The RPS 100: Reader Edition (2025) - your favourite games of all time

You voted for them, so once again you only have yourselves to blame

Welcome to the third ever RPS 100: Readers Edition. This is the (nearly) annual tradition of you, RPS readers, telling us where we went wrong in our annual tradition of trying to fit all of our favourite games into a list of the 100 best PC games of all time .

The list below is your list, voted for by your fellow readers.

This year, so we don’t see four of your precious 100 slots filled up with different versions of Football Manager, I’ve combined the entries of games that are in the same series. It creates a few more slots in the list for other games, letting us see the full variety of your tastes. However, I’ve included the breakdown of the votes, so you can see which series entry was the most popular among your fellow readers.

I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who voted and even huger thank you to everyone who took the time to share their thoughts on why they picked the games they did. It’s been a genuine pleasure to read through your words. There isn’t a single game in the top 100 that doesn’t have something written about it and it turns this list into a true celebration of your past time. There are many games in the list below that I’ll be returning to because of what you’ve written about them. So, again, thank you.

As with our top 100, I’ll be revealing 20 games a day until all 100 are revealed. So if you think a game is missing, make sure you check back, because it may be still to come.

Without further ado, let’s get onto the first games from your RPS 100: Readers Edition (2025).

• 100 - 81
• 80 - 61
• 60 - 41
• 40 - 21
• 20 - 1

100. X series

Image credit:Egosoft

Genre: Space trading sandbox Released:

• X3: Albion Prelude - 2011
• X4: Foundations - 2018

X3: Albion Prelude - 8 pointsX4: Foundations - 16 points

TheGreatOneSea – X4: Foundations Some games are carried more by being unique than being objectively amazing, and X4 is certainly one of them, but how many games let you be a Space Truckin’ Mercenary Captain Architect Pirate with their own Military Industrial Complex?

Jovian09 – X4: Foundations My favourite brand of space sim. The X series is peak eurojank, but it’s also a simulation of a fully living economy where every sector is worth visiting, you can fly everything from speedy fighters to lumbering freighters or colossal capital ships, build complex space factories and command fleets, and your every action impacts the universe around you. X4 executes its grand ambition by keeping the action in space-only sectors, which makes the scope expansive but much more sharply-focused than, say, Star Citizen or Elite Dangerous .

99. Hardspace: Shipbreaker

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Focus Home Interactive / Blackbird Interactive

Bahumat The pure flow state you fall into, drifting in space, disassembling leviathans like the worms that feast on fallen whales.

NCD Banjos in space are cool. It’s also a masterpiece of game design where all the mechanics are integrated and justified in the narrative; from death to progression.

Phuzz This game seems to have bits taken from at least half the other games on my list, there’s wanton destruction, cleaning up, it’s set in space, there’s a story but mostly it’s a zen activity that tickles my brain just right. I’ve played hundreds of hours past the ’end’ of the game. Just breaking down new hulks.

98. Horizon Zero Dawn

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Sony Interactive Entertainment / Guerrilla Games

Random squiggle Beautiful world, intriguing story, fighting giant robot dinosaurs!

Neminem88 I relate to the story, it has hope, and perfectly thought out gameplay.

97. Oxygen Not Included

Image credit:Klei Entertainment

Sockmoxy As I’ve said elsewhere on this site, this game has inspired actual real-world resilience and failure tolerance in me, as well as a useful recognition that small steps are needed to get somewhere big. Solving one problem always creates another problem to solve. Boredom is impossible. If you’re bored, something is wrong and you’re about to find out. Love the art, love that the devs are still supporting this regularly so many years later. Best game ever.

NCD I’ve never got anywhere in this game, but no other game in my library comes close to my total playtime on this game, so that has to count for something.

96. What Remains of Edith Finch

Image credit:Annapurna Interactive / Giant Sparrow

H3rz0g_zw31 A perfect game, which does everything it sets out to do.

I_have_no_nose_but_I_must_sneeze What could have been unbearably sad is infused with so much macabre exuberance. Death is a gateway to experiencing each person’s personal universe. An easy recommendation for any newcomers who want to see what all this gaming business is about.

95. Alan Wake 2

Image credit:Epic Games Publishing / Remedy Entertainment

RAC41 So much goddamn lore and the farther you go, the better it becomes. Sam Lake and Kyle Rowley did their best to create this masterfully crafted survival horror experience and it‘s extremely enjoyable.

Can‘t wait for Control 2 .

OmegaJak Sublime meta fantasy horror madness. Resident Evil by way of Twin Peaks. Genius.

Garfieldsam Alan Wake 2 pushes games forward as an artform across multiple dimensions – writing, technical artistry, and art direction that’s genuinely stunning. If you’ve spent decades invested in Remedy’s connected universe, it delivers one of the best cross-IP stories ever told. It’s legitimately spooky as hell, not just atmospheric but genuinely frightening. The DLC even has legitimately useful and interesting things to say about generative AI.

B0dyp0litic Everything I could want from, David Lynch and the New Weird, having lived in both Oregon & NYC this is so accurate in its portrayals of each locale it was surreal.

94. Planescape: Torment

Image credit:Interplay Entertainment / Black Isle Studios

Plato_Karamazov Where I am going, time is not measured in years

Drygear I’m not sure if I’ll ever play this again, but the experiences I have had with it are some of the most memorable in gaming. For me, it’s all about unraveling (I wish the pun was intentional) the depths of your history with not only the world but with your companions. Trying to take the chance to repair the things I’ve broken and heal the people I’ve hurt, as much as possible. The way your actions can cause unexpected consequences, like the time I made it through a difficult conversation to persuade someone only for one of my party members to murder the person.

FreonTrotsky What can change the nature of a gamer? Torment’s winding philosophical story, told through dialogue choices and volumes of text, can feel a little overwhelming, especially when paired with pretty underwhelming combat and pathfinding. But it cuts deep, makes you think and feel things: troubling, mind-expanding, and mystifying things. And that’s just the text. The world of Planescape looks like spare engine parts crossbred with a bucket of viscera, and every NPC encounter feels like a stoned deconstruction of high fantasy tropes. Sound terrible? It’s fantastic, just completely bonkers.

93. Terraria

Image credit:505 Games / Re-Logic

Genre: Sandbox game Released: 2011

Caff I dig it. A massive game, given a huge number of free updates by the Re-Logic devs over the years.

Shay Linio Terraria is the indie of all indies. Still “in the making”, it’s a game you could play with anyone. It is the game I bought ten times for ten different people ten years ago and feels like you could still play it in ten years.

92. Overwatch series

Image credit:Blizzard Entertainment

Genre: Competitve hero shooter Released:

• Overwatch - 2016
• Overwatch 2 - 2022

Overwatch - 26 pointsOverwatch 2 - 2 points

Garfieldsam Overwatch hit the perfect middle ground between ultra-sweaty MOBAs and tactical shooters – accessible enough to be fun casually, deep enough to reward mastery. The characters were amazing, and for several years it fostered a remarkably positive, engaged, and inclusive community. It proved team-based shooters could be welcoming without sacrificing depth, at least until Blizzard squandered that goodwill.

Gaspacho Hero shooter with meaningful design choice for heroes capacity.

Chopoflamb I was hooked on Overwatch from the very first time I saw it, enjoy the competition and teamwork

91. Baba Is You

Image credit:Hempuli

Shay Linio One of the best puzzle games

Thrownfootfalls I have such a mixed experience with puzzle games. I’ve just discovered today that, at the moment, my top four games of all time are puzzle games, but if you’d asked me for my least favourite games instead, you’d find several well-respected games in there too. In many ways, the mechanics of Baba Is You are like the latter kind, but turned into something that feels crafted to delight, challenge, amuse, and thoroughly crumple my brain in the best possible way.

90. Chrono Trigger

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Square

Genre: Fantasy RPG Released: 2018

Soberbandana An unparalleled mixture of top notch music, storytelling and gameplay that stands the test of time.

Elazul It’s the best RPG game from the golden age of SNES RPG games. Fantastic gameplay from creators Yuji Horii, Hironobu Sakaguchi and Kazuhiko Torishima. Also, amazing music done by Yasunori Mitsuda, and art done by Akira Toriyama. It also helps that it has aged like fine wine. It’s even spawned its own 16 bit copy cat genre as well with such games as Sea of Stars.

89. Heaven’s Vault

Image credit:Inkle

Cpt_freakout A profound reflection about history and memory, in which all that is air comes to solidify into relations of imperial domain, resistance, and the uses and abuses of the past. Language is power: to translate is to recover lost meanings, to redraw the boundaries of myth and storytelling already found, and to propose words for the future, an affirmative remix of the past and present.

Rincechicken A genius idea with the language to decipher, and a surprisingly deep and rich story text as you uncover the remains of the civilisations. I can see why RPS staff have always kept it in the top 100. Well deserved.

Random squiggle The sense of discovery, the language puzzles. Relaxing and engaging.

Kniggit Such an ambitious and fascinating game. Great believable story. Beautiful music.

88. Jagged Alliance 2

Image credit:TopWare Interactive / Sir-Tech Canada

Rince Wind It is the mercs that make this game. They have so many lines for a game of the time, and there are so many of them. And not just to react to stuff happening on the battlefield, but their interactions with friends and rivals and the messages on their answering machines and when you actually reach them by phone.

I really need to play the 1.13 patch/mod again.

HyperTextHero (#8466) I received my boxed copy of Jagged Alliance 2 in Italy during the spring of 1999 after playing its Demoville level the year prior, installed from some PC gaming magazine CD, for longer than I play most full games.

Keeping track of everything, from missions and side quests, team dynamics with incompatible personalities, cashflow from captured mines, and a toybox full of items from sunglasses and camouflage makeup to gun trinkets and different types of ammo for the tactical battles is challenging, and shapes the game into a peculiar strategic and tactical problem solving exercise that few games can muster.

87. Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters

Image credit:Accolade, Inc / Toys For Bob

Pauleyc The ideal space adventure: brilliant dialogue, excellent music and engaging arcade combat.

86. Team Fortress 2

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Valve

Genre: Competitive hero shooter Released: 2007

Marglark I don’t like COD or Battlefield, but before griefers were commonplace I loved this game. It has a sense of humor in its bones, and cares more about people having fun cooperating than anything else.

Joel B The Free to Play era of Team Fortress 2 has soured my memories of it a bit. But in honesty I’d say that 1) TF2 as a F2P game has been a huge mover and shaker in the fortunes of Valve and PC gaming, and 2) pre-F2P, I put crazy amounts of time into TF2. I loved Team Fortress, I loved Team Fortress Classic, and I loved TF2. The art direction was tasty, those short films were hilarious, but most importantly it was a game where occasionally some actual teamplay would appear out of nowhere among random pubbies. That’s the best.

Bahumat inarticulate Pyro-main noises

RPS said it best: The most culturally important game I’ve ever played, short of like, what? Mario? What else do you even put on that plinth? Pac-man?

Team Fortress 2 was the Mario for the generation it hit for.

85. The Long Dark

Image credit:Hinterland Studio

P53 Countless times since its release more than a decade ago, it has provided me with tons of emergent experiences and feelings. I come back to this game like a good, old friend, who is always there for me. Also – simply the best survival sim out there. And I know them all.

84. The Stanley Parable

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Galactic Cafe

Caff Silly and mind-bending in all the right ways.

Thrownfootfalls One of my family members will occasionally try a game, and no matter the genre or style or difficulty, they will entirely refuse to engage with it on its own terms, and then later say how bad it was. I think this game is the only one that might just meet them where they are.

Saliken – Ultimate Deluxe Edition I specify the Ultra Deluxe Edition here but to me both the original and sequel feel like one enmeshed experience. Where the first humorously contemplates narration and player agency, the sequel goes off the walls challenging you to think about what you’re doing and why. God I don’t know why but I love that bucket.

83. Like A Dragon series

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Sega / Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio

Genre: Gangster ’em up Released:

• Yakuza 5 - 2012
• Yakuza 0 - 2015
• Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - 2024
• Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii - 2025

Yakuza 5 - 6 pointsYakuza 0 - 12 pointsLike a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - 9 pointsLike a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii - 1 points

Wall Jump Games – Infinite Wealth It’s always a toss up for me between 7 and 8 for my favourite game in the Yakuza series, but at the end of day, Yakuza/Like A Dragon is my favourite series, and Infinite Wealth is, on top of being a stellar RPG in both story and mechanics, a brilliant celebration of the whole series before it. Kiryu’s part of this story is one of the emotionally strongest elements of the entire series whilst still being resplendent with fan service, hitting every part of my Yakuza fan brain with equal intensity.

Justin – Yakuza 0 The Yakuza series is a revelation. Punch your way through your problems on the backstreets of Kamurocho. Ludonarrative dissonance is a phrase that thankfully doesn’t get bandied about as much as it used to, but whatever the opposite of ludonarrative dissonance is is what I feel when I play a Yakuza game. Of course, Kiryu (and by extension, I) should beat that guy up. He’ll probably be my best friend after and thank me for the whalloping he so richly deserves. Please let’s all be sure to rip our shirts off first though, so we can admire each other.

Tattoos!h3rz0g_zw31 – Yakuza 5 Since I can’t stuff the list with just Yakuza, I’ll pick the biggest, dumbest one. It just feels like a game where every idea got in. Whole campaign as a teen idol? Sure! Whole plot weirdly centered around baseball? Alright! Taxi driving and racing minigame with a separate storyline? Why not! I love it so much.

82. Football Manager series

Image credit:Sega / Sports Interactive

Genre: Football managerment simulator Released:

• Football Manager - 2004
• Football Manager 2012 - 2011
• Football Manager 2017 - 2016
• Football Manager 2020 - 2019
• Football Manager 2024 - 2023

Football Manager - 15 pointsFootball Manager 2012 - 2 pointsFootball Manager 2017 - 9 pointsFootball Manager 2020 - 1 pointsFootball Manager 2024 - 1 points

Mackemforever – Football Manager 2017 For me, Football Manager can be summed up with two words. Rafael Asprilla. Mr Asprilla doesn’t exist, and yet as I write this I am wearing a shirt with his name on it. It was 2037, I was managing Alianza Petrolera F.C. in Colombia when a young Rafael Asprilla joined our ranks. For a few years he did nothing, but eventually got a chance and never looked back, going on to be a club legend. So I bought an Alianza Petrolera F.C. kit with his name on. And that is why Football Manager is great.

81. Call of Duty series

Image credit:Activision / Infinity Ward

Genre: First-person shooter Released:

• Call of Duty - 2003
• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - 2007
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - 2009

Call of Duty - 5 pointsCall of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - 14 pointsCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - 9 points

Hiddencamel – Call of Duty (2003) The original Call of Duty was just so freakin epic in single player – no other shooter before had really gone all out on being cinematic like CoD did, and man it was awesome. The multiplayer was also amazing fun. The asymmetric and limited weapon choices between teams and the generally amazing map designs made for a super tense, super compelling online shooter with none of the progression based bloat of its descendents.

Nathan A – Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare People forget how innovative and genuine cod used to be. This game revolutionized online multi-player and solidified the fps genre.

80. Balatro

Image credit:Playstack / LocalThunk

Robbeasy Gaming equivalent of Heroin…

Obi Wan Jabroni Number go up

Obojo Ahh the infamous poker deck-building roguelite. The best take I’ve seen is that you’re not actually playing cards – you’re playing jokers.

2bad Great fun, reinventing a classic and creating a new sub-genre

79. Homeworld series

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Sierra Studios / Barking Dog Studios

Genre: Sci-fi real-time strategy Released:

• Homeworld - 1999
• Homeworld: Cataclysm - 2000

Homeworld - 16 pointsHomeworld: Cataclysm - 13 points

Plato_Karamazov – Homeworld God I love this game. The atmosphere is impeccable, and the mechanics are flawless. It’s beautiful to look at, and I love the unit barks.

78. Blue Prince

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Dogubomb / Raw Fury

Eulrich Engaging the Brain in just the right way!

Hrink A total joy, best played with a group chat of friends also playing and screeching over the reveals while trying not to spoil one another.

Thrownfootfalls I played this with a partner, and while we did some parts together, different facets of the game would give us different obsessions. One of us would be figuring out greenhouse strategies, while the other was decoding a character’s journal. Though it sometimes seemed obstinate, there were so many ways to explore and things to see that we never tired of it until we reached the end. And then the next end. And then maaaaybe the actual end? I’m still reluctant to look it up, in case the house calls me back again some day.

SeekerX Blue Prince is an elegant mechanical box that initially seems to contain just one elaborate puzzle – but then the player catches a glimpse of something odd. If they investigate, they find clues to another mystery. Another riddle. Another layer of the mechanism. Blue Prince rewards curiosity and observation like no other game, but there are also failsafes to point players to what they’ve missed. Another layer unfolds. How did the puzzles manage to encompass worldbuilding and history? Wait, is there another layer? How deep does this go? Does it never end?

77. Life is Strange

Image credit:Square Enix / Dontnod Entertainment

J0st The game that made me feel more than any other. I cried.

76. Paradise Killer

Image credit:Fellow Traveller / Kaizen Game Works

Gloomy A criminally under-rated 3D open world platforming detective game – play it!

Naboo The Ocelot The music. The style. The mystery. What a joy. What a game.

Cpt_freakout If a zoroastrian setting of conspiratorial godly beings in a prison-paradise whose grindingly eternal relationships lead them to murder is not attractive to you, I don’t know what to tell you! I mean, you play as the stylish goddess of love, and we all know love is all about figuring out whodunit. It’s just noir like that. The freedom to explore and investigate at your leisure, as well as finish the game without it traditionally rewarding you for getting it right or wrong is just an extra blessing.

75. StarCraft series

Image credit:Blizzard Entertainment

Genre: Sci-fi real-time strategy game Released:

• StarCraft - 1998
• StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty - 2010

StarCraft - 16 pointsStarCraft 2 - 14 points

DoomsdayDevice How fast is your modem? Fast enough to play with your buddy!

J0st The first two chapters of the campaign are fantastic. Playing the rowdy humans or the gross Zerg aliens through strategical battles have been the best RTS experience of my life.

74. The Last of Us series

Image credit:Sony Computer Entertainment / Naughty Dog

Genre: Survival action Released:

• The Last Of Us - Part I - 2023
• The Last Of Us - Part II - 2025

The Last Of Us - Part I - 27 pointsThe Last Of Us - Part II - 4 points

Wall Jump Games – The Last of Us - Part 1 AAA gaming at its peak. A common criticism levelled against this game and ones like it is that they try too hard to emulate movies at the expense of being a game. I disagree. The Last of Us takes lessons from film more effectively than 95% of the medium, but never loses sight of the power interactivity brings to a narrative. You really inhabit Joel in a way that only elevates the script, already among the best in gaming, all to the end of delivering the most powerhouse ending the medium has ever seen.

73. Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

Image credit:Activision / Troika Games

OmegaJak The fan patches have fixed most of this broken mess and, though it’s still a little rough around the edges, few games have ever reached the heights of its soaring ambition.

PolygonClassicist Here I stand in this room / Caged and trapped inside / Seems I’m damned to live a lie / Unaware of what’s outside / Should I care / For what’s left me behind / And I stare at lights that makes me blind / Internally there’s nothing left for me to be / I’m here alone and isolated / Have no choice but be isolated.

Kniggit Incredible quest design. Probably the best ever made.

Rince Wind So… I read somewhere that you can play as not-Malkavian. Why? Why would anyone want to do that?

Darth Gangrel Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is one of two games that has made me pick up the books it’s based on, the other is The Witcher, because it has such a deep and interesting World (of Darkness). It has some of the best voice acting I’ve ever heard and the Source engine makes the facial animations great as well, even to this day. The music, characters, story and dialogue is great and along with the different vampire clans it becomes hugely replayable.

72. Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children

Image credit:Dandylion

Genre: Tactical RPG Released: 2020

Sockmoxy Ok but for real, this has some sort of magic sauce. The translation isn’t great and the animations are just… fine. The crafting and “mastery” mechanics are overwhelming. But the characters are sheer joy; I am deeply fond of my crew of lovely idiots. And when things start to click with the combat missions, when you start to see what might be possible, the rush is incredible.

SeekerX If you’ve ever wished XCom was actually a party-based RPG with just the most ridiculously in-depth build-crafting possibilities to consider, boy do I have a game for you.

Vacuity What this game fundamentally offers is about the most complex team-build system I know of, not simply because each character has multitudinous options, but because the characters can be used to complement and synergise with each other in both obvious and subtle ways, and you may be using up to twelve regular team members, and a variety of summonable beasts and drones, which have nearly the same vast potentials for complex and complementary builds. The result is multiplicatively multilayered, and must still be practically applied against armed opposition. And Irene’s just a great character.

Cornelis In a world where every game has upgrade trees, Troubleshooter dares to ask the question: what if we had a better system? Creating your own builds from a toolbox of hundreds of passive masteries is a neat open ended puzzle full of unexpected synergies, and there’s no more fun testing ground for your little engineered troubleshooters than an XCom-like. It helps that the campaign is surprisingly solid, with missions and enemies that force you to rethink and retool your team all the time.

