100/ games

Ultimate, however, is how it delivers a fighting game that is just as fun for the casual audience as it is for the hardcore crowd.

Both the original freeware version of Spelunky, and its HD remake are two of the most influential games of all time due to their monumental impact that shaped the entire roguelike genre. The HD remake was largely viewed as being a near perfect game, in particular. That is, until Spelunky 2 came along 12 years later and somehow managed to improve upon every single facet of its mechanics without ever sacrificing the procedurally generated magic that made Spelunky so special.

Dota isn't a game; it's a lifestyle. The high barrier to entry will drive away new players, but those who crack the shell and get hooked have a very strong chance of rarely playing anything else again. Even then, there's always something new to learn. Every failed strategy, every death, every comeback is a chance to discover something new.

Dota 2 is at its best when you're playing with a team of five friends. Gathering gold, killing enemies, taking objectives as a coordinated team, then making a final push to victory is an incredible high that you'll want to experience again and again. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe may be a re-release of the original Wii U kart racer, but its function is as both a fantastic kart racer in its own right and a more complete package of an already great game. Its selection of classic and brand new tracks make for an excellent rotation of races that keeps things fresh no matter how much you play with a thorough roster of racers and plenty of kart customization options.

While it's not the marquee attraction, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe's suite of multiplayer options beyond racing are some of the best the franchise has had since the N64 days of Block Fort. But it's really the finely tuned racing of Nintendo's long standing franchise that takes the spotlight — it's never felt better to race even in the face of Blue Shells , while courses are beautiful, wonderfully detailed, and represent some of the best of the franchise both new and old.

When you walk into a room full of arcade games, something looks different about Donkey Kong. Its pastel blue cabinet is a bit shorter than the others; a bit rounder, more welcoming. The glowing marquee and art on the game depicts characters that belong on a s pizza delivery box.

When you put a quarter in, the machine shows you a little cartoon of an ape clambering up a ladder, mocking you. Hopefully, you have more quarters. The Sims 3 was a fantastic leap forward in the franchise, showcasing what a more open and customizable base version of The Sims could look like. While the Sims 4 has grown significantly in the years its been out, its base version and especially its launch version lacked in items, features, and general options compared to The Sims 3.

If we're looking at each game from their base features and even expansions, The Sims 3 simply did more despite having more simplified actions and Sims emotions. There's a lot to love about each, especially with the free updates developer Maxis has given Sims 4 since launch, but The Sims 3 takes the crown in being the best base version of The Sims yet. Sam Fisher's third adventure is actually three masterpiece games in one.

In the campaign, a stunning real-time lighting engine and open mission design allows you to play in countless different ways: total stealth, full gunplay, or a gadget-fest. Game 2 is the four-mission two-player co-op campaign, in which two young agents work together in a side story that runs parallel to Fisher's adventure. You literally have to play together, from boosting each other up to high ledges to going back-to-back to scale elevator shafts, the co-op mode committed to cooperation in a way no other action game had.

And then you had Spies vs. Mercs, which took the asymmetrical multiplayer mode introduced in Pandora Tomorrow and refined it into something truly unique in the gaming world. Agile, non-lethal spies playing in third-person view faced off against slow-moving but heavily armed mercs that saw the game through a first-person helmet.

It was tense, riveting, and brilliant. In this era of Trophies and Achievements, completing everything in a game is common. If you did this on every level in a world, you unlocked two more levels in each of the six worlds. And these levels were even harder than the others! Most of all, it was scary — like, actually scary: an exploration of the depths of human depravity and the effects it has on the people and places around us that few video games have handled with such a disturbing grace and maturity.

Forget one city. Have three, with vast swathes of forests, countryside, and desert in between. Want more vehicles? Have over of them, including jump jets, combine harvesters, lawnmowers, bicycles, semi-trailers, forklifts, and so, so many more. No problem. How does 11 radio stations and over tracks sound? Not enough? How about a functioning casino? How about a jetpack? How about same-screen free-roaming co-op? How about fast food that actually makes you fat? And how about we put Samuel L.

Jackson in it? Thanks to its procedurally generated maps and wide range of enemies, abilities, and ever-improving gear and weaponry, the tactical possibilities for your squad are all but endless. Especially when played on high difficulty in the no-takebacks Iron Man mode, every decision can mean the difference between life and permadeath for characters who begin as blank slate rookies but become an elite team. And that's before you even get started on mods.

Ostensibly a drab government building, Control's main setting of The Oldest House is actually a shifting, twisting, and teleporting behemoth, which the team uses to consistently marry the everyday with the supernatural in increasingly bizarre and exciting ways. And exploration around this world is some of the best in third-person action - Marvel may not have ever given us a proper Jean Grey videogame, but playing as Jesse Faden offers enough telekinetic powers to play with that at once feel powerful and spry, weighty yet nimble in a way that translates to both exploration and combat.

