The Best Steam Games to Play This Year (2023)

Dwarf Fortress

Although Dwarf Fortress is technically a game with well over a decade of history, famous for its incredible complexity, but somewhat prohibitive due to its text-based graphics which can be rather impenetrable at first.

The reason a 2006 game makes it to this list is its spiffy 2022 Steam release, complete with traditional, “proper”, graphics, new music, and a more intuitive interface.

You’re still going to help a small community of dwarves carve their new home in a new land. A land, might we add, that was procedurally generated with a detailed history of geological shifts, cultures rising and falling, artifacts being forged, and everything else needed to create an interesting landscape for your colony. Don’t use max generation settings unless you have a lot of time!

Dwarf Fortress

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God of War

Kratos not only made his way from Greece to Scandinavia, but also, four years later, from PlayStation 4 to PC.

The soft-rebooted God of War is a cinematic, thrilling experience, very different from the original series in terms of gameplay, and quite keen on showing a more matured, restrained Kratos. Make no mistake, however: despite a more somber tone, God of War is no pacifist game.

Kratos swapped his blazing chained blades for an icy axe, and the camera moved to his shoulder to match this closer range, but the old Spartan can still fight like, well, a god of war. GoW is quite story-driven, however, and focuses on the journey of Kratos and his teenage son to give the boy’s mother’s ashes a proper burial. Sadly, the Aesir have other ideas and send Baldur after the duo.

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Resident Evil 4 Remake

Another game that’s technically quite old, but received a very good tune-up recently, complete with a Steam release.

While the original RE4 launched in 2005 (just a year ahead of Dwarf Fortress!), the remake launched in March 2023, with a ton of small and big improvements. The biggest one is, of course visual, as the graphics are now powered by the mighty RE Engine.

The story got a second pass and some gentle expansion, but stays very close to the original. It stars Leon S. Kennedy, a special operative sent to Spain to rescue a kidnapped daughter of the US president from a weird cult. Of course, it’s a RE game, so there’s a lot of gruesome mutations, over-the-top villains, and mysterious involvement from people connected to the nefarious Umbrella Corporation.

Resident Evil 4 Remake

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Octopath Traveller II

The first Octopath Traveller was a wonderful, lovely, engaging RPG in the style of old Final Fantasy games. Octopath Traveller II is all of that, except even better.

There are eight separate characters, each with their own motivations. The characters are quite diverse, as the cast includes people such as an ambitious dancer, a warrior prince, and a cleric investigating a murder.

The world is quite different from the first game’s, instead of a medieval theme, OT2 is inspired more by the turn of 19th and 20th century. Game is also subject to the time change, as there are now separate daytime and nighttime segments, affecting each character’s story-affecting Path Actions. It’s an amazing game, with gorgeous aesthetic, great music, and engaging RPG mechanics.

Octopath Traveller II

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Wartales

Have you ever wondered what running a mercenary company in a dark, low-fantasy medieval-like world would be like?

Living from assignment to assignment, managing your soldiers, navigating the map full of bandits and ravenous beasts, all that jazz? Well, Wartales has all of that in spades. Your group is no band of heroes, just a bunch of people living by the sword and prone to dying from it.

You have a large overworld map of the setting, filled with villages, cities, dungeons, and random encounters. Many of them end up having to be resolved through Wartales’ turn-based combat system. The game is open-ended and doesn’t have an overarching story, but regions have their own small arcs and there are narrative choices to be made, for those who crave story-based content.

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Elden Ring

FromSoftware isn’t known for releasing duds, so it was a foregone conclusion that Elden Ring was going to be very good.

It’s also FromSoft’s first attempt at an open world, and the Lands between are a stunning accomplishment in that field as well. It’s a world of grand scale not just because of a large map, but because it’s dense with detail and every place promises something exciting.

