105 Most Popular Computer Games

Minecraft is a sandbox video game developed by Mojang. The game was created by Markus “Notch” Persson in the Java programming language. Following several early test versions, it was released as a paid public alpha for personal computers in 2009 before releasing in November 2011, with Jens Bergensten taking over development. Minecraft has since been ported to several other platforms and is the best-selling video game of all time, with 200 million copies sold and 126 million monthly active users as of 2020.
In Minecraft, players explore a blocky, procedurally-generated 3D world with infinite terrain, and may discover and extract raw materials, craft tools and items, and build structures or earthworks. Depending on game mode, players can fight computer-controlled “mobs”, as well as cooperate with or compete against other players in the same world. Game modes include a survival mode, in which players must acquire resources to build the world and maintain health, and a creative mode, where players have unlimited resources. Players can modify the game to create new gameplay mechanics, items, and assets.
Minecraft has been critically acclaimed, winning several awards and being cited as one of the greatest video games of all time. Social media, parodies, adaptations, merchandise, and the annual MineCon conventions played large roles in popularizing the game. It has also been used in educational environments, especially in the realm of computing systems, as virtual computers and hardware devices have been built in it. In 2014, Mojang and the Minecraft intellectual property were purchased by Microsoft for US$2.5 billion. A number of spin-off games have also been produced, such as Minecraft: Story Mode, Minecraft Dungeons, and Minecraft Earth.

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League of Legends (abbreviated LoL or League) is a 2009 multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games for Microsoft Windows and macOS. Originally inspired by Defense of the Ancients, the game has followed a freemium model since its release on October 27, 2009. League of Legends is often cited as the world’s largest esport, with an international competitive scene. The 2019 League of Legends World Championship had over 100 million unique viewers, peaking at a concurrent viewership of 44 million, with a minimum prize pool of US$2.5 million.
In League of Legends, players form a team of five and assume the role of a champion, characters with unique abilities, generally varying around a type of class, and battle against a team of player- or computer-controlled champions. In the main game mode, Summoner’s Rift, the goal is to destroy the opposing team’s “Nexus”, a structure that lies at the heart of their base and is protected by defensive structures.
League of Legends received generally positive reviews upon release, earning praise for its accessibility, character designs, and production value. By July 2012, it was the most played PC game in North America and Europe in terms of number of hours played. The game has a large following on streaming platforms, such as YouTube and Twitch, and its popularity has led to merchandise and tie-ins, such as spin-off games, music videos, comic books, short stories, collectible figurines, and an upcoming animated series. Promotional material for in-game cosmetics have attracted mainstream attention, such as K/DA, a virtual K-pop girl group composed of four of League’s champions.
A mobile version, League of Legends: Wild Rift, entered an open beta for the Southeast Asia region on October 27, 2020.

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Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is a 2002 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games as part of the Grand Theft Auto series. Set in 1986 within the fictional Vice City, based on Miami, the game follows the exploits of mobster Tommy Vercetti after his release from prison. Upon being caught up in an ambushed drug deal, he seeks out those responsible while slowly building a criminal empire and seizing power from other criminal organisations in the city.
The game is played from a third-person perspective, and its world is navigated on foot or by vehicle. The open world design lets the player freely roam Vice City, consisting of two main islands. The game’s plot is based on multiple real-world people and events in Miami such as Cubans, Haitians, and biker gangs, the 1980s crack epidemic, the Mafioso drug lords of Miami, and the dominance of glam metal. The game was also influenced by the film and television of the era, including Scarface and Miami Vice. Much of the development work constituted creating the game world to fit the inspiration and time period; the development team conducted extensive field research in Miami while creating the world. The game was released in October 2002 for the PlayStation 2, in May 2003 for Microsoft Windows, and in October 2003 for the Xbox.
Upon release, Vice City received critical acclaim, with praise particularly directed at its music, gameplay and open world design. However, the game also generated controversy over its depiction of violence and racial groups, sparking lawsuits and protests. Vice City became the best-selling video game of 2002 and has sold over 17.5 million copies. Considered one of the most significant titles of the sixth generation of video games, and one of the greatest video games ever made, it won numerous year-end accolades including Game of the Year awards from several gaming publications. Since its release, the game has received numerous ports to many gaming platforms. An enhanced version was released for mobile platforms in 2012, for the game’s tenth anniversary. Its successor, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, was released in 2004, and a prequel, Vice City Stories, was released in 2006.

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Counter-Strike (CS) is a series of multiplayer first-person shooter video games in which teams of terrorists battle to perpetrate an act of terror (bombing, hostage-taking, assassination) while counter-terrorists try to prevent it (bomb defusal, hostage rescue). The series began on Windows in 1999 with the release of the first game, Counter-Strike. It was initially released as a modification (“mod”) for Half-Life that was designed by Minh “Gooseman” Le and Jess “Cliffe” Cliffe before the rights to the mod’s intellectual property were acquired by Valve, the developers of Half-Life, who then turned Counter-Strike into a retail product.
The original Counter-Strike was followed by Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, developed by Turtle Rock Studios and released in March 2004. A previous version of Condition Zero that was developed by Ritual Entertainment was released alongside it as Condition Zero: Deleted Scenes. Eight months later, Valve released Counter-Strike: Source, a remake of the original Counter-Strike and the first in the series to run on Valve’s newly created Source engine. The fourth game in the main series, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, was released by Valve in 2012 for Windows, OS X, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. Hidden Path Entertainment, who worked on Counter-Strike: Source post-release, helped to develop the game alongside Valve.There have been several third-party spin-off titles created for Asian markets over the years. These include the Counter-Strike Online series, Counter-Strike Neo, and Counter-Strike Nexon: Studio.

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PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) is an online multiplayer battle royale game developed and published by PUBG Corporation, a subsidiary of South Korean video game company Bluehole. The game is based on previous mods that were created by Brendan “PlayerUnknown” Greene for other games, inspired by the 2000 Japanese film Battle Royale, and expanded into a standalone game under Greene’s creative direction. In the game, up to one hundred players parachute onto an island and scavenge for weapons and equipment to kill others while avoiding getting killed themselves. The available safe area of the game’s map decreases in size over time, directing surviving players into tighter areas to force encounters. The last player or team standing wins the round.
Battlegrounds was first released for Microsoft Windows via Steam’s early access beta program in March 2017, with a full release in December 2017. The game was also released by Microsoft Studios for the Xbox One via its Xbox Game Preview program that same month, and officially released in September 2018. A free-to-play mobile game version for Android and iOS was released in 2018, in addition to a port for the PlayStation 4. A version for the Stadia streaming platform was released in April 2020. Battlegrounds is one of the best-selling and most-played video games of all time. The game has sold over 70 million copies on personal computers and game consoles as of 2020, in addition to PUBG Mobile accumulating 734 million downloads and grossing over $3.5 billion on mobile devices.
Battlegrounds received positive reviews from critics, who found that while the game had some technical flaws, it presented new types of gameplay that could be easily approached by players of any skill level and was highly replayable. The game was attributed to popularizing the battle royale genre, with a number of unofficial Chinese clones also being produced following its success. The game also received several Game of the Year nominations, among other accolades. PUBG Corporation has run several small tournaments and introduced in-game tools to help with broadcasting the game to spectators, as they wish for it to become a popular esport. The game has also been banned in some countries for allegedly being harmful and addictive to younger players.

