Top 100 action games online

Toy Defense. Toy Defense 2. Star Defender 2. Alien Shooter. Invention 2. Alien Shooter 2. Goodgame Empire. Zombie Apocalypse. Zombie Shooter 2. Zombie Derby 2. All Evil Night. Zombie Shooter. Air Assault. Star Raid. Dirt Rally Driver HD. Desert Hawk. Legends of Honor.

Martian Transporter. Theseus - Return of the Hero. Sky Runners. Mini Metal. Border of Insanity. Prohibition The Guard of Dungeon. Larva Mortus. Space Trader. Scrap Garden. Naval Warfare. Battle Ranch. We add great free games almost daily, and look forward to bringing you more top games very soon. Please share this page on your social media. If that doesn't interest you, play with your friend on the same screen! Enjoy the challenge! This is a game where you can play the classic board game chess!

This is great for developing your strategic thinking, your awareness and your concentration levels! To win, you must be on the very top of your game and be focusing hard! Good luck! Each level has different people from the village all with specific requirements about how to cross the river.

You have to figure out the most efficient way of complying with these requirements and get across the river in one piece with everyone and everything satisfied. Get everyone and everything across the river on the raft. This will test your problem solving skills as some dilemmas that are presented to you require creativity and outside the box thinking to overcome them!

Think you have what it takes? Come and have a go! Play this Game. Take to the streets in Top Speed Racing 3D , an open sandbox racer filled with challenges and excitement! Test yourself as you attempt to beat the clock in timed challenges or see if you have what it takes to be a pro drifter, or even if you have the patience and focus to attempt parkour with a car!

Earn money by completing challenges and performing tricks, using your earned cash to upgrade the specs, appearance and colour of your cars or save up and buy new ones. Top Speed Racing 3D is a game you must certainly try out! Return Man Football: This American football game will have you playing for hours as you feel the buzz and the thrill of scoring a touchdown!

The simple interface enables fans of all ages to play and have a go, so what are you waiting for? Come and see if you can make it in the NFL! The aim of the game is to score a touchdown. To do this, you must avoid the oncoming defenders who take no prisoners. Try and trick them into leaving holes in their defensive line which you can then expose.

Play with a strategy and a game plan. Having a good strategy is key, as without one, you'll struggle to break down the defensive shape. Try feinting to create space to run into! Play a fun and addicting virtual version of the fast-paced, family-friendly card game Uno! Background info: For those unfamiliar with Uno, it's a color-coordinated, matching-based card game of chance. Reasons to play this virtual card game: If you're a fan of Uno, and have enjoyed playing it with friends or family before, you should relish the opportunity to tackle this awesome online version.

The rules and game play are exactly the same — so expect dozens of twists and turns as players race to empty their hand while attempting to thwart opponents with well-placed Wild cards!

Strategy to win: Although you need a generous share of luck to succeed at Uno, you can increase your chances of victory with good awareness, strategy and tactical play. Keep an eye on how many cards your opponents have left! Careful, smart use of your Wild and Action cards is vitally important! Sokoban 3D is a fun puzzle maze game based on the classic smash hit game Sokoban.

The game stays true to the original in every way with the main difference being in its visuals. Sokoban 3D is a gorgeous game with beautiful physics and animations. Sliding blocks around is made even more fun and enjoyable as you watch them wobble and shake with every movement. Sokoban 3D's main goal is to get the blocks on screen onto the blue zones designated for them.

You are in control of a bright orange block and your goal is to identify sequences that will lead to the blocks landing on the blue zone. The games difficulty can range from simple to excruciating quite easily as some levels require a bit of critical thinking and strategy to get past them.

The one team with the most points after the timer is over wins. Chess: Play against the other players on multiplayer mode or against the computer in this version of the popular, classic chess game. This game is suitable for chess players looking for a human opponent or computer based one.

Exercise your brain, develop your strategy and have lots of fun in this highly entertaining game! The aim of this game is to beat your opponent at the game of chess! This will test your strategy skills as you must outwit your opponent. This is definitely a thinking game so you must be at your very best and very smartest to be aggressive to win, but not leave yourself vulnerable and open to attacks! Pandemic Simulator - In this online strategy game you play the role of an evil bug trying to cripple the worlld.