Control may seem unassuming, just like its location, on the surface, but digging just a couple levels deeper reveals how layered, nuanced, and enchanting its world really is. All Ghillied Up was my first glimpse of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare in action, and as two camouflaged snipers worked their way through an irradiated Pripyat in Ukraine, I was instantly hooked.

Multiplayer shooters were never the same again. While the Tomb Raider reboot in kicked off a new direction for the iconic heroine that was more in line with modern AAA storytelling read: Lara was given a deeper backstory and a personality , Rise of the Tomb Raider took it and ran a mile. It continued to flesh out Lara as a driven, wary character while upping the ante on what made the game so fun; fluid traversal, crunchy combat, and beautifully intricate puzzle tombs.

After Arkham Asylum laid the groundwork for a superhero game that hit all the right beats, Batman: Arkham City took everything to the next level by letting Batman loose in the streets of Gotham. Not only did it nail the feeling of stalking and beating down thugs with an impressive array of gadgets, it raised the stakes of what a caped crusader could deal with in a single night. Play it low-key, and Dishonored 2 is one of the best stealth games ever made.

The island setting of The Witness enveloped me in its striking color palette and minimalistic soundscape. Weaved into this tranquil setting however is a series of fiendish puzzles, each offering a unique challenge. These puzzles had me scrawling patterns on pieces of graph paper, reflecting the sun, and listening to the local wildlife — I explored every corner of my brain, and this island, in search of increasingly-evasive solutions.

The final challenge had me questioning my sanity. Being stuck on one particular conundrum seemed frustrating at the time, but that all washed away in a sense of near-unparalleled euphoria once it had been solved. Unlike so many games that are desperate to hand-hold and drip-feed, The Witness has a refreshingly high opinion of its player, expecting them to think for themselves. Journey is the closest a video game has come to emulating the effects of poetry. Along the way, your character surfs across glistening deserts, hides from flying creatures made entirely from cloth, and occasionally meets other players embarking on the same pilgrimage.

Words like "breathtaking" are used so liberally their meaning has been hollowed out, but Journey deserves to command its full significance. Many games attempt to emulate cinema, dealing in the same tropes and stock characters. Initially, it looks like Uncharted does the same thing — it focuses on a treasure hunter who frequently finds himself in danger across exotic locations.

But when you play Uncharted, especially the second installment, Among Thieves, you realize it surpasses much of Hollywood with ease. So often action exists for action sake — to look cool — but Uncharted 2: Among Thieves uses it to reveal more about its central character, Nathan Drake, and his relationships with a strong cast of supporting characters. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves set a new benchmark for cinematic action, graphical fidelity, and established Nathan Drake as one of the great video game characters of his time.

Blizzard performed alchemy here. Overwatch should be leaden — a Team Fortress cover version with two-and-a-half modes and a MOBA approach to character design. And yet what we have is gold. The key here is in how Blizzard looked beyond simply making a good shooter — it made an interesting one.

Its backstory is PG Pixar, its characters are diverse and lovable, and much more. Pro gamers, cosplayers, fanfic writers, ARG detectives and everyone in between have all been given a reason to play a single game — no mean feat. Apex Legends continues to bring one of if not the best free-to-play Battle Royale to fans, and its shining accomplishment may just lie in its revolutionary ping system.

Its ability to give players the capability to instantly and efficiently communicate in the middle of hectic yet strategic battles is one of the most impactful innovations in gaming. Apex also bucked the default character trend by giving characters unique personalities. These are ingrained in their DNA and reflected in their relationships, connections, playstyles, and abilities, all of which feature prominently surrounding media and in-game events to create a winning combination to give everyone a favorite Legend.

Apex has seen its share of growing pains over the years, but its dedication to its fans, constant updates, and evolving metagame continue to keep the attention of fans new and old.

In a genre as old as the Metroidvania, it's rare for a game to breathe fresh life into it as much as Hollow Knight did. I restore classic arcade and pinball machines and one of my favorite projects was bringing a Ms. Pac-Man cocktail machine back from the dead. With a rebuilt monitor, restored art, and of course the speed chip that makes it many times faster, Ms. Pac-Man made a popular addition to my homecade. We run an occasional high score competition at IGN and so I thought it would be cool to bring it into our lunch room for a bit.

For a month, the machine was never left alone. We work in an office surrounded by the latest toys and games, but Ms. Pac-Man attracted crowds. People changed their commutes to come in early and stay late just to play.

Frequently we'd be across the office in a conference room and the strains of the Ms. Pac-Man cutscene music would waft over and make everyone giggle. There are very few games which can create so much happiness after so many decades. Many of the things I value most in skill-based games, I value because of Counter-Strike: good level design, team-based dynamic, the dedication required to master it, a friendly sense of competition, and a solid sense of community.