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Fortnite is an online video game developed by Epic Games and released in 2017. It is available in three distinct game mode versions that otherwise share the same general gameplay and game engine: Fortnite: Save the World, a cooperative hybrid-tower defense-shooter-survival game for up to four players to fight off zombie-like creatures and defend objects with traps and fortifications they can build; Fortnite Battle Royale, a free-to-play battle royale game in which up to 100 players fight to be the last person standing; and Fortnite Creative, in which players are given complete freedom to create worlds and battle arenas. Save the World and Battle Royale were released in 2017 as early access titles, while Creative was released on December 6, 2018. Save the World is available only for Windows, macOS, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, while Battle Royale and Creative released for all those platforms, and also for Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android devices. The game is expected to also launch with the release of the next-generation PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles.
While the Save the World and Creative versions have been successful for Epic Games, Fortnite Battle Royale in particular became a resounding success – drawing in more than 125 million players in less than a year, earning hundreds of millions of dollars per month, and becoming a cultural phenomenon.

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Tekken (Japanese: 鉄拳, “Iron Fist”) is a Japanese media franchise centered on a series of fighting video and arcade games developed and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. The franchise also includes film and print adaptations.
The main games in the series follow the events of the King of Iron Fist Tournament, hosted by the Mishima Zaibatsu, where players control a plethora of characters to win the tournament and gain control of the company; the conflict between the Mishima family serves as the main focus of the series’ plot, while players explore other characters’ motivations in aiming to control the Zaibatsu.
Gameplay focuses on hand-to-hand combat with an opponent, with the gameplay system including blocks, throws, escapes, and ground fighting. The series later introduced combos and special moves, with characters also able to stage break arenas. Tekken is noted as being one of the first fighting games at the time to use 3D animation.
Japanese video game developer Namco began the series in 1994, with the release of the self-titled first entry. As of 2017, it has nine additional entries, eight spin-off games, and has been adapted into three feature films and other media. Tekken 2, as well as the third game Tekken 3, are considered landmark titles; they received critical acclaim for their gameplay and more immersive experience. Subsequent titles have followed this concept, and received generally positive critical responses.
The series has been universally acclaimed and commercially successful, having shipped more than 50 million units, making it one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time, and the third best-selling fighting game franchise in history. The main series has been widely credited by critics and video game publications for raising the standards of fighting games, praising it for its gameplay mechanics and replay value.

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Overwatch is a team-based multiplayer first-person shooter developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. Described as a “hero shooter”, Overwatch assigns players into two teams of six, with each player selecting from a roster of over 30 characters, known as “heroes”, each with a unique style of play that is divided into three general roles that fit their purpose. Players on a team work together to secure and defend control points on a map or escort a payload across the map in a limited amount of time. Players gain cosmetic rewards that do not affect gameplay, such as character skins and victory poses, as they play the game. The game was initially launched with only casual play, but a competitive ranked mode, various ‘arcade’ game modes, and a player-customizable server browser were added after release. Additionally, Blizzard has added new characters, maps, and game modes post-release, all free of charge, with the only additional cost to players being optional loot boxes to earn cosmetic items. It was released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows in May 2016, and Nintendo Switch in October 2019.
Overwatch is Blizzard’s fourth major franchise and came about following the 2014 cancellation of the ambitious massively multiplayer online role-playing game Titan. A portion of the Titan team came up with the concept of Overwatch, based on the success of team-based first-person shooters like Team Fortress 2 and the popularity of multiplayer online battle arena games, creating a hero-based shooter that emphasized teamwork. Some elements of Overwatch borrow assets and concepts from the canceled Titan project. After establishing the narrative of an optimistic near-future Earth setting after a global crisis, the developers aimed to create a diverse cast of heroes that spanned genders and ethnicities as part of this setting. Significant time is spent adjusting the balance of the characters, making sure that new players would still be able to have fun while skilled players would present each other with a challenge.
Overwatch was unveiled at the 2014 BlizzCon event and was in a closed beta from late 2015 through early 2016. An open beta before release drew in nearly 10 million players. The release of the game was promoted with short animated videos to introduce the narrative and characters. Overwatch received universal acclaim from critics, who praised the game for its accessibility, diverse appeal of its hero characters, bright cartoonish art style, and enjoyable gameplay. Blizzard reported over US$1 billion in revenue during the first year of its release and had more than 50 million players after three years. Overwatch is considered to be among the greatest video games of all time, receiving numerous game of the year awards and other accolades. The game is also a popular esport, with Blizzard funding and producing the global Overwatch League.
A sequel, Overwatch 2, was announced in 2019 and will include new player versus environment (PvE) co-operative multiplayer modes. In addition, it will have a shared competitive multiplayer environment, allowing players of both games to play against each other. While it will be sold as a separate game, all-new heroes, maps, and competitive gamemodes will also exist in Overwatch.

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Apex Legends is a free-to-play first-person hero shooter battle royale game developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts. It was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on February 4, 2019, without any prior announcement or marketing. A Nintendo Switch version is planned for release in 2021, along with a cross-platform play beta between all supported platforms that was released on October 6, 2020.In Apex Legends, up to 20 three-person squads or 30 two-person duos land on an island and search for weapons and supplies before attempting to defeat all other players in combat. The available play area on the island shrinks over time, forcing players to keep moving or else find themselves outside the play area which can be fatal. The final team alive wins the round. The game is set in the same science fiction universe as Respawn Entertainment’s Titanfall and Titanfall 2.Work on the game began sometime around late 2016 and early 2017, though the project remained a secret right up until its launch. The game’s release in 2019 came as a surprise, as until that point it had been assumed that Respawn Entertainment was working on a third installment to the Titanfall franchise, the studio’s previous major title.
Apex Legends received positive reviews from critics, who praised its gameplay, progression system, and fusion of elements from various genres. Some considered it a worthy competitor to Fortnite Battle Royale, a similar game that had gained massive popularity in the previous year. Apex Legends surpassed over 25 million players by the end of its first week, and 50 million within its first month. According to EA, as of July 2019, the game had approximately 8 to 10 million players a week and by October 2019 it had approximately 70 million players worldwide.

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Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a 2004 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the seventh title in the Grand Theft Auto series, and the follow-up to the 2002 game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. It was released in October 2004 for PlayStation 2, and in June 2005 for Microsoft Windows and Xbox. The game is set within an open world environment that players can explore and interact with at their leisure. The story follows former gangster Carl “CJ” Johnson, who returns home after the death of his mother and is drawn back into his former gang and a life of crime while clashing with the authorities. Carl’s journey that takes him across the fictional U.S. state of San Andreas, which is heavily based on California and Nevada.The game features references to many real-life elements of the world, such as its cities, regions, and landmarks, with its plot heavily based on several real-life events in Los Angeles in the early 1990s, including the rivalry between real-life street gangs, the crack epidemic of the 1980s and early 1990s, the LAPD Rampart scandal, and the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Unlike its predecessor, San Andreas brought with it new elements of gameplay that would be later incorporated in future titles, including RPG-style mechanics, customisation options with both clothing and vehicle appearances, a vast array of activities and mini-games, and the inclusion of gambling games.
Considered by many reviewers to be one of the greatest video games ever made, San Andreas received critical acclaim, with praise directed at its music, story and gameplay, and criticism for its graphics and some aspects of its controls. It was the best-selling video game of 2004, and with over 27.5 million copies sold worldwide as of 2011, it is the best-selling PlayStation 2 game and one of best-selling video games of all time. Like its predecessors, San Andreas is cited as a landmark in video games for its far-reaching influence within the industry. The game’s violence and sexual content was the source of much public concern and controversy. In particular, a player-made software patch, dubbed the “Hot Coffee mod”, unlocked a previously hidden sexual scene. A high-definition remastered version of the game was released for both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in 2015. In June 2018, the game was added to the Xbox One Backward Compatible library. San Andreas has been ported to various other platforms and services, such as OS X, Xbox Live, PlayStation Network and mobile devices (iOS, Android, Windows Phone and Fire OS). The next main entry in the series, Grand Theft Auto IV, was released in April 2008.

