. If the marinière fits, I guess.
38. World of Warcraft
Released Nov 23, 2004 | Top 100 Score 233.02
Sarah James: While World of Warcraft set the standard for MMORPGs, the past 20 years haven't been a trouble-free journey. Thankfully, Dragonflight has helped steer WoW back on course after Shadowlands, and The War Within will hopefully keep it there.
Fraser Brown: I'm still playing 20 years after I started. The War Within has only made my plight so much worse. And the Warbands system. Dear god, all the transmogs I need to collect, the alts I'm dusting off—how can I still be this obsessed so many years on? I just have to accept that I will never be able to escape the clutches of Blizzard and Azeroth. Help.
37. The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim
Released Nov 11, 2011 | Top 100 Score 233.68
Tyler Wilde: I've never finished Skyrim's main quest—blah blah dragonborn, whatever—but the dozens of hours I've spent in the open world RPG include some of my favourite gaming memories. Starfield didn't bring about the same 'I just wanna hang out in this world, maybe become a vampire' feeling, so it isn't just something all sufficiently large Bethesda games possess. Skyrim's special.
Mollie Taylor: I continue to be convinced that Skyrim is the ultimate comfort game and I won't hear anything otherwise. There's something ultra cosy about mounting a near-vertical cliff on your horse, gentle music playing in the background, and frantically mashing jump in an attempt to scale over the mountain instead of hoofing it around the path like a normal person.
Robert Jones: The only game I've played since that has given me the same experience has been Baldur's Gate 3, and that really hammers home just how special Skyrim was (and still is today in 2024). This is the last great Bethesda RPG, one where the world is so immersive, the gameplay so varied and addictive, and the freedom to do what you want so intoxicating, that it makes playing it an absolute joy. And especially so as the game continues, even now 13 years after its original release, to be supported with fantastic fresh mods and content by its lively community. If I suddenly disappear off the face of the Earth, someone please come kicking down my door, as I've probably falled down the Skyrim hole once again.
36. Stellaris
Released May 9, 2016 | Top 100 Score 233.94
Fraser Brown: Stellaris attempts to condense every sci-fi fantasy you've ever had into a single grand strategy 4X. A race of eggheads who get taken over by the machines they built, fanatical feudal space empires, nanite swarms, alien hives consuming the entire galaxy—it tries to do everything. Not always successfully, mind, but it's always absurdly ambitious and deft at telling cosmic stories of conquest, intrigue and discovery. It also spawned easily the best Star Trek game in the incredible New Horizons mod.
Robin Valentine: The game already felt like it covered a huge spectrum of sci-fi ideas when it launched back in 2016. So it's been pretty incredible to see how far it's expanded from there with its regular updates and DLC.
35. Counter-Strike 2
Released Sep 27, 2023 | Top 100 Score 234.12
Rich Stanton, Senior Editor: 2023 saw Valve put PCG in an awkward spot, as CS:GO swept to its highest-ever position in the list, sitting pretty at #8. But by the time the list was published it had been replaced by Counter-Strike 2 and (beta branches aside) put in the back cupboard.
Valve promised more with CS2 than it has yet delivered, but that means this is merely the best competitive shooter on the planet, with some genuinely new touches like the fancy smoke physics nestling alongside QoL improvements to things like the HUD and Buy menu. CS2 is my favourite shooter by a mile, but this is hopefully just the beginning.
34. Final Fantasy 14
Released Aug 27, 2013 | Top 100 Score 234.30
Harvey Randall: Dawntrail might have floundered on the story, but its actual content so far has been some of the best the game's ever gotten—and even then, A Realm Reborn to Endwalker is one of the best RPG stories out there, and maybe one of my favourite fantasy tales period. A single dialogue prompt had me ugly-crying. I've given 4,000 hours to this game and I only want a handful back—here's to 4,000 more.
Mollie Taylor, Features Producer: Final Fantasy 14 remains the only game that has managed to squeeze quadruple digits of playtime out of me. I may have taken a break during Endwalker but I'm fully back on the Dawntrail train, now. The dungeons and raids this expansion have been a blast so far, and I can only see it getting better from here.
Sarah James, Guides Writer: I'm still upset that I don't play this.
33. Fallout: New Vegas
Released Oct 22, 2010 | Top 100 Score 234.75
Jody Macgregor: Like everyone else, the Fallout TV show made me want to replay the Fallout games. To my surprise, I didn't enjoy returning to the original. The way you could avoid so many fights with a high Speech skill was groundbreaking at the time, but too often it just meant bad guys saying, "For some reason, I believe you," then Quest Complete.
Meanwhile, New Vegas includes a scene where your brain gets removed and replaced by a computer and you have to talk it into returning to your skull because it's enjoying this Brain Brexit where it gets to stay in a jar that doesn't get shot at every five minutes, unlike your head, which does. So yeah, New Vegas is the Fallout I recommend playing today.
32. Yakuza 0
Released Aug 1, 2018 | Top 100 Score 234.88
Lauren Morton, Associate Editor: The Yakuza series as a whole is all about street toughs ripping their shirts off, smacking each other with traffic cones, stopping to do some disco dance minigames, and then imparting lessons about friendship and family on everyone from small children to trainee dominatrixes. And this prequel with its 1980s glamor and fresh-faced protagonists is still the best entry point thanks to a heart-wrenching main story and my favorite version of the series' brawling battle system.
There are valid reasons to pick up the series with the newer Yakuza: Like A Dragon games, but I maintain that the glittery excesses of bubble era Japan sell the fantasy of this series better than the rest.
Phil Savage: I have played every Yakuza/Like a Dragon game, and had a hell of a good time doing so. If you're not ready for that kind of commitment, though, Yakuza 0 is a fine game to pick—but also not the only option. As Lauren mentions, Yakuza: Like a Dragon is another good entry point—a JRPG starring a lovable goofball as the series' new lead protagonist. Alternatively, there's the Judgment—a noir thriller spin-off that inherits the later games' more modern engine, but sticks with the real-time combat. Between it and its sequel Lost Judgment, you've got a much less time intensive way to explore some of the main series' most iconic locations.
31. StarCraft 2
Released Jul 27, 2010 | Top 100 Score 235.18
Rich Stanton: I've always played RTSes and of course knew Brood War, but ended up losing years of my gaming life to the competitive side of SC2. Nothing compares to its constant juggle of macro and micro, triumph and panic, fear and glory: That sense of a true one-on-one matchup that tests every skill you both have and, win or lose, somehow always ends with a "GG". The best competitive RTS there has ever been.
Jake Tucker: I haven’t four-gated since university, but the build order—broken now by patches and meta shifts, no doubt—is still burnt into my head with an almost religious significance.
