The Best PC Games (You Should Be Playing)

[EClyde]

Redneck Rampage III.

 

[hahahanoobs]

I'm finding it really hard to be excited for games these last few years. We get so many stinkers, so many poorly made games, the rampant monetization, and the lack of "fresh paint" or new IPs in general. Hell, one of the games on this "best of 2018" list came out in 2013 FFS!

Just cause 4 was the one game I was looking forward to, and besides being a graphical downgrade in areas, its performance is absolutely atrocious, and the story doesnt look to be much better then 3's. A far cry from JC2's campiness.

The only game I have left to look forward to is Ace Combat 7, and Hoping, against all odds, that project aces learned their lesson with assault horizon and delivers a proper arcade flyer this time. The footage we have seen is amazingly promising, but I reserve judgement for the full release.

Maybe in my old age (early 20s) I am simply being left behind by the gaming industry? It just feels like a shell of its former self. We dont get the same games we were getting in the golden era, and that makes me sad.

The gaming industry has lost quality innovation, in the 90s games were by and large innovative. Not so much now as cookie cutter and minimum effort reign.

Being able to patch games post launch, pushy publishers, pre-ordering and micro-transactions started this.

 

[Puiu]

The gaming industry has lost quality innovation, in the 90s games were by and large innovative. Not so much now as cookie cutter and minimum effort reign.

The games released this year and last year seriously disprove what you just said. COD and BF are not the only games to be released.

 

[Hellbishop]

I could never get into Kingdom Come: Deliverance. For a game that way hyped up as a simulation it felt anything but with the spastic combat and having to down a drink to save the game. Fortunately Steam gave me a refund even after going into the three hour mark.

Games that are doing it for me this year are-

Battletech- at last my decades of waiting for another tabletop style turn based Battletech game are over. Now I can enjoy my inner mechwarrior just like the good old days playing the tabletop games and video game versions like Ralph Reed's Battleforce on the Amiga 500 and though not Battletech Mission Force CyberStorm was incredibly similar especially when using the Dev cheat codes which activated all sorts of new strategy elements.

Warhammer 40,000 Gladius- The Emperor's will manifested upon the body of the Civilization series ripping out its guts of diplomacy and tossing it into a blood drenched battlefield where there is only war.

Warhammer 40,000 Mechanicus- Truly to play this game is be one with the machine.. with the Omnimessiah. Completely captures the machine barely human religious potency of the subject matter with tense tactical gameplay and music that would make H.R. Geiger smile.

The Bard's Tale IV- Just found out about this one last week and I was real happy to see it was first person full of classic Dungeons And Dragons goodness. Still needs a bit of patching when it comes to framerate optimization etc but worth playing.

Pathfinder Kingmaker- Alot of depth and character in a huge top down world. Its great to see rpgs of this type which are fast and slick with plenty of detail.

Agony Unrated- disturbing trip into a Dante's inferno world where oblivion of self may be your only salvation. Thank goodness it's only a game.

Divinity Original Sin II- Stunning mesmerizing magical rpg work with characters and npcs that feel so alive and authentic in their motivations. Truly the ultimate rpg experience. A instant timeless classic.

Happy holidays and happy gaming to all.

 

[tipstir]

Who did this review on the best games online? You never mention Star Trek Online or Never Winter or even Asphalt 9! F2P..

 

[fktech]

Look out the window, there's a 3D world out there. LOL.

 

[loki1944]

The games released this year and last year seriously disprove what you just said. COD and BF are not the only games to be released.

The vast majority are simplistic or shallow experiences, or simply copy paste cash grabs; the ratio is absolutely not what it once was. Quality is not quantity. That still holds true.

 

[Puiu]

The vast majority are simplistic or shallow experiences, or simply copy paste cash grabs; the ratio is absolutely not what it once was. Quality is not quantity. That still holds true.

I just gave a huge list of only strategy games that destroy your entire argument. do you want me to list games from every genre? seriously now. if you haven't even tried looking for a good game then why are you talking about them? you can be nostalgic as much as you want and think that older games were "better" but don't also be ignorant.

 

[GreenNova343]

The games released this year and last year seriously disprove what you just said. COD and BF are not the only games to be released.

The vast majority are simplistic or shallow experiences, or simply copy paste cash grabs; the ratio is absolutely not what it once was. Quality is not quantity. That still holds true.