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Call of Duty is a first-person shooter video game franchise published by Activision. Starting out in 2003, it first focused on games set in World War II. Over time, the series has seen games set in the midst of the Cold War, futuristic worlds, and outer space. The games were first developed by Infinity Ward, then also by Treyarch and Sledgehammer Games. Several spin-off and handheld games were made by other developers. The most recent title, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, was released on November 13, 2020.
The series originally focused on the World War II setting, with Infinity Ward developing the first (2003) and second (2005) titles in the series and Treyarch developing the third (2006). Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007) introduced a new, modern setting, and proved to be the breakthrough title for the series, creating the Modern Warfare sub-series. The game’s legacy also influenced the creation of a remastered version, released in 2016. Two other entries, Modern Warfare 2 (2009) and 3 (2011), were made. The sub-series received a soft-reboot with Modern Warfare in 2019. Infinity Ward have also developed two games outside of the Modern Warfare sub-series, Ghosts (2013) and Infinite Warfare (2016). Treyarch made one last World War II-based game, World at War (2008), before releasing Black Ops (2010) and subsequently creating the Black Ops sub-series. Four other entries, Black Ops II (2012), III (2015), 4 (2018), and Cold War (2020) were made, the latter in conjunction with Raven Software. Sledgehammer Games, who were co-developers for Modern Warfare 3, have also developed two titles, Advanced Warfare (2014) and WWII (2017).
As of May 2019, the series has sold over 300 million copies..With new games in the series released annually to blockbuster-level sales, the series is verified by the Guinness World Records as the best-selling first-person shooter game series. It is also the most successful video game franchise created in the United States and the third highest-grossing video game franchise of all time. Other products in the franchise include a line of action figures designed by Plan B Toys, a card game created by Upper Deck Company, Mega Bloks sets by Mega Brands, and a comic book miniseries published by WildStorm Productions.

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Rocket League is a vehicular soccer video game developed and published by Psyonix. The game was first released for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 4 in July 2015, with ports for Xbox One and Nintendo Switch being released later on. In June 2016, 505 Games began distributing a physical retail version for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment taking over those duties by the end of 2017. Versions for macOS and Linux were also released in 2016, but support for their online services was dropped in 2020. The game went free-to-play in September 2020.
Described as “soccer, but with rocket-powered cars”, Rocket League has up to eight players assigned to each of the two teams, using rocket-powered vehicles to hit a ball into their opponent’s goal and score points over the course of a match. The game includes single-player and multiplayer modes which can be played both locally and online, including cross-platform play between all versions. Later updates for the game enabled the ability to modify core rules and added new game modes, including ones based on ice hockey and basketball.
Rocket League is a sequel to Psyonix’s Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars,(Also known as SARPBC) a 2008 video game for the PlayStation 3. Battle-Cars received mixed reviews and was not a success, but gained a loyal fan base. Psyonix continued to support themselves through contract development work for other studios while looking to develop a sequel. Psyonix began formal development of Rocket League around 2013, refining the gameplay from Battle-Cars to address criticism and fan input. Psyonix also recognized their lack of marketing from Battle-Cars and engaged in both social media and promotions to market the game, including offering the game for free for PlayStation Plus members on release.
Rocket League was praised for its gameplay improvements over Battle-Cars, as well as its graphics and overall presentation, although some criticism was directed towards the game’s physics engine. The game earned a number of industry awards, and saw over 10 million sales and 40 million players by the beginning of 2018. Rocket League has also been adopted as an esport, with professional players participating through ESL and Major League Gaming, along with Psyonix’s own Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS).

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World of Warcraft (WoW) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the Warcraft fantasy universe. World of Warcraft takes place within the Warcraft world of Azeroth, approximately four years after the events at the conclusion of Blizzard’s previous Warcraft release, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. The game was announced in 2001, and was released for the 10th anniversary of the Warcraft franchise on November 23, 2004. Since launch, World of Warcraft has had eight major expansion packs produced for it: The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm, Mists of Pandaria, Warlords of Draenor, Legion, Battle for Azeroth, and Shadowlands.
World of Warcraft was the world’s most popular MMORPG by player count of nearly 10 million in 2009. The game had a total of over a hundred million registered accounts by 2014. By 2017, the game had grossed over $9.23 billion in revenue, making it one of the highest-grossing video game franchises of all time. At BlizzCon 2017, a vanilla version of the game titled World of Warcraft Classic was announced, which planned to provide a way to experience the base game before any of its expansions launched. It was released in August 2019.

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Forza ( FORTS-ə; Italian for “strength”) is a series of simulation racing video games for Xbox consoles, Windows 10, iOS and Android devices published by Xbox Game Studios. The series seeks to emulate the performance and handling characteristics of many real-life production, modified and racing cars.
The franchise is primarily divided into two ongoing titles; the original Forza Motorsport series developed by American developer Turn 10 Studios, which focuses on primarily professional-style track racing events and series around a variety of both real and fictional tracks, and the Forza Horizon series mainly developed by British developer Playground Games, which revolves around a fictional racing and music festival called the “Horizon Festival” and features open world environments set in fictional representations of real world areas in which players may freely roam and participate in racing events. Until 2019, each installment of the franchise series have alternated on a biennial basis; the Motorsport entries were released in odd-numbered years, while the Horizon entries were released in even-numbered years. This pattern was altered due to the absence of a new Motorsport game in 2019. Forza is seen as the primary rival of Gran Turismo on the PlayStation systems.

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Ark: Survival Evolved (stylized as ΛRK) is a 2017 action-adventure survival video game developed by Studio Wildcard, in collaboration with Instinct Games, Efecto Studios, and Virtual Basement. In the game, players must survive being stranded on an island filled with roaming dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals, natural hazards, and potentially hostile human players.
The game is played from either a third-person or first-person perspective and its open world is navigated on foot or by riding a prehistoric animal. Players can use firearms and improvised weapons to defend against hostile humans and creatures, with the ability to build bases as defense on the ground and on some creatures. The game has both single-player and multiplayer options. Multiplayer allows the option to form tribes of members in a server. The max number of tribe mates varies from each server. In this mode all tamed dinosaurs and building structures are usually shared between the members. There is a PvE mode where players cannot fight each other.
Development began in October 2014, where it was first released on PC as an early access title in the middle of 2015. The development team conducted research into the physical appearance of the animals, but took creative license for gameplay purposes. Egypt-based developer Instinct Games was hired to facilitate the game’s development. The game was released in August 2017 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, OS X and Linux, with versions for Android, iOS, and Nintendo Switch in 2018; a version for Stadia is scheduled for release in early 2021. It received generally mixed reviews, with criticism for its “punishing” difficulty and reliance on grinding. Several expansions to the game have been released as downloadable content. The game begot two spin-off games in March 2018—virtual reality game ARK Park and sandbox survival game PixArk—and two companion apps: A-Calc in October 2015, and Dododex in August 2017.

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Resident Evil, known in Japan as Biohazard, is a Japanese video game series and media franchise created and owned by Capcom. The franchise follows individuals battling outbreaks of zombies and other monsters created mainly by the pharmaceutical company Umbrella Corporation. The game series consists of survival horror, third-person shooter, and first-person shooter games. The franchise has expanded into a live-action film series, animated films, television, comic books, novels, audio dramas, and other merchandise.
The first Resident Evil game was created by Shinji Mikami and Tokuro Fujiwara and released for the PlayStation in 1996. It is credited for defining the survival horror genre and returning zombies to popular culture. With Resident Evil 4 (2005), the franchise shifted to more dynamic shooting action; it influenced the evolution of the survival horror and third-person genres, popularizing the “over-the-shoulder” third-person view. Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (2017) returned to the survival horror mood and moved to a first-person perspective.
Resident Evil is Capcom’s best-selling video game franchise, with over 105 million units sold worldwide as of September 2020. The live-action film series is also the highest-grossing film series based on video games.

