The 100+ Best PC Exclusive Games In 2026

The Séance of Blake Manor PC

A first-person deductive, investigative mystery. A melting pot of the upper-crust and mystics have gathered at the titular Blake Manor, and you're here to investigate a disappearance. Plus, you can talk to the dead, and get involved with the supernatural shenanigans going on here. The inhabitants are constantly going about their business, some of them more suspicious than others, and everything you can observer, overhear or intuit can help you piece the case together, and lead to one of several possible endings. Great writing and style - a top tier whodunnit.

MADNESS: Project Nexus PC

From the makers of the old Madness animations on Newgrounds (in which Rayman-like abstract commandos with floaty limbs fight running gun-battles through abstract cyber-Nevada) comes this official game. Or, rather, games - this is effectively two in one. There's a lengthy story campaign based more directly on the flash animations with tightly scripted missions, but also a sandbox RPG 'career' mode, where you work your way up through the ranks as a gun for hire, buying new gear and stat upgrades, then unlocking new classes for future playthroughs. Whichever mode you play (solo or co-op) expect extreme violence and satisfying gunplay.

ZeroRanger PC

Whether you're an arcade freak or a newcomer to the genre, ZeroRanger is one of the best, most stylish vertically scrolling shmups ever made, full of reverence for the genre's best. Presented in a striking green-and-orange limited palette, this one moves at a breakneck pace, one setpiece after another punctuated with spectacular boss fights and amazing music. There's a bit more to it, with some secrets to uncover, a true ending to fight towards, and a true one-of-a-kind finale that I've never seen another game do like this. All from a tiny two-man Finnish indie studio.

Fields of Mistria PC

One of the most popular farming games outside of Stardew Valley, just recently launched out of early access. Putting a retro anime spin on the formula, it's a familiar format, with romance to be sought, livestock to be raised and monsters to be beat up in the mines. One of the areas it differs is magic, with an assortment of useful utility spells you can learn to help in both the dungeons and speed up your farming endeavors. Still, overall this one's a very gently paced, built for solo play and more story-focused than its peers. It has been a big hit with hundreds of thousands of players.

Echo Point Nova PC

A relatively recent release but an FPS experience unlike any other. There's very little story to speak of here - you're a cool space commando with a hoverboard and a grappling hook that somehow works on clouds. There's a huge archipelago of sky-islands to explore and dig through, Minecraft-style. There's also many bad guys to shoot, including giant mechs, gunships, and even gianter climbable mechs with internal weak-points, Shadow Of The Colossus style. High-mobility, total freedom and satisfying precision shooting. Also has some fun light RPG elements and build-crafting, full co-op, a massive free expansion AND great Steam Workshop support to expand the sky-islands out as far as the community want to build.

Team Fortress 2 PC

Briefly available on consoles during the PS360 era, but the Team Fortress 2 that exists now on PC is a radically different beast. Still recieving major updates almost 20 years after release, this is still one of the most fun multiplayer shooters around. Two class-based teams (arguably the OG 'Hero Shooter'), wacky and memorable characters, tons of maps and play-modes and even some fun PvE horde mode stuff to dig around with. Not only are there thousands of mods, but a recent new generation has started, including this back-to-basics reboot that aims to roll back much of the scope creep and excess complexity built up over the decades

Witchfire PC

Currently in the final phases of early access, Witchfire is a game by Destiny super-fans for their peers, but without any of the live-service fluff and padding. A solo FPS set in a gothic alternate history, you're a gunslinging wizard working for the pope, hunting a witch's legions. Each expedition is like a roguelike run through multiple encounters in a dynamic miniature open world, levelling up Dark Souls style (corpse-runs and all if you die) and slowly unlocking new weapons, gear and artifacts to improve your build. Fantastic graphics, combat (it is VERY Destiny), level design and plenty of surprises. The deeper you progress, the more old levels evolve, adding new threats, enemies and areas to explore.

Squad PC

Halfway between Battlefield and Arma, Squad is a gritty, realistic modern sim-shooter. Much more focused on player planning and cooperation than Battlefield, with some light base-building to open up fresh fronts on the battlefield. Huge maps, realistic ballistics and a steep learning curve, but still intuitive enough to jump in and play. While PvP-focused (with big 50v50 servers) there are also bots to practice against plus an optional small-scale co-op mode for up to five players available as DLC. But the real life of the game is in its mods, including the likes of Galactic Contention, a massive Star Wars total conversion, and SquadZ, which turns the game into an asymmetrical zombie nightmare.

ULTRAKILL PC

Mankind is dead. You are a machine warrior fueled by blood. Hell is full. The two most influential shooters of the past decade are probably Doom Eternal and Ultrakill, and both of them are playing with the idea of turning the FPS into a high-mobility character action game that's as much Devil May Cry or Bayonetta as Doom. This low-fi gem isn't even complete yet, but has an enormous, absolutely feral fanbase hungry for every new enemy, map or tidbit of (shockingly well-written) lore, referencing everythning from Dante's Inferno to House Of Leaves, and with an all-star soundtrack.

Gloomwood PC

Still in early access but shaping up to be a greatest-of-all-time immersive sim. Take one part Thief, one part Resident Evil 4 and one part Bloodborne and you're most of the way. Set in a gothic city built on a foundation of mad science, sneaking will let you avoid undue trouble, take out patrolling enemies and set the groundwork for when things go south and you're thrown into (remarkably satisfying) combat. Freeform exploration through an interconnected world and some great supernatural powers make this one make this a sneaky gem without being a 'pure' stealth game.

Escape from Tarkov PC

The game that defined the extraction shooter as we know it now, and still very popular. Gear up, head out into a dilapidated Russian no-man's-land, fight NPC enemies and loot what you can before coming on home. Make it back, and you can sell or recycle what you scavenged. Die, and almost everything you were carrying is left to be looted by whoever finds your body. Abraisive design and a feral PvP player-base makes this one less than mainstream, but still worthy of its place here. It might be leaving soon though, as console ports have been announced.

Black Mesa PC

The Half-Life series might have found homes on consoles, but this Valve-endorsed, community-made remake of the original game remains a PC exclusive. In my (questionable) opinion, it's the best version of the game, especially taking into account its vastly expanded reinterpretation of the previously-wonky Xen chapter. It's a significantly changed experience and not a true replacement for playing the classic original, but if you've only got time in your life for a single Half-Life, this is the one we'd pick.