Choose to be either e a virus, a parasite or bacteria with specific characteristics which in turn infects all inhabitants on Earth. You win the game by wiping out all the humans on earth. This is not an easy task as governments and hospitals are, at the same time, working hard to prevent the spread of disease and find a cure.

Gain DNA points as your bug becomes more determined and spreads, then use these points to upgrade the bug. You start with a disease that's very low on the radar which looks like a locally-spread flu. This game will develop your sense of spreading a bug, and it is up to you to improve your bug and allow it to spread rapidly. Use your points wisely to maximise the pandemic's effectiveness.

Stick Duel: Medieval Wars is a two player side scrolling fighting game. Play against a friend or AI in this gothic themed fighter, controlling neon stick figures who fight each other from on top of wheeled bases with a series of long weapons. Try to keep your balance while you navigate the terrain of the unique battlegrounds. Manage to kill your opponent six times before they get you and you will be crowned the winner!

For those of you who enjoy testing your building and creative skills: Explore and design a new world, mine resources, build your dream house or unique landscape or just create new environments for fun.

Use your imagination to its limits, challenge your mind, and experiment with new ideas for design. Mine Clone truly is a top creative building, adventure landscaping and design game that requires you to freely roam around and explore a 3D world waiting to be enhanced by you alone, to remove and move mine blocks to fill the landscape with new resources, and to build cool new structures from these blocks, and craft new construction tools according to available options.

Remember that this game was created to challenge players to learn to think outside of the box, Bigtime! For example, what can you do if you go under water or take your building plans into the air? Burger Shop is a fun, fast-food-making business simulation game where you get to make hamburgers for a living. They come out of nowhere and the atmosphere gets intense if they are waiting around for an order!

You have to be on your game to succeed. The aim of this cooking game is to make sure all the customers get their burgers on time, delivered to an excellent standard and without errors. This will give you a taste of managing your own kitchen so you must be attentive, fast and highly efficient.

Do these skills match you? Come and play to find out! Have you got the piloting skills to take control of one of the most powerful planes of all time? Airplane Flight Simulator is an extremely challenging flying simulation game where you become the pilot of a passenger aircraft — a large plane that became famous during the 20th Century and is still in service today. This giant aircraft is very difficult to control, and you have to perform a variety of difficult tasks while flying it.

These challenges include safely landing and passing through checkpoints. The aim of this game is to experience life as a pilot!

This tricky flight simulator requires great patience, determination, skill - just like in real life and a little bit of luck too. A steady hand and nifty fingers are very important, as you have to carefully guide your plane through the air, strategically adjusting altitude, speed, and wing position in mid-flight.

Quick reactions are also vital to the success of your missions, as you often have to make sharp maneuvers to go through checkpoints. Easier said than done when you have such a huge plane to control! This truly is the ultimate test of a pilot - are you up to the task? Good luck Pilot! Habbo Clicker is a hotel management game that will quickly suck you in. With multiple ways to play and countless approaches to running your hotel, this is a game that you won't put down quickly.

The game requires skill and even some instruction. It isn't about simply pressing buttons mindlessly. No, you have to put forethought and effort into each move if you really want to succeed.

However, that is part of what makes the game so fun. It feels like a full, deep and complicated game. You have to invest time and energy and that makes success all the more rewarding. Do you have what it takes to play Snow Rider 3D? In this 3D driving game, you'll be given a beautiful sled at the beginning of the game, and need to make your way down the slopes while avoiding obstacles. Avoiding rows of hulking snowballs or massive snowmen isn't as easy as it sounds You'll need to have fast reflexes and driving skills to go round, or over, all the perilous dangers in your way.

Collecting presents along your journey means that you can buy cool new sleds to use! In Moto X3M , take the chance to unleash your inner Evil Knievel, taking on explosive action packed levels in a side scrolling dirt biking adventure. Each level is a race to complete, and the faster the time you clock, the more stars you will be awarded which you can spend on unlocking cool new motorbikes!

Levels feature thrilling obstacles such as spinning wheels with blades, as well as explosive TNT and wooden obstacles. Perform cool stunts such as front and backflips to take seconds off your time!

Super MX The Champion is an extremely challenging motocross stunt bike balancing game where you have to overcome a series of tough race courses on a powerful MX bike. Carefully maneuver your dirt bike through over a dozen fiercely difficult stunt courses that provide a true test of your bike riding skills. There is free ride and then race mode! You must complete races and your aim is to win them! Stunt dirt biking online has never been so demanding! Keeping your motorcycle balanced, upright, and in the optimum position to continue over each obstacle is extremely important.

