Best pc games recently released

Now you can find out! Jump into the Riders Republic massive multiplayer playground! Meet and compete with other players, and ride hard with an exciting range of activities such as bike, ski, snowboard, wingsuit and rocket wingsuit. Live out the rider's fantasy as you roam free in a huge, vibrant open world, always buzzing with other players around you.

Squad up with your friends and compete in a wide range of multiplayer modes: feel the rush of downhill races, dominate maps in team vs team competitions, or give it your best shot in epic mass PvP races with more than 50 other players. Go all out. Join the madness! Blue Reflection: Second Light follows the adventures of three students — Ao Hoshizaki, Kokoro Utsubo, and Yuki Kinjou — who find themselves transported to a mysterious floating academy, searching for clues to find their way back home, with only their names as memories.

By battling the fiendish creatures, they unlock unknown powers that only seem to deepen the cryptic nature of their surroundings. Throughout the adventure, the three friends cooperate and struggle to make their everyday-life as rich and as fun as possible.

With the unpredictable Guardians at your side, blast your way from one explosive situation to another, with original and iconic Marvel characters caught in a struggle for the fate of the universe.

You got this. Cultivated to be bigger and better the ultimate and multimillion selling farming simulation returns this November! Farming Simulator 22 offers more depth and the highest extent of player freedom in the history of the series.

With more than machines and tools from over authentic agricultural brands, players can look forward to an improved and realistic as ever simulation. Suited for all ages, players dive into even more diverse agriculture, animal husbandry and forestry. Two new maps inspired by US and EU regions plus an updated alpine Erlengrat map emphasize different kinds of farming operations, including three new crops. The addition of seasonal cycles adds new challenges throughout the year, and enhances the atmosphere many times over.

Players can now start various production chains to further extend their income whether they produce bread, oil, juice or more. To allow more individualization of farms and characters, the vastly improved customization tools add plentiful new possibilities.

User Score: 5. Journey through a surreal, vivid and highly stylized world filled with mystery, wild high-speed traversal, endearing characters, and massive enemy encounters. Wytchwood is a crafting adventure game set in a land of gothic fables and fairytales. As the old witch of the woods, explore a strange countryside, collect magic ingredients, brew sorcerous spells, and pass judgement upon a capricious cast of characters.

Super Robot Wars is a simulation RPG where robots of various animations come together to fight against a common enemy. A stylish blend of deck-building, turn-based tactics, and thrilling animated fight sequences in classic action-movie settings. Learn to balance your hand, momentum, and positioning to overcome the odds to defeat your adversaries. Build your deck, control the space and live to fight another day.

Take control of Nara, once the Circle's deadliest warrior, now their most wanted fugitive, on a quest to destroy the dark cult that created her. Unlock devastating weapons and mind-bending abilities in a true evolution of the space-combat shooter. Along with Forsaken, her sentient starfighter, explore ancient temples, engage in exhilarating zero-g combat, and venture beyond our waking reality.

Their quest for redemption will take them across the galaxy and beyond the boundaries of reality, as they fight to unite resistance forces against the Circle and their leader, the Great Prophet, at all costs. Explore epic locations such as sprawling space stations and strange planes of existence beyond our own. Engage in exhilarating zero-g dogfights from epic cosmic vistas to tight crystalline corridors.

Chorus balances the scale and spectacle of space exploration with frenetic, fast-paced action. Master your ship's unique drift mechanic and deadly mind-bending abilities, including extra-sensory perception, teleportation and telekinesis, to overcome massive hordes of enemies and take down titanic battleships. Chain your powers together to become the ultimate living weapon.

Players get to play as a team of prisoners, forced to explore and extract valuable artifacts from a vast underground complex that has been overrun by terrifying creatures.

Gather weapons, tools, and resources to help you survive - and work to unearth the answers about your past and how to escape. Our goal is to invent new ways of challenging you and your teammates in new and interesting ways. It introduces a compelling, new narrative campaign, incredible new features, and awe-inspiring new dinosaurs brought to life with captivating authenticity. Together with expanded construction and more customisation options, the result is an even bigger, better and authentic Jurassic World game.

Lead efforts to control, conserve and contain dinosaurs as you work alongside iconic characters from the films, including Dr. Create your own Jurassic World Take control with deeper management tools and creative options. Construct and customise new buildings and flex your managerial muscle across never-before-seen locations ranging from dense forests to rocky deserts. Rescue and bioengineer more than 75 prehistoric species, including highly requested flying and marine reptiles , and watch them seek territory, fight and interact with staggering realism.

