Nothing else offers endless fun better than the best free-to-play Steam games. Not only are these games just as entertaining as the most popular PC titles, but they’ll also save you a ton of cash.
While the best PC games are perhaps more popular titles in the gaming community, amassing a library of them will burn a hole in your pocket if you’re not careful. The best free-to-play Steam games, therefore, are just the ticket to fill the gaps in your collection or get that much needed distraction in your downtime without spending any more money. Although, in some cases, you do have to keep an eye out for those microtransactions and loot boxes, as those tend to pile up and end up costing you more.
These free games on Steam offer lots of fun while keeping your wallet safe and fat, so we gathered the best of them for you. Boot up your gaming PC, take a look at our picks for the best free-to-play Steam games of 2020 and download as many as you want.
When it comes to MOBAs (multiplayer online battle arenas), not every game has to be a fantasy-based romp with daggers, spells and cutesy champions.
Take the science fiction ship battles of Fractured Space. Sure, it’s a MOBA-style 5v5 affair, but now you’re in control of a powerful frigate as your hurtle across the stars and attempt to destroy your opponent’s base before your own suffers the same fate.
Skewing the classic MOBA concept as a space-based naval affair gives the setup you know and love a much-needed breath of fresh air, while blowing away all the cobwebs. You can customize your ship and crew, as well as hotkeying weapons and abilities so you can combine the best ships for the task ahead.
It’s one of the most exciting MOBAs on PC, and it's free to play on Steam.
Much like Paladins, Gigantic offers a team-based shooter that’s part-Overwatch, part MOBA and part something brand new. Instead of having you defend a slow-moving carriage through a map (because that never gets old) or destroy an enemy base (in classic MOBA style), Gigantic tasks you with killing an enemy giant while attempting to protect your own. Sounds mad, right? It is, but a brilliant kind of mad all the same.
With an art style that mashes up Studio Ghibli flourishes and classic Disney cuteness, Gigantic’s 20-strong character roster offers enough skills, weapons and attributes to appease even the pickiest of players.
Each match is a 5v5 event, with players working together to power up their own Guardian (that’s your giant weapon/walking base) while risking it all to lay siege to the enemy. The roving nature of your Guardian makes every match an intense affair, and best of all, it’s 100% free on Steam.
Idle Big Devil from Hong Kong Spark Software may still be in Early Access, but the idle RPG game has already gotten a lot of raving reviews from Steam gamers. While it is an idle game, which lets you progress through the game without much interaction, there’s a lot of stuff to do while you wait so it never gets boring. You also get a ton of free currency in the initial play, giving new players a chance to progress quickly.
In this game, you’re appointed by the king as the lord of killing the Undead and creatures possessed by evil spirits. You do so with the aid of a total of five heroes whom you recruit yourself throughout the course of the game. As you travel the continent, you can participate in different events that allow you to collect loot, as well as complete daily tasks that reward you with prizes. You can also gather resources to power up your heroes and upgrade your castle.
Idle Big Devil does get a bit complicated and harder as you progress, and you will get to a point where you have to decide whether to spend money or endure a slower progression in the game. However, this game can be completely free to play, if you choose not to spend money.
Paladins launched just after a certain team-based shooter from Blizzard, and it's hard not see the similarities. Still, that doesn’t mean Hi-Rez Studios’ free-to-play FPS isn’t worth your time – it just means you get play something that’s often just as fun and rewarding without forcing you to break the bank with a full-game price.
With a menagerie of characters to choose from (known as Champions), each match offers an objective-based experience that feels more like triple-A fare than other free-to-play shooters.
Paladins includes everything from Overwatch-style payload defence/offence to a Survival mode akin to the popular ‘battle royale’ sub-genre made popular by PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite. It offers a consistently enjoyable and rewarding place to spend your time, even if it’s a tad derivative.
It's free to play on Steam, and there's no need to sink any money into it as long as you’re willing to grind for the first few hours.
We’ve all fantasized about what it would be like to roam Europe in the Middle Ages. Well, with Crusader Kings II, you can do exactly that, playing a Christian lord looking to expand and preserve his dynasty while the whole continent is in turmoil. And, it’s not just invaders you have to worry about. Your vassals and courtiers are also busy plotting against you too.
You’ll also introduce laws, make friends with other nobles and defend your religion against the heretics. Whatever decision you make, just remember that this is a game of strategy. So even the smallest ones can affect whether or not your dynasty will survive the Dark Ages.
If you fancy playing with friends, this game has a competitive multiplayer mode. So you can play with up to 32 other players.
Free-to-play shooters in their more traditional, deathmatch-esque form are often a hit and miss affair, but despite all those polished triple-A offerings from the likes of Activision and EA, Crytek Kiev has managed to put together a robust little FPS that can be just as exciting and enjoyable as many other entries in the bullet-ridden genre.
Warface: Blackout offers four classes to choose from, with weapons, gear, attachments and specific skills tied to each one. Having the right balance of classes in your squad adds a more Battlefield-style teamwork ethic, especially when engineers can repair armour and snipers can pull off game-changing one-shot kills.
After four years of rotation on the field, Warface has also honed its online economy, neatly offering you the ability to spend in-game currency on a rental system that lets you test out guns and gear before investing time and cash into your own version.
Are you looking for a MOBA spin-off that’s light on the RTS elements but deep enough to keep you engaged through every match? Well, we’ve got just the free-to-play beauty for you. Art of War: Red Tides takes that classic MOBA structure – funnelling you down a channel with loads of units as you attempt to destroy a base at the other end – but strips out all the busywork in between. It might not appeal to the hardcore among us, but for those looking to replicate the relaxed involvement of a mobile title at your PC, this is right up your alley.
That’s not to say it’s a spectator title. You’ll still need to survey the battlefield and use your energy reserves to build units to counter those already on the field. There are a trio of modes available, but it’s in the 3v3 mode the setup works best, with matches often coming down to which team pulls off the best combo.
Okay, so the word ‘war’ features quite a lot in some of the best and most popular free-to-play titles, but that’s because few things are as fun to wage when you’re spending no money. Another such example is Warframe – an online melee brawler/shooter that’s evolved into one of the most enjoyable games on PC.
Putting you in control of a sword-wielding space ninja (yes, it’s as cool as it sounds), the game feels like a cross between For Honor and Destiny 2, with modes offering PvE and PvP matches to keep you engaged. There’s even a story mode, and it’s actually pretty fun, if a little repetitive in places.
Developer Digital Extremes has also been dedicated to Warframe, rolling out regular updates and events that offer new upgrades and expansion on its rich lore. It may have floundered on consoles, but Warframe is one of the best examples of how to do the best free Steam games right.
There’s been a resurgence for the sci-fi dogfighting subgenre in the last few years – thanks in part to the rise of VR – but there aren’t many titles that let you take to the stars and shoot space ships for nada. In fact, there’s just the one, and it’s one of the most enjoyable games we’ve played on this list.
The game is split into four main modes – PvP, Open Space, Sector Conquest and Missions – offering plenty of content for absolutely no pounds/euros/dollars. You can atomize other players in classic deathmatches, explore an impressively vast universe in Open Space, or head into co-op for a bit of PvE action in Missions. You can set up custom battles with friends if you’re in mood for a private dust up. Ship designs offer different attributes depending on your play style, and earning new ones can be pulled off without spending a penny if you’re willing to grind.
Part MOBA, part RTS, Atlas Reactor borrows those now ubiquitous decision queues and adds a neat twist: instead of each player acting out their turn one after the other, everyone gets to play at the same time. The result? A strategy game in actual real-time as players move units around the map, exchanging actions in a chaotic flurry. It can be a little more luck based than we would like (since you don’t know what you’re opponents are going to do next, it’s often guess work alone), but the pace soon hooks you in.
Decision, one of two main modes in the game, forces you to make these decisions in 20 seconds or under for each turn (making every match hella fun and hyper intense), while Resolution slows things down into four phases as you plan out your moves and set traps as you attempt to win each 4v4 showdown.
As part of TechRadar's PC Gaming Week 2019, we've thought long and hard about what the most important PC games of all time are.
So, what makes a game ‘important’? For many, it’s a totally subjective argument based on which games have made the biggest impact on your gaming life.
However, there are some games that have done more than gained legions of fans - this is the software that’s shaped the ebb and flow of the industry. From graphical milestones to the creation of a entirely new genres, these are the games that elevated PC gaming with every release.
That's why we’ve gathered together ten of the best, highlighting just why they have been so influential in shaping the course of PC gaming.
Sid Meier’s Civilization (1991)
It’s impossible to overstate just how influential Civilization has been on strategy games, world-building sims and PC gaming in general.
Alongside SimCity and Populus, MicroPose’ seminal piece of software took something as vast as building and nurturing numerous empires through time and somehow made an interactive experience with untold control at your fingertips.
The original MS-DOS versions looks positively antiquated today, but it’s been remade and remastered multiple times over the years so it’s far from lost. While its sequels would go onto refine its sim systems and mechanics, the original remains the blueprint that made the biggest impact of all.
Doom (1993)
There have been so many seminal shooters over the years, but very have had the impact that id Software’s 1993 release enjoys.
Shooters existed prior to its arrival, but Doom pioneered so many the principles we still see today. Playing in first-person perspective; open-ended levels full of secrets; spatially open environments; copious amounts of gore and ultraviolence.
It didn’t rewrite the FPS handbook, it authored the first edition. There’s a reason it’s been ported to every platform imaginable - even today, its huge arsenal of weapons and bestiary of hellish enemies remain steadfast in their relevance.
You can see Doom’s DNA in every shooter that followed, and you will for decades to come.
Diablo (1996)
The role-playing game has taken many forms over the years, but only one decided to shed the layers of multi-genre influence in the way Diablo did in 1996.
Blizzard’s top-down creation stripped away all the detritus and firmly put the ‘action’ back in action-RPG.
Diablo is all about the combat, and what glorious combat it is. It banished the steep difficulty spikes that had made the genre so impenetrable and instead focused on upping the creativity of its dungeons.
Quests and level layouts were procedurally-generated (a gameplay mechanic that still feels fresh today, never mind over 20 years ago), while the introduction of multiplayer enabled players to team up or go head to head for fantastical glory.
Tomb Raider (1996)
In the same year that Diablo was rewriting the rules for RPGs, a small British studio by the name of Core Design introduced the world to a game (and a lead character) that brought 3D platforming kicking and screaming into a new era.
With her dual pistols and pointy polygonal assets, Lara Croft’s first adventure as the titular Tomb Raider has had just as much impact as Mario’s first foray into 3D space.
Platforming no longer consisted of floaty leaps, but required a careful combination of timing and precision. Environmental puzzles were deep, elaborate and multi-faceted. And the gunplay? Well, few games escalate with quite the imagination of Tomb Raider. Wolves? Nah. Raptors? Nah? A T-rex? Oh, go on then.
Half-Life (1998)
Doom was the game that defined what a first-person shooter was to an unsuspecting PC gaming community in the early ’90s, but Half-Life would revolutionise that concept by the time the decade had drawn to a close.
Even if you disregard how its popularity eventually led to the creation of the revolutionary delivery platform Steam, Half-Life showed shooters could be something more than just bullets, blood and baddies.
It was the thinking man’s FPS, a game that was unafraid to place a dystopian sci-fi story first and foremost. It popularised the concept of using environmental puzzles, and wantonly spliced genres in a way we’d never seen before.