Fraser Brown: Arguably the last truly huge RTS, at least in terms of its popularity, StarCraft 2 is still an exceptional game. Even if you couldn't give a toss about the (brilliant) competitive side of things, its campaigns are second to none. It's been 14 years since the first part, Wings of Liberty, launched, and c'mon Blizzard, we're well overdue for more StarCraft.
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30. Halo: The Master Chief Collection
Released Dec 3, 2019 | Top 100 Score 235.50
Wes Fenlon: I'm tempted to play Halo Infinite's finally-good multiplayer these days, but it can't beat the package of nearly every prior Halo campaign and multiplayer put together, with custom game browsers and official modding support.
Elie Gould: This deserves recognition for bringing my favourite (and the best) Halo game of all time, Halo Reach, to PC.
Jake Tucker: The best Halo is Halo 2, obviously. But I think Halo: The Master Chief Collection is a no-filler collection of the best sci-fi shooting out there. Halo has always been absolutely brilliant, and this update has let PC players come along for the ride too. The Flood might have aged like sour milk, but everything else here is solid gold.
Joshua Wolens: During the Covid lockdowns I finally made good on a childhood ambition and played through all of Halo 1 on Legendary difficulty. After having my ass handed to me north of 500 times, I beat it with a newfound appreciation for how considered and creative damn near every encounter in that game is. On Legendary, every single one is a meticulous puzzle: A test of your knowledge, reflexes, foresight, and improvisation. You'll fail that puzzle more often than not, but damn if it doesn't feel amazing when you finally make it though.
29. Planescape: Torment
Released Dec 10, 1999 | Top 100 Score 236.43
Jody Macgregor: Planescape: Torment took the engine Baldur's Gate was built on, but stripped out the trad fantasy trappings. Instead of drinking healing potions you get hit points back by eating blood flies and instead of swinging longswords the available weapons include a severed limb you use as a club, and upgradeable teeth for your companion who is just a skull. Planescape: Torment is Dungeons & Dragons minus the elves and gnomes, plus the maddest shit you've ever heard.
Joshua Wolens: Disco Elysium before there was Disco Elysium. Thoughtful, gorgeous, and with some of the best dialogue boss battles in gaming history. Just a shame about the actual boss battles, eh? Word of advice: Turn the difficulty as low as it'll go and enjoy it as the visual novel it's meant to be.
Ted Litchfield: Seconded on the difficulty: Cerebral RPGs of this vintage loved self-sabotaging with the most booboo filler combat you've ever seen, but PS:T makes it worth your while. My favorite moment is paying off a bar tab to get back your eyeball from a past life before doing some impromptu ocular surgery.
Andy Chalk: I love the music in Planescape. Forget the usual overwrought orchestrals and hymnal chants: Someone told composer Mark Morgan to get weird, and boy, did he. The result is a perfect match for Planescape's aggressive strangeness, and one of my favorite game soundtracks of all time. Hell of a voice cast, too.
28. Thief Gold
Released Nov 30, 1998 | Top 100 Score 236.49
Jody Macgregor: Immersive sims let you approach problems multiple ways, only one of which turns out fun. Thief is just stealth, so when you have three ways into a rich jerk's mansion they're equally satisfying whether you're waiting for a patrol gap, discovering a secret underground passage, or stacking crates to make a janky ladder to heaven.
Andy Chalk: I usually don't care about the "difficulty discourse," play games how you like and have fun. Thief is the one game that will make me grab you by the collar and scream, "Play it on expert or stop wasting your time!" That's the essence of Thief: If you want the real game—and I mean that literally, not just in a "you cheated yourself" sense—you have to jump into the deep end.
27. Hunt: Showdown 1896
Released Aug 27, 2019 | Top 100 Score 236.76
Morgan Park: You bet our favorite extraction shooter made the list. We're still playing and loving this one-of-a-kind cowboy shooter weekly and enjoying its expanding arsenal of 19th century guns.
Evan Lahti: I'd take it a step further, Morgan: it's your favorite FPS's favorite FPS.
People occasionally lament a perceived lack of originality in games. Well, here it is: a post-Civil War shooter that hands you slow-firing, deliberate guns and crossbows that detonate plumes of barbed wire (among other things), set in decayed Louisiana swamps and Colorado cliffs cluttered with crows, undead dogs, and other unsettling AI hazards including "What if The Crazy Cat Lady from The Simpsons Was Made of Bees?"
This is Crytek's best game. It has extraordinary depth without the absurd granularity of Tarkov and its more milsim descendents. I'll occasionally blast someone with a Sparks LRR large-bore rifle who's running from me in a corn field and it feels exactly like that moment in the cotton field in Django Unchained.
Crytek's intricate ideas provide subtlety, a facet not often found in competitive multiplayer games. Its stealth is the best in the genre, truly organic, a factor of how well your eyes can scan its variegated American corners, supported by likewise world-class sound technology that means that every microscopic action, even a crouched footstep, emits a corresponding audial footprint that can be heard. I have held my breath—not through some in-game mechanic, my actual lungs—in order to strain to make out what model of rifle was being fired 300 meters away.
Hunt is the opposite of the more-is-more bombast of Fortnite. It does not offer a selection of playable IP-crossover characters from the Disney motion picture Deadpool & Wolverine. But it does have Béatrice, a bonneted, extremely traumatized 72-year-old French woman whose origin story is that her son died in the Paris catacombs, got pretty upset, and made his skin into a med kit parcel. This legendary character skin costs $10, and you better believe I have made grand-mère's problems the problems of my opponents.
26. Pizza Tower
Released Jan 26, 2023 | Top 100 Score 237.00
Ted Litchfield: It's hard to get excited about a new 2D platformer in the 2020s: 2D platformers have been done. But Pizza Tower shows there's still magic to be had in the genre. Every level surprises you with a gimmick that could support a full game, with power-ups that completely change how protagonist Peppino Spaghetti controls. Some bits even swap you over to his own Luigi, the adorable Gustavo, who rides around on a giant rat named Brick.
It's all bolstered by this perfect, smeary, '90s Cartoon Network-style animation that looks like nothing else in games, while the soundtrack is made up of heater after heater: Dreamcasty, turn of the millennium bangers produced by amateur musicians who just knocked it out of the park.
It strikes this great balance between more Wario Land, exploration-focused platforming, and the momentum-driven thrill of Sonic the Hedgehog. Peppino can move fast, but unlike Sonic, the game doesn't feel sluggish or somehow "wrong" if you take your time with it. Even if you aren't onboard for repeat runs to perfectly speedrun levels, the timed level escape mechanic at the end ensures you always get a taste of that more up-tempo experience.