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Assassin’s Creed is an open-world action-adventure stealth video game franchise published by Ubisoft and developed mainly by its studio Ubisoft Montreal using the game engine Anvil and its more advanced derivatives. Created by Patrice Désilets, Jade Raymond, and Corey May, the Assassin’s Creed series depicts a fictional millennia-old struggle between the Assassins, who fight for peace with free will, and the Templars, who desire peace through order and control. The series features historical fiction, science fiction and characters, intertwined with real-world historical events and figures. For the majority of time players control an Assassin in the past history, while also playing as Desmond Miles or an Assassin Initiate in the present day, who hunt down their Templar targets. The series took inspiration from the novel Alamut by the Slovenian writer Vladimir Bartol, while building upon concepts from the Prince of Persia series.The series’s eponymous first title was released in 2007, and it has featured eleven main games in total, the most recent being 2020’s Valhalla. Main games of Assassin’s Creed are set in an open world and presented from the third-person perspective where the protagonists take down targets using their combat and stealth skills with the exploitation of the environment. Players have freedom to explore the historical settings as they finish main and side quests. Apart from single-player missions, some games also provide competitive and cooperative multiplayer gameplay. A new story and occasional new time period are introduced in each entry, and gameplay elements evolve from the previous one. There are three-story arcs in the series. For the first five main games, the framing story is set in 2012 and features series protagonist Desmond Miles who uses a machine called the Animus and relives the memories of his ancestors. In games up until and including Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, Abstergo employees and Assassin initiates recorded genetic memories using the Helix software, helping the Templars and Assassins find new Pieces of Eden in the modern world. The latest three games, Assassin’s Creed Origins, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, follow ex-Abstergo employee Layla Hassan.
The main games in the Assassin’s Creed video game series have received generally positive reviews for their ambition in visuals, game design, and narratives, with criticism for the yearly release cycle and frequent bugs. The spin-off games received mixed reviews. The video game series has received multiple awards and nominations, including Game of the Year awards. It is commercially successful, selling over 155 million copies as of October 2020, becoming Ubisoft’s best-selling franchise and one of the highest selling video game franchises of all time. While main games are produced for major consoles and desktop platforms, multiple spin-off games are released for consoles, mobiles, and handhelds platforms. Assassin’s Creed was adapted into a film, which received negative reviews. A series of art books, encyclopedias, comics, novelizations, and novels have been published.

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Grand Theft Auto V is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the first main entry in the Grand Theft Auto series since 2008’s Grand Theft Auto IV. Set within the fictional state of San Andreas, based on Southern California, the single-player story follows three protagonists—retired bank robber Michael De Santa, street gangster Franklin Clinton, and drug dealer and arms smuggler Trevor Philips—and their efforts to commit heists while under pressure from a corrupt government agency and powerful criminals. The open world design lets players freely roam San Andreas’ open countryside and the fictional city of Los Santos, based on Los Angeles.

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Roblox is an online game platform and game creation system that allows users to program games and play games created by other users. Founded by David Baszucki and Erik Cassel in 2004 and released in 2006, the platform hosts user-created games of multiple genres coded in the programming language Lua. For most of Roblox’s history, it was relatively small, both as a platform and a company, due to both co-founder Baszucki’s lack of interest in press coverage and it being “lost among the crowd” in a large number of platforms released around the same time. Roblox began to grow rapidly in the second half of the 2010s, and this growth has been accentuated by the COVID-19 pandemic.Roblox is free-to-play, with in-game purchases available through a virtual currency called “Robux”. As of August 2020, Roblox has over 164 million monthly active users, with it being played by over half of all children aged under 16 in the United States. Roblox has received generally positive reviews from critics.

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Half-Life 2 is a 2004 first-person shooter game developed and published by Valve. Like the original Half-Life (1998), it combines shooting, puzzles, and storytelling, and adds features such as vehicles and physics-based gameplay. Players control Gordon Freeman, who fights the alien Combine with allies including resistance fighter Alyx Vance, using weapons such as the object-manipulating gravity gun.
The game was created using Valve’s Source engine, which was developed at the same time. Development lasted five years and cost US$40 million. Valve president Gabe Newell set his team the goal of redefining the FPS genre, focusing on advanced physics systems and non-player characters. Valve announced Half-Life 2 at E3 2003 and released it through its new distribution service Steam after delaying it by over a year. A year before release, a hacker stole an unfinished version and leaked it online. Half-Life 2 was released on November 16th, 2004 and received acclaim for its advanced physics, animation, sound, AI, graphics, and narrative. It won 39 Game of the Year awards, and has been cited as one of the greatest games of all time. By 2011, it had sold 12 million copies. Valve released a deathmatch mode in 2004. Half-Life 2 was followed by a free extra level, Lost Coast (2004), and the episodic sequels Episode One (2006) and Episode Two (2007). After canceling several further Half-Life projects, Valve released a prequel, Half-Life: Alyx, in 2020.

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Out of the Park Baseball, abbreviated as OOTP, is a text-based baseball simulation for career, historical, and fictional play. OOTP was originally written in 1998, when lead developer Markus Heinsohn sought to combine realistic replay baseball simulation with career play to satisfy hardcore fans and casual gamers alike. “A friend of mine brought home a bat and a glove from a trip to Miami, so we started hitting tennis balls into the neighbor’s gardens. That was in 1991,” Heinsohn told Inside Mac Games in a July 2012 interview. “We then formed a baseball club and started playing in organized baseball leagues in 1994. In the meantime I played all sorts of baseball computer games, but there was no management-related game that I liked, so in 1998 I decided to simply develop my own game, just for fun. When it was done in 1999, I figured it was probably good enough to earn some money with it, and that’s when it all started.”
Starting with OOTP 16, the game has licenses for Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball. The license covers historical MLB teams too. The mobile version is covered by the license too, and was renamed from iOOTP Baseball to MLB Manager.In September 2013, OOTP Developments released Franchise Hockey Manager, which features 23 ice hockey leagues, including the NHL and KHL. In January 2014, the company announced that an American football sim named Beyond the Sideline Football was in development with a release date to be announced.On March 20, 2020, Out of the Park Developments released OOTP Baseball 21.On October 12, 2020, Com2uS acquired an 100% stake in Out of the Park Developments.

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The Orange Box is a video game compilation containing five games developed by Valve. Two of the games included, Half-Life 2 and its first stand-alone expansion, Episode One, had previously been released as separate products. Three new games were also included in the compilation: the second stand-alone expansion, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, the puzzle game Portal, and Team Fortress 2, the multiplayer game sequel to Team Fortress Classic. Valve also released a soundtrack containing music from the games within the compilation. A separate product entitled The Black Box was planned, which would have included only the new games, but was later canceled.
The Orange Box was first released for Microsoft Windows and the Xbox 360 in October 2007, while the PlayStation 3 version, developed by EA UK was released in December 2007. A digital Orange Box pack, containing the five games, was released in May 2010 for Mac OS X following the release of Steam for the platform, while a similar version for Linux followed after the Steam’s clients release for Linux in early 2013.

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Beat Saber is a virtual reality rhythm game developed and published by Beat Games. It takes place in a surrealistic neon environment and features the player slicing blocks representing musical beats with a pair of contrasting-colored sabers. Following an early access release in November 2018, the game was officially released for PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows on May 21, 2019, and supports most virtual reality headsets.

