The best thing about PC gaming is arguably that you never know where the next big hit might come from. It’d be incorrect to say that smaller, independently produced games thrived across the board while triple-A blockbusters floundered, but the new releases that captured our collective hearts and minds often weren’t the ones we were anticipating months, even years, in advance. So when it came to deciding our list of the best PC games of 2024, all bets were off.
46 games were considered for a place in our top ten list, with our number one pick receiving almost double the number of votes as the runner-up. We reckon we’ve got a varied roundup of recommendations for you, ranging from the biggest shooters to a comedy adventure we’ve admittedly struggled to describe with words. Honestly, we could easily have doubled or tripled the entries in our list given the breadth and quality of this year’s new PC games, but ten should do the trick.
The top ten PC games of 2024
Here are the best PC games of 2024, as decided by PCGamesN.
10. 1000xResist
1000xResist is difficult to compare to any other game from this year, or any other game at all. It’s also ‘good’ in a way that videogames are rarely good. Increasingly, developers and videogame audiences are awed by scale and mechanics – the biggest games, with inventive twists on mechanical or generic conventions, are the ones that draw the most praise. 1000xResist is small, focused, personal. It’s also mechanically limited – but at the same time, it wouldn’t work at all if it weren’t a videogame.
There’s a lot of stuff I play and I think ‘yeah, it’s got great dialogue and great writing and great characters, for a videogame.’ It’s that caveat, whereby even the most resonant games don’t impact or mean anything to me as compared to my favorite movies or novels. 1000xResist is just good. It’s not good for a game – it’s a compelling story about loyalty and about the self. There are questions about identity and heritage, but also about honor, and what it means to belong to something, be that a religion, an ideology, a family, or a group of friends. On paper and when I watched the trailers and looked at the screenshots, this was a game I thought I understood, and was instinctively unpredisposed towards. But, for me, 1000xResist is the best game of this year and one of the best of all time.
Ed Smith
9. Dungeons of Hinterberg
Before the recent announcement of an Okami sequel, Dungeons of Hinterberg felt like the beloved RPG’s strongest spiritual successor. Microbird Games presents a visually stunning world packed with charming characters that instantly captured my heart. You’re on a getaway break to an alpine tourist resort where magic has sprung up across the land, creating mysterious, monster-filled dungeons that were quickly turned into a hotspot tourist destination.
Each of Hinterberg’s diverse biomes hands you unique pairings of smartly designed abilities that integrate into everything from exploration and puzzle-solving to its arena-based combat encounters. These are easy to pick up but offer you the freedom to push yourself against tougher enemies and test your skills or take it slow and enjoy the tale of curious happenings and political intrigue as you wish.
The eponymous dungeons are a blast, providing enough variety to keep you on your toes. Spending the evenings hanging out with the locals and your fellow adventurers offers plenty of sweet little side stories but also powerful upgrades to help you tackle the next big challenge. My Dungeons of Hinterberg review should tell you everything you need to know, but suffice it to say I’ll be making another trip there to experience it all again soon enough.
Ken Allsop
8. Thank Goodness You’re Here
I’m struggling to find the words to describe Thank Goodness You’re Here. It’s kind of a warped snapshot of British life in the 80s, with all the stereotypes that hone in on a very specific part of England, South Yorkshire, and in this case the fictional town of Barnsworth, which is based on the very real town of Barnsley.
It’s the least videogamey videogame I’ve ever played and gives you little to no direction as you explore the town as a little traveling salesman, helping out the townsfolk with odd jobs from fixing the fryer in the chippie to sliding butter along the pavement to help a large fellow with his hand stuck down a grate, all while they chant ‘thank goodness you’re here.’
Meat, grease, and chips are the main ingredients here. At one point you find yourself wandering through the inside of a steak, slapping things, trying to distinguish what is meat and what is fat and what is bone and what is indistinguishable, all while mounds of pink mince turn into faces that want to tell you a story. That’s about the best I can do to describe this fever dream of a part point and click, part story, and all slapstick comedy. It’s also nice and short, making it a great choice to play over the holidays.
Gina Lees
7. Call of Duty Black Ops 6
Black Ops 6 is by far and away the best Call of Duty game we’ve seen in years – for me, personally, 2018’s Black Ops 4 was the last entry in the series that felt this good and, most importantly, this fun.
BO6’s multiplayer is addictive and chaotic. While admittedly not faultless, the combination of slick gunplay, a more manageable loadout system, and the action blockbuster-style movement enabled by Omnimovement make this the strongest multiplayer FPS game of the year. Whether you’re playing competitively in Ranked Play or sneaking around as a filing cabinet in Prop Hunt, the array of maps, modes, and playlists ensures there’s something for everyone.
You’ve also got an incredible offering of Zombies maps that proves just what Treyarch is capable of when Activision lets it cook. Call of Duty has been missing the mark with Zombies for a while, and the return to round-based maps in Black Ops 6 is exactly what was needed.
Then you’ve got the campaign. While not an all-time classic, it’s nevertheless an enjoyable, riotous experience that throws in some unexpected twists and diverse mission types. It’s a far cry from the bland, unoriginal, predictable stories that so many other recent COD games have offered.
Jamie Hore
6. Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree
Shadow of the Erdtree had the unenviable task of following up on one of the best PC games of all time in Elden Ring. A brutally hard expansion that feels closer in scope and ambition to Elden Ring 1.5 than a mere DLC, it rightfully invited a level of conversation and excitement typically reserved for the year’s tentpole releases.
The success of Shadow of the Erdtree’s less opaque narrative and more guided structure is up for debate, but it’s hard to argue against the dizzying verticality of its world design, the grim beauty of its environments, or the boundary-testing brilliance of its bosses and builds. This is Elden Ring revisited, reexamined, and presented with two years of playful tinkering; the final word in this specific strain of FromSoftware’s formula.