71. DOTA 2

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Valve

Flipflapflupflop Love it, hate it, love it hate it, etc.

70. FTL

Image credit:Subset Games

Genre: Sci-fi roguelite Released: 2012

2bad Fun gameplay, better story.

Phuzz I don’t like rogue-alikes (or whatever we’re calling them these days), but somehow I’ve sunk hundreds of hours into this game.

Dglenny FTL remains the only FTL-like to actually do it right. The only bad thing about FTL is that its creators didn’t really realise what they’d made, and so made Into The Breach afterwards which is aggressively fine – but not FTL.

69. Suzerain

Image credit:Torpor Games

Hiddencamel I bought Suzerain in a sale at 11pm, and then fired it up just to check it out. Next thing I know, it’s 8am and I have finished the game. The absolute best game about politics I think has ever been made, and extremely compelling.

PolygonClassicist Anton Rayne! Some stay dry and others feel the pain! Anton Rayne!

68. Stalker series

Image credit:GSC Game World

Genre: First-person survival game Released:

• Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl - 2007
• Stalker: Call of Pripyat - 2009
• Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl - 2024

Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl - 11 pointsStalker: Call of Pripyat - 14 pointsStalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl - 10 points

TheGreatOneSea – S.T.A.L.K.E.R. People have been chasing the highs of this unforgiving, lonely, terrifying, and sharp game ever since it first released, and some even came close, but none have taken the crown.

Joel B – S.T.A.L.K.E.R. One of the prototypical “eastern European games that aren’t going to hold your hand”. I loved the moody atmosphere – not just the visuals (which were gorgeous) but also the conversations with cantankerous locals and the downbeat setpieces. The open-ish world had the right density of landmarks and interesting/frightening locations. You were free to see or miss just about anything; exploring to “fill out the map” was as exciting as following up the next lead in the main story. And the final sequence at Chernobyl was satisfyingly apocalyptic; so good that I’ve been reluctant to try the sequels.

PolygonClassicist – Stalker 2 That this got made and released at all is itself a triumph. Here is when the series is at its most immersive sim-like, with the best first person animations outside of Cyberpunk 2077. The combat’s fierce and challenging, with satisfying gunplay that requires quick adaptation. Visually, the Zone has never looked better. On the downside, the English voice acting is hilariously awful. Yet, as has been true since Shadow of Chernobyl, the camp is part of the charm. With plenty of Easter eggs for fans of the original trilogy, this is a work of love as much as art.

Godwhacker – Stalker 2 Do you like guns? Do you like concrete? Do you like worrying about what radiation is doing to you, and then worrying about the state of your liver because you’re told that drinking vodka will cure radiation? Well, Stalker 2 is the game for you!

67. Assassin’s Creed series

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Ubisoft

Genre: Open-world action game Released:

• Assassin’s Creed - 2007
• Assassin’s Creed 2 - 2009
• Assassin’s Creed Odyssey - 2018

Assassin’s Creed - 5 pointsAssassin’s Creed 2 - 7 pointsAssassin’s Creed Odyssey - 24 points

Random squiggle – Assassin’s Creed 2 Great protagonist, beautiful world, beautiful soundtrack. I’ve enjoyed the whole series enough that I had to pick at least one. I was tempted to put Odyssey here, but I like that Assassin’s Creed 2 is still more focused on pure assassination.

Rincechicken – Assassin’s Creed Odyssey The bright fresh landscapes are like going on a greek holiday. Just what the doctor ordered over a cold damp UK winter. The quests are rarely dumb fetch things and seem well thought out. It also has some of the best voice acting I’ve ever seen in a game.

66. Monkey Island series

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / LucasArts

Genre: Point ’n’ click adventure game Released:

• The Secret of Monkey Island - 1990
• The Curse of Monkey Island - 1997

The Curse of Monkey Island - 1 pointsThe Secret of Monkey Island - 37 points

CinnamonK – The Secret of Monkey Island There was a time when the true sense of pride and accomplishment came from figuring out the recipe for that soup, and then – Monkey Island!

Throwback – The Secret of Monkey Island Funny and poignant. A beautiful series.

B0dyp0litic – The Secret of Monkey Island The game I have recommended to people who say they don’t like video games, year over year, since it was released in the 90s and I had to unlock it on DOS with the weird spinny pirate face wheel.

Drygear – The Secret of Monkey Island Perhaps a nostalgia choice as much as anything, but I couldn’t bear to leave it off. The VGA graphics and midi soundtrack are primitive by today’s standards but extremely evocative still. One of my favorite bits of humor is the way it switches to realistic character portraits during conversations, and I wish the series stuck with that. It makes it feel more cinematic and contrasts with the silly dialogue in a really fun way.

MarcusG – The Secret of Monkey Island Still the best.

Ulukaï – The Curse of Monkey Island There’s gotta be some Monkey Island on the list, and part 3 is clearly my favorite in the series.

65. Death Stranding

Image credit:Sony Interactive Entertainment / 505 Games / Kojima Productions

Isaac Kelley An 80 hour video action video game that is all fetch quests and inventory management, where the greatest challenge is to not trip on a rock. What’s not to love?

Lucifer Sam One of the reasons writing in games is generally so far behind other media is that games are so rarely designed around a story but instead based on game play with narrative bolted on later, especially in the AAA space. Death Stranding is a game that, for all its faults, exists solely because Hideo Kojima had something he wished to say about the world with games being his chosen medium. The way every single mechanic feeds back into the central themes of community and the value of life is something we need to see far more of.

64. UFO 50

Image credit:Mossmouth, LLC

Isaac Kelley Is this game too good? This is 50 games and they’re almost all somewhere in the B+ to A+ range. I think we as a people don’t know how to handle this much concentrated excellence.

2bad Love the idea of a throw back to a never existing 8-bit console.

Lollololo Is there a better tour-de-force of creativity and design than UFO 50? I don’t think so. It’s not just an incredible flex from the “recovery team”, creating actual gems that, no doubt, would have been classics on par with the Marios of this world. It’s also the best encapsulation of the maxim “the purpose of gameplay is to hide secrets”. A game that is 50(?) games but also the story of a studio, glimpsed through the cracks of this collection; and also a meditation on the meaning of play; and also a statement on preservation. UFO 50 is going to be talked about for years.

SeekerX Digging into UFO 50 is intimidating; there’s almost no documentation (and rarely any kind of tutorial) for each of these fifty strange genre-bending gems. But the ideas contained within are worth the effort, and the game design inspired by the self-imposed constraints is often beautiful, surprising, elegant. There is a ‘wow’ factor to picking up what the designers were thinking, and that “wow” reaction just never stops. Give UFO 50 a chance, and it will probably be a dozen of your all-time favorite games.

Quasiotter UFO 50 and Mooncat (cartridge #13 in this collection) are two of my top games of all time. This is possible because the overarching metanarrative is a mysterious puzzlebox on its own. Each of the fifty entries are notable individual experiences, but they all combine to form an idiosyncratic egg exploring design, expectations, and generosity.

63. Ultima series

Image credit:Origin Systems

Genre: Fantasy RPG Released:

• Ultima III: Exodus - 1983
• Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar - 1985
• Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss - 1992
• Ultima VII: The Black Gate - 1992
• Ultima VIII: Pagan - 1994

Ultima III: Exodus - 6 pointsUltima IV: Quest of the Avatar - 2 pointsUltima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss - 2 pointsUltima VII: The Black Gate - 28 pointsUltima VIII: Pagan - 1 points

David Evans – Ultima III: Exodus Ultima III was the RPG that brought the concept to a wider audience, and provided an alternative view to the Wizardry wire-frame. Its influence can not be over-stated. Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar is arguably a more important game, for its introduction of an entire ethos going against rampant monster murder. Ultima III was my first real RPG (after Wizardry) though, and holds a soft spot in my heart.

Rincechicken – Ultima Underworld: the Stygian abyss It’s old and janky by modern standards, but a true first-person RPG, in proper 3D (not just a flat map, but bridges) that predates doom. I found it totally captivating at the time.

Pauleyc – Ultima VII An RPG that was in many ways ahead of its time. A great story, huge area to explore and a Brittania populated with NPCs that had their own lives, over a decade before Bethesda came up with their “Radiant AI”.

MarcusG – Ultima VII The OG of simulated open world RPGs with complex and profound plotlines.

FreonTrotsky – Ultima VII This is the first game I ever played where the setting felt like a living world, with believable day-and-night cycles, shifting weather, and logical NPC schedules. Britannia felt like a real, persistent place that would exist with or without you. And you could do anything: jump on a ship and explore the seas, bake cakes, weave fabrics, go hunting, build stairs out of crates to get on a roof, hit up the farmer’s market, sing shanties at the pub, or just murder every single person in the world and pile up their bodies on an island. Back in 1992, I could just stand in a single location in Ultima VII and relish the pitter patter of rain in the woods. That’s how revolutionary it was.

Oh, and the story is pretty good too.

Hiddencamel – Ultima VIII This is mostly out of pure nostalgia – the game is deeply flawed and I know it’s broadly maligned by Ultima fans – but this was the first RPG I ever played and I also have very fond memories of watching my older brother play it. The combat and magic systems were weird and awkward, but I kind of love them for that. Nothing else I’ve ever played ever really felt like this game.

62. Psychonauts series

Image credit:Xbox Game Studios / Double Fine

Genre: Third-person adventure game Released:

• Psychonauts - 2005
• Psychonauts 2 - 2021

Psychonauts - 31 pointsPsychonauts 2 - 10 points

Godwhacker Psychonauts is one of the few games I’ve played that has jokes with multiple layers to them. For example: the main character is a circus acrobat, which both provides a justification for how high he can jump, a reason to use the joke of running away from a circus (rather than to join the circus), and then have a finale called The Meat Circus. Name another game on this list that can match that.

Rikard Peterson Everything. The story, the art design, Peter McConnell’s score (including having Paul Hanson in there on electric bassoon), the added depth to the original fun and quirky game. And bonus points for the documentary.

61. Path of Exile series

Image credit:Grinding Gear Games

Genre: Action RPG Released:

• Path of Exile - 2013
• Path of Exile 2 - 2024

Path of Exile - 42 pointsPath of Exile - 2 points

Obi Wan Jabroni – Path of Exile This is the only reason I actually filled out this whole annoying list: It’s absolutely wild and borderline offensive that you have neither Diablo 2 nor Path of Exile on your editorial list. Both are slam dunk contenders for the top five best PC games of all time, and yet to you they don’t make the top 100???

Pr34cher – Path of Exile Very rewarding play, exceptional variety in play options, so much to do, always grows.

Obojo – Path of Exile Given that this is the game that I’ve sunk more hours into than any other, with no regrets, Path of Exile was always gonna be my top choice. You may ask if I’m good at the game and alas, I cannot claim such exalted status either. Path of Exile represents the pinnacle of theorycrafting across any genre with complexity augmented by complexity. It is a live service game, but one that is very fair since it is completely free-to-play with microtransactions being cosmetic or additional item storage space. What keeps me coming back is new leagues a few times a year that frequently augment vanilla build options and transmute end game activities. Not every league is a smash hit, but GGG’s consistency through over a DECADE of releases is unparalleled.

Throwback – Path of Exile 2 The builds and synergies are mind blowing. Improves on the first in every way. The true successor to Diablo 2 after Blizzard lost their soul.

60. The Witness

Image credit:Thekla, Inc

Hrink Pretentious, frustrating, and brilliant.

Marglark A really careful and deliberate world that begs you to tease it apart and never gets in the way of puzzle solving. Jonathan Blow has a gift and he gave it to us.

Person of Interest My most serious consideration for selective self-inflicted memory loss, so I can re-discover this game’s secrets.

Saliken The Witness teaches you to challenge how you see the world. Literally. You get comfortable with the “rules” of the place and then again and again it forces you to challenge your assumptions. It’s like a long string of epiphanies.

Nathan A Omg this game is so creative, it’s breaks your mind and let’s you get lost in a world that is worth turning over every stone

59. Final Fantasy series

Image credit:Eidos Interactive / Square

Genre: Fantasy RPG / MMORPG / turn-based tactical Released:

• Final Fantasy VII - 1998
• Final Fantasy XIV - 2013
• Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles - 2025

Final Fantasy VII - 20 pointsFinal Fantasy XIV - 11 pointsFinal Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles - 11

B0dyp0litic – Final Fantasy VII Teenage me skipped so much school to play this game.

Justin – Final Fantasy VII It’s the definitive Final Fantasy, right? I think a common thread through my picks is their ability to create a world that I can get lost in. Final Fantasy VII – even with its blocky characters and hilarious translation, manages to paint such striking characters in a dire and familiar world that it’s not surprising that it spawned so many spin-offs, remakes, and tangential stories. Although Final Fantasy XII seems the most narratively inspired by Star Wars, Final Fantasy VII is the title that has had the most similar cultural impact. Zack got a raw deal.

Rao Dao Zao – Final Fantasy VII I had assumed that Final Fantasy VII never came to PC, so I would never get to try this cultural phenomenon for myself. Oops. When I learned that it was available digitally, I went in with some trepidation: could it really live up to 25 years of hype? It turns out that, yes, yes it could. FF7’s got everything: it’s hilarious and heartfelt, there’s love and loss and even a damn kaiju attack sequence. They squeezed so much expression and personality out of its chibi figures with precise animations and pithy dialogue, and topped it off with a soundtrack to die for. Swoon.

Shay Linio – Final Fantasy VII Final Fantasy VII was the height of JRPG. The world, the animation, and the gameplay were all innovative. I loved the fact that some much content of the game existed outside of its story frame. You could end the game and still spend even more time to gather strength for the three “hidden” bosses. The materia system allowed for a crazy combination and One-Punch strategy where you would put your controller down for twenty minutes whilst your party automatically killed a baddy…

58. Kerbal Space Program

Image credit:Squad

JCTenton I have a degree in physics and Kerbal Space Program vastly improved my understanding of orbital mechanics.

Phuzz A physics-based toybox that actually taught me more about orbital mechanics than my physics degree.

MiniMatt It’s an educational game that’s actually fun. It’s as accessible to 12-year-olds as it is to actual rocket scientists and to middle aged suburbanite dads. None of these things should be true but KSP (the original, the less said about KSP2 the better) does it with ease.

Frogger Trying the demo made me buy it instantly. Mad scientist blowing up things.

57. Into the Breach

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Subset Games

Eulrich Minimalism at its very best!

Garfieldsam Into The Breach should have been one of the most influential and widely copied game designs of all time; it innovated in creating an endless compelling crossover between strategy and puzzle. Like XCOM 2, it uniquely captures the terror, anxiety, and excitement of feeling personally responsible for saving the world. Every move matters. Every mistake is visible. Its puzzle-perfect tactical gameplay is distilled to its purest form, and criminally few games have tried to replicate its brilliance.

Modalrealist Give chess a genuine run for its money on raw strategy pleasure.

2bad Great game, superb sound-track, that 8x8 grid chessboard. Love it.

Zaz[nayka] I got this one for free on EGS and was blown away by how good it was. It seems small, but I spent many hours making runs again and again because of how satisfying the gameplay is. And chasing the unlocks feels worthwhile and doable. If you are in any way interested in turn-based strategy games, it’s a must-have. It’s been some time since my last foray, I should replay it.

Aoanla Perfection often requires discipline. Into The Breach’s constrained tactical spaces, perfect information on enemy moves, and varied interacting mech abilities make it an almost perfect turn-based tactical game – and one which actually benefits from being a roguelite. It doesn’t hurt that the writing is also pretty good where it is. One of the few games from the 2010s which I still replay rounds of to this day.

56. Star Wars: TIE Fighter

Image credit:LucasArts / Totally Games

Juan_h TIE Fighter sells the ace space pilot fantasy better than any other game that I have ever played. It’s got a simple but solid flight model with just the right amount of mechanical complexity. The campaign features dozens of interesting and varied missions designed to ease you into that complexity gradually. The ship models have low polygon counts and minimal texturing, but they’re immediately recognizable despite that. You could make a prettier Star Wars game or a prettier space pilot simulator, but I don’t think you could make a better one. Certainly no one has.

Pauleyc This was not easy since there are a number of excellent space sims (the original X-Wing, Privateer, Freespace, Elite/Frontier…) but TIE Fighter will always be special for me. It’s probably the Gouraud shading. Or the Emperor’s healthy complexion. I dunno.

Bowak Flying a Tie Interceptor was childhood wish fulfillment. It was also interesting playing the first chunk of the game in fragile unshielded ships after being used to the Rebel’s sturdy shielded ones in X-Wing.

Rince Wind The only game where I ever tried to physically duck out of the way of incoming fire while yanking my joystick to the side. It didn’t (always) work.

55. The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

Image credit:Edmund McMillen

B0dyp0litic Easily most hours sunk into a game by far.

I_have_no_nose_but_I_must_sneeze We are all in the gutter, but some of us have learned to harness our bodily fluids to leave our enemies bearing scars.

54. Minecraft

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Microsoft / Mojang

Saliken Minecraft is old, and I’ve sunk countless hours into it, yet everytime I open it back up with some friends we always have a good time. My wife immediately runs off exploring, my brother-in-law starts automating, and I start fishing for those sweet sweet enchanted items. It’s hard NOT to have fun.

Joel B C418’s soundtrack will still poke me right in the nostalgia. Starting a new game of Minecraft was an unmatched feeling … laid-back but fizzing with possibilities. Grand construction projects were pretty special, but maybe the supreme Minecraft feature was just its ability to provide best-in-class zenlike time-killing.

It’s also one of the few 21st-century games that I would rank up there with Quake when it comes to the number of ways it got people involved in a whole self-reinforcing system of communities and servers and tournaments and streamers and mods.

Zach #1630 The hometown of video games. No matter which games I go off and play, I always come back to Minecraft, every once in a while.

Marsiiic The unparalleled cozy/sandbox/hardcore/whatever-you-want-it-to-be game, with friends.

TomorrowYesterday To build a home and live in it.

53. Dragon Age series

Image credit:EA / Bioware

Genre: Fantasy RPG Released:

• Dragon Age: Origins - 2009
• Dragon Age: Inquisition - 2014
• Dragon Age: The Veilguard - 2024

Dragon Age: Origins - 32 pointsDragon Age: Inquisition - 10 pointsDragon Age: The Veilguard - 7 points

Gaspacho – Dragon Age: Origins Compelling story, interesting companions and choices, credible medieval fantasy.

TheGreatOneSea – Dragon Age: Origins Dragon Age established Bioware as the masters of realistic feeling RPG characters, reinforced by excellent world building, full voice acting, and a total lack of a judgy morality system that fits its Dark Fantasy.

Rnwar – Dragon Age: Origins Bioware switched out their Light & Dark Jedi for morally Grey Wardens and the results were very impressive. The Battle of Redcliff is one of my favorite set pieces in gaming.

Jovian09 – Dragon Age: Origins In many ways the definitive BioWare RPG, with a loveable and believable cast of characters, an epic hero’s journey and a richly-realised world. The studio is famed for offering you choices and this is probably where it’s best at making them impactful, with a massive granular inflection point occurring late in the story that reflects almost everything you’ve done up to then.

Asoggywotsit – Dragon Age: Origins The game that started it all for me. Despite the fact that I think it has aged poorly, and its gameplay mechanics are lackluster and fundamentally unimaginative, it will always hold a dear spot in my heart.

Zaz[nayka] – Dragon Age: Inquisition I decided to choose just one BioWare game instead of listing all of them from the Dragon Age and Mass Effect series, because I love them all. (Yes even [insert the one you hate].) And it has to be Inquisition, a game I spent 700 hours in. I wish I could wipe my memory of it and play it fresh instead of having all the best lines memorized. I love the Inquisition, I love Dorian, I love the different areas of Orlais and Fereldan, I love lore revelations. And I’m glad we finally got Veilguard to tie some loose ends. We will probably never get another Dragon Age, but I’m happy we have this series as it is, telling a great epic story of this imaginative world.

Rikard Peterson – Dragon Age: The Veilguard I know I’m in a minority here, but I’m going to pick The Veilguard as my favourite Dragon Age game as well as my favourite RPG, mainly because I liked hanging out with these characters.

52. Satisfactory

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Coffee Stain Studios

Phuzz The only game that comes close to the joy of exploring an alien landscape from Subnautica, with a just-complex-enough factory game built on top.

Chodhound Wow – factory building in 3D on an Alien world – nice little story and great atmosphere – addictive as hell – look at my conveyor belts – it will invade your dreams

Bills6693 While Factorio may be the foundation of the factory game genre, Satisfactory is the jewel in its crown. A perfect balance of ever more complex factory building, exploring by vehicle or parkour a stunning hand-crafted map with hidden detail round every twist and turn, and a plethora of building options to unleash your inner architect, it has been the cause of many a weary morning as my attempts at functional and beautiful factories have taken shape over hundreds of hours.