Play with Chaos Theory Chaos Theory mode lets you play through key moments of your favourite films - with a twist. Experience "what-if" scenarios from iconic Jurassic World and Jurassic Park films, with each level set across eras and locations from all five movies. Immerse yourself at the heart of the Jurassic World franchise and see how things turn out when you are put at the helm of managing new challenges with unpredictable outcomes.

Immerse yourself in the Viking Age thanks to the Discovery Tour: Roam freely throughout Norway, England, and the mythical realms of Jotunheim and Asgard in a map free of conflict or gameplay constraints. Relive history through stories with 8 major quests and discover the Viking Age of the 9th to 11th century Northern Europe.

Interact with charismatic historical or fictional characters, including King Aelfred, shipbuilders, monks, and more! Play your part in history through a new player-oriented experience where you become a key actor in narrative quests.

Echo Generation follows a gang of kids through otherworldly adventures as they investigate mysterious and supernatural events in their hometown that will change the course of their lives forever. Mando came back for the DLC, which offers an experience inspired by roguelites.

Starting with nothing more than a pistol to defend themselves, players will need to find new weapons and unlock power-ups to become stronger and progress deeper into the depths of Vaas' psyche. Blending intense action and storytelling, Vaas: Insanity will provide a unique opportunity to better understand Vaas' past, personal demons, and motivations. User Score: 4. Arcadia Fallen is a Modern Fantasy Visual Novel, where your choices shape the personality of your character.

Will you be shy, bold, or the one forever making jokes? Play the role of a young alchemist apprentice who is unwillingly bound to an illegal spirit. Suddenly drawn into a war between humanity and magic, they must join a group of unlikely heroes to escape their own doom, hopefully saving the world along the way.

From the creators of Arizona Sunshine comes an epic VR action FPS with intense co-op gameplay at its core that pits up to 4 players against a post-apocalyptic VR world filled with ferocious undead, mutated and twisted by the relentless cold. Set in the ice-covered ruins of s LA nearly 20 years after the apocalypse, After the Fall combines an evolving VR world shared with players on all platforms with action-packed co-op gameplay, built from the ground up for VR.

Venture out into the remains of post-apocalyptic LA, wield deadly weapons and devastating powers with real-life movements as you develop your combat style, and join forces with players worldwide. Go head to head with hordes and towering bosses in a bid to leave the city a better place than your predecessors. Aeterna Noctis is a challenging 2D Metroidvania drawn by hand, with intense combats and skill-based platform sections. Taking the role of the 'King of Darkness' you must help him regain his power across 16 different and connected areas in an epic journey with environmental storytelling.

Century: Age of Ashes, the multiplayer dragon battle game is now available for free! Customize your dragon, dive into the arena and compete to become a legendary Dragoneer.

Burn your enemies and rule the skies! Compete in intense online games ranging from 3v3 to 6v6 and discover the fast-paced gameplay of Century : Age of Ashes! Dive into the arena alone or with friends and fight for your survival!

Experience different play styles with 3 unique classes, each with their own abilities! Shield and disorient as the Windguard, track and destroy as the Marauder, or stealth and trap as the Phantom.

How will you choose your path to victory? Play air guitar and write rock history in VR! Are you ready to ROCK?! The galaxy's inhabitants have been swamped by crime since the fall of the empire. Being able to find anyone, anywhere has become a highly prized skill. Aidan is a three-armed bounty hunter who must hunt down the most dangerous and elusive cutthroats in the galaxy.

Some bounties are rewarded with money, others with valuable information that Aidan can use to find the people who set him on this path all while getting embroiled in a galaxy-wide conspiracy. Hunt criminals across the fringes of the galaxy, the core worlds, and the ruins of long-gone civilizations. Upgrade your equipment, gain new abilities, grow stronger and destroy anything that stands in your way.

Enjoy a complex story interwoven with high-octane gameplay and full of twists and turns that hit as hard as a bounty hunter's third arm!

The latest from veteran developer Con Artist Games, creators of The Last Stand series of games, The Last Stand: Aftermath is an all new, premium singleplayer standalone action adventure rogue-lite. Choose a survivor to set forth and explore the ruins of civilization, finding fuel to travel to new locations and gathering supplies to craft weapons and more. You'll need to stay on your toes, since hordes of zombies still roam the streets, and you're no superhuman.

In fact, you're one of the infected yourself, and eventually you'll die, be it from the hostile undead or the virus rampaging through your body. But when that happens, you'll pick up the game again as a new survivor, with perks and upgrades earned based on your progress from the last, and set out to try again.

Tandem : A Tale of Shadows redefines the puzzle platformer genre with a unique gameplay and exceptional aesthetics. Help Emma and the teddy bear Fenton solve the mystery of the disappearance of the famous magician Thomas Kane. Hack and slash? Skills, upgrades, weapons, gears, talismans and more to make you stronger?