In Elden Ring you play the part of the Tarnished, a former exile, now coming back to the Lands Between after the titular Elden Ring was ruined. It’s not a joyous return, however: the land is ruled by demigods corrupted by a shard of the Ring. There’s no prize for figuring out whom you’ll have to defeat before reaching the final challenge and, possibly, saving the Lands Between.

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Total War: Warhammer III

The final instalment of the Warhammer trilogy from Creative Assembly turned out to be a fantastic offering and a great addition not only to the series, but also to the source material.

The combined might of CA and Games Workshop fleshed out Kislev, Ogre Kingdoms (now available through DLC), and Grand Cathay in a way never before seen in the original tabletop wargame.

There’s also a five-fold Chaos faction, including one segment led by an evolving, customizable Deamon Prince of your own! All that’s in the familiar form of a Total War game, with real-time tactical battles and a turn-based grand strategy layer where you handle diplomacy, manage your settlements, and move armies around to complete your faction’s objectives.

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V Rising

An unexpected hit of 2022, V Rising is a survival game, but not only does it play like no other game in the genre, it also has an unusual premise.

See, for the first part: it’s a hack’n’slash game in the vein of Diablo or Path of Exile, with loot gathering, and spectacular, devastating melee and magical abilities you can deploy against enemies standing in your war.

For the second part… you’re a vampire, just starting the bloody conquest of the nearby region. You get to terrorize the villagers to drink their blood, and you can even build your own spooky castle, bit by bit, as your refuge from the terror of the sun. V Rising is playable solo, but it’s even better if you’ve got friends to aid you in your endeavors through online multiplayer.

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Monster Hunter Rise

Although it originated on Nintendo Switch, the success of the PC version of MH World made Monster Hunter Rise’s arrival on PC a matter of time.

It received quite a glow-up for the occasion, with higher resolutions and other features which would be too much for Switch, but PC can easily handle. And more importantly: it’s an excellent, fun game even without visual bells and whistles.

There’s a lot ot enjoy about MHR. There are fourteen weapon classes, each with a unique playstyle. There’s a large gallery of monsters, both mostly harmless endemic or small beasts, and huge monsters, each of which is a boss fight in its own right. And there are wirebugs, a MHR original, which dramatically increase your mobility and expand your combat options.

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ULTRAKILL

You can find Ultrakill on Steam by googling “Devil May Quake” and it’s a very apt, informative way to describe what’s going on in this game.

The game’s so fast it makes Doom Eternal feel sluggish in comparison, and it has its own style meter, which will provide guidance to every fan of the white-haired demon slayer. The story is properly ridiculous, too: machines in their thirst for blood invade hell.

Your character is absurdly mobile, so there’s a good chance you’ll spend a lot of time in the air, pouring down death with a satisfying arsenal of cool weapons. You gain health from blood, so there are benefits from goin on an offensive. There are many levels to clear, and your performance is graded, so there’s an incentive to replay them to get better results or complete challenges.

ULTRAKILL

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Cyberpunk 2077

Coming from the developers of The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077 had some great expectations to live up to.

Thankfully it turned out that it’s a solid futuristic action RPG with a stunning urban open world and an interesting story digging into transhumanistic themes. In CP2077 you play as V, a gun-for-hire trying to make their name in Night City, the iconic setting in the Cyberpunk tabletop RPG.

Cyberpunk 2077 isn’t an open world in the same way The Witcher 3 is, but nevertheless roaming the streets of Night City or driving around beyond its limits can provide long hours of fun even when you’re not on a quest. Of course, as is expected of an action RPG, your actions have consequences, and you get to make many decisions which let you define who your character is and where they end up.

Cyberpunk 2077

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The Witcher 3

The Witcher 3 is one of the best selling games of all times, and there are many aspects which contributed to this status.

One reason is the great main story, an excellent conclusion to Geralt’s journey. Another is the beautiful open world split into several huge maps with very different themes: Irish/Viking Skellige isles, medieval mainland of Velen, and, in DLC, idyllic Beauclair.

