Best games you can download on a pc

Or crossing the map to help out a teammate? Or heading back to base to heal? Its complexity can scare players off, but those who stick through it will be rewarded with some of the most strategic gameplay around. Microsoft Flight Simulator is the closest thing we've had to a near-perfect recreation of the real world in the virtual space. Using real-time Bing data to allow you to fly to and from any place on the entire planet has raised the bar for simulations to heights never seen before.

Accessible to anyone, or as realistic as you want, this is open-world at its most literal. Free-flying around the globe, participating in landing challenges at some of the world's most famously difficult airports, or just sightseeing, Microsoft Flight Simulator is an unparalleled achievement. Don't forget to grab one of the best PC joysticks to make this flight-sim experience that more immersive. It adds new aircrafts, airports, and more. The marvelous PC port overhauled and further enhanced the gorgeous wild western atmosphere of Rockstar's most recent open-world adventure and added even more activities, unlockables, and impossibly fine details to its expansive map.

It's possibly one of the biggest and best single-player PC games ever and it has an extensive multiplayer mode too. RDR2 on PC is handily a must-play for anyone with a rig beefy enough to run it. Through its relaunch and subsequent three expansions FFXIV has slowly morphed from a relatively generic good-versus-evil plot into a sprawling, political, and fantastical thriller.

Story missions are intended to be tackled solo, and even instanced dungeons now have an option for you to enter with computer-controlled party members instead of forcing you into a group with strangers. Final Fantasy 14 has surpassed 24 million players and is officially the most profitable Final Fantasy game of all time. Its next expansion, meanwhile, was recently delayed by two weeks into early December. As well as transplanting the dice-rolls and deep dialogue options from Dungeons and Dragons into a lesser-seen noir-detective setting, it offers entirely original ways to play, such as such as debating against 24 different sections of your own brain, each representative of a different skill or trait.

Your down-and-out detective is thrust into circumstances where you must solve a murder, but with all great stories its not the conclusion that is solely gratifying, but the journey you took to get there as its ludicrously detailed world and cast of characters drive it along, supported by some of the best writing seen in a game. Nier: Automata is, by all accounts, a game that shouldn't exist. Director Yoko Taro's original Nier flopped back in , but it nevertheless developed a ravenous fanbase — and for good reason.

To put it simply: Nier: Automata does what the original sought to do, learning from its failures and building on its successes to create a blend of hardcore and fluid combat, bullet-hell shoot 'em up segments, and visual novel stylings. It all coalesces into something entirely new. Despite a frustrating PC port that the fanbase had to fix themselves with the all-but-mandatory FAR mod, Nier: Automata's staying power is etched somewhere within its philosophical musings of humanity, pain of existence, and ability to find the humor in between.

Each of its big story moments is punctuated with a haunting soundtrack courtesy of composer Keiichi Okabe. All of that makes Nier: Automata a game that needs to be experienced from beginning to end — and not just ending A, but endings B, C, D, and E as well. Those multiple endings build to something no other game has ever dared to attempt with apologies to the original Nier.

But this one just hits a little different, you know? It has the same tension of going from a technologically inferior underdog to powerful war machine, with the constant threat of the permanent death of your customized soldiers looming over every decision. However, it turns the formula of defending Earth from alien invaders on its head by boldly recasting XCOM as a guerrilla force attempting to liberate the planet from alien occupation, making the situation feel even more desperate than ever.

This bigger, deeper sequel adds not just complexity in the form of new and more powerful soldier classes, equipment, and aliens, but also a huge focus on replayability. Procedurally generated maps keep you from falling into a repeatable pattern in tactical missions, frequent random events on the strategic map shake up your build and research orders, and of course mods galore. Doom: Eternal takes everything from the remastered Doom of and turns it up to The game is intense, visually and sonically overwhelming, and is exactly what you would expect a fever dream inspired by Doom would feel like.

The gameplay is a seamless first-person shooter where you trek into hell to battle an assortment of never-ending demons and reclaim an overrun earth. However, this game is all about creating havoc and rushing into battle as loud and as brash as possible.

Not only is Doom: Eternal a hell of a ride pun intended. No game has been as anticipated for as much or as long as Half Life 3.