Wake up, bounty hunter. We have a mission for you. Time to clean up the scum of the galaxy. Play the whole story online with a friend, making choices that affect you both.

Disciples: Liberation is a mature, dark fantasy strategy RPG with turn-based combat. Liberate the land of Nevendaar and uncover the endless stories hidden within this richly detailed world where every decision has a consequence, and every wrong move could be deadly. In this fast-paced rhythm runner, every action has an explosive reaction and no amount of mayhem is too much. Take on the role of yordle and Hexplosives expert Ziggs as you rampage through the neighborhoods of Piltover.

Bomb, bounce, and bop to the beat of the music to avoid obstacles, disarm enemies, and light fuses to achieve maximum chaos. Cause musical mayhem while outrunning no-fun-allowed Heimerdinger in your quest to build the greatest bomb the world has ever seen!

Use the Freestyle Mayhem System to create spontaneous blasts and grab bonus points This is WWII combat like never before. Witness the origins of Special Forces as you play a pivotal role and change the face of history, forming Task Force One in a gripping Campaign across four major theaters of war.

Become an original Special Forces Operator in an online Multiplayer rich in innovation with 20 maps available at launch.

Prepare for a franchise-first, universe-expanding Zombies crossover. Otherwise, it's not all that different from Forza Horizon 4. That means it's still really good. Hard to go wrong there. Consistently fun. Tied for highest score of Wildermyth is the game for you. Go have a Viking adventure—it's worth it. A "stupendously intricate mechanical cake," as we put it in our review. It might take an hour or so to click, but when it does it's better than the reboot.

One of the best detective games you can play. Every year, we publish a new version of the PC Gamer Top , a list of the best PC games from throughout time that we think you'll enjoy right now.

It's a delightfully disturbing mix of roguelike and card game genres that's worth stumbling in the darkness to discover. And explode. And bleed? What begins as a chill loot-shooty time quickly escalates to a frantic fight for your life where everything is burning and there's a big red target on your back.

The lack of any strategic layer between the action did leave me feeling burned out. But the additive nature of the game's builds give Risk of Rain 2 the feeling of a pebble skittering along a rocky cliff. When the avalanche begins, enemies would be well advised to get out of your way. Also available: Xbox PlayStation Switch. The original Spelunky's proc-gen depths hid secrets that took time for its avid community to discover, so it's possible that Spelunky 2 has secrets of its own that I have yet to find, and they could push the game in a different direction from its predecessor.

Spelunky 2 is a successful evolution of what made the original Spelunky work; the tight controls, impressive use of procedural generation, expressive art style, and interesting stage themes are better than ever here.

But the more notable changes in how we play and talk about this game will likely happen in the coming months as players discover the heart of the game in the deep, dark depths we aren't yet even aware exist. There's no death, no pain, no rush on any task, and yet I don't think I've ever felt this complete. You're allowed to totally take your time, play on your own terms, and even though your tasks are easy, they are incredibly fulfilling.

If the game had kept giving me quests, I feel as if I would have kept doing them for eternity, just because I wanted to. All of Spiritfarer's novel mechanical variations kept potentially repetitive actions from ever growing old.

Its gleeful little islands got more exciting to explore as new platforming abilities were unlocked. The characters, even small ones with funny little quips of dialogue that you encounter, were friends that I cherished.

I absolutely adored existing in Spiritfarer's beautifully animated, compassionate world so much that it genuinely came to feel like home.

In my experience, roguelites lose their luster when the runs start to feel the same no matter how you change things up. Even after playing for dozens of hours and having seen the vast majority of what there is to see, I never lost interest in picking apart each battle to dismantle an opponent for a turn, then another one, and another until the battle is finished.

The satisfying feeling of living in the moment and conquering it never gets old. Also available: Switch Xbox. It looks great, sounds great, and plays very well. Even if the experience is relatively short, it's the sort of game you and your buddies can easily enjoy playing and re-playing.

If you're craving some classic brawling action with a modern edge, these rage-filled streets are calling your name. The game's playful use of the first-person camera and clever perspective manipulation puzzles take video game tropes and mechanics most players will be familiar with and wring something truly fresh out of them. Superliminal achieves its clear central aim--it offers up some genuinely fresh perspectives on what first-person puzzle games can do.

Cherry-picking major events, like the Reichstag Fire or the opening ceremony of the Olympics, it convincingly places you at the scene, putting you in the shoes of a regular German trying to come to grips with how one person--or even five people--can respond in the presence of evil. It depicts everyday life, and everyday people, both those seduced by ideology and those finding the strength to rally against it.

I'm not sure it offers any answers--indeed, I suspect my frustrations with futility were intentional. One person alone can't change the world. But that's no reason not to fight for it.