Baldur’s Gate (1998)
The humble RPG has gone through many regeneration over the years, and the one it took in the form of Baldur’s Gate remains its most quintessential.
With Canadian studio Bioware at the helm, it was the first RPG to use the now legendary Infinity Engine, which gave the game an instantly recognisable 2D art style. (A style so popular Obsidian designed 2015’s Pillars of Eternity around that much-loved look.)
With its Forgotten Realms setting and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons ruleset, it would take until Bioware rewrote the rules yet again with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic for Baldur’s Gate to feel anything less than compulsory playing.
Deus Ex (2000)
The consequence and choice of the Human Revolution and Mankind Divided might not seem that remarkable today, but at the turn of the millennium the sheer influence you as a player had over the world you inhabited in Deus Ex was invigorating and startling in equal measure.
Sure, you could pull out a gun and shoot NPCs or sneak around dangers if you so wished, but it was depth to which those actions played out that struck home the most.
From the freedom of exploration you were afforded to the breadth of dialogue choices only found in traditional RPGs, this mechanical cross-pollination made Deus Ex a unique prospect that few titles have matched since.
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (2002)
While the likes of Baldur’s Gate were delving deep into classic D&D rulesets, Bethesda was working on a very different but equally immersive action-RPG of its own.
When it arrived in 2002, Morrowind brought the series into the third dimension and with a more powerful engine at its disposal, and it doing so it created something intrinsically unique.
With its Dwemer factories buried deep into the ground, and its fungal fauna rising high into the sky, not even Oblivion or Skyrim could match TESIII for sheer creativity. Free of the technical constraints that dogged Daggerfall, Morrowind was a virtual world that influenced every action-RPG that would follow in its footsteps.
World of Warcraft (2004)
While its been through myriad overhauls since its 2004 inception, World of Warcraft set in stone what a robust and commercially successful MMO (massively multiplayer online) could and should be.
Pulling from the deep and rich lore of the Warcraft series, WoW broke from the traditional real-time strategy of its forebears and focused on an action-RPG template.
Set in a cartoonish depiction of Azeroth, World of Warcraft managed to bridge the gap between a shared online space and a narrative experience that engrossed each player individually. And, while it may not be the subscriber powerhouse it once was, its place among the MMO greats will never fade.
Minecraft (2009)
Much like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Doom, Minecraft has been ported to just about every modern platform there is, but that hasn’t detracted from the sheer impact it’s had on PC gaming as a whole.
From its earliest origins in the late ’00s, to the latest innovations from the Bedrock Edition update, Mojang’s creation suite has inspired a generation of gamers to start thinking with blocks. From the test of Survival mode to the unbridled depth of Creative mode - and let’s not forget the incredible mods and texture packs it’s spawned from the community - Minecraft has become less of a game and more of an ongoing phenomenon - and one that’s likely going to shape the developers of tomorrow.
Its also become the best selling PC game of all time, and we take an in-depth look into the history of Minecraft for PC Gaming Week.
Welcome to TechRadar's PC Gaming Week 2019. We're celebrating the most powerful gaming platform on Earth with in-depth articles, exclusive interviews and essential buying guides that showcase everything PC gaming has to offer. Visit our PC Gaming Week 2019 page to see all our coverage in one place.
Consoles may have their technically impressive titles, but on PC, games aren't held back by ageing hardware, and while that means we’re treated to some truly incredible looking experiences, it also leads to developers pushing the very best hardware to its absolute limits. We’re talking GPU starting to smoke inside your tower kind of limits.
The thing is, these unhindered efforts have become cornerstones in PC gaming, creating some of the most technically impressive graphics in the history of the industry. They became benchmarks (with many still holding that reverential place) not just for players, but developers the world over.
As part of TechRadar's PC Gaming Week 2019, we take a look at the most graphically-impressive PC games of all time. If these make you desperate to upgrade your rig, make sure you check out our list of the best graphics cards.
Crysis (2007)
How could we put together a feature on games as graphical benchmarks and not mention the elder king of GPU destruction? When Crytek dropped Crysis upon the PC gaming community in 2007, it drew a line in the virtual sand between those that could run it, and those that wept in lamentation over their impotent hardware setup.
Today, we're 11 years on from its initial release, and the original Crysis is still an absolute beast, even if you’re not running it on ultra.
It’s because the game was a trailblazer, running at a seemingly-impossible 60fps thanks to its use of the then relatively new DirectX 10 and a series of rendering techniques that worked some incredible graphical magic.
Myst (1993)
The jaw-dropping spectrum of graphics available today has made us almost immune to true virtual fidelity, but back in the ’90s our minds were still intact and in dire need of blowing.
Enter Myst, a 3D world that combined a sedate journey through a world filled with unusual and obtuse puzzles. Looking back on it today, it looks so basic it’s almost laughable, but in 1993 it was a realistic world of wonder.
The game was so big it had to be packaged in a CD-ROM rather than a floppy disk (a decision that helped welcome in the popularity of the format in PC gaming), and was one of the first games to use QuickTime (but don't hold that against it).
It was built using high-end Macintosh Quandras, with its relatively small team using a number of texture and rendering techniques to overcome the technical limits of the age.
Grand Theft Auto V (2013)
Few games have left quite the mark of the industry - and wider popular culture - as Grand Theft Auto V. Even if you don’t take into account the fact it’s made $6 billion in revenue since its launch in 2013, Rockstar’s open-world extravaganza has become an absolute leviathan running on PC.
Sure, it took 18 months for it to hit PC, but when it did, it was clear the Scottish developer had used that extra time to crush your puny specs.
Despite being a series that wasn’t known for its GPU demands, GTA V can run at 200fps. It requires a reasonable 4GB VRAM if you want it running at top settings, but you’ll need a beefy GPU if you want to utilise all the graphical shenanigans this version supports as standard.
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (2002)
A feature on graphical achievement that eschews The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim in favour of its long-in-the-tooth forbear, Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind? Have we lost the plot? That might seem like the case, but for its advancements in 2011, the fifth Elder Scrolls paled in comparison to leaps and bounds that were made by Bethesda with the third.
While its predecessor, Daggerfall, was technically the first to use a form of 3D polygons via the XnGine engine, it was the use of a Direct3D-powered setup that supported the use of skeletal animations (for more lifelike character movement) and 32-bit textures. The project took six years (with a break in the middle) to finish, but the end result was a technical turning point for the series and action-RPGs as a whole.
Quake (1996)
It may not look like much now, compared to the dynamic lighting and photorealistic textures of modern shooters, but over 20 years ago Quake was a technical revelation that redefined the use of 3D space and polygonal models.
Director John Romero wanted to create something that was technically and mechanically superior to 1993’s Doom, and that’s just what he got with the power of the in-house Quake engine.
The new engine dropped the use of 2.5D maps and flat textures in favour of a far more immersive 3D level design, while prerendered sprites were put to the sword as polygonal models brought Quake’s enemy and weapon design kicking and screaming into the world of true 3D. Multiplayer shooters haven’t been the same since, and with good reason.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015)
Where The Witcher 2 was once used as a PC gaming benchmark, it seems fitting its grand and engrossing sequel take on that same mantle in the modern era.
Even now, a full three years on from its release, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is the game you load up when you want to test your GPU, CPU and new curved, 4K-ready monitor.
Even on the lowest settings, guiding Geralt of Rivia and his trusty horse Roach as he attempts to find his adopted daughter, is a gorgeous experience.
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty (2010)
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty may have become a staple in the competitive strategy RPG scene in esports, but once upon a time it was a new title that was quite literally melting GPUs in towers and gaming laptops the world over.
The issue? The game shipped without a frame-rate limiter, which caused some processors and GPUs to overheat. A workaround was quickly found, but it’s remained a beefy means of pushing your machine to the absolute limit - especially if you love your real-time strategy with a heavy dose of science fiction. Just make sure you keep those frames under control.
Arma 3 (2013)
You might know Arma 3 as the game that provided the basis for the DayZ mode, the fan-made zombie survival experience that served as the genesis for the now super-popular battle royale genre, but once upon a time, it served as the hot new thing in the world of military simulation.
Back in 2013, it proved to be one of the most critically-acclaimed titles on PC, thanks mainly to its realistic physics and gorgeous recreation of Greece and the South Pacific. It was a real test for hardware at the time, and can still be a beast to run even now, five years on from its release.
Hitman (2016)
Hitman, the 2016 episodic renaissance of Agent 47 wasn’t just a brilliant return to form for Danish developer Io Interactive, but a beautiful way to push your PC gaming machine to its limits.
Actually, if you run it at normal graphical settings, it won’t crush your GPU to dust, but crank up those settings to ultra turns a gorgeous-looking game into something truly breathtaking.
With a decent processor (preferably with myriad cores) and DX12, you can really see every bullet casing hit the floor and the light dance of 47’s bald head as your surreptitiously bump off your target at a silky-smooth 60fps.
F.E.A.R. (2005)
Back in 2005, Monolith - the studio that would go on to re-imagine the Middle-earth with Shadow of Mordor and Shadow or War - was making waves with a new game that combined John Woo-esque first-person shooter action with Ring-style horror madness.
Over a decade ago, F.E.A.R. looked stunning for its time, and came with some seriously high spec requirements as standard.
From its complex lighting model (which used per pixel lighting, volumetrics and lightmapping) to its intricate textures and environmental builds, it looked incredible. It may not have that same sense of wonder now, but it’s still an impressive feat 13 years on.
Welcome to TechRadar's PC Gaming Week 2019. We're celebrating the most powerful gaming platform on Earth with in-depth articles, exclusive interviews and essential buying guides that showcase everything PC gaming has to offer. Visit our PC Gaming Week 2019 page to see all our coverage in one place.
Nothing quite sums up the limitless possibilities of PC gaming like the humble mod. When a developer eventually moves on from a game to digital pastures new, or a title fails to live up to the expectations of its audience, there’s a good chance said game will simply fade away into obscurity.
But then, one or more talented users step in and that’s where the magic really starts to emerge. Games that are completely overhauled into something new; games that are fixed or finished where the original version was lacking. Games once lost, but now refreshed a new.
As part of TechRadar's PC Gaming Week 2018, we look at the best PC mods that extend the gameplay of our favorite games. If you're after mods that totally changed the way games are played, check out our list of the 10 best total conversion mods.
1. DayZ (ARMA 2)
No list covering the most influential mods in history would be complete without the mod that helped popularise an entire genre - one that still dominates headlines and streaming platforms today.
Built using the engine and basic assets of military simulator ARMA 2 (and one of its expansion packs, ARMA 2: Operation Arrowhead), creator Dean ‘Rocket’ Hall envisioned a survival sim where a player would spawn in large map with no resources of weapons.
The aim was to scavenge for gear, while avoiding or defeating both other players and AI controlled zombies. With realistic damage models (including the ability to break bones), DayZ became an instant hit in 2012.
2. Star Wars: Galactic Warfare (Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare)
Years before EA and DICE revived the Battlefront franchise with two very enjoyable entries in 2015 and 2017 respectively, PC players were clamouring for a proper first-person multiplayer shooter set in the sprawling vistas of a galaxy far, far away.
First released in 2009, Star Wars: Galactic Warfare used Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare as its base, and features a complete overhaul of everything from weapon models to sound effects.