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Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory is a stealth game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and Ubisoft Milan and released in March 2005 for the Xbox, PlayStation 2 (PS2), GameCube and Microsoft Windows. Handheld versions for the Nintendo DS, mobile, and N-Gage were also released. A Game Boy Advance port was planned, but later cancelled.
Chaos Theory is the third game in the Splinter Cell series endorsed by novelist Tom Clancy. As with previous entries in the franchise, Chaos Theory follows the activities of Sam Fisher, an agent working for a covert-ops branch within the NSA called “Third Echelon”. The game has a significantly darker tone than its predecessors, featuring more combat and the option for Fisher to kill people he interrogates as opposed to merely knocking them out. As a result, it was the first Splinter Cell game to receive an M-rating by the ESRB, an assessment which has since been applied to all subsequent releases in the series. Actor Michael Ironside reprised his role as Fisher, while Don Jordan returned from the original game to voice Third Echelon director Irving Lambert and Claudia Besso returned as hacker and analyst Anna Grímsdóttir having both been replaced by Dennis Haysbert and Adriana Anderson respectively in Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow.

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Unreal Tournament 2004 is a first-person shooter video game developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes. It is part of the Unreal series, specifically the subseries started by the original Unreal Tournament. It is the sequel to Unreal Tournament 2003.
Unreal Tournament 2004 features most of the content of its predecessor. Among significant changes to gameplay mechanics and visual presentation, one of the major additions introduced by Unreal Tournament 2004 is the inclusion of vehicles and the Onslaught game type, allowing for large-scale battles.Its sequel, Unreal Tournament 3, was released on November 19, 2007.

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Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell is a series of stealth shooter games, the first of which was released in 2002, and their tie-in novels. The protagonist, Sam Fisher, is a highly trained agent of a fictional black-ops sub-division within the NSA, dubbed “Third Echelon”. The player controls Fisher to overcome his adversaries in levels (created using Unreal Engine and emphasising light and darkness as gameplay elements). All the console and PC games in the series were positively received, and the series is commercially successful. The series was once considered to be one of Ubisoft’s flagship franchises, selling more than 31 million copies as of 2011, although as of 2021 there has not been a new installment since 2013.

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Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II is a 1997 first-person shooter video game developed and published by LucasArts for Microsoft Windows. It was later re-released on Steam in September 2009, and again in 2015 on GOG.com. It is the sequel to 1995’s Star Wars: Dark Forces, and the second installment in the Star Wars: Jedi Knight series. The story, set in the fictional Star Wars expanded universe one year after the film Return of the Jedi, follows returning protagonist Kyle Katarn, a mercenary working for the New Republic, who discovers his connection to the Force and “The Valley of the Jedi”, an ancient source of power. With his father having been murdered years prior by the Dark Jedi Jerec and his followers over the Valley’s location, Katarn embarks on a quest to confront his father’s killers and find the Valley before they do.
Jedi Knight makes some technical and gameplay improvements over its predecessor. It uses a more powerful game engine, the Sith engine, which supports 3D acceleration using Direct3D 5.0. The story features branching paths and cutscenes recorded with live actors as full motion videos. This installment in the Jedi Knight series introduces both a multiplayer mode that allows players to compete over the internet or a local area network, and the lightsaber and the Force as prominent gameplay elements.

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Half-Life is a first-person shooter video game developed by Valve and published by Sierra Studios for Microsoft Windows in 1998. It was Valve’s debut product and the first game in the Half-Life series. Players assume the role of Gordon Freeman, a scientist who must escape the Black Mesa Research Facility after it is invaded by aliens. The core gameplay consists of fighting alien and human enemies with a variety of weapons and solving puzzles. Unlike many other games at the time, the player has almost uninterrupted control of Freeman, and the story is told mostly through scripted sequences seen through his eyes. Valve co-founder Gabe Newell said the team aimed to create an immersive world rather than a “shooting gallery”. Half-Life was built using GoldSrc, a heavily modified version of the Quake engine, licensed from id Software.
Half-Life received acclaim for its graphics, realistic gameplay, and seamless narrative. It won over fifty PC “Game of the Year” awards and is considered one of the most influential FPS games as well as one of the best video games ever made. By 2008, it had sold over 9 million copies. It was followed by the expansion packs Opposing Force (1999) and Blue Shift (2001), developed by Gearbox Software. It was ported to the PlayStation 2 in 2001, along with another expansion Half-Life: Decay, and to macOS and Linux in 2013. Valve ported Half-Life to its Source engine in 2004, while a third-party remake, Black Mesa, was released in 2020.

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Disco Elysium is a role-playing video game developed and published by ZA/UM. The game takes place in a large city still recovering from a war decades prior to the game’s start, with players taking the role of an amnesic detective who has been charged with solving a murder mystery. During the investigation, he comes to recall events about his own past as well as current forces trying to affect the city. Inspired by Infinity Engine–era role-playing games, particularly Planescape: Torment, Disco Elysium was written and designed by Karelian-Estonian novelist Robert Kurvitz. It features a distinctive watercolor art style, and music by the band British Sea Power. It was released for Microsoft Windows in October 2019 and macOS in April 2020. An expanded version of the game, subtitled The Final Cut, featuring full voice acting and new content, was released for consoles in 2021 alongside a free update for the PC versions.
Disco Elysium is a non-traditional role-playing game featuring no combat. Instead, events are resolved through skill checks and dialog trees via a system of 24 skills that represent different aspects of the protagonist, such as his perception and pain threshold. In addition, a system called the Thought Cabinet represents his other ideologies and personality traits, with players having the ability to freely support or suppress them.

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BioShock is a 2007 first-person shooter game developed by 2K Boston (later Irrational Games) and 2K Australia, and published by 2K Games. It is the first game in the BioShock series. The game’s concept was developed by Irrational’s creative lead, Ken Levine, and incorporates ideas by 20th century dystopian and utopian thinkers such as Ayn Rand, George Orwell, and Aldous Huxley, as well as historical figures such as John D. Rockefeller and Walt Disney. The game is considered a spiritual successor to the System Shock series, on which many of Irrational’s team, including Levine, had worked previously.

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Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn is a role-playing video game developed by BioWare and published by Interplay Entertainment. It is the sequel to Baldur’s Gate (1998) and was released for Microsoft Windows in September 2000. Like Baldur’s Gate, the game takes place in the Forgotten Realms—a fantasy campaign setting—and is based on the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition rules. Powered by BioWare’s Infinity Engine, Baldur’s Gate II uses an isometric perspective and pausable real-time gameplay. The player controls a party of up to six characters, one of whom is the player-created protagonist, while the others are certain characters recruited from the game world.
Set in the fictional Forgotten Realms, much of Baldur’s Gate II takes place in and around Athkatla, a city in the country of Amn. Opening shortly after the events of Baldur’s Gate, the game continues the story of the protagonist, Gorion’s Ward, whose unique heritage has now drawn the attention of Jon Irenicus, a powerful and sinister mage. The storyline revolves around the machinations of Irenicus and the player’s encounters with him.

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Divinity: Original Sin II is a role-playing video game developed and published by Larian Studios. The sequel to 2014’s Divinity: Original Sin, it was released for Microsoft Windows in September 2017, for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in August 2018, for macOS in January 2019, and Nintendo Switch in September 2019. The game was a critical and commercial success, with it selling over a million copies in two months and being cited as one of the best role-playing games of all time, with praise given to its combat complexity and interactivity.