The load times aren't enough to keep you away from the plethora of satisfying combos, and the lack of level goals for every skater isn't enough to keep you from jumping back in with a new character. However, smart additions and an engaging challenge system make it an experience that's more than just a brief skate through Tony Hawk's past.

The mechanics stand out and push against the standards of the brawler genre, injecting a strong tactics twist that lets you make some freestyle combos in the blink of an eye. In the end it was a short, satisfying playthrough that maintained its action movie aura the entire time.

He trembles as he recalls his experiences during combat, replaying vivid memories as he develops his pictures in a dark room, his reaction a stark contrast to the apathetic readers that see his pictures on the Sunday papers. Even though readers may be momentarily moved by these images, they were ultimately unable to empathize, having been sheltered from the horrors of war, with reading the news becoming a simple activity to pass time between meals.

Umurangi Generation wants to incite its players into taking up a more active role in this fictional crisis--not as a transhuman supersoldier with cybernetic implants, but as a photographer who's trying to make a living in this hellish, urban landscape.

Not only is the game a realization of our anxieties about our current, looming future, it's also a powerful evocation of the corporatist state that threatens to overrun our lives, and a startling statement of resistance against them. For a game that's ostensibly about photography, Umurangi Generation achieves so much more. It also bolsters the franchise's clever hacking gameplay to offer more creativity than ever. One of Legion's more profound messages is about what it means to be a true Londoner, and by the game's end, you'll have a DedSec crew made of wildly diverse and disparate citizens from unique cultural, ethnic, and economic backgrounds--all united in their goal to restore their home.

If anything, that's as powerful a message for the game as you can get. Luckily the Chimera Squad is there to back you up. It all sounds great, but the devil is in the details, and Destiny does have a habit of moving two steps back for every one forward. Robin: I think this is quietly the most exciting co-op shooter in years.

Its use of procedural generation is nothing short of remarkable, churning out fresh, fascinating, and frequently beautiful levels every session. And working together to conquer those levels, using its arsenal of tools to build, dig, and demolish your way to success, is fantastically satisfying.

So many co-op games are just about being as efficient and deadly as possible, but Deep Rock feels like some kind of wonderful group project in the way it forces you to combine your creative powers and problem-solve as a team. One of its cleverest mechanics is the way it uses light. Managing light—through throwable flares and the scout class' flare gun—is a vital part of your strategy, which feels truly unique. Being the guy who makes sure everyone can see has become my favourite role in the game.

James: Cruelty Squad is a monstrous immersive sim, a game held together with duck tape and bad vibes. As a gig economy assassin killing men that pose a threat to a higher order of immortal CEO gods in a hypersaturated mess of jagged polygons and screaming textures, it's difficult to not feel bad. But using my guts to grapple up to a sniper nest above the Cancer Megamall? This is a shit jawbreaker with a dense pleasure chemical core. Cruelty Squad isn't cruel. It's just honest.

Morgan: It's an incredible premise with an equally mind-bending art style. Nothing about Cruelty Squad easily slots into other videogames don't even get me started on how you reload.

Even its menus have to be studied like fine art before you can parse which button means "play. Jacob: You might be wondering why Hunt: Showdown has only now made its way into our Top , many years after it first launched. The reason being this PvEvP shooter has only gone from strength to strength in , incorporating steady updates, improvements, and, finally, an immeasurably entertaining new map.

Fundamentally, though, Hunt: Showdown is and always has been a wildly tactical shooter that captures a turn of the century shootout like no other. Seriously, you'll be ducking behind boxes and barrels with bullets whizzing over head and lobbing dynamite into shacks in no time. It also rewards good teamwork and strategy, so if you've got a couple friends to play with that's absolutely the best way to experience the game.

The idea of basing a competitive shooter around realistic 18th century guns is absurd for so many reasons, but Crytek pulled it off spectacularly. Hunt's arsenal is so unique that I constantly want to switch up my playstyle to try something now. In one match I'll use the first ever pump action shotgun that loads from the top? Because Crytek is Crytek, Hunt's attention to detail in map design, sound design, and combat balance is also extremely good.

It's a hard FPS to learn, but endlessly fun once you "get" it. Rich: 2, hours on Steam probably says it all. I've literally spent days of my life playing this.

OK some of that would have just been the game idling but… wow, guess I better rethink my life choices. A perfect game and has been since launch: once the controls and rhythm get their hooks in, you'll never look back.

Put it on my grave: my name was Richard Stanton, and I drove a rocket car. Tyler: 1, hours here, much in competitive Snow Day, a mode that was originally added as a joke, more or less. I think that if you can replace a ball with a hockey puck in your game and people go, "Ah, this is actually a way of life now," you must have a fundamentally brilliant foundation.