Even now, almost a decade after its release, it’s still one of the most impressive fan-made projects. With a huge number of maps based on iconic locations for the original trilogy, it’s one of the most immersive mods on our list.
3. Black Mesa (Half-Life)
There are mods, and then they’re are mods. These are the fan-made projects that are so professional in quality, content and execution you’d expect it to have come out of a proper studio with a price tag attached.
That’s what it’s like playing Black Mesa. A complete remake of the original Half-Life, the mod took eight years to build and offers and uses the more advanced Source engine (well, more advanced than the now antiquated GoldSrc one used for the original).
It’s an incredible achievement, and even received the quiet blessing of Valve itself, which also greenlit its addition to Steam as part of the Early Access program.
4. Defense of the Ancients (Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos)
Much like DayZ and its vital role in popularising battle royale games, Dota served as one of the progenitors for the MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) genre.
As with the aforementioned zombie survival sim, DotA began life as a mod for Blizzard’s RTS classic, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, and mixed the top-down strategy mechanics of an RTS and combined it with the levelling and character progression of a traditional RPG.
It was built using the in-built World Editor tool included in Warcraft III, which enables players to share custom maps and scenarios online, and soon became a mainstay on the competitive scene.
5. NeoTokyo (Half-Life 2)
Starting out as a mod for Half-Life 2, NeoTokyo took the basic building blocks of Valve’s seminal shooter and transformed it into one of the most polished and uncompromising multiplayer shooters you can play on PC.
Originally released in 2009 (and added to Steam Greenlight in 2012), this fan-made project began in 2004 and took design cues from classic futuristic anime such as Akira and Ghost in the Shell.
Designed as a single-life, round-based FPS (similar to Counter-Strike), NeoTokyo is famed as much for the detail of its art style as it is the difficulty of its mechanics. It plays and feels more like a military sim, but with the speed of a modern shooter.
6. Skywind (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim)
Few mods have grown in scope and size as much as The Elder Scrolls Renewal Project.
A vast, multi-person initiative that aims to remaster every entry in the iconic action-RPG series, its become a labour of love that continues to grow and evolve in 2018.
Skywind is by far the most well-known of all the builds, which aims to remaster The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (which came out in 2002) in the engine of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Over 70 volunteers worked on mod, creating brand new models, textures, quests and gameplay features - including over 70,000 lines of re-recorded dialogue.
7. Counter-Strike (Half-Life)
It might seem like overkill for three mods based on the Half-Life series, but that just shows you how influential Valve’s shooter franchise has been for amateur developers - and how malleable its source code is.
And come on, as if we were going to talk about mods and not mention one of the biggest and most popular: Counter--Strike.
While it remains a firm favourite in the esports community in 2018, it started out life in 1999 as a mod overseen by two-man volunteer team Minh ‘Gooseman’ Le and Jess Cliffe.
With a simple premise of two teams of terrorists and counter-terrorists looking to eliminate one another it became an international hit and impressed Valve so much the two were hired and Counter-Strike remade as a proper standalone game.
8. The Sith Lords Restored (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II)
While many of the mods on this list offer enhancements to the base experience, some are there to ‘finish’ a game many felt shipped undercooked.
One such game was Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, and with its original campaign having ended so abruptly, a group of dedicated players worked tirelessly to restore the quests, locations and characters that were cut by developer Obsidian due to time constraints. The result was The Sith Lords Restored.
The additional content patches in longer questlines, alternate endings, extra dialogue and more. It even fixed a handful of bugs that dogged the original version.
9. Long War (XCOM: Enemy Unknown)
With the original XCOM proving to be one of the best turn-based tactical sims ever made, most modders weren’t interested in overhauling the game but rather enhancing it with more content and greater stakes.
Enter Long War, a partial conversion that effectively extends the length and breadth of the game in almost every way.
Squad sizes are increased to eight, customisation was increased tenfold and the ability to retake countries by assaulting multiple alien bases was introduced.
Its four core members were assisted by 29 modders, 20 voice actors and even some members of developer Firaxis as well. It became so popular Firaxis hired the main modders and formed a new studio to work on the sequel.
10. The Dark Mod (Doom 3)
If you like your games with a healthy dose of stealth, then there’s a good chance you’ve played one or more of the Thief games over the years.
The original trilogy of games remain some of the genres best (despite not aging that well graphically by modern standards), but a lack of a fourth sequel eventually put a set of dedicated fans to work.
Using the Doom 3 engine as its base, this project became The Dark Mod, it introduced a revamped (and ultimately superior) lockpicking system, brand new locations to explore and all manner of denizens from which to rob and pilfer. Originally released in 2009, it eventually received a standalone version in 2013.
Welcome to TechRadar's PC Gaming Week 2019. We're celebrating the most powerful gaming platform on Earth with in-depth articles, exclusive interviews and essential buying guides that showcase everything PC gaming has to offer. Visit our PC Gaming Week 2019 page to see all our coverage in one place.
The music world has always been about rivalries. There's Taylor Swift vs. Kanye, Tupac vs. Biggie, Eminem vs... everyone? Now, you can add a new rivalry to the mix: Spotify vs Apple Music.
While there are any number of streaming services for you to choose from out there, the only two contenders you should care about are the Swedish-born Spotify with its freemium music model and Apple Music, the replacement to iTunes that has exclusive albums and a monstrous 45-million song library. That said, Spotify has the advantage at the moment with a much larger user base, at least outside the US. That's because Spotify doesn't ask for any money upfront, and you can go for years without ever paying a dime. Sure, Apple may offer a free trial but, at some point, you're going to need to pony up.
So which service should you invest your entertainment budget in? To help you choose the right one for you, we’ve broken down the pros and cons of each service so you can sign up and start listening.
Apple Music
How big is its music library?
Apple music has a large song library, numbering around 45 million, across a broad range of genres. So if you’re into French skiffle or Brazilian electro pop and you’re struggling to find your more obscure artists, there’s a great chance Apple Music will have you covered.
Plus, this being an Apple product, its interface is easy to navigate both on a Mac/PC and in more portable forms such as smartphone or tablet and you can download tracks to take them with you when you’re away from a Wi-Fi connection. It’s a feature Apple Music shares with Spotify, but it’s a vital one if you want to keep users signing up to the paid version.
How much does it cost?
Unlike Spotify, which offers both free /and/ paid versions, Apple Music only offers a free trial version before it requires you to sign up.
It’s understandable from a business POV - especially with so many exclusives serving as a golden carrot for potential users - but not having any form of long-term free-to-use version has ultimately worked against Apple’s desire to increase its overall user base.
Free trials are limiting, especially to those looking to experience the service on a long term basis. Giving users limited access to the full experience of its service might seem like a better deal in the short term, but it suffers in the long-term compared to the free/ad-filled version Spotify offers.
Still, having three different payment plans does show Apple wants its users who are willing to cough up a more dynamic approach. Having a cheaper plan aimed at students ($4.99/£4.99/AU$5.99) is a great deal (but not an exclusive one as Spotify offers something similar), especially as this rate still gives you access to every facet of its service. For everyone else its $9.99/£9.99/AU$11.99 for an individual, or $14.99/£14.99/AU$17.99 for a family subscription for up to six people
What exclusive benefits does Apple Music offer?
Admittedly, Apple has gone to great means to cut Spotify and the smaller music streaming services out of the picture by signing some of the biggest names in popular music to exclusivity deals on new albums.
So far, Apple Music boasts albums from Drake, Taylor Swift, Britney Spears, Frank Ocean, Future and more and it’s a strategy that’s really rankled Spotify over the years. Of course, if you’re not a fan of these artists then this feature might not be a game-changer, but if you do then it’s a serious trump card.
Apple Music also offers Beats 1, the vanguard for a wider push towards original broadcasting on the service. It’s a 24/7 radio station that offers round the clock playlists and live DJs. It’s an internet radio station backed by Apple, so it’s as slick as you might imagine with the likes of former Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe and more on its roster. With Apple already planning more stations for the service, this original broadcasting angle is a facet Spotify simply has no answer for.
There’s also an exclusive social feature called Connect that’s packed is as part of the Apple Music package. It’s essentially a way for artists to link up with fans in a more intimate fashion, offering access to new singles, videos and messages.
Connect might seem something designed for the bigger bands, but it’s open to any artist, offering a service not too dissimilar to what MySpace was back in its heydey. For followers, it’s simply a simple yet effective way to get a little closer to the bands you love.
Finally, there’s the exclusive video content. With its integration with iTunes, the ability to browse and play tons of music videos adds a dimension Spotify simply doesn’t offer. And Apple Music is doubling down on the visual side with original programs such as Carpool Karaoke: The Series (a longer version of James Corden’s uber-popular celeb singing skit on The Late, Late Show) and Planet of the Apps (a Dragon’s Den-esque show for app and software developers).
What’s it like to use?
While both the desktop and portable versions are great to look at (aesthetics, after all, is Apple’s thing to a tee), there’s a disparity in the user experience between the two: Apple Music's Mac, PC or laptop version is much superior to the one you'll find on your phone or tablet. That's because the continued use of larger images and boxes suits a larger screen, and it’s really easy to navigate through your playlists, exclusives and your imported iTunes library.
That said, the setup does suit using larger tablets, as having more screen real estate makes the larger icons and more content-heavy focus a far more agreeable experience.
The version optimized for smartphones isn’t broken by any means, but its large icon design often makes it a little fiddly to use since it doesn’t use the smaller screen of a phone to its advantage. Also, launching to your library simply doesn’t make any sense for a service that’s geared towards new music updates.
Spotify
How big is its music library?
Spotify currently boasts over 30 million songs. Sure, it’s not quite as many as Apple Music right now, but with an average 20,000 new songs being added a day we wouldn’t be surprised to see Spotify eventually match and even exceed its biggest rival.
Spotify’s strong influx of tracks has helped jettison it into the stratosphere, with a heavy focus on promoting new tracks and breakthrough artists. Curated playlists are almost always the first thing you see when you load any version of the app, with the service seemingly designing playlists for almost every musical subgenre. These are constantly being updated too, so your favorite ones never grate following extended use.
Discover Weekly, the playlist based off your listening preferences, has come leaps and bounds in the last few years with the nuances of its suggestions, although Apple’s For You playlist (introduced in 2016) now largely offers the same feature so it’s no longer the special boon it was once.
How much does it cost?
So now we get to one of the main reasons why Spotify has always held Apple Music at bay - paid and unpaid access. While it's trialed a few different versions over the years, Spotify has always come back to the basic formula that’s worked best - everyone can sign up and access every track in its catalog for free.
There are ads every few songs, but you can tailor 15 playlists that feature the songs you want. You also get access to top curated playlists like Discover Weekly. In the past you did not have full control over playback, and were only able to skip a limited number of times per hour.
It’s a business model that might seem crazy on paper, but it’s the ideal way to increase your user base by making the whole experience awkward just enough to get those users coughing up for Premium paid accounts.
Rather than locking content behind a paywall, Spotify wisely seals away features that simply make the service more dynamic. Want to listen to music without any adverts? Want to download as many tracks as you want to your smartphone to listen to them when away from home? Want the ability to skip songs as and when you want on your tablet/smartphone? Then it’s time for Premium.
If you want everything that Spotify has to offer, including to choose any song you want with unlimited skipping privileges and no ads, you can get a personal Spotify Premium plan for $9.99/£9.99/AU$11.99, while the Spotify Family Plan, which offers simultaneous listening for up to five users, is priced at $14.99/£14.99/AU$17.99.