Are you ready to enjoy Beach Bike Simulator? Experience the thrill of beach stunts and jumps as you complete delivery missions. Ride your dirt motocross bike in the most spectacular construction and amazing landscapes to perform some craziest tricks.

Race, jump and crash your way to endless fun! Play in two main modes. You can either free roam where you have to perform tricks and jump through hoops to collect time which allows you to continue. As soon as you run out of time that's it! Or, if you prefer, act as a madman delivery driver collecting boxes and bring them back to your ship! You will complete missions which get progressively more difficult.

Follow the arrow to find your next delivery pick up and then race it back to your ship. You will need good multitasking skills with this game! Balance out the need for speed, precision and navigation as well as developing your timekeeping skills!

You must always keep an eye on the clock and make sure you don't run out! The object of Solitaire is to use all the cards in the deck to build up the four suit stacks in ascending order, beginning with the aces. Double-click any aces on the seven stacks to move them to the spaces at the upper right of the screen. Make any other plays available on the board.

When you have no moves left, click the deck to begin turning over cards. The card that is face up on the deck is always available for play. Note that you can only play the remaining deck once in this version of Solitaire, so you have to watch very carefully for opportunities as you play.

You will be building row stacks and suit stacks. You build row stacks to free up cards that you need to build the suit stacks. To move a card or a stack of cards, from one row to another, click and drag the card or stack. To move a card from either the deck or a row stack to a suit stack, double-click it.

After moving a card from a row stack to a suit stack or a different row stack, click the next card to turn it over. When a row stack is open no cards in the row , you can move a king along with any cards that might be in its stack to the open row stack.

How fast can you run? Do you have what it takes to win a foot race? That is the question you will answer with Sprinter Heroes. This sports game will have you running faster than a gold medalist Olympian in no time. Choose your runner and choose the country you want to run in. Then it's time to lace up your running shoes and beat the competitors. When the race begins, tap the A and D keys repeatedly as quickly as you can to make your character run. If you are playing in two-player mode then the friend you're playing alongside will be using the let and right arrow keys at the same time, allowing for you to compete against your friends in real-time.

Experience the ultimate challenge in Vex 4 , a platform and obstacle runner that will push you to the limit. Take on the role of a daring stick figure daredevil as you slide under sawblades, swim between spikes, run through collapsing platforms and so much more as you try to complete all 9 stages including a hard mode. Vex 4 brings with it that classic enjoyment of a good old obstacle course platform runner that you will certainly enjoy playing.

Paper IO 2: This fun and incredibly addictive game is an all time favourite. Do this by completing a closed loop starting from your occupied area and finishing at it and then you will have claimed the space! Be aware though, you will not be alone in carrying out this task, and beware of your opponents trying to cut you off an kill you! And do not chew through your own line while creating a loop.

Gain as much area of the board as possible with your avatar. You can either go for the big spaces at at time and go for the high reward whilst leaving yourself exposed to get cut off, or you can take it slow and play it safe! Therefore you must have a game plan, use your initiative and keep an eye on the ever evolving situation! Play smart and you will be successful! Effective teamwork is essential in almost all work and home environments.

So, let's practice some good teamwork management! FireBoy and WaterGirl 3: in the Forest Temple is a very engaging, maze escape-based, platform game where you must utilize efficient teamwork to guide two acrobatic characters to the Exit door in each ledge and obstacle-filled level.

Fire Boy and Water Girl are quite adept at leaping from platform-to-platform, but need each other's help to flip switches, open doors, lower drawbridges, and more.

You play the role of the dynamic duo's clever guide, and must figure out the solution whereby both characters can reach their respective Exits unharmed. This cool, interactive, problem-solving puzzle adventure game requires fast reactions skills, deft keyboard control, analytical thinking skills and smart strategy to suit the skill-sets of both characters. There's no benefit in racing to the Exit with one character alone, and leaving the other behind — Good team coordination is simply the only the order of the day here!

Let's see what Fire Boy and Water Girl can achieve under your management! Serve hungry customers and make sales at high speed from your beach-side food stall in this frantic, customer service-themed tycoon game! Playable on mobile phone, tablet, laptop, notebook, and desktop PC, Beach Restaurant is a fast-paced, interactive, food business simulation game for elementary students through high school teens where you must serve up healthy snacks and drinks to expectant customers from a frenetically busy beach vendor hut!

You play the entrepreneurial role of a sole trader, and must dash around the stall, clicking or tapping on items in the correct sequence to fill customer orders at speed. The faster you complete the transaction, the more virtual bonus income you receive! To play the game with full screen, you may have to turn your device horizontally. Prompt, efficient and friendly customer service is certainly the aim of the game, so your concentration and positivity levels must be near percent at all times.