Mollie: Stardew Valley has always been a great game, but the recent 1. Tons of late-game content and quality-of-life improvements has made owning a farm, marrying a reformed alcoholic and owning a small army of truffle-sniffing pigs better than ever.

Robin: Co-op is such a great addition to the formula. Rachel: I just can't get enough of Stardew Valley, especially when someone like ConcernedApe is behind it. Not only do we get massive updates for free but he's always so lovely of the community. Constantly supporting modders, using their own money as prize pools for tournaments, and personally hopping into players' code when they have an issue.

What a guy. Rich: Almost feels like the isometric strategy genre distilled down to its purest drops. A game all about precision planning, the huge amounts of combinations you can wring out of apparently simple abilities, and quickfire playthroughs that always feel different. I don't have much appetite for the grander turn-based strategy games anymore, purely because of time, and this is the perfect replacement.

Evan: It's surprisingly grim! Reminds me of Evangelion. This definitely isn't the kind of mecha anime where everyone goes out for milkshakes after defeating the great evil. FTL composer Ben Prunty's score weeps for the dimensions left behind by the player as they fail or succeed. Narrativizing the endless loop of roguelikes is one of ITB's fine touches. Phil: Into the Breach gets a lot of mileage from an 8x8 grid. By showing you what your enemies are about to do each turn—and, more specifically, what they're about to destroy—you're challenged to unwork their plans, hopefully coming out the other end without too many losses.

It invokes such an authentic, specific sense of place with its slice of Japanese country life, simultaneously idyllic and isolating. Mollie: No JRPG has ever quite matched the energy Persona 4 Golden brings, and no game has ever led me to be so deeply attached to a ragtag group of teenagers and their terrifying bear mascot.

Morgan: Yea, Persona 5 has the style, but P4 has the heart. I haven't played the game in nine years and I still can't get that damn Junes song out of my head.

Phil: Filled with intriguing mystery; offering questions like "What do these bizarre murders say about our society? Jody: Unlike other Total War games, the things I remember from Warhammer happened on the battlefield. As mad-science ratmen I've killed an elf queen then dragged her corpse away under arrow-fire to experiment on it, and as vampire pirates I've summoned a ghost ship to drop on the proud warriors of Ulthuan. I did that as an undead opera singer named Cylostra Direfin, who pronounces her surname with a flourish, "dear-fah", like a Warhammer version of Hyacinth Bucket.

The fantasy setting makes Total War ridiculous, extravagant, extra. It's great not just because I remember highlights from multiple campaigns, but because the gonzo factions make multiple campaigns worth playing. The expansions and the way each game can be connected builds on that, meaning the best Total War keeps getting better. Fraser: I'm still convinced that Three Kingdoms is the stronger strategy game, but there's no denying the seductive qualities of Warhammer. Dragons and orcs are, admittedly, a bit more exciting than loads and loads of regular soldiers.

Maybe this sounds like damning the game with faint praise, but Warhammer 2 really is amazing. There isn't another with such great and experimental factions, and Creative Assembly has really worked some magic with its DLC additions, which are often accompanied by free game-changing tweaks.

The gap between 2 and 3 has been a lot more substantial than the previous gap, but we've absolutely benefited from this, as the game has kept growing in the interim. Robin: This is the game that makes me wish I clicked with Total War. Nat: Every weekend, for the past year, I've been jumping on for a bout of Halo 3 multiplayer like it was all over again. There's never been a shooter quite like Halo, and after more than a decade away, Halo's uniquely chaotic sandbox arenas still feels fresh as ever—whether that's a tense slayer match on Blackout, or one of many absurd Forge maps folks are playing on the collection's new server browser.

With the Master Chief Collection now on PC in its entirety, 's collection has proven itself more than just a fun throwback. It's a love letter to FPS fans—letting you dive into more than a decade of Halo history within a single matchmaking playlist, or revisit Bungie's truly stellar campaigns in both original and remastered forms. I may not be a fan of 's own additions, but you can't deny the studio's done a hell of a job bringing Master Chief back to PC.

Wes: I want to thank whoever at brought back Halo 3's Rocket Race playlist, a mode I sunk hours into more than a decade ago and still love with all my heart. Beyond nostalgia, though, there's good reason to be excited about the Master Chief Collection's future. A custom game browser is still in development, and once it's live, I expect classic Halo CTF to outlast the heat death of the universe. Rich: Can't believe this got ranked above Counter-Strike. Is it still too late to protest?

Seriously though: who doesn't love a bit of the Chief, and with MCC some of Bungie's finest work is being kept alive in the way it should be. Evan: Folks, this is how you operate a multiplayer game. Siege gets four major updates a year like clockwork, adding new operators that often scramble the meta.