25. Crusader Kings 3
Released Sep 1, 2020 | Top 100 Score 237.10
Fraser Brown: It may have fallen down the list a wee bit, but Paradox's irrepressible anecdote generator is still at the top in my heart. Even the less celebrated DLCs have given me an excuse to come back, adding plagues and propaganda masquerading as legends, but the core of this medieval grand strategy RPG is so wonderful that I really don't need many reasons for frequent revisits. Where else will I get to plot the assassination of my brother while I'm participating in a jousting tournament and hooking up with a Satanist who is also my tax collector? It's certainly never boring.
Lincoln Carpenter: Last weekend, an eyepatch-wearing dutchess murdered my son. Then we got married. I don't know what more you could want.
Christopher Livingston: I have five children and I can genuinely say I love them all equally. Whoops, I'm dead. Now I'm the eldest of my five children and I can genuinely say my four siblings are the most evil, ruthless, conniving, backstabbing, horrible little unforgivable monsters I've ever met and I hate them all.
Joshua Wolens: The game that taught me the most valuable lesson I've ever learnt: There's no limit to what you can do with a lifetime of inherited wealth plus a willingness to murder anyone who even mildly inconveniences you.
24. Portal
Released Oct 10, 2007 | Top 100 Score 237.53
Tyler Wilde: Call it baby bear porridge, because Valve's first-person puzzle classic is just right: just long enough to thoroughly explore its brain-twisting physics concept without having to introduce complications like Portal 2's goo, with just the right frequency of gags to keep it funny for the whole duration—and I think hat's still true today, when most internet comedy from the aughts seems unbearably corny.
Harvey Randall: This was a triumph, and we're making a note here: huge success.
Christopher Livingston: I feel a need to protest a little here because Portal's review score should be 100/100 and its place on our list should be number one. It's brilliant: clever, funny, challenging, mysterious, and short enough to finish in a single sitting for an unbroken experience (after which you immediately start it over from the beginning). Not only is it a perfect game, it's the only perfect game.
Robert Jones: The cake is a lie.
Lincoln Carpenter: It's a testament to Portal's quality that I'm still able to remember it fondly after enduring the ensuing years of painful references.
23. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
Released Mar 21, 2019 | Top 100 Score 237.87
Wes Fenlon: Shadows Die Twice is full of beautiful dualities. Patient stealth is followed by arterial blood spraying executions. It demands true mastery of the sword and parry timings, yet also allows you to cheese bosses with an umbrella. At one point you fight a giant ape, and then—get this—another ape shows up. My actual favorite FromSoft game.
Harvey Randall: Shadows Die Twice is such a focused game. In your typical soulslike, FromSoftware has to account for a glut of builds—but not so here. The studio knows what tools you have, and with that knowledge is able to craft some all-timer boss fights that have barely seen competition since.
Joshua Wolens: The coolest I've ever felt playing a FromSoft game, but why do we keep calling it Shadows Die Twice?
Ted Litchfield: If you're anything like me, the Shadow will die many more times than that in a given playthrough.
22. Hollow Knight
Released Feb 24, 2017 | Top 100 Score 238.06
Kara Phillips: I didn't think much of metroidvanias before going into Hollow Knight, but I quickly found a home in Hallownest. It's one of the only games to drive me to pure fury during a boss fight, but it still had me coming back to try again. Plus, it's got an incredible soundtrack that never loses its charm no matter how many times you listen to it, which you'll have to do an awful lot if you're like me and constantly die to the same boss over and over again. Seriously. The mantis lords nearly brought me to tears.
Harvey Randall: Proof that a game can have a lot of bugs in it and still be really good.
21. Alan Wake 2
Released Oct 27, 2023 | Top 100 Score 238.87
Elie Gould: I spent the first few hours of Alan Wake 2 screaming at my monitor every time one of the godforsaken psychic visions popped up out of nowhere to scare me out of my skin. But once the initial shock wore off I was able to enjoy Alan Wake 2 like no other horror game I've come across. The locations, characters, and fantastic story made every awful chase scene or psychedelic trip in the dark place more than worth it—I loved every moment I spent with Saga Anderson. I'd do it all again just to see all the mind-bending cutscenes.
Robin Valentine: The game's storytelling is so wonderfully layered and creative, combining traditional cutscenes with every other medium Remedy could get its hands on. I voluntarily stayed in a movie theater in this game to watch a full live action short horror film entirely in Finnish and loved every minute of it. Now that's unique.
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20. Hades
Released Sep 20, 2020 | Top 100 Score 240.27
Jody Macgregor: Hades is the premiere roguelike for people who don't normally enjoy roguelikes. I'm aware saying that will summon the fun police to tell me that since it contains persistent progression elements it's technically a roguelite, but if you come for me I'll just be reborn in my pool of blood and then spend several minutes arguing with my dad and flirting with Thanatos before I return to the underworld to flirt with death in a less literal way.
Harvey Randall: It's hard to overstate just how much of an impact Hades has had on the roguelike genre—not only is it some of Supergiant's finest work, it also proved that you can tell a strong narrative in a game that ends every time you die.
Hades' cast of characters are remarkably well-characterised, each managing to sustain their own little arcs. It's a game as much about reconciling family traumas as it is, well, hitting stuff with cool weapons. To even spin a functional yarn within the roguelike framework, it's another thing to put together a tale that's so engaging. The best thing? Hades is more than this novelty.
It's rare that I look at a game and have pretty much zero complaints, but Hades is one of those games. It's a really tightly-designed romp, with interlocking systems that play nicely together. Categorising boons by their prospective god helps you to learn and remember what combinations are available, and controlling Zagreus feels like silk. The thing's gorgeous—everybody knows that—and Darren Korb has some of the best musical chops in the industry bar none.
Elie Gould: I ended up getting Hades just because I wanted some context before I played the sequel, but after getting absolutely hooked I didn't end up making it to Hades 2, and I'm not mad. Exploring the various regions of the underworld was great fun, and while I didn't master every weapon on offer I'm still proud of myself for getting to the end on a couple of occasions, and keeping some of my sanity while I did it. I also became surprisingly invested in all the characters that I encountered along the way. I have bad habits when it comes to roguelikes where I ignore everything other than the objective right in front of me and try to complete said task as quickly as possible. But I'm very thankful that I managed to slow things down and actually appreciate my time in this game. I devoted countless hours and all three of my brain cells to completing this game, I can safely say that all the pain was worth it.
19. Slay the Spire
Released Jan 23, 2019 | Top 100 Score 240.29
Harvey Randall: I have 276 hours logged in Slay the Spire. I regret none of them. It does what a good roguelike should do, in that its network of relics and cards serve the wider goal of controlled chaos—chaos that, if you can wrangle it, turns you into a demigod in short order.