There’s also a secluded, yet equally beautiful Kaer Morhen valley you’ll eventually visit. The game is steeped in medieval, mostly European, lore and has a strong Slavic vibe to it as well. The biggest monsters you hunt require preparation, because they are fully capable of trashing you. If somehow you still haven’t played it, you absolutely should give the Game of the Year Edition a go.

The Witcher 3

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Loop Hero

Loop Hero came in 2021 and took players by storm. It’s not hard to see why.

It has a pleasant, old-school pixelated aesthetic which gives it an incredible amount of charm, and its gameplay loop is very engaging, even though it mostly plays itself. The idea is that the character moves on their own around a randomly generated, looping map, while you place landscape cards around the path and manage the character’s equipment.

Even during battles, which yield new landscapes and new equipment, your character acts on their own, benefitting from bonuses provided by landscape you placed and equipment you selected. Each expedition is going to be different, and you get to improve your camp between each excursion. Loop Hero is a game which looks simple on the surface, but can keep your attention for hours.

Loop Hero

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Valheim

Valheim rose to fame and glory at an incredible speed, selling almost six million copies in the first month.

Players quickly started making jaw-dropping constructions using the base-building feature, ranging from original works to things like a life-sized Eiffel Tower. If you haven’t added Valheim to your library yet, you’re missing out, big time. But what is it, exactly, beyond a base-builder?

To put things simply: Valheim is a solid survival game which is less bothersome about its meters and encourages exploration and construction instead. There are also powerful bosses to wreck, because your Odin-given task is to bring peace and order to the procedurally generated world of Valheim, the non-canonical tenth Nordic realm. Oh, and you can play with up to ten friends, if you want to.

Valheim

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Curse of the Dead Gods

If you enjoyed the art style of Darkest Dungeon, then you’re in luck, because Curse of the Dead Gods, despite being 3D, looks very familiar.

Similarities don’t end with the art style: the dungeons you delve and filled with traps and enemies, and managing light levels is an important part of the experience. You also can become corrupted which results in curses put on you.

Of course there are also important differences, most notably: Curse of the Dead Gods doesn’t have the turn-based, deliberate pace of DD. Instead, it has a fast, brutal, combat system which uses your reflexes as much as your tactical acumen. The weapons you wield come in many shapes and sizes, and they often have special properties which help you go deeper and deeper into the dungeon.

Curse of the Dead Gods

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Persona 5 Strikers

If you weren’t ready to say goodbye to the lovable rascals from Persona 5, or want to meet them for the first time, set your eyes on Persona 5 Strikers, a fantastic action RPG launched on PS4 in 2020 and on PC in February 2021.

Mixing the best features of Omega Force’s Dynasty Warriors gameplay and the turn-based battles from Persona 5, Strikers is an exciting game full of familiar characters.

You’ll need to delve into dungeons without raising alarm, but you also get to smash entire groups of enemies. There are two layers to the combat system: one is much like in a musou games, with your chosen character plowing through dozens of enemies with each hit, but when you need to deploy your persona’s power you pick the abilities from a menu, like in the turn-based original game.

Persona 5 Strikers

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Hades

Hades is one of the best roguelikes released in recent years, and part of the reason for that is the time it spent in Early Access, gathering feedback.

You’re playing as Zagreus, a disobedient son of Hades himself, trying to escape from his father’s domain and reach the surface. Nobody escapes from the underworld, though, so Zagreus has rooms to clear and bosses to defeat along the way.

You begin with a hefty sword, but in time you’ll unlock more weapons, including a shield and a cannon. You start each escape attempt with a divine boon from Olympian gods (and collect many more during the run), which modifies your abilities in various ways. Each boon also has a neat visual effect, and a few have an Area of Effect so once you get a few of them your moves become quite spectacular.

Hades

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Terraria

Terraria has stayed in the top ranks of Steam best-reviewed games for years and at this point it’s there to stay.