Older maps get reworked and full-on redesigned. New anti-toxicity measures, pinging, new secondary gadgets, attachments, and entirely overhauled operators have been implemented post-launch. A testament to good production practices, careful roadmapping, and the insane effort it takes to maintain a popular game. Tyler: Lately, I've been enjoying opportunities to blow holes in soft walls in Favela, a map that jumped into my favorites list after it was reworked.

One of the recently added operators has a bionic arm, too, so I can punch holes in walls if I want. What a gift. After all these years, I'm a little surprised that I'm not being made to think about walls, and how they might be improved with holes, in more games.

Mollie: I'll level with you right now, I absolutely suck ass at Siege. I've never quite grappled with its learning curve, and my map and operator knowledge are practically non-existent.

But when my poor friends put up with my shoddy skills, I have an unbelievable amount of fun. No other shooter feels quite so satisfying. I imagine it's even better when you actually know what you're doing. Phil: Yakuza: Like a Dragon marks the series' transition from arcade brawler to JRPG, and swaps out the stoic long-time lead Kiryu for an entirely new ex-Yakuza—an endearing goofball who can't help but wear his heart on his sleeve.

It's still everything you expect from a Yakuza game: a lengthy main story that's filled with twists and turns, numerous sidequests that range from wacky to absolutely absurd, and a whole host of minigames that offer fun diversions to pursue as you explore the city. Its new JRPG combat isn't just a gimmick, either. Not only is it fully woven into the story—and the personality of Ichiban and his growing party of loveable misfits—it also makes for a genuinely deep buildcrafting, with jobs, skills and hilarious summons.

Morgan: I haven't finished Like a Dragon, but Ichiban is already one of my favorite game protagonists ever. Nat: Umurangi Generation is loud, raw, angry. An anti-colonial protest wrapped in Jet Set Radio and Evangelion, handing you a wonderfully tactile camera with which to capture the end of the world. Seriously—I want to take this battered old handheld into every game I've played since, a photo mode built directly into the player's arsenal.

Umurangi doesn't sport Hitman 3's complex AI routines, but every level feels gritty and lived-in. Every candid snap of a stranger tells a story of some deadbeat dad, VR-addled waster or bloodied mech pilot trying to make their way through this deeply relatable apocalypse.

See, Umurangi might take place in a world full of giant robots and squid-like Kaiju, but its tensions are our tensions. Developed by Mauri artist Veselekov, Umurangi is scathing of the global response to the Australian wildfires Umurangi meaning "Red Sky" in Ves' native tongue.

An occupying force pulls your neighbours and friends up to fight their Kaiju war, and oppresses people with curfews and giant concrete walls. By the time you hit Macro, you're exploring maps pulled straight out of 's headlines. Where other games fret over whether they're seen as "political", Umurangi embraces it—and is all the better for it.

And while the base game eases you into its dystopia, Macro knows you're on board with its politics from the start and goes hell for leather from the get-go. James: Doom Eternal was already the most intense shooter ever made, but The Ancient Gods expansions complicate the swirling demon chessboard even further.

There's a demon you exorcise from other demons with the microwave beam. A huge hammer for turning a school of imps into paste. You kill a couple gods, no biggie. Your mouse hand's gonna be soaked. Steven: FF14 takes so much of what is good about WoW and couples it with an emotionally-charged story, gorgeous visuals, and some of the best goddamn music ever scored for a game. But no, for real, Final Fantasy 14 absolutely rules. I've been on-and-off with the game since and I can safely say there's no better time to get into it than right now.

The story, the music, the fashion! There's a little something for everyone. The community is also fantastic, and makes those quieter moments between defeating giant dragons or literal gods so heart-warming. Nowhere else will you run into an impromptu concert of four dragon girls performing A Cruel Angel's Thesis. Robin: I replayed this slick, atmospheric metroidvania only recently, and found myself utterly wowed all over again. Like its diminutive bug protagonist, it at first seems unassuming, but reveals greater and greater multitudes as you explore, its world unpeeling layers like a big, dark… onion.

Phil: A remarkable exploration game in which you've got just 22 minutes to explore a small, handcrafted solar system full of questions. At the end of your time, the sun blows up and you time-loop back to the start, with nothing except the information you've gleaned along the way. The way the solar system changes over the course of the loop encourages you to keep hold of certain discoveries in order to investigate more thoroughly on the next go around, making for a compelling mystery box that's a joy to unpick.

Fraser: Time loop narratives often hide a bit of horror behind the whimsy and sci-fi shenanigans, and Outer Wilds is no different. You've got an adorable spaceship, quirky NPCs, and the promise of a great big adventure, but then there's also the whole the-sun-is-about-to-be-destroyed problem.