Agent00Funk A game I have spent hundreds of hours never finishing. It’s complex, yet relaxing, it rewards calculated plans and slapdash efforts in almost equal measure, it tickles both the left and right side of the brain because making a well-oiled factory is one thing, but making it beautiful and feng-shui is another endeavor altogether. It was a difficult choice between this and Factorio, but typically, when I decide it’s time to build a factory, I lean towards Satisfactory. Factorio also deserves a place on this list, but alas, there are not enough spaces.

51. Bioshock series

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / 2K / Irrational Games

Genre: First-person immersive sim Released:

• Bioshock - 2007
• Bioshock Infinite - 2013

Bioshock - 36 pointsBioshock Infinite - 15 points

Controlled_by_my_cats – BioShock Over the top satire, compelling story and fantastic voice acting.

B0dyp0litic – BioShock Ken Levine is brilliant and this was his first real moment to shine, the story writhes like a snake, and maintains its socio-political relevance today.

Dustball – BioShock Would you kindly include this in the top 100?

Justin – BioShock Infinite I know. The both sides-ism and the handling of racism stuff – it’s bad. I’m not defending it. Yes, the quantum physics is wacky, not-real science. I get it. Push that stuff to the side – and also the bit where you wanted to explore the racist city without shooting people. OK? BioShock was great. BioShock 2 improved the gameplay and had a boring story. It’s true. BioShock Infinite was exciting (riding the Sky-Lines!), with fun powers, high drama, and some all-time needle drops. It was a literal roller coaster through the clouds and I was sad and satisfied when it concluded.

B0dyp0litic – BioShock Infinite Sacrilegious to put this ahead of the first in the series but this was a piece of video game writing brilliance that took some flak for its subject matter when released but only aged itself into being more prescient than ever.

50. Metal Gear Solid series

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Konami

Genre: Third-person stealth Released:

• Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance - 2013
• Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes - 2014
• Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain - 2015
• Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - 2023

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance - 10 pointsMetal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes - 4 pointsMetal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain - 27Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - 10 points

Isaac Kelley – Metal Gear Solid 3 Kojima’s masterpiece. The best narrative video game of all time. Great systems, great story, great weirdness, and a playful awareness of the video game of it all.

Godwhacker – Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance Learning to play Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is like learning to play an instrument. It’s frustrating getting the basics right, but put the effort in, and you’ll be playing solos. With a giant katana. And the songs are all about dismemberment. It’s also coupled with some of Kojima’s finest bullshit, and one of the most insane stories of all time.

Modalrealist – Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes If the 2010s had demo discs, this would have stolen the imagination of a new generation. Forget the half-finished full length follow-up: Ground Zeroes was an incredible piece of immersive action roleplaying that perfectly placed you into the shoes of its grumpy anti-hero. Anyone who hasn’t played this should set aside two hours and do so.

Godwhacker – Metal Gear Solid 5 The best stealth game. You can kidnap sheep with a balloon and hide from tanks in a portable cardboard box. It’s a shame they didn’t finish it, but it’d probably only just be coming out if they had.

Drygear – Metal Gear Solid 5 This has much better storytelling and writing than its reputation suggests. Most importantly, it has all the player freedom and variety of options as any immersive sim. There are so many ways to deal with the enemies at any given location, no matter how lethal or nonlethal or loud or quiet you want to be. There’s not a ton of variety in the type of encounters you’ll face but it still takes about 150 hours before it starts to feel stale.

Justin – Metal Gear Solid 5 Unequivocally the worst story in the series, and I like them. Yes, I know they’re daft. Hideo Kojima, for everything else, helped birth a genre. Metal Gear is his little stealthy baby. And guess what? Metal Gear Solid V is the series at the height of its powers – the number of gadgets, weapons, and insane ways to tackle your missions is astounding. This is enemy base clearing at its best – mark your targets, send them home to press them into service, pop in an 80s banger to your cassette player and take off running with DD to your next objective.

49. Dwarf Fortress

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Kitfox Games / Bay 12 Games

Caff Rock and stone! No wait, that’s another game with dwarves in… But there is a lot of rock and stone. Every playthrough is unique, and I’ll never tire of reading other players’ stories of how a were-kangaroo or something has squished their latest colony.

Hhrink Remember when everyone was trying to create DF-alikes and none ever took? A truly singular game.

Bahumat Every fortress ever lost has made a story worth telling and hearing. Masterwork Dwarf Fortress added even more.

Rince Wind Do I really have to say anything? The game made me learn ASCII when a new version came out and the tilesets weren’t immediately updated. I still remember that first ASCII Fortress, even though it didn’t last long. It was a hellhole (a literal hole in the ground) in some jungle over layer upon layer of red sand. In summer the water pools evaporated, which may or may not have doomed my fortress when it ran out of beer.

48. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Activision / FromSoftware

jellied eel Possibly FromSoftware’s best art direction, and the contained nature of its setting tricks you into many surprises. The stealth and the parrying are best in class, and makes for an adventure like nothing else.

I_have_no_nose_but_I_must_sneeze You begin to counter with Dark Souls or Elden Ring but you’re too slow. I break your posture and feed you to the headless ape.

Soberbandana My favorite FromSoftware game by a mile. It may have the greatest boss design of any game I’ve played – marrying theme with mechanics and offering a wonderfully steady learning curve, culminating in a final boss that truly forces you to demonstrate how much you’ve learned and progressed. A flawless masterpiece and a game I still play weekly, years after I have finished it.

Garfieldsam Sekiro changed the way I approach life. It fundamentally shifted my attitude towards setbacks and things I suck at – teaching persistence, pattern recognition, and that mastery comes through failure. Much cheaper, faster, and just about as effective as therapy. It also introduced me to soulslikes, opening up an entire genre that rewards the exact mindset it taught me. Few games have that kind of lasting impact.

Sente Graphs The pinnacle of FromSoftware’s combat design. There’s almost a dance to fights when everything clicks, and the bosses are some of the best in any game. On top of all that, the game takes place in a compelling and fully realized setting of Ashina.

47. Europa Universalis series

Image credit:Paradox Interactive

Genre: Grand strategy game Released:

• Europa Universalis 3 - 2007
• Europa Universalis 4 - 2013
• Europa Universalis 5 - 2025

Europa Universalis 3 - 8 pointsEuropa Universalis 4 - 41 pointsEuropa Universalis 5 - 3 points

Asoggywotsit – Europa Universalis 3 My first experience with real strategy. For my money, it also had the best mod of all time in Magna Mundi.

46. System Shock series

Image credit:EA / Irrational Games / Looking Glass Studios

Genre: Immersive sim Released:

• System Shock - 1994
• System Shock 2 - 1999

System Shock - 5 pointsSystem Shock 2 - 48 points

P53 – System Shock (1994) The first immersive sim which married such complex mechanics – FPS, RPG, exploration, survival horror. And still somehow managed to be a great game. Also, it has one of the best PC game remakes ever – which manages to capture the spirit and mechanics of the three-decade-old original, bringing it to the modern audience with cleverly upgraded technicalities (textures!).

Elsparko – System Shock 2 How immersive can a game be? How iconic can an antagonist be? The audio design works as excellently today as it did on release.

MarcusG – System Shock 2 Hush, she’s watching us…

Pauleyc – System Shock 2 The mommy of modern immersive sims.

Rince Wind – System Shock 2 (Re-)Loading a level took 20 to 30 minutes on my PC back when I first played it. Worth every second. Brilliant world building and I still have to see better enemies than those poor cyborg midwives that still have some humanity in them and resent what they are forced to do, yet can’t resist. Once you get to the UNN Rickenbacker you see that the end was rushed, but brilliant nevertheless. Shodan is one of the best villains, and TriOptimum is my favourite fictional evil company.

Robbeasy – System Shock 2 Shodan. Just Shodan. Greatest gaming villain ever.

Old_Man_Gaming – System Shock 2 On a spaceship overcome by a psychopathic AI and a parasite that has fatally reanimated the crew, you fight for your life. The claustrophobic ship provides that rare sense of being marooned, on a starship both life endangering and life preserving; exceptional and genuinely frightening soundscape; choices to make around character progression that materially affect the options at your disposal; a well told story in a persistent environment, as you bring the ship back online you have free reign across the ship, deepening your sense of place, a real vessel rather than some random levels; freaky monkeys. Exceptional. Join Us.

45. Kentucky Route Zero

Image credit:Annapurna Interactive / Cardboard Computer

Person of Interest Playing it feels like delicately unwrapping a beautiful secret. But the inter-episode experiments and ARGs are what make this game uniquely special.

Joel B An ‘art game’ about (among other things) the tragedy of being caught in the gears of society’s systems, presented more or less as a point-and-click adventure… It doesn’t seem like something that would really grab me, but boy it did. Beautiful, thought-provoking, wryly funny, constantly re-inventing itself. I’m amazed and thankful that this weird multi-year project made it to the finish line and (to mix metaphors) knocked it out of the park.

B0dyp0litic Never has a video game haunted me and brought me to tears quite like Kentucky Route Zero.

Zach #1630 It’s been a while and I need to revisit, but the vibes have stayed with me even now.

RAC41 Pretentious? Maybe. But I enjoy the gothic Midwest tales too much to care. This is what it‘s all about. Let me hear about the theme of debts one more time as I‘m listening to the banjo soundtrack.

Jokes aside, this game has some of the most beautiful moments in gaming ever and as someone who has discovered it after it was already over, I sure wish Cardboard Computer went back to making new games.

Kniggit Such a beautiful, melancholic experience you will never forget.

Mverdo The game that ‘made me’ (a series I’d love to see revisited btw). I replay it every year near the start of a new year, to remind me of all the lessons I learned. I know the game by heart, yet it gets better every year while I’m ageing. Masterpiece.

Plato_Karamazov I bought it when Act III came out and it’s lived in my head more than it’s lived on my screen. I am so obsessed with this game that I based a project in my Master’s program on it. Kentucky Route Zero is utterly brilliant.

44. Against the Storm

Image credit:Hooded Horse / Eremite Games

Tetojiji They somehow merged the magic of the Anno franchise (or your citybuilder of choice) into a roguelike and created the best game of either genre.

Chodhound Perfectly formed Rogue-like city builder – each time you play is different and once you find the correct difficulty level each time is a knifeedge battle against the clock – loads of variation – each round takes about an hour or so which is just perfect

Dglenny Despite the constant rain and imminent failure of your entire settlement, Against the Storm manages to remain cozy and warm. The roguelike (gnnngh) structure provides just the right amount of achievement and struggle each time you go through it.

Neminem88 It’s an endless puzzle box.

43. Divinity: Original Sin 2

Image credit:Larian Studios

Elazul Like Baldur’s Gate 3 except with 2000% more reading. It’s got good gameplay, good combat, and a good story. It’s just not as refined as Baldur’s Gate 3, nor as cinematic.

Latedave I mull over hard whether I like this or Baldur’s Gate 3 better but the truth is both are excellent games. Baldur’s Gate 3 may take it narrowly on plot and not setting everything on fire, but I prefer the characters and combat of Divinity Original Sin 2.

Gaspacho Larian knows how to write a good and compelling story (and companions).

Jenikullah Renaissance of the CRPG with main focus on actual role-play instead of mindless min-maxing (which you can do in Divinity: Original Sin 2 endlessly anyway). Also its courage to let you break the game is phenomenal.

42. Hitman series

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / IO Interactive

Genre: Stealth sandbox Released:

• Hitman 2: Silent Assassin - 2002
• Hitman - 2016
• Hitman: World of Assassination - 2023

Hitman 2: Silent Assassin - 7 pointsHitman - 9 pointsHitman: World of Assassination - 42

Jenikullah – Hitman 2: Silent Assassin It was here where my obsession with stealth began. Not that I’ve played so many stealth games – instead I stealth in every game since then (you think you can’t stealth in the original DOOM? Oh you silly). Furthermore the story is surprisingly catching and the level design is top notch even by today’s standards.

Modalrealist – Hitman (2016) Forget the pretenders to the “imm sim” crown. The tripartite new Hitman invented its own genre: the real space puzzlebox. Intricate, believable and richly interlocking spaces where a day, an afternoon or an hour plays out around you, ripe for the manipulating. It’s an approach to game design that’s been shockingly poorly and rarely emulated since.

Fallen empire – Hitman: World of Assassination I think the combined trilogy is the most ambitious and well-constructed stealth game of all time, offering so many options and paths to take.

Pauleyc – Hitman: World of Assassination I waited until 2024 to try the Hitman games. Why? No idea but it hooked me from the very beginning. The gameplay just clicks, the design and mechanics create a great flow that promotes careful planning and rapid execution (pun intended).

Icarussc – Hitman: World of Assassination I never murder people in games, except when it’s funny. This makes it hilarious (and the fascinating living system is awesome to boot).

Hightouch – Hitman: World of Assassination A stealth sandbox that only got better over time with the inclusion of the latest Hitman games all in one package.

Germansuplex – Hitman: World of Assassination People still think this is a stealth-action game, when in fact it’s the biggest puzzle sandbox ever created. It’s so full of secrets and surprises that the full campaign is basically a 40-hour tutorial. It’s already the greatest James Bond game ever made, there’s no need for Last Light. And it’s funny as hell.

41. Persona series

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun /

Genre: Teenage psyche RPG Released:

• Persona 4 Golden - 2020
• Persona 5 Royal - 2022
• Persona 3 Reload - 2024

Persona 4 Golden - 11 pointsPersona 5 Royal - 9 pointsPersona 3 Reload - 38 points

Jellied Eel – Persona 4: Golden Pure JRPG magic. Its sequel has incomparable flair and its predecessor has a more interesting darkness but this cast, this town, this adventure – I didn’t want it to end.

Elsparko – Persona 4: Golden I like all Persona games I ever played, but part four has just the right amount of groundedness. I prefer the rural backdrop of Inaba as it sets very real limits to what the school kids can get away with. The whole murder mystery also makes the stakes high enough without getting ridiculous.

Isaac Kelley – Persona 5: Royal Metaphor Refantasio is actually a better game to play, but the Persona games sense of style and unique setting make them the superior choice.

Wall Jump Games – Persona 5: Royal Style incarnate. I’m a serial game abandoner, but something about the Persona series makes me beat a 100-hour game as easily as a 20-hour one. Persona 3, 4 and 5 all have good arguments for being the best in the series, but at the end of the day, the style and bombast take it just a cut above. Every character, every dungeon, every song, it all makes for pretty much the most memorable RPG ever made.

40. Stellaris

Image credit:Paradox Interactive

Zaz[nayka] Obviously, this game changes every fortnight, but the thing I like about it remains unchanged: the atmosphere. The art, the stories, the music. The music! I don’t play it anymore because apparently I need to have a life outside of the computer? But we don’t travel the stars??

AdmiralFoxx It’s great for a few afternoons of imaginative what-ifs, even if the end game eventually grinds to a halt as you get stuck in a grind of rebuild-war-rebuild with the AI.

Latedave Am I any good at Stellaris? No. Do I have the willpower to get good? Also, no. That said, is it unlike anything else around? Absolutely. A truly unique experience with so many great mods.

Vacuity Taking my immortal space elves from local neighbourhood punching-bags through to the pre-eminent power in the galaxy, and consistently redressing all the grudges accrued from a couple of hundred years of bloody interplanetary history will never fail to satisfy, and sometimes I play other ways, too. There’s a lot of other ways.

TomorrowYesterday It is in rough shape now, but I hope for the best.

Fallen Empire Thanks to continuous support for nearly ten years, including both DLC and patches, it is the most extensive space strategy game released to date. It offers infinite replayability, thanks in part to the wide variety of available mods.

39. Grim Fandango

Image credit:LucasArts

I_have_no_nose_but_I_must_sneeze That year-long transition between Act 1 and Act 2 was jaw-dropping at the time. Rubacava is vividly brought to life. The Blue Casket would have definitely been one of my haunts where I’d inflict my pretension on stage as skeletal joints snap the night away.

SeekerX Like the best point and click adventures of yesteryear, Grim Fandango manages to place us in its protagonist’s head as we solve the game’s elaborate puzzles. Manny Calavera, we realize, is no stranger to manipulating his friends and enemies alike. His heart may be gold and his motives pure (aside from a wee competitive streak), but his methods are filled with cheats, trickery, and shenanigans. Inside Manny’s head, it turns out, is a great place to visit – it gives us a wonderful view of an epic journey blending the mundane and the mythological, film noir vibes and beat poet humor.

FreonTrotsky It’s got film noir with a slick jazz score. It’s got Aztec mythology. It’s got sugar skulls and hotrod-driving speed demons. It’s got romance and femme fatales. It’s got a hapless, highly quotable hero. It’s got jokes, absurdist humor, and a moving, heartfelt ending. It’s a LucasArts adventure game by Tim Schafer. That’s all you need to know.

Aoanla LucasArts produced a great many excellent adventure games, but it’s probably Grim Fandango which reached the heights (you could argue for Full Throttle too). The Land of the Dead is beautifully strange pseudo-1950s, Manny is a flawed protagonist perfectly fitted to the Noir stylings, and the plot progresses in ways both genre-predictable and entirely not.

Shazbut OK sure, the last half is more forgettable and some of the puzzles are hideous but it’s got some of the best writing, story, world, characters, music and voice acting of any game. In a sea of games that lazily imitate film noir, it stands out by miles as a true original.

Rikard Peterson I knew that one LucasArts adventure game had to be on my list and once I’d stated that, I realised that my pick would have to be Grim. I like the earlier ones too, but this one feels meatier (sorry, Manny).

Kniggit Still the only perfect game. Amazing characters and story. Incredibly funny. Good puzzles, fantastic music and voice acting.

38. Grand Theft Auto series

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Take-Two Interactive / Rockstar

Genre: Open-world crime ’em up Released:

• Grand Theft Auto - 1997
• Grand Theft Auto 3 - 2001
• Grand Theft Auto: Vice City - 2002
• Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - 2004
• Grand Theft Auto 4 - 2008
• Grand Theft Auto 5 - 2015
• Grand Theft Auto Online - 2015

Grand Theft Auto - 5 pointsGrand Theft Auto 3 - 9 pointsGrand Theft Auto: Vice City - 10 pointsGrand Theft Auto: San Andreas - 10 pointsGrand Theft Auto 4 - 2 pointsGrand Theft Auto 5 - 17 pointsGrand Theft Auto Online - 9 points

HyperTextHero (#8466) – Grand Theft Auto I bought the original during the unhealthiest time in my life in a shop called Game in Bournemouth. I had never heard of it, and neither had anyone else. Eating full English breakfasts and washing down fast food with beers were the order of things at university, and being particularly sleepy in the studio the next day, my friends asked whether I had gone out the night before. I replied “No, but I played GTA until 5am!” A snapshot of our time in light, language, music and movement. Sharp criticism of the current biggest-stick-carrying group on our little planet.

H3rz0g_zw31 – Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas I was really torn between San Andreas and GTA 4, and I do believe that GTA 4 is a better game. But I must have spent countless hours just driving around San Andreas and it does mean something.

Zinzan – Grand Theft Auto 4 Icky, sensibilities aside and awful gender issues etc – it’s still open world FUN….

Talance – Grand Theft Auto 5 It took the formula that was created in GTA 3 and perfected it. The game still has its minor flaws but there’s a reason it’s still popular 13 years after initial release.

Obi Wan Jabroni – Grand Theft Auto 5 Fun.

Pr34cher – Grand Theft Auto: Online Playing with friends is hilarious, awesome variety of stuff to do, Story crazy good.

37. Knights of the Old Republic series

Image credit:EA / Bioware

Genre: Sci-fi RPG Released:

• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - 2003
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 - 2004

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - 51 pointsStar Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 - 12 points

TheComputerGamer – Knights of the Old Republic What if we could take the Bioware RPG greatness we saw in Baulder’s Gate and put it in the Star Wars universe? That day happened when we were introduced to the days long past in the Star Wars universe. By going 4,000 years into the past, Knights of the Old Republic was able to create something completely original in a universe somewhat familiar. Much like Pools of Radiance, this game too has its roots in classic pen and paper rules using the Star Wars system. However, the way it was implemented in the game, the rules felt modern and fresh compared to past isometric CRPGs. Keeping to typical Bioware of the time; the story, characters, dialog and interface were top notch. And of course… lightsabers in a CRPG, hell yeah!

Rnwar – Knights of the Old Republic I had fallen out of love with Star Wars after Episodes I & II, but somehow this caught my eye in a bargain bin. I never expected how much more lively and interesting the Galaxy could be without even a mention of the name “Skywalker.” If only the studios had learned this sooner.

Thanosi – Knights of the Old Republic What Half-Life was to setpieces this game was to character as your companions had their own opinions on the world and your actions in it and indeed your actions were shaped by how your favorite companions would or wouldn’t react. Building a team of ass-kicking problem solvers in a Star Wars setting that had nothing to do with the movies and was all the better because of it. Bioware at their best.

