The process is simple: we take last year's list, propose a bunch of additions, tweaks and removals, and then hold a series of hours-long discussions going step-by-step through every suggestion. Sometimes there is shouting. There are a few guiding principles that we stick to when we put this list together. For example, new pc games 2012 download full version free always clear that this isn't a ranking of the greatest—or most important —PC games of all time, but rather the best PC games to play right now.
It's a reflection of all the brilliant experiences the industry has to offer ina yearly, admittedly multi-thousand-word, snapshot. Yes, that includes some retro classics that hold up nicely, but it also means celebrating the impact of bold new releases. We also prefer to highlight the breadth and variety of the platform, and so we've limited ourselves to one game per series. But the most important principle is that it should reflect us as a team, and who we are as PC gamers.
With lots of new additions to our crew since last year, that means some exciting changes to our list. Steven: Warframe has had some ups and downs over the last year, but it's still an innovative, strange, and absorbing MMO shooter unlike anything else on the PC. No other game comes close to doing what Warframe does—especially now that it has ship-to-ship space combat and a Shadow of Mordor-style Nemesis System.
The amount of stuff to do in Warframe is positively mind-boggling. And with a major story expansion coming later this year, there's never been new pc games 2012 download full version free better time to start playing. Fraser: I'm immediately lost whenever I return to Warframe, but the way it reinvents itself and keeps adding unexpected new features always keeps me coming back.
I've not had a chance to grow bored of new pc games 2012 download full version free yet. Tim: Hearthstone retains its place thanks to the triumph that is the Battlegrounds mode, which has surely overtaken Standard as the main reason to play.
Smartly, Blizzard is pumping resources into BGs to keep the minion and hero pools fresh. It's also rolling out paid cosmetics inevitably to keep the accountants happy, but that feels reasonable given how good the BGs experience is. Building a lobby-dominating comp is like creating your own Rube Goldberg machine and letting it run riot.
Even when the plan doesn't pan out, the feeling is of moreishness—a stark contrast to the despair of the ladder experience. Alan: Whole-hearthedly agree with Tim here—Hearthstone's ladder experience may be joy-sapping, but it more than new pc games 2012 download full version free up for those lows with variety. Battlegrounds are ridiculous, the weekly Tavern Brawls can be fantastically broken, Duels can be great when not awash with over-tuned Quest decksand Arena is just as random as it ever was.
Steven: EVE Online has slipped down from last year's position largely because of a series of controversies involving microtransactions and economic rebalancing that players are not happy about. Since its release, EVE Online has struggled to invent systems that both enable its cataclysmically large battles while keeping a level playing field new pc games 2012 download full version free both sides.
This also isn't the first time EVE Online has landed in hot water with its players, and it won't be the last.
But what's consistent through its highs and lows is EVE Online's singular ability to spark intergalactic drama in its crucible of player-driven war. Even now, EVE Online is in the midst of its most destructive conflict of all time as two sides of the galaxy wage war on each other.
Fleet commanders have staged daring rescue attempts, desperate last stands, and cunning ambushes. Meanwhile, the rest of the galaxy pulses and thrums to the rhythm of hundreds of smaller conflicts erupting each and every day.
That sense of existing in a living, breathing ecosystem with other players is new pc games 2012 download full version free that no other MMO has, and your ability to build your own legacy in the ebb and flow of its player-driven empires is, to this day, remarkable.
Even if EVE's complicated controls and steep learning curve turn you away, you should still take every opportunity to read about each new and bloody chapter its players are writing. Rachel: The most charming board game out there, and that includes both the physical and virtual versions. It's an engine-building card game where you play as bird enthusiasts trying to attract birds to your wildlife preserve. Each card has a bird fact and an illustration that has been wonderfully animated in the digital version.
Definitely one to play with friends who like a laid-back approach to competitive card games. Wes: Bird facts! Wingspan's theme really is delightful.
Beneath that is a modern classic "easy to learn, hard to master" strategy game, with tons of clever interplay between the different types of birds. My favorites are the predators, which can snatch other bird cards out of the deck for you to score points.
So much of Wingspan is cleverly and delicately balanced to make it feel like your bird 'engine' is accelerating as you close in on the finish. The rounds get shorter towards the end, making each decision more meaningful. As you play more birds into each of your wildlife rows, they're all 'activated' each time you trigger the row, kicking off a cavalcade of activity like laying eggs a key resource or drawing more bird cards to expand your aviary.
Almost every game of Wingspan I've played has ended in a nail-biter, a testament to how many viable strategies there are to win with. Jody: I didn't expect to recommend the cyberpunk RPG with elves, but here we are. Dragonfall may have a setting where dragons give up hoarding gold to become megacorp CEOs hoarding stock options, where a dwarf hacker mastercrafts software like a smith forging magic axes, but it understands the genre like few other games do shout-out to Umurangi Generation and The Red Strings Club.
It's explicitly anti-authoritarian, an entire game about about holding together an anarcho-state in Berlin. With elves. It's the best revivalist CRPG too. Fraser: Desperados 3 is the newest tactics new pc games 2012 download full version free from Mimimi Games, but 's Shadow Tactics remains my favourite thanks to the Edo setting and charismatic cast.