So you might be having a lovely time exploring this enigmatic star system, but the apocalypse is always waiting for you. The dangers of space are not limited to the end of the loop, however, and Outer Wilds proves to be just as capable of more overt horror.

You'll be making impossible leaps inside a hollowed-out planet and then fall into a black hole that drops you into the vacuum of space—just you and the void. Not for long, though, because you'll soon be dead.

And then you start over again. Maybe on your next run you'll charge into the eye of a tornado. Or spend most of your time hiding from gargantuan, spaceship-eating fish. It throws wonder after wonder at you, but what's stuck with me the most are my many, many deaths. And I'd happily die a dozen more times, because Outer Wilds is brilliant.

Rachel: Wildermyth has been one of this year's biggest surprises, and there was no doubt within the PCG team it would be placed somewhere in the top It's a fantasy adventure that manages to combine procedural stories spun from character-driven traits with procedurally generated events, the end result being a game with enough anecdotes you could write a book. Decisions you make can dramatically affect the story, like if the rogue falls in love with the archer, if the warrior will ever fulfill her lifelong dream, whether characters die on the battlefield or retreat, losing a limb in the process.

Your heroes become bruised and scarred as the campaign progresses, reminders of mistakes you've made on the battlefield. Characters can have children who can then join the party, and you can even bring old retired characters back for a new campaign.

In this way, Wildermyth feels like you're weaving a mythological tapestry of heroes and their stories, not just ticking off a campaign checklist. Depending on what difficulty you choose, the game will adjust its story for the tone, choosing a tougher, crueler campaign will be complemented with a darker story—it's pretty incredible how the game can adapt like that. It's as close as you can get to the feel of a homebrew tabletop RPG and that's pretty special. Fraser: The stories I could tell you.

Maybe I should tell you about the two adventurers, one perpetually engulfed in flames, the other slowly transforming into a tree, who fell in love despite their massive differences. Then there was the young woman cursed by a sickness, who discovered a cure and instead used it to save another man's life, inspiring him to pledge it to helping her adventuring party.

The stories I could tell you about families, friendships, tragic deaths and heroic interventions. But instead I'll just tell you to play Wildermyth and make your own. Phil: Aside from being the best stealth game of the s, what makes Dishonored 2 remarkable is that, however you decide to approach its levels, it always has a response.

When I kill my target in the opening mission, I later hear his goons announce that he's dead. On a second attempt, I kill him and hide his body in an area the guards can't access—something the game never asks me to do. And yet it apparently knew I might try, because this time the goons announce that he's missing instead.

It's a small example, but later on this same attention to detail—this anticipation and extrapolation of the player's agency—applies to some really big, dramatic moments.

I could praise the effortless traversal, exciting combat and flexible toolbox of Dishonored 2's action—those things all elevate it above its predecessor. But it's Arkane's extreme dedication to the craft of immersion that make Dishonored 2 the studio's best work. Fraser: Prey wishes it was as refined as Dishonored 2. Sorry Morgan. Arkane never misses, but this one is still the studio's greatest. Everyone talks about exploring a mechanical mansion or using time travel to solve puzzles, and they are incredible missions, but these high points are accompanied by less flashy jobs that are nonetheless products of flawless level design.

Every location feels like a work of art and science, with Dishonored's striking aesthetic and tiny details elevating the brilliant mechanics and best-in-class stealth. And if stealth isn't your bag, it's just as compelling when you step out of the shadows and sow chaos with all of your fantastical powers. And a thriving mod scene continues to give it even more life—including the ever popular Long War, which turns the campaign into an even more brutal feat of endurance while cranking up the simulationist detail.

Come on Firaxis, get a move on—Chimera Squad was barely a snack to keep us going. Evan: Looks like we'll have to settle for Midnight Suns for now, Robin, the upcoming Marvel game from Firaxis that seems a little different mechanically, but is sticking with XCOM's art direction, among other aspects. Wes: The best traditional computer RPG of the last decade, Divinity: Original Sin 2 earned developer Larian the opportunity to work on Baldur's Gate 3, which should be out in full in Original Sin 2 remarkably manages to succeed on every axis as an RPG.

Its main quest is exciting and intricate, each of its premade heroes have unique stories worth experiencing, the world is crammed full of sidequests, and you can approach most problems however you want, including killing every NPC in the world like a complete psycho.

Hell, if you played it in , play it again: Larian spent a couple years polishing and improving the game, particularly its rushed third act. It's even better now. Fraser: The writing, systems and eccentric characters all make Original Sin 2 an all-time great RPG, but mostly what you'll be doing is fighting. Thank goodness, then, that the brawls are all amazing. You can fill the area with fire or poison, sprout wings to fly over obstacles, and try to come up with all sorts of combos and synergies to help you take out the opposition as skillfully or messily as possible.