NCD – Knights of the Old Republic I didn’t at first know this game had romances. I bickered with Bastilla at every turn, and before I knew it we had fallen in love. I’d turned to the light side, and all of that made the big reveal even more dramatic.

Shay Linio – Knights of the Old Republic One of the first RPGs I played. It used the Star Wars universe in the best way – not trying to push mainstream characters or eras, but proposing an alternative history with real consequences to your choices, and nailing the goody goody or baddy baddy path

Darth Gangrel – Knights of the Old Republic I’m a Star Wars nerd and RPGs are one of my favorite genres, but that alone doesn’t explain why I picked this game as my second best of all time. It belongs to a group of games that offer lots of options to complete quests (Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, The Witcher, Deus Ex) as well as having a big story/dialogue/voice acting focus. It truly feels like an adventure to play it and has all the best things from Star Wars movies or books, but it’s longer and with very good gameplay as well.

Zeonchar – Knights of the Old Republic Unparalleled storytelling combined with a top-notch combat system in the Star Wars universe makes this the best game of all time.

Obojo – Knights of the Old Republic 2 My beloved nostalgia pick. I adore this game precisely for its deconstruction of Star Wars. The characters have complex relationships with the Force, Jedi are more layered than the Obvious Good Guys, you can finish the game just by blasting people instead of picking up a lightsaber.

Elsparko – Knights of the Old Republic 2 I stand my ground, Knights of the Old Republic 2 is the better one of them both. Flawed it may be. Unfinished even. Slow to start, alright. I’ve forgotten most of what happened in Knights of the Old Republic, but Kreia, Darth Nihilus and Visas Marr live rent free in my head.

36. Pentiment

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Microsoft / Obsidian Entertainment

Jenikullah Somewhere in a deep corner of my mind there was an intense need for a game where I could chat about Martin Luther and engage in some medieval theological disputes. Fortunately Obsidian Entertainment employs some similar-minded weirdos who took this niche and built around it a smart game with emotional (and highly replayable) story and astonishing visuals

FreonTrotsky With its gorgeous visual style, seemingly ripped from the pages of an illuminated manuscript, fantastic sound design, and deep attention to historical detail, Pentiment immerses you in late-medieval village life, its rhythms, rituals, and worldviews. Despite its flat medieval visuals, the village feels alive and It’s a pleasure to just poke around the environs, talk to the villagers, and make little choices. But the game’s true genius lies in its player-driven story, a murder mystery that unexpectedly turns into a sprawling epic where every choice you make, big and small, has deep, sometimes heartbreaking consequences. This is what every choice-driven narrative game should aspire to.

Cpt_freakout The mystery is that more games like this are not being made all the time. Beautiful illustrations that lead to a beautiful reflection about legacy, a microhistory that is also an artwork, the videogame as codex of strange truths we forget about how the world we know is also the world we imagine.

Eulrich Such a vivid recreation of medieval times!

Sergiocornaga This game features the most purposeful use of typefaces I’ve ever seen.

Caff Pentiment weaves a fantastic story across time. It’s beautiful and clearly made with a lot of love, and possibly the best Christmas game of all time.

Rincechicken The art style is beautiful, and the attention to detail in the game is second to none. It even has a full bibliography of ancient manuscripts in the credits. What’s not to love about a historical monk who-dunnit?

Asoggywotsit One of the few video games (and definitely the best) that feels like a personal endeavour. A look at the artist and what it means to make art. I love Josh Sawyer for making this.

35. Red Dead Redemption series

Image credit:Take-Two Interactive / Rockstar

Genre: Open-world cowboy ’em up Released:

• Red Dead Redemption 2 - 2019
• Red Dead Redemption - 2024

Red Dead Redemption 2 - 61 pointsRed Dead Redemption - 6 points

RAC41 – Red Dead Redemption 2 Just the rumination on both loneliness of the frontier as well as working as a team. I think Arthur Morgan‘s one of the best written action-adventure characters of that decade, if not of all time. Extremely well-done presentation-wise game. I listen to the soundtrack at times too.

Pr34cher – Red Dead Redemption 2 Story is best in class, graphics are amazing, I always feel it is time well spent.

DoomsdayDevice – Red Dead Redemption 2 The game is slow, but ask yourself; why do you want it to go fast?

Shay Linio – Red Dead Redemption 2 Red Dead Redemption 2 is the best open world to this day. A world where you’re always gunning (pun intended) for something and end up with your horse following a completely different road, following a stranger, an animal, a trail, just looking at the beauty of the bayou, anything other than just piling on one mission after another…

Soberbandana – Red Dead Redemption 2 The equivalent of the Great American Novel of videogames.

34. Prey (2017)

Image credit:Bethesda Softworks / Arkane Austin

SeekerX A sci-fi thriller that offers the player the tools to leave their mark on both the environments and on their character in some very clever ways, and a pleasing array of options for how to proceed at nearly every step of the way. Packed with compelling ideas on every level, this love letter to System Shock 2 may not have SHODAN, but it does have real heart, and manages to exceed its inspiration.

Shazbut It’s the best im-sim. Or Deus Ex is. Whatever. It doesn’t really matter. All that matters is that at least one of them is in the top ten or so, or ideally top five, because the im-sim is God’s own computer game genre and Jesus specifically confirms that fact in the Bible. Like in that bit where he talks to the Pharisees. He mentions it then.

Godwhacker The best immersive sim by a giant margin, matched with a wonderful setting and a fantastic plot. How many games are set in art-deco space stations? How many games allow you to use weaponised Polyfilla to get around traps? How many games allow you to explosively deconstruct office furniture into reusable matter-gel?

Joshua IX Prey is the pinnacle of immersive sims. It’s lightning in a bottle, crafted by developers who lived and breathed the genre. Talos I is lived in, the terrible events there are told as much through the station’s design as through the plot. There is something special about a game that can convey the story of a location and its population, often without quests, purely through what you can see or find. It is a masterpiece that will hopefully someday be matched in scale, quality and ambition.

Controlled_by_my_cats My favourite in the “waking up on deserted space station” genre and (in Mooncrash) inventive gameplay

33. Undertale

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Toby Fox

Pr34cher Enormous creativity in story, gameplay and music. So many surprise moments.

Marglark One person’s brilliant response to centuries of adventure game tropes. It’s easy to see why it redefined indie games.

Garfieldsam Undertale is a provocative, thematically deep deconstruction of my favorite childhood genre: JRPGs. A true work of art that interrogates what it means to have power over someone else, what violence in games actually represents, and whether redemption is always possible. “Despite everything, it’s still you” is a quote I’ll think about and reference for the rest of my life. It’s unforgettable.

Jellied Eel A lot of people I know sleep on this because of genre expectations. This is a unique, feel good experience that transcends genre to create something meaningful and unforgettable.

Lollololo I like sweet games. I like games that have the courage to just be a little corny, a little cringe, but also very sincere. Undertale is overhyped, its presence is inflated by the proliferation (and invasiveness) of fanfiction, as the adage goes. But under everything else the game is still there, still one of the few games that managed to make me laugh out loud and cry at the same time, but mostly made me smile throughout. It’s the only game I don’t want to replay, because I don’t want to expose the artifice. I don’t want to subject its characters to more suffering just because of a whim. If this isn’t genuinely groundbreaking, I don’t know what is.

Marsiiic When will Toby Fox reach Mark Twain status.

Shazbut After one hour – “I don’t really get it.”

After two hours – “I cannot bear the fact that this is eventually going to end.”

32. Quake series

Image credit:Id Software

Genre: First-person shooter Released:

• Quake - 1996
• Quake 2 - 1997

Quake - 58 pointsQuake 2 - 11 points

Quasiotter – Quake Quake is great because it’s like Doom, but you can jump.

Aoanla – Quake I know, it’s not Doom (or Doom 2 which most people actually remember instead, what with super shotguns and arch-viles). Quake, though, is the first true-3D FPS… a weird mashing of styles unintentionally creating an almost dreamlike progression through its now prototypical gameplay. This vote is also, though, for the huge community development that Quake has become thanks to its open sourcing – thousands of community maps, source-ports, total conversions, some inspiring other games (Team Fortress most famously). A worthy legacy.

Joel B – Quake A mess of a game, but the technology and communities were special. A you-had-to-be-there thing, but even though Quake is a bit memory-holed these days, it’s had an enormous impact on the course of gaming.

Quake was my #1 free-time activity for a few years, and it got me into playing in tournaments, visiting gaming websites, modding, running servers, and all that PC gaming stuff. God knows how much time I’ve sunk into it. And the resurgence of Quake modding/mapping over the past decade has kept it near the top of my playlist.

Person of Interest – Quake It’s not necessarily better or worse than id’s other shooters, but it was my gaming coming-of-age. It introduced me to modding, map-making, server browsers, ping times, 3D graphics cards, clans, and fan webpages.

Elsparko – Quake 2 Quake 2 was a melting pot for creative mods. If it weren’t for Action Quake 2 and the like we wouldn’t have Counter-Strike today.

31. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Image credit:Kepler Interactive / Sandfall Interactive

Plato_Karamazov Sandfall ate Square Enix’s lunch

Saliken I never liked story-driven games, always found them too restrictive, but Clair Obscur absolutely blew me away. Beautiful vistas, unique character designs, and engaging gameplay surround a truly incredible story. I keep thinking it’s like a movie, but no, it’s better than anything a movie could accomplish. Please, sequel, come quickly.

Jellied Eel It is everything I’ve wanted in a new RPG but far from content to pastiche classics. Every individual aspect of it (except the platforming challenges) is masterfully done and comes together into something unforgettable.

30. Factorio

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Wube Software

Dglenny It’s Number Go Up but only if you Put The Effort In. Space Age transformed this into a much more puzzle-y experience, but not an unpleasant one.

Mackemforever Just five more minutes… and now it’s the next morning. No other game can warp me through time like Factorio. Every session begins with a clear goal in mind, whether that’s setting up new production, rebuilding your rail network, puzzling over circuit logic, and then you get distracted. That distraction leads to the next, and the next, and so on. Before you know it your cup of tea is stone cold, it’s gone dark outside, and you’ve completely forgotten what you even set out to do in the first place.

I will never need drugs. I have Factorio.

Thegranfaloon I’ve put in 1500 hours and still haven’t seen all the madness this game has to offer. This is my forever game.

Freiksenet Pure digital crack, where gameplay of logistics and production optimization goes directly to your brain’s pleasure centers and make you play another 100 hours in yet another playthrough.

29. Age of Empires series

Image credit:Microsoft / Ensemble Studios

Genre: Real-time strategy game Released:

• Age of Empires 2 - 1999
• Age of Mythology - 2002
• Age of Empires 4 - 2021

Age of Empires 2 - 58 pointsAge of Mythology - 9 pointsAge of Empires 4 - 5 points

Cedric EcoleD – Age of Empires II Nostalgia speaking? Maybe. Age of Empires 2 was the game of my childhood. It was me sitting in front of a screen to duel one of my siblings and that alone makes it a game that is up there.

MrFribbles – Age of Empires II I’m not a huge RTS fan. I get the appeal, but my brain usually cannot process the real-time stress of unit management into enjoyment. Age of Empires II is a rare exception to that rule. It’s far from the only strategy game that sees the player guiding their group through some of humanity’s earlier stages, and some could argue that other games do it better, but in terms of pure fun, Age of Empires II is always going to come out on top for this genre in my book.

Jenikullah – Age of Empires II It’s the game I probably spent most time with. Age of Empires II hit the sweet spot with the balance of realism and accessibility as well as with level of historical accuracy. And the Definitive Edition made it a behemoth of the (rather narcoleptic) RTS world.

TheGreatOneSea – Age of Empires II Age of Empires 2 is one of the few games that can be enjoyed by almost everyone, and it has continued to be relevant both casually and professionally not only for over two decades, but it even cheated death with expansions made a decade after release.

Fallen Empire – Age of Empires II It is the fundamental milestone for modern RTS games and remains relevant more than 20 years later.

Chopoflamb – Age of Empires II Many memories playing Age of Empires II. My friends and I actually kept playing on the original CDs into the 2010s, playing multi-player LAN games, swapping around a single CD. (Tangentially, our other pick for LAN was Railroad Tycoon II.) Right around then, Age of Empires II: HD Edition came out, and we used that instead.

Eulrich – Age of Empires II It’s the best sport to watch there is! Such an immense depth on every level. I can just marvel at the design for hours on end.

Jovian09 – Age of Empires IV A great modernisation of the RTS genre. Age of Empires IV keeps the grand scale and high skill ceiling the series is famous for, but cuts down on the overly meta stuff like house walling and deer pushing in favour of an easy-to-understand system of checks and counters. There’s a huge amount of flair and attention to detail – Age of Empires IV never forgets to be a beautiful city builder as well as a tight strategy experience. Advancing by building a variety of landmarks and asymmetrical faction design means there’s loads of strategic variance.

28. Thief series

Image credit:Eidos Interactive / Ion Storm

Genre: First-person stealth game Released:

• Thief: The Dark Project - 1998
• Thief 2: The Metal Age - 2000

Thief: The Dark Project - 50 pointsThief 2: The Metal Age - 28 points

HyperTextHero (#8466) – Thief: The Dark Project Light, darkness, and sound were central to the gameplay, and the game’s nuanced audio design is still, almost 25 years later, one of the very best in the audio visual storytelling entertainment art form. I love audio in video games.

Robbeasy – Thief: The Dark Project The first was the best! King of the Stealth games, mad story, never bettered sound usage, all round gaming excellence

Controlled_by_my_cats – Thief 2 Stealth mechanics were never done better, and the game genuinely manages to throw you for a loop periodically

SeekerX – Thief 2 The triumph of the Thief games is in all the ways they make the player stop and really observe the world they’re sneaking through – listening past the utterly unique environmental hums for the sounds of approaching unwanted company, peering through every corner of the environment for hidden treasures and mechanisms. It makes the game’s world feel real and memorable like no other – a simulation really worth being immersed by.

Drygear – Thief 2 This and its predecessor are equally great; I put this one ahead because of the more ambitious level design and quality of life improvements (especially the more functional map) that make it easier to get into. These games are still unmatched in their use of sound technology and how it affects the gameplay. Other games have radars or the ability to mark enemies, but the sound engine here is so reliable you really don’t need anything else for spacial awareness. It makes it feel fresh even when the stealth mechanics of every other game feel tired and perfunctory.

Random Squiggle – Thief 2 Better story and more expansive levels than the first game, but with the same pure stealth. These games have made me try to ghost anything stealth related since.

27. Stardew Valley

Image credit:ConcernedApe

Rincechicken Laid back low stress adventuring. Perfect.

MrFribbles Any game that has a Mayo% run, which challenges players to craft and drink a jar of mayo as quickly as possible, deserves a spot on this list.

Jovian09 Stardew offers a holistic haven where you get in touch with the earth and your hard work tangibly improves the lives of those around you. There’s a LOT to do and a lot to discover beyond working your little farm, with many areas to explore and secrets to uncover that gradually add to the game’s complexity. While the days are short and the task list’s long, it’s never meant to be stressful – its simple pixel graphics and one-man-band soundtrack ooze charm, and you need only engage with as much of it as brings you joy.

Elazul Do I need to explain? It’s just pure comfort in a game. The developer is still plugging away giving us free updates too. Got to love the dedication to his fans.

Priyesh Bahuguna 2709 For someone whose childhood was filled with nintendo classics and a fuck-ton of racing and fps games, this game swept me off my feet when it released. Probably one of the first games I bought with my own money, it holds a special place in my heart.

Marsiiic Just culturally significant at this point.

Sockmoxy The hours I’ve spent in this game cultivating borderline toxic fictional relationships while I grow my parsnips and chop down trees can’t be healthy, but it feels so wholesome. Have never, will never complete a Joja run. Long live the Junimos.

B0dyp0litic Yearly cure for the winter blues, and the best mod community in video game history.

26. Subnautica

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Unknown Worlds Entertainment

TheGreatOneSea Combining a story with exploration and crafting, with almost no combat needed, proved to be an excellent combination that filled a niche nobody knew needed to be filled.

Phuzz I’m sure other people will have written much better explanations for why this game is good, but I’ll just point to the pain caused by all the current nonsense surrounding the sequel as to the depth of feeling this game has brought to people.

Germansuplex No other game gave me that much of a sense of discovery.

Vacuity The best argument for acquiring amnesia-inducing cranial trauma that I know of. I envy anyone about to start this game for the first time not knowing anything about it. Anyone got a spare sledgehammer lying around to help me out?

Bahumat No game ever captured the wonder and joy and beauty of the ocean, and no game ever delivered on the profound horror of the ocean, so well. No game has ever treated the ocean the way Subnautica does.

Rincechicken It’s a perfect blend of exploration, horror and adventure. I like how it gives you complete freedom to go wherever you like, but through radio messages also nudges you so you’re never completely lost for direction if you want to progress the story.

25. Dark Souls series

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Bandai Namco Entertainment / FromSoftware

Genre: Fantasy RPG Released:

• Dark Souls - 2012
• Dark Souls 2 - 2014
• Dark Souls 3 - 2016

Dark Souls - 70 pointsDark Souls 2 - 9 pointsDark Souls 3 - 7 points

Elsparko I always doubted the Souls games until I tried Dark Souls 1, and somehow I fell in love, even if I have yet to git gud.

Lollololo It’s been steadily moving down in my top ten, but there’s gotta be a spot for Dark Souls. Of course, one of the most influential games of the last 15 years, maybe more. “Soulslike” might be a word I dread hearing nowadays, but the first Dark Souls is probably the game I’ve most replayed over the years. Descending down to Ash Lake is still one of the greatest moments in any game I’ve ever played – and it’s just one of the moments that made me stop and just admire what the game is doing, admire what it accomplishes with few written words and even fewer spoken, with understatement that can only come from confidence.

Pralec Its tightly interconnected world, nail-biting combat, and incomparable vibes of sinister spookiness puts Dark Souls above anything else FromSoftware has put out on PC, for me.

Gaspacho The most impressive world/level design I have seen in a dungeon crawler.

Jellied Eel Something about this moody bastard hasn’t quite been recreated by subsequent efforts, and while I enjoy all of them, nothing made quite the impression as this first hellish experience.

24. Dishonored series

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Bethesda Softworks / Arkane Lyon

Genre: First-person immersive simulator Released:

• Dishonored - 2012
• Disohonored 2 - 2016

Dishonored - 41 pointsDishonored 2 - 55 points

Godwhacker – Dishonored The only thing wrong with Dishonored is that, while it’s clearly set in Fantasy London, the game uses the US spelling of ‘Dishonoured’.

Totkax – Dishonored The ultimate immersive sim that holds up very well.

Darth Gangrel – Dishonored 2 One of my favorite genres are immersive sims and Dishonored 2 is a great example of that, granting you a great amount of freedom, which always feels great. More options equals more fun. Admittedly, I only do ghost runs in these games, so it’s almost as tense (sometimes frustrating) as much as it is fun. You kill people and create a ruckus in most other games, so I sometimes like the chance to do things quietly and slowly. Dishonored 2 has more varied environments, missions and gadgets/powers than its predecessor, which already laid a great foundation. Simply being able to reach high places is more than most other games allow.

OmegaJak – Dishonored 2 Every time I play this I decide that this is the time I’ll do a blood drenched, high chaos run, and every time I end up killing absolutely nobody. I just want Dunwall to be a nice place to live.

Soberbandana – Dishonored 2 Arkane’s Magnum Opus. A Masterclass in level design and environmental storytelling.

Controlled_by_my_cats – Dishonored 2 I still play this and the others in the series as comfort gaming, and it’s never the same

23. Return of the Obra Dinn

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Lucas Pope

Saliken I mean Obra Dinn launched an entire genre of who/what/how style games and I’m eternally grateful.

Caff Makes you feel clever.

Obi Wan Jabroni Detect ’em up.

Germansuplex Looking forward to my replay a few years down the road, when I’ve forgotten everything about this game.

Rincechicken Beautifully rendered art style and a game that forced me to take notes again in pen and paper, just like the good old days. You’re never just having to guess, but equally there’s always a route to figuring things out. Very clever.

Neminem88 What a great way to turn a story into a puzzle. I wish there were more of this.

Thanosi Absolute masterpiece and I think the perfect example of what PC gaming offers, peak gaming art by a single dev. One of my fondest gaming memories and I fear playing it again for it to not live up to that memory.

22. Rimworld

Image credit:Ludeon Studios

Hightouch It’s a story simulator of the wildest survival tales you can imagine, without the cliff-like learning curve of Dwarf Fortress and has a huge modding community.

Caff It’s a fantastic story-teller.

Talance Proof that gameplay can win out over graphics. The addicting loop of recruiting colonists, planting crops, fighting off raids, and general survival is like no other game I’ve played. It’s only real fault is a lack of third dimension (perhaps in Rimworld 2?)