This fun virtual biker activity requires quick reflexes, fast reactions, and good dexterity in your fingers as you desperately try to keep your wheels from skidding underneath your rider. Strap on your crash helmet and show us your best! Construct a Bridge is a puzzle game where you have to build bridges to help vehicles cross the gaps in each level. The more materials you use and the longer you take to complete each level, the fewer stars you will get at the end of it.

Make sure you build the best bridges in all of history, be creative. Real Car Parking is a fun car driving and parking game for all the family where you have to try and pass your road driving test and get your license with the help of some difficult parking scenarios. This rewarding parking simulation game requires endless patience, expert driving skills and dogged determination. Are you up for the challenge? The aim of the game is to park the little car into the shown parking spaces.

The spaces will be very tight and you will have to be very skilled to avoid the cones and the obstacles. Use your nifty keyboard skills to control the car perfectly, navigate your way through the small spaces and come out the other side a champion.

Supra Drift 2 is a nutty car drift-driving game where you have to skillfully spin your car tires in order to drift sideways around the world. This fun game requires crazy quick fingers and the drift driving skills of a pro These cars move fast. The aim of this game is to get maximum drift score in the time limit you set yourself!

Choose from multiple environments and have as much fun as possible in the process. This will require a good driving ability and a good skill of controlling the car whilst sliding sideways.

A particular party trick of this game is the slow-motion footage that is recorded when you pull off an amazing drift! That is not to be missed! Clear the table off solids or striped balls, depending on which ones you got first. Beat your opponent and hone your skills.

Tank Mayhem is a fun, easy to play tank shooting game where you play within a maze against either a computer controlled tank, or a tank can be controlled by your friend who can play alongside you! Battle it out to see who will be the victor in this great battle! Use all your available skills! Transport yourself to the battleground and hone your shooting accuracy in one of the most feared war machines of all time — the Tank.

The aim of this game is to eliminate the opponent's tank with your own whilst utilizing the upgrades available, such as lasers and defensive impenetrable shields. Drive around to collect the upgrades and use your nifty fingers to find and then destroy the opponent's tank. This truly is classic warfare on a grand scale! Quick reactions, concentration, and an eagle eye are all vitally important. Join heroic and adventurous heroes as they travel and explore the mystical Seventh Realm in The Mergest Kingdom.

The Mergest Kingdom is a quest driven game similar in design to those old Facebook and mobile games, where you need to aid the stranded people of the kingdom to uncover the cause behind the mysterious fog that has covered the land. Harvest resources and collect items to complete quests and build up your island as you explore more and more of the wonders that await you. Solitaire is a fun and addicting single-player card game based on the most popular version of classic Solitaire, Klondike.

Build four stacks of cards one for each suit in ascending order from Ace to King, through careful concentration and observation.

Solitaire is played with a single deck of 52 cards. There are 28 cards distributed into seven columns. M Action, Adventure, Fantasy. Set in BC during the Pelopenesian War, play as either a male or female mercenary as you embark on your own epic odyssey to become a legendary Spartan hero in a world where every choice matters. Votes: A man must travel the nine circles of hell to save his beloved wife and repent for his own sins. Votes: 1, T Action, Adventure, Crime. In this sequel of Marvel's Spider-Man , you can play as Miles Morales as a new and different Spider-Man while he learns some stories about his will of fighting crime and serving justice by his mentor and former hero, Peter Parker.

Votes: 4, Believing light and darkness must remain in balance, Master Xehanort seeks to spark war against the "tyranny of light" to restore equilibrium. T Action, Adventure, Drama. Set shortly after Revenge of the Sith, the player takes on the role of a Jedi padawan being hunted by the Empire after Order Votes: 8, M Action, Adventure, History.

Desmond Miles is trained to become a modern-day Assassin through the resurrected memories of ancestor Ezio Auditore da Firenze, who uncovers a massive Templar conspiracy in Renaissance Italy leading to the new Pope. M Action, Adventure, Western. A deputy is sent to the town of Hope County to arrest Joseph Seed, a corrupt evangelical religious leader who rules the town with the help of his disturbed followers.