Like Apple Music, Spotify also offers discounted plans for students, with total access to the Spotify library priced at only $4.99/£4.99/$5.99. You will have to verify your enrolment status, however.
What exclusive features does Spotify offer?
Here’s the thing, right now, you really don’t get much that really sells the exclusivity of using Spotify. Sure, there are podcasts that are exclusive to the platform (along with plenty of others you can find on iTunes or Stitcher), but Spotify has never been that interested in that corner of the market.
Video was an area Spotify has dipped its toes into, thanks to deals with the likes of ESPN and Comedy Central bringing some of their shows to Spotify users. However, neither seem to be resonating with users as rumor has it that Spotify might scrap its current slate of shows entirely and head straight back to the drawing board. It’s unlikely it will abandon video entirely, but it’s clear the current plan isn’t working.
Low-data mode is one 2018 extra. It caches some audio for when you lose signal, and uses less of your data allowance. 75 per cent less according to Spotify. Of course, if you have a Premium sub you can just download songs over Wi-Fi anyway.
What’s it like to use?
Spotify has had its fair few updates over the years, but it’s hard to deny how well the current UI works. Unlike Apple Music, it’s a service that’s clearly been redesigned and tweaked with smaller screens in mind thanks to the raft of options available on screen at any one time. Whether you’re downloading an album or playlist to your phone or starting a radio channel based on an artist, it’s a consistently intuitive experience.
The tile system is just small enough to make selecting new albums and playlists easy while packing in plenty of content into a timeline of content that’s ultimately curated to what you’ve been listening to and what you might want to jump into next. Spotify might just have as many playlists as it does albums, but it’s a strategy that works as its algorithms ultimately tailor the app to each user.
Being able to work with multiple platforms is another huge asset. Being able to work on almost any type of smartphone and tablet increases the scope for its audience and the UIs for all these platforms are uniformly strong. Being able to play Spotify from your console - such as the version running on PS4 - is a massive tick for the service, as is the ease with which you set it up. Overall, Spotify is currently winning the UI war.
Verdict
Overall, both services come with their pros and cons and each one will suit a user looking for different things from a music streaming platform: Spotify offers a more well-rounded experience that’s effectively open to everyone, but its mobile experience is limited unless you’re willing to go Premium. Apple’s three-month free trial does give you a taste of its service, but its fiddly mobile design remains at odds with its impressive library and exclusive content. As it stands, Spotify remains the stronger service overall, but unless it starts upping its original content, Apple Music won’t remain in second place for long.
Either service you choose, you'll need the best headphones around to get the most out of your music streaming subscription
With the arrival of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the latest and largest Smash Bros. game ever to grace our consoles, it’s almost impossible to imagine a time where there wasn’t a Nintendo-made crossover fighting game beloved by critics, players and pros alike.
It’s a series that redefined what we expect from a fighting genre, offering an enticing refuge that’s both inclusive for newcomers and consistently nuanced for veterans.
And yet, back in the late ’90s when creator Masahiro Sakurai first had the idea for a more acrobatic-minded fighting game, the medium was a very different place. Fighting games had reached a crowded critical mass and weren’t the powerful system shifters they were in the heyday of Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter’s early years.
20 years on from the franchise's debut, we look back at what made Super Smash Bros. so special – and how it came to be made at all.
In his late 20s at the time, Sakurai had served as director on the NES, SNES and Game Boy versions of the Kirby series, but he had outgrown the lovable pink lump and wanted to try something new. Specifically, a four-player fighting game that took the jumping and movement physics of a platformer and merged them with the power-ups and specials of a brawler.
It was an ambitious idea; so much so that Sakurai built the project somewhat in secret before approaching Nintendo with the idea. Fighting games weren’t making that much money at the time after all. Sakurai wanted to use some of the firm’s most well-known first-party characters to help make his idea stand out from the crowd, even if such an idea seemed unlikely to stick with his bosses.
So, of course, Sakurai went ahead and used them in his prototype anyway.
Despite leaving the Kirby series behind when started working on Smash 64, Sakurai included he lovable pink ball in the game’s 12 character roster.
But in the mid-to-late ’90s Nintendo just happened to be working on a powerful new console named ‘Dolphin’ – what would become Nintendo 64 – and in a stroke of good fortune, Nintendo approved the prototype and tasked Sakurai with building a fighting game that lived up to its lofty ambitions. And so, with a small team of programmers and designers, Sakurai went and did just that.
When it launched in Japan on 21 January 1999 – and in the West three months later – Super Smash Bros. 64 took the core tenants of a fighting game and purposefully threw them on their head.
Matches weren’t concerned with health bars or using dashes and back-steps to close a small modicum of distance. Instead, Smash 64 built itself around a remarkably simple concept. Rather than losing life, you accumulate damage in the form of a percentage. The higher the number, the further you can be knocked off the stage.
Risk becomes reward
Despite launching with a surprisingly small marketing budget for a game that a) arrived in the ’90s and b) featured first-party Nintendo characters, Smash 64 filled a niche no one even knew existed and cemented itself as one of Nintendo 64’s most lauded titles.
Sakurai’s risky ideas paid themselves off and it became a resounding critical and commercial success. Within two years it had sold five million copies, securing immortality as the console’s fifth most successful title of all time.
For a company that’s so vehemently protective of its first-party franchises, seeing Samus, Donkey Kong and more together is still magical.
While its sequel – Super Smash Bros. Melee, which launched on GameCube in 2001 – would establish itself as a mainstay in the competitive fighting scene for more than 15 years with far more characters and stages, the original Smash 64 laid every piece of groundwork with far less content. That’s a testament to the quality of Sakurai’s vision and just how deftly its roster of vastly different characters were blended together.
With only 12 fighters to choose from and nine stages upon which to do battle, Smash 64 redefined not just on what a fighting game could be but how succinct a crossover could be conducted.
Link from The Legend of Zelda. Samus from Metroid. Fox McCloud from Star Fox. Mario from… well, Mario. Characters with completely different movement animations, dash speeds and recovering times all melded together in a way that didn’t ever feel imbalanced.
This was the heyday of fighting game Tekken, which was only two years old when Smash 64 released. This was a time where Capcom’s Street Fighter crossover series had already produced the likes of Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter (a 2D fighting game that had become a huge hit in arcades with its recognisable licenses).
Fighting games had become considerably oversaturated with some of its best releases, and yet here was a new series that went against the grain and proved radically different approaches could bring about both critical and commercial success.
Much like Goldeneye 007 and Mario Kart 64, Smash 64 became one of the iconic four-player multiplayer games of the ’90s (and beyond).
Simplicity and legacy
Even now, 20 years on from its release, the core blueprint Sakurai established in Smash 64 still holds true in the latest instalments in the franchise. Every character, regardless of their origin, has the same control setup and one-button scheme. Without the need to learn tediously long BlazBlue-style inputs, Smash 64 levelled the playing field so anyone could pick up a controller and have fun without feeling outgunned.
It’s the genius of Smash in every one of its entries. You can play for the sheer bombastic fun of it, leaping between platforms, attempting to knock your opponents flying by sheer chance. Or, you can use momentum and positioning to gain an advantage, using double-jumps to grab a ledge at the last minute or unleashing a calculated flurry of hits.
Almost every other fighting game out there still struggles to find that balance between amateurs and pros, yet Smash has had it nailed for two decades now.
Smash 64 still plays as fresh and exciting as it did in 1999. It’s a testament to the vision and execution of Sakurai and his small team of developers.
While it would be its sequel in Melee that would serve as a touchstone for the competitive fighting game scene, interest in the game that started it all has been renewed by the recent arrival of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Despite not having any online support – this was a 64-bit game on a chunky cartridge from the ’90s after all – today’s players have been using emulators to host online tournaments with the classic that kicked off the franchise.
Thanks to its timeless design, simple yet nuanced controls, and the deft symbiosis of Nintendo’s many contrasting first-party properties, Super Smash Bros. 64 remains an important milestone not just for fighting games but for crossover titles in general. Throwing Mario, Link, and Samus together in the same game had an incredible sense of audacity and chaos that still resonates today.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate may be the very best the series has ever known, but it owes everything to the trail that was blazed 20 years before.
Narrowing down the best Steam games of 2020 is practically backbreaking work, mostly because you’ll spend hours hunching over your computer doing so. There are over 23,000 titles on the popular online gaming platform, after all, and new exciting titles are popping up every day.
It’s not just the vast catalog. The best Steam games also encompass a wide variety of game genres, from the best open world games and best MMO games to the best co-op PC games you can enjoy with friends. And, while part of the fun is browsing and discovering all these games, many of which you’ve never heard of before, your time is perhaps best spent on immersing yourself in the games instead of the hunt.
That’s why we dug deep and did the work for you. We scoured Steam ourselves and found the best Steam games of 2020, some of which are among the best PC games we’ve ever played. Whether you want something brand new, a recent hit or a classic, you can’t go wrong with any of these titles on our list.
You’re going to get hours upon hours upon hours of gameplay out of Kenshi. (Image credit: Lo-Fi Games)
Kenshi
Some of the best Steam games 2020 has are those that cannot really exist anywhere else. Complicated RPGs and strategy games require the unique features of a gaming PC to thrive, and Kenshi is a perfect example.
Taking cues from the old Mount & Blade games, Kenshi is a sandbox, squad-based RPG where you’re in charge of your own story. You’re dropped in the midst of a massive world – think Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall huge – and you’re not limited by any of the gameplay systems. You can simply build a home for yourself, or set off on a grand adventure.
You’re going to get hours upon hours upon hours of gameplay out of Kenshi, because the world is the game, not just its setting.
If you’ve played and loved Firewatch, you’ll definitely enjoy What Remains of Edith Finch. (Image credit: Annapurna Interactive)
What Remains of Edith Finch
One of the best Steam games is actually this indie smash from 2017. However, since it’s won a 'best game' BAFTA award, it’s time to give it another go. What Remains of Edith Finch, easily one of the first best Steam games on our list, is a narrative-led adventure in which you walk, first-person style, around as Edith Finch, exploring the house in which you grew up.
You look over the preserved relics of dead family members and are sucked into vignettes that tell the stories of how various Finches died. We get it, it sounds grim. However, its appealing style and magical realism make What Remains of Edith Finch touching and profound rather than depressing.
It plays out a little like an interactive movie. You can’t fail as such, aside from getting lost, and the entire experience lasts 2-3 hours rather than 20.
Don’t buy this if you’re going to feel short-changed by its length, but if you’ve played and loved Firewatch, Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture or Gone Home, you’ll definitely find What Remains of Edith Finch to be one of the best Steam games 2020 has.
There’s plenty of fantasy fuel in Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdon, and it’s more immersive than your average game. (Image credit: Bandai Namco Entertainment)
Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdon
While the first Ni No Kuni game was a collaboration with Japanese animation masters Studio Ghibli, Ni No Kuni II is not. It does, however, hold onto the same delightful art style.
It also switches up the fighting mechanics. As opposed to training up avatars to fight for you, Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom has a fun real-time battle system. You control three fighters with fast, slow and magic attacks, and the ability to dodge. And, the sequel is a bit more action-packed than the first one.