Cruelty Squad PC

The true sickos pick. It looks and sounds like an early Rainbow Six game that fell into a vat of radioactive MSPaint and came out all lumpy and depressed. It plays like a twitchy immersive sim nightmare set in a hyper-capitalist world where death is a financial irritation and murder is just a business disciplinary policy. Hugely replayable missions, tons of unlockable biopunk gadgets and a rabbit-hole of secrets to explore. Who can say no to navigating a capitalist hellscape using a grappling-hook appendix and a double-jump that launches excess bio-waste out of your legs?

Counter-Strike 2 PC

The almost-uncontested king of competitive shooters (with only Valorant taking a decent shot at the crown), seldom with under a half-million players online and (mostly) free. While the original Counter-Strike saw several console variants, this latest iteration is PC-only. Home to one of the sweatiest, saltiest, most foul-mouthed fanbases in gaming. Ever-evolving, with every major update shaking up the global competitive meta.

Project Silverfish PC

While the STALKER series has finally made the hop to consoles, even the older games are a surprising performance hog on PC. Project Silverfish, by mostly-solo developer Siris Pendrake feels like a sleek, pared-down and accelerated take on the post-apocalyptic scavenger shooter genre. Loot everything in a world where humanity is mostly extinct, weird science runs amok, fae magic has returned and lizard-folk (you!) are now the dominant species. The strange setting and sometimes mystical threats give this one a distinct flavor, setting it apart from its peers and inspirations.

Garry's Mod PC

Less a game, more of a vast set of tools. At its simplest level, it lets you goof around with physics props and characters from Half-Life 2. At its highest level, you've got whole games like Jazztronauts, a part-visual-novel, optionally co-op adventure about joining a band of extradimensional cat burglars (they're burglars AND cats) to steal anything that's not nailed down across the entire Steam Workshop. There are roleplay servers, combat challenges, mods within mods and over a million user-made things to explore. Whether it's chaotic multiplayer experiences or solipsistic slow-paced exploration through vast community-made environments, there's something for everyone here.

Yume Nikki PC

One of the most influential indie games of the past 15 years, and free, too. Made in RPG Maker, it's a low-fi, wordless exploration adventure about a young woman in a small apartment diving deeper and deeper into her surreal dreams. There's been countless imitators, dozens of fan-games and plenty of titles taking inspiration from this, but none hit quite the same as the original. Go in with no preconceptions, a cup of tea, and just wander the strange halls, interpreting the signs and experimenting with dream-logic. Maybe you'll find an ending, if dreams even have such a thing.

ENA: Dream BBQ PC

True surrealist art. A comedic first-person dive through a fragmented world inspired by early CD-ROM multimedia 'experiences', based on the hugely popular YouTube animation series by Joel Guerra. Currently just one (free) episode out of a planned three, with the other two thirds likely to cost money as and when they're released. But as a standalone ENA experience, it's a wild ride. Watch the first few animations then dive in.

Frog Fractions: Game of the Decade Edition PC

Frog Fractions is free! You should play it, and experience it, and come back asking 'What the heck did I just play?'. Well, good news: There's more of this unhinged genre-hopping fusion of screwball comedy, puzzle and minigames! Frog Fractions 2 was a global ARG and soup-review channel on YouTube, plus the friends we made along the way. Frog Fractions 3 is hidden inside another game entirely - Glittermitten Grove - and Frog Fractions 4 is hidden inside cosmetic DLC for Frog Fractions 1. Yes, you're meant to be confused. Just go with the flow and experience one of the most unhinged experiences that has ever come to PC. This would never come to consoles because no publisher would even understand what it is.

MiSide PC

A recent teen horror hit. You're trapped inside a videogame with your perfect virtual girlfriend, Mita. She really wants you to stay where you are, be good and not cause any trouble. Definitely do not look outside the bounds of your perfect little house. And absolutely ignore any other iterations of the girl that might claim you're in danger. A densely packed adventure with some good scares (though nothing too intense or graphic) and plenty of twists over the course of 4-5 hours of genre and tonally hopping action. We're surprised this one isn't being adapted as the next big indie horror movie.

GTFO PC

Behind the silly title is one of the most hardcore co-op (although bots are available) games you will ever play. First-person survival horror stealth. You're a squad of four sent to complete tasks in a vast research complex overrun by horrible mutant monsters, and you've never got enough ammo to deal with everything. Sneak, take out potentially noisy creatures with melee weapons, hack terminals with command-line interfaces and conserve bullets for when things inevitably go south. Huge, VERY challenging and with hundreds more community-made missions.

White Knuckle PC

First-person cyberpunk mountaineering horror. You are trapped in a vast brutalist megastructure, and are being pursued by a giant all-consuming wall of angry flesh that's bubbling up from the tunnels below. Climb fast, ration pitons, don't look down. Despite the simple (if horrifying) concept there's a huge amount of variety to be found here, in both environments and mechanics, and it is never anything less than butt-clenchingly tense. Still in early access but fantastic already and with randomized modes and mods aplenty to keep replay value high.

Voices Of The Void PC

Available from developer MrDrNose.

One of the biggest, most ambitious horror games around, completely free. Not on Steam, but worth stepping outside of the walled garden. You are Dr Kel, assigned to running an abandoned, decepit radio telescope facility in the Swiss Alps. Solo. Record stellar noise and do your job (often requiring ATV trips across the mountains) to earn credit to upgrade, clean up and make life in the wilds a bit more cozy. Engaging and relaxing, up until strange things begin happening and your job gets gradually deadlier by the day. Dozens of hours of slow-burn horror nestled in relaxation, laughter and virtual home-making. One of the coziest scary games around, and shockingly intricate.

Scarlet Hollow PC

While Slay The Princess (their romantic horror visual novel) might be Black Tabby's best known game, Scarlet Hollow is their main project. A sprawling, reactive horor/RPG visual novel set in modern-day haunted Appalachia. Still in early access but due for its final release relatively soon, each of Scarlet Hollow's seven planned (five currently) chapters has a word-count comparable to the entirety of Slay The Princes, although you'll only see a fraction of it on any given playthrough. Every choice has repercussions, and the perks you choose to define your character at the start will have massive, far-reaching effects on the story.

Psychopomp GOLD PC

Originally released as a free experimental short, and re-launched in expanded form to even greater commercial success. Psychopomp is an unsettling fusion of first-person dungeon crawl, point-and-click adventure and horror about a strange young woman who builds a helmet that lets her see the truth of the world. That truth is that beneath every public building, there are vast, strange dungeons populated by even wierder creatures. Some friendly, some hostile. Your interaction verbs include Look, Talk, Tough and Claw Hammer. Not a long game, but an unforgettable (if sickly) experience, setting things up for the upcoming, even more ambitious sequel.