It’s one of the best sandbox games on the market, and don’t be fooled by its 2D style: this game has depth to spare, such as a base-building system which allows you to do some really impressive things. Of course, the world is procedurally generated, so the game is infinitely replayable.

What can you do, beyond building some outlandish base? You can explore the world to look for resources and trouble for example, because the game has weapons to craft, dungeons to delve, and bosses to defeat. There are also useful NPCs you could recruit for your base to benefit from whatever they have on offer. Better yet: you can also play with your friends if friendly NPCs aren’t enough.

Terraria

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Half-Life: Alyx

Half-Life: Alyx is a treat. Not only is this a rare game made by Valve themselves, but also a new Half-Life story, AND a game designed to be played exclusively in VR.

The story takes place five years before Half-Life 2 and follows Alyx on her misadventures in City 17 controlled by the Combine invaders. The story is interesting and Alyx is a great main character, but the VR implementation is the true star.

The degree of simulation present in Half-Life: Alyx is astonishing and well worth the price of admission to this ride. Glass breaks realistically, many objects in the world work like you would expect them to, and if you’re determined you could even juggle because the physics are flexible enough to let you do it. If you can afford the hardware, HL: Alyx is a top-tier VR game and you should check it out.

Half-Life: Alyx

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Deep Rock Galactic

What’s a better weekend plan than putting your helmets on, picking up power tools, and mining caverns with other three space dwarves by your side? Deep Rock Galactic is exactly that.

Each cavern system you descend into is procedurally generated, filled with valuable resources and deadly monsters which make a Gunner an invaluable partner on every expedition.

Deep Rock Galactic is a great co-operative, class-based first-person shooter that’s really fun when you play solo, but an absolute blast when you play with friends. There are extermination missions, egg-stealing, looking for specific resources etc. Credits earned you can spend on cosmetic customisations, which include three different categories of facial hair. Of course they do, you’re playing dwarves.

Deep Rock Galactic

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Phasmophobia

If, like a true Ghost Buster, you are afraid of no ghost, then you should play Phasmophobia and put this claim to the test.

This game is not only a very well thought out cooperative experience, but it’s also really freaking scary, especially if you’re playing in VR. A ghost that suddenly flashes right in front of your eyes is much more nerve-wracking than a ghost doing the same on a monitor.

Ok, but what do you DO in Phasmophobia? To put it shortly: you go to abandoned buildings and try to find proof of ghost activity.

There’s well over dozen of different ghost types with different behaviour patterns, and they can (and will) respond to things you say through the in-game voice chat. Ultimately: your task is to gather evidence and make it out alive, rather than to banish a ghost. That’s above your pay grade.

Phasmophobia

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RimWorld

RimWorld may not look like it, but it’s a deep and complex space colony simulator which is likely to appeal especially to fans of Dwarf Fortress.

But not only to them, clearly, because at the time of writing it enjoys a 98% approval rating on Steam, which is an undeniable accomplishment. And it manages all of that without having bombastic graphics: the clean, somewhat cartoonish style serves it perfectly well.

The game is ruled by an AI storyteller which decides what to do in order to never let you rest on your laurels for too long. Your colonists have their own lives managed by their unique sets of needs and preferences, and the world never shies away from throwing pirates and aliens at your settlement. By its own admission, RimWorld is a story generator, and you’ll have plenty of fun stories to tell about it.

RimWorld

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Slay the Spire

A rogue-like and a deck-building game in one, AND at an attractive price? That’s Slay the Spire in a nutshell.

StS is an amazing game about going up a spire, and figuring out how to use your cards to the greatest effect. There are always several ways up the Spire you could take, some easier, others filled with encounters, but also yielding many more rewards. You choose the path.

There are four character to choose from, and each has a very different playstyle, expressed through their unique card sets. Along the way you can find and buy special items helping you during the given run, and there’s also a bunch of random encounters which can affect you in various ways. And if you think you’ve mastered the game…give the Custom mode a run, shake things up.

