Buying or building a high-end gaming rig can be tough on your wallet, but there’s never been a better time to be a PC gamer. From expansive MMOs to rare gems from independent developers, there’s no shortage of fantastic titles you should be playing on your PC right now. But because GamesRadar likes a challenge, we narrowed down our list of favorites to the best of the best, the latest must-haves that definitely won’t disappoint.



What you won’t find here are top picks for our staff’s favorite free-to-play titles, like League of Legends or DC Universe Online. While some of our most played titles of late have enjoyed much success with the free-to-play business model, this list is about helping you make sure you don’t waste money on titles you’ll regret purchasing – and since F2P games are free, you won’t be seeing any gratis games here.



Creative Assembly’s latest entry in the Total War series is the best one yet. Part real-time, part turn-based, Shogun 2 carries the torch of the series’ hybrid gameplay, walking the line between both genres with gorgeous visuals and epic battles. As an RTS, Shogun 2 offers a much more realistic and methodical experience that’s all about positioning hundreds of troops, using terrain to your advantage, and flanking. But even if you auto-resolve battles and skip Shogun 2’s RTS offerings, you’ll still find one of the most deep and gorgeous turn-based strategy experiences. Managing your territories, engaging in diplomacy, and conquering Japan will keep you hooked for hours on end.

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To say that 2000’s Deus Ex changed the face of gaming might sound hyperbolic – if it weren’t true. Fortunately for modern gamers, this latest entry in the series lives up to those impossibly high standards. Human Revolution is an intelligent, challenging and Blade Runner-beautiful vision of the future, with gameplay that’s customizable enough to qualify as both 100% shooter and 100% stealth. Which genre you experience is completely up to you.


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Dangerously addictive and deceivingly simple, Minecraft will pull you in and never let you go. It’s not a sandbox game, it is the sandbox, empowering you to create and share just about anything you and the ever growing army of fellow crafters can imagine. The never ending list of objects to build, resources to gather, and user-made content to explore and admire will leave you sleepless and haunted by visions of blocky masterpieces and the relentless crunching sound of your shovel going “chk, chk, chk, chk.” Trust us. That’s a good thing. Drink the Kool-Aid and join the party. You know you want to. 


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How do you improve one of the most successful and popular MMOs of all time? You destroy everything. Following the arrival of Deathwing, the biggest and baddest dragon of all time, Azeroth has beentorn asunder. Sure, Blizzard added all the extras we’ve come to expect from MMO expansions, like new races, higher level caps, and new raids and dungeons to conquer. But it also completely reinvented the world players have grown to know and love since WoW first launched in 2004. The changes were radical and for the best. 10 million players can’t be wrong. World of Warcraft is still one of the best MMOs out there.

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 review
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 screenshots

How do you improve on the greatest superhero game of all time? Throw in more heroes, more villains, more powers and a more epic setting, then miraculously manage to connect all those pieces with writing that’s as good as – or better than – most comic books, movies and TV shows based on the same character. If you’re a fan of Batman, this is a dream come true. If you’re not, you’re about to be. 



As an action game, Arkham City also feels just as good on the PC as it does on consoles. But in terms of visuals, expect Gotham’s city prison to look better than it does on other platforms with support for fancy fog and paper effects.


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Battlefield is back and it’s never looked better. If you’ve got the rig to run it with all settings maxed out, expect to experience one of 2011’s best-looking shooters. But Battlefield 3’s beauty isn’t only skin deep. Regardless of your play style or preferences, rest assured that every second of every match will be packed with action and lots of things blowing up in this incredibly polished class based shooter. Get in that plane and strafe them silly! Lay down some artillery fire on that point! And gogogogogogo!

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Don’t think that The Witcher 2 is just another fantasy RPG. Truly a labor of love, this amazing sequel fortifies the foundations laid down by a flawed classic and creates a brilliant masterpiece. Visceral combat, dizzying player customization and a truly immersive story all come together to create one of the best role-playing experiences of the year.

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BioWare’s first MMO is also the first fully voiced MMO – and it makes a huge difference. Gone are the tiresome walls of quest text. In its place, excellent performances, great writing, and a story that feels fittingly epic for your character’s journey through the Star Wars universe. No matter what kind of character you decide to roll, you can expect to feel like the fate of the galaxy depends on you. The Old Republic manages to mix the best of the singleplayer RPG magic BioWare’s known for into the MMO experience, making it a great choice for both MMO vets and strangers to the genre alike.

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Portal 2 is not only the sequel to our choice for the best game of all time, it’s a sequel that improves on that choice in every imaginable way, including a longer campaign, more memorable characters and the addition of cooperative play. To describe the elements that truly make Portal 2 an unforgettable experience, however, would require spoilers that might ruin that experience. If you haven’t played it yet, stop reading this and go do so immediately.


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Size matters. You could probably conquer Skyrim in about 10 hours if you just stick to the game’s main quest line, but you’d be missing the point. The massive role-playing game’s main attraction is everything it has to offer on the side. It’s no exaggeration to say that you could spend hundreds of hours adventuring, exploring, crafting, hunting and dungeon diving outside the game’s main story. Skyrim ups the ante for the open world experience, making a truly gorgeous and ambitious title that’ll keep you busy for a long, long time.

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