It’s not all about action, though. While Ni No Kuni II is an action-adventure RPG, you also build up a kingdom, which lets you bonuses for your characters. This part is unexpectedly addicting.
The story is more conventional than that of the first game, which might be down to Studio Ghibli’s limited involvement. However, there’s plenty of fantasy fuel, and it’s more immersive than your average game, deservedly earning it a spot among the best steam games 2020 brings to the table.
Into the Breach is moreish, smart and deceivingly deep. (Image credit: Subset Games)
Into the Breach
Not every top Steam game is an epic open world title that will set you back $60 on PS4 and Xbox One. Into the Breach is a sophisticated sci-fi strategy blast that you can play on your lunch break at work.
It is made by the team behind Faster than Light, still one of our favourite PC games of the last decade. And for the handheld gaming veterans out there, there are shades of Advance Wars to it too.
Earth has been attacked – and almost occupied – by aliens. In Into the Breach, you control groups of mechs sent from the future to reverse this fate. That may sound like a mind-bending premise, but it actually proves that the plot doesn’t matter too much sometimes. We know Earth will come out tops, it’s just a matter of how.
Each encounter takes in an 8x8 block grid, your battlefield. Play unfolds in turns, and your mechs have to stop aliens from obliterating too many of the field’s buildings and outposts. It has the tactical purity of chess. As you play, you can upgrade your mechs to improve your chances.
Like FTL, Into the Breach is moreish, smart and deceivingly deep.
Surviving Mars' survivalist approach to “city” building is absorbing. (Image credit: Paradox Interactive)
Surviving Mars
Some screenshots make Surviving Mars look like The Sims: Red Planet edition. However, this best steam game is, in fact, more like Sim City meets The Martian. You build an outpost on a barren patch of Mars, and have to keep it running to avoid your colonists from dying on the planet’s harsh surface. And, it’s harder than it sounds.
That is, while mismanaging resources in Sim City or Civilization may make your inhabitants angry or lower your income, in Surviving Mars it can cause a chain reaction that sees life support systems fail. You’ll hear “a colonist has died”, and be left scrambling to fix the problem before other inhabitants start dying like bubbles popping as they touch the ground.
Surviving Mars’s interface leaves something to be desired, but its survivalist approach to “city” building is absorbing.
Final Fantasy XV is somewhat different from the FF games of old. (Image credit: Square Enix)
Final Fantasy XV
After the massive multiplayer Final Fantasy XIV, Square Enix finally got back to their series’ single player roots with Final Fantasy XV. It came to PS4 in late 2016, but was only ported to PC in March 2018. However, you do get all the DLC released on the consoles and, if your PC is beefy enough, you’ll experience better frame rates.
Final Fantasy XV is somewhat different from the FF games of old. You travel around an open world, often by car, packed with Americana-style buildings, all your companions are human and the combat plays out in real time, not as turns. Still, you can tell this is a Final Fantasy game just by catching a 15-second clip of it in action.
A mix of mobile game style and merciless old-school progression mechanics gives Descenders a fresh feel. (Image credit: No More Robots)
Descenders
The PC tends to get linked with the kind of games that sit you down – for hours on end until your eyes are red and part of you start to regret your life choices. However, it isn’t always that way.
With Descenders, you can play in quick blasts. If you can drag yourself away from its moreish-ness, anyway. You’re a downhill free rider who has to get down procedurally generated courses with as much style as possible, preferably using a gamepad. It might remind you of the heyday of Tony Hawk games, or snowboard console classic SSX.
The use of generated “tracks” means you can’t master courses, which means that it’s the mastery of the bike’s physics you need to be shooting for. A career mode pits you against a series of courses in the same style of environment, each with objectives. Finish the “boss course,” and you unlock a new terrain. But you have limited lives for the whole run. A mix of mobile game style and merciless old-school progression mechanics gives Descenders a fresh feel, just one of the many reasons why it’s made our best steam game list.
There’s a business side to American Truck Simulator that gives it depth. (Image credit: SCS Software)
American Truck Simulator
Not every game has to be about destroying aliens or gunning down unnamed soldiers. For instance, American Truck Simulator, one of the best steam games to play in 2019, feels like mindfulness meditation next to those games.
You drive a big 18-wheeler-style truck over the long highways of the US, transporting cargo from A to B. Breaking the traffic codes doesn’t end in a GTA-style police chase, just a fine. This is the sort of game you can put on like cozy slippers after a long day at work.
Yet there’s also a business side to it, giving it depth. You start as a lowly contractor, but can earn enough money to build your own shipping empire.
Pillars of Eternity is a challenging, slightly retro-flavoured RPG. (Image credit: Paradox Interactive)
Pillars of Eternity
PC gamers who have been playing since the ‘90s might remember all the fuss surrounding the Baldur’s Gate titles. In fact, some of their most loyal fans still get teary-eyed reminiscing about their favorite side characters.
Isometric role-playing games like Baldur’s Gate don’t cut it in the AAA world anymore. However, Pillars of Eternity brings back the spirit of those games to the Steam crowd. This is a challenging, slightly retro-flavoured RPG in which you control a band of classic fantasy-style adventurers. It’s made by Obsidian, the team behind Fallout: New Vegas. Pillars of Eternity II is on the horizon too.
If you like your RPGs fantasy-themed, also consider Torment: Tides of Numenera.
Legend of Grimrock II is a dungeon crawler where you move in blocks. (Image credit: Almost Human)
Legend of Grimrock II
Another throwback to a style of game that has all but disappeared, Legend of Grimrock 2 is a dungeon crawler where you move in blocks, as opposed to freely. Why would you want that? It changes your relationship with the environment, making it feel more like an intricate puzzle instead of an open world a texture artist had been let loose on.
There are an awful lot of actual puzzles involved here too, in-between the bouts of classic "Dungeons & Dragons" style combat encounters. Plus, as retro as the play style is, Legend of Grimrock 2 looks incredible, with many outdoors areas to prevent you from getting bogged down in dimly-lit dungeons.
PUBG remains one of the most fun shooters on the market in 2019. (Image credit: PUBG Corporation)
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds
When it comes to in-vogue games, few titles continue to capture the zeitgeist (and fill it full of bullet holes) the way PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds does. It may have one of the worst acronyms ever, but that hasn’t stopped PUBG from putting the ‘battle royale’ subgenre on the map and turning itself into a phenomenon in the process. Sure, there’s a lot of hype still surrounding it, but the game behind all the coverage and Twitch fascination is still one of the most addictive on Steam, as well as one of the best steam games this 2019.
That simple premise – parachute into a map with no gear, scavenge for weapons and armour, and fight for survival with a single life in a continually shrinking map – is still engrossing, even if it has a few too many bugs. Whether you’re teaming up with friends or braving its maps by your lonesome, PUBG remains one of the most fun shooters on the market in 2019.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance is one of the latest releases on our best Steam games list. (Image credit: Deep Silver)
Kingdom Come: Deliverance
One of the latest releases on our best Steam games list, Kingdom Come: Deliverance boasts an experience that’s both reassuringly familiar and deeply alien. Set in a fictional Medieval Europe, it’s a first-person RPG where dialogue choices mold your world as much as your ability to problem solve and your skills in melee combat. It’s a game of unbelievable freedom, allowing you to carve a path through the Dark Ages however you see fit.
You might get off your face on schnapps and get in a fight with the town drunk. You may start filling your pockets with the gold of unsuspecting townsfolk, Thief-style, or stain your blade with blood in the battlefield. Part Elder Scrolls, part Dark Souls, part something else entirely, it’s an action-RPG that punishes as much as it empowers. It also runs best on PC (with the right specs, obviously) so get it on the download pronto.
Rainbow Six: Siege is one of those success stories that keeps on succeeding. (Image credit: Ubisoft)
Rainbow Six: Siege
Who knew, way back in 2015, that a Tom Clancy game would become one of the industry’s biggest success stories. But here we are, four years later, with a game that has over 25 million registered players and in its fourth year of consecutive content updates as well as premium bells and whistles. Rainbow Six: Siege is one of those success stories that keeps on succeeding, and for one very important yet simple reason: it’s fun as hell to play.
Paring back the Rainbow Six formula to its roots - two teams fight in the same map, one protecting an objective while the other attacking and fighting their way in - no two matches in Siege are ever the same. You’ll be barricading doors, breaching through walls, blasting through ceilings and building an operator that’s attuned to your playstyle. It might not be groundbreaking. However, add in the limited time Outbreak mode (think Siege plus zombies), and you’ve got one of Steam’s most complete packages.
Celeste is one of the most unforgettable games we’ve come across in many years. (Image credit: Matt Makes Games)
Celeste
From the indie team that gave us TowerFall and TowerFall Ascension comes one of the most rewarding pixel platformers in years. As you climb the titular mountain, flame-haired heroine Madeline battles her innermost demons just as much as the harsh and dangerous conditions around her. In its simplest form, Celeste is a tight, 2D, twitch-style platformer, but in reality it’s one of the most unforgettable games we’ve come across in many years.
As poignant in narrative as it is unforgiving in gameplay, Celeste has over 700 ‘scenes’ to traverse, a myriad of secrets to uncover and a story that will grip you as much as the muscle-memory building formula of its platforming. For a game built around the simple mechanics of jump, air-dash and climb, there’s an incredible amount of depth to be found as you claw your way to the summit in more ways than one, which is why it warrants a spot on our best steam games list.
Divinity: Original Sin 2’s secret sauce is the complexity of its combat. (Image credit: Larian Studios)
Divinity: Original Sin 2
When Divinity: Original Sin 2 was released in 2017, it had quite the legacy to live up to, that of its predecessor, which incidentally happens to be one of the most accomplished RPGs of all time. Then what does developer Larian Studios do? It only goes and follows it up with one of the most important additions to the genre in years. Divinity: Original Sin 2 is an enthralling fantasy world with a deep and complex combat model and one of the most riveting stories you’ll experience outside of a 1,000 page tome.
The big selling point, and the main ingredient of Divinity: Original Sin 2’s secret sauce, is the complexity of its combat. You control a party of characters together with your own custom avatar, and utilize each one individually in battle. With countless skills and attributes to mix and match, the breadth of tactics available makes this a daunting yet deeply rewarding way to test your RPG abilities.
There’s a wealth of sci-fi lore and mechanics to delve into with Stellaris. (Image credit: Paradox Interactive)
Stellaris
The grand and operatic strategy genre has given us some true classics on PC, experiences that consoles have consistently failed to duplicate. From Crusader Kings to Europa Universalis, these are games with bucket loads of tactics and guile.
Well, it just so happens the developer of those very games has taken that deeply immersive concept and put it in the dark ocean of space. Enter Stellaris, an evolution of the genre that takes the space exploration of EVE Online and Mass Effect and hits the hyperdrive button.
You’ll traverse through countless of procedural galaxies, filled with thousands of planets and a myriad of alien species, each one possessing unique traits, economies and social strata. Whether it’s the power (and consistent balancing act) of interstellar diplomacy or the deep customisation of starship designs, there’s a wealth of sci-fi lore and mechanics to delve into with Stellaris.
Dota 2 is still one of the most addictive titles on Steam. (Image credit: Valve Corporation)
Dota 2
By far one of the oldest games on the list - well, that is if you consider 2013 old - Valve’s MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena), Dota 2, is still one of the most addictive titles on Steam. It’s also the only game on this list that’s free-to-play, so you don’t even need to have a healthy bank balance to enjoy its addictive battles. Age aside, Valve has been constantly updating and overhauling the game since launch, making it one of the most evolved MOBAs on the market.