Slay the Spire

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Ark: Survival Evolved

ARK Survival Evolved is a pretty cool survival game that finally managed to replicate that Jurassic Park fantasy of encountering and even domesticating dinos, while giving it the full functionality of a survival game, complete with crafting and base building.

That includes establishing bases on certain humongous dinosaurs. There are also great expansions adding new regions, creatures, and expanding the lore.

ARK: Survival Evolved has a fantastic multiplayer and a sprawling community, especially on Steam, which can be relied on to get you into the game easier. Admittedly the game isn’t that hard to understand and it can pretty lenient in the survival department depending on server settings, but of course, it’s always more fun to approach it with friends.

Ark: Survival Evolved

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Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Lord of the Rings saw several video game adaptations. Some were pretty nice and fairly successful and some…weren’t.

Everything changed when Warner Bros decided to use their license for the creation of Shadow of Mordor, the sequel to which you can see here. While it deviates from what the fans know from the books  or movies, it is an interesting “What if” type of story.

Like its predecessor, Shadow of War offers a blend of management and action combat. You have to recruit Orcs into your private entourage to oppose the forces of Mordor. These Orcs are randomly generated and each one of them is unique, leading to exciting hunts and a lot of emergent storytelling. Add to that excellent combat inspired by Batman Arkham games and you have an awesome game indeed.

Middle Earth: Shadow of War

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Dark Souls III

The final installment to the series of great action RPGs made by FromSoftware, Dark Souls III is the ultimate realization of their idea of a dark and merciless medieval fantasy.

Dark Souls games are famous for testing players’ reflexes and patience alike, since not only exquisitely designed bosses, but also regular enemies can really mess you up if you aren’t careful.

But hardships aren’t the only feature. Like other Soulborne games, DS3 has a great map design, and the snippets of lore sprinkled throughout the world make the setting feel deep and lived in, even if this life is hopeless and ruined by the pride and fear of the powerful. If you enjoy challenge and dark (really dark) fantasy settings, DS3 will be right up your alley, holding a dagger to stab your back with.

Dark Souls III

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Rust

The release year might be somewhat misleading, as Rust has been on Steam’s Early Access since 2013.

It has taken a rather long time for the game to be ready to launch, but it’s one of the heartwarming examples of Early Access games that bloom into something great. And Rust was always riding on a lot of promise, which explains its constant popularity.

Rust is very simple in its basics—you start on an island and have to obtain resources, build your base, and survive. The big selling point of Rust is the persistent, changing world, shaped by your actions, and a large player base creating an entire meta-narrative on their own. This game IS the community and it exists exclusively on Steam, where it carved a perfect niche for itself.

Rust

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Euro Truck Simulator 2

Simulator games are surprisingly popular on Steam, and there’s a lot of simple yet undeniable charm to these games.

Especially games like Euro Truck Simulator 2 can be relatively calming experiences, letting you just drive from point A to point B, worried more about making the delivery on time than about demons or messed up builds. Just you, your truck, your cargo, and a road ahead. What’s not to love?

There’s also a surprisingly lively community you can discover, with dedicated steam groups and Reddit pages, so you can get advice and share stories with people who are into the same kind of fantasy. There’s also a local split-screen coop, so the point is, Euro Truck Simulator 2 can be a very social experience on top of being just a really cool, realistic, enjoyable truck ride across Europe.

Euro Truck Simulator 2

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Rainbow Six Siege

Rainbow Six Siege is a game of much fame and renown.

At its core, it lies somewhere between Counter Strike and Overwatch, with military fantasy, and many different so-called “Operatives” functioning as classes with different abilities and weapons. The gallery of operatives is vast, their abilities interesting and useful, and the deployments exciting and varied.

It’s a very competitive game, with a very active esports scene. It may not always have the most welcoming of communities, but certainly a highly passionate one. It requires a little bit of effort to get into it, but you should have no shortage of resources on the matter, as there’s plenty of groups closely monitoring its scene. If you’re into asymetrical PvP games, R6 Siege is a great place to start.