Cameron Bald
5. Pacific Drive
A game about a little car that could. Pacific Drive is a first-person driving survival game, which is quite the mouthful and yet the only real way to explain it. You’re tasked with getting from point A to B, and occasionally to C, avoiding perilous hazards and whatever otherworldly horrors The Zone (Roadside Picnic, Stalker; that kind of zone) can throw at you, with the ultimate goal being to escape this weird hellhole.
The car – a really not-that-glamorous station wagon – is the hero here. At first, it seems like an unwieldy hunk of metal that looks and handles like a garbage can. While this is technically true, it ends up as much more than the sum of its parts. Your car is your safe space, your transportation, and your home. Taking care of it takes precedence over anything else. Repairing and upgrading your car after each jaunt feels therapeutic, and steels you for what comes next.
Imagine a game that perfectly captures that feeling of driving down the highway at night, rain beating down, music blaring, only this time taking a wrong turn could see you coming face to face with a bizarre monstrosity. Just pop it in reverse. You didn’t see anything; it’ll be okay.
Paul Kelly
4. Still Wakes the Deep
Deep in the bowels of the Beira D oil rig, the generator’s tripped and needs a manual restart. Ordinarily, this would be an easy fix – but this is no ordinary day. Ribbons of pink sinew pulled from the crew’s insides have the rig in an eerie chokehold, the gaffer’s overinflated head patrols the corridors on arachnoid stilts, and an inhuman screech echoes through the generator room. Caz McLeary says what I’m thinking: “I’m not f***in’ going doon there.” It’s not the first time, and it won’t be the last.
Still Wakes the Deep’s dialogue boasts a social realism rarely seen in videogames. It is a kitchen-sink horror game that plays to The Chinese Room’s strengths in immersive storytelling, rather than an all-out scarefest. It resists the urge to ‘go bigger’ for the sake of studio legacy, and instead delivers an intimate story of a working-class everyman trapped in a claustrophobic bottleneck, desperate to get home for Christmas. The haunting soundscape of whalesong, moaning steel, and the primordial churn of the North Sea dogs each embattled step Caz takes. Eventually, the corporate and isolationist evil pulled from Alien and The Thing recede, leaving Scottish pragmatism in their wake. It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it.
Nat Smith
3. Metaphor ReFantazio
2024 has been an absolute treat for JRPG fans, with Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Visions of Mana, and Persona 3 Reload all vying for our precious gaming time. However, for me at least, Atlus’ Metaphor ReFantazio towers above them all, and if I had my way the “crowned prince of turn-based JRPGs” would be our GOTY.
Metaphor ReFantazio is a masterclass in subversion, presenting more twists and turns than a snake with an itch as its sprawling narrative gradually uncoils. Taking a post-medieval succession story and slapping the modern democratic process on top is a ridiculous concept in itself, but the studio’s sublime execution makes the great Euchronian election for its next monarch one of the most treacherously tense yarns spun in recent memory. Throw in a fantastically realized cast of heroes and a main villain with immense aura, and you’re in for a hell of a ride over its ~80-hour runtime.
Metaphor also represents the most complete form of Atlus’ turn-based combat systems, drawing on elements from its Shin Megami Tensei, Persona, and Digital Devil Saga series. Simple to approach, tricky to master, and beautifully presented, prepare to dedicate plenty of time to cracking Metaphor’s most challenging difficulties. W story, W gameplay, W OST (of course; it’s Atlus after all), Metaphor ReFantazio has more than merited its spot on our list.
Aaron Down
2. Helldivers 2
I wouldn’t have put money on Helldivers 2 becoming a breakout hit, yet Arrowhead’s bug-blasting space satire rightfully flew to the top of the Steam charts earlier this year and dominated my X feed for months. For me, its success stems from an infinitely replayable gameplay loop that perfectly caters to hardcore players and groups of mates looking to pump some bugs full of lead. While balancing issues and questionable nerfs have threatened to cast a shadow on its legacy, Arrowhead’s recent decision to throw caution to the wind and let the game be the game has freed it from a nasty rut.
For me, however, Helldivers 2’s zany Starship Troopers-esque humor is what makes it so special. Future Earth’s extreme militarism and propaganda machine perfectly toe the line between serious and funny, so even if your assignments are morally gray and the war seems unending, you’ll still want to return to fight another day.
Lauren Bergin
1. Balatro
Balatro’s addictive gameplay loop, coupled with its trippy visuals and mesmerizing soundtrack, has come toe to toe with every heavy hitter in 2024 and emerged as the victor. Early releases in the year tend to get overlooked in the GOTY discussion, but it’s impossible to forget something that most of us are still playing.
Balatro was an instant success when it launched in February, taking the essence of Poker and twisting it into a roguelike deckbuilder with endless possibilities. It’s no exaggeration to say that you only need to try it once to understand what makes it so special. You start by playing Poker hands, and after a few rounds you’ll begin to understand what the recipe for a winning deck could look like. Before you know it, you’ll experiment with different builds, adapting on the fly as you discover powerful jokers, enhanced cards, and booster packs.
While there’s an element of luck at play, you always have the power to shift the odds in your favor. The card game’s simplicity means you only need a basic understanding of maths to get started, and after 10, 50, even 100 hours, there will still be synergies for you to unearth. Balatro will have you daydreaming about greedy joker combinations and other devious ways to earn your next stake. It’s the perfect PC, handheld, and mobile game, and that’s why it’s our GOTY.
Christian Vaz
And that’s it for our GOTY 2024 roundup. If you’ve got an eye on the future, check out our full list of upcoming PC games for next year and beyond.