Oxygen Not Included PC

One of the most in-depth colony builder games outside of Dwarf Fortress.Despite its cute and cartoony aesthetics, Oxygen Not Included demands a lot of thought and planning in building your little space colony, with full air circulation and carefully designed plumbing. Air temperature, possible pathogenic vectors, it's all here to track and wrestle with. While the base game is complex enough, each of the five major expansions adds additional layers, with new kinds of planets to explore, new types of colonists to experiment on and new technologies to goof around with.

Dwarf Fortress PC

The game that defined the colony builder as we know it. Rimworld, Timberborn and many others are built on this foundation. And what a foundation it is. It can be argued that Dwarf Fortress is more of a hyper-detailed fantasy world simulation that you just happen to be able to build a dwarven colony in. This is a simulation so detailed that cats can get drunk from walking through spilled beer then cleaning their paws. Expect a long learning curve, but so many stories to tell. While the current Steam version has graphics, easy mod support & quality-of-life improvements, the original 2006 free version is still being updated.

Timberborn PC

One of the best town-builders in recent years, recently graduating from early access. You're building a town for a clan of anthropomorphic beaver-people, which means lots of wood, dams and creative multi-tiered building projects. While not inherently hardcore, there's enough simulation elements here to make creative, complex building projects viable, challenging and very satisfying to build your colony around. Plus, there's two factions - one eco-friendly, one industrial-focused, making for two distinct play-styles. Despite leaving early access, Timberborn is still growing, with a recent update adding a new tier of monuments to build, plus saunas, dance pits and airlocks. And, of course, as with so many PC exclusives, there's full mod support, so you don't have to leave it to beaver.

Dyson Sphere Program PC

Over five years into early access with no end in sight, Dyson Sphere Program is PC maximalist design at its best. Starting with just a humble construction mech, you're tasked with creating dyson spheres - impossibly vast megastructures that harness the power of an entire solar system. This works a bit like playing Factorio or Satisfactory on an interplanetary scale, with you building colossal automated factory complexes, chaining them together to gather the improbable amounts of resources needed for your job, and then expanding your production and resource chains between planets (and even star systems) to get it done. While there's a little bit of combat here (defending your structures against self-replicating drones), this is a largely peaceful game. Mod support, too!

Manor Lords PC

One of the most detailed and ambitious medieval town-builders around, still in early access but hugely popular already, continually growing and with no real end-point in mind. From detailed construction, in-depth production chains, realistic farming simulation and more, Manor Lords aims to cover all the major bases of medieval life and leadership. It would be a good enough game if it just stopped at town-building and working towards prosperity, but your town is just one small border territory on the edge of a greater kingdom, which means conflict with neighbours. Manor Lords is also, then, a full-fledged medieval strategy game, with regiments of troops to command, where formation and morale are every bit as important as how well-geared your people are.

Lobotomy Corporation | Monster Management Simulation PC

The game that launched Korean indie studio Project Moon to stratospheric success. A crowdfunded SCP-inspired horror management game. Generate power for a dystopian mega-city by researching 'abmnormalities', strange creatures and artifacts manifested by human will. Each one you add to your ever-expanding facility has its own (initially hidden) quirks and requirements, with some of them being potentially world-ending threats if they breach containment. Brutally tough and uncompromising, with a pitch-dark story, this one's still deeply compelling, and more story-driven than you'd expect. Still, consider some of these quality-of-life mods to sand down the rough edges, and this performance optimization mod to hammer out some kinks in the game's spagghetified code.

MECCHA CHAMELEON PC

A recent explosive overnight hit that puts a fresh spin on Hide & Seek. Use your sticky clay body to attach yourself to the environment, paint yourself until you're camouflaged, then hold your nerve as the hunter players scour the map. You'll score higher if players can look at you and still not see, so bold camo and creative placement is heavily rewarded. Easy to learn with a huge skill ceiling, but best played with friends. Constantly being refined and improved, plus there's countless user-made maps to keep things fresh, whether you're hiding or seeking.

PEAK PC

A small but perfectly formed co-op mountaineering misadventure. Bring your friends, get the proximity voice-chat working (so you can hear their fading screams if they fall) and slowly work your way from your crashed plane, through several wildly different environments all the way to the highest mountain peak in order to call for rescue. Every day, a new mountain is generated, so you can learn the route over multiple tries with friends, but there's a time limit until everything is reset. Can be done solo or with small groups, but absolutely sings with four players, becoming a slapstick comedy of errors, failures, triumphs and surprises.

Lethal Company PC

Lethal Company may not have been the first 4-player co-op hit with proximity voice chat, but it was the game that defined the 'nightmare horror-comedy job sim' genre as we know it. Split up Scooby Doo style, explore incredibly haunted planets, scavenge questionably valuable loot until you hit your quota and then run screaming back to your spaceship to do it again. Still amazing with friends.

Eternal Return PC

MOBA combat, Battle Royale format, and enduringly popular. While you can play the game in classic 4v4 team battle format, the meat-and-potatoes of Eternal Return is a last-team-standing sandbox battle. Eight teams of three enter, one leaves. Loot, fight NPCs, craft gear and prepare for when the map contracts. There's more movement tech here than most MOBAs, including jumping and air-dashing (needed to navigate the map) This one's free to play but potentially expensive if you want to unlock every character without extensive grinding, but you can get good mileage for free.

Dota 2 PC

The one true rival to League Of Legends, and still one of the most played games on Steam. Successor to the great grandaddy of lane-pushing 'MOBA' games. Like a real-time strategy game where you only control one hero character, and support waves of NPC grunts as they push across a multi-lane map. Hunt, level up, buy gear and strategize with your team to cut down enemy players and push your advantages. Over 120 characters to master and free to play! It's supported entirely through cosmetic purchase - the game itself costs nothing.

Tabletop Simulator PC

Tabletop Simulator is exactly what it says on the tin - a virtual tabletop, designed to support anything, though lacking the specialization of dedicated tabletop RPG software. Many board game manufacturers have created official ports to Tabletop Sim, purchased directly on Steam, but the community have created tens of thousands of unofficial ports or whole new games, shared on the Steam Workshop, many with full scripting to handle automated rules management, setup and more. If it's available in a board game store, it's probably here, even if the legality can get a bit fuzzy. To top it all off, Tabletop Simulator has VR support (with flatscreen and VR players able to play together) and a full physics system, allowing for more tangible games, including mini-golf.