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Portal 2 is a puzzle-platform game developed by Valve. It was released in April 2011 for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. The digital PC version is distributed online by Valve’s Steam service, while all retail editions were distributed by Electronic Arts.
Like the original Portal (2007), players solve puzzles by placing portals and teleporting between them. Portal 2 adds features including tractor beams, lasers, light bridges, and paint-like gels that alter player movement or allow portals to be placed on any surface. In the single-player campaign, players control Chell, who navigates the dilapidated Aperture Science Enrichment Center during its reconstruction by the supercomputer GLaDOS (Ellen McLain); new characters include robot Wheatley (Stephen Merchant) and Aperture founder Cave Johnson (J. K. Simmons). In the new cooperative mode, players solve puzzles together as robots Atlas and P-Body (both voiced by Dee Bradley Baker). Jonathan Coulton and The National produced songs for the game. Valve announced Portal 2 in March 2010, and promoted it with alternate reality games including the Potato Sack, a collaboration with several independent game developers. After release, Valve released downloadable content and a simplified map editor to allow players to create and share levels.

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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is an open world action role-playing video game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is the fifth main installment in The Elder Scrolls series, following 2006’s The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and was released worldwide for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 on November 11, 2011. The game’s main story revolves around the player’s character, the Dragonborn, on their quest to defeat Alduin the World-Eater, a dragon who is prophesied to destroy the world. The game is set 200 years after the events of Oblivion and takes place in Skyrim, the northernmost province of Tamriel. Over the course of the game, the player completes quests and develops the character by improving skills. The game continues the open-world tradition of its predecessors by allowing the player to travel anywhere in the game world at any time, and to ignore or postpone the main storyline indefinitely.
Skyrim was developed using the Creation Engine, rebuilt specifically for the game. The team opted for a unique and more diverse open world than Oblivion’s Imperial Province of Cyrodiil, which game director and executive producer Todd Howard considered less interesting by comparison.

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Command & Conquer (C&C) is a real-time strategy (RTS) video game franchise, first developed by Westwood Studios. The first game was one of the earliest of the RTS genre, itself based on Westwood Studios’ influential strategy game Dune II and introducing trademarks followed in the rest of the series. This includes full-motion video cutscenes with an ensemble cast to progress the story, as opposed to digitally in-game rendered cutscenes. Westwood Studios was taken over by Electronic Arts in 1998 and closed down in 2003. The studio and some of its members were absorbed into EA Los Angeles, which continued development on the series.

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Mass Effect 2 is an action role-playing video game developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts. It was released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 in 2010, and PlayStation 3 in 2011. Mass Effect 2 is the second installment of the Mass Effect series and a sequel to the original Mass Effect. The game takes place within the Milky Way galaxy during the 22nd century, where humanity is threatened by an insectoid alien race known as the Collectors. The player assumes the role of Commander Shepard, an elite human soldier who must assemble and gain the loyalty of a diverse team and stop the enemy in a suicide mission. With the use of a completed saved game of its predecessor, the player can impact the story of the game in numerous ways.
For the game, BioWare changed several gameplay elements and put further emphasis on third-person shooter aspects, including limited ammunition and regenerable health. In contrast to the exclusive focus on the main story of the original Mass Effect, the developers opted to create a plot where optional missions had as much intensity as the main mission. Mass Effect composer Jack Wall returned to compose Mass Effect 2’s music, aiming for a darker and more mature sound to match the mood of the game. Mass Effect 2 also supports a variety of downloadable content packs, ranging from single in-game character outfits to entirely new plot-related missions. Notable packs include Kasumi – Stolen Memory, Overlord, Lair of the Shadow Broker, and Arrival.

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Sid Meier’s Civilization II is a turn-based strategy video game in the Civilization series, developed and published by MicroProse. It was released in 1996 for PCs and later ported to the PlayStation by Activision. Civilization II was a commercial hit, with sales around 3 million units by 2001, and has won numerous awards and placements on “best games of all time” lists. It was followed by Civilization III.

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Quake is a first-person shooter video game developed by id Software and published by GT Interactive in 1996. It is the first game in the Quake series. In the game, players must find their way through various maze-like, medieval environments while battling a variety of monsters using an array of weaponry. The overall atmosphere is dark and gritty, with many stone textures and a rusty, capitalized font.
The successor to id Software’s Doom series, Quake built upon the technology and gameplay of its predecessor. Unlike the Doom engine before it, the Quake engine offered full real-time 3D rendering and had early support for 3D acceleration through OpenGL. After Doom helped to popularize multiplayer deathmatches in 1993, Quake added various multiplayer options. Online multiplayer became increasingly common, with the QuakeWorld update and software such as QuakeSpy making the process of finding and playing against others on the Internet easier and more reliable. Quake features music composed by Trent Reznor and his band, Nine Inch Nails.

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BioShock Infinite is a first-person shooter video game developed by Irrational Games and published by 2K Games. It was released worldwide for the Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and OS X platforms in 2013, and a Linux port was released in 2015. Infinite is the third installment in the BioShock series, and though it is not immediately part of the storyline of previous BioShock games, it features similar gameplay concepts and themes. Irrational Games and creative director Ken Levine based the game’s setting on historical events at the turn of the 20th century, such as the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, and based the story on the concept of American exceptionalism, while also incorporating influences from more recent events at the time such as the 2011 Occupy movement.
The game is set in the year 1912 and follows its protagonist, former Pinkerton agent Booker DeWitt, who is sent to the airborne city of Columbia to find a young woman, Elizabeth, who has been held captive there for most of her life. Though Booker rescues Elizabeth, the two become involved with the city’s warring factions: the nativist and elite Founders that rule Columbia and strive to keep its privileges for White Americans, and the Vox Populi, underground rebels representing the underclass of the city. During this conflict, Booker learns that Elizabeth possesses strange powers to manipulate “Tears” in the space-time continuum that ravage Columbia, and soon discovers her to be central to the city’s dark secrets.

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The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is an open-world action role-playing video game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks and the Take-Two Interactive division 2K Games. It is the fourth installment in The Elder Scrolls action fantasy series, following 2002’s The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, and was released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 in March 2006, and on PlayStation 3 in March 2007, with a mobile version of the game released on May 2, 2006. Taking place within the fictional province of Cyrodiil, Oblivion’s main story revolves around the player character’s efforts to thwart a fanatical cult known as the Mythic Dawn that plans to open portal gates to a demonic realm known as Oblivion. The game continues the open-world tradition of its predecessors by allowing the player to travel anywhere in the game world at any time and to ignore or postpone the main storyline indefinitely. A perpetual objective for players is to improve their character’s skills, which are numerical representations of certain abilities. Early in the game, seven skills are selected by the player as major skills for their character, with those remaining termed as minor skills.

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Grim Fandango is a 1998 adventure game directed by Tim Schafer and developed and published by LucasArts for Microsoft Windows. It is the first adventure game by LucasArts to use 3D computer graphics overlaid on pre-rendered static backgrounds. As with other LucasArts adventure games, the player must converse with characters and examine, collect, and use objects to solve puzzles.
Grim Fandango is set in the Land of the Dead, through which recently departed souls, represented as calaca-like figures, travel before they reach their final destination. The story follows travel agent Manuel “Manny” Calavera as he attempts to save new arrival Mercedes “Meche” Colomar, a virtuous soul, on her journey. The game combines elements of the Aztec belief of afterlife with film noir style, with influences including The Maltese Falcon, On the Waterfront and Casablanca. Grim Fandango received praise for its art design and direction. It was selected for several awards and is often listed as one of the greatest video games of all time. However, it was a commercial failure and contributed towards LucasArts’ decision to end adventure game development and the decline of the adventure game genre.

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Diablo is an action role-playing hack and slash dungeon crawler video game series developed by Blizzard North and continued by Blizzard Entertainment after the north studio shutdown in 2005. The series is made up of three core games: Diablo, Diablo II, and Diablo III. Expansions include the third-party published Hellfire, which follows the first game, Lord of Destruction, published by Blizzard and released after the second game, and Reaper of Souls, which follows the third game. Additional content is provided through story elements explored in other media forms. Diablo IV was announced at BlizzCon 2019.
The series is set in the dark fantasy world of Sanctuary, and its characters are primarily humans, angels, and various classes of demons and monsters. The first three games in the series take place in similar geographic areas, with several common areas including the town of Tristram and the region around Mount Arreat. Other notable settings include the High Heavens and the Burning Hells, two separate realms with ties to Sanctuary. The series primarily focuses on the ongoing conflict between the humans living on Sanctuary and the demon hordes who are led by Diablo, the series’ overarching antagonist. The humans are occasionally aided by angels, notably the Archangel Tyrael.