It looks stunning, much more so than the Wild West, and by the end you won't want to say goodbye to your band of killer pals. And beyond that, it's still a superb, sneaky tactics new pc games 2012 download full version free that encourages creativity, experimentation and, of course, save scumming. Bonus points new pc games 2012 download full version free letting us use an adorable tanuki for murder.
New pc games 2012 download full version free I was super jazzed about the first two hours of Shadow Tactics, but then it got very hard and I tossed it in the bin.
Tactical stealth movement works really great new pc games 2012 download full version free I loved the gadgets, but I kind of wish it was turn-based like Invisible, Inc. Phil: Let's not revisit the real-time vs turn-based argument again—there's too much list left for us to start fighting now. For what it's worth, though, I think the Shadow Mode—which lets you pause the action to plan and synchronise your squad's next move—offers a nice middle ground. Sarah: I want to tell everyone to play this visual novel from Novectacle, and I've been spoiled for any similar games I've played since.
It's made up of intertwined stories spanning various characters and time periods and takes you, the protagonist, on an often traumatic journey as you attempt to rediscover your identity. The clean and vibrant art style is pure screenshot fodder, and the soundtrack captures the mood within individual stories and scenes with haunting accuracy.
The story starts out slowly but it gets darker and more intricate the further you progress, and depends on the decisions you make throughout. Fair warning though—the subject matter covered in Fata Morgana could be potentially triggering for some.
Jody: I love the music and some of the art, but found the subject matter a bit much. Fata Morgana lays on tragedies with a trowel, especially sexual violence, until they lose impact. It's great to have a visual novel in the list, though. Jody: If you went through a "slightly too into vampires" phase, Bloodlines is for you. An RPG made by people who played immersive sims, it turns you into a bloodsucker then turns you loose on the streets of LA.
To survive you have to drink blood in lush, spotlit scenes, the camera spinning round the actand navigate vampire society in dialogue with characters so expressive they make more recent games seem stiff. Its vampires are vintage manipulators, as much a danger to each other as their hunters are.
You're given plenty of freedom in how you deal with them—enough rope to make your own noose. Phil: Given that the planned sequel doesn't seem to be happening, I guess we'll pop the original back in the list.
Just make sure to download the fan-made patch before you play it. Morgan: I love a good immersive sim, but the further back I reach into the genre's history, the jankier they get. I'll give Bloodlines a shot one of these days. The clear care that's gone into the Remastered Collection's presentation gives you the space to focus on what's truly remarkable about these games: that, over a quarter of a century after their original release, they're still a hell of a lot of fun to play.
The pacey campaign missions challenge you to wipe out your enemy with often limited resources, making full use of environmental features, special units and a weird and wonderful tech tree. It's a concentrated blast of everything that makes the RTS genre new pc games 2012 download full version free. Actually, wait, that's only the second most remarkable thing about these games. The most remarkable thing is their music, which is given centre stage through the Remastered Collection's Jukebox feature.
Any new footage of Joseph Kucan in-character as Kane is a gift to the universe. What kind of space captain do you want to be? Your version of Commander Shepard's free to be a diplomat giving inspiring speeches, a badass punching first and shooting later, or a dreamboat smooching blue aliens.
The first game starts strong, introducing a galaxy built on familiar sci-fi ideas, but with rad weird aliens too. It finishes strong as well, a run of missions building to a climax new pc games 2012 download full version free you defeat an impossibly powerful invader.
In the middle there's some padding where you drive across identikit planets, which is a shame. And the less said about the third game's ending, the better. Mass Effect Legendary Edition is mostly in this list for Mass Effect 2, the Goldilocks centrepiece that set plot aside to focus on character. Mass Effect 2 has you put together a crew of 12 squadmates who, like the universe they're in, build on familiar cliches taken to surprising places.
Across missions that jump from undercover infiltration to action setpiece to mystery thriller you get to know your Dirty Dozen, and in choosing how you respond to their dilemmas, build a hero to lead them.
By the end you feel so much ownership of your Shepard, you'll get confused by screenshots because the wrong character is in them. Phil: I've worked at PC Gamer for almost a decade now, which means my overriding memory of Mass Effect is us arguing which one should be included in the Top each year. Finally, BioWare has put an end new pc games 2012 download full version free that argument by releasing them all as one game.
And for that reason alone, it should be celebrated. Also because the games are good—if increasingly showing their age. Phil: A puzzle game about building beautiful machines. You're tasked with creating alchemical compounds, using pistons and rotators to manipulate atoms into their desired form.
But as much as the story has fun with the conceit, the real satisfaction of Opus Magnum comes from the process of engineering a solution. There is no one way to solve any of the game's problems, and that means every machine is inherently your own design. Your attempt may be inefficient, even inelegant, but you'll love it all the same.
Mollie: I think I may be one of the last remaining Sea of Thieves likers on our team, and that's mostly because I'm a massive gremlin in the game.