Tower Unite PC

A virtual hangout space more than a game by itself, but that doesn't mean there's not plenty to do in Tower Unite. Originally a community-favorite project made in Garry's Mod, what used to be GMod Tower grew into a fully standalone game with its own modding scene. Designed for larger groups (invite your Discord community!), Tower Unite sets players loose on a scenic virtual theme park with full proximity voice chat. Watch movies, play some surprisingly good minigames and goof around in the virtual arcade full of even mini-er games. The Steam Workshop for this one has nearly 20,000 community-made avatars to play with, tens of thousands of items to import, and hundreds of additional levels for the minigames.

Kaizen: A Factory Story PC

After briefly disbanding, the team behind Opus Magnum, Spacechem and other classic 'problem-solver' puzzle games got back together. Kaizen is their first new title, a puzzler about creating assembly lines to feed a world hungry for electronics and toys at the peak of the Japanese '80s tech boom. You're shown the final product and need to create a machine that assembles it from raw parts. Every puzzle has multiple valid solutions, with all players ranked on speed, cost and space used. Oh, and as this is Zachtronics (in all but name), of course there's a solitaire minigame.

Children of the Sun PC

Despite looking like an action game, this is a one-of-a-kind puzzle gem. You are a psychic sniper, hunting a bizarre cult across America's backwoods. Circle your targets, identify where they are, then use a single bullet to take out the entire camp in one deeply satisfying combo. Each time your bullet finds its mark, you can change its direction. Deeply satisfying to plot a seamless course through a dozen opponents, sneaking your shots through windows, between the branches of trees and into explosive and fiery hazards to spread further chaos in just one shot. Stylish, weird, cool.

Void Stranger PC

Where do the developers of ZeroRanger go after mastering the shmup genre? A Sokoban-inspired puzzle game, obviously. I went into this one expecting a fun couple evenings of gentle block-based puzzling. Smash-cut to fifty hours later and the end of a truly epic story that left me in tears. Yes, it's a puzzle game. But it's also a surprisingly deep narrative work and also a five-dimensional puzzle tesseract, where the game's very structure is malleable, explorable and full of secrets. As with ZeroRanger, it keeps things visually simple, but the soundtrack here is mesmerizingly good.

Escape Simulator PC

A great collection of escape rooms adventures, but so much more. Playable alone or with friends, flatscreen or VR, but also this is a full construction kit with almost 3,000 Steam Workshop community creations to play, some almost full-game-length. The 28 escape rooms (spread across several themes, from ancient egyptian to deep space) are juicy enough, but there's also a bundle of free DLC stages, and five additional worlds to buy, each featuring four rooms and full of parts to create even MORE escape rooms with. While the original Escape Simulator is also available as a Meta Quest-native title, the sequel is fully PC-exclusive.

DROD: Gunthro and the Epic Blunder PC

Don't let the relatively slim user-review count fool you, the Deadly Rooms Of Death series has been running since 1996, and been hugely influential. This is just the latest, most accessible version. You are a dungeon exterminator. You move in eight cardinal directions, turn-based style, holding your sword out in front of you. Each turn, you can move or rotate your sword clockwise or counterclockwise. Simple controls, but between fiendish level design and a huge roster of monsters with unique behaviors and quirks, DROD demands focus. And that's even before you touch the other games and expansions in the series (presented here as DLC except for the final game), or delve into the countless community-made dungeons. Or the Magic Tower-styled spinoff series.

Picayune Dreams PC

A genuinely creative take on the Vampire Survivors formula. You are a cyborg, floating through a surreal cosmic void, attacked by your former friends transformed into deadly, grudge-bearing bosses. Between runs, you'll dive into fragmented memories inspired by Yume Nikki and unravel your history, your bonds with the bosses, and unlock permanent upgrades that'll let you get a little closer to the true conclusion of the game. Satisfying build-crafting, strange rendercore aesthetics and a banger of a soundtrack, but what really makes it work is the storytelling. This one has heart.

Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor PC

Also available on mobile but primarily a PC release. An excellent coffee-break spinoff of the co-op FPS, it's mostly familiar Vampire Survivors-inspired gameplay (run around, avoid danger, build weapon synergies that auto-attack around you) with the option to dig your way through stone obstacles to funnel enemies into more manageable formations or escape lurking dangers. Also you've only got a few seconds after hitting your resource quota on each floor to get back to your drill-ship and dig to the next layer, so you've always got to be situationally aware.

Sol Cesto PC

Another one-of-a-kind roguelike gem. A game all about risk management. Your goal: Clear out monsters and grab treasure in 4x4 dungeon screens. You can choose which row to attack next, but which column you land in is based on your character build, and whether you're attracted towards physical or magical enemies, treasures or traps. Numbers that your character build choices skew further. Smart play can lead to wins almost every time, despite the randomness. Real depth, fantastic art (part French classics, part Felix Colgrave), moody music and a unique, off-kilter vibe.

Brutal Orchestra PC

Hell is other perverts in this cult hit combat-heavy roguelike. You are wandering the plains of a surreal afterlife inspired by the work of Hieronymus Bosch, among other classical artists. The strange art, the fantastic soundtrack and the frequently hilarious (if very dark) writing alone would make this worthwhile, but it's all held together with shockingly smart, original combat. Every enemy bleeds colored pigment. You spend pigment on attacks and abilities, but holding too much can harm you, and it's often easy to bleed enemies too much. Real depth, and some great mods too.

Crab Champions PC

Hey, remember that cool music video with the dancing crabs? Well, the musician and artist behind it made a game out of it, and it's great. A fast-paced third-person roguelike shooter where you are a heavily armed crab, blasting your way through islands full of other crustraceans and the occasional haunted skull. Even in early access it's great fun, and more full-featured than many other complete games, and there's online co-op too. Unsurprisingly, the soundtrack is a banger too. Once it leaves early access, there's plans for this one to migrate to consoles, but for now, it's a PC-exclusive gem.

Nubby's Number Factory PC

One of the weirdest (and bizarrely compelling) things to come out of the wake of Balatro. With a silly sense of humor and a surreal 90s rendercore aesthetic, this takes the Balatro formula and applies it to... plinko? You've got a limited number of shots per round to hit a target with Nubby, your bouncing ball-thing. You core by bouncing off the balls on the board, but you'll need to put together a build of modifiers, perks and mutators that let you keep up with the exponentially growing score targets each level. Simple, silly but incredibly compelling once it gets its hooks in.