Offroad Cycle 3D Racing is a free online bike game where you race against the clock while performing as a highly skilled offroad cyclist, dealing with some very difficult terrain and challenging environments. This cool game requires exceptional skill and precision. Enjoy racing in either 3rd person or if you want a super realistic experience, go for the first person action ride! The aim of this game is to finish the course, without crashing, within the time frame. This fun biking game offers hours of dizzying fun!

Go on — have a blast! This will require quick hands on the keyboard to react to adverse situations like having to swerve suddenly or slam the brakes on to avoid hitting a tree! Keep your wits about you and focus on finishing as fast as possible!

Get your adrenaline pumping in Stickman Parkour as you race and jump along rooftops, scale buildings, slide under gates and shoot yourself into the air to see if you can reach the finish line before anyone else. This is a game that does parkour racing right, why not try it out for yourself and get lost in the excitement.

Cooking Fast 4 Steak is a role-playing, restaurant simulation game that will keep you on your toes! This fun game helps you to think about and learn how it would be being a chef. Can you cope in this high-pressure work environment? Running a restaurant is no joke. However, time is money! The aim of this game is to keep the customers happy that are coming into your restaurant.

You must serve them steak and fast, so they are not waiting too long! This game will develop your ability to remain calm under building pressure, as there will be many customers waiting at once. Do not buckle under the pressure, keep delivering at a high standard and show why you are the top restaurant in town! Play the top games on Learn 4 Good Games - Free online games to play now.

The best games for PC, Mac desktop, laptop, notebook players on this site. Games Top games to play online free.

Master Chess Multiplayer. Village Story. Top Speed Racing. Return Man Football. Classic UNO Cards. Sokoban 3D Chapter 3. The games difficulty can range from simple to excruciating quite easily as some levels require a bit of critical thinking and strategy to get past them Play this Game. Air Dogs of WW2. Pandemic Simulator. Stick Duel: Medieval Wars. Minecraft Builder. Burger Shop. Airplane Flight Simulator. Habbo Clicker. Snow Rider 3D. Super MX The Champion. Construct a Bridge.

Real Car Parking. Supra Drift 2. Tank Mayhem. The Mergest Kingdom. Paintball Fun Shooting Multiplayer. Bouncemasters 2. Airport Control. Super Baseball. Air Warfare 3D. Klondike Solitaire. Cycle Extreme. Babel Tower. Cargo Truck Driver. Heroes of Myths. The Island Survival Challenge. Stickman Street Fighter 3D. Airplane Fly Simulator. Battleship Game.

Dragon Simulator. Idle Arks Sail And Build. Master Chess. Sports Bike Racing. Stunt Crasher. Mega Ramp Race. Pool And Ball Mania. Office Dress Up.

Moto XM Winter. Air Fight. Stickman Race 3D. Drag Racing Club. Worlds Builder. Ferrari Track Driving. Tap Skaters. Zorb Battle. Pacman Adventure. Horse Family Animal Simulator 3D. Flight Simulator C Training. Blocky Gun Paintball 3. Ultimate Flying Car 3D. Helicopter Flying Simulator. Real Estate Tycoon. Free Rally 2.

Furious Drift. Bubble Struggle 1. Paint Blue. Rev your engines and put the pedal to the floor! Race your way to the top while avoiding obstacles along the way. Fill the glass with water to make him happy! Use the pencil tool and your knowledge of basic physics to guide the water into the glass. Draw a path so the water can flow into the glass. Fill it up to the dotted line using as little ink as possible to get Sort the colored water in the test tubes until all colors are in the same tube.

Water Sort Puzzle is a fun and addictive puzzle game that will challenge and exercise your brain! Build a snowman by clicking and dragging different items to decorate. You can choose from three different snowmen styles. Run, run as fast as you can! Run and jump as Neon Man. Run through blue objects, jump on green objects and avoid the red objects in this run and jump game. After your last success at the Paris Fashion Show, you were recommended by the top European designers to work in New York!

Show off your fashion designer skills in a new fashion challenge. And the less said about the third game's ending, the better.

Mass Effect Legendary Edition is mostly in this list for Mass Effect 2, the Goldilocks centrepiece that set plot aside to focus on character. Mass Effect 2 has you put together a crew of 12 squadmates who, like the universe they're in, build on familiar cliches taken to surprising places. Across missions that jump from undercover infiltration to action setpiece to mystery thriller you get to know your Dirty Dozen, and in choosing how you respond to their dilemmas, build a hero to lead them.