Ratio seems pretty spot-on. Even back when PC games would line multiple shelves at stores like Best Buy, CompUSA, Circuit City, & Micro Center, there would be all sorts of 'craptacular' games that were a) shoddy clones of popular franchises, b) the current year's version of last year's (insert particular college/professional sport here) game (with the primary changes just being the starting player lineups), or c) games that simply fell flat (bad gameplay, lackluster story, poor online support, glitches, etc.). Heck, I'll admit that one of the games I used to play (Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds) was fun for two reasons: 1) I'm a big fan of sci-fi in general, & Star Wars in particular; & 2) I"m a big fan of RTS strategy games, including Age of Empires II, the game it was cloned from (Ensemble Studios, the creators of AoE II, collaborated with Lucasarts to make it, but used the same graphics engine & essentially the same gameplay that they used in AoE II). It was really nothing more than a very professional mod of AoE II...but I bought it (& may even have it stored somewhere at home).

That was about 16 years ago (I had the box set with the game & its expansion pack, which was released in late 2002). The more things change, the more they stay the same.

 

[ddferrari]

Man we need another Half-Life or Crysis. Miss the old days of gaming. I would be happy with at least a new F.E.A.R game.

PREY was awesome if you like horror shooters.

 

[Kinkoyaburi]

It seems playing all the best titles in this day and age shifts more and more to the richest strata of mankind. If this trend continues, in the next 10 to 20 years even less people will be able to afford the latest Tomb Raider title. What kind of person is able to have a console, a powerful modern PC and enough spare time to play all these games, not just one?

 

[Dimitrios]

It seems playing all the best titles in this day and age shifts more and more to the richest strata of mankind. If this trend continues, in the next 10 to 20 years even less people will be able to afford the latest Tomb Raider title. What kind of person is able to have a console, a powerful modern PC and enough spare time to play all these games, not just one?

The future of MAJORITY gaming will be Netflix like service subscription for people with busy lives or don't have the money to buy or make a gaming desktop computer. There will also be a future with games that don't need hardware to run. My guess would be "Amazon Digital" what I would describe it naming wise. Library of movies & one for games. Good example would be like STEAM.

Oddly I'm disappointed with the slow adaption of Mark Zuckerberg's approach on gaming/video rentals where it can benefit the Facebook user and their family&friends with some sort of group discount and layout of love ones far away can watch and comment with each other while the movie is playing. I made some comments and predictions many years ago and was mostly right. The impression I get with Zuckerberg is that he is mostly focused on being a weasel for governments.

 

[veLa]

Not really that interested in most of these games.

 

[Heavybox]

I think all these games are better,I've tried it all and none really sucks

 

[Evernessince]

So, most of the best games to play on pc are on consoles, too! And you wonder why people prefer consoles and the big titles sale a lot more on consoles. All of my friends on pc are stuck on Fortnite, Pubg, Lol and Mu. Where are the new high level strategy games? Where are the great shooters?

I don't think taking a sample size of a single year from a single publication says anything about any platform and it certainly doesn't suggest any of the claims you are making are at all true.

I also don't get how being "stuck" on any game is a bad thing. If they like the game then good for them. Let them enjoy themselves.

 

[Namtrooper]

I'm surprised you would recommend anything from the Microsoft store.

 

[kira setsu]

It's a really **** move for Rockstar not to release Red Dead Redemption 2 for PC and making us wait many months.

I'm playing it now for PS4 and it looks and plays amazing. It's the new GTA V. Incredible.
If it was on PC it would be on this list.

Too bad if you want to play it you have to play it on PEON low quality consoles running at 30 fps. Cant wonder how good the game could have been if it was on scalable PC's with modern hardware. The weak consoles don't do the game justice. It would have been so much better on PC and would really showcase the hard work Rockstar's developers intended.

Now I have to buy it for PC as well when it comes out, I have to pay twice for the same game. THis way I get the upgraded version and FREE UNLIMITED online VS consoles that make you pay monthly (which is a huge scam).

If I want to pay online I guess I have to buy it for PC eventually. I may just wait for the PC version to go down to $30. But seeing the popularity of GTA V and high the price is always high, I doubt it will go down in price that much.

Regardless it's a great game worth playing twice story mode and countless side quests.
It sucks that Rockstar is stealing so much money this way but it's very smart of them too.