Slay the Spire 2 PC

Sequel to one of the most influential deckbuilders of all time. Currently PC exclusive but likely to go multi-platform once it leaves early access. This is more of the same in all the best possible ways - ignore the negative score on Steam, as it has been review-bombed (for questionable reasons) by the Chinese player-base since launch. On top of fresh (and refreshed) classes, fun new twists in combat and plenty of new cards, the biggest new feature here is online co-op. Bring your friends and figure out complex squad synergies against bosses with vastly increased health pools.

The Bazaar PC

The origin of a whole new subgenre of deckbuilding roguelike autobattlers. Set in a cosmic trading hub, you're out shopping for upgrades and gear to synergize into an unstoppable force, with each character having a vastly different set of mechanics and loot to collect. There's monsters to fight but your biggest enemies are other players - snapshots of previous players runs at that point in time - challenging your build against theirs. The biggest rewards come if you can complete a full run with zero losses, but the occasional defeat is no big deal.

Noita PC

There's no other action-roguelike quite like Noita. A best-of-Finnish-indies collaboration including the developers of Baba Is You and The Swapper, you are wizard exploring a vast underground ruin. Every single pixel of the game world (creatures included) is physically modelled, and spells can destroy, move, burn, freeze, cut or just explode anything. Collect wands, fill them with spell components and create incredibly varied tools. And then do the same with potions and the shockingly complex alchemy system. Also has plenty of mods, and some DEEP secrets that the community are still figuring out over six years after launch.

Pronoun Palace PC

A little bit Slay The Spire, a little bit Scrabble and a whole lot of biting satire of modern-day gender politics. Also a dang cool, funny, frequently dark game. The government have confiscated your pronouns for being controversial and/or disruptive, and you've got to beat up a lot of people (by spelling words with a grid of scrabble-like tiles) to get them back. Replayable, satisfying, tons of unlockable bonuses and challenges and elevated by a fantastic soundtrack. While Pronoun Palace doesn't have any native modding or Workshop support, players have already created their own tools and the first generation of custom content is already rolling out. This one has the potential to explode.

Elin PC

Still in early access and likely to grow until every one of the developer's intrusive thoughts is satisfied, Elin - sequel to cult Japanese roguelike hit Elona - is what happens when absolutely no man, god or government tells an indie developer 'no'. A sandbox fantasy RPG with a deeply chaotic sense of humor. Yes, you can delve in dungeons, fight monsters and loot treasure. Or you can set up an industrial front to sell smut to the clergy. Or become a bard so reviled, your song sends entire towns into a blood-frenzy. Or just get into casual genetic recombination as a hobby. Or make humans your pets and uplift animals to townsfolk. The latest developer diary even shone a spotlight on rocket-powered wheelchairs. If you're willing to meet the game on its own unhinged terms (and be aware that the translation is a bit wonky), this one's a gem. Oh, and there's mods, too!

Guild Wars 2 PC

A wildly different beast to the original Guild Wars. Over 14 years running and still one of the best MMOs out there, with responsive, action-based combat. One of the *most* MMOs out there, too. The majority of the game is set in large shared overworld zones where quests and events just happen whether you're there or not. No partying or planning required to just swoop in and help out other players and join them on their adventures. While expansions can be expensive, the base game (which is massive and easily 100+ hours to get through with just one character) is free to play.

Limbus Company PC

Also on mobile, but we'll make an exception. A rare gacha game with the focus purely on story and mechanics over character-collecting, and latest in Korean indie studio ProjectMoon's series of dark, violent stories set in a nightmarish mega-city portioned up and ruled by amoral corporations. You start the game with every one of your characters (all inspired by works of classic literature), and unlock additional parallel universe versions of them to provide additional party composition options.

The Temple of Elemental Evil PC

Before Baldur's Gate 3, THIS was the turn-based D&D experience. Based closely on the tabletop 3.5th edition rules, and following the story of one of the earliest scripted tabletop campaigns. This one has a lot to love, but was in a very rough state when originally launched. A recent re-release included several community patches which vastly improve it, but for legal reasons couldn't include the full-fat community expansion mods. For the biggest adventure possible (featuring a whole second campaign) get the Circle Of Eight mod-pack and Temple+ to keep delving and looting long past where the original credits rolled.

Fallout 2: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game PC

Fallout 3 might have been where the series exploded into mainstream popularity (going on to spawn a shockingly good TV show), but with the move to first-person, real-time combat, something was lost. With a tone all of their own (drier and more hostile than the people-pleasing nature of the Bethesda games), the original two post-apocalyptic RPGs are still excellent and highly replayable, if still bearing some scars from their original, buggy releases. Fortunately, community patches exist for the first and second games, plus restoration projects to polish things up further while finishing up cut or abridged content.

Fear & Hunger 2: Termina PC

Flagged on Steam as 'adult' for some uncompromising and extreme content (and thus also available on Itch), but not smut in the slightest. A cult indie hit, the Fear & Hunger series are truly uncompromising survival horror RPGs set in a world equally inspired by classic manga Berserk, Bloodborne and Silent Hill, plus a bit of Lovecraft & Chambers for literary flavor. Your characters are mere humans, with 100 hit points at max. Some enemies can deal hundreds. Both games are potentially quite short, but will take many hours to navigate successfully. And then many more hours as you realize the game is a seemingly never-ending warren of secrets, alternate routes, hidden lore and optional challenges.

Look Outside PC

One of 2025's best, and featured near (or at) the top of many an indie GOTY shortlist. Originally planned as a short game-jam project to take a break from the developer's big upcoming game (Malison: The Cursed City) but it grew into a project with life of its own. Cosmic horror without the Lovecraft, it's a short but hugely replayable horror-comedy RPG set in a single apartment block where anyone (or anything) that looks outside is warped almost beyond recognition. Being a good neighbor is hard enough normally. Can you be one in a surreal apocalypse?

Guild Wars Reforged PC

Recently remastered, the original Guild Wars still plays like nothing else. Not really an MMO - more of a mission-based real-time tactics RPG with a skill system that echoes Magic: The Gathering. Every enemy is secretly a player-equivalent bot with their own deck of skills. Build your party of pals or NPCs to counter each set of enemies you'll encounter. Expect to rebuild and respec often, as it costs nothing to do so.

