PC gamers have reason to crow, since they get often the best of both worlds. Quirky and cheap smaller titles? Yup. The shiniest, most impressive versions of AAA multiplatform games? Yeah, they get those, too. Mostly.
And now you've joined their ranks. What should you install? Start out with the dynamic dozen below.
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Horror games tend to make players focus on retaliation, promising them the power to beat back the monsters and night-things that plague them. Frictional Games' acclaimed adventure succeeds by continually making you feel underwhelmed and out-of-sorts while taking place in a world that so intriguing that you'll still want to want to keep on playing.
A Good Match for: Cthulu lovers. With a protagonist driven mad by the evil he's trying to fight ina remote location, Dark Descent's basic plot structure and mood shares DNA with the iconic work of H.P Lovecraft.
Not for Those Who Want: To sleep at night. The more time you spend in the dark in Amnesia, the more disorientation gets thrown at you. Our advice? Get a night light for when you finish the game.
Here's how it looks in action.
Purchase from: Steam | Amazon | GameStop
Battlefield 3
An incredible accomplishment of scale, EA's premiere first-person shooter opens up a massive toybox of guns, vehicles and gadgets for players to deploy on huge swaths of real estate. In the span of 15 minutes, you can go from sniping at enemies hundreds of yards away to a firefight next to a crumbling building to dogfighting enemy fighter jets. And it all looks amazingly shiny and dynamic.
A Good Match for: Team players. Moreso than in rival Modern Warfare 3, DICE's game rewards gamers who choose to play support roles to the gung-ho alpha males on the frontlines. So, just because you're playing an engineer or a medic doesn't mean, you won't be getting experience and to spend and achievements to brag about.
Not for Those Who Want: Robust single-player. Nothing about the feeble twists and turns of BF3's solo portion disguise the fact that it's basically a training ground for the multiplayer ecosystem.
Here's how it looks in action.
Purchase from: Amazon | Wal-Mart | Best Buy | GameStop
Also available on Xbox 360 and PS3.
Bejeweled 3
Somehow, Bejeweled 3 improved a recipe for addiction that's gripped millions the world over. New twists like the explosive Diamond Mine and tense Butterfly modes push the familiar match-three action into intriguing new shapes.
A Good Match for: Quilters. Bejeweled 3 takes a tried-and-true fabric and stitches it to other ideas—take the Poker Mode, for example—in a way that's different but still warm and comforting.
Not for Those Who Want: Online Bragging Rights. The lack of web-based leaderboards on which to post your best scores is a weird omission that compartmentalizes a huge community.
Here's how it looks in action.
Purchase from: Steam | Amazon | Best Buy | GameStop
Also available on iOS, Xbox 360 and PS3.
Civilization V
The legendary turn-based strategy series changed things up significantly with Civilization V to make would-be world domination tons more streamlined. Maps are easier to navigate, crucial information flows easier and it's the best-looking entry in the family tree.
A Good Match for: Event planners. Like a wedding or a milestone birthday party, Civilization V's all about knowing your guests and what they need to have a good time. Of course, those "guests" are rival nations and "a good time" is submitting to the power of your empire.
Not for Those Who Want: Older Civ games. Civilization V is no incremental sequel, and the difference could alienate die-hard fans of the historical franchise.
Here's how it looks in action.
Purchase from: Steam | Amazon | Wal-Mart | Best Buy | GameStop
Dirt 2
Codemasters' rally franchise had already taken the gritty, precision-focused experience of distance racing to new heights in its first outing. But Dirt 2 refines the formula with a greater array of locales, improved physics and sharper car models, along with head-to-head multiplayer.
A Good Match for: User Experience Designers. It's a weird thing to say that a game's menus are beautiful. But the screens where you tweak your options look amazing and switch out with eye-catching animations.
Not for Those Who Want: Gimmick-free gameplay. Dirt 2's Flashback feature lets players rewind time backwards a few seconds during a race, letting them undo costly mistakes. But using it just undermines the rest of the realism that the game presents so well.
Here's how it looks in action.
Purchase from: Steam | Amazon | GameStop
Also available on Xbox 360 and PS3.
Half-Life 2
Gordon Freeman's second FPS foray often gets name-checked as one of the best games of all time and with good reason. Half-Life 2's 2004 release marks the moment that first-person games took their first steps towards subtlety, with character development getting as much of an upgrade as the graphics and gameplay.
A Good Match for: Method actors. The crowbar-wielding theoretical physicist you play as never talks but the characters and environment surrounding him do such a good job of telling you about the world and Gordon that you lose yourself in the character.
Not for Those Who Want: A done-in-one experience. All the Half-Life games weave together to tell a larger story and they're all so good that there's no way you'll be able to walk away from City 17 and the world surrounding it. Luckily, you can get them the titles on Valve's Steam service, in either the Orange Box—which also contains the excellent Portal—or in the Half-Life Complete bundle.
Here's how it looks in action.
Purchase from: Steam | Amazon | GameStop
Also available on Xbox 360 and PS3.