M Action, Adventure, Horror. In , a lone survivor of a plane crash named Jack discovers an abandoned underwater utopia, only to find out that the mystery behind its creation is much more sinister than he first believed. Votes: 18, Two years after a devastating global pandemic, bounty hunter Deacon St.

John faces a brutal struggle for survival, and a reason to live. Votes: 5, In , the first successfully-bonded Big Daddy is reawakened to save his Little Sister from the clutches of Rapture's new leader, Sofia Lamb. Votes: 9, M Action, Adventure, Crime.

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 for 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 something 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 game 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 game that encourages creativity, experimentation and, of course, save scumming. Bonus points for letting us use an adorable tanuki for murder. Morgan: 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 and 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 act , and 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 great. 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 where 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 to 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.

In no other situation is it socially acceptable for me to get absolutely trollied, vomit into a bucket and then douse my friends in my chunky goodness. Sailing the seas and plundering booty is fun and all, but drunkenly playing the concertina is the real reason I love this game so much. I'd love to see Rare overhaul the sword combat system which is still deeply clunky, but it's probably still the best hangout game on PC.

The Tall Tales are fantastic open-ended adventures. It's still a refreshing rarity in live service games to have a new mission you can just figure out, rather than having a checklist of tasks to complete that it holds your hand through.

Though it does have one checklist I'm a sucker for. Someday I will catch every fish in the sea, even if it means I'm fishing off the back of a sinking ship while my crewmates frantically steer us through a storm.

Morgan: I love everything Sea of Thieves is about, I just wish there was more of it—ships, weapons, maps, quest types, I need more! Then perhaps my friends and I would stop getting bored after our second night on the sea. Phil: 'More' would help, but I don't think it's the only answer. I think one of my biggest problems with Sea of Thieves is, for as good as the experience of sailing with a crew is, there isn't much beyond that to hold your attention.

The ground combat isn't much fun, the progression systems are shallow, and the handful of fun activities don't hold up to intense repetition. It's a cool hangout game, as Wes says, but it would take a fairly major overhaul to persuade me to return.

Nat: Titanfall 2 has seen better days. That campaign is still an all-timer even if I probably don't rate it as highly as others , but the game really shone in multiplayer—and while there appears to be a brief respite from the hacking and DDOS problems that plagued its predecessor, it's a rock-hard game to get into this far after launch.

Wes: Hopefully those multiplayer problems will soon pass, since Titanfall 2 on Steam gives it a real shot at maintaining an active multiplayer community for the next few years. But really, I'm just here to keep beating that campaign drum: if you somehow still haven't played it and are in the mood for an FPS, this should be your first stop. Fraser: I was very vocal about putting Titanfall 2 on the list last year, so I'm obviously a bit disappointed that it's dropped from 11 to 88, but take it from me: this is the smartest, most surprising FPS here.

The multiplayer is great, even though it's been dealing with those aforementioned issues, but the main reason to play this now is its unsurpassed campaign. Chris: It's so deep that no matter how many times you've played, there are still new choices to make. I still don't think any Fallout after the first one has really nailed its theme as well as the original did, but in Old World Blues and a few other questlines, New Vegas came close.

Fraser: Old World Blues is a cracker, but even without its expansions New Vegas is the best Fallout, and the only one I'd recommend to most players today. It's never felt like Bethesda really gets Fallout, and while 3 was really good, it still felt like an adaptation or spin-off rather than the main course.

Given that, New Vegas will probably continue to be the best game in the series for a long time, unless Bethesda gives up the reins again. Rachel: It may have fallen a fair way down in our top list, but What Remains of Edith Finch is still a powerhouse of storytelling. It's an anthology of stories set in the Finch household where exploring each room helps you discover more about the eccentric family and their lives.

Wes: Going into What Remains of Edith Finch, I didn't expect how fantastical and imaginative it would be with every story it tells. For a game about the history of a family it's endlessly inventive; you're not just looking around a musty old house and getting some voiceover about the objects you see.

Edith Finch manages to convey the humanity and tragedy of the family through dream sequences and animal transformations; bits of history that seem separate at first slowly blossom into a family tree and finally connect to your character in the present. It's really stuck with me for a game that I played in just a couple hours. Sarah: I'll always love World of Warcraft but I've struggled with motivation to log in since the launch of Shadowlands.