But like I mention with Hades above, and like Robin mentions below, Slay the Spire feels foundational to its genre. It's a blueprint for the deluge of roguelike deck builders that came after it—some of which I think are quite good—but it's absolutely the OG. There's something about building out a deck of cards and the structure of a permadeath RPG that go together like butter and toast.
Maybe because it gives the developer permission to go hog wild with synergies. If you play a TCG like Hearthstone, god-tier combos are a cause for the wringing of hands and a call for balance changes. But because access to them is gated from you by the roguelike mechanics in Slay the Spire, not only can they exist—they can be the meat and potatoes of the entire thing. It's really very good.
Robin Valentine: These days I try pretty much every roguelike deckbuilder going, and I gotta say, there's still very few that beat this foundational game. Only Balatro has felt as fresh—more on that further down the list.
Jake Tucker: Many deckbuilding pretenders followed in Slay The Spire’s wake, but none of them have managed to hold a torch to the original. I still play several hours of Slay The Spire each month, as the well designed combat and flexible cards mean every run feels like you’re surviving on a knife edge. I’m not sure anything barring the upcoming sequel will be able to break the hold Slay The Spire has on me.
18. Mass Effect Legendary Edition
Released May 14, 2021 | Top 100 Score 240.61
Jody Macgregor: When Mass Effect came out it confused people because they thought it was a shooter with too much talking, rather than seeing it as an RPG with a combat system that doesn't suck. That's how rare it was to have even competent, not amazing, basically fine combat in an RPG at the time.
To be fair, it was also rare to have an RPG that felt this much like watching a TV show rather than reading a book. Mass Effect is your favourite sci-fi show: the game, and the Legendary Edition is a DVD box set that packages all three seasons together with a bunch of sweet bonus features.
Ted Litchfield: I don't care if the Reapers are destroying the galaxy or that, when you really think about it, Commander Shepard is the most cuddly fascist fantasy liberal Canada had to offer us in the late Bush years—I still sometimes wish I lived on the Citadel. The AI mass culling and reporter-punching psychos (she was asking good questions!!!) may be driving down property values, but there ain't no place like it, baby.
Also, I've said it before and I'll say it again: Mass Effect 1's Uncharted Worlds whip ass, the Mako was always good, and Mass Effect 3—the whole thing, not just the ending—is by far the weakest part of the trilogy.
Jody Macgregor: Don't listen to Ted. The Uncharted Worlds drool and Tuchanka rules.
Sean Martin: I've played through all Mass Effect games three times now and there really is no RPG experience quite like it. The best of those was definitely with the Legendary edition—it actually makes the first game feel playable again despite its age.
Joshua Wolens: The weird thing about Mass Effect is that it executed incredibly well on a specific flavour of sci-fi in its first game and then spent the next two desperately groping to become something wildly different. It went from an eerie, exploratory, eldritch sci-fi adventure to a rootin'-tootin' action film starring Commander 'Space Christ' Shepard and their gang of pals. I like both types plenty—and I've warmed considerably on ME3 after really disliking it my first time through—but I can't help but wonder what we would've got if the whole series had been more confident in its identity from the jump.
17. Rimworld
Released Oct 17, 2018 | Top 100 Score 241.36
Natanael Albuquerque: If you're into min-max automation games, you'll love simulating an oversized money printer with turrets guarding against super soldiers. And for those of us who prefer life simulation and crafting unique stories, watching your colony implode within six hours of your fridge breaking down is a special kind of thrill.
Evan Lahti: Sometimes I get annoyed with armchair comments from gamers that casually throw out absurd, unrealistic requests like "This game would be good if they just added co-op." But incredibly, Rimworld, in its obscene moddability, produced a mod that adds co-op, and it mostly works.
A domestic life sim with intermittent mechanoid centipede attacks. You'll be fighting a pack of raiders, and a stray bullet will float into your animal pen, injuring your pet turkey Mr. Gravy in its left foot, a modular and non-abstracted part of the turkey anatomy that Rimworld tracks, in its obscene granularity. Then you will rush the turkey to your sickbay and administer actual medicine from a frontier doctor you've tirelessly trained to save lives, all while the raider attack plays out in the background. An alien ant farm that embodies the tradition of weirdness native to PC gaming.
16. Dwarf Fortress
Released Aug 8, 2006 | Top 100 Score 244.00
Wes Fenlon: The Steam version of this mantle-deep colony sim now features the underappreciated Adventure mode, a roguelike RPG that lets you venture forth into the world you generated for your fortress. You could play as a dwarf, but why, when being a cockatiel man is on the table? Beyond that addition, Dwarf Fortress remains the Platonic ideal of storytelling through procedural generation, conjuring the details of your dwarves down to their teeth.
Lincoln Carpenter: When I wrote our Dwarf Fortress review in 2022, I'd been playing Dwarf Fortress for thirteen years. I've been playing Dwarf Fortress since. I suspect there will never again be a moment where some small part of me isn't, in some way, playing Dwarf Fortress. When I close my eyes, I see fortress layouts on the backside of my eyelids. In quiet moments, I wonder about the entire swaths of dwarven industry I've yet to dabble in, because I'm still—in many ways—a novice, despite playing Dwarf Fortress for nearly half the time I've been alive.
With every fortress I found, I learn or see something new: A wandering necromancer-poet visits my library to record one of his works; a chance capture of a breeding pair of giant emus revolutionizes my production of butchered trade goods; a farmer pulls the magma floodgate lever that annihilates the were-gazelle that was once his son.
And now Tarn's adding a magic system. God help me.
15. Red Dead Redemption 2
Released Nov 5, 2019 | Top 100 Score 244.20
Kara Phillips: The adult equivalent of playing pretend cowboys, except it will emotionally destroy you in more ways than you expect. As one of the only games to reduce me to bawling sobs—so much so I have to sit back for certain parts and let myself cry—I will never not sing the praises of Red Dead Redemption 2. It's also a great wildlife-watching/foraging game if you ignore all the outlaws and guns, and the emotional turmoil. Plus, I found myself getting so attached to Arthur Morgan I forgot he wasn't a real person I genuinely knew, which is probably the mark of a fantastic game with phenomenal storytelling.
Sean Martin: I'm still distraught Rockstar stopped supporting Red Dead Online because, honestly, it was one of my favourite games to play with friends and there was a lot of untapped potential. Still, there's plenty of content already in the online mode if you're looking for a cowboy simulator with pals. You can become a trader, do bounty hunting, or even start your own little bar in a moonshine shack where you get drunk on illegal hooch.
One of the final additions, and my favourite, was Call to Arms—a Magnificent Seven-esque horde defence mode where you fend off waves of bandits attacking a town. They even added a Halloween and Christmas version with giant alligators and polar bears.
