Every second of it was packed with rich characters, phenomenal storytelling and some of the best quests in RPG history. As such, we’re sorely tempted to reacquaint ourselves with the Bloody Baron all over again. Edge magazine’s first-ever 10/10 – one of just 24 in the magazine’s 30-year publication – went to Super Mario 64. Directed by Nintendo’s Mario overseer, Shigeru Miyamoto, this transformative platformer set a dizzying precedent for 3D games while they were still in their infancy. In 2021, a pristine original copy became the most expensive video game ever when it sold at auction for more than $1.5M. So popular was Doom that it’s estimated to have been installed on more PCs than Windows at the time.

What Remains of Edith Finch (

With Elden Ring, FromSoftware combines the best of its Souls games with a genuinely exciting open world. You’re given the freedom to actually explore, without task markers guiding you, and customary to FromSoft games, there are plenty of secrets and hidden paths to discover. This is a dark but beautiful world, stuffed to a point that some of its secrets will likely not be discovered until much later. Split Fiction is, hands down, the best co-op game that you can currently play on PC. In fact, it’s also one of our top picks for the best games of 2025 so far, because yes, it’s just that good. From the brilliant minds at Hazelight Studios, Split Fiction follows the story of two writers (one specializing in sci-fi, the other in fantasy) as they find themselves trapped in a machine scrapping their ideas.

Alongside Fez and The Binding Of Isaac, Spelunky led the noughties charge for a new breed of low-budget, big-brained indie games that set an entirely new direction for the art form. A relentlessly lean campaign, and a multiplayer mode that would change online gaming forever, Modern Warfare took the Call of Duty franchise from the battlefields of World War II and Vietnam and gave it a colder, more nuanced ethos. Its Pripyat mission through the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone’s undergrowth remains unforgettably harrowing. Rather than shuffle Ocarina of Time, Dark Souls and Ico across a big list according to our own whims, we decided to get our friends involved.

Xbox Game Pass Gets An Epic RPG For FREE On September 25

Almost 20 years on from its debut, it’s still the most-played MMO ever. A game where less is truly more, the beauty of Shadow of the Colossus’ painterly, minimalistic environments are outmatched only by the monolithic creatures you track down throughout your quest. Academy Award-winning director, Guillermo del Toro, hailed Team Ico’s game as a “masterpiece” and an influence on his twisted directorial craft. Long before Hideo Kojima veered off into post-apocalyptic parcel delivery and Konami decided pachinko machines were the only game in town, the auteur and his longtime publisher were at the peak of their combined powers with Snake Eater.

This level of interaction makes the whole game feel alive, and makes you feel like a very real part of it. Swapping out the top-down stylings of the first Helldivers for a modern third-person action perspective, Helldivers 2 is as dynamic as it is frenetic. The game launched to an almost instantaneous positive reception, uniting PS5 and PC players in an online arena where friendly fire is possible (and let’s face it, probable) and almost anything can happen. Every level in Split Fiction is a love letter to gaming, with new and innovative mechanics introduced at every turn.

God of War’s sequel, God of War Ragnarok, is a worthy successor to this great game. Marvel’s Spider-Man is the superhero action game to measure licensed games by, full of love for its subject and simply a joy to play, combining stealth, action, and a great story, all of it looking extra sparkly in the remastered PC version. By 2017, “esoteric video games that made you feel something” were no longer a preposterous genre. If the likes of Gone Home and Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture helped to carve out a space for the ‘walking sim’, then …Edith Finch didn’t so much tug at our heartstrings as it did wrench them out of our chest with surprising finesse. Like much of the Metroid franchise, Prime’s existence feels like a borderline miracle and its recent Remastered incarnation does nothing to dissuade us of that notion. Created by the Texas-based Retro Studios largely in the space of just two years, it took the series themes of isolation and exploration and transplanted them into what is still Nintendo’s only first-person shooter of note.

Combined with an engaging story of scientific testing, robots, and companion cubes, Portal 2 remains a heavily played title. Both Portal and Portal 2 gave players phenomenal blends of intriguing puzzle mechanics, comedy, and story with timeless and original gameplay. While both are classics worthy of being experienced, Portal 2 offers just a little bit more with two-player multiplayer, larger puzzles, and a more involved story behind the puzzles. Armed with the special portal gun, players have to make their way across levels by shooting portals into walls that can be stepped or fallen through. The biggest impact CSGO had on video games was in competition, however. Few games can lay claim to the storied history that CSGO has, and its reputation as a game of razor-thin edges and mindbending outplays from pro players like s1mple made it must-see viewing all the way up until the release of Counter-Strike 2.

The Best Games for December 2024

The rights to Tetris have been contested many times, but few can deny the impact of Alexey Pajitnov’s block-buster. As one of just two pre-1990s games in our Greatest 100, it currently holds the Guinness World Record for the most ported game ever made; more than 65 platforms officially. Sony Santa Monica’s reboot transformed God of War from a gratuitous gore-fest to a thoughtful meditation on parenthood. Alongside Bloodborne and The Last of Us Part II, it helped Sony further define its PlayStation 4 as the home for exclusive single-player games of imperious quality.

