Best PC Games to Play Right Now on a New PC
Did you get a new PC (or the makings of a new PC) for the holidays? Perhaps yours arrived in little pieces, and your hands now bear the scars of attempting to screw them all together into one big wheezing box of power. Or maybe you had more sense and got someone else to do that for you. Maybe you just glued a new CPU on top of the old one, because that’s probably how it works, right?
Whichever route has brought you to your new PC happy place, we’ve pulled together a selection of splendid games that’ll make you glad you did it. Whether you’re new to PC gaming or just need some inspiration for what to play first on your rig, here are the best games to celebrate the newest member of your family.
PC games to play right now
Black Myth: Wukong
One of the biggest games of 2024, Black Myth: Wukong took the all-conquering Soulslike genre and added monkeys. And Chinese mythology. And a huge array of spells, weapons, and the all-important staff techniques.
The game’s story is based on one of China’s classic novels, Journey to the West, with you playing as its monkey hero, the Destined One. Mastering its complex combat involves learning staff stances, building up Focus, and unleashing heavy attacks and combos, all in the name of taking down the game’s epic enemies, the Yaoguais.
It’s been an absolute smash hit, and playing on a new PC should let Unreal Engine, which it's built in, really shine.
Dishonored 2
In the eight years since Dishonored 2 launched, there’s been nothing that’s come close to replacing it. The immersive sim from the sadly defunct developer Arkane Austin offers you vast levels in sprawling, intricate towns with a series of tasks to complete however you see fit.
It’s extraordinarily versatile, with players able to approach the game in their own preferred way, whether that’s with guns-blazing, all-out violence, a deadly, unseen assassin who slaughters with blades, or a pacifist spellcaster who never kills. You can play the entire game as one of two different protagonists, each with a unique perspective.
Combining magic, stealth, and an arsenal of weapons, you must reclaim the throne from an evil presence—and do it all while feeling ludicrously cool. And don’t forget to put all the level’s bodies in one big, amusing pile.
Farming Simulator 25
Buffalo farming! Sorry, it’s just very exciting that the first new Farming Simulator for PC since 2021 has added the ability to farm buffalo. You can feed them with an auto-feeding robot. You can milk them and make cheese! Hopefully stampeding will be added in an upcoming DLC.
This hopefully gives you an idea of what an extraordinarily deep game Farming Simulator has become in the 16 years since its original release. The latest title is in an all-new version of the series’s engine, making it prettier along with the addition of realistic weather and new crops like rice and spinach. There are a mind-boggling number of vehicles and features, and it's really far more to do than is reasonable. No wonder farmers get up at 4 AM and complain about everything all of the time.
Slay the Princess
Now, admittedly this isn’t going to trouble your PC, even if you built it out of cobwebs and LEGO bricks, but it’ll certainly trouble your mind. Slay the Princess is one of the most extraordinarily accomplished narrative games, which is no small feat when you learn it’s about walking up to a cabin, going down some stairs, and deciding whether or not to kill the princess.
With just these ingredients, what unfolds is an elaborate story of implausible complexity as you piece together the multi-dimensional story and attempt to understand just what on Earth is going on. Or isn’t. Or both is and isn’t?
The game remembers every choice you make, which opens up a huge number of possible paths through the experience, only revealing a sliver of itself each time you play it. It’s stunning stuff.
Satisfactory
You know what most factory-designing games are missing? Combat. Satisfactory sets that right as you build vast, ridiculously elaborate factories on an alien planet, taking advantage of the local resources and exploring ever further afield to discover new options.
So yes, alongside the enormous rows of conveyor belts and machinery are options to build vehicles, jetpacks, and jump pads to help you venture around the planet, along with special gear to protect you from the less immediately welcoming local wildlife.
Of course, the real focus here is the factory, which can then be supplied through fleets of trucks, or pipelines to transport your precious liquids, before sending your goods to your bosses by space elevator.
Dead Cells
There are tough-as-nails platform games, and there are crazy-difficult roguelite challenges, but it’d be the cruelest of cruel ideas to combine the two. Wait, no, that’s exactly the pitch behind the unstoppable juggernaut success of Dead Cells.
With a stunning use of pixel art and physics gibbage, this creates the most engaging loop where the “just one more go” factor is off the charts, and a significant breakthrough of progression is always tantalizingly close to hand. As the game’s developers say: “Kill, die, learn, repeat.”