By the end you feel so much ownership of your Shepard, you'll get confused by screenshots because the wrong character is in them. Phil: I've worked at PC Gamer for almost a decade now, which means my overriding memory of Mass Effect is us arguing which one should be included in the Top each year. Finally, BioWare has put an end to that argument by releasing them all as one game. And for that reason alone, it should be celebrated.

Also because the games are good—if increasingly showing their age. Phil: A puzzle game about building beautiful machines. You're tasked with creating alchemical compounds, using pistons and rotators to manipulate atoms into their desired form. But as much as the story has fun with the conceit, the real satisfaction of Opus Magnum comes from the process of engineering a solution. There is no one way to solve any of the game's problems, and that means every machine is inherently your own design.

Your attempt may be inefficient, even inelegant, but you'll love it all the same. Mollie: I think I may be one of the last remaining Sea of Thieves likers on our team, and that's mostly because I'm a massive gremlin in the game.

In no other situation is it socially acceptable for me to get absolutely trollied, vomit into a bucket and then douse my friends in my chunky goodness. Sailing the seas and plundering booty is fun and all, but drunkenly playing the concertina is the real reason I love this game so much.

I'd love to see Rare overhaul the sword combat system which is still deeply clunky, but it's probably still the best hangout game on PC. The Tall Tales are fantastic open-ended adventures. It's still a refreshing rarity in live service games to have a new mission you can just figure out, rather than having a checklist of tasks to complete that it holds your hand through.

Though it does have one checklist I'm a sucker for. Someday I will catch every fish in the sea, even if it means I'm fishing off the back of a sinking ship while my crewmates frantically steer us through a storm.

Morgan: I love everything Sea of Thieves is about, I just wish there was more of it—ships, weapons, maps, quest types, I need more! Then perhaps my friends and I would stop getting bored after our second night on the sea.

Phil: 'More' would help, but I don't think it's the only answer. I think one of my biggest problems with Sea of Thieves is, for as good as the experience of sailing with a crew is, there isn't much beyond that to hold your attention.

The ground combat isn't much fun, the progression systems are shallow, and the handful of fun activities don't hold up to intense repetition. It's a cool hangout game, as Wes says, but it would take a fairly major overhaul to persuade me to return. Nat: Titanfall 2 has seen better days. That campaign is still an all-timer even if I probably don't rate it as highly as others , but the game really shone in multiplayer—and while there appears to be a brief respite from the hacking and DDOS problems that plagued its predecessor, it's a rock-hard game to get into this far after launch.

Wes: Hopefully those multiplayer problems will soon pass, since Titanfall 2 on Steam gives it a real shot at maintaining an active multiplayer community for the next few years. But really, I'm just here to keep beating that campaign drum: if you somehow still haven't played it and are in the mood for an FPS, this should be your first stop.

Fraser: I was very vocal about putting Titanfall 2 on the list last year, so I'm obviously a bit disappointed that it's dropped from 11 to 88, but take it from me: this is the smartest, most surprising FPS here. The multiplayer is great, even though it's been dealing with those aforementioned issues, but the main reason to play this now is its unsurpassed campaign.

Chris: It's so deep that no matter how many times you've played, there are still new choices to make. I still don't think any Fallout after the first one has really nailed its theme as well as the original did, but in Old World Blues and a few other questlines, New Vegas came close. Fraser: Old World Blues is a cracker, but even without its expansions New Vegas is the best Fallout, and the only one I'd recommend to most players today.

It's never felt like Bethesda really gets Fallout, and while 3 was really good, it still felt like an adaptation or spin-off rather than the main course. Given that, New Vegas will probably continue to be the best game in the series for a long time, unless Bethesda gives up the reins again. Rachel: It may have fallen a fair way down in our top list, but What Remains of Edith Finch is still a powerhouse of storytelling.

It's an anthology of stories set in the Finch household where exploring each room helps you discover more about the eccentric family and their lives. Wes: Going into What Remains of Edith Finch, I didn't expect how fantastical and imaginative it would be with every story it tells.

For a game about the history of a family it's endlessly inventive; you're not just looking around a musty old house and getting some voiceover about the objects you see. Edith Finch manages to convey the humanity and tragedy of the family through dream sequences and animal transformations; bits of history that seem separate at first slowly blossom into a family tree and finally connect to your character in the present.

It's really stuck with me for a game that I played in just a couple hours. Sarah: I'll always love World of Warcraft but I've struggled with motivation to log in since the launch of Shadowlands. We went from being ridiculously overpowered in BFA to power systems that feel like they were tacked on as an afterthought. I'm still there and still raiding, but even that feels more like a chore the further into the expansion we go.

Steven: World of Warcraft is still such an influential game, but yeah, it feels like it's in the midst of a serious identity crisis. If you've never played it, it's still an enormous and enjoyable experience, but my god is Shadowlands starting to feel like a big disappointment.