Mass Effect 2
BioWare's sci-fi action RPG series streamlined its user interface for the second installment and ramped up the scope and the level of action. Your Commander Sheperd continues the fight to stop the Reapers with new crewmates and journeys even further into the galaxy, with even more of the hard choices that ME players love to make.
A Good Match for: Soap opera fans. Even though the fate of the universe is the main driver of the series mythos, it's the personal interactions with a well-written cast of characters from far-flung cultures that's won Mass Effect such a loyal following. Who will you try to romance?
Not for Those Who Want: Deep customization. Players got bogged down in all of Mass Effect 1's menus but still wound up feeling like they had unique gear and strategies for all that work. Mass Effect 2 unimaginatively pushes players along singular progression and feels a bit shallower as a result.
Here's how it looks in action.
Purchase from: Steam | Amazon | Best Buy | GameStop
Also available on Xbox 360 and PS3.
Minecraft
The best way to explain Minecraft's success is to see it as tapping into humanity's need to build huge outlandish structures. Indie designer Markus Persson's hit title has let people recreate everything from the Death Star to retro video game levels, while also providing a survival adventure mechanic to keep things interesting.
A Good Match for: Frustrated urban planners. Aside from the dodging the game's monstrous green Creepers, all you need to build your Tower of Babel is patience and time.
Not for Those Who Want: Hi-res graphics. Part of Minecraft's charm is in its blown-out pixellated aesthetics so, if you prefer a steady diet of Unreal Engine-powered content, pass up Mojang's sandbox phenomenon.
Here's how it looks in action.
Purchase from: Mojang
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty
It's one of very few video games that can be called a national obsession. Elite players of Blizzard's real-time strategy sequel can out-earn corporate middlemen in China or Korea, but the sci-fi conflict simulator's most significant currency is the devotion from millions all over the world.
A Good Match for: Jugglers. Succeeding in StarCraft II means waging war on multiple fronts as you keep an eye on resources, deployment, defense and offense in skirmishes where you can be overrun in an instant.
Not for Those Who Want: Gentle introductions. New participants to the Starcraft multiplayer experience will get chewed up as they learn the strengths and weaknesses of the Zerg, Protoss and Terran factions.
Here's how it looks in action.
Purchase from: Amazon | Wal-Mart | Best Buy | GameStop
Team Fortress 2
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Valve's cartoony multiplayer shooter was one of the surprises in their 2007 Orange Box compilation, debuting as a sort of user-powered story engine where the players' actions—as one of nine classes—determine the drama. Since then, it's been one of the most robustly supported releases on PC, growing organically like few other games.
A Good Match for: Management consultants. Success happens best in Team Fortress 2 when everyone on a squad focuses on their role and not on individual glories. So, when the Medic sticks to healing, the Engineer to turret placement and the Spy to subterfuge, everybody wins.
Not for Those Who Want: ...to avoid the lure of micro-transactions, really. There's no real have/have-not divide in TF2, but you're a nobody if your Demoman's not kitted out in cool duds. Grabbing gear is the main driver for much of the TF2 hardcore and you'll be hard-pressed to resist its seductive pull.
Here's how it looks in action.
Purchase from: Steam | Amazon | GameStop
Also available on Xbox 360 and PS3.
Total War: Shogun 2
You can almost hear the battle cries and smell the gunpowder in Creative Assembly's newest strategy game, which gives players the goal of ascending to supreme military domination against rival feudal lords. Improvements in AI behavior and the introduction of skills allocation let you be a more flexible commander than in previous Total War games.
A Good Match for: Akira Kurosawa fans. Some of the Japanese director's best dramas took place in Japan's feudal period and this Total War game gives a big-picture view as the kinds of conflicts that daimyo and samurai soldiers fought in. Everything about Shogun 2—from the artwork to soundtrack to overarching gameplay goals—puts you inside a living history lesson.
Not for Those Who Want: To Rule the World. You only get one country to dominate in TW:S2 game, unlike Empire where the entire globe was your battlefield.
Here's how it looks in action.
Purchase from: Steam | Amazon | Wal-Mart | Best Buy | GameStop
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
The PC faithful made CD Projekt's first Witcher game into an unheralded hit, glomming onto the game's differentiated fighting styles, fluid animations and intrigue-filled plot. Built on a shiny new engine, the sequel exponentially deepened the skills customization, crafting and world size. Oh, and sex. Lots more of that.
A Good Match for: Would-be writers. Few games can compare to the amount of dynamically changeable narrative offered by The Witcher 2, where the entire second half of the game's plot morphs according to player choice. Once the spell-casting and sword-swinging's all done, you'll want to start all over and see how different you can make Geralt of Rivia's adventure.
Not for Those Who Want: To learn as they go. Figuring out the best strategies for combat will mean getting your mystical bounty-hunting behind handed to you quite often.
Here's how it looks in action.
Purchase from: Steam | Amazon | Wal-Mart | GameStop
NOTE: This list will be updated if and when we discover better games. We will only ever list 12 games, at the most.