MrFribbles Though they’re few and far between, there’s been an uptick in games that try to sell the player on the notion that losing can be just as fun, if not more fun, than winning. Rimworld is one of those games, and it’s one that gets it right. There is something very satisfying about guiding your tiny, limbless humans to creating a prosperous, peaceful life for themselves, but there’s something equally thrilling when a particularly well-equipped group of bandits drops in from the sky and burns it all to the ground. It’s an unforgiving game, and we thank it for that.

Freiksenet I am always tempted to write Dwarf Fortress here, but Rimworld is objectively a nicer game to play. It’s not as deep, but it’s deep enough to give you enough stories. Also you can play as cannibals.

Zach #1630 I like to LARP as a community (cult).

Agent00Funk As you may have deduced by now, many of my choices in this list were between the listed game, and one that is closely related. In this case, Rimworld takes the edge over Dwarf Fortress, another game which deserves to be on a parallel universe version of this list. Both games are great examples of the “losing is fun” and few have managed to capture that ethos better. Rimworld takes the edge only because of its accessibility. If I had to choose between either to recommend to a friend, it would be Rimworld for the sake of learning how to play. However, each has many of the strong suits of the other and it is a difficult choice.

Dglenny Rimworld remains the only game that I legitimately think I could limit myself to playing for the rest of my life. I might even be able to play it without mods.

21. Warcraft series

Image credit:Blizzard Entertainment

Genre: Real-time strategy game / MMORPG Released:

• Warcraft 2 - 1995
• Warcraft 3 - 2002
• World of Warcraft - 2004

Warcraft 2 - 8 pointsWarcraft 3 - 5 pointsWorld of Warcraft - 86 points

Totkax – Warcraft 3 Great strategy game by itself but also we wouldn’t have World of Warcraft or MOBAs without it which I feel is kind of insane.

Rnwar – World of Warcraft I dropped World of Warcraft after the second expansion and I still haven’t put more hours into a game since then, and possibly more on the wiki.

Throwback – World of Warcraft Global phenomenon and endless time sink. There isn’t a need to add more words than have already been written about this game.

H3rz0g_zw31 – World of Warcraft It is a world I have loved for 18 years and counting. The game has its highs and (really big) lows, but the best thing I can say – when they recently added housing and I got my own home I literally teared up.

Person of Interest – World of Warcraft It’s the game I most regret playing, due to the unhealthy amount of time it consumed. But I have more gaming memories from Azeroth than from every other fictional world combined.

Dustball – World of Warcraft The memories of the times spent in a second world with some of my closest friends. It can never be replicated in adult life.

Totkax – World of Warcraft The game I played with my brother when I was eight and also when I was 28. One of those games that really feels more like a place than a game. It’s like visiting your old hometown except here the cinema hasn’t been turned into a casino and then demolished. We start at least one new character and do some leveling every year with my brother, each time a different expansion and it’s always a blast.

Chopoflamb – World of Warcraft It’s been over ten years since I last played this game, but I can still run through the keybindings for my abilities in my head.

Eulrich – World of Warcraft Nothing better than fighting alongside friends through Azeroth, gameplay is just unmatched, and nowadays the housing as well!

20. Doom series

Image credit:Id Software

Genre: First-person shooter Released:

• Doom - 1993
• Doom 2: Hell on Earth - 1994
• Doom 64 - 1997
• Doom - 2016
• Doom Eternal - 2020

Doom - 56 pointsDoom 2: Hell on Earth - 12 pointsDoom 64 - 8 pointsDoom - 25 pointsDoom Eternal - 2 points

TheComputerGamer – Doom (1993) Doom managed to take the idea of Wolfenstein and make it into a complete package. Adding immersion via survival horror alien sci-fi environment, special effects via music, graphics & sound. This was truly an interactive big production movie we had hoped for since the day the Atari 2600 was introduced. As if this wasn’t enough, they introduced first-person PvP multiplayer and continued to encourage the mod community to give the game longevity. No other game has shaped the gaming industry quite like Doom – a title that will likely never be matched.

Joel B – Doom (1993) Doom was the game that tipped me over into PC gaming and multiplayer gaming. Doom 2 and Doom (2016) are also great, but Doom has that glow from being the first.

Apart from its historical importance, it is a great game. I still go through phases of playing the original campaigns and then wading through the thousands of user maps. It has a fast-and-punchy fun shooter feel that has rarely been equalled, along with a streak of routefinding and exploration that “Doom clones” and later wannabes have usually failed to pick up on.

Drygear – Doom (1993) Truly groundbreaking level and gameplay design. Even in the simple elements there is an incredible amount of room for creative expression and authorial voice. If you play it enough you can actually pick out the elements that identify a map as being made by John Romero, Sandy Peterson, or Tom Hall. Doom 2 extends that even further and adds a lot more depth and variety, but the first one blazed the trail.

Marglark – Doom (1993) Scared me to no end when I was a kid, but I kept coming back to this virtual world, warts and all. And people are still coming back. It feels like there is a special sauce that makes it immersive and engaging and challenging, and lets you ignore its age. There’s so much sauce, this game might be the sauce itself.

Pat – Doom (1993) A technical and design masterpiece.

Controlled_by_my_cats – Doom (1993) Gateway drug to PC gaming.

Soberbandana – Doom 2 That this is game is still as thrilling to play now as it was when it first came out is a testament that good game design is timeless.

Isaac Kelley – Doom 2 The ultimate puzzle game, where the solution to every puzzle is to shoot monsters with guns.

Quasiotter – Doom 64 This game is better than the original Dooms because there is coloured gradient lighting.

Gaspacho – Doom (2016) The best shooter I have played since a long time. I really like that the game expects us to stay always active in shooting phase, hiding behind cover is not the right strategy in this game. Good level design with rewarding exploration.

MarcusG – Doom (2016) The DOOM formula in its simple perfection: A fast and brutal power fantasy with just enough plot to keep it interesting without getting too silly (looking at you, DOOM Eternal).

Germansuplex – Doom (2016) The sequels went too far with adding hats on top of a space marine helmet, but this is the pure, uncut goods. Rip & Tear to the best score any game ever had.

Hiddencamel – Doom (2016) The soundtrack slaps, the gameplay is like a machine for inducing the flow state, it perfectly encapsulates what a fast-paced FPS should be. The sequels were bloated, self-indulgent affairs, but 2016 has no fat on it, just a lean, mean, demon-killing machine of a game.

Mverdo – Doom Eternal The definitive cathartic FPS. The combat system gives depth and potential for skill expression, making it basically a first-person spectacle fighter.

19. Crusader Kings series

Image credit:Paradox Interactive

Genre: Grand strategy game Released:

• Crusader Kings - 2004
• Crusader Kings 2 - 2012
• Crusader Kings 3 - 2020

Crusader Kings - 1 pointCrusader Kings 2 - 58 pointsCrusader Kings 3 - 48 points

Icarussc – Crusader Kings As with Civ, Crusader Kings helped me to understand the real world more. You can’t really get your head around medieval Europe unless you’ve tried desperately to figure out how to make sure that your idiot murderous eldest son doesn’t inherit the throne, and your genius daughter gets it instead.

Asoggywotsit – Crusader Kings 2 Medieval depravity simulator. Need I say more?

Hiddencamel – Crusader Kings 2 Few games have the capacity for genuinely interesting emergent storytelling like Crusader Kings. I will never forget uniting a viking empire in Britain with a shieldmaiden empress who had one arm, one leg, and one eye, and never lost a duel, only for the empire to fall apart three generations later when her satanist great grandson murdered his father to take the throne, but had zero skill besides intrigue and satanic powers, resulting in a collapse that made the fall of Rome look dull.

Shay Linio – Crusader Kings 2 Never was I faced with a game that’s just not always going forward but with every decision, inheritance gets you backwards and you have to do it all over again. It’s the perfect embodiment of a game where losing is just a part of it’s fun, learning, wanting to do better.

Hrink – Crusader Kings 2 I don’t know why but I bounced off Crusader Kings III after like five hours. I think it needed that little touch of jank.

Juan_h – Crusader Kings 2 There’s something about playing as a specific person rather than the disembodied spirit of a nation that really captures the imagination. Crusader Kings II has stakes that you don’t normally find in strategy games, such as questions like “How do I make sure that my preferred heir succeeds me?” come up just as if not more often than questions like “How do I win this war I’m in?”. It’s also possibly the only game I’ve ever played where the game was more fun the less I understood it.

OmegaJak – Crusader Kings 3 I sacrificed the Pope to Odin. 11/10.

MiniMatt – Crusader Kings 3 Fun for all the family. By which I mean fratricide and making inappropriate advances toward your cousin.

Freiksenet – Crusader Kings 3 It’s hard to select one Paradox game, but from the point of view of quality Crusader Kings 3 is currently the best one. Nobody does grand strategy games except Paradox and all the games are worth looking into, but Crusader Kings 3 is probably the best story generator out of those.

Agent00Funk – Crusader Kings 3 It almost pains me to list Crusader Kings 3 instead of 2. I have spent more hours with Crusader Kings 2 than any other game, but I am unlikely to return to it or recommend it to others because it has grown to be so big and esoteric that it is challenging to consider someone starting it. Crusader Kings 3 does earn its title though. While it still sometimes feels incomplete when compared to its older brother, what is there is an absolutely amazing game that will live eternally on my hard-drive until, invariably, there is a Crusader Kings 4.

Elazul – Crusader Kings 3 I started as a lowly Viking, became a King lording over all the North, assembled a massive fleet and raided Rome itself, kidnapped the Pope then sacrificed him at the Blot to the Gods thus angering the entire Christian world making me the target of the Crusades. Oh, and I was cheating on my wife with my biological sister and my inbred daughter. Good times!

18. Cyberpunk 2077

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / CD Project RED

RAC41 – Cyberpunk 2077 This game was… an adventure. I went from hating the game completely to hating the ending to loving the entire thing and then being excited for its expansion. So much so I begged for another one that never came. This is a very good all-around RPG. Yes, it‘s not Baldur’s Gate 3 or another more ambitious RPG, but it‘s a very good game. And that‘s all it takes to get in my top ten. Besides, this is the only game that actually made me stop and think about the endings because I cared about the characters so much.

Hightouch – Cyberpunk 2077 One of the most impressive turnarounds from disastrous launch to PC gaming classic. The version we have today is a showcase of worldbuilding and open world systems.

Pr34cher – Cyberpunk 2077 Technically great, storywise great, immersion excellent.

Shazbut – Cyberpunk 2077 It was cool to think this is overrated or even bad. That view is not going to stand the test of time unless we get flooded with games of this quality, which isn’t going to happen. It’s Deus Ex meets GTA and is an absolutely stunning achievement on basically all levels.

H3rz0g_zw31 – Cyberpunk 2077 I still can’t quite believe that this game exists and is as good as it is.

Eulrich – Cyberpunk 2077 Just the most immersive game there is currently for me.

AdmiralFoxx – Cyberpunk 2077 Unfortunate abbreviation scheme aside, this game really broke open a new genre for me and made for an amazing time. That’s not to say there aren’t flaws in the gameplay or design, but there is still so much there that other RPGs just can’t seem to offer. Plus, they continue to buff out the scratches to such an extent that I feel like I’ve gotten twice the value of my initial purchase.

Modalrealist – Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty A cut above the base game in every way, Phantom Liberty is an edge-of-your-seat spy thriller that delivers a glimpse of what the future of gaming could be if the corpo overlords don’t kill us and them with their lootbox cross-platform forever “games”.

DoomsdayDevice – Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty The best realization of our near future dystopia (if you’re feeling optimistic). Kill, sneak, die or some combination of all the above with an excellent 1st person presentation.

17. Total War series

Image credit:Sega / Creative Assembly

Genre: Grand strategy game Released:

• Shogun: Total War - 2000
• Rome: Total War - 2004
• Medieval 2: Total War - 2006
• Empire: Total War - 2009
• Total War: Shogun 2 - 2011
• Total War: Rome 2 - 2013
• Total War: Warhammer - 2016
• Total War: Warhammer 2 - 2017
• Total War: Warhammer 3 - 2022

Shogun: Total War - 1 pointRome: Total War - 26 pointsMedieval 2: Total War - 1 pointEmpire: Total War - 24 pointsTotal War: Shogun 2 - 7 pointsTotal War: Rome 2 - 2 pointsTotal War: Warhammer - 6 pointsTotal War: Warhammer 2 - 7 pointsTotal War: Warhammer 3 - 44 points

Jovian09 – Rome: Total War This is still the high point of the series for me, when Creative Assembly were at the height of their powers and their games were thrumming with great ideas. The classical world is a fantastic setting for political shenanigans and big battles, brought together with gorgeous visuals and excellent punchy sound design. Everything in the game had flavour: I would kill for a Total War game where your characters are given as much personality as Rome’s generals. Who could forget traits like “wildly extravagant” or “unhinged loon”?

Chopoflamb – Rome: Total War My first Total War game and the first of many “map games”, managed to get a lot of my friends into this one and swap stories about our campaigns.

Vacuity – Rome: Total War This is the game in the series I spent the most time on, and the one I have loved the most. I still remember the opening moves I worked out for the first few turns as the Seleucids. I remember watching in shock and awe as elephants burst through the ranks of my legionaries. I remember the sheer hilarity of throwing lime-soaked skulls at my opponents. I remember the joy of running scythed chariots over mobs of infantry. Latter series entries may have more built-in spectacle, but the real magnificence was in these experiences.

Asoggywotsit – Medieval 2: Total War First game I ever owned on PC. Played on the lowest graphical settings on my parent’s crappy Dell. Simpler times. Conquering Europe never felt so good.

Agent00Funk – Empire: Total War The most ambitious Total War game, one full of oddities, defects, and frustrations (hello sieges!), but one made wonderfully whole by the sheer attempt of its existence. While the Total War series has many terrific entries (and some less-than terrific), this one stands out for its attempt at doing something which, to this day, has yet to be truly accomplished.

Fallen Empire – Total War: Warhammer 3 This is the most ambitious Total War game ever. Three games are united to form the most varied and largest campaign in the series, featuring completely distinct races that are all interesting to play.

OmegaJak – Total War: Warhammer 3 If you’re going to play a fantasy grand strategy game it might as well be the ridiculously over the top maximalism of Total War: Warhammer 3. You could play around with armies of knights or guys with guns, or you could send your hordes of nuclear-armed rat men to fight necromancers and their host of zombies.

Germansuplex – Total War: Warhammer 3 The Immortal Empires Campaign Sandbox is nearing its 100th Legendary Lord, which means thousands upon thousands of hours of fantasy strategy goodness, a smorgasbord most developers would not dare to even try. Or you could just play the Karl Franz campaign again, watching with joy as your artillery shreds Orcs or as your cavalry smashes into Skaven. Sometimes, more is more.

Latedave – Total War: Warhammer 3 Yes, the DLC is a little mixed, but for sheer scope and ambition of Immortal Empires is an astounding achievement. I cannot wait until End Times next year. Also Nic Rueben’s Skaven and Bretonnia campaigns will always be some of my favourites. Between this and one and two I’m up to 4000 in hours which is quite the achievement, there is nothing else quite like it.

16. Elden Ring

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Bandai Namco Entertainment / FromSoftware

Elazul Base game, not the expansion. I did not finish the expansion as I burned out on it. Still it is a fantastic game that deserves its spot.

Zach #1630 Embarrassingly, the first Souls game that really captured me (and let me see that Souls games are not that scary difficult after all, for the most part).

Shay Linio Elden Ring brought the Soulslike games to a broader crowd which I’m part of. There were ways for less than hardcore players to play it and its universe is really wonderful. The art, the style and the fluidity were perfect.

Saliken When it finally hit me that every place I could see in Elden Ring I could then go to, and when I get there I’ll find some loot or face some monster, I was amazed. FromSoft made a beautiful world that feels long inhabited and gives you the challenge to master it, and master it I did. The final form of the Dark Souls formula, perfected.

Godwhacker I think of Elden Ring as the mirror image of any Elder Scrolls game. Skyrim never challenges you, or asks you to think; everything gets handed to you on a plate after you’ve hit enough spiders.

Elden Ring wants you to know that the only thing it’s going to hand you on a plate is your own head, and it will happily kill you at any time if you don’t get your shit together. It’s brutal and confusing, and yet that makes the victories mean something. Slowly edging your way up from peasant to God is one of the best experiences in gaming.

CinnamonK Dying over and over and over again has never been so rewarding.

SeekerX Marika damn me, there’s a whole lot of game here. A Dark Souls level of polish and worldbuilding, writ large over hundreds of hours of world to explore, packed with strange new things to find and get killed by. If I still haven’t circled back for Shadow of the Erdtree, it’s because the base game served up such a feast that I’m only now beginning to feel the pangs of hunger for more .

Sente Graphs FromSoftware nearly perfected their formula in gaming’s best open world to date. Fun combat, countless builds for replay-ability, and true wonder and mystery in uncovering the secrets of the Lands Between.

Dustball For me, the culmination of everything Fromsoft has worked on. Had concerns about the open world, but they were erased. Doesn’t have the same level of late game dip as Dark Souls, and my favorite lore of the series.

15. Hades series

Image credit:Supergiant Games

Genre: Action roguelite Released:

• Hades - 2018
• Hades 2 - 2024

Hades - 92 pointsHades 2 - 45 points

Gaspacho – Hades Really fun second-to-second gameplay. Interesting builds depending of the chosen weapon. Being able to customize the difficulties to match my skill.

J0st – Hades Addictive gameplay, great mythology inspired narration, and an amazing way to justify every game mechanic by a story element.

Marsiiic – Hades Made me cry.

Sockmoxy – Hades I don’t play games that require me to have reflexes, but I played this one and then I couldn’t stop. It inspired me to git gud. I didn’t git gud but I got better. Soundtrack is a banger. Gods are hot. Cerberus is the best boy.

Clafata25 – Hades One. More. Round. Then two more because I think I have a winning strategy (I don’t, I never do).

Zaz[nayka] – Hades Despite buying a Switch for Animal Crossing, Hades ended up my definitive handheld game. I know, I know! But I then played Hades II on PC, so that’s okay, right?? I’m sorry, RPS! But Hades is so good and can be played on PC and everyone knows it’s good, but I just have to repeat it. It’s so good. Good.

Rnwar – Hades There is no escape.

Obojo – Hades 2 Supergiant did not falter with their first sequel. I found nearly every aspect of Hades 2 improved over the original. The level of polish in this title is off the charts!

Jellied Eel – Hades 2 Surpasses the original in every way, except possibly the plot, but the charm, style, and gameplay are so superlative I don’t really want to go back to the original.

14. Slay The Spire

Image credit:Mega Crit

Garfieldsam Back when deckbuilders took the tabletop gaming world by storm, I fell in love. I’d play solo games against myself, desperately wanting a similar single-player PC experience. Slay the Spire answered that call perfectly. It paved the path for what’s now one of the most successful genres in gaming history because despite being first, they got the details right upfront – tight design, infinite replayability, and that perfect risk-reward loop.

Cornelis I like to think of roguelikes as existing on an axis: on the one end, you have games where the moment-to-moment skill is the most important aspect and you could Low% a run. On the opposite end, there are those where the build is king and every move is simply execution of the big plan. Slay the Spire sits right in that middle sweet spot. You need to create a deck with enough synergies to break the game at least a little bit, but choosing which cards to play every turn also presents you with painful dilemmas constantly.

Isaac Kelley I’ve played this game more than any other video game I’ve ever played. After more than 500 hours, beating the game on the highest difficulty level with each character and unlocking every achievement, I still regularly find myself making fun new builds that play unlike any prior build.

Zach #1630 There is not a better deckbuilder out there. There’s not a better roguelite out there.

Random Squiggle This has to go somewhere on this list just because of the number of hours it has consumed. Easy to play, hard to master and I still regularly play the daily run.

Throwback Infinite variety and an insane skill ceiling in half an hour. Just one more run!

2bad Endless hours of just one more run, great rogue-like, another influencer of a new sub genre.

Pralec While I’m always leery of recommending Skinner Boxes, as it’s hard to separate the fun from the addiction, Slay the Spire manages to be a wonderful set of ever-evolving puzzles. It’s the perfect form of the deckbuilder.

Chodhound The original deckbuilder and still one of the best – wonderful balance and atmosphere – beautiful mechanics – so many hours spent with this one.

Obojo Slay The Spire spawned a reinvigoration of the deckbuilding genre and still holds its own against all those who came after. The balance is immaculate (well, three out of four characters isn’t too bad!), the style is accessible yet notable (the rug is not for sale!), and its combinations of mechanics burrow into your brain endlessly (Vault right over Time-Eater trying to end the turn). We turn our high hopes to the sequel, but in the meantime, the original stands strongly.

13. Deus Ex series

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Eidos Interactive / Ion Storm

Genre: Immersive sim Released:

• Deus Ex - 2000
• Deus Ex: Human Revolution - 2011

Deus Ex - 129 pointsDeus Ex: Human Revolution - 25 points

Fallen Empire – Deus Ex It’s still the king of immersive sims; despite its flaws, I think it is still relevant to the genre and possesses some of the best level design in gaming.