It's crazy how EPIC is worth 15 billion dollars and how so many people are crazy about Battle Royale. It appeals to casual competitive players. presenting a niche of gaming that appeals to the masses. Kind of like how Dota 2 appealed to so many, here is another mass appeal game. Way to go EPIC.

how is it a crummy move when you justified it by buying a copy for ps4 then saying you'll buy another copy on pc? that right there is exactly why they made that move.

it's getting really hard to feel bad for gamers when they buy everything placed in front of them, these massive companies would change their ways if gamers fought back by not buying every item they release, heck they dont even have to release anything, they can just show a still image with a subtiltle of "releasing in whatever so many yrs" and they can watch the gullible toss cash at them, the companies do what people let them get away with, and gaming in general has tossed the reigns in the ocean when it comes to game makers.

 

[Sausagemeat]

I must say as a long term PC Gamer it’s a very good time to buy a console. Something I didn’t think I would be saying. I won’t buy one as my hands are designed for a mouse and keyboard but PCs cost an awful lot these days if you want to break away from 1080p and there appear to be quite a few missing titles on the PC.

 

[Nitrotoxin]

How do you not have Destiny 2 on this list?!?

 

[sac39507]

Will any of these games allow you play with a friend or two in story mode where there's a rich and fulfulling storyline? If not, no thanks. Getting online to kill a bunch of lame Chinese hackers is getting old.

 

[Peter Farkas]

I am good with my old Starcraft 2 and Day of Defeat, CS:GO, ME series including Andromeda.
Innovation has long been gone in my opinion. Everyone is focusing on new concepts such as free to play and microtransactions, etc... to rip us off even more.
Shareholders really got to wake up in the gaming industry and realize they are just making money while not making anything new at all... In my opinion they are killing the industry at the moment.

 

[DubiousFishHook]

UT4 - alpha - free on epics store (I havent tried Fortnite and im not going to because I like quality)
its even better than UT1, since they are bilionaires it wil probably be completed.

 

[Tonia73986]

Man we need another Half-Life or Crysis. Miss the old days of gaming. I would be happy with at least a new F.E.A.R game.

NEW BIOSHOCK.....PLEASE! I'm begging LOL! Waiting for Metro Exodus right now.

 

[Hammayon]

how is it a crummy move when you justified it by buying a copy for ps4 then saying you'll buy another copy on pc? that right there is exactly why they made that move.

it's getting really hard to feel bad for gamers when they buy everything placed in front of them, these massive companies would change their ways if gamers fought back by not buying every item they release, heck they dont even have to release anything, they can just show a still image with a subtiltle of "releasing in whatever so many yrs" and they can watch the gullible toss cash at them, the companies do what people let them get away with, and gaming in general has tossed the reigns in the ocean when it comes to game makers.

I'm playing Red Dead Redemption 2 for PS4 now and I'll try the online once I'm done the story mode. If it's amazing, then I'll wait for a version for PC that's dirt cheap or "free" lol

Free is how you fck these publishers up the arse

 

[Hellbishop]

Ratio seems pretty spot-on. Even back when PC games would line multiple shelves at stores like Best Buy, CompUSA, Circuit City, & Micro Center, there would be all sorts of 'craptacular' games that were a) shoddy clones of popular franchises, b) the current year's version of last year's (insert particular college/professional sport here) game (with the primary changes just being the starting player lineups), or c) games that simply fell flat (bad gameplay, lackluster story, poor online support, glitches, etc.). Heck, I'll admit that one of the games I used to play (Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds) was fun for two reasons: 1) I'm a big fan of sci-fi in general, & Star Wars in particular; & 2) I"m a big fan of RTS strategy games, including Age of Empires II, the game it was cloned from (Ensemble Studios, the creators of AoE II, collaborated with Lucasarts to make it, but used the same graphics engine & essentially the same gameplay that they used in AoE II). It was really nothing more than a very professional mod of AoE II...but I bought it (& may even have it stored somewhere at home).

That was about 16 years ago (I had the box set with the game & its expansion pack, which was released in late 2002). The more things change, the more they stay the same.

The "good old days". I remember shopping at J&R Computer World and it was the same setup of shelves stuffed with video games in the 1990s many of them clones. For me they satisfied my gaming needs since they were cheap and had nice visuals while having the core gameplay of favorites like Command And Conquer or TSR rpg knockoffs like the Elvira horror games which reminded me of Eye Of The Beholder in a horror setting.

Still it was a nice display of the games on the shelves which felt like a huge Christmas display. I wish places like STEAM could catch that same type of imagery or something similar to the old 1970s MACY's holiday mail catalogs. What a advertising rush that would be.

Totally agree on your "The more things change, the more they stay the same". My mom used to tell me the same thing when I was a kid and it has turned out to be true in every avenue of life.