If you’ve never played it before, it’s a simple yet intoxicating setup: two teams of five players face off in a large map. Each one is defending a base with an ‘Ancient’ inside that must be protected at all costs. Find your opponent’s base and raze it to the ground to win. Anticipate to experience brilliant hero v hero showdowns, brutal ambushes, tactical plays and nonstop action.
Brutal and beautiful in equal measure, Cuphead is a must have Steam title. (Image credit: StudioMDHR)
Cuphead
Run and gun platformers have carved a niche out for themselves on mobile, but they’re few and far between on PC. Luckily, this one was built to be a Microsoft exclusive with Xbox One in mind and the result is one of the most unique gaming experiences you’ll ever come across. Intended to capture the look and atmosphere of 1930s cartoons, Cuphead places you in the shoes of the titular hero and tasks you with battling across three distinct worlds and bosses that will capture your imagination with their ingenuity that crush your resolve with their difficulty.
Recommending a notoriously tough game might sound counter-intuitive, but the steep difficulty curve is part of its appeal. With a distinctive soundtrack and those standout visuals at your side, you’ll earn every stage clearance like a piece of territory in a war, each victory feeling that much more satisfying. Brutal and beautiful in equal measure, Cuphead is a must have Steam title.
Subnautica is a survival game set deep in the ocean on an alien world. (Image credit: Unknown World Entertainment)
Subnautica
Another somewhat fresh release on this list, Subnautica has already made waves (pardon the pun) despite having only dropped in January of this year. A survival game set deep in the ocean on an alien world, its unique twist on the classic template makes for a game that’s both entrancing to watch and challenging in its many interconnected mechanics. You’ll explore shallow reefs, dangerous trenches on the seabed and everything in between, all the while managing your precious oxygen supply.
Oh, and there’s an entire ecosystem of alien marine life to contend with. Plenty of these fishy and mammalian critters want to add you to their menu, so you’ll need to outsmart and avoid them while scavenging for resources to build new equipment and tools. Like all the best survival games, the very best materials lie in the most dangerous of places. Do you dare swim deep enough to find them?
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus dials up the violence and the depth of storytelling. (Image credit: Bethesda Softworks)
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
With so many multiplayer shooters sharing the spolight in this feature, it seemed high time to pay homage to one of the best single-player FPS games ever made.
MachineGames gave Wolfenstein a bloody, alt-history revival in the form of 2014’s The New Order, so it had its work cut out for it when it came to bettering all that visceral Nazi slaying. Then along comes 2017’s The New Colossus, dialing up the violence and the depth of storytelling that it would make most Call Of Duty titles look at the floor in humiliation.
What makes The New Colossus so vital is how it doesn’t stray from its formula, but polishes and expands on it in almost every way. Bigger and more challenging bosses; intense set-pieces; myriad weapons that spit glorious death; a story that asks far more questions and presents some bold answers. It’s also rock hard, and consistently unforgiving, so lock and load at your peril...
It’s not often that a franchise as significant as Resident Evil gets a new lease of life – especially when you consider the zombie-loving license had fallen into a lifeless parody over the past decade – but here we are with a truly terrifying horror game with the words ‘Resident Evil’ in the title. What a world, eh?
While us PC folk aren’t allowed to scare ourselves half to death in VR yet (RE7 is a PSVR at the moment), that doesn’t mean it’s any less frightening. Dropping the third-person perspective that’s felt tired and rote for awhile now, RE7 embraces the first-person view that’s helped Outlast and company re-energize the horror genre, and boy does it make for one chilling 8-10 hour scare fest.
With Capcom’s big budget, a creepy swamp setting (honestly, just go with it) and a storyline that feeds back into the series’ winding mythology, you’d be crazy not to add this to your Steam library.
How could we make this list of games to play on Steam and not include the most recent offering from the master of turn-based strategy and tactical simulation? The Civilization series has gone through many forms over the years, but the sixth entry takes all the best bits from those earlier incarnations, smooths off the edges and serves up one of the most rewarding turn-based video games ever made.
There’s nothing quite like building a nation from a fledgling settlement and nurturing it into a worldwide powerhouse, and Civilization VI gives you more freedom and control than ever. Eliminating the pre-set paths that hampered the still stellar Civ V, Civ VI transforms into a landscape that rewards intrepid explorers and self-assured conquerors with the opportunity to expand their budding society with new technologies and alliances. Sid Meier’s name alone is part of PC gaming’s lofty heritage, so owning this little doozy is a no-brainer.
Undertale is one of those games that stays with you. A work of digital art whose charm and creativity never fails to keep its edge, no matter of how many times you play it through. And considering just how many innocuous JRPGs are out there right now, that’s a pretty extraordinary feat in unto itself.
So why is Undertale so superb? It takes all the best elements from the ever-evolving RPG genre and weaves a world built on choice, consequence and compassion. As a child dropped into an underground world filled with terrors, you’ll have to face a whole host of monsters to make it home. How you face them and what choices you make, define your journey.
And its Telltale-esque consequence system doesn’t just extend to dialogue choices – you can spare monsters after a fight, forging possible crucial alliances for later in the game. You can even end fights by telling your opponent jokes. It’s a game of such warm and pleasant quality you’d almost believe it was a JRPG from the earliest heyday of the genre.
For years, one game sat atop the dark and misty mountain of action-RPGs. Skyrim was its name, and no other franchise, be it Dragon Age or Dark Souls, could even come close to breaking its iron-clad grip upon the genre. Then along came Geralt of Rivia, riding atop The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt with a confident swagger, ready to give The Elder Scrolls a good thrashing.
If you’re looking for a game that strikes a perfect balance between length of play (you could easily spend 100+ hours across its unbelievably diverse map – one that’s a good 20% bigger than poor old Skyrim) and sheer quality, then The Witcher 3 is a must. There are just so many virtues The Witcher 3 has to its name. Brilliant writing, memorable quests, truly challenging beasts and a pair of DLC expansions (Hearts of Stone, and Blood and Wine) make this one of the best games of this or any other generation.
Inside will break your heart. Fair warning. If you’re not off-putted by that, then see it rather as a mystery to be solved scene by heart-wrenching scene. Created by the same studio that made the wonderful 2.5D platformer Limbo – you know, the one about a little boy stuck in a nightmare world where a giant spider chases him endlessly – it should come as a huge shock to learn that Inside will leave you just as tearful as its predecessor.
Thing is, Inside is a brilliant piece of art. Without a scrap of dialogue, you’ll explore a world in a similar platforming vein as Limbo, overcoming various ingenious environmental puzzles and evading both the flashlights of an oppressive government and the shadow of a conspiracy that’s clearly not going to end well.
But it’s worth every second. There’s a reason it won many a GOTY award in 2016, so you’d be a fool not to add this to your Steam library. Just remember to pack a few tissues.
Once upon a time there was a little game on PlayStation 3 called Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars. It was all about using remote control-esque cars to knock a giant football around a makeshift pitch. Thing is, no one played it and the game slowly faded into obscurity.
Then Rocket League came along, which was fundamentally the same thing, albeit with fine-tuned physics and a larger focus on multiplayer. One trip into PlayStation 4’s PS Plus lineup later and the game went supernova.
And with good reason, too. It’s a modest concept but it just works – it’s a place where skill shines through as you boost your little RC car and hit the motorized equivalent of a bicycle kick. It’s magnificent, offering one of the best ways to play online (whether with friends or a bunch of strangers). Come on, who doesn’t want to spend their evening chasing a football with a car? FIFA? Pfft.
Portal, back in its day, was groundbreaking. Sure, it sounds like we’re filling out boots with hyperbole, but back in 2007 all those portals, companion cubes and sociopathic AIs were blowing our minds over and over. Then Portal 2 came along and made the original look like a crossword puzzle in The Sun.
Okay, the first Portal is still remarkable, but Portal 2 took a truly revolutionary concept and twisted it into something new. Everything in this game works without a hitch - the ebb and flow of its story, the growing difficulty of the puzzles and the new ways you’re forced to make your mind think with portals. It’s even got Stephen Merchant and JK Simmons in it!
Portal 2 manages to take a brilliant recipe and somehow make it even more delicious, sprinkling in all new depths of platforming and puzzle flavour. If you haven’t played it, buy it now. If you have, play it again.
The incredibly charming Stardew Valley is an indie farming RPG which sees you moving from the bustling city to your grandfather's old, run-down farm near sleepy Pelican Town. You’ll get to uncover the secrets of the mysterious town while growing a thriving farming empire.
Stardew Valley's pixelated retro graphics, unique soundtrack and kooky characters make for a relaxed and fun game which combines elements such as farming simulation, adventure, dating simulation and crafting.
Get ready to become emotionally attached because once you step foot in Pelican Town, it's hard to ever leave.
Want to get the best deals on Steam games? Check out: Steam sales and deals: the best PC game bargains
It’s safe to say 2018 was a pretty good year for PC games, so it falls to 2019 to step up to the plate and serve up an even better lineup of must-play titles for your gaming laptop or desktop.
And there’s just so much to look forward to. Rage 2, Gears 5 and Metro Exodus will be giving shooters their due in the months to come, while The Division 2, Anthem and Skull & Bones will aim to raise the bar for the world of online play.
Even the tactical realm of strategy and simulation - staples of the PC scene - are getting new iterations in the form of Imperator Rome, Anno 1800 and Phoenix Point. And those are just some of the ones we know about...
Rage 2
Of all the IP Bethesda could have been revealed in 2018, no one was expecting a sequel to the mostly disappointing 2010 open-world shooter, Rage.
But with id Software now co-developing with Just Cause and Mad Max developer Avalanche Software, it did just that. And you can really tell developmental duties are now in the hands of the Swedish outfit, with a new focus on over-the-top destruction and creative shooter/vehicle shenanigans.
Rage 2 is a single-player focused experience, with big guns, even bigger buggies and the kind of physics-driven destruction you’d expect from the makers of Just Cause. With a splash of vibrant color it does look very Borderlands, but who’s to say that’s a bad thing?
Anno 1800
After two previous forays into the technology-driven future, Blue Byte’s grand city-building simulation series dials back the clock for Anno 1800.
The seventh entry in the franchise uses the catalyst that was the Industrial Revolution to drive its engineering mechanics and oceanic combat models.
The result is one of the deepest instalments yet, with a return to the pure city-building blueprint that made the early Annos so enjoyable.
AI opponents will now build and launch offensives on the same map, seasons will change (which will affect your citizens and battles), while an improved trade system and the incredibly helpful ‘Blueprinting’ setup will enable you to plan out your city designs more effectively.
Anthem
With the commercial and critical failure of Mass Effect Andromeda now firmly behind it – and the next mainline Dragon Age entry in development but likely far from release – Canadian developer Bioware is pouring all its efforts in the co-operative open-world RPG that is Anthem.
It’s a third-person shooter where you control a Freelancer, a jet-pack-wielding explorer sent out to search for resources in a dangerous new world.
You play with up to three other players, and you can customise and enhance your exosuit – known as a Javelin – as you progress.
With a jetpack for flight and improved movement, and dynamic weather patterns that drastically affect the world around you, Anthem promises to be an engaging – if not entirely original – new IP.