Cornelis – Deus Ex There was a window of time in the late nineties and early two-thousands when developers could make ambitious jank, and we are lucky that someone in that period made Deus Ex, a game where everything from the story to the health bar is ambitious and a little bit clumsy. What’s most surprising to me now is that it combines many gameplay styles without ever being modal. The first ‘quest giver’ can easily be drawn into combat. The first ‘vendor’ is just an allied soldier. Some of the best moments occur when you realise your ‘shoot’ verb still works. Sorry, Maggie.

OmegaJak – Deus Ex Deus Ex was the first to genuinely give you genuine freedom of choice in completing your objectives, and very few games since have managed to make you feel like your decisions really matter.

Soberbandana – Deus Ex A game still unrivaled in creating a world where it feels like anything is possible. It remains the pinnacle of immersive sims – one that is unlikely to be surpassed given the slow and unfortunate decline of the genre.

Darth Gangrel – Deus Ex Deus Ex was the first game where I was amazed by the multitude of options at hand, unlike most other games I’ve played (what a shame). I even appreciated that there were options I would never use. It’s so fundamental that I think of games with multiple options, a heavy story focus and great voice acting as Deus Ex-likes. It’s one of the best immersive sims I’ve ever played, where you can get past obstacles simply by stacking boxes atop each other. Truly, its toolbox is augmented.

Pauleyc – Deus Ex The daddy of modern immersive sims.

Hiddencamel – Deus Ex Absolutely seminal game that totally changed what I thought a first-person shooting game could be. Great story, great systems, a game that consistently surprised and delighted me.

Rao Dao Zao – Deus Ex The thing that always pulls me back to the original Deus Ex is its story. More modern immersive sims may have pushed forward in terms of mechanical freedom and level design, but all that I’ve played lack such a gripping tale to tie it all together. Deus Ex’s multi-layered conspiracy is still thrilling to unfold, each mission raising as many questions as answers to keep stringing you along; the fact that you can unfold that conspiracy through force or stealth or just stacking crates is the icing on the cake.

Drygear – Deus Ex It’s really special in a way that transcends the sum of its parts. It really felt like I was shaping the narrative through its choices and playstyle, and at the same time it shaped me. I started the game at age 14 as someone happy to kill terrorists but as it went on the characters and situation persuaded me to listen to Paul, and eventually JC’s decision to switch sides felt like my own. That only scratches the surface of why this is great.

Modalrealist – Deus Ex Everyone talks about the gameplay of Deus Ex. But its actual content – the narrative and level design – are just as important. Despite its terrible accents, it’s one of the only games to weave so much genuine social theory and philosophy into the world of its story, and not as a lecture but simply as part of the fabric. Quotations from across history, wielded to articulate many differing viewpoints, and set against a neo-noir tale of the slide into a post-democratic era. It remains relevant and thought provoking in a way nothing else has followed suit in (including its own sequels).

Elsparko – Deus Ex The pre-9/11 conspiracy theory spirit condensed down into a compelling immersive sim. From the time when conspiracies were still cool and not daily news. You’ve read it, now you have to install it.

Icarussc – Deus Ex What could be better than a freeform cyberpunk conspiracy exploration?

Controlled_by_my_cats – Deus Ex: Human Revolution Loved creeping through the vents in a cyberpunk dystopia (despite some occasionally truly awful voice acting and its weird portrayal of Detroit).

12. Portal series

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Valve

Genre: First-person puzzle game Released:

• Portal - 2007
• Portal 2 - 2011

Portal - 83 pointsPortal 2 - 78 points

CinnamonK – Portal Come for the puzzles, stay for the story.

Joel B – Portal Almost the perfect short game. Very few games are truly funny, truly surprising, and full of ah-hah moments in the ways that Portal managed to do over and over. Obviously some of its best quotable bits have been run into the ground by its fans, but I won’t hold that against it.

Bahumat – Portal It revolutionized the idea of what a puzzle game could be, in a way so timeless you can pick it up 18 years later and it feels as playable today as it did then.

Random Squiggle – Portal Thinking with portals!

Rnwar – Portal The most exciting puzzle game I’ve ever played, the most hilarious game I’ve played, period.

Pat – Portal Now you’re thinking with portals.

TheComputerGamer – Portal With its humor, thought-out puzzles, and original gameplay, I had completely lost track of time and finished it in one sitting. That feeling when the sun comes up is a magical moment that hasn’t occurred since this game. The ending credits really put the icing on the cake for me. Just simply a rare gem in a world of gaming that becomes too much rehash with limited innovation.

Saliken – Portal 2 Portal and Portal 2 always make my list. No other game has quite captured the blend of humor and puzzling that Portal contains, though many have tried. Though I don’t revisit these games often, when I find someone who hasn’t yet played them I feel a strong urge to sit them down with a copy and watch them navigate the journey of Aperture Labs.

Dustball – Portal 2 Possibly the best two player co-op of all time. The realization that yes, we have to sling each other through portals at the same time to collide so that we both fall together on a platform will always be a core memory.

Throwback – Portal 2 I probably should have put this at #1 but I can’t be bothered going back to fix it

Justin – Portal 2 Not Half-Life – deal with it. Portal is the successor to the one good thing about Half-Life 2: the physics puzzles. The shooting was fine, but the gravity gun was what we were all excited about. Portal 2 is the fully realized feature film to Portal’s award-winning short. We have a fully-realized underground world of rot, sadness, betrayal, absurdity, and hope. Also, a genuinely shocking (don’t @ me, it was) heel turn and an exhilarating power fantasy through the power of portals and goop. Don’t care about Half-Life 3. Wake me up for Portal 3.

Naboo The Ocelot – Portal 2 A (slightly) under-rated co-op mode. A friend and I got very drunk as teenagers playing it and drinking every time you died. Not what the game is most well-known for but certainly my fondest memory.

Totkax – Portal 2 You know why Valve havenť made Portal 3? Because they damn well realize that even they can’t outportal Portal 2. It’s just perfect.

Thrownfootfalls – Portal 2 Games have done many great things in the last decade-and-a-bit, and yet I’m still not sure that “being better than the Portal games” is one of them.

11. Mass Effect series

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / EA / Bioware

Genre: Third-person sci-fi RPG Released:

• Mass Effect - 2007
• Mass Effect 2 - 2010
• Mass Effect 3 - 2012
• Mass Effect: Legendary Edition - 2021

Mass Effect - 53 pointsMass Effect 2 - 47 pointsMass Effect 3 - 1 pointMass Effect: Legendary Edition - 63 points

Hiddencamel – Mass Effect The world building in the original Mass Effect was just superlative, and I found the story utterly compelling. The first RPG that really worked for me in a sci-fi setting. For all its flaws, Mass Effect remains my fave of the trilogy.

Thrownfootfalls – Mass Effect I am not a smart-talking badass who explodes their problems with guns, and so I tend to always feel a bit of a distance when I play such a protagonist in a game. Somehow, Commander Shepard closed that gap. Good job! I enjoy the whole series (though I already knew people hated Mass Effect 3’s ending before I got to it, which helped to temper my expectations), but the first one remains my favourite for the way it invited me into its galaxy.

Elsparko – Mass Effect An action RPG with a hard(ish) sci-fi setting mimicking Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and / or Babylon 5? It just sounds too good to be true. That’s what EA has been thinking as well apparently.

Dustball – Mass Effect 2 This is really meant to be the trilogy as a whole, as we may never have another space opera like it, or at least it would take 15 years in today’s development cycles. Mass Effect 2 was the strongest of the three.

FreonTrotsky – Mass Effect 2 The best game in the Mass Effect trilogy, the third or fourth greatest popular space opera franchise of all time. Just a tight, taut murder epic with an unusually focused story and one of the best character ensembles (Mordin, Garrus, Grunt, Tali, etc.) in all of gaming. What it lacks in nerdy Trekker charm (Mass Effect) and grandiose explodiness (Mass Effect 3), it makes up for in pure genre thrills, charming character moments, and a white-knuckle suicide mission that lives up to the pitch.

RAC41 – Mass Effect 2 God, just how beautiful this game is in the lineup of Mass Effect games. The best cast, the best story, the most fun final mission, the (arguably) most satisfying gameplay. It‘s the missing piece. The connecting glue that holds Mass Effect and Mass Effect 3 together. And definitely my favorite in the franchise.

Rnwar – Mass Effect 2 The combat, the set pieces, the companions, the choices, and holy smokes the music.

Random Squiggle – Mass Effect Legendary Edition World building, characters, combat, choices. If I had to pick one it would be Mass Effect 2 (the way it all comes together in the final mission is masterful), but I don’t have to!

Elazul – Mass Effect Legendary Edition The pinnacle of sci-fi games. In short, the journey that is Mass Effect is incredible, a must-play. From humble origins in Mass Effect 1 to becoming a living legend in Mass Effect 3. Shepard, the protagonist of the game, fights to save the galaxy from the Reapers, a machine race bent on the harvest of all advanced life in the galaxy.

Justin – Mass Effect Legendary Edition This is three games. But – perhaps in the same way that David Lynch considers Twin Peaks: The Return to be an 18-hour film, so too can we consider this to be a three-part game. Yes, we should. And what a three-part game it is. Over this one game’s three parts, you will craft an original character, become space friends with probably the most fully-realized party in the medium, awkwardly romance said party, and feed your fish. These games truly felt like an event during their original release window. I still wonder how Garrus is doing from time to time.

Jovian09 – Mass Effect Legendary Edition Mass Effect manages to be BioWare high drama at the same time as explaining its sci-fi concepts brilliantly. It’s as if Stephen Hawking wrote Star Wars. It’s one of the best-realised fictional settings I’ve ever experienced, sucking me in straight away and immersing me like nothing else I’ve ever played, then spitting me out the emotional wreck of me at the end. There’s a chance I fell in love while playing it. ME2, in particular, has one of the best endings to a game I’ve ever experienced. It also happens to be a very good RPG/shooter hybrid.

I_have_no_nose_but_I_must_sneeze – Mass Effect Legendary Edition Is it the high-stakes sweeping narrative of intergalactic scope? Is it the endlessly fascinating worldbuilding drip-fed through the codex? Is it the exquisitely-crafted backstories of your companions? No. It’s all the decadent space orgies. Fox News was right.

Talance – Mass Effect Legendary Edition Arguably the best sci-fi RPG of all time, it attempted to make your choices matter over the span of three games and, until the very end, it succeeded. It has excellent character customization, well-written NPCs and a combat system that felt challenging. It’s my favorite game on the Citadel.

10. Hollow Knight series

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Team Cherry

Genre: Metroidvania Released:

• Hollow Knight - 2017
• Hollow Knight: Silksong - 2025

Hollow Knight - 89 pointsHollow Knight: Silksong - 76 points

Wall Jump Games – Hollow Knight I wouldn’t be surprised to see this drop down or off the list as it did on the official RPS 100, but I still think the original beats it for one key reason: Hallownest. This game is my favourite ever soulslike, including FromSoft’s entire catalogue, because this is the only soulslike that has really got me invested in its lore. I don’t know what it is about the story, but it just clicked where this genre tends not to. Oh and the game has one of the best scores in the medium.

priyesh bahuguna 2709 – Hollow Knight Hollow Knight pulled me through the darkest times of my life and if I had to relive those times I probably would still want Hollow Knight in every instance. This objectively is one the best games to ever touch this planet and I’m glad I was alive at the same time as this masterpiece.

Jellied Eel – Hollow Knight Of all the supposed soulslike games out there, nothing captures the spirit of Dark Souls like Hollow Knight – yet it makes everything its own in an original and wonderful way that redefined metroidvanias forever.

priyesh bahuguna 2709 – Hollow Knight: Silksong Silksong had very big shoes to fill as a sequel to in my opinion one of the best games of all time, and, God, did Team Cherry deliver. The amount of emotions I felt with this game, 100 words could never do it justice.

SeekerX – Hollow Knight: Silksong Hollow Knight was cute, creepy, epic. Silksong manages to be more of those, in ways both expected and surprising. Play is faster and far smoother, enemies deadlier and more reactive to the player, demanding the player master more of the array of tools and tricks up Hornet’s sleeves, or suffer harshly. Silksong delivers a sweeping tragedy and a look at both the pitfalls and triumphs of faith and perseverance – though it asks both of these virtues of the player as well, demanding trust that the cruelties Team Cherry inflicts upon them will be rewarded by the end of the pilgrimage.

9. Half-Life series

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Valve

Genre: First-person shooter Released:

• Half-Life - 1998
• Half-Life 2 - 2004
• Half-Life: Alyx - 2020

Half-Life - 45 pointsHalf-Life 2 - 121 pointsHalf-Life: Alyx - 1 point

Zinzan – Half-Life The only FPS I ever played to distraction and the only that had a story I engaged with. BRILLIANCE

Thanosi – Half-Life The first game I played where the game world felt alive as things happened to the player and the environment via scripted events. It made you feel like you were the protagonist of a movie. I still remember reeling off my previous night’s adventures to a friend on the school bus the next day forcing him to smile and nod as I gesticulated wildly with enthusiasm.

Joel B – Half-Life A revelation in first-person narrative. Great arsenal of weird weapons. Doom-like “routefinding” gameplay brought all the way into the 3D world. Modding hotbed. Super soundtrack. An FPS tour-de-force.

P53 – Half-Life It was an incredible breakthrough at the time it came out – a fairly realistic FPS (the AI of the soldiers, no dev has made such a leap again!) with a STORY. Also – a breakthrough in modding and online gaming – including Counter-Strike.

Drygear – Half-Life 2 It strikes a perfect balance of spectacular setpieces and improvisational gameplay. You always have to think about how to use your weapons and the map layout to make it through the combat encounters. Other games can make a set piece as exciting as storming the beach to Nova Prospekt by scripting every moment down to the steps you take, but here you are directing and controlling the action.

Fallen Empire – Half-Life 2 I still believe that it is the best FPS on the market today. Its design set a standard and continues to be unmatched by any competitor.

Hiddencamel – Half-Life 2 The first game I ever upgraded my PC to be able to play. It didn’t disappoint. A true tour de force of environmental storytelling and atmosphere, and the physics-based puzzles and combat just felt totally revolutionary to me at the time. A stone cold classic that I think still holds up.

Modalrealist – Half-Life 2 We still haven’t had an FPS that comes close to being as fun, as innovative and as epic as this, two and a bit decades later.

controlled_by_my_cats – Half-Life 2 First game to start realizing the potential of PC gaming

Hrink – Half-Life 2 I mean, it’s the one, right? It’s The FPS. The first time I played I couldn’t find the exit to the square and just wandered around there for like 20 minutes before looking up a guide. It was still fun.

Old_Man_Gaming – Half-Life 2 A tight and brilliant sequel, polished and honed to perfection. Not as hard as the first game but more interesting with a more fleshed out world, innovative physics, clean shooting mechanics and some fun puzzles. Some of the best, and actually useful, companions in games. A benchmark game.

Dustball – Half-Life 2 Pinnacle of FPS design, and the reason why my dad and I built my first PC on backup power during a hurricane.

h3rz0g_zw31 – Half-Life 2 Peak of PC gaming. Incredible vibes, revolutionary technology, insane moddability. Even if it’s not necessarily my favorite (lists are hard), I do believe this is the best PC game ever made.

8. Fallout series

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Bethesda Softworks / Obsidian Entertainment

Genre: Sci-fi RPG Released:

• Fallout - 1997
• Fallout 2 - 1998
• Fallout 3 - 2008
• Fallout: New Vegas - 2010
• Fallout 4 - 2015

Fallout - 19 pointsFallout 2 - 43 pointsFallout 3 - 6 pointsFallout: New Vegas - 143 pointsFallout 4 - 10 points

Pauleyc – Fallout 2 Not as mind-blowing as the original Fallout, Fallout 2 still has a warm place in my heart. Bigger, longer, better (some might disagree but they auto-fail their CHA check).

Old_Man_Gaming – Fallout 2 The sequel to the original, this is not a vote for Fallout 3 or 4. Hard, complex, infuriating and nuanced. Travel the wasteland in a 1950s-style roadster, befriend a minigun-toting mutant, a dog and an SMG-wielding wastelander. Engage in turn based fights that usually end in a chunk splattering mess. There is so much to do in this game, the stories all interrelate, your actions have palpable impacts and the choices are not straightforward. The best Fallout game – not the best looking or the least buggy, but still the best. The rest are all pretenders.

PolygonClassicist – Fallout 2 Fallout: New Vegas is the franchise’s pièce de résistance. The original Fallout holds a special place in my heart. Fallout: Tactics is flawed but memorable. I don’t like Fallout 3. And Fallout 4 I quite enjoy despite being mostly Fallout in name only. But Fallout 2 cemented my love of the franchise. It had more personality, style, and emotional depth than other RPGs of its time. For me, it introduced a love of mods which forever interlinked modding with what’s best about PC gaming. It told an adult story with a sometimes cringe but mostly hilarious mix of goofy and dark humor. War never changes and neither does my love of Fallout.

Hightouch – Fallout 2 It’s replayable enough to let you play out different paths effectively while still feeling like you have influence over the story and the world, without the jank and slowness of Fallout 1.

DoomsdayDevice – Fallout 3 The vault door opens, there lies a wasteland. Go forth.

Dglenny – Fallout 3 It’s not so much that I like Fallout 3, but I really like what Fallout 3 represents after loving Fallout and Fallout 2. My vision of the wasteland and Bethesda’s have… drifted apart over the years, but stepping out of the tunnel in Fallout 3 remains a core experience for me in widening what I thought was possible in a game.

Zach #1630 – Fallout: New Vegas Classic.

Zinzan – Fallout: New Vegas It’s so good (especially modded) that I can’t play it anymore as it takes over my life completely.

Marsiiic – Fallout: New Vegas Really makes ya think.

Soberbandana – Fallout: New Vegas Showed me how theme and strong writing are an important but often ignored part of open world games.

RAC41 – Fallout: New Vegas A poignant exploration of what exactly is wrong with American politics and wouldn‘t you know it, the writing and themes of New Vegas never aged. This is one of the best times I had with choices and consequences and definitely the best FPS RPG I‘ve come across. Beautiful mess is how I‘d call the gameplay though, but that‘s all Fallouts. As we know… War… War never changes.

Justin – Fallout: New Vegas This is probably the richest realization of the Bethesda-style, Western RPG. Go anywhere. Ignore the main story (at your peril). Stumble into dungeons that have enough narrative heft on their own to carry an entire game. Do you want to be a rocket launcher-wielding, armored knight? Do you want to swing a katana as you slice and dice radioactive bugs? Wrong, you want to talk to everyone and make Speech checks and let the rich, honey-sweet dialogue wash all over your face. That’s what you want! Don’t deny it! Go talk to that Elvis impersonator and thank me later!

TheGreatOneSea – Fallout: New Vegas Smart, funny, scary, open, acceptable combat, and the harbinger of internet arguments that would last forever for no apparent reason at all, and all fully voice acted to boot. None have done it better.

TomorrowYesterday – Fallout 4 My old laptop could only manage 20 fps max when I first played it. VATS is the reason I enjoyed it.

7. The Elder Scrolls series

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Bethesda Softworks / Bethesda Game Studios

Genre: First-person fantasy RPG Released:

• The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind - 2002
• The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion - 2006
• The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim - 2011

The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind - 106 pointsThe Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion - 32 pointsThe Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim - 74 points

Ulukaï – The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind What a wonderful, bizarre world to get lost in forever.

Sente Graphs – The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind I’m worried we’ll never get another game like Morrowind. There are other games that allow for freedom in big, open worlds, but Morrowind’s insistence that you listen to what characters tell you and read journal entries to truly immerse yourself in its world is singular in a setting like this. Truly a marvel!

Jovian09 – The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind The first great open-world RPG in my mind, Morrowind is set apart from its successors by how utterly unique and engaging its setting is. Vvardenfell is a hostile and alien place where you fight to find a home, but the ashen Dunmer landscape is bolder than any locale Bethesda has designed since and rewards your ability to think creatively and willingness to explore. The narrative is also singular, with strange societies, cutthroat politics and genuinely frightening baddies making for a unique experience. I wish modern Bethesda games could find a fraction of the flavour Morrowind has.

Justin – The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind You can fast travel inside the exoskeleton of a giant bug! I was introduced to Elder Scrolls through this title when it was released on the original Xbox game console. There weren’t many titles yet and I found myself unexpectedly gifted a copy. I had never played a game before where it felt like I could go anywhere or do anything. It had the Shenmue effect – ‘You mean there’s stuff inside the drawers?!’ – I remember greedily spending hours stealing every piece of worthless flatware in Seyda Neen so that I could afford some slightly better trinkets. It’s weird and great.

Chopoflamb – The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind In my first game I started the main quest. I could never find the guy I was supposed to talk to in Balmora, so I just did my own thing.