Every confrontation is a new laboratory waiting for you to destroy with your experiments. Jacob: I must've put a hours into Divinity: Original Sin 2 and I still get the urge to go back and do it all again.

If that doesn't speak volumes for this epic RPG…. Tyler: I'm disappointed that the mod scene never really took off. The tools Larian released are powerful, but I found them confusing even for game engine tools and they crashed often, so I eventually gave up on making a little RPG campaign of my own. It's too bad, because Original Sin 2 seemed like a great foundation for modders. I'll just have to settle for being happy with all the other parts of the game.

Chris: There are no quests in Valheim, no characters, no main storyline. But every journey I take, whether it's to fight a boss or reach a new continent or just to gather berries, feels like a bigger and bolder adventure than most AAA RPGs. The open world is fascinatingly beautiful despite throwback visuals and the danger of the wilderness is offset by the cozy and comforting feel of coming home to my cheerly little wooden fort. Valheim cleverly plays with survival systems, too—food and cooking remain absolutely vital to survival, but you'll never starve to death so gathering never feels like a joyless grind.

And for an Early Access game, it never feels like anything is missing, just that more could be added. Morgan: I bought Valheim, but ended up renting a Minecraft server and playing that with friends instead.

Jacob: You really missed out, Morgan. Valheim may sound like your standard survival flick, but it uses remarkably simple systems to create a world you want to keep exploring, and one that's best experienced with a bunch of mates. And the fact that a simple job pinned to a noticeboard can spiral into a wild, unpredictable, hours-long quest makes exploring this vividly realised world rewarding like no other RPG.

This is a rare game where almost every sidequest, including the really small ones, is meaningful or interesting in some way. Fraser: And the combat is, at its worst, still OK. That's not what I became a Witcher for, anyway. The best parts aren't the fights; the best parts are the bits before the fights, where you're investigating oddities and meeting new people and being rude to them between pub crawls.

Even more important than all of that, though, is Geralt himself. A stoic, taciturn bloke is hardly a groundbreaking protagonist, but Geralt is so much more than that. He's a man full of subtle complexities, trying to figure out how to be an adoptive father, a hero for people who hate and fear him, and a slayer of monsters in a world where the monsters are often the good guys. What's so impressive is that you can take him in some very different directions and leave the world in a very different place depending on your decisions, but through all that, Geralt is still Geralt.

You'll get a strong sense of who he is, and every version feels consistent and canon. Lauren: What my colleagues mean to say is: Geralt is very sexy and could batter your dad. Rachel: I am happy to see Minecraft get the epic list bump it deserves. With the Caves and Cliffs update this year, plus Mojang's work with RTX, and the number of charities and projects using it as a gaming force for good, it deserves a top 10 spot for sure.

Mollie: I punched my first block of dirt nearly 10 years ago, and I've been in love with Minecraft ever since. Even if I'm not always playing it, it's usually the game I return to when I'm going through a bit of a rough patch with the hobby. Minecraft's versatility really lends itself to the game's longevity—even after a decade, no two playthroughs have been the same for me, and I love that.

Rich: I don't really play Minecraft anymore but it's one of those games that's still just endlessly fascinating to hear about. The game's community remains so vibrant and it seems like every week there are amazing new things to see, and developer Mojang continues to judiciously add to it without ever detracting from that core appeal of player expression.

Robin: The sheer number of imitators that have released on Steam in recent years is testament to the lasting brilliance of Slay the Spire. While many have been a great time in their own right, still none have toppled the king. Evan: When you pull off some clever combo say, using the Mummified Hand relic and a series of Power cards to reduce the cost of everything in your hand to 0 , the sensation of cascading effects is as potent as pulling the trigger on some viral TikTok Rube Goldberg machine.

Slay the Spire puts game-breaking power within players' reach, but in turn, drops exponentially more tough bosses and mini-bosses in your way. Few games match its purity of design. James: Death Stranding feels like some old-timey Metal Gear Solid 2 nonsense at the start, but rapidly evolves into an open world hiking simulation about building an infrastructure co-op with strangers. I've given dozens of hours over to the cause, hauling truckfuls of materials to maintain our highways, dozens more to crawling up treacherous mountain peaks through blinding blizzards to create an efficient zipline network.

All of it, shared with other people in their own game worlds for no tangible videogame reward other than knowing I wasn't the only one to benefit from the hard work. In a capitalist hellworld, it gave me hope, or at least a potent homebrewed chemical signal for coping.

Rich: There's simply nothing like Death Stranding, particularly in the context of the pandemic and how eerily its concept maps onto that, and for all Kojima's excesses and some frankly honking cutscenes the experience of traversing this world is unforgettable.