14. Helldivers 2
Released Feb 8, 2024 | Top 100 Score 245.18
Harvey Randall: Arrowhead has a lot of stuff to figure out—namely, how it'll handle all eyes being on it going forward—but Helldivers 2 remains an absolute triumph in every way that matters. Being a scrappy little trooper in a hellscape of blood, metal, and acid is almost always a riot.
Sean Martin: Before Helldivers 2, my peak co-op shooter was Deep Rock Galactic, and though I still have a fondness for space dwarves, fighting a never-ending galactic war has won me over. From its sleek stratagems to its packed-sandboxes, Helldivers 2 really is a must for any fan of co-op shooters and egregious friendly fire.
Jake Tucker: As an Arrowhead fan since Magicka, seeing Helldivers 2 explode into the mainstream has been a joy. Arrowhead’s classic DNA is here: Failure is fun, and sometimes you’ll fail accidentally on purpose to see what a 500kg bomb does to your comrades in arms.
Morgan Park: Helldivers 2 is my game of the year so far, and I'd be amazed if anything beats it. It's simply the best, most innovative multiplayer shooter I've played in years, and it's co-op to boot. I could go on for an hour about everything Helldivers 2 is doing as a participatory live experience, and how it's bucking trends by charging upfront for a complete game instead of defaulting to free-to-play. At the end of the day, my friends and I love it because it's incredibly fun to shoot bots and bugs.
13. XCOM 2
Released Feb 4, 2016 | Top 100 Score 237.21, Promoted by Robin Valentine
Robin Valentine: I had to fight to keep XCOM 2 this high on the list, but by God it deserves it. Eight years on, after countless imitators, it's still the king of the tactical strategy genre and honestly it isn't even close. It ages like fine wine—still feels great to go back to, and only generates more and more amazing mod content to ensure you've always got something new to see. I've felt keenly the absence of a proper XCOM 3 or even a worthy successor, but it's hard to be too sad when I can just boot this up and have as much fun as ever.
Harvey Randall: Turn-based strategy games are something of a dark horse when it comes to selling videogames—they're either breakout successes or they fade into obscurity. Despite there being plenty of industry trends observed that prove this true, I can't exactly fathom why, because when they're done well like XCOM 2 they're absolutely incredible.
The thing that clicks for me with XCOM 2 is the feeling of permanence and importance behind the lethality of everything. The game has a story, sure, but the fact you can customise, grow attached to, and kit out pawns that can permanently die was always more fascinating to me. It's like a magic trick.
Despite this, as Robin says, XCOM 2 feels like it established a hallmark of the genre and then just… didn't have any imitators that came close to scratching the same itch. Why? It will be a mystery to me forevermore. This thing's got Chemical X in it.
Jake Tucker: XCOM 2’s War of the Chosen DLC turns XCOM 2 into a pitch-perfect strategy game with easy and deep systems designed to make you feel you’re fighting to avoid death from a thousand resource cuts, but the hallmarks of greatness were there in the foundations, when XCOM 2 boldly reinvented itself by stepping away from the previous games in the franchise and dropping you into a world where XCOM already lost and you have barely the resources to keep your ship safe, let alone the whole world.
12. Total War: Warhammer 3
Released Feb 17, 2022 | Top 100 Score 246.60
Sean Martin: In a genre as hit-and-miss as RTS, Total War: Warhammer continues to thrive as one of the best Total War games and a menagerie of all-round fantasy goodness. With the third instalment, Immortal Empires has become the de facto way to play; a grand campaign combining all three games' races and maps.
Creative Assembly continues to rework older factions and provide free content for fresh playthroughs, alongside hefty expansion packs with the new option to purchase individual lords. Since you only need Total War: Warhammer 3 to play Immortal Empires now, it's exceptional value, letting you face off against three games' worth of content.
Jody Macgregor: It's been argued games like Devil May Cry should be called spectacle fighters. When daemonic leather freaks fight lizards riding dinosaurs, Total War: Warhammer 3 approaches spectacle strategy.
Fraser Brown: I've been converted: this is the best Total War. While Warhammer 3 was not exactly welcomed with open arms at launch (though I loved it), and some of its DLC has gone down poorly, Creative Assembly has stuck with it and managed to right the ship. It's in the best shape it's ever been in, conjuring up incredible world-spanning conflicts full of daemons and lizards and boozed-up dwarfs zooming into battle on flying ships. I don't have as much time as I'd like for physical games of Warhammer these days, but I'll always have time for Total War: Warhammer 3.
11. Metal Gear Solid 3
Released Oct 24, 2023 | Top 100 Score 246.76
Joshua Wolens: The simplest Metal Gear Solid story is also the series' best. MGS3 swaps the second game's conga line of twists (mostly) for a Cold War spy tragedy about a man on a quest to kill the person he loves most in the world, and chucks in some peerless boss fights along the way. A halfhearted PC port, sure, but its greatness shines through anyway. Plus it's perfect on Steam Deck.
Natanael Albuquerque: I cannot fathom the amount of hours I’ve spent listening to codec calls about obscure Japanese cinema and the nutritional value of varying species of snakes.
Ted Litchfield: MGS3 is great, but I remain a Metal Gear Solid 5 revisionist: It's not just "great gameplay, but Kojima's worst story," It's Kojima's most politically daring work to date. Unsettling, unnerving, and dehumanizing, the series' trademark charisma and melodrama is muted in favor of making us wallow in the underbelly of the '80s—the imperial conflicts festering beneath that go-go, nostalgic decade—and it even begins with a surreal, anachronistic vision of the United States' infamous Guantanamo Bay torture camp.
But even a psycho like me can't ding Metal Gear Solid 3 in comparison, and the fact that the commonly accepted series high water mark is finally commercially available on PC—with an extra wait for it to be worth buying tacked on the end—is plenty of cause for celebration.
#10-1
10. Doom (1993)
Released Dec 10, 1993 | Top 100 Score 247.51
Robert Jones: Over three decades after its original release, Doom remains the FPS of all time, offering up a perfect synthesis between visceral shooting action, devilishly devious level design, and an immersive and cohesive world. Whether it was John Carmack's technical wizardry, John Romero's creative brilliance, or the pioneering efforts and hard graft of Adrian Carmack, Tom Hall, Sandy Peterson and more, the result was pure gaming lightning in a bottle, and an experience that somehow has never been bettered. Pure PC gaming gold.
Wes Fenlon: The purity of Doom's shooting and serpentine levels appropriately earned it one of only two perfect scores for Importance this year. How could you rate it anything less? The real reason to play Doom today is its mod scene, which is still cranking out masterpieces 30 years later (play Myhouse.wad!). Most modders are actually building on Doom 2, so consider this a vote for the duo: both still belong on any PC (or printer, or pregnancy test) in 2024.
