MUST PLAY
Samuel’s choice of PC games to play.
80 Days www.inklestudios.com/80days
This densely packed, very loose adaptation of the Jules Verne book uses just a few words and pictures to bring steampunk versions of real-world cities to life in extraordinary fashion. You’ll feel like you’ve traveled the world and lived a life, and then you’ll go again to visit those places you missed.
Superhot www.superhotgame.com
Control the flow of time in this first-person game where you punch, shoot and slash your way out of a bunch of deadly scenarios in the most efficient way possible. My personal pick for 2016, partly because I found it to be of an almost perfect length at about three hours—try to grab it in a sale.
Star Wars : Rogue Squadr on www.bit.ly/1W0byz2
Pilot an X-Wing, Y-Wing, Snowspeeder, A-Wing or Naboo Starfighter (!) in this warmly remembered arcade-style planetary combat game from 1998. It’s nowhere near as hardcore as X-Wing, but it’s a breezy way to get Star Wars kicks in the old Expanded Universe. Definitely play it with a controller.
Reigns www.reignsgame.com
Govern a kingdom by selecting binary choices dealt by cards. Swipe left or right to balance the happiness of your people, military and church. When one of these eventually turns against you, start again as your successor and see how long you survive. My record is 50 years so far. I’m sure you can beat that.
FTL : Faster Than Light www.ftlgame.com
Most of the PC Gamer team participated in a group version of FTL on New Year’s Eve, with every decision made by committee, including which systems to target. We never finished the game because we got too drunk, but it remains a dependable favorite combination of strategy and narrative.
Virginia www.virginia.game
This first-person narrative uses film-style cuts to tell a mystery story in a Twin Peaks setting. There’s something supernatural going on, but with no voice acting, Virginia relies on the player to pay attention and keep up. A divisive game, as anything story-focused usually is, but worth talking about.
Titanfall 2 www.titanfall.com
I wasn’t quite as enamored with Titanfall2’ s campaign as my colleagues—it has a boring sewer level and could do with more banter with your mech buddy, BT, in my opinion—but there’s a suite of cool ideas worth checking out in there. It feels like an FPS jam in blockbuster game form.
Age of Mythology: Extended Edition www.ageofempires.com/games/aom
Age of Empires but with cyclopes instead of... the French, this is the sort of RTS you don’t see around very much these days, but which is helpfully available on Steam for when you crave seeing a hydra attack a fishing ship. Which was rather recently, in my case.