Rainbow Six Siege

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Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

In many ways it is THE Steam game, utilizing all of its aspects, from team chat, through Steam Groups, and up to the Steam inventory with multiple customization pieces, you can acquire in the game.

It also evolved from Half-Life, Valve’s most famous creation. Counter-Strike went through several iterations, and Global Offensive is the most polished and advanced one to date.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is very basic and may even seem archaic at times, but it does have a simple charm to itself. The basic mechanics are easy to get to, but take time and practice to master, making the game very competitive. There are dozens of Steam Groups focused on Counter-Strike in one way or another, so finding a niche for yourself should come easy.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Prime Status Upgrade

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Half-Life 2

The ever-popular Half-Life is, in many ways, the game that created Valve’s popularity.

It was created on Valve’s original engine, Source, which even today remains very robust, if excessively difficult to work with. And it’s one of the best games the FPS genre has to offer, even today, in 2022. Despite lack of sequels, it created great side-stories and spawned a devoted fanbase.

Half-Life 2 combines a deeply engaging story with imaginative sci-fi elements with very satisfying, fast-paced combat and excellent level design. It also provides puzzle elements due to the existence of the Gravity Gun, which can pick up objects and even turn them into deadly projectiles. The Source community creating Half-Life mods is very active, an entire world of games to explore if you’re willing to take a dive.

Half-Life 2

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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Bethesda’s magnum opus,The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is the ultimate open-world Bethesda RPG and its fantasy setting has captured love and adoration of millions with its incredible breadth.

A deeply weird TES lore, plus a Norse-themed open world, plus DRAGONS and their unique magic, plus a great degree of player freedom and expression make Skyrim one of the evergreen games always worth reinstalling.

And on Steam, so on PC, Skyrim is more than just Skyrim. It’s also the Nexus, the biggest and most popular mod site on the internet, with a very busy community of modders. Skyrim may not have a multiplayer, but there are many, many ways it can be enjoyed and all thanks to the fantastic community around this RPG. There’s a good chance that the thing you’d like to see somebody has already made a mod for.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition

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PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS

For a long time the most important of battle royales, PUBG’s popularity is undeniable.

It uses tried and tested FPS ideas and shakes things up with a survival aspect of looting guns and tools, and a contracting ring of doom that forces players into an eventual confrontation. It’s simple, evocative, and very effective, since PUBG stays in the top ranks of the most populated games on Steam.

The community of PUBG is intensely competitive and there’s a whole meta-game surrounding it. Really sinking your teeth into it is a grueling journey, this community is nothing if not hardcore, but there’s an undeniable, hypnotic hook to PUBG. With many new game-modes appearing on rotation and with leaderboards you might want to try and best, it can keep you occupied for years to come.

Civilization V

The 5^th entry in the legendary series of 4X games about being able to jump into the shoes of famous historical people and lead their nations through history.

It features many familiar aspects like the tech tree, various victory conditions, and turn-based dynamic, but also adds new and interesting stuff like ideologies and a hex-based map, instead of a square grid.

Civilization V perfectly encapsulates the “just one more turn” syndrome. It.also comes with a multiplayer segment, and a pretty fun community, with its own host of memes. On Steam specifically, you can find groups devoted to modding and creating custom scenarios which allow you to recreate certain significant moments in history, like the American Civil War.

Sid Meier's Civilization V: Complete Edition

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GTA 5

Between a fantastic single player campaign about three very different criminals getting into more trouble than they signed up for, and a great multiplayer, there’s certainly a lot of great content in Grand Theft Auto V.

And players apprieciate it, making GTA5 one of the greatest commercial successes in the history of video games.

There’s an incredibly active community of modders for GTA 5, which produces custom maps, mostly specifically designed for races. And boy, those races are really, really fun, with unique mechanics lacking in dedicated racing games. These modders often try to one-up each other, creating fantastic new grounds to cover, even years after the release.

Grand Theft Auto V: Premium Online Edition

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