Kenshi PC

The most sandbox of single-player sandbox RPGs. Literally. Set on a hostile, low-tech desert planet without guns, you are a nobody in a world full of rogue robots, cyborg warlords, armies of bug-people, hostile alien megafauna and roaming cannibals. All of it simulated - battles will happen and faction borders will change whether or not you're involved, so do as you will. Assemble allies, build a town, grow powerful and start pushing against the bounds. One of those games where you decide your own goals and win condition - the world will keep on trucking with or without you. Unsurprisingly there's full Steam Workshop support to fill in any blanks, and a sequel in the works.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines PC

The poster-child for fan-patches. Easily the best adaptation of the enduring World Of Darkness urban fantasy RPG setting. When it works, it's a fantastically replayable, highly reactive FPS RPG hybrid. But it was released barely-functional. The community saw beyond the bugs and jank and got to work. The unofficial patch/restored content mod still sees regular updates 22+ years later. While sometimes it can feel like a time capsule of early 2000s pop culture (you are playing as a big city vampire, after all) with some unfortunate stereotypes in the game's chinatown segment there's stlil no other game like it for making you feel like a modern-day Dracula on the prowl.

Project Zomboid PC

This one has been around since we just called Early Access 'alphafunding', and seems to be growing in popularity and scale every year. Under relatively simplistic graphics lies an incredibly in-depth, real-time zombie survival sandbox RPG, playable solo or co-op. Slowly venture out of your house and build yourself a safe corner of the apocalypse. Go out scavenging, maintain your health, learn skills, build, hunt. If you can imagine doing it in a zombie outbreak, you probably can here. As with so many other PC must-haves, it's hugely moddable.

World of Warcraft PC

Available on Battle.net.

While Everquest might have been the first big hit MMO, World of Warcraft defined a formula that would endure for decades. Even the hit Final Fantasy 14 is still largely building on the template Blizzard laid out here. And if you're into WoW's comicbook world of giant shoulder-wear and a revolving-door procession of villains, it's still one of the best you can play. Not available on Steam and requiring a subscription, so potentially expensive, but you'll always find this one well populated and actively maintained. Not our MMO of choice, but for most, worth giving the free trial a poke!

Star Citizen PC

Available direct from developer Roberts Space Industries.

A crowdfunded megalithic phenomenon, and effectively two different games. A star-studded space combat story campaign (still unreleased), and an incredibly in-depth spacefaring MMO life sim. Like a GTA Roleplay server with just as many complex mechanics. The inside of every ship is fully modelled and interactive, players can get together to crew larger vessels and players that cause trouble get sent to a prison colony to mine rocks until they pay off their debt or audaciously break out. Still notoriously buggy, requires a high-spec PC and may never be truly 'done', but there's nothing else with this mixture of ambition and funding. Maximalist PC-exclusive design at its biggest.

Nuclear Option PC

And if the absurd price and huge learning curve of DCS World scared you off, there's Nuclear Option. Rapidly growing in early access. It combines simple, easy-to-learn mouse-and-keyboard or gamepad controls with semi-realistic flight modelling, and a range of vaguely futuristic alt-timeline aircraft to wrangle. Rather than single missions, it's best played as a mini dynamic campaign, with you (and other players) each controlling just one unit in an ongoing conflict between two AI-controlled powers jostling for position.

Barotrauma PC

Gritty sci-fi submarine simulation set in a hostile alien ocean, and you control just one person. Best built for co-op but you can hire NPC crewmates to fill any gaps. Everything is simulated here, from reactor management to electrical wiring to sonar, navigation and a complex medical system involving SO many possible internal injuries. Take jobs, earn money, upgrade to bigger, better subs and expand your crew. Tons of mods and a major expansion coming soon.

DCS World Steam Edition PC

THE military flight sim. If you ever wanted to flick absolutely every switch and toggle in the cockpits of dozens of painstakingly modelled spacecraft, All this military-grade simulation does come at a cost. Both in terms of hardware (you need a fairly beefy PC, ideally a HOTAS and maybe VR), but also because unless there's a big sale on, the complete package including all DLC comes up to an eye-watering £3400/$4000+. To be fair that does include more aircraft than you could ever learn to fly in a lifetime, but still. Oof.

Elite Dangerous PC

This one was briefly on consoles, but support for them has since been dropped. An ambitious remake of the original space trading-and-combat sandbox. Mostly solo with some light MMO elements. Effectively a space trucking simulator, as you travel the spaceways looking for profitable routes, butting heads with pirates, occasionally meddling in dynamic wars between NPC empires. Hoard money, buy bigger ships, travel further afield and live the Han Solo life.

Arma 3 PC

While the most recent iteration in the series - Arma Reforger - has finally made it to consoles, Arma 3 remains very popular on Steam. A gritty military sandbox sim, focused on infantry combat but with tanks, helicopters, jets and more playable as well. Realistic enough that there are official army training sim versions available, and enormously moddable, meaning that you can make it far less realistic with Helldivers, Warhammer 40k, Star Wars & Command & Conquer-themed total conversions, among many others.

BeamNG.drive PC

The ultimate car physics simulator, crashes included. Less of a game, and more of a free sandbox, simulating every internal component and body-panel of a modern automobile. Whether you want to play races, minigames and challenges or just play around with the editor to create physically improbable automotive death-traps (it's spectacular watching a car get completely smooshed) or dig into a mountain of mods (including just about any vehicle you could think of), there's probably something here for you. And while it's limited to single-player out of the box, there's a multiplayer mod too! A PS5 version has been planned for some time, but hasn't surfaced yet. When it does, we'll just have to bring in another game!

X-Plane 12 PC

A long-running series of civilian counterparts to DCS World, playable flat-screen or in VR, and a good alternative to Microsoft Flight Simulator. From little single-seater propeller planes to massive airliners, helicopters and more, this lets you experience flying them all, right down to simulating chattering with air traffic control. Also with a similarly eye-watering price-tag if you want absolutely everything it has to offer, DLC-wise, with this iteration having almost £1000/$1200's worth of add-ons and more than double that for X-Plane 11. But that's just the official stuff. If you don't want to pay extra, you don't have to, as the community have produced thousands of environment maps, aircraft and weirder things. Ever wanted to fly a rocket-powered submarine?

Skin Deep PC

One of the big problems immersive sims have faced is players being afraid to commit to any violence against their enemies, for fear of being judged and led to a 'bad end'. Skin Deep solves it by pitting you (Nina Pasadena, Insurance Commando) against a clan of immortal cartoon space pirates who are even more of a threat to themselves than you. Beating them up (in chaotic slaptick brawls), tearing off their detachable heads and flushing them down a toilet is a mercy. Smart level design, fantastic Venture Bros-meets-Futurama writing and replayable levels make this a must-play.

