The best games for PC
Where do we start?
So how do you categorize a beast like gaming on the PC? With decades of titles to pluck from (and the first port of call for most indie titles, too), there's so much to choose from. Gaming on your PC adds the benefits of (nearly always flawless) backward compatibility and console-beating graphical performance -- if you've got the coin for it. We've tried to be broad with our recommendations here on purpose. There are so many great games out there for your PC, consider these some starting points.
Doom
It's fair to say that not a lot of people were excited about Doom. id Software's much-loved series had essentially been absent for over a decade, and a pre-release beta, which only showed off the game's multiplayer, was judged harshly by critics and players alike. Within minutes of booting up the single-player campaign, though, essentially everyone realized they needn't have worried. id successfully updated an antiquated formula for modern gamers, and in doing so, created a truly unique first-person shooter.
Doom is so great because it makes gamers play the game as the developers intended. The Glory Kill system, which initially was written off as violence for the sake of violence, turned out to be a vital part of the gameplay. While other games have you backing away and cowering behind cover, Doom forces you to get in the enemy's face or, more accurately, punch their face off. Doing so rewards you with items which let you dispatch the dozens of enemies you'll inevitably be surrounded by. It's an adrenaline rush dressed up by a game, and it's a must-play for anyone that loves (or can stomach) egregious violence. AS
Fortnite Battle Royale
Fortnite is a cultural phenomenon, responsible for popularizing a new shooting-game genre and doing it in a way that has millions playing across mobile, PC and games consoles, like the Switch -- you'll see this particular game appear in several of our lists. It all started with a simple idea: survive. (Actually it started with a tower-defense-esque game where you built a fort to protect human survivors against zombies, but hey, it evolved.) Fortnite has a low barrier to entry (it's free!), and the sheer momentum behind the fact that everyone is playing it makes resistance futile. Parachute into the field, grab supplies, guns and ammo, build some defensive protections if you like and make it to the end. Sounds simple, but the best game ideas are. PUBG, Apex and the rest have a tough fight on their hands. MS
Dragon Ball FighterZ
Dragon Ball FighterZ is a properly crafted fighting game, with competitive esports ambitions. It's also incredibly fun, polished and looks like an anime come to life. With a lengthy campaign mode featuring voice actors from the TV series and new characters designed especially for this game, it's arguably the best-realized Dragon Ball game yet, with a battle system that's fun for entry-level fighters but surprisingly complicated and nuanced enough for higher-echelon brawlers. too. MS
FTL
Who hasn't wanted to captain their own spaceship? Well, after a few hours of FTL, you might be rethinking your life goals. FTL is a roguelike, which means every game starts from the same spot. All you have to do is travel through a number of star systems, recruiting crew members and collecting scrap as you make your way towards a final showdown against a stupidly overpowered ship. Gameplay is roughly divided between a map view, where you can take as much time as you like to chart the most efficient route to your goal, and combat events which play out in real-time (although you can and will be using a pause button to slow things down).
Where the real fun comes in is in the narrative, which plays out in two ways. There's the structured side, where every so often you'll be asked to make decisions that may improve or hinder your chances of survival. And then there's the natural story you create for yourselves, as you're forced to decide, for example, whether it's worth sacrificing a crew member for the greater good. AS
League of Legends
League of Legends represents one of the most exciting landscapes in gaming today. On top of supporting a monthly player base of roughly 100 million people, League is the most popular esports scene in the world. When you're not watching pro matches, LoL itself is perfect for all-night gaming sessions, playing with a team of friends or solo. There are a few different roles to best match your preferred play style, and Riot Games consistently rolls out updates, new champions and visual upgrades. Plus, the studio has built a character roster 143 deep (and counting). JC
Nier Automata
Nier takes the razor-sharp combat of a Platinum Games title and puts it in a world crafted by everyone's favorite weirdo, Yoko Taro. Don't worry, you can mostly just run, gun and slash your way through the game, but as you finish, and finish and finish this one, you'll find yourself pulled into a truly special narrative, that's never been done before and will probably never be done again. It's fair to say that the PC release, as is unfortunately often the case, wasn't exactly the best and is still remarkably lacking in options, but it's at least stable now, and trust us when we say this one is unmissable. AS
Return of the Obra Dinn
This is an unforgettable ghost-story-slash-murder-mystery with a distinctive old-school graphical style. It's unlike any game we've played in a while, with a low-key musical score and a style of puzzle solving that's like one satisfying, grisly riddle. In Return of the Obra Dinn, you're put aboard a ship, alone. There is, however, a corpse near the captain's cabin. As you track the deceased's final footsteps, leading to yet more grisly ends, you need to figure out what happened. Who killed who? And who is still alive? Special mention to the sound effect that kicks in every time you solve the fates of three of the crew. Goosebumps. MS
The Witcher 3
It might be the best open-world RPG out there. Despite now being several years old, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a dense action game that acknowledges the maturity of the player with multiple -- occasionally harrowing -- storylines, choices that have consequences and almost too much game to wrestle with. It's not perfect; the combat system is rough, frustrating death comes in the form of falling from just a few feet and there's a lot of quest filler alongside many incredibly well thought out distractions. The scope and ambition on display will have you hooked, and once you're done, there are some excellent expansions to check out. MS
XCOM 2: War of the Chosen
There was some spirited discussion about which XCOM game we would include in this list, but in the end, War of the Chosen won out. The 2017 expansion to XCOM 2 is the latest and greatest entrant to the XCOM series. All the staples of a classic XCOM game are here. You're a commander of a rag-tag group of elite military units. You command those units in short missions against an impossibly large alien force, carefully moving them around a grid map to take out the enemy one by one. Completing missions advances the story and also gives you the opportunity to upgrade your units -- which is where XCOM's party trick comes in.
XCOM has permadeath. That means that once a character dies, it's dead. This keeps the stakes high and inevitably leads to some truly painful moments. One wrong move can send your high-level, ultra-customized, definitely-not-named-after-your-co-workers soldier to its death, to be replaced by a rookie that's even more vulnerable. Honestly, you should absolutely buy 2013's XCOM: Enemy Within as well, but War of the Chosen remains of the finest examples of a turn-based tactics game ever to grace the PC. AS
Contributors: Jessica Conditt (JC), Mat Smith (MS), Aaron Souppouris (AS)
The best games
Explore our top picks for every system
Monday: PlayStation 4
Tuesday: Xbox One
Wednesday: Switch
Thursday: PC
Friday: Mobile
Saturday: Free-to-play