We went from being ridiculously overpowered in BFA to power systems that feel like they were tacked on as an afterthought. I'm still there and still raiding, but even that feels more like a chore the further into the expansion we go. Steven: World of Warcraft is still such an influential game, but yeah, it feels like it's in the midst of a serious identity crisis. If you've never played it, it's still an enormous and enjoyable experience, but my god is Shadowlands starting to feel like a big disappointment.

Fraser: I've finally managed to get WoW out of my system. It just took 15 years. It's one of the most important games ever made, and it's exceptional that it remains not only alive but massively popular after such a long time, but I think I've put enough time into it now. And frankly I'm not sure I can really separate it from what we now know about Blizzard, and what a terrible work environment management has fostered. Phil: Thanks to magazine lead times, this list was locked down in early Summer, before the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard alleging discrimination and sexual harrasment.

Even before that, it only just about managed to hang on—the team increasingly down on Blizzard's direction for the game. If we were to make this right now, I don't think it would be here at all. Chris: The Super Mega Baseball series has always been a fun and cartoony on-field baseball game, but SMB3 added tons of depth when it comes to making your randomly generated players memorable.

Their skills can be enhanced during a season or fade over time as they grow, age, and eventually retire. Creative Assembly created something really special here: a big budget game based on a major Hollywood property that is intelligent, subversive, and systematically interesting.

There will never be a better Alien game. Fraser: Just popping my yearly update in here. Nope, still not very far into it. Yep, hoping I will eventually finish it. It's brilliant, but I'm still too scared of xenomorphs to make much progress.

One day, though! One day. Steven: Frankly, I'm shocked that it's and one of my favorite games is a card game. You'd think after so many games there'd be no room for a new one to swoop in and innovate, but Legends of Runeterra continues to be brilliant. Robin talks a lot about its new stuff, but part of what keeps me coming back is just how wonderful the foundation it is built upon is.

It's just a shame that it seems like Runeterra's curse is that it will continue to be criminally overlooked by so many players. Fraser: Spaceships? Space locomotives? Now we're talking. Sunless Skies makes you brave the dangers of space while inside a train full of troubled crewmates, usually starving and being driven round the bend. Part trading sim, RPG and exploration romp, it's all weird, and elevated by the best videogame writing around.

The great game has also been made better, recently, thanks to the far-ranging Sovereign Edition update, throwing new characters, trains and stories into the already dense mix. Dave: It's zen trucking. Slowly churning through the mud with some tunes as your only company for miles.

Super chill. Until you roll your rig down the side of a mountain, of course. Morgan: Snowrunner is the mud trucking sim of my dreams. It's Death Stranding without all the drama and ghost babies: just you, your truck, and the stack of pipes that need to get to the top of this mountain.

Snowrunner is no tranquil driving sim. Every job is a battle against nature itself and your weapons are wheels, winches, and will. In the year since launch, Snowrunner has only gotten bigger and better with quality DLC and a vibrant modding community. Evan: Replicating the weapon set, map philosophy, and beautiful rhythm of Counter-Strike is some sort of scientific cloning accomplishment.

Valorant is its own game, though, one with meaningful technical advancements it'll give you 90 fps on a graphing calculator, practically and magical character abilities that let you and your opponent make counter-punches with utility as you compete for precious positioning. Phil: I recently dipped back in with some pals after about a year away, and, oh boy, Valorant is a punishing game to return to.

But after a couple of demoralising losses, our third match—a nail biting win—was one of the most exciting multiplayer experiences I've had this year. Nat: Homeworld's tragic space opera is timeless, but its original release is a little less so. Thankfully, the Remastered Collection is still a fantastic way to experience a truly singular, unique spacefaring RTS—with a healthy modding scene that lets you recreate fleet battles from Star Trek to Mass Effect.

Fraser: There's no other RTS with this much style and grace. Homeworld is a spaceship ballet and epic tragedy that I never thought would be replicated—how could it be?

Homeworld 3 is coming, but will it live up to the impossibly lofty expectations set by its predecessors? Spin-off Deserts of Kharak certainly got close, but there's magic in those first two games that sets them apart. We'll see. Wes: I've returned to Vermintide this year and especially appreciate how each character plays so differently. My first time through I stuck to up-close-and-personal dwarf Bardin Goreksson, but lately I've played as battle mage Sienna, standing back and flamethrowing legions of low-level ratlings.