Phoenix Point
While the X-COM series has enjoyed something of a return to form in recent years, one of its co-creators has created a new spiritual successor in the form of Phoenix Point.
Snapshot Games’ turn-based strategy title also uses an alien invasion as the backdrop for its action, although these extraterrestrials have definitely taken a few genetic leaves out of a HP Lovecraft book. The result is something that doffs its cap at X-COM while attempting to do something a little different.
Alien armies will mutate and evolve in response to your tactics, forcing you to adapt your approach to each new skirmish. By using an open-world, you’ll need to compete with other AI-controlled factions for resources, adding a constant need to re-evaluate your position in the war.
Tom Clancy’s The Division 2
Despite some considerable delays – and a few launch issues – The Division (much like most of Ubisoft’s online efforts in the long term) grew into an engrossing experience with a consistent post-launch content map and a really enjoyable PvP mode. Developer Massive is back for the sequel, with the action moving from Manhattan to Washington DC.
The United States is still devastated by a viral infection that crippled the population during Black Friday, with survivors forced into a civil war against gangs of marauders. As a member of The Division, you and squad of three other players will take on AI gangs, search for new gear, join in Destiny 2-style raids and more.
Gears 5
Gears of War 4 wasn’t quite the series refresh that developer The Coalition promised it to be, but then again, the Gears formula became the third-person shooter template for a reason. It works, so why mess with that formula too much?
Gears 5 shifts the narrative’s focus to Kait Diaz (who served as an AI companion in the previous game, although the story really centered around her character) so this change certainly makes sense for the sequel.
As with previous entries in the series, expect over-the-top vehicle sections, intense cover-based battles and a handful of those towering bosses Gears loves to throw at you. Alongside the single-player campaign, you’ll also be able to play that moreish multiplayer locally via splitscreen and in the usual online lobbies.
Metro Exodus
It’s been quite a while since 4A Games’ post-apocalyptic shooter/survival horror series last made an irradiated splash on PC – almost six years, in fact – but the wait is almost over.
Metro Exodus has used that time wisely it seems, with a mixture of those familiar claustrophobic tunnels paired with a new focus on sandbox exploration on the surface.
That larger environment means you can explore the devastated Russian landscape and build and enhance new weapons, employ stealth to outwit mutants and fellow survivors and attempt to survive a dynamic weather system that makes every trip topside even more dangerous. 2013’s Metro: Last Light was a triumph, so we hope the third instalment does the series justice.
Skull & Bones
We all suspected that Ubisoft would eventually take the most popular element of 2013’s Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag – that glorious open-ocean sailing and naval combat – and spin it into its own game.
We just didn’t think it would take six years for said new IP to finally raise anchor and make itself known.
Skull & Bones is the result, and a third-person sandbox where players inhabit the same online ocean and can raid AI-controlled ships or attack one another for their piratical plunder.
You can customise your ship (and collect new models), head out on treasure hunts and cause untold chaos across the Indian Ocean. No word if you can shoot yourself out of cannon like Sea of Thieves, though...
Total War: Three Kingdoms
Following an extended romp through the fantastical wilds of the Warhammer franchise, The Creative Assembly is returning to the historical wing of the franchise that placed it firmly on the real-time strategy map with Total War: Three Kingdoms.
Set during the titular period in China’s history where multiple factions fought for control of the vast nation, Three Kingdoms will see more of that moreish Total War action – with hundreds of infantry and cavalry battling on screen at once.
There’s also a new social system that enables you to form alliances with other factions (which can be both a blessing or a curse if your diplomatic skills need some work).
Shenmue III
No 2019 preview would be complete without mentioning one of the most anticipated games of all time. Save Half-Life 3, no other game has been asked for – nay, demanded – as much as Shenmue III and after a surprise reveal at E3 2015, a crowdfunding campaign and lots of delays, 2019 should be the year we finally get to play as Ryo again.
Series co-director Yu Suzuki promises the biggest and most impressive entry in the open-world series yet, with more hand-to-hand combat, beautiful ’80s-set Chinese vistas and all the mundane side-quests you could ever ask for.
Let’s just hope and pray it doesn’t get delayed yet again...
Android has been around for so long, and in so many forms, that the open-source operating system has evolved on multiple fronts thanks to the frantic competition among the many vendors using the platform.
For all the bells and whistles of Samsung, LG and HTC, there’s always been a market for something a little purer – a 'stock' OS that strips away all the third-party bloat for an experience that’s as close to Google’s vision of Android as it’s possible to get.
From the evolution of Google's Nexus smartphone range (and their successors, the improving Google Pixel phones) to the simultaneous innovation of Android One, pure Android devices have carved out more than one niche for themselves. It’s been quite the journey, and the story isn’t over yet...
The Nexus genesis
The 'pure Android' project began in 2009 when Google confirmed it had begun internal testing on a new device it envisioned as offering a true Android experience. Soon after, Google revealed a partnership with HTC. The product of that union? The Nexus One.
With a handful of litigation lawsuits to contend with off the bat (one for hardware specs filed by Apple and the other, of all sources, came from the estate of the late sci-fi author Philip K Dick), the Nexus One launched on January 5 2010, and set a blueprint for Google’s streamlined approach to both its own OS and software features.
However, despite a handful of attractive utilities, such as voice-to-text transcription, it didn’t offer enough hardware innovations to match the stylized form factor that had given the iPhone such a considerable fan base.
Never a company to be accused of twiddling its fingers, Google followed it up by the end of that year with the Nexus S.
Trading HTC for Samsung (the carousel of hardware partners would become a calling card for the range), this new handset boasted an architecture similar to that used in the Galaxy S range, and was the first device to run Android 2.3 Gingerbread.
In 2011, the third entry in the range, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, continued the partnership with the Korean giant with a dual-core processor, the ability to shoot video in 1080p and the very first use of Google Wallet.
In 2012, Google parted ways with Samsung on its mobile front and joined forces with LG to produce the Nexus 4.
Like the Nexus S, this next entry in the series was well received by critics, offering relatively high-end specs – such as a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor and an 8-megapixel rear camera – at an affordable price point. It proved to be one of the most popular entries in the range.
The end for Nexus, and the birth of Android One
The following year, Google kept its partnership with LG going to produce the next iteration in the Nexus line: the Nexus 5.
As one of the first handsets to ship with Android 4.4 KitKat (this was also the first time Android had used a piece of branded confectionery to name its OS iterations), the Nexus 5 saw Google attempting to revert to the pure ideology of its earlier models with the inclusion of the Google Now Launcher, offering easier access to its smart assistant.
Like all of the Nexus devices before it, it wasn’t perfect – shortcomings included a dim screen and a camera that didn’t match up to the power of other ‘less pure’ Android phones – but it was still a traditional Android user’s ideal handset.
Having fulfilled its two-device commitment with LG, in 2014 Google decided to work with Motorola (which it had recently sold to Lenovo) for the next handset in its stock range: the Nexus 6.
Phablets were the new in thing, with big screens becoming hugely popular, so Google went all-in with a 2560 x 1440 AMOLED display, one of the earliest examples of this high-end screen spec.
Based largely on the Moto X, Google used the Nexus 6 as the first handset to support Project Fi, the firm’s own mobile operator service.
It was also in 2014 that a new approach to the stock Android experience was born: Android One. The brainchild of Sundar Pichai, product chief and designated CEO of Google, it was designed as a streamlined and unmodified version of Android, specifically for affordable entry-level devices in emerging markets.
India served as the testbed for this OS variant, and in the four years since its launch Android One has helped shape the development of Android in Google’s own devices. The ethos of a cleaner UI, with high security and faster updates, can be seen in the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL today.
2015 marked the final year for the Nexus line, and while Google would eventually begin work on what would become the first Pixel handset, it went all out for its Nexus swansong.
Google teamed up with Huawei to produce arguably the best Nexus phone, the 6P
With Motorola now sold on, Google broke its usual pattern on multiple fronts by returning to LG for the Nexus 5X and Chinese manufacturer Huawei for the Nexus 6P. Needlessly confusing naming conventions aside, these two devices were testbeds for some of Android’s latest features.
The Android Sensor Hub (for detecting when the phone has been picked up) and Google Now on Tap helped the 5X stand apart, while the 6P saw the Nexus range out in style as arguably its best entry, with a thinner aluminum body, an octa-core Snapdragon 810 chip and more.
Pixel perfect
In October 2016, Google's decision to leave the Nexus range behind, but build on its legacy with a new range of stock-focused handsets, saw the arrival of the Google Pixel and Pixel XL.
The even-thinner aluminum chassis and glass rear panel represented a move towards a more premium build quality than the Nexus phones, but it was the new Android features that really made the Pixel stand apart.
Google Assistant was originally exclusive to the first generation of Pixels, while access to unlimited, full-resolution Google Photos backup really sold the exclusivity of the Android 7.1 Nougat update that came with this phone.
It wasn’t perfect – the lack of waterproofing and a litany of hardware issues butted heads with the higher price point – but as the first genuine pure-Android phone designed, developed and marketed mostly by Google (HTC was technically involved), it was sending a clear message to Samsung and Apple.
For the launch of the Pixel 2 in 2017, Google worked with both HTC and LG to produce its regular and XL handsets, but made a point of announcing that there wouldn’t be a ‘cheaper’ version to match some brands' 'lite' models.
These were more premium handsets, and their cameras were the centerpiece of the design. Finally living up the Pixel branding, the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL featured a stunning 12.2-megapixel rear camera that could capture Full HD video, and HDR+ processing.
The Pixel 2 XL boasted more premium features, and did make the regular version look a little cheap by comparison, but Google was clearly getting closer to finding its ‘perfect’ pure Android model.
Pixel present – and future?
So we come to the most recent chapter in Google’s pure Android journey: the Pixel 3. While not a vast improvement on the previous generation of phones, the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL sum up Google’s homegrown approach to phone development.
They tick just enough boxes on the hardware front – another impressive suite of cameras, and an overall design that’s easier on the eye – while placing an emphasis on the strength of Android operating at its cleanest.
Debuting in 2018 with Android Pie via the Pixel Launcher, the Pixel 3 phones offer the best way yet to experience Android in its pure form.
A clean UI, the use of Duplex AI to answer spam calls, and the Digital Wellbeing tool have proved that, while Google is still working out the kinks in terms of hardware, it’s showing the direction in which Google hopes to take its OS innovation.
Brought to you in association with Nokia and Android One, helping you to make more of your smartphone. You can learn more about the new Nokia 7.1here, and you'll find more great advice on getting the most from your phonehere.
Apple has Siri, Amazon has Alexa, and if you've got an Android phone, tablet or Google Home device, don't forget that you've got Google Assistant built-in.
It may not have captured the public's imagination as much as its smart counterparts, particularly Alexa, but it's just as useful. In fact, there are plenty of things the voice-activated assistant can help you with that most users don’t even know it’s capable of doing.
To make sure you’re getting the most from your trusty voice-activated partner, we’ve gathered together nine handy, but not necessarily obvious, Google Assistant features that will help to make it genuinely useful in loads of situations you might not have expected.
Google Assistant FAQ: quick questions answered
What is Google Assistant? Google Assistant is Google's voice assistant, and it's available on smartphones and smart home devices. Powered by artificial intelligence, it's Google's answer to Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri, and Microsoft's Cortana.