9. Stardew Valley
Released Feb 26, 2016 | Top 100 Score 248.03
Kara Phillips: Serving as the ruler of all farming simulators, Stardew Valley deserves a top-ten spot. Eight years after its launch the game is more popular than ever, welcoming well-versed farmers and entirely new players with open arms. And, with the scale of updates still being rolled out, adding new areas to explore, new items to unlock, and new ways to keep farm life fresh, even after hundreds of hours I still find new things to love about it. Even though I'll always repeat the same routine of romancing the same bachelor (Sebastian) and laying my farm out in the exact same way, it never loses its charm.
Lauren Morton: When Stardew Valley took off at launch, I could never have predicted that it would not only sustain but surpass that popularity so many years later. This is still the top-tier cozy farm life sim that gives so many equally viable avenues to building a farm—whether you become a rancher, miner, or wine artisan. With the benefit of hindsight, it's only become more important since then. It's been credited with the explosion of farm sim games on PC, rightly so, but now I feel confident ascribing the rise of "cozy gaming" to it as well. There are other cozy game choices, sure, and its inspiration Harvest Moon precedes it, but Stardew Valley remains the rallying point for new cozy game fans.
Christopher Livingston: I put off playing it for years because I saw how it sucked other people in and never let them go. I finally gave it a go this summer for the first time and it sucked me in and never let me go. Not exaggerating: I played 60 hours of it in two weeks, and some of that is because I had Covid but not all of that is because I had Covid. Having now seen the groundwork 99% of all other farm life sims are based on, I wish I hadn't waited so long to get pulled into its perfect, pixelated world.
8. Balatro
Released Feb 20, 2024 | Top 100 Score 254.82
Robin Valentine: I was starting to think Slay the Spire's reign was never going to end, but I think Balatro might genuinely have taken its place in my heart. On the surface it appears so unassuming—like some Solitaire variant your dad might play in his lunchbreaks. But start playing, and you realise it's using those simple playing cards as the basis for adventures as wild and tense and mind-bending as any more fantastical deckbuilder.
Harvey Randall: I hate traditional, 4-suit card games. I was absolutely obsessed with Balatro. Make the number go up—it's simple, clean fun.
Evan Lahti: The extent that it warps those traditional French-suited playing cards, though, is a part of what makes it so appealing, don't you think Harvey? There's no meaningful poker happening in Balatro—the notion of what a Full House is, the status of a King versus a Seven—these concepts are just a series of Trojan horses to get you to grasp rules that are much more novel and weird, like a joker that doubles the probabilities of cards that use probabilities.
Christopher Livingston: I only tried it because I love poker and I'll try any game that tries to use playing cards and poker rules. And once I started I basically didn't play anything else, not one other game, for two entire weeks. Balatro + Steam Deck + a comfy couch is a dangerous combination. And as you say Evan, it's not even poker, really, it just uses poker's looks and language to help you immediately grasp what's going on. The visual and sound design is amazing, too, from the flames growing higher when you've got a real cooker of a hand to the satisfying pop when you open a booster pack. Magic poker is the only kind of poker I ever want to play now.
7. Half-Life 2
Released Nov 16, 2004 | Top 100 Score 256.61
Phil Savage: It's nearly two decades old, but Half-Life 2 is still one of the best FPS campaigns ever made. There are plenty of shooters with better feeling guns, or more exciting combat, but all too few have learned the important lessons about variety and pace taught by Valve's opus. Each level is a classic, exploring different ideas to memorable effect—finding fun new uses for the tools it provides.
And the legacy of Half-Life 2 extends beyond the games that have tried (and often failed) to imitate it. Its mod scene was responsible for entirely new genres—total conversions like Dear Esther and The Stanley Parable showcasing new ways to tell videogame stories.
Ted Litchfield: It's been so long since Half-Life 2's release, and the prospect of its sequel so thoroughly memeified, it's easy to forget what a triumph of an FPS Valve made. With fully featured, story-heavy shooter campaigns like it proving a rare thing these days, it's well worth revisiting the game that was so good, one of the most talented and profitable studios in the industry, one that reshaped PC gaming around it, has struggled to follow that success. And like Phil mentioned, the Source engine's legacy can't be understated—there are three other Source games on this very list.
6. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Released May 18, 2015 | Top 100 Score 257.66
Ted Litchfield: It was one of those gamer forum stereotypes: "Why don't they just put the good writing and stuff from BioWare games in an open world like Skyrim?" Gee buddy, I wonder why.
But then CD Projekt Red went and did the thing. The studio somehow pushed the envelope on cinematic storytelling while filling out a vast and engrossing open world. Even as Larian breaks new ground in open-ended reactivity, CDPR remains the top dog when it comes to the BioWare-style action RPG.
Phil Savage: Technically it's meant to be a bleak, hostile world—a major chunk of it is just a muddy warzone. But of every open world game, it's the one I enjoy exploring the most. It's packed with detail, full of secrets, and, in Gwent, contains one of the best minigames ever made.
Joshua Wolens: The most engrossing card game of all time. I'm not usually a deckbuilder guy, but something about The Witcher 3's 'a minute to learn, a lifetime to master' mechanics meant I poured hundreds of hours into composing the meanest Northern Realms and Scoia'tael decks the world has ever seen, devastating foes across the continent with my innovative strategies and tactics. The open-world RPG mini-game you can play between rounds of Gwent is good too.
Andy Chalk: I waited several years to play The Witcher 3 because after the first two games—which I loved—I knew my time with it had to be perfect. And it was: A sublime, satisfying conclusion to one of the greatest videogame adventures of all time.
5. Persona 5 Royal
Released Oct 21, 2022 | Top 100 Score 258.38
Phil Savage: An effortlessly stylish JRPG. Persona 5 is the standout of Atlus's unique blend of high-school life sim and turn-based dungeon crawler. It's bolder and more brash, but the real improvement is to combat. Bring the right squad, and you'll feel absurdly powerful, wiping out your foes before they even get a chance to respond.
Natanael Albuquerque: An entire genre with the potential for such charm, but often obscured by blasé interfaces and the overused trope of saving the world with the power of friendship. Persona 5 Royal disrupts the status quo with its swagger and innovative approach to the JRPG formula.
We're talking about a vibrant aesthetic that screams rebellion, complemented by the legendary Shoji Meguro’s jazz-infused OST. Its impressively mature plot delves deep into the human psyche, exploring themes of identity, freedom, and societal pressure, combined with a flair that most turn-based RPGs could only dream of—besides a certain cat’s incessant desire to force our protagonist to go to sleep by 7 PM. I’d rather have Aigis or Teddie.