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Civilization IV (also known as Sid Meier’s Civilization IV) is a 4x turn-based strategy computer game and the fourth installment of the Civilization series, and designed by Soren Johnson under the direction of Sid Meier and his video game development studio Firaxis Games. It was released in North America, Europe, and Australia, between October 25 and November 4, 2005, and followed by Civilization V.
Civilization IV uses the 4X empire-building model for turn-based strategy gameplay, in which the player’s main objective is to construct a civilization from limited initial resources. Most standard full-length games start the player with a settler unit and/or a city unit in the year 4000 BC. As with other games in the series, there are by default five objectives the player can pursue in order to finish the game: conquering all other civilizations, controlling a supermajority of the game world’s land and population, building and sending the first sleeper ship to the Alpha Centauri star system, increasing the “Culture ratings” of at least three different cities to “legendary” levels, or winning a “World Leader” popularity contest by the United Nations. If the time limit for the game is reached and none of the previous goals has been fulfilled by any players including game AI players, the civilization with the highest total game score is declared winner. A large departure from earlier Civilization games is a new graphics engine created from scratch, based on the Gamebryo engine by Numerical Design Limited (NDL).

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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is an action role-playing game developed and published by Polish developer CD Projekt Red and is based on The Witcher series of fantasy novels written by Andrzej Sapkowski. It is the sequel to the 2011 game The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings and the third main installment in The Witcher video game series, played in an open world with a third-person perspective.

The game takes place in a fictional fantasy world based on Slavonic mythology. Players control Geralt of Rivia, a monster slayer for hire known as a Witcher, and search for his adopted daughter, who is on the run from the otherworldly Wild Hunt. Players battle the game’s many dangers with weapons and magic, interact with non-player characters, and complete quests to acquire experience points and gold, which are used to increase Geralt’s abilities and purchase equipment. The game’s story has three possible endings, determined by the player’s choices at key points in the narrative. Development began in 2011 and lasted for three and a half years. Central and Northern European cultures formed the basis of the game’s world. REDengine 3 enabled the developer to create a complex story without compromising the game’s open world. The music was primarily composed by Marcin Przybyłowicz and performed by the Brandenburg State Orchestra.

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Company of Heroes is a 2006 real-time strategy video game developed by Relic Entertainment and published by THQ for the Microsoft Windows and OS X operating systems. It was the first title to make use of the Games for Windows label. Company of Heroes is set during the Second World War and contains two playable factions. Players aim to capture strategic resource sectors located around the map, which they use to build base structures, produce new units, and defeat their enemies. In the single-player campaign the player commands two U.S. military units during the Battle of Normandy (Operation Overlord) and the liberation of France (Operation Cobra). Depending on the mission, the player controls either Able Company of the 29th Infantry Division’s 116th Infantry, or Fox Company of the 101st Airborne Division’s 506th PIR.

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Half-Life: Alyx is a 2020 virtual reality (VR) first-person shooter developed and published by Valve. Set between the events of Half-Life (1998) and Half-Life 2 (2004), players control Alyx Vance on a mission to seize a superweapon belonging to the alien Combine. Players use VR to interact with the environment and fight enemies, using “gravity gloves” to manipulate objects, similarly to the gravity gun from Half-Life 2. Traditional Half-Life elements return, such as physics puzzles, combat, exploration and survival horror elements.
The previous Half-Life game, Episode Two, was released in 2007. After several failed attempts to develop further Half-Life projects, Valve began experimenting with VR in the mid-2010s, and released a collection of VR minigames, The Lab, in 2016. Recognizing the demand for a large-scale VR game, they experimented with prototypes using their various intellectual properties, such as Portal, and found that Half-Life best suited VR. Alyx entered full production using Valve’s new Source 2 engine in 2016, with the largest team in Valve’s history. Valve initially planned to launch Alyx alongside its Index VR headset in 2019, but delayed it to rewrite the story from scratch following internal feedback.

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StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is a science fiction real-time strategy video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. It was released worldwide in July 2010 for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. A sequel to the 1998 video game StarCraft and the Brood War expansion pack, the game is split into three installments: the base game, subtitled Wings of Liberty, an expansion pack, Heart of the Swarm, and a stand-alone expansion pack, Legacy of the Void. In March 2016, a campaign pack called StarCraft II: Nova Covert Ops was released.
Like its predecessor, the game revolves around three species: the Terrans (humans), the Zerg (a super-species of assimilated life forms), and the Protoss (a technologically advanced species with vast psionic powers). Wings of Liberty focuses on the Terrans, while the expansions, Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void, focus on the Zerg and Protoss, respectively. The game is set four years after the events of 1998’s Brood War, and follows the exploits of Jim Raynor as he leads an insurgent group against the autocratic Terran Dominion. The game includes new and returning characters and locations from the original game.
The game was met with critical acclaim, receiving an aggregated score of 93% from Metacritic. Similar to its predecessor, StarCraft II was praised for its engaging gameplay, as well as its introduction of new features and improved storytelling.

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Red Dead Redemption 2 (stylized as Red Dead Redemption II) is a 2018 action-adventure game developed and published by Rockstar Games. The game is the third entry in the Red Dead series and is a prequel to the 2010 game Red Dead Redemption. The story is set in 1899 in a fictionalized representation of the Western, Midwestern, and Southern United States and follows outlaw Arthur Morgan, a member of the Van der Linde gang. Arthur must deal with the decline of the Wild West whilst attempting to survive against government forces, rival gangs, and other adversaries. The story also follows fellow gang member John Marston, the protagonist of Red Dead Redemption.
The game is presented through both first and third-person perspectives, and the player may freely roam in its interactive open world. Gameplay elements include shootouts, heists, hunting, horseback riding, interacting with non-player characters, and maintaining the character’s honor rating through moral choices and deeds. A bounty system similar to the “wanted” system from the Grand Theft Auto franchise governs the response of law enforcement and bounty hunters to crimes committed by the player.

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Homeworld is a real-time strategy video game developed by Relic Entertainment and published by Sierra Studios on September 28, 1999, for Microsoft Windows. Set in space, the science fiction game follows the Kushan exiles of the planet Kharak after their home planet is destroyed by the Taiidan Empire in retaliation for developing hyperspace jump technology. The survivors journey with their spacecraft-constructing mothership to reclaim their ancient homeworld of Hiigara from the Taiidan, encountering a variety of pirates, mercenaries, traders, and rebels along the way. In each of the game’s levels, the player gathers resources, builds a fleet, and uses it to destroy enemy ships and accomplish mission objectives. The player’s fleet carries over between levels, and can travel in a fully three-dimensional space within each level rather than being limited to a two-dimensional plane.
Homeworld was created over two years, and was the first game developed by Relic. Studio co-founders Alex Garden and Luke Moloney served as the director and lead programmer for the game, respectively. The initial concept for the game’s story is credited to writer David J. Williams, while the script itself was written by Martin Cirulis and the background lore was written by author Arinn Dembo.