Rao Dao Zao – The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind Morrowind is the Elder Scrolls format on a scale comprehensible to its citizens. Arena, Daggerfall, Oblivion and Skyrim are all so big that they cannot help but overstay their welcome, their attenuated playtimes only reinforcing all their flaws. Sure, Morrowind’s mechanical flaws are immediately apparent if you make a single wrong choice during character creation, but once you get past that, a memorable place opens up that’s big enough to get lost in, but not so big it dissolves into mush. Every corner of Morrowind holds something worth discovering, and it’s hard to say that about its series-mates.

MrFribbles – The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind The jank that launched a thousand open worlds, Morrowind endures as a miracle of a game. With mechanics, character relationships, questlines, and countless other background elements engaging in a constant frantic dance with each other in this ash-blasted world, it’s a marvel this game doesn’t crash on startup. But it doesn’t – and from the first time you walk out of your starting town and are greeted by a stranger plummeting out of the sky, you know you’re in for a one-of-a-kind RPG experience.

Pralec – The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind No Elder Scrolls game since Morrowind has quite captured the feeling of being dropped into a world which you can simply inhabit and explore. If one of the core fantasies of a role-playing game is to put the sandbox of tabletop roleplaying on screen, Morrowind gets mighty close to that dream.

Person of Interest – The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind Two places for Elder Scrolls? Though I’d prefer to spread my points around, I can’t deny the impact this game still has on me more than 20 years after playing it. Plus, I have a five-way tie for spot #11 and can’t decide which one to elevate in Morrowind’s absence.

Bahumat – The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind One day you read a book and discover that silt striders are gigantic mudfleas that are captured and lobotomized to make the space where the pilot and passengers sit in. And by that point it isn’t even that weird. Also: The last Elder Scrolls game to have SPEARS.

Robbeasy – The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Elder Scrolls high mark – fantasy elements, world, everything just right. Except for the level progression. That was meh.

Vacuity – The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion This game was both a support and a crutch in some very dark times, but was also the game that transformed the way I looked at games, from things I played and occasionally tinkered with, to plastic mutable things transformable with various tools, and the application of effort, brainpower and time. Sadly, this was not always something done fully constructively, and I nearly died, and had an unpleasant time in hospital, from overworking myself on one of my mod projects alongside a full-time job. Still, like an ex-opium addict, I cannot but wistfully remember chasing the dragon(fires).

Jenikullah – The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Every student has a game which endangers his or her studies. For me that game was Oblivion. During my first year of university I played it day and night until I had crawled through the very last dungeon and helped all the desperate citizens of Cyrodiil waiting for a nameless hero.

Zinzan – The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim Probably the most polished of a GREAT series, and just kept me playing with different character builds over and over again.

TheGreatOneSea – The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim Yes, it’s carried by its vibes more than its gameplay, but the dungeons are still fun, the homes are cozy, and the music carries everything like Atlas. Also, mods.

Elazul – The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim This is the game that never ends, it goes on and on my friends. Someone started playing it not knowing what it was, they never stopped playing it just because…

CinnamonK – The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim A truly open world game where you can explore to your heart’s content.

Rincechicken – The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim Even just writing this down I’m thinking I need to play it again. The breadth of the quests is just staggering, and the mod scene always brings fresh ideas.

Talance – The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim While the whole Elder Scrolls saga has been seminal for RPG fans, it certainly hit a peak with Skyrim that Elder Scrolls 6 will have difficulty meeting. The mod support that has kept the game alive and looking current despite its age is amazing.

TomorrowYesterday – The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim I am only 100 mods deep, it’s only the beginning.

Jovian09 – The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim The most freeform game world ever conceived, offering a tabula rasa that no subsequent RPG series understands how to tap into. Coincidentally, it’s one of the best games in the world for modding, and is consequently a poster child for that quintessentially PC-flavoured gaming pursuit. The Elder Scrolls also happens to have some of the deepest lore and worldbuilding around to support your messing about in it.

FreonTrotsky – The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim Skyrim was the first game I played that brought back what it felt like to play Ultima VII in 1992. Its plot is nothing to write home about, but all corners of the world feel alive and expansive and every horizon seems to beckon. Simply setting off in a random direction evokes a grand D&D adventure. And the game affords you so much side content – joining a guild, building a home, engaging in trade – that you always have something to do. And it does this without inundating you with thousands of map markers and scripted encounters.

6. Civilization series

Image credit:2K Games / Firaxis

Genre: Turn-based strategy game Released:

• Civilization - 1991
• Civilization 2 - 1996
• Civilization 4 - 2005
• Civilization 5 - 2010
• Civilization: Beyond Earth - 2014
• Civilization 6 - 2016

Civilization - 19 pointsCivilization 2 - 20 pointsCivilization 4 - 65 pointsCivilization 5 - 85 pointsCivilization: Beyond Earth - 7 pointsCivilization 6 - 35 points

Thanosi – Civilization I want to make it very clear I am not including VII in this assessment.

CinnamonK – Civilization I convinced my parents to buy me a computer, a 386, to play Civilization I, and have played all the games in the series, up to its best successor so far, Endless Legend II. Grow a settler into an empire – a story I am happy to relive time and time again.

Icarussc – Civilization Civ does what hardly any other games do: it transforms your understanding of the real world around you. It gives you meaningful insight into how we got here and what we were doing along the way, and even hints as to why some problems still exist and where we might go in the future.

TheComputerGamer – Civilization 2 This series coined the term, “just one more turn”. So addictive had the series become, they built in an alarm clock to let you know when it’s time to put the game down. Civ 2 seemed to hit the sweet spot for the series, before it began to feel like a rehash of itself. It’s not to say the others are bad, just not the perfect 10 experienced in 1996. In a gaming world of shooters and RPGs, Civilization made turn-based strategy cool again with its approachable style that set the bar for anything after its release.

Fallen Empire – Civilization 2 It was my introduction to the series, and I think it’s one of the pinnacles of design in turn-based strategy.

Isaac Kelley – Civilization 4 Is Civ IV the best Civ game? I dunno but it has so much depth that I’m still not ready to move on later installments.

Controlled_by_my_cats – Civilization 4 This series was my introduction to turn-based strategy games, and this game was the highlight of the series.

Pat – Civilization 4 Just one more turn…

Zinzan – Civilization 4 Most played game. Even unmodded (with expansions) it is great to play.

AdmiralFoxx – Civilization 4 This was the peak of the rollercoaster for Civilization, before they started taking more of the Excel-spreadsheet-ness from the player and hiding it inside the game. I remember being pleasantly surprised at things like global warming causing farming plots to go arid and other little events happening on the map. That granular level of detail hasn’t seemed to be able to happen since.

Kniggit – Civilization 4 Just one more turn done better than any other entry in the series

Agent00Funk – Civilization 5 Truly, the entire Civilization franchise in all its iterations deserves to be on here, even the oft-maligned 7. The only reason why Civilization 5 got the top pick is because it is, by far, the one I spent the most time with. Civilization was one of the first games to get me hooked on PCs and has remained a true friend ever since, even when it sometimes stumbles over odd design decisions.

Talance – Civilization 5 It was a tough call between Civilization IV and V. Civ IV perfected the 4X formula they’d been working on for over a decade, but Civ V successfully changed it and still looks and feels modern, 15 years after its release.

Juan_h – Civilization 5 I’ve never played Civilizations VI or VII. I’ve never even been tempted. Civilization V is pretty, it’s relaxed, and it controls elegantly with just the mouse. It’s the perfect game to play on a cold winter day with a quilt over your lap and a cup of tea in your off-hand. Build cities, build roads, irrigate hexes, fight off the occasional invasion – make everything just so – until at last that rocket carrying all your hopes and dreams takes off for Alpha Centauri.

AdmiralFoxx – Civilization: Beyond Earth The only sci-fi 4X that actually felt engaging, Civilization: Beyond Earth made a difference by posing its lore with one leg in the past and the other leg in the future. You had flavor text referencing “mythical beasts like the chimera, the gryphon, and the llama” to highlight how our species (and the surrounding ecology) had changed. While the social evolution mechanic was clunky, it was still a great entry into the franchise that deserves another go.

Modalrealist – Civilization 6 Regrettably the best Civilization game, in the round. And Civ is the best “big” strategy game. Also, still regrettably.

Elazul – Civilization 6 Just. One. More. Turn. Wait… why is the sun coming up?

Chodhound – Civilization 6 Wonderful turn-based wonder-building, war-making epic.

Helm – Civilization 6 The pinnacle of the game in my humble opinion, a game that forces you to think and plan in ages.

5. XCOM series

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / 2K / Firaxis

Genre: Turn-based tactical game Released:

• X-Com: UFO Defense - 1994
• X-Com: Terror From The Deep - 1995
• XCOM - 2012
• XCOM: Enemy Within - 2013
• XCOM 2 - 2016
• XCOM 2: War Of The Chosen - 2017

X-Com: UFO Defense - 15 pointsX-Com: Terror From The Deep - 11 pointsXCOM - 41 pointsXCOM: Enemy Within - 9 pointsXCOM 2 - 154 pointsXCOM 2: War Of The Chosen - 5 points

David Evans – X-Com: UFO Defense Tactical strategy at its best. And by X-Com, I mean the whole series of X-Com games. There are a lot of them! They are all good! Julien Gollop was on to something.

Rince Wind – X-Com Terror from the Deep Objectively, it is probably worse than the original. But I played this first and I couldn’t play Enemy Unknown afterwards. Opening doors without going through them is such a game changer. I also love the Lovecraftian enemies.

These days it is Open X-Com, mostly with the XPiratez mod. The quality of life improvements make it easily playable, if you don’t mind the graphics.

CinnamonK – XCOM After you get bored of dressing up your soldiers, you still have an entire tactics game you can play.

Juan_h – XCOM My favorite sci-fi tactics game. It’s like a board game, yes, but I don’t care. The important thing is that it’s like a really good board game. I really appreciate the strategy layer, which is full of interesting trade-offs. Having to manage a good dozen terror meters simultaneously meant that I was always evaluating choices on the basis of not only what I most wanted to gain but also what I could most afford to lose.

Icarussc – XCOM XCOM lets you make your friends or family members into world-saving heroes. Or, if you’re a weirdo like me, it lets you make a few dozen major philosophers and theologians throughout world history into world-saving heroes. Nothing like having Gautama make a dicey shot to save Martin Luther, who was himself exposed because he was trying to administer a medpack to Aristotle.

Elsparko – XCOM The one remake in the history of remakes that really managed to create a working new game out of the original formula. Even dummies like me can play X-COM now, just without a dash.

Old_Man_Gaming – XCOM: Enemy Within I have put more hours into this game than any other on Steam. It is turn-based strategy done brilliantly well. A good tactical game has to leave you feeling that if you lost it was because you made mistakes, not because the game played you. XCOM does that. You become attached to your random agents, renamed however you wish. Who knew Virginia Woolf was a sniper? Who knew she died at the hands of a berserker? The strategy layer is very light but each tactical engagement is a test. A great game.

Hightouch – XCOM 2 A deep and engaging tactical combat system with permadeath makes your progress against the invasion feel earned and hits hard when you inevitably lose your best soldiers.

Eulrich – XCOM 2 keeps you playing for hours and hours when you should have ragequit several times over yet another 3% miss!

Latedave – XCOM 2 I have played through a tiny proportion of games more than once. XCOM 2 is the exception, I wish they’d remake Terror of the Deep but until then this is a perfect enhancement of a great format, even if 99% misses every time. Oh and renaming everyone to your friends is something you should absolutely do for the peril. Your best mate of more than 30 years dying to your own incompetent grenade needs immediate therapy. Great mix of basebuilding, strategy, tactics and peril, everyone should play it.

Aoanla – XCOM 2 This is really standing in for the entire X(-)COM franchise, from 1993 to the present day. From pivotal early tactics-and-strategy innovation (via weird hacks and multiple binaries) through to modern-ish day high production values, slowly incorporating more “social stuff” and a different scope by Chimera Squad, the XCOMs have always been pushing interesting concepts in the design space of their time. It’s sad that we may get no more of them.

Talance – XCOM 2 Heavy tactical planning mixed with light RPG elements make this game the best in the genre and one that hasn’t been duplicated since its release nearly ten years ago. (Trust me, I’ve looked).

PolygonClassicist – XCOM 2 Thanks to the literal thousands of mods available via its Steam workshop, XCOM 2 is the best rocket-launcher-armed-tripped-out-in-a-chaotic-nightmare-outfit-and-voiced-by-a-supervillain-waifu-simulator in gaming.

Zach #1630 – XCOM 2 I like to get tactical without things feeling too much like a puzzle with a “best move”.

Fallen Empire – XCOM 2 This is among the finest tactical strategy games ever realized, boasting exceptional replay value and a design that consistently challenges the player. Playing on higher difficulties offers a truly emotional and rewarding experience, rivaled by very few games.

Rikard Peterson – XCOM 2 It had to be on the list, as it’s the game I’ve spent the most time with. According to Steam, it’s 1336 hours. At first, it was engaging and scary. Now, it’s comfort food.

Garfieldsam – XCOM 2 Nothing captures the tension of barely holding together a world-saving operation like XCOM 2 does. The strategic and tactical layers interweave perfectly – base management directly impacts battlefield success in ways few games achieve. The mod scene is incredible, letting you endlessly increase difficulty and complexity for thousands of hours. Long War of the Chosen stands as one of PC gaming’s best mods, a complete reimagining that rivals the base game itself.

Agent00Funk – XCOM 2 While the original remake was great, XCOM 2 truly built on what it did well and changed what it did not. It is THE standard by which all its imitators are judged. It is timeless in the sense that you can always go back to it and instantly jump in building your merry squad of murderous bastards and be met with a fantastic balance of challenge and difficulty.

Hrink – XCOM 2 I waffled on XCOM 2 or XCOM Enemy Within (and their respective Long Wars mods, which are so dense as to be new games altogether), but I think XCOM 2 takes it for the audacious choice of “sequel to the Bad End”.

Pauleyc – XCOM 2 The advanced evolution of the turn-based tactical game genre. We’ve come a long way from the humble beginnings of Rebelstar; XCOM 2 is a masterpiece, combining complex systems, modability and versatility – plus an excellent expansion in the form of War of the Chosen.

4. The Witcher series

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / CD Projekt RED

Genre: Third-person fantasy RPG Released:

• The Witcher - 2007
• The Witcher 3 - 2015

The Witcher - 8 pointsThe Witcher 3 - 297 points

Darth Gangrel – The Witcher The Witcher made me want to read the books, something only Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines has achieved. It has a great world, characters, story and quite unique movement options for an RPG. You can actually somersault over an opponent that stands in your way if you don’t care to fight it, which is a great option since the monsters respawn and the fast travel options are limited and only take you so far, though you can run really fast. The combat is really good, I never tire of seeing the sword combat animations and the magical signs are also very fun to use.

Pr34cher – The Witcher 3 Great stories along any path. Decisions matter, awesome visuals, smooth playing.

J0st – The Witcher 3 Gigantic game, filled to the brim with fun and interesting stuff to do. The DLC Blood and Wine is a climax of side-quest entertainment. I also love the attention to sceneries and landscape – most nature scenes are worthy of a painting.

Asoggywotsit – The Witcher 3 Sprawling. Like Skyrim but actually good.

Phuzz – The Witcher 3 A game with such attention paid to every part of it, from the never-identikit quests, to the lush landscapes. I play it every few years as a tradition (and as we all know, in Tousante, tradition is sacred).

Dustball – The Witcher 3 I guess this is now the second-best western RPG. Loved the characters, the conclusion to the trilogy, and figuring out what roof Roach was on. Barely even played Gwent, so did I really play the Witcher 3?

Elazul – The Witcher 3 Sure the gameplay is a bit dated and hasn’t aged particularly well, but the story… Oh, the story is soooooo good. Enough to easily warrant its placement here despite the jank.

OmegaJak – The Witcher 3 You are not the protagonist in the Witcher 3. You’re the protagonist’s concerned Dad, following her trail as she fulfils the prophecy and wreaks havoc in a dangerous world, tidying up the problems she leaves in her wake. Genius.

Germansuplex – The Witcher 3 The Witcher 3 does not only deliver a world that feels real, as opposed to the theme park experience most open world RPGs provide – it also makes you care about it and the people that populate it. It also has a quest where Geralt gets voluntarily possessed by a ghost and has a smashing time at a wedding. This is a perfect storm even CDPR themselves probably will never surpass.

Elsparko – The Witcher 3 On face value Witcher 3 has a bad combat experience, an undercooked RPG system and its maps are way too big. I still have yet to find a game that I enjoyed so thoroughly just for its setting and story. Of course it helped coming from the first two games. I was already invested in Gerald, so to say.

Rnwar – The Witcher 3 I thought I knew The Witcher going into this game, but there were surprises around every corner. I felt like I understood myself better afterwards. Anyway, up for Gwent?

Lollololo – The Witcher 3 Is it even possible to imagine a better open-world RPG? Probably, but I can’t do it. Ten years on, Witcher 3 is still the only game I’ve played that manages to marry an expansive world with detailed and varied characters and side stories. It’s also the only open world game I’ve played that had the courage to put some of its best content in side quests that people might never even see. When even minor characters make you stop and think, you know you did something right.

Garfieldsam – The Witcher 3 Back when I played Skyrim, I always thought “this would be so great if I could play an actual character with a real story.” The Witcher 3 answered that call in a way no other game has. It proved open-world RPGs could offer genuine narrative depth and a protagonist with real personality without sacrificing exploration and freedom. Geralt’s story felt lived-in, consequential, and deeply human.

Freiksenet – The Witcher 3 As a fan of Witcher’s books since 2001, I loved every single Witcher game, but in The Witcher 3 they really nailed the dark, gritty, low fantasy feel of the books.

Latedave – The Witcher 3 Perfect example of a game where great storytelling makes up for slightly dubious combat. I loved every minute of the Witcher 3 but it’s not without its flaws. I really hope they improve the fighting for The Witcher 4 as I loved everything else.

Thanosi – The Witcher 3 A game where the side quests were not only interesting but often captivating stories in their own right. As a whole it’s incomparable storytelling in a game.

Controlled_by_my_cats – The Witcher 3 First time I really got both open worlds and deckbuilders.

CinnamonK – The Witcher 3 An incredible game with even more amazing DLCs.

DoomsdayDevice – The Witcher 3 Wild not?

3. Outer Wilds

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Annapurna Interactive / Mobius Digital

Cedric EcoleD I could not bring myself to learn the controls for spacefaring. So I watched other people playing it and… It takes my tenth place only because I could not play it myself. I cannot say how much I felt changed by “just watching” the whole experience… if “just watching” is a thing you can do in this game.

Cpt_freakout It made me cry, it made me think. An existentialist tale of loneliness and community, of deep loss and deep love: accept yourself, accept the beginnings and ends of the world. It’s the sole possibility for a new one to be born from the choices you have made.

Quasiotter Just the first three notes from That Song are enough to make me emotional. I’m actually teary-eyed thinking about it right now!

Ulukaï I dream of the Quantum Moon. Seriously.

Thrownfootfalls A perfectly constructed ball of physics and whimsy and delights and terrors, with flashes of delightfully human aliens, and an ending that hit harder than I was ready for. I’m still ranking it highly, even though I now get troubling flashbacks whenever I see a light in the mist…

RAC41 Literally no notes here, this is the best all-around game. If not for Disco Elysium, this would be my pick for the best game of all time just because the only person that wouldn‘t like it is a guy who‘s afraid of space exploration.

This is as good as it gets and a standard for all indie games going forward. DLC too.

Nathan A You already know!

Asoggywotsit Lives rent free in my head. The ending killed me. One of the few video games that seems to actually understand video games within their own context. And I know that sentence probably makes no sense to anyone but me, I don’t care.

Saliken Andrew Prahlow’s soundtrack of loneliness and wonder suffuses a solar system sandbox that contemplates the drive to explore and the melancholy of finitude. I wish I could play it for the first time again… and again… and again… and ag-

Morphisor The most surprising and unique mystery game there has ever been.

Lollololo Outer Wilds is not the best game ever. It’s a bit janky, a bit obtuse, a bit frustrating. But the whole is so much more than the sum of its parts. It’s a game about the scientific process, and about what research means, on an existential level. It’s a game about arriving too late in the history of the world. It’s a game about having to observe the end of everything so many times you have to come to terms with it. More than anything, to me, Outer Wilds is a game about accepting your own limits, accepting that you can’t save the universe in 22 minutes. And in all those big ideas, it’s also a game about small moments, about the interconnectedness of how we make sense of the world and our world at the same time. “The Universe is, and we are”, but always in the same place, at the same time. We are here for the Universe, and for each other.

Pralec Outer Wilds perfectly encapsulates what is unique about gaming as an artform. Its interactivity, its non-linear exploration, its real discovery, are only things that can exist in the gaming medium. On top of that, it’s beautiful, fun to play, and a challenging but rewarding puzzle with a meaningful and emotional story. The only downside of this game is that I don’t think any other game is ever going to top it.

