It starts with an old broken-down farm and a handful of seeds. It's a wonderful game that digs its teeth into you the more you play, and it's easily one of the best cooperative PC games available today. Bungie crafted one of the best-feeling first-person shooters we've played in recent years, so it offers a constant source of fun regardless of whether you're making your way through story missions, going on challenging raids with friends, or battling in the Crucible. Destiny 2's plethora of content would be nothing without strong mechanics and overarching systems that keep you grinding away for new gear. And it's not even close to being too late to jump into Destiny 2, as more content is coming through 2023. While the sequel started off on a strong note, it has only gotten better thanks to consistent updates and expansions that delivered a steady stream of enthralling first-person shooter content. See our Counter-Strike: Global Offensive review.ĭespite releasing more than nearly five years ago, Destiny 2 remains one of the most popular live service multiplayer games around. Recently, Valorant has adopted the Counter-Strike formula to great effect, but the high-stakes tactical combat of CSGO is still in a league of its own. However, this classic game can be wildly rewarding, which you can see from its massive competitive scene. Counter-Strike has historically been played with a level of precision in both the FPS combat and in its tactics, which makes a bit of a steep learning curve for newcomers. One of the most exciting things about CSGO is the high-intensity competitive matches where the slightest mistakes could spell doom for your team, or clutch plays could drastically shift the momentum of a match. But beyond that, there's a hostage rescue mode, gungame free-for-all, and tons of custom content from years of work by its player base. The standard mode of play is a five-on-five demolition-style match on carefully crafted maps that emphasize specific positioning, sightlines, and team strategies. Though CSGO has undergone significant changes over its lifespan, it's still very much the core Counter-Strike experience that revolutionized the multiplayer FPS genre in the 2000s.
The iconic competitive FPS is still going strong today with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Civilization VI earned a 9/10 from GameSpot when it initially released back in 2016, and nearly five years later, it's still one of the best strategy games to pick up and start playing on PC. Of course, Civilization VI expanded and improved on previous games in the series, with additions such as the inclusion of districts that let cities expand across multiple tiles, but it's also continued to receive new content in the form of two major expansions: Rise and Fall and Gathering Storm, both of which added new leaders, civilizations, and features to the game. As in previous games, Civilization VI casts you in the role of a historical leader, such as Egypt's Cleopatra or India's Gandhi, and tasks you with building your civilization from the ground up, including growing your military, developing new research facilities, and engaging in diplomacy with other world leaders. Also, some of our picks are available on PC Game Pass, Microsoft's subscription service.įirst released in the '90s, Sid Meier's Civilization series is still going strong in 2021, thanks to continued support for its most recent release, Civilization VI. We've included links to those stores, too. We've linked to Steam listings where possible for these games, but it's worth noting that you can often find better deals on storefronts such as Fanatical and GOG. We regularly reevaluate and update this list, so you can always use it as a resource to find some fresh recommendations.
And if you happen to have a Steam Deck, a lot of these games are playable on Valve's impressive handheld PC. That said, many of the games on this list don't require the latest and greatest graphic cards-they merely help these great games look even better. PC gaming is quite different from consoles, as your mileage with each game on this list will vary based on your rig. Our list of the best PC games spans across a wide variety of genres, so we imagine at least a few of these games will pique your interest. Some of these, like Elden Ring and Baldur's Gate 3, are recently released gems, while others are multiplayer or live service games that have stood the test of time, such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Minecraft. Rather than a comprehensive list of the best PC games of all time, we placed our focus on the best PC games to play right now.
The PC gaming ecosystem is easily the largest in the industry, with tens of thousands of games available to play and no real generational divide.