Fraser: I've finally managed to get WoW out of my system. It just took 15 years. It's one of the most important games ever made, and it's exceptional that it remains not only alive but massively popular after such a long time, but I think I've put enough time into it now. And frankly I'm not sure I can really separate it from what we now know about Blizzard, and what a terrible work environment management has fostered. Phil: Thanks to magazine lead times, this list was locked down in early Summer, before the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard alleging discrimination and sexual harrasment.

Even before that, it only just about managed to hang on—the team increasingly down on Blizzard's direction for the game. If we were to make this right now, I don't think it would be here at all. Chris: The Super Mega Baseball series has always been a fun and cartoony on-field baseball game, but SMB3 added tons of depth when it comes to making your randomly generated players memorable.

Their skills can be enhanced during a season or fade over time as they grow, age, and eventually retire. Creative Assembly created something really special here: a big budget game based on a major Hollywood property that is intelligent, subversive, and systematically interesting. There will never be a better Alien game. Fraser: Just popping my yearly update in here. Nope, still not very far into it. Yep, hoping I will eventually finish it. It's brilliant, but I'm still too scared of xenomorphs to make much progress.

One day, though! One day. Steven: Frankly, I'm shocked that it's and one of my favorite games is a card game. You'd think after so many games there'd be no room for a new one to swoop in and innovate, but Legends of Runeterra continues to be brilliant. Robin talks a lot about its new stuff, but part of what keeps me coming back is just how wonderful the foundation it is built upon is.

It's just a shame that it seems like Runeterra's curse is that it will continue to be criminally overlooked by so many players. Fraser: Spaceships? Space locomotives? Now we're talking. Sunless Skies makes you brave the dangers of space while inside a train full of troubled crewmates, usually starving and being driven round the bend. Part trading sim, RPG and exploration romp, it's all weird, and elevated by the best videogame writing around.

The great game has also been made better, recently, thanks to the far-ranging Sovereign Edition update, throwing new characters, trains and stories into the already dense mix. Dave: It's zen trucking. Slowly churning through the mud with some tunes as your only company for miles.

Super chill. Until you roll your rig down the side of a mountain, of course. Morgan: Snowrunner is the mud trucking sim of my dreams. It's Death Stranding without all the drama and ghost babies: just you, your truck, and the stack of pipes that need to get to the top of this mountain. Snowrunner is no tranquil driving sim. Every job is a battle against nature itself and your weapons are wheels, winches, and will. In the year since launch, Snowrunner has only gotten bigger and better with quality DLC and a vibrant modding community.

Evan: Replicating the weapon set, map philosophy, and beautiful rhythm of Counter-Strike is some sort of scientific cloning accomplishment. Valorant is its own game, though, one with meaningful technical advancements it'll give you 90 fps on a graphing calculator, practically and magical character abilities that let you and your opponent make counter-punches with utility as you compete for precious positioning. Phil: I recently dipped back in with some pals after about a year away, and, oh boy, Valorant is a punishing game to return to.

But after a couple of demoralising losses, our third match—a nail biting win—was one of the most exciting multiplayer experiences I've had this year. Nat: Homeworld's tragic space opera is timeless, but its original release is a little less so.

Thankfully, the Remastered Collection is still a fantastic way to experience a truly singular, unique spacefaring RTS—with a healthy modding scene that lets you recreate fleet battles from Star Trek to Mass Effect. Fraser: There's no other RTS with this much style and grace. Homeworld is a spaceship ballet and epic tragedy that I never thought would be replicated—how could it be? Homeworld 3 is coming, but will it live up to the impossibly lofty expectations set by its predecessors?

Spin-off Deserts of Kharak certainly got close, but there's magic in those first two games that sets them apart. We'll see. Wes: I've returned to Vermintide this year and especially appreciate how each character plays so differently. My first time through I stuck to up-close-and-personal dwarf Bardin Goreksson, but lately I've played as battle mage Sienna, standing back and flamethrowing legions of low-level ratlings.

The equipment system still kinda feels like fluff, but I love that each character has three classes that play differently, and styles of weapons that add even more granularity. This is the co-op game to beat, even three years in. Steven: Caves of Qud is a near-perfect middle ground between the daunting complexity of classic roguelikes and the mind-boggling simulation of Dwarf Fortress.

It's also the weirdest RPG I've ever played. Sentient beanstalks, tinker bears, space-time paradoxes, fungal infections—it's almost impossible to describe Qud in a way that makes sense. Each time you start a new game, an entire world complete with its own cultures and history is generated for you to uncover. And within that space, you can play as anything from a desert nomad to a cybernetically enhanced half-man-half-tank.

Just play it. Wes: I've still barely just dipped my toe in Caves of Quid during Early Access, but it really was staggering; it feels like someone took on the mad idea of cramming RPG-style writing into the open-ended structure of NetHack, and actually pulled it off.