Last year, the game even gained a crossover DLC with Castlevania, one of Dead Cells’ main inspirations.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
After many years in a fully 3D world, the Prince of Perisa has returned to his origins in a 2.5D side-scrolling action-adventure. And he’s brought his time-traveling abilities with him.
There’s something spectacular about being able to rush forward through time (an excellent reflection of The Sands of Time’s rewind mechanic) alongside an ability to place a checkpoint anywhere you like and then return to it instantly.
On top of all that, The Lost Crown sees the PoP franchise overlap with the Metroidvania genre for the first time, improving Sargon’s abilities to let him traverse previously impassable obstacles.
Civilization VI
We’re only a couple of months away from the long-awaited release of Civilization VII, but there’s not a thing wrong with 2016’s Civilization VI. As if you didn’t already know from when your grandparents played it on their Mac in 1991, Civilization is the ultimate 4X game, where instead of worrying about made-up planets, you’re attempting to conquer all of human history.
With the sixth entry, a far more involved Zoning system was introduced when designing your cities, along with two new Tech Trees to make specific cultural improvements more interesting and nuanced. It also elaborates on Civ V’s addition of religion by giving it its own victory condition, as well as making CPU-controlled rival leaders far more driven with their own agendas.
Most of all, some 33 years on, the series is still capable of having you not notice the time until you’ve realized that’s the sun coming up and you’ve not been to bed.
Hades 2
The mighty Hades seemed like it surely couldn’t be topped. The ultimate roguelite action-RPG had you play as Zagreus, son of Hades, attempting to escape the Underworld and reach Mount Olympus, and its mix of extraordinary combat and constant progressions made it the best in class. Then developer Supergiant Games quietly muttered something about holding their beer.
Hades II isn’t even finished yet, only available in Early Access with its first chunk of levels complete, and it’s already proving that there was ample room for improvement. This time you’re Melinoë, Zagreus’s sister, attempting to defeat Chronos with multiple paths to choose from to achieve her goal. At the end of 2024, a new region was added with new weapons and characters as the game edges toward completion.
XCOM 2
The XCOM franchise has been leading the way for real-time strategy since it began in 1994. Despite being the 10th XCOM game, this is the sequel to the excellent reboot of the franchise, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and an even better game itself.
Earth has been completely surrendered to alien forces, and XCOM has been destroyed. Hope is lost. Except for a small, rag-tag group of rebels who reform XCOM to fight back and defend humankind. This is a far more open game with more choices available to the player, but it maintains that all-important turn-based combat that defines the adored franchise.
Titanfall 2
Sure, developers Respawn might be having all of the success with Apex Legends and Star Wars Jedi, but that hasn’t stopped the endless clamoring cries for Titanfall 3. And who can blame us when Titanfall 2 was so casually brilliant? Ostensibly a fantastic multiplayer shooter with vast Titan bots to stomp about in (and the version on the Epic Games Store comes with the Jump Starter Pack that has everything unlocked before you even start), it’s the single-player mode that makes it shine the brightest.
One of the most consistently inventive campaigns ever, there’s level after level that are permanently etched in players’ memories, from The Beacon’s amazing puzzle-solving and first-person vertical platforming, to Effect and Cause’s time-traveling antics, to the world-printing factory in Into The Abyss. It’s a masterpiece, and it’d bless your new PC.
Alan Wake 2
What a joy it is that developers Remedy returned to the world of Alan Wake over a decade after the first game was released. Although Alan Wake was an action-adventure, 2023’s Alan Wake 2 takes things in a far more survival horror direction. Once more, the game delves into the mystical bizarreness of Bright Falls from the perspective of FBI Special Agent Saga Anderson but also sees Alan in a nightmare version of New York City. It’s a blend of murder mystery, psychological horror, and the entangled madness that lies within every writer’s mind.
If you grab the Deluxe Edition, you’ll also get two new expansions for the game: Night Springs and The Lake House. Night Springs adds three new episodes to the story with fan-favorite characters from the series as the lead character of each, while The Lake House is yet another tale told parallel to the events of the main game, this time playing as FBC Agent Kiran Estevez to investigate a facility that’s researching paranormal peculiarities. Spooky, deep, and wildly engaging.