The equipment system still kinda feels like fluff, but I love that each character has three classes that play differently, and styles of weapons that add even more granularity. This is the co-op game to beat, even three years in.

Steven: Caves of Qud is a near-perfect middle ground between the daunting complexity of classic roguelikes and the mind-boggling simulation of Dwarf Fortress. It's also the weirdest RPG I've ever played. Sentient beanstalks, tinker bears, space-time paradoxes, fungal infections—it's almost impossible to describe Qud in a way that makes sense. Each time you start a new game, an entire world complete with its own cultures and history is generated for you to uncover. And within that space, you can play as anything from a desert nomad to a cybernetically enhanced half-man-half-tank.

Just play it. Wes: I've still barely just dipped my toe in Caves of Quid during Early Access, but it really was staggering; it feels like someone took on the mad idea of cramming RPG-style writing into the open-ended structure of NetHack, and actually pulled it off. Along with Disco Elysium, I think Caves of Qud is a modern reminder that good enough writing can make any game utterly captivating.

Harry: What else is left to say about Skyrim? Nothing, really. A decade on The Elder Scrolls V is a fixture in the PC gaming consciousness despite looking janky and dated, even with a choice selection of mods.

Skyrim slips down the Top again this year, but don't expect it to be forgotten anytime soon. Speaking of, The Forgotten City, based on a Skyrim mod has just come out, so it remains to be seen if it makes next year's list. Jody: In my current playthrough I have my own museum, a chainsword, and fabulous hair. The music's replaced by dark ambient and Nordic folk-metal, there are gallows and gibbets everywhere, and I have to periodically wash off blood and travel dirt.

I'm accompanied by two characters from Vermintide, a blue khajiit, and the Skyrim Grandma. The Special Edition means Skyrim handles ridiculous mod loads without instability, and I can alt-tab as much as I want without it crashing. It's better than ever. I'll be tired of Skyrim when I'm tired of life.

Mollie: Skyrim is one of those games that's been there for me through a ton of high and low points in my life. Will I ever branch out and play anything other than a stealthy archer?

Hell no, but I will spend hours exploring the same old dinky caves and loading up my house with an unnecessary number of stolen books. Mollie: I've played my fair share of fighting games over the years, but few have kept me coming back in the way Tekken 7 does.

Every hit, block and sidestep feels so intensely satisfying to me. Couple that with a banging soundtrack, cinematic ultimate moves and a heart-pounding dramatic slow-mo cam, and every match feels like a full-blown theatrical performance.

Though I still lament the lack of Christie Monteiro in the game, the roster is solid. Tekken 7 is easily the best 3D fighter out there right now, and my favourite fighting game in recent memory. Also Yoshimitsu is an alien, I guess? Euro Truck Sim can take a breather. This son of a gun's packing Texas and Idaho, on the way to pick up Wyoming. You ever drive through through 'em?

Vast, empty spaces. Buttes and scrub. Flimsy barbwire between state, federal, and private land. A couple mountain ranges in the western halves, Idaho panhandle too. Feeling that small centers a person. Kanye West lives in Wyoming. A recent multiplayer update means you can drive by Kayne's yard with a friend. Nothing eases the weight of a heavy load, on the truck and the soul, like a convoy.

Steady breath, eyes ahead. We'll get to where we're going. Andy K: ATS is great. But my heart belongs to Euro Truck Simulator 2. The larger map has a lot more variety, from the mountains of Norway to the vineyards of France, making for much more exciting road trips. Fraser: Cities: Skylines continues its reign, with few urban city builders appearing to steal its crown. It remains undefeated in part because of the dearth of competition, but the many DLC additions and huge list of mods have ensured that even after five years it still has plenty to offer would-be mayors.

There's even an expansion exclusively dedicated to parks. And it turns out that flooding cities with poo doesn't get old. Sorry, citizens! Phil: The city building genre has had something of a resurgence thanks to games like Frostpunk and Anno offering up a different take on the basic formula. But if you want the best game to actually build a city in, here it is. Katie: I don't think I'll ever get tired of creating vast intertwined city-scapes, ever more intricate intersections, and long-ass roundabouts… so many roundabouts they permeate my dreams.

Help, I'm traffic managing in my sleep. After the on-rails nonsense of the intro, it pretty much sets you free to be the ultimate spy in an amazing sandbox.