Let’s say you’ve recently joined the ranks of the PC elite. Which games should you install? Start with the ones we’ve listed below.
The best way to explain Minecraft’s success is to see it as tapping into humanity’s need to build huge outlandish structures. Indie designer Markus Persson’s hit title has let people recreate everything from the Death Star to retro video game levels, while also providing a survival adventure mechanic to keep things interesting.
A Good Match for: Frustrated urban planners. Aside from the dodging the game’s monstrous green Creepers, all you need to build your Tower of Babel is patience and time.
Not a Good Match For: Those who want hi-res graphics. Part of Minecraft’s charm is in its blown-out pixellated aesthetics so, if you prefer a steady diet of Unreal Engine-powered content, pass up Mojang’s sandbox phenomenon.
There’s no shortage of ambition in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Geralt of Rivia’s latest adventure is massive, a world you can get lost in for hours and still have plenty to do. And while many games these days have sprawling landscapes, The Witcher 3 is utterly dense. Every nook and cranny is filled with memorable characters, clever writing, and rewards for curious players. The main story is as thrilling as it is emotionally draining, and the side quests are actually worth doing! Best of all? You don’t need to have played a Witcher game to enjoy the heck out of the third.
A Good Match For: Open-world fans, especially those who enjoyed Skyrim but were disappointed by the combat. In The Witcher 3, fighting is nearly as enjoyable as exploration.
Not a Good Match For: People who value their time and social life, or those who prefer their games hyper-polished—the PC version of The Witcher 3 runs pretty well, but the game still has its share of funky bugs and other (mostly minor) technical issues.
Sure, there have been other shooters on this list. Shooters where you drive a tank, shooters where you fly a hang glider, shooters where you pilot a giant robot. But if one game about shooting other people belongs on a list of the best PC games, it’s Counter-Strike. Global Offensive has had an interesting run on Steam, evolving from a first draft that left many longtime CS players disappointed to a robust, fine-tuned shooter that is constantly being tweaked, updated, and improved. It’s a game that you can play for a few minutes a week or for several hours a day, and you’ll always get something out of it. There will always be another match to play, always another team to take on, always another bomb to defuse or hostage to rescue.
A Good Match For: The competitive, the precise, those who like a challenge. Anyone who wants to feel like the time they invest in getting good at a game won’t be undone by a new sequel next year.
Not A Good Match For: The timid, the shy, the uncoordinated. Counter-Strike is a famously punishing game, and you’ll need to build up some solid skills to feel like you’re not dragging your team down.
The legendary turn-based strategy series changed things up significantly with Civilization V to make would-be world domination tons more streamlined. Maps are easier to navigate, crucial information flows easier and it’s the best-looking entry in the family tree. And now with two terrific expansions in Gods & Kings and Brave New World, Civ V is meatier, more complex, and easier to recommend than ever.
A Good Match for: Event planners. Like a wedding or a milestone birthday party, Civilization V’s all about knowing your guests and what they need to have a good time. Of course, those “guests” are rival nations and “a good time” is submitting to the power of your empire.
Not a Good Match For: Those who want the older Civ games. Civilization V is no incremental sequel, and the difference could alienate die-hard fans of the historical franchise.
In 2010, Square Enix launched Final Fantasy XIV Online, and it was just the worst thing ever — buggy, over-complicated, unfinished — a mess. The developers spent three years rebuilding the game from the ground up, and the end result is one of the finest massively multiplayer online role-playing games ever made. It’s everything fans love about Final Fantasy — lush artwork, strong story, gorgeous music — only bigger, all wrapped around a traditional MMO framework. It’s that Square Enix polish that sets it apart from other games in the genre, earning it a spot in the Bests.
A Good Match For: Fans of fantasy role-playing video games looking to take the massively multiplayer plunge. The original Final Fantasy XIV was a tangled mess of conflicting ideas, when all players wanted was a standard MMO game with the familiar features of a Final Fantasy game. That’s exactly what Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is.
Not a Good Match For: Folks afraid of monthly subscriptions. Despite the MMORPG genere as a whole moving towards free-to-play payment models, Final Fantasy XIV stands firm by its $14.95 monthly subscription plan.
Just a man and a dog, looking to make a delivery. That’s how it all begins, anyway. ButKentucky Route Zero quickly becomes a mystical adventure through a land left behind by time, an odyssey in magical realism that feels grand and mysterious in a way that very, very few modern video games can muster. It’s not like anything you’ve ever played, and for that alone, you should play it.
A Good Match For: Anyone looking for something different. Those who still believe there’s magic hidden somewhere off the interstate.
Not A Good Match For: Those looking for a bunch of complex game mechanics—Kentucky Route Zero is a point-and-click adventure game, and a fairly simple one at that. Also, not for those who want closure—the five-act series is only on act three, and there tends to be a long wait between chapters.