Along with Disco Elysium, I think Caves of Qud is a modern reminder that good enough writing can make any game utterly captivating. Harry: What else is left to say about Skyrim? Nothing, really. A decade on The Elder Scrolls V is a fixture in the PC gaming consciousness despite looking janky and dated, even with a choice selection of mods.

Skyrim slips down the Top again this year, but don't expect it to be forgotten anytime soon. Speaking of, The Forgotten City, based on a Skyrim mod has just come out, so it remains to be seen if it makes next year's list. Jody: In my current playthrough I have my own museum, a chainsword, and fabulous hair. The music's replaced by dark ambient and Nordic folk-metal, there are gallows and gibbets everywhere, and I have to periodically wash off blood and travel dirt. I'm accompanied by two characters from Vermintide, a blue khajiit, and the Skyrim Grandma.

The Special Edition means Skyrim handles ridiculous mod loads without instability, and I can alt-tab as much as I want without it crashing. It's better than ever. I'll be tired of Skyrim when I'm tired of life. Mollie: Skyrim is one of those games that's been there for me through a ton of high and low points in my life. Will I ever branch out and play anything other than a stealthy archer? Hell no, but I will spend hours exploring the same old dinky caves and loading up my house with an unnecessary number of stolen books.

Mollie: I've played my fair share of fighting games over the years, but few have kept me coming back in the way Tekken 7 does. Every hit, block and sidestep feels so intensely satisfying to me. Couple that with a banging soundtrack, cinematic ultimate moves and a heart-pounding dramatic slow-mo cam, and every match feels like a full-blown theatrical performance. Though I still lament the lack of Christie Monteiro in the game, the roster is solid.

Tekken 7 is easily the best 3D fighter out there right now, and my favourite fighting game in recent memory. Also Yoshimitsu is an alien, I guess? Euro Truck Sim can take a breather. This son of a gun's packing Texas and Idaho, on the way to pick up Wyoming. You ever drive through through 'em? Vast, empty spaces. Buttes and scrub. Flimsy barbwire between state, federal, and private land. A couple mountain ranges in the western halves, Idaho panhandle too. Feeling that small centers a person.

Kanye West lives in Wyoming. A recent multiplayer update means you can drive by Kayne's yard with a friend. Nothing eases the weight of a heavy load, on the truck and the soul, like a convoy.

Steady breath, eyes ahead. We'll get to where we're going. Andy K: ATS is great. But my heart belongs to Euro Truck Simulator 2. The larger map has a lot more variety, from the mountains of Norway to the vineyards of France, making for much more exciting road trips. Fraser: Cities: Skylines continues its reign, with few urban city builders appearing to steal its crown. It remains undefeated in part because of the dearth of competition, but the many DLC additions and huge list of mods have ensured that even after five years it still has plenty to offer would-be mayors.

There's even an expansion exclusively dedicated to parks. And it turns out that flooding cities with poo doesn't get old. Sorry, citizens! Phil: The city building genre has had something of a resurgence thanks to games like Frostpunk and Anno offering up a different take on the basic formula.

But if you want the best game to actually build a city in, here it is. Katie: I don't think I'll ever get tired of creating vast intertwined city-scapes, ever more intricate intersections, and long-ass roundabouts… so many roundabouts they permeate my dreams. Help, I'm traffic managing in my sleep. After the on-rails nonsense of the intro, it pretty much sets you free to be the ultimate spy in an amazing sandbox.

Rich: Simply one of the best games ever made, a unique take on open world design, and absolutely rammed with things to do. This feels like the game Metal Gear Solid was always building towards: ignore the nonsense about it being unfinished, and enjoy the finest game Kojima Productions ever made. Phil: It's let down slightly by a handful of missions that force you to fight the Parasite Unit—tedious battles that ignore almost all of the established rules of the game.

The rest of the time, though, MGS 5 drops you onto the map with a handful of gadgets and lets you figure things out for yourself. One of the most satisfying stealth sandboxes you can play. Dave: Was having an absolute blast with MGS5's open world; it felt solid, real, and deliciously brutal. But as soon as it got fully into the bloated, ridiculous exposition it immediately pulled me out of the game world and that has meant I can't face going back ever again.

Fraser: Few management games have made me feel like such a monster, but that's what happens when you become a fascist to save a few lives and they freeze to death anyway. The cold and desperation makes you cold and desperate. Frostpunk is a challenging apocalyptic city builder with plenty of engaging systems, but it's the high stakes and brutal consequences of your decisions that makes it special.