How do I turn on Google Assistant? If you're using a phone or tablet, touch and hold the Home button, or say "OK Google." A the top-right of the screen, touch More Settings. Then, under Devices, select your phone or tablet. This is where we can turn on Google Assistant, by selection "OK Google" detection on or off.
If you have a Google Home, you'll just need to plug in the device and follow the set-up instructions.
How to use Google Assistant? Once activated, you need to long hold the Home button and Google Assistant will ask you what you want. You should be able to trigger it by saying "OK Google" too.
Is there a charge for Google Assistant? No. But you'll need a compatible device.
Can you give Google Assistant a name? If you want Google Assistant to respond to something other than "OK Google", you can change the wake phrase to "Hey Google". In the future, there might be a way to rename it.
1. Find your way home (and check for traffic updates)
Image credit: Google
Drawing on the sheer breadth of information at Google’s search engine fingertips, it’s safe to say Google Assistant has a lot of potential uses, including the ability to find the best route to a certain location.
Just say “Get me home” and it will draw information from Google Maps to show you (or tell you) the best route based on your current location.
You can also use the voice-activated element to check traffic updates, and get the latest information on diversions and closures. This feature is especially useful if you primarily use Google Assistant on the move.
2. Make a shopping list… with your voice
Image credit: Google
Google Assistant has been designed to assist you, after all, so it makes sense that something as mundane (yet important) as making a shopping list can be done with your voice.
No more scrabbling for a piece of paper (only to lose it) or typing one out in your drafts – you just need to say “Add [item] to my shopping list.”
Not only does Google Assistant collate all those items into one place, it will even read back what’s on your currently saved list to ensure you haven't left anything out, enabling you to go about your day with one less thing to worry about.
3. Listen to the latest news headlines
Image credit: Google
Most of us are so busy these days that even taking the time to browse the latest stories on Twitter or your chosen RSS feed can feel like a drag on your time.
So why not use Google Assistant to read them out for you? It’s not an obvious feature, but if you say “Play the news” Assistant will start reading out stories from your preferred news sources.
You can ask it to stop, pause and play at any time, and you can even ask it to read stories from a specific source or specialist media site. If you’re running around the house trying to find your keys while grabbing a piece of toast before work, it’s a great way to keep up to date.
4. Control your smart home
Image credit: Google / TechRadar
If you’re like us and you’ve started to slowly add more and more smart devices to your home – be they thermostats, lightbulbs or ovens that preheat themselves – then you can use Google Assistant to connect you to them via a single voice-controlled hub.
Open Google Assistant, press the menu icon in the upper-right corner of the screen and select Settings. From there you can add any compatible smart devices (and many devices are compatible) that are currently active in your home.
Whether you’re looking to check how many dollars you can get to the pound or wondering how many inches there are in a kilometer, you can rely on your voice-activated servant to do the math for you.
Google Assistant can perform almost any conversion calculation, and it will read out the answer.
The same goes for translations. If you’re wondering what the word for ‘Hello’ is in Swedish, you just have to say “What’s the Swedish word for ‘hello’?” and Assistant will instantly respond with the correct answer: “Hej!”
6. Screen your phone calls
The Google Pixel 3 XL (Image credit: Google)
Tired of getting dogged with cold calls from automated messages and companies trying to sell you a dodgy service? Well, Google Assistant can help with that, too.
If you happen to own a Google Pixel 3 or Pixel 3 XL, the voice-activated service includes a feature that will answer certain calls on your behalf.
It’s one of the many ways Google is evolving Assistant, with the Call Screen feature enabling you to leave Assistant to answer the call and even record a transcript of the conversation so you can review it later. Telemarketers, beware...
7. Queue up your favorite shows on Netflix
A promotional image for Netflix's Black Mirror anthology series (Image credit: Netflix)
Netflix has made its way onto most our smart devices, and whether you’re still mourning the cancellation of Daredevil or looking for a belly laugh or two with Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Google Assistant can help connect you to your favorite TV shows and films, all with voice commands.
Simply say, for example, “Play Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle on Netflix” and – as long as Netflix is set up on your Android device, you’re signed into the app and you've connected it up – Google Assistant will queue up the show/film and start playing it in a matter of seconds.
This is handier on a TV with Google Assistant built in than on some other devices, but it’s a simple way to call up a movie to watch on your phone too.
8. Check appointments and emails
Image credit: Google
If you're using Google Assistant there’s a good chance that you use some of Google’s other services, including Gmail and Google Drive, so why not use Assistant to connect to some of these apps?
If you use Gmail as your work account, you can ask the utility to check through your emails for certain keywords, or bring up an appointment that’s been added to your Calendar app.
You can even use Google Assistant to take notes with Google Keep, should you need to jot down a quick thought or idea while you’re busy with other tasks. This feature is especially useful if you need to catch up any new emails you’ve yet to read or respond to.
9. Let Assistant entertain you
Image credit: Google
Struggling to find someone to enjoy a quick game with? Want to test your grey matter while you have a few minutes to spare? Well, Google Assistant can help on both accounts by challenging you to a game of solitaire or naughts and crosses / tic-tac-toe.
It can also tell you some awful jokes or puns, and even read out an inspirational quote or message if you’re need of a little motivation – you can even ask Assistant to find something funny for you to watch by checking currently trending videos on YouTube.
It’s safe to say 2018 has been quite a year for videogames and interactive media.
Of course, it’s easy to claim that about any 12 month period when you’ve come to the end of it, but this year seemed to overflow with soaring highs and painful lows. Since January we’ve seen once stagnant franchises find new life, we’ve borne witness to some shocking launches and seen many a studio rise (and fall) along the way.
Plagiarism reared its ugly head at one of the biggest sites in the gaming media. Battle royale continued to dominate sales and streaming charts. Esports and competitive sports grew even larger in scope and coverage. And a little developer called Rockstar revealed a culture of unhealthy hours and unrelenting ‘crunch’ before unleashing a record-breaking cowboy simulator.
Like we said, 2018 has been quite the year.
Eternal Fortnite
It’s incredible to look back and see how little enthusiasm players and critics shared for Fortnite when it finally left early access and launched across platforms in the summer of 2017. Then PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds came along and revealed to the world a ‘new’ subgenre all about players fighting one another until only one victor remained.
Then Epic Games added in a Battle Royale mode to Fortnite, made it free-to-play and boom - one instant mega-hit. With the advent of multi-year season passes, the game has only grown in popularity in 2018. In November, it was revealed that it now has over 200 million registered users, something no doubt helped by the one million-plus players now enjoying it on-the-go on Nintendo Switch.
It’s become a phenomenon of Minecraft proportions, made superstars of some of its biggest Twitch streamers (although you could argue they’ve made it as much as it made them), with Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins rubbing shoulders with celebrities on prime-time TV despite a prickly demeanour and a controversial decision to avoid playing with any female streamers.
Snap, crackle and crunch
Crunch continues to play an important role in how many studios finish a game’s development cycle, but it launched itself firmly into the mainstream headlines for once when Rockstar head Dan Houser mentioned how many of his employees were working 100 hour weeks to get Red Dead Redemption 2 to gold status. He meant it to be an endorsement of their hard work, but in reality it cracked open the lid on a culture at the GTA studio where an expectation to work evenings and weekends became the norm.
For a studio like Rockstar that normally shies away from revealing the inner workings of its many studios, the developer was forced to rescind a clause that stopped employees from discussing their work experiences with the media. Plenty of programmers, designers and testers said they never felt pressure to work extra hours, but a lot did and it took some of the shine off the eventual release of RDR2. It still made the Housers millions in a couple of weeks of release, though.
Plagiarism rocks the games press
It’s not often something as serious as plagiarism is placed at the door of one of the games media’s biggest websites, but that’s just what happened when a video from a small-time YouTube channel called Boomstick Gaming turned up near-verbatim in a review on IGN.com. The video went viral, every major news site in games picked up and soon everyone was discussing Metroidvania platformer Dead Cells for all the wrong reasons.
It was revealed Nintendo Editor Filip Miucin had copied large parts of the review for IGN’s written and video-based review, and it didn’t take long for readers to find similar copied segments in countless other reviews of his on the site. IGN began frantically pulling down most of Miucin’s work and dismissed him almost immediately but it rocked the games media with a scandal it’s never really had to contend with before. Miucin even took to his own YouTube channel to make an apology video where he never actually apologized.
Retro revival remastered
Remasters are nothing new to videogames - in fact, they pretty much kept the PS4 going during its first year - but 2018 has gone one better by either reviving some once great franchises for a new generation and offering new ways to play the games of yesteryear.
The launch of the Nintendo Switch Online paid service in September saw the launch of a growing library of NES games - with full Joy-Con support - while Sony rounded off the year with the completely originalSony PlayStation Classic. Sony would have gotten away with its revival if it wasn’t for some clear disparity between the different emulations used on the console (and the PlayStation hits that were clearing missing from its collection).
Elsewhere, Spyro the Dragon had all three of his original PlayStation instalments revitalized from the ground up with Spyro Trilogy Reignited. Following in the successful footsteps of Crash Bandicoot: N’Sane Trilogy, it would be Toys for Bob - the developer who originally used Spyro to launch the now dormant Skylanders franchise - that would help re-imagine Insomniac Games’ much-loved platforming trinity. We also got news of a MediEvil remaster along the same lines, and confirmation that Blizzard is working on Warcraft 3: Reforged andWorld of Warcraft Classic. Retro never really goes out of fashion, does it?
Studio acquisitions and closures
Every year we see new studios form, while others sadly close their doors for the last time. However, there was a lot of activity on this front in 2018.
On the plus side, Microsoft clearly showed its making big preparations for the next generation of Xbox by acquiring not one, but six new developers (Obsidian Entertainment, The Initiative, inXile Entertainment, Compulsion Games, Undead Labs, Playground Games and Ninja Theory) into its growing suite of first-party studios.
However, there were some notable closures, too. Telltale Games - which was once the hottest ticket in town thanks to its narrative-driven take on The Walking Dead, A Wolf Among Us and Batman - saw its employees forced to find work elsewhere in September thanks to an overloaded schedule of projects, the loss of a major investor and stories of mismanagement behind the scenes. Another publisher stepped in to help fund and finish the final episodes of TWD’s swansong season, but it’s a bittersweet end to a developer that’s left an indelible mark on the industry.
Games, games and more games
And, of course, there’s been a gluttony of new games - some of which will likely be looked back on as the titles that defined the generation (as is often the case in the twilight years of a console’s lifecycle).
Sony killed it with their exclusives, with a revitalized God of War giving the two-dimensional god-killer Kratos some much-needed depth. Detroit: Become Human just about managed to overcome David Cage’s script-writing hang-ups thanks to some brilliant performances from its cast and Insomniac’s Spider-Man offered the best take on the Web-Crawler since Spider-Man 2 on PS2. High praise indeed.
Xbox One didn’t have quite so many killer apps, but Sea of Thieves has grown into a charming multiplayer take on the golden age of piracy and Forza Horizon 4 has proved even a spin-off can overtake the series that originally spawned it. Nintendo Switch also came out swinging in 2018 with some absolute belters in the form of Octopath Traveller, Mario Tennis Aces, Pokemon: Let’s Go Pikachu/Let’s Go Eevee, Kirby Star Allies and a little thing called Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
It’s been a huge year for videogames - both better and for worse - and we can’ wait to see how 2019 is going to top it (for the better, we hope)...