It’s one of very few video games that can be called a national obsession. Elite players of Blizzard’s real-time strategy sequel can out-earn corporate middlemen in China or Korea, but the sci-fi conflict simulator’s most significant currency is the devotion from millions all over the world.
A Good Match for: Jugglers. Succeeding in StarCraft II means waging war on multiple fronts as you keep an eye on resources, deployment, defense and offense in skirmishes where you can be overrun in an instant.
Not a Good Match For: Those hoping for a gentle introduction. New participants to theStarcraft multiplayer experience will get chewed up as they learn the strengths and weaknesses of the Zerg, Protoss and Terran factions.
Obsidian’s old-school isometric RPG Pillars of Eternity looks and feels like a decade-late sequel to PC classics like Baldur’s Gate and Planescape Torment. But under the surface, the newer game finds a balance between the old and the new, tickling people’s memories of 1998 while adding the innovative tools and enhancements you might expect from a video game in 2015. Pillars of Eternity is a well-made, fascinating role-playing game with a lot of heart.
A Good Match For: Pen-and-paper RPG fans, anyone who loved classic late-90s CRPGs… or anyone who didn’t play those games but likes a good story.
Not A Good Match For: People looking for something more action-packed; anyone who doesn’t like to read. Compared with a modern RPG, Pillars feels like a text adventure game. That’s part of its charm, but if you want mo-cap cutscenes and high-res character models, this isn’t your game.
You can almost hear the battle cries and smell the gunpowder in what is arguably Creative Assembly’s finest strategy game, which gives players the goal of ascending to supreme military domination against rival feudal lords. Improvements in AI behavior and the introduction of skills allocation let you be a more flexible commander than in previous Total War games.
A Good Match For: Akira Kurosawa fans. Some of the Japanese director’s best dramas took place in Japan’s feudal period, and this Total War game gives a big-picture view of the kinds of conflicts that daimyo and samurai soldiers experienced. Everything about Shogun 2—from the artwork to the soundtrack to the overarching gameplay goals—puts you inside a living history lesson.
Not a Good Match For: Fans of Creative Assembly’s more ambitious projects. Unlike Empire or Rome, which let you build an empire spanning continents against vastly different foes, Shogun is fairly limited in its scale.
Call it the Superman 2 or Empire Strikes Back of video games. Valve’s follow-up to a classic improves on the humor, characterization and puzzle-solving of its predecessor to deliver a tight, focused experience full of poignancy and humor.
A Good Match for: Comedy lovers. The voicework alone—performed in stellar fashion by Stephen Merchant, J.K. Simmons and Ellen McLain—will make you laugh out loud, but the brain-teasing puzzles and embedded gags keep the chuckles coming even when everything else in the game goes quiet.
Not a Good Match For: Mediocrity fans. People who argue with Portal 2’s greatness are like folks complaining that diamonds came from dirt. Their argument is invalid.
With Heroes of the Storm, Blizzard has made a MOBA that’s approachable and fun for newcomers without sacrificing the depth and complexity the genre is known for. It’s a colorful melting pot of characters from the StarCraft, Warcraft, and Diablo universes, all duking it outSmash Bros. style.
A Good Match For: Prospective MOBA players who’ve been too scared to give the genre a try. Competitive gamers who enjoy short, 15-20 minute bursts of nonstop action combined with intricate tactical maneuvering and decision-making. Anyone who’s wanted to see Diablo’s Diablo fight against StarCraft’s Zeratul.
Not a Good Match For: People who don’t like highly competitive team-based multiplayer games. You have to communicate and collaborate with four other people constantly to succeed, and tensions can run high.
Our game of the year for 2012, XCOM: Enemy Unknown may be well known thanks to the rare success of a turn-based strategy game on consoles. But XCOM’s true home is the PC, andEnemy Unknown honors its heritage with dramatic tension and decision-making that truly feels consequential. Tasked with repelling an alien invasion of earth, some of your most precipitous choices take place away from the battlefield, in choosing what weapons systems to fund, which country to rescue from an alien incursion, and which ally you simply cannot help.XCOM: Enemy Unknown is also a rarity in that it features both a compelling story and near endless replayability. In 2013, Firaxis added Enemy Within, a sizable expansion that adds a ton of new abilities, enemies, maps and challenges to an already substantial game, as well as the terrific Long War mod, a further bonus for PC players.
A Good Match for: Gamers who love a good challenge and have a good imagination, who can invest in the many small battlefield stories XCOM specializes in. The investment in individual soldiers becomes nearly emotional, and losing them in battle can be agonizing.
Not a Good Match For: Those looking for fast-paced action, or who expect to grind their way to overwhelming victory on the battlefield. You’ll have to think long and hard about your decisions in XCOM, and games are often decided by long-term strategic planning, not battlefield acumen.
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.