Mollie Taylor: Persona 5 Royal oozes with both substance and style, delivering a top-class JRPG that still remains my absolute fave. It improves leaps and bounds on its predecessors, introducing intricately designed dungeons, and I couldn't agree more with Phil on the combat being a real star. Royal is the definitive edition, too, bringing new characters and cool traversal mechanics that give dungeons a new twist.
4. Minecraft
Released Nov 18, 2011 | Top 100 Score 258.50
Kara Phillips: Minecraft is unmatched in holding its charm and the attention of its players, and it's the creativity of the community that helps make the experience whole. I can't help feeling envious—more than ten years since its release, I can barely build a house better than a 4x4 mud hut with no windows. I'll still try desperately hard to build something incredible and then hang my head in shame whenever a friend joins the server.
I've been playing Minecraft now for over a decade, and not once have I stopped adoring it. Whenever you're at a loose end, Minecraft has your back. Because of that, it's always worthy of being in the top 5.
Lauren Morton: Minecraft fully deserves its place in the top 5 on this list for being so all-around good over a decade later. There's no debating its importance—we have it to thank for the perennially flourishing survival crafting genre. And though it's not as hot as it once was, it remains a household name so reliably that I can always use it to explain to non-gaming adults what the heck it is I do for a living. On top of that it's still just a solid game that still gets yearly title updates with new features and bug fixes.
I don't think this year's 1.21 trial chambers update will go down as one of the more memorable ones—and active fans will always complain that yearly updates have gotten smaller over the years—but going back to your roots to boot up a new Minecraft world on a server with friends remains a core gaming experience.
Elie Gould: As a fan of building and exploring, Minecraft's recent Tricky Trials update didn't hit that hard, but that doesn't take away from a long history of brilliant patches. The new cherry blossom biome in the Trails and Tales update gave me even more building materials to expand my growing city, and the Caves and Cliffs update is the gift that keeps giving—providing me the perfect seed for creating a sprawling underground dwarven city.
3. Elden Ring
Released Feb 24, 2022 | Top 100 Score 259.81
Fraser Brown: FromSoftware at its most audacious and unrestrained, Elden Ring is the pinnacle of the genre the studio created. With the huge Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, it's now effectively two interconnected games, and both will ruin your life.
Elie Gould: I was a bit nervous to start Elden Ring at first. All of my friends bigged it up to be some unapproachable monolith, but I'm so glad I ignored them and finally tried it out for myself, because it quickly became my all-time favourite game (sorry Resi 4).
I am ashamed of how quickly games can bore me and how I'll then toss them aside, but for a very long time I dedicated every waking moment to Elden Ring without getting bored for a second, not even when I had to hunt invisible turtles or spend an entire day trying to figure out why Blaidd wasn't howling from the top of a derelict castle, only to find him chilling by the Siofra River. I'm currently gearing up for yet another runthrough that will incorporate the DLC in chronological order, and the only thing I'm worried about is becoming so obsessed with this game again that I become insufferable to all my friends and family.
Ted Litchfield: I've beaten it three times, coming up on two clears of the expansion, and there's no end in sight. There are so many different characters and builds I want to try, I want to beat NG+ with my first dude, I just started a Seamless Co-op run with a friend. You know what might help me move on? A Bloodborne PC port.
2. Disco Elysium
Released Oct 15, 2019 | Top 100 Score 264.84
Evan Lahti: Just one of the purest representations in any art form of what it feels like to have a multifaceted, millions-years-evolved chemistry that inhabits your skin—to be human. But also, some very good jokes about communards.
Ted Litchfield: In People Make Games' documentary about the fracturing of developer ZA/UM and the legal battle for ownership of Disco Elysium, one of the game's writers, Argo Tuulik, said that setting creator Robert Kurvitz "has this uncanny ability to conceptualize things that already exist in a way that they seem completely fresh and new."
That's one of my favorite things about this RPG: The world of Elysium is somehow pressing, anarchic, and punk while also feeling measured, mournful, almost anthropological in the details of its fictional history. It's a world with its own physics and technology, but the same political philosophies as our own, with a bizarre alternate world war and looming ecological catastrophe that make you look at our real ones with fresh eyes.
And that's just the set dressing! At the fore we have a noir mystery by turns slapstick and tragic, a meditation on living with failure from artists who seem to have had their fair share of it. It's always felt bitterly ironic that Disco Elysium's success should prove as ambiguous, melancholy, and charged with issues of class and politics as anything in the game itself.
Joshua Wolens: Still #1 in my heart. Disco Elysium is a game about the return of history after the long tenure of grey moderate men in grey moderate clothes. The revolution died, the communards were lined up and shot, and for a while there it really felt like everything could be administered in perpetuity by market forces. History is over; the handbrake is on.
Except whoops! History has no handbrake. It was only by quiet and colossal violence that the pleasant technocrats of the world gummed up the wheels enough to keep the locomotive in place for a few decades. Disco Elysium takes place when that violence is boiling over into the streets, tearing the old order apart and giving rise to something new. We'll probably never know what, thanks to capital and all, but frankly? It's a miracle we even got one game this good, in this setting, from these people. I'm thankful for that. Revachol forever.
1. Baldur's Gate 3
Released Aug 3, 2023 | Top 100 Score 275.95
Fraser Brown: I mean, of course it's Baldur's Gate 3, right? Disco Elysium's incredible run at the top of this list had to end eventually, and when BG3 launched last year I knew this would be the dragon slayer.
BG3 is so much more than a sequel we've been waiting decades for—especially since it's really a sequel in name only. It stands on its own at the top of RPG Mountain, propped up by Larian's years of experimentation in the Divinity series and the huge legacy of tabletop roleplaying games. The result: the most RPG of all RPGs, boasting the kind of freedom you only get with extremely permissive DMs, but with the kind of writing and world building and character development that you only get with a best-in-class team of scribes.
Harvey Randall: In an era where every RPG has a parry, dodge roll, and conversation wheel (except for Disco Elysium but hey, look what's at #2) Larian has well and truly trounced the misbegotten idea that tactical CRPGs are a thing of the past.
It helps that it's a gorgeously written, acted, and presented game. Companion characters are vibrantly voiced, beautifully performed, and meticulously animated. I already adored my first journey through the Sword Coast, and then Larian went ahead and updated the dang thing—adding an epilogue that turned a slightly wonky last few minutes into a heartfelt love letter to my investment in its story.
I know the studio's moving away from D&D for its next two projects, but I don't think Swen & Co need it anymore. Larian Studios has proven itself a powerhouse, and I have the deepest of hungers for whatever comes next.