We started with an open-answer survey among all seven editors, asking them to compile a list of their most influential and best games of all time, factoring in audience reviews, critical reviews, and their impact on the gaming landscape. From there, any games that were voted for multiple times were added to a tier list above any game with a single vote. A second survey conducted a month later compiled these games and once again asked editors to vote, this time for games already in the highest tier. Assembling a list of the best games ever made can be a daunting exercise for anyone, and there are plenty of rankings that are based purely on one writer’s opinion. You don’t have many weapons, but your arsenal is punchy and lethal, and feels perfect in your hand. Reloads are done manually, which feels fiddly at first, but speeding up over time is satisfying, until eventually sliding magazines into place is second nature.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (

Set in 2052, Deus Ex still feels ahead of its time for both the sheer choice afforded to its players and the unnerving prescience of its conspiratorial plot. Riffs on global pandemics aside, Warren Spector’s iconoclastic creation is even more remarkable for its ongoing influence on the immersive sim genre. Having been sold to the Embracer Group in 2022 as part of $300 million acquisition from Square Enix, a franchise revival seems sure to arrive before its predicted dystopia, if only just.

It feels like every object can be picked up, examined, and smashed. Sometimes, that’s incidental – when you’re opening draws, crushing cardboard boxes, or plucking bottles of vodka from shelves – but often, it’s central to progression. At one point, you must cover your mouth to stop Alyx coughing as you sneak past a blind monster, for example.

• Mods and custom maps broaden its scope even further, and it’s at its best when you’re building your next project collaboratively with a friend.
• For those who still have the “Song Of Time” written into their muscle memory, no amount of open-world adventuring can supplant this game’s magic.
• Divisive in a way that many games don’t have the courage to be these days, The Last Guardian saw you make friends with a giant dog-bird creature called Trico that proved to be as hungry as he was impetuous.
• This lead to some beloved games dropping off, and other games we previously missed being added.

Instead, he enlisted Microsoft producer and eventual founder of Valve, Gabe Newell, to port it to Windows. Decades later, Microsoft would finally own Doom via its $7.5bn purchase of Bethesda. In fairness to those gamers who lost their tiny minds upon Wind Waker’s 2001 Space World reveal, the spiritual successor to Ocarina Of Time did seem like an almighty gamble.

• Even now, the legacy of CSGO can be seen in CS2’s competitors, like Valorant, which borrow heavily from the concepts implemented in Valve’s 2012 shooter.
• The game’s originality – it’s the only entry in our top 10 without a sequel or spin-off – further cements its mystique.
• The “weird one” in the Elder Scrolls repertoire, Morrowind marked the first time Bethesda Game Studios ported one of its gargantuan RPGs to console.
• Developer Clover Studio shut its doors for good just a few months after release.

Rockstar would, somehow, deliver two sequels in the following three years. A feat that’s all the more impressive now that GTA V has gone a decade without a successor – which, excitingly, is about to change. Luckily for them – and everyone who just wanted another great Bungie shooter – Halo 3 made good on the hype.

Its snowy mountain peaks are an incredible discovery space with 100s of hours of quests and secrets and – like all Bethesda games – thousands of fan-made mods created entire new quests and systems to elongate the game’s life for over a decade. In order to do this, you not only need to familiarize yourself with your target’s routines, Hitman-style, but you also need to learn the ins and outs of each section. Arkane once again delivers on great level design, so there’s plenty to explore. The gunplay feels amazing and is in typical Arkane style, bolstered by a selection of meaningful skills to give you an edge in a fight. This is a time loop game that allows you to retain enough in terms of equipment and progress that things don’t get frustrating. There’s a lot to see in Deathloop, and while it refines systems you’ll recognize from other games, it’s another uniquely Arkane affair – executed with style and deeply satisfying throughout.

There’s a reason every star from Léa Seydoux to Mads Mikkelsen wants to work with him – he’s ingenious, inventive and bonkers weird. Held aloft as the undisputed GOAT for decades, Ocarina of Time’s crown has slipped a little after 2017’s Breath of the Wild redefined The Legend of Zelda franchise once again. For chicken road those who still have the “Song Of Time” written into their muscle memory, no amount of open-world adventuring can supplant this game’s magic.

Super Mario 64

At a moment when Nintendo desperately needed to prove its wares weren’t just for kids, here was its Hero of Time in a playable anime form. The Gamecube might have tanked harder than the Master Sword through Ganondorf’s skull come Link’s final boss fight, but this remains that dinky console’s crowning achievement. Proof that video games are often at their best when they are unashamed to get weird. The poster child for “games with a disastrous launch that turned out to be great”, Naoki Yoshida’s salvage job on FF XIV remains as unlikely as it is astonishing.

Platform your way through stunning levels as you work to find glitches and break the theft technology before it’s too late. When it comes to the best PC games, you really are spoilt for choice in 2025. The platform is bursting with fantastic options, from big sprawling adventures that will let you put the best gaming PCs out there to good use, to smaller experiences that you can play no matter your setup. But with such an extensive library of games available and more console exclusives making their way to our PCs, you might find yourself wondering what to play next.

Developer Clover Studio shut its doors for good just a few months after release. The Return of the Obra Dinn’s style – a 1-bit monochromatic black and white style not seen since the earliest games – makes it stand out. But it’s the fierce intelligence of its design, from solo creator Lucas Pope, that really sets it apart from its contemporaries.