Wall Jump Games Quite possibly the pinnacle of the entire form. I don’t exactly wish every game was like this, but it is by far the most intelligent and impressive use of the language of game design towards the end of interactive storytelling. An absolute design masterwork by any measure, I don’t want to talk about it in more specific terms because it really is true you should know as little as possible before playing. One thing though, Brittle Hollow is the greatest area in gaming. I’ll let you find out why.

Random Squiggle A beautiful, intricate puzzle box.

2. Baldur’s Gate series

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Larian

Genre: Fantasy RPG Released:

• Baldur’s Gate - 1998
• Baludr’s Gate 2 - 2000
• Baludr’s Gate 3 - 2020

Baldur’s Gate - 29 pointsBaludr’s Gate 2 - 64 pointsBaludr’s Gate 3 - 234 points

CinnamonK – Baldur’s Gate I still go back and think of all the other characters I want to play to live the story differently. Such an amazingly crafted world.

Rao Dao Zao – Baldur’s Gate The original Baldur’s Gate has the perfect setup for an adventure: the Iron Crisis is urgent enough to inexorably draw your attention, but not so urgent that you can’t enjoy exploring the wilderness along the way. In fact, so much of Baldur’s Gate walks that tightrope exquisitely, like the play of magic against a background of medieval mundanity and the mechanical complexity that stops short of overwhelming. I find its sequels and successors all tip too far one way or the other, either too finicky with the rules or too gonzo with the fiction, leaving the original stalwart at the top of my pile.

Icarussc – Baldur’s Gate The ultimate western RPG experience: because of Baldur’s Gate, I have spent my whole life saying “I can dance on the head of a pin, as well.” if someone gives me something to do.

Freiksenet – Baldur’s Gate 2 The RPG that originally made me love RPGs. It’s flawed by modern standards, but it’s a perfect Infinity Engine game and the peak of that era.

Hiddencamel – Baldur’s Gate 2 Baldur’s Gate 2 was just such a vast, ambitious game that hit me at just the right time. I spent hundreds of hours playing it, and even after multiple playthroughs I kept being surprised by the depth of the stories and the agency I had as a player.

Talance – Baldur’s Gate 2 Without the Baldur’s Gate series in the late 90s, there’s no bridge between the Gold Box-era D&D games and later ones like Neverwinter Nights continuing to Baldur’s Gate 3. It’s a great game series that created the template for modern western RPGs.

Chodhound – Baldur’s Gate 3 Epic RPG.

Jovian09 – Baldur’s Gate 3 Everybody should play Baldur’s Gate 3. In a world where game corporations don’t want to make them anymore, it’s a colossal RPG that takes the interactive spirit of both D&D and old-school Bioware and cranks it to 11. It has lovable characters, impossible granularity, and a wonderful class and combat system that turns every fight into an epic clash where you either get to show off the power of your build, or something goes horribly wrong and you’re hurled twenty metres into a pit of molten lava. Crucially, it’s fully co-op, making it an experience you can share with friends.

DoomsdayDevice – Baldur’s Gate 3 Because I forgot to put this in higher. Great game that made me understand the CRPG genre

David Evans – Baldur’s Gate 3 I haven’t finished it yet, though. Amazing game. Amazing production values. I can’t believe that Larian Studios pulled off what they did there. I did not have nearly high enough expectations after finishing Divinity: Original Sin, and seeing the jump in quality from that to Baldur’s Gate 3. Even Astarian would have to congratulate them on a job well done, and not just for creating him.

Fallen Empire – Baldur’s Gate 3 It is the new benchmark for the RPG genre, offering choices and consequences that finally have a tangible impact, along with the freedom to experiment with mechanics and interact with the game world like never before in an RPG.

Asoggywotsit – Baldur’s Gate 3 An actual AAA CRPG? In 2023? In this economy? Also, Lae-zel. Don’t @ me.

MrFribbles – Baldur’s Gate 3 A game that redefined what an RPG video game can be in terms of sheer quality, Baldur’s Gate 3 excels at everything it sets out to do (with the exception of inventory management, but podoby’s nerfect). With stellar acting, an immaculate visual style, and engaging combat that is consistent enough to learn while also being varied enough to keep players on their toes, Baldur’s Gate 3 drops you into a living world with an imminent threat to your well-being, and things only get trickier from there. With a great cast of party members and a compelling story, you’re in hours of meaningful adventure.

Cedric EcoleD – Baldur’s Gate 3 There are not many games that keep me hooked on their story for much longer than 50 hours. This one did. The story unfolds with major choices that actually matter – although somewhat clumsily but on that scale, that is bound to happen. It did give me the thrills of a TTRPG campaign and definitely made me laugh, cry, and gasp.

Dustball – Baldur’s Gate 3 Didn’t think games in 2023 had this in them. The ultimate western RPG.

Sente Graphs – Baldur’s Gate 3 I don’t really know what to say about this game that hasn’t already been said. Excellent characters. Grand, branching narrative. Fun and inventive turn-based combat. It’s not often a 100+ hour game can hold my attention, but this game does that easily.

Garfieldsam – Baldur’s Gate 3 I wish I liked tabletop D&D because it’s so creative, but I actually hate it – I need direction and want to be told a deep story, not improvise one. Baldur’s Gate 3 is the only thing that resolves this tension. It captures D&D’s creative freedom and systemic depth while delivering the structured, narrative-rich experience I crave. It’s D&D for people who don’t actually want to play D&D.

Elazul – Baldur’s Gate 3 Some might consider this a bit of a recency bias since it’s still a somewhat new game, but I feel this is the best CRPG of the modern age. The gameplay, story, and characterization are all extremely well done. I don’t think we will see another CRPG this good for another decade at least.

OmegaJak – Baldur’s Gate 3 It’s a masterpiece in every aspect. Other games have great writing, beautiful art direction, wonderful music, a compelling plot, memorable characters, or brilliant and intricate combat, very few have them all.

Shay Linio – Baldur’s Gate 3 Baldur’s Gate achieved bringing Larian to their A-game bridging the gap of excellent story making, tested RPG rules and the art of world-making without compromising their vision.

Zeonchar – Baldur’s Gate 3 The amount of choice programmed into this game is truly mind-boggling. One can play it over and over again and it feels like a fresh experience every time.

Freiksenet – Baldur’s Gate 3 Larian’s RPG perfected. Every battle is a tactical puzzle and there is such a wealth of well-written story content that at times it overwhelms. A game where you could actually play as a baddie and kill everyone and it still works without magical unkillable NPCs.

Modalrealist – Baldur’s Gate 3 The apotheosis of the “CRPG”. Will it ever be bettered? Corpo budgets say quite possibly not.

Latedave – Baldur’s Gate 3 I am not as sold as others on the combat for capturing the chaos of DnD choices I really think they did an excellent job. I only really wish there was a proper create your own party like icewind dale.

1. Disco Elysium

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / ZA/UM

P53 Another breakthrough game that actually still manages to stay a great game. A CRPG that (finally) ditches combat and makes you forget about it. And – like many games later in my list – remains unmatched in this until this day.

Cornelis If you listened to all the accolades Disco Elysium has gotten, you’d think it was some kind of Deeply Philosophical High Art, but really, it’s a comedy game. While in most role-playing games it’s hard to resist the temptation to be a likeable, decent person, this one nudges, encourages and forces you to be a weird character while your reliable partner Kim can play the straight man (‘straight’ in the comedy sense).

OmegaJak A bit indulgent at times but still the best writing in any game ever made. Brought moisture to my eyes at some points, at others had me doubled over with laughter.

Kniggit Choices and consequences galore!

Drygear The best work of political art of our time, in fact it’s so good that it’s universally respected among a crowd as reactionary as the general gaming population despite being unabashedly leftist. It displays a deep understanding of the human condition and pain on both the personal and societal level and shows compassion towards all. In the end, it is a life-affirming work.

SeekerX A game where the voices in the protagonist’s head make the RPG process of building a character more engaging than ever before. A game where being a flaming disaster of a human being and a catastrophe of a detective is both uproariously funny and, quietly, a reflection on the tragedies of the human condition.

PolygonClassicist Overhyped to the point where it experienced an inevitable hype backlash, it nevertheless remains a standard bearer for CRPG design, world building, and storytelling. Also, you get to live as a middle aged man dying of a heart attack from making a two-foot jump. Gaming will never achieve this level of realism again.

Cedric EcoleD Bad cop simulator, with karaoke opportunities. It just… clicks. An RPG with no combat that blends point-and-click vibes with the dice rolling I love so much. That has to be one of the best games. I believed the characters to be real, I believed the story to be. Everything was so grounded.

Morphisor Profound prose on a picturesque pedestal.

Gaspacho Putting a Kimono, a fake mustache over my real mustache, and a pair of cowboy boots in order to be able to convince myself in the mirror that I should smile. (And I shouldn’t have done that)

DoomsdayDevice Look up into the falling rain and better understand your falling self.

Caff Cuno doesn’t care.

Zach #1630 Video games can be art, (and also at the same time they can be fun).

RAC41 The best written game of all time and my personal favorite. It‘s as good as a really good novel and that counts for something in my book.

Best character writing I‘ve ever seen in a project. Generational talent behind it too.

Hrink Disappointing Kim Kitsuragi feels worse than any morality-system “save orphans, sacrifice kittens” choice and it also feels so inevitable, not because of railroading but because of who your character is, and that’s why Disco Elysium is one of the best, most heartbreaking depictions of addiction in any medium.

It’s also really funny.

Garfieldsam In the new noclip documentary about ZA/UM’s founding, there’s a scene describing how the secret tabletop campaign that became Disco Elysium had a reputation in Tallinn for being “cool” – for people who like postmodern literature, have difficult taste in music, and know who Baudrillard is.

I knew exactly what they meant. That’s why Disco felt so special to me as a pretentious twat. Erudite, challenging, poetic, provocative, tragic, obscenely well-written. I am desperately awaiting a worthy successor.

Cpt_freakout I don’t know what else to say about Disco that hasn’t been said a million times before, so I will just say that this is the game that you can think of when you think of what living in our end-times implies. We can’t go on, we must go on. It will destroy you, put you back, and make you wonder if any other game will ever be so monumentally of our time.

Aoanla Disco Elysium is still the best RPG ever made – taking advantage of using its own stats system to really match its system to its message (and then go further by giving all those stats personalities and voices), effortlessly directing both comedy and tragedy (and both cosmic and Lynchian horror), unafraid to be political, and with one of the most sublime moments in any game towards the end. It’s a masterpiece.

Jenikullah Five reasons why Disco Elysium deserves this position: Intriguing world, unique main hero, S-Tier storytelling, the best sidekick ever… aaaaaand The Insulindian Phasmid.

And there we have it, the top 100 greatest games as voted for by our readers. It’s a pretty cracking list if you were to ask me.

What do you think of the picks? Anything you’re glad is included that you think was missing from our 100 best PC games of all time list?

If you’re hungry for more lists, then have a look and what we said were the PC games of all time in 2024 , 2023 ( part 1 , part 2 ), 2022 ( part 1 , part 2 ), and 2021 ( part 1 , part 2 ). Or go back to the previous RPS 100 Reader Editions to compare how your choices have shifted over the years. We’ve polled you ofr picks twice before, in 2023 and 2022 .

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All 75 Arc Raiders Blueprints and where to get them

These areas have the highest chance of giving you Blueprints

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Looking for more Arc Raiders Blueprints? It’s a special day when you find a Blueprint, as they’re among the most valuable items in Arc Raiders. If you find a Blueprint that you haven’t already found, then you must make sure you hold onto it at all costs, because Blueprints are the key to one of the most important and powerful systems of meta-progression in the game.

This guide aims to be the very best guide on Blueprints you can find, starting with a primer on what exactly they are and how they work in Arc Raiders, before delving into exactly where to get Blueprints and the very best farming spots for you to take in your search.

We’ll also go over how to get Blueprints from other unlikely activities, such as destroying Surveyors and completing specific quests. And you’ll also find the full list of all 75 Blueprints in Arc Raiders on this page (including the newest Blueprints added with the Cold Snap update , such as the Deadline Blueprint and Firework Box Blueprint), giving you all the information you need to expand your own crafting repertoire.

In this guide:

• What are Blueprints in Arc Raiders?
• Full Blueprint list: All crafting recipes
• Where to find Blueprints in Arc Raiders Blueprints obtained from quests Blueprints obtained from Trials Best Blueprint farming locations

What are Blueprints in Arc Raiders?

Blueprints in Arc Raiders are special items which, if you manage to extract with them, you can expend to permanently unlock a new crafting recipe in your Workshop. If you manage to extract from a raid with an Anvil Blueprint, for example, you can unlock the ability to craft your very own Anvil Pistol, as many times as you like (as long as you have the crafting materials).

To use a Blueprint, simply open your Inventory while in the lobby, then right-click on the Blueprint and click “Learn And Consume” . This will permanently unlock the recipe for that item in your Workshop. As of the Stella Montis update, there are allegedly 75 different Blueprints to unlock - although only 68 are confirmed to be in the game so far. You can see all the Blueprints you’ve found and unlocked by going to the Workshop menu, and hitting “R” to bring up the Blueprint screen.

It’s possible to find duplicates of past Blueprints you’ve already unlocked. If you find these, then you can either sell them, or - if you like to play with friends - you can take it into a match and gift it to your friend so they can unlock that recipe for themselves. Another option is to keep hold of them until the time comes to donate them to the Expedition.

Full Blueprint list: All crafting recipes

Below is the full list of all the Blueprints that are currently available to find in Arc Raiders, and the crafting recipe required for each item:

Note: The missing Blueprints in this list likely have not actually been added to the game at the time of writing, because none of the playerbase has managed to find any of them. As they are added to the game, I will update this page with the most relevant information so you know exactly how to get all 75 Arc Raiders Blueprints.

Where to find Blueprints in Arc Raiders

Below is a list of all containers, modifiers, and events which maximise your chances of finding Blueprints:

• Certain quests reward you with specific Blueprints .
• Completing Trials has a high chance of offering Blueprints as rewards.
• Surveyors have a decent chance of dropping Blueprints on death.
• High loot value areas tend to have a greater chance of spawning Blueprints.
• Night Raids and Storms may increase rare Blueprint spawn chances in containers.
• Containers with higher numbers of items may have a higher tendency to spawn Blueprints. As a result, Blue Gate (which has many “large” containers containing multiple items) may give you a higher chance of spawning Blueprints.
• Raider containers (Raider Caches, Weapon Boxes, Medical Bags, Grenade Tubes) have increased Blueprint drop rates. As a result, the Uncovered Caches event gives you a high chance of finding Blueprints.
• Security Lockers have a higher than average chance of containing Blueprints.
• Certain Blueprints only seem to spawn under specific circumstances: Tempest Blueprint only spawns during Night Raid events. Vulcano Blueprint only spawns during Hidden Bunker events. Jupiter and Equaliser Blueprints only spawn during Harvester events.

Raider Caches, Weapon Boxes, and other raider-oriented container types have a good chance of offering Blueprints. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blueprints have a very low chance of spawning in any container in Arc Raiders, around 1-2% on average. However, there is a higher chance of finding Blueprints in particular container types. Specifically, you can find more Blueprints in Raider containers and security lockers.

Beyond this, if you’re looking for Blueprints you should focus on regions of the map which are marked as having particularly high-value loot. Areas such as the Control Tower in Dam Battlegrounds, the Arrival and Departure Buildings in Spaceport, and Pilgrim’s Peak in Blue Gate all have a better-than-average chance of spawning Blueprints somewhere amongst all their containers. Night Raids and Electromagnetic Storm events also increase the drop chances of certain Blueprints .

In addition to these containers, you can often loot Blueprints from destroyed Surveyors - the largest of the rolling ball ARC. Surveyors are more commonly found on the later maps - Spaceport and Blue Gate - and if one spawns in your match, you’ll likely see it by the blue laser beam that it casts into the sky while “surveying”.

Surveyors are quite well-armoured and will very speedily run away from you once it notices you, but if you can take one down then make sure you loot all its parts for a chance of obtaining certain unusual Blueprints.

Blueprints obtained from quests

One way in which you can get Blueprints is by completing certain quests for the vendors in Speranza. Some quests will reward you with a specific item Blueprint upon completion, so as long as you work through all the quests in Arc Raiders, you are guaranteed those Blueprints.

Here is the full list of all Blueprints you can get from quest rewards:

• Trigger Nade Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Sparks Fly”.
• Lure Grenade Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Greasing Her Palms”.
• Burletta Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Industrial Espionage”.
• Hullcracker Blueprint (and Launcher Ammo Blueprint): Rewarded after completing “The Major’s Footlocker”.

Alas, that’s only 4 Blueprints out of a total of 75 to unlock, so for the vast majority you will need to find them yourself during a raid. If you’re intent on farming Blueprints, then it’s best to equip yourself with cheap gear in case you lose it, but don’t use a free loadout because then you won’t get a safe pocket to stash any new Blueprint you find. No pain in Arc Raiders is sharper than failing to extract with a new Blueprint you’ve been after for a dozen hours already.

One of the best ways to get Blueprints is by hitting three stars on all five Trials every week. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blueprints obtained from Trials

One of the very best ways to get Blueprints is as rewards for completing Trials in Arc Raiders. Trials are unlocked from Level 15 onwards, and allow you to earn rewards by focusing on certain tasks over the course of several raids. For example, one Trial might task you with dealing damage to Hornets, while another might challenge you to loot Supply Drops.

Trials refresh on a weekly basis, with a new week bringing five new Trials. Each Trial can offer up to three rewards after passing certain score milestones, and it’s possible to receive very high level loot from these reward crates - including Blueprints. So if you want to unlock as many Blueprints as possible, you should make a point of completing as many Trials as possible each week.

Best Blueprint farming locations

The very best way to get Blueprints is to frequent specific areas of the maps which combine high-tier loot pools with the right types of containers to search. Here are my recommendations for where to find Blueprints on every map, so you can always keep the search going for new crafting recipes to unlock.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Dam Battlegrounds

The best places to farm Blueprints on Dam Battlegrounds are the Control Tower, Power Generation Complex, Ruby Residence, and Pale Apartments . The first two regions, despite only being marked on the map as mid-tier loot, contain a phenomenal number of containers to loot. The Control Tower can also contain a couple of high-tier Security Lockers - though of course, you’ll need to have unlocked the Security Breach skill at the end of the Survival tree.

There’s also a lot of reporting amongst the playerbase that the Residential areas in the top-left of the map - Pale Apartments and Ruby Residence - give you a comparatively strong chance of finding Blueprints. Considering their size, there’s a high density of containers to loot in both locations, and they also have the benefit of being fairly out of the way. So you’re more likely to have all the containers to yourself.

Buried City

The best Blueprint farming locations on Buried City are the Santa Maria Houses, Grandioso Apartments, Town Hall, and the various buildings of the New District . Grandioso Apartments has a lower number of containers than the rest, but a high chance of spawning weapon cases - which have good Blueprint drop rates. The others are high-tier loot areas, with plenty of lootable containers - including Security Lockers.

Spaceport

The best places to find Blueprints on Spaceport are the Arrival and Departure Buildings, as well as Control Tower A6 and the Launch Towers . All these areas are labelled as high-value loot regions, and many of them are also very handily connected to one another by the Spaceport wall, which you can use to quickly run from one area to the next. At the tops of most of these buildings you’ll find at least one Security Locker, so this is an excellent farming route for players looking to find Blueprints.

The downside to looting Blueprints on Spaceport is that all these areas are hotly contested, particularly in Duos and Squads. You’ll need to be very focused and fast in order to complete the full farming route.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blue Gate

Blue Gate tends to have a good chance of dropping Blueprints, potentially because it generally has a high number of containers which can hold lots of items; so there’s a higher chance of a Blueprint spawning in each container. In my experience, the best Blueprint farming spots on Blue Gate are Pilgrim’s Peak, Raider’s Refuge, the Ancient Fort, and the Underground Complex beneath the Warehouse .

All of these areas contain a wealth of containers to loot. Raider’s Refuge has less to loot, but the majority of the containers in and around the Refuge are raider containers, which have a high chance of containing Blueprints - particularly during major events.

Stella Montis

On the whole, Stella Montis seems to have a very low drop rate for Blueprints (though a high chance of dropping other high-tier loot). If you do want to try farming Blueprints on this map, the best places to find Blueprints in Stella Montis are Medical Research, Assembly Workshop, and the Business Center . These areas have the highest density of containers to loot on the map.

In addition to this, the Western Tunnel has a few different Security Lockers to loot, so while there’s very little to loot elsewhere in this area of the map, it’s worth hitting those Security Lockers if you spawn there at the start of a match.

That wraps up this primer on how to get all the Blueprints in Arc Raiders as quickly as possible. With the Expedition system constantly resetting a large number of players’ Blueprints, it’s more important than ever to have the most up-to-date information on where to find all these Blueprints.

While you’re here, be sure to check out our Arc Raiders best guns tier list , as well as our primers on the best skills to unlock and all the different Field Depot locations on every map.

ARC Raiders

PS5 , Xbox Series X/S , PC

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