Jake Tucker: I’m no longer allowed to play as a spellcaster in co-op after “The Grease Incident”.
Ted Litchfield: The thing that sticks with me the most about Baldur's Gate 3 one year later is that it never compromises, and in doing so upends 20 years of received wisdom from RPG fans and devs. Depth vs approachability, reactivity vs production values, mass appeal vs RPG sicko appeal. Even people who love complicated, deep CRPGs seemed to take it as given that they'd never sell well, that the things we want from them limit their audience.
In the last five years, we've gotten two of the best to ever do it in Disco Elysium and Baldur's Gate 3, while both games blew all expectations about their sales and popular impact out of the water. I'd always felt like I missed the party on CRPGs, that no matter how good the new ones might be, the classics made 20 years ago would never be beat. It's been wonderful to be proven wrong.
Tyler Wilde: I also love how uncompromising it is, even when it refuses to compromise on things that aren't worth defending. D&D 5e definitely doesn't have the greatest tabletop combat system ever invented, yet Baldur's Gate 3 goes to absurd lengths to replicate it faithfully. The audacity of it is part of the fun. If you're a D&D player, it's satisfying to find things working the way you know them to, even if it means disregarding contemporary notions of "good videogame design," and if you're not a D&D player, you get to experience an approximation of freeform tabletop combat and become someone who can credibly complain about D&D's combat rules—metamorphosis!
Personal Picks
The PC Gamer team has plenty of personal favourites that just couldn't fit into the main list. So here's a selection of recommendations that didn't quite make the cut, but remain near and dear to our editors' hearts.
Thank Goodness You're Here!
Genuinely funny videogames are rare treasures that only come around once every thousand years, so Thank Goodness You're Here is a very, very special three-hour romp. It's ostensibly a puzzle game where you, a diminutive fellow who communicates exclusively with gentle slaps, must assist the eccentric residents of a fictional Yorkshire town. Give fish ciggies. Help a man with an impossibly long arm do his shopping. Uncover a hidden rat society. Every scene is rich in gags and strange novelties.
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
I threw the Top 100 into chaos by nominating this innovative Nintendo classic, which highlights the intricate schedules of a townful of NPCs living a 3-day time loop. Majora's great, but more importantly, it's now playable at 4K, 60 fps on PC thanks to a native (and legal!) port that dynamically recompiles the N64 code. The harbinger of more amazing fan-made ports to come!
Cult of the Lamb
I originally petitioned for Overwatch 2, but then Blizzard nerfed Ana for what felt like the 11th time this year so I've switched gears to Cult of the Lamb. This roguelite clicks with me for so many reasons, the art's cool, the fights are epic, and I'm an self-admitted people pleaser so the cult management is just *chef's kiss*.
Jagged Alliance 3
I'm begging you to take a closer look at Tropic Thunder XCOM. This RPG-tactics game had the misfortune of releasing two weeks before our #1 game, but it's wonderfully sandboxy and violent, campy, and occasionally obscene in a way that Fallout fans would love. The bullet simulation is an excellent facet, a thread of fidelity that makes this goofy action romp feel genuinely gritty when you're performing a two-hour prison break with rocket launchers, C4, and Dragunovs.
Neverwinter Nights
Neverwinter Nights is an endless RPG feast: the 7/10 base game from 2002 has nostalgia value for me, but that's just the beginning. In 2003, we got two expansions that formed a single fantastic fantasy campaign, while the real NwN is a staggering library of user-made campaigns and MMO servers that take advantage of one of the best RPG builders ever made.
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War
I'm as disappointed as you that the RTS genre peaked 20 years ago, but it did. Dawn of War has just enough base-building to scratch the itch, but instead of having to harvest gas you progress by capturing points—actually playing the game. That leads to conflicts, which look amazing thanks to an embarrassment of sync-kill animations. It's the best.
Dark Souls 3
So, you like Elden Ring and want to try out Dark Souls? Don't go back to the first game; go to the third. Elden Ring owes its greatness to the culmination of the Souls' series and besides having FromSoftware's best DLC, it still plays well today. Perfect if you're versed in Elden Ring's combat and want a new challenge to undertake.
The Sims 4
I campaigned to get The Sims 3 on this list, which resulted in no Sims on this list, somehow. I will recant my betrayal. The Sims 4 is a bug-riddled mess, at times, but it's still one of my go-to casual creative outlets. Nothing is more relaxing than cluttering up a little kitchen on the weekend. There's a huge audience here starved for options, and until more games like The Sims finally launch, this is the best by default.
Halo Infinite
I failed to lobby for Halo Infinite to make the list this year, despite its multiplayer finally getting really good. I've put nearly 150 hours into it since the fall, and almost all of that time has been spent enjoying its huge variety of modes and maps. The map pool has in particular exploded with original and throwback maps created by the Forge community.
Hades 2
Is this cheating? Yes, but I put a very tasteful slide together to get votes for this thing and I'll be damned if I let that go to waste. Hades 2 is already bigger than the first game, somehow, and its music is even better than the first, impossibly. I also adore Melinoë to death. She's the workaholic to Zag's slacker, and I'm super invested in seeing her let her hair down.
Sayonara Wild Hearts
I'm noticing a distinct lack of rhythm games in the Top 100. Yet a truly fantastic rhythm game has left a lasting impression on me. Few games meld music, art style and good vibes as well as Sayonara Wild Hearts. I play it almost religiously on long-haul flights and it never fails to bring a smile to my face.
Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew
Mimimi's final game is also the peak of the tactical stealth formula its been honing since 2016's Shadow Tactics. Here you control a crew of ghost pirates, using their spooky powers to infiltrate islands. Slowly working through the complex guard patrols is as satisfying as ever, but the real joy is in testing out new squad combinations—seeing how their inventive powers interact.
BioShock
I almost feel this fell off the list by accident. The first half of Bioshock is the most incredible singleplayer FPS experience I've had and, even if it can't quite maintain that stellar quality until the end, this stands proud as one of the most vividly brilliant environments in gaming, packed with over-reaching ideas, a stupendously fun toolkit, and the genius, macabre, haunting threat of the Big Daddies.
Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor
This "auto-shooter", heavily inspired by Vampire Survivors, has been my new obsession this year. I've played a lot of games in this budding genre and I genuinely think it's the best of the lot, bringing in ideas from the original Deep Rock Galactic and using them to add new layers of strategy to the formula. Rock and Stone!
Alpha Protocol
I fought hard to get AP on the Top 100 this year (there was even a Powerpoint), but the PCG deep state conspired against me. Okay, fine, I'll cop to parts of the gameplay being downright busted—woe betide anyone who doesn't spec into pistols and stealth—but Obsidian's espionage RPG still does choice and consequence like no other game can.