And thanks to the DLC, you can also see what life was like just before the big freeze. Spoiler: it was miserable. Chris: I remember getting absolutely furious when my city was running well, I was keeping everyone warm and fed, and I had enough resources to survive, but my citizens were still miserable because they'd heard some rumor that tanked their morale. It seemed so unfair that I'd done everything right but people still hated me. But then it's a society simulator, isn't it? No matter what you do, you can't make everyone happy, and a portion of any society is going to be filled with people who simply won't use logic or listen to reason.

A relevant lesson! Evan: Is Arma a tedious and complicated sim, or a peerless sandbox-playground for unscripted military antics? Years into its lifespan, the franchise's contradiction is potent: onboarding someone into the game means handing them a list of mods they 'absolutely' need to get started and a longer list of unusual keybinds double tap left Alt to freely swivel your neck independently of your weapon, duh.

But at the end of that not-so-basic training awaits a serious and often silly game about riding in a helicopter with a dozen of your closest Discord friends, one of whom crashes that helicopter into a tree after failing to correctly engage the auto-hover.

Nat: Remember the first time you took a sledgehammer to a house in Red Faction Guerrilla? Teardown is that, but pushed to its best extreme. A destruction sandbox where breakable buildings aren't just a backdrop to mediocre gunfights, but instead used to prop up an incredible set of heist puzzles.

But oh, that smashing! Teardown may be voxelated, but everything breaks as you'd expect. Wood buckles under pressure. Plaster cracks to reveal underlying brickwork. Fire spreads as volumetric smoke billows through hallways, and a remarkably efficient approach to ray-tracing makes sure it all looks perfectly tactile. In most levels, you're free to explore and destroy the map as you see fit.

You'll have a set number of items to rob briefcases, safes, cars , and once you snag one, the timer starts. Carve an optimal route through the map, grab the goods, and make it out before the cops arrive.

Simple, but nerve-wrackingly brilliant. Beyond that, though, Teardown's exploding mod scene has turned the voxel playground into a brand new Garry's Mod. There's a workshop packed to the brim with new maps to smash up, and a wealth of toys ranging from GMod-style physics guns to miniguns akimbo.

Teardown's puzzles are decent fun, but I'll be smashing my way through fan-made maps for a long time yet. A supernatural mystery, Unavowed throws you into an ancient society of magical problem solvers after a possession ruined your life.

It's got big party-based RPG vibes, evoking BioWare games especially, complete with special origin stories and a branching plot that goes to some surprising places.

But this is still firmly a 2D point-and-click, where most of your time will be spent solving mysteries and puzzles. And what excellent mysteries and puzzles they are, forcing you to use both magic and your investigative chops to solve. What lingers, though, are the charming characters and Unavowed's vision of New York—a place simultaneously familiar and utterly alien.

Robin: Unavowed feels like a treatise on how the classic style of 2D adventure game can still feel relevant in the modern games industry. Dave: We finally made it, ma!

As the finest long-term RPG on any platform, I'd argue it's a bit too far down the list, but there are still many who foolishly see it as some sort of glorified spreadsheet. Football is obviously central to the game, which does put people off.

But FM is a mix of a sporting version of The Sims, marshalling and developing your little computer people to kick a ball about better than other little computer people, and a heart-wrenching RPG about success, failure, heroism, the fragility of youth, lost potential, and the inevitable decay of our own corporeal forms.

Fraser: Finally! I've been trying to get CoH2 in here for years. The RTS sequel is perhaps a controversial choice, and is certainly more divisive than its predecessor, but the first game has had its time in the sun and on this list. There are plenty of reasons to recommend the sequel, too, especially if you're tired of the Western Front.

One of the main reasons I've been fighting for the swap is the fantastic Ardennes Assault expansion, which features a dynamic turn-based campaign—something Relic is taking even further in the upcoming Company of Heroes 3. Dave: Still think the original is better, but that's probably because I got proper obsessed with the Commando units from the Opposing Fronts expandalone.

Cars are cool and hot and Horizon 4 knows it. Play it as a racing simulation or turn on all the assists and play it like Lego Racer. Or just deck out a van with a Dragonball Z livery and drive it off cliff sides, capturing the poetic footage as it tumbles.

Nat: Forza lets me tear down my own backyard in the big daft Halo jeep, which makes it the best racing game ever made as far as I'm concerned. Fraser: I drove around digital Edinburgh with a friend and pointed out all the places I'd thrown up when I was at university.

Perfect game. Jacob: With a decent racing wheel, this game makes you feel like you're the world rally champion and F1 drivers champion all at the same time. James: A game that bends the rules of space also exists outside of time. Portal 2 is still one of the funniest games ever made. Even if the portal puzzles get easier to parse with every run, I'm always finding new routes and accidentally developing speedrun strats, buoyed by good humor, great performances, and excellent tunes throughout.

If you've yet to play the co-op campaign, do it now.