Thief II: The Metal Age PC

Over 26 years old and still some of the best stealth games ever made. Few games make you feel as much like a master cat-burglar as sneaking through an entire Thief mission unseen, and stealing everything that's not nailed down. Its steampunk gothic setting is still striking and creative, and the voicework absolutely on point. Don't let the low-fi textures & models hold you back.. or if you do, know there's a remaster in the works too. Unsurprisingly, the community are still actively modding these games, and there's a whole new free engine for stuff that the old engine can't quite handle.

MENACE PC

A recent early access release that came out swinging - excellent turn-based tactics even in its current state. The sci-fi followup to the classic Battle Brothers. You're the commander of a small mercenary company, initially dealing with pirate raiders and giant bug-monsters, but eventually you'll have to deal with the titular Menace: A biomechanical plague that sweeps through battlefields and reforms the dead into cybernetic monsters. This one's single-player only, and focused on small, fast missions with only a handful of units, each one being a commander (with distinct voices and abilities) in charge of either a vehicle or an infantry squad.

Tempest Rising PC

A recent, excellent tribute to the classic Command & Conquer RTS series, and still PC-exclusive and with an expansion just recently announced. Classic high-speed military action. Build a base, figure out what the enemy have got, then build whatever units best counter them, micro-managing to keep your squishiest guys out of the line of fire. All wrapped in great modern 3D graphics and a bombastic industrial rock soundtrack from the original C&C composer. With a decently active multiplayer scene, and a beefy pair of solo campaigns, there's a lot to chew on here.

Cyber Knights: Flashpoint PC

Clearly inspired by tabletop Shadowrun (minus the magic stuff), Cyber Nights: Flashpoint puts a refreshing heist spin on XCom-like turn based tactics. You and your squad have full informational awareness. The enemy guards do not, reacting to sound, sight and intermittent orders from the security system. So blow stuff up to distract guards away from your hacker (running a surprisingly involved hacking minigame), misdirect and play it smart. Build up your rep and hideout until you're ready to take on that One last Job that'll let your crew retire somewhere cushy.

Tactical Breach Wizards PC

Halfway between traditional XCom-like squad tactics and a puzzle game, set in a fantastically written world of modern-day wizards (Traffic Warlocks, Navy Seers, etc), and with a big focus on throwing people out windows. It all feels a bit Terry Pratchett, in the best possible way. Your goal is perfectionism, so you get to plan and re-plan each turn, seeing how your actions would play out, and repeating until you're ending every action with the enemy on the back-foot and your squad advancing. On top of being a beefy, story-driven experience, there's a solid slab of user-made missions to dig into once the main game's well runs dry.

Heart of the Machine PC

Just released out of early access, there's really no other game like Heart Of The Machine, although 'Crusader Kings for the speculative sci-fi crowd' comes closest. A wildly complex, multi-layered strategy RPG. You are a single rogue android in a cyberpunk city. You aspire to become an immortal distributed hyperintelligence. What KIND of intelligence is up to you. Silent manipulator, benevolent cyber-god, SHODAN or SKYNET, all are valid options. But all seem to end up in armageddon anyway... and that's where the game really begins, as you begin exploring multiple parallel timelines.

Starcraft 2 PC

Available On: Battle.Net

Not on Steam but easy enough to get running on Linux-based systems. Starcraft 2 is almost uncontested as king of the twitchy sci-fi RTS genre, where smart counter-moves and precise micromanagement are every bit as important as having a coherent battle-plan. Originally released as three separate games, the first of which (Wings Of Liberty) is now free, with full mod support and competitive multiplayer enabled. And the mods are often spectacular, like this fully voiced, full-length unofficial prequel.

Hearts of Iron IV PC

Over ten years old and still the uncontested king of WW2 Grand Strategy, and (as is standard for Paradox's games) still receiving a steady drip-feed of new DLC and updates. A dizzyingly complex game of resource management, research and politicking to keep your population hungry for a protracted, bloody war. Just learning the basics can take weeks, and mastery will take a long time indeed. And if you like the idea of grand military strategy but WW2 isn't your thing, there's mods transplanting the entire game into the worlds of Fallout, Lord Of The Rings or... My Little Pony?

Mechabellum PC

Pure mind-games. A symmetrical, turn-based strategy game where each round, you and your opponent place one more squad or unit on the field and then sit back and watch the battle play out and be scored before returning everything to their starting positions again. Next round, do you counter your opponent's move, or start an offensive on a new flank? Try and predict what they'll be placing next, or try something completely out of left field? There's some single-player modes here to cut your teeth on, but this one is most satisfying against human opponents.

Starsector PC

Available direct from developer Fractal Softworks.

Still not available on Steam (though it will eventually be), Starsector is a fantastic excuse to wander outside Steam's comfortable bounds. A massive but accessible space combat sandbox that's more than a little like Mount & Blade, structurally, with you starting out with a single frigate and eventually aiming to be commander of a vast fleet. Of course, instead of sword combat, it's almost Mechwarrior-like naval battles between wildly varied spacecraft. On top of being a huge game, this one has a dedicated modding community constantly expanding it in every direction.

BATTLETECH PC

The best adaptation of the classic giant stompybot tabletop tactics game to date. Start from almost nothing and build up to being one of the most feared mercenary companies in the galaxy. Customize each of your mechs in painstaking detail then send them out in complex turn-based tactical encounters, aiming to disable instead of destroy so you can salvage more gear. Has some mods that utterly dwarf the base game, like Battletech Advanced, expanding it to cover the entire Battletech universe.

Xenonauts 2 PC

The Xenonauts games (both PC exclusives) are earnest tributes to the original X-Com games from the 90s. Thematically similar but very different beasts to their board-game inspired modern iterations. Command large squads of expendable grunts with a crunchy turn system, where every action takes every character a slightly different amount of time. A classic formula brought up to modern spec.

Total War: WARHAMMER III PC

This list would be a LOT longer if we had included every PC-exclusive Total War game. The venerable hybrid of grand strategy and RTS has seen so many games and expansions (and even a BBC TV series), but the Total Warhammer trilogy - which combine Voltron-style into one gigantic campaign called Immortal Empires - feels the most notable, as it now features almost every faction and unit to ever appear in the classic Warhammer Fantasy setting, with an active mod scene filling in the few remaining gaps. If this one gets its hooks into you, don't be surprised to lose hundreds of hours at the very least, especially as every faction (over a hundred, now) has their own quest-line and twists in Immortal Empires mode.

STAR WARS Empire at War - Gold Pack PC

Twenty years old and still the best Star Wars strategy game out there. An almost Total War-like mixture of accessible real-time battles and galactic-scale strategy as you move your fleets and assign heroes to high-profile jobs. What has really kept this one kicking is an amazing mod scene with many huge overhauls and total conversions available. Most notable is probably this community-made remake, which updates the game closer to modern spec. A full Clone Wars era reimagining, and (most popularly) an expansion into the Thrawn extended universe era.