So, as gamers will have to wait a little longer for it, Valve has graced us with what may be the most compelling reason to get a VR headset with Half-Life: Alyx.

Half-Life: Alyx is set 5 years before Half-Life 2. From the interactive puzzles, the well-thought out combat and the fantastic story, this prequel is a welcome dive back into the Half-Life world that has been universally praised for its quality. Microsoft's racing series is only getting better with each release, and in many ways this spin-off has exceeded the main Forza Motorsport line as the best racing games on PC at present. They're definitely more fun, adding a dash of arcade fun to the strikingly recreated cars and race tracks we've come to expect from Forza.

Forza Horizon 4 is easily one of the best PC games you can buy today, and this entry brings the racing to the UK after having explored America, France, Italy and Australia in the previous three instalments of the franchise. Now, you can rip through charming villages, seaside towns and the city of Edinburgh by way of many miles of country roads and dirt tracks in between.

It's fast, frantic and a lot of fun. You can purchase Forza Horizon 4 through the Microsoft Store. You can gain more and more Yokai skills as you defeat enemies. You also have quite a bit of customization available to you for deeper gameplay. This sequel is a worthy follow up to the first game, also set in a fictionalized, fantastical version of historical Japan, that will have you either squealing in delight or screaming in anger. From Software is a household name when it comes to designing the best PC games.

Recent reviews have been rather positive and while there is the usual battle pass to purchase for different goods, you can enjoy the game fully for free without being at a disadvantage. Set in a fantasy world, Dauntless puts players into the role of a slayer, a class of warriors that are tasked with taking down massive monsters which have torn the world apart. In a lot of ways, Dauntless is similar to the Monster Hunter series with the game providing a heavy emphasis on crafting and upgrading weapons before going out and seeking these massive behemoths in the wild.

Dauntless features multiplayer support and the developers are hoping that gamers make use of social interactions. Much like World of Warcraft or Destiny, campaign quests and exploration can be done with a party. Duelyst is a competitive multiplayer tactical turn-based strategy game with cards. Definitely give it a try. A sequel is set for release sometime in the future and will even include the house from Night of the Living Dead as a map.

A lot of battle royale devs are trying desperately to make an impression on what is a saturated market with some pretty bad ideas.

Warzone, however, takes the well-worn formula and puts some clever spins on it offer something that feels unique. Featuring 1v1 fights for respawns, unique bounties , and even cross-play , Warzone is likely going to be around for years to come. Developer: Jagex Publisher: Jagex Microtransactions? The game that ruined many educations finally landed on Steam during the course of , leading to millions of player jumping into the rabbit hole of Runescape all over again.

Almost every single review of the game is warning other players about its addictive nature and how deeply it will consume your life. Chat to other players and trade your way to vast riches, become a fighting god, and take on many quests across Gielinor.

While free, players can purchase membership for monthly perks, which includes special outfits and even a bigger world to explore. Yes Download: Wargaming. Ever veered around in a tank in Battlefield and wished you never had to get out?

Developer: VRChat Inc. Publisher: VRChat Inc. VRChat is basically if Ready Player One had any self-restraint whatsoever, it being a pop culture hangout where people from all across the world hang out, awkwardly chit-chat, and also take part in strange games they created themselves.

Despite the name, VRChat can be played without a headset, but it really comes into its own when in virtual reality. Players are even fully embracing the second life aspects of VRChat with full body VR, tracking and all. Remarkably, despite just how much maintenance it must take to keep it online, there are no microtransactions or hidden catches of any kind within VRChat at this time of writing.

You could play for hours and not even look at the shop for the game. Places like Steam and Humble Bundle will often put full price games out for free usually as part of some kind of promotion, such as when a new game in a series is released and the publisher wants more eyes on their older titles — you can build up quite the impressive library from these promotions alone. Two new games are added each month for a limited for a total cost of zero to players. On a similar note, Twitch also gives out free games each month to Twitch Prime subscribers, itself part of the package if you are an Amazon Prime subscriber.

GameJolt is very similar but also allows players to choose a price to pay if they so wish for some titles. Some of the coverage you find on Cultured Vultures contains affiliate links, which provide us with small commissions based on purchases made from visiting our site.