Sid Meier's Civilization V PC

While later games in the series made it to consoles, the fifth game in the long-running turn-based strategy series didn't, and is still one of the best-regarded and most played. Starting with a small tribe of cavemen, you claim resources, fight barbarians and work through the ages with the end-goal of being the dominant civilization. Each civilization has a distinct play-style and there's massive replay value. The series 'just one more turn' was made for. Plus, great mod support, with stuff like Game Of Thrones and Elder Scrolls total conversions available, among others.

Crusader Kings II PC

Depending on how you look at it, Crusader Kings 2 is either a mindbogglingly complex grand strategy game, or a historical roleplaying sandbox closer to The Sims. And it's both, and neither, and so much more thanks to an absurd mountain of DLC, expansions and mods. You get to choose a leader to control from almost any era of medieval history, plotting, scheming or just trying to balance the books. Or you can see just how far you can get by on cannibalism and inbreeding alone. It's telling that a favourite community challenge in these games is to see how quickly you can go from starting to eating the pope. While Crusader Kings 3 is more polished and multiplatform, the base version of Crusader Kings 2 is free, highly moddable and more robust in some ways.

Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era PC

The Heroes of Might & Magic series has been one of the cornerstones of PC strategy gaming since hte 90s. Lightweight and accessible but not without depth, you pick one of several fantasy nations (each with their own mechanical gimmicks and full roster of units) to lead to victory, ordering heroes around the map on quests for strategic resources and artifacts, while your armies clash in satisfying hex-based tactical battles. For years, the series ran under Ubisoft's banner, and Olden Era was to be the back-to-basics fresh hope for the series after several weaker entries. Nearly cancelled, it was picked up by indie publisher Hooded Horse, and is shaping up to be one of the best yet.

Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront PC

One of the most actively played WW2 RTS/Tactics games around, and now on its fifth expansion. Originally a spinoff from modern RTS Call To Arms, which was in turn a spinoff from the Men Of War WW2 series. Oh, how the tables have turned... Supporting solo, co-op or PvP across a pile of modes and battlegrounds, Gates of Hell: Ostfront inherits the series' most interesting feature - the ability to directly control any unit, manually aim their weapons or even snipe in first-person, which makes the detail of its hugely destructible, heavily-physics-simulated battlegrounds all the more apparent. Those precision shots are all the more important as every vehicle has full locational damage modelling - a shell landing in the fuel-tank is a lot more dramatic than hitting a tire. Plus, full Workshop support on this one too, which means cold war, modern warfare, zombie horror and Warhammer 40k mods abound. Just about anything is possible, including full FPS action.

V Rising PC

A lighter, faster kind of survival & crafting sandbox, best played in co-op. Start out as a freshly risen vampire, gather enough resources to build a shack to wait out the sun, then begin on a quest to rise to the top of the pecking order and dethrone Dracula himself. Fast, skill-based action-RPG combat where skills are as important as stats, and attacks are meant to be dodged instead of tanked, and boss-focused progression. Each boss you take down unlocks a new power, beast form to shapeshift into or new set of building options to expand your humble hovel into a full gothic castle. There's even Simon Belmont to hunt on the way up, thanks to a clever Castlevania crossover.

Sons Of The Forest PC

Grim and grisly survival sandbox adventure, set on a high-tech resort island that has been mysteriously overrun by cannibalistic mutants. You've been sent to investigate but your helicopter crashed, so every piece of food, armor, ammo and materials to build a fortified outpost is key. Playable solo or co-op, there's a stronger story focus to this one than many survival games, as you slowly unravel what happened on the island, and why creatures with far too many limbs lurk in the caves beneath. Console versions have been rumored, but no dates have been announced in the two years since this left early access.

The Isle PC

Still slowly growing after over a decade in early access, there's no other survival sandbox like this. The Isle has you living the life of a dinosaur, start to finish. Start as a newly hatched (and extremely edible) little morsel scavenging for sustenance, then hunt, forage, grow and coexist with other player-controlled dinos to reach old age. No crafting here (you're a literal dinosaur), but with some of the most complex survival mechanics in a fully simulated, no-holds-barred PvP ecosystem. Play smart and keep to your evolutionary niche, or you're just food for something with a better plan.

Necesse PC

A bit like an overhead-view take on Terraria, but leaning more towards sandbox RPG design, Necesse is a sandbox town-builder and action-RPG hybrid, with a focus on completing quests to advance the tech and threat levels of the world. What sets Necesse apart from other games in the genre is that you're free to recruit as many NPCs as your town can support, assigning them jobs (including boring labor like farming or crafting) or bring them along with you on dungeon-delving expeditions. While the game supports full online co-op all the way up to MMO-lite persistent world servers with swarms of players, you can lead a small army in single-player if you so desire. A recent major update added colony builder-style personality quirks for your villagers, procedural romances and some dangerous new areas to explore.

Hot Dogs, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades PC

Just recently graduating from early access after a decade of growth and evolution, this was one of THE original VR killer apps. At its core, it's a highly realistic firearms simulation sandbox where you can play with an enormous range of guns. But there's so many minigames (some not-so-mini) to apply those gun skills to, including a take-and-hold mode which has its own mod scene and competitive rankings. Oh yeah, it's also set in a satirical future guns 'n grill-themed theme park, populated solely by ambulatory, chatty, completely expendable man-sized frankfurters. Yummy!

Half-Life: Alyx PC

One of the few AAA VR games, and still one of the best. A full-length Half-Life game with some great setpieces and some of the slickest gunplay in VR. There's not a single wasted moment here, with each chapter having a distinct mechanical twist, with a fan-favourite being a stealth horror segment featuring a very intimidating monster. What really makes Alyx stand out is its moddability. Picking up where Valve left off, there's several fantasic full-game-length campaigns out there (including a full Bioshock total conversion), many one-shot adventures and alternate game-modes.

VTOL VR PC

Want a VR flight sim without breaking the bank? VTOL VR is just realistic enough to require some real focus and dedication to master, but simple enough for you to pick up and play with nothing but your stock VR controllers and an in-game tutorial. Every switch, lever and button in each plane (all semi-futuristic alt-timeline designs) is fully modelled. Ever wanted to know what those dozens of buttons around the screens in a jet-fighter do? Go poke 'em. Playable solo, co-op or (most interestingly) with a human co-pilot in the back seat. Extensive mod support, too.