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Grand Theft Auto III is a 2001 action-adventure game developed by DMA Design and published by Rockstar Games. It is the first main entry in the Grand Theft Auto series since 1999’s Grand Theft Auto 2. Set within the fictional Liberty City (loosely based on New York City), the story follows a silent protagonist, Claude, who, after being betrayed and left for dead by his girlfriend during a robbery, embarks on a quest for revenge that leads him to become entangled in a world of crime, drugs, gang warfare, and corruption. The game is played from a third-person perspective and its world is navigated on foot or by vehicle. The open world design lets players freely roam Liberty City, consisting of three main islands.
Development was shared between DMA Design, based in Edinburgh, and Rockstar, based in New York City. Much of the development involved transforming popular elements from the Grand Theft Auto series into a fully 3D world for the first time. The game was delayed following the September 11 attacks to allow the team to change references and gameplay deemed inappropriate. It was released in October 2001 for the PlayStation 2, in May 2002 for Microsoft Windows, and in October 2003 for the Xbox.

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Hades is a roguelike action role-playing video game developed and published by Supergiant Games. It was released for Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Nintendo Switch on September 17, 2020, which followed an early access release in December 2018.
Players control Zagreus, the son of Hades, as he attempts to escape from Underworld to reach Mount Olympus, at times aided by gifts bestowed on him from the other Olympians. Each run challenges the player through a random series of rooms populated with enemies and rewards. The game has a hack and slash combat system; the player uses a combination of their main weapon attack, dash power, and magic ability to defeat them while avoiding damage to progress as far as possible. While Zagreus will often die, the player can use gained treasure to improve certain attributes or unlock new weapons and abilities to improve chances of escaping on subsequent runs.

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Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) is an RPG video game series, based on an earlier comic book series, and with a subsequent new comic book series, all based on the fictional universe of Star Wars by George Lucas. The first and third video game installments were developed by BioWare, while the second was done by Obsidian Entertainment per LucasArts’ request. All were published by LucasArts. Both comic series were published by Dark Horse Comics. Both series act as prequels to the video games. With the discarding of the Expanded Universe on April 25, 2014 and rebranding it as Star Wars Legends, KotOR multimedia project is the only remaining source that continues to produce Legends information.

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Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is a 2007 first-person shooter developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision. It is the fourth main installment in the Call of Duty series. The game breaks away from the World War II setting of previous entries and is instead set in modern times. Developed for over two years, Modern Warfare was released in November 2007 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Microsoft Windows, and was ported to the Wii as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare – Reflex Edition in 2009.
The story takes place in the year 2011, where a radical leader has executed the president of an unnamed country in the Middle East, and an ultranationalist movement ignites a civil war in Russia. The conflicts are seen from the perspectives of a U.S. Marine Force Recon sergeant and a British SAS commando and are set in various locales, such as the United Kingdom, the Middle East, Azerbaijan, Russia, and Ukraine. The multiplayer portion of the game features various game modes and contains a leveling system that allows the player to unlock additional weapons, weapon attachments, and camouflage schemes as they advance.

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Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos is a high fantasy real-time strategy computer video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment released in July 2002. It is the second sequel to Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, after Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, the third game set in the Warcraft fictional universe, and the first to be rendered in three dimensions. An expansion pack, The Frozen Throne, was released in July 2003. Warcraft III is set several years after the events of Warcraft II, and tells the story of the Burning Legion’s attempt to conquer the fictional world of Azeroth with the help of an army of the Undead, led by fallen paladin Arthas Menethil. It chronicles the combined efforts of the Human Alliance, Orcish Horde, and Night Elves to stop them before they can corrupt the World Tree.
In the game, as in many real-time strategy (RTS) games, players collect resources, train individual units and heroes, and build bases in order to achieve various goals (in single-player mode), or to defeat the enemy player. Four playable factions can be chosen from: Humans, Orcs, (both of which appeared in the previous games) and two new factions: the Night Elves and the Undead. Warcraft III’s single-player campaign is laid out similarly to that of StarCraft, and is told through the races in a progressive manner. Players can also play matches against the computer, or against others—using local area networking (LAN) or Blizzard’s Battle.net gaming platform.

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The Sims is a series of life simulation video games developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. The franchise has sold nearly 200 million copies worldwide, and it is one of the best-selling video game series of all time.The games in the Sims series are largely sandbox games, in that they lack any defined goals (except for some later expansion packs and console versions which introduced this gameplay style). The player creates virtual people called “Sims,” places them in houses, and helps direct their moods and satisfy their desires. Players can either place their Sims in pre-constructed homes or build them themselves. Each successive expansion pack and game in the series augmented what the player could do with their Sims. The Sims series is part of the larger Sim series, started by SimCity in 1989.

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Sid Meier’s Gettysburg! is a 1997 real-time wargame developed by Firaxis Games and published by Electronic Arts. It was designed by Sid Meier. It was followed by Sid Meier’s Antietam! in 1999. The game allows the player to control either the Confederate or Union troops during the Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War. It can be played as single scenarios, or as a campaign of linked scenarios, either recounting the original history or exploring alternative possibilities.

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The Sims is a strategic life simulation video game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts in 2000. It is a simulation of the daily activities of one or more virtual people (“Sims”) in a suburban household near a fictional city. Players control customizable Sims as they pursue career and relationship goals. Players can also use their Sims’ income to renovate their living space, purchase home furnishings, or clothing for their household. Players can also choose to pursue a social and successful life.
The game’s development was led by Will Wright and the game was a follow-up to Wright’s earlier SimCity series; Wright was inspired to create the game by Christopher Alexander’s 1977 book A Pattern Language, and Scott McCloud’s 1993 book Understanding Comics later played a role in the game’s design. Seven expansion packs were released from 2000 to 2003, each of which added new items, characters, skins, and features.

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Team Fortress 2 is a multiplayer first-person shooter game developed and published by Valve. It is the sequel to the 1996 Team Fortress mod for Quake and its 1999 remake, Team Fortress Classic. It was released in October 2007 as part of The Orange Box video game bundle for Windows and Xbox 360. A PlayStation 3 version followed in December 2007 when The Orange Box was ported to the system. Later in development, the game was released as a standalone title for Windows in April 2008, and was updated to support Mac OS X in June 2010 and Linux in February 2013. It is distributed online through Valve’s digital retailer Steam, with Electronic Arts handling all physical and console ports of the game.
Players join one of two teams and choose one of 9 character classes to battle in modes such as capture the flag and king of the hill. Development was led by John Cook and Robin Walker, the developers of the original Team Fortress mod. Team Fortress 2 was announced in 1998 under the name Team Fortress 2: Brotherhood of Arms. Initially, the game had more realistic, militaristic visuals and gameplay, but this changed over the protracted nine-year development. After Valve released no information for six years, Team Fortress 2 regularly featured in Wired News’ annual vaporware list among other ignominies.

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System Shock 2 is a 1999 action role-playing survival horror video game designed by Ken Levine and co-developed by Irrational Games and Looking Glass Studios. Originally intended to be a standalone title, its story was changed during production into a sequel to the 1994 game System Shock. The alterations were made when Electronic Arts—who owned the System Shock franchise rights—signed on as publisher. The game takes place on board a starship in a cyberpunk depiction of 2114. The player assumes the role of a soldier trying to stem the outbreak of a genetic infection that has devastated the ship. Like System Shock, gameplay consists of first-person combat and exploration. It also incorporates role-playing system elements, in which the player can develop skills and traits, such as hacking and psionic abilities.
System Shock 2 was originally released in August 1999 for Microsoft Windows. The game received critical acclaim but failed to meet commercial sales expectations. Many critics later determined that the game was highly influential in subsequent game design, particularly on first-person shooters, and considered it far ahead of its time. It has been included in several “greatest games of all time” lists. In 2007, Irrational Games released a spiritual successor to the System Shock series, titled BioShock, to critical acclaim and strong sales.

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Rome: Total War is a strategy video game developed by The Creative Assembly and originally published by Activision; its publishing rights have since passed to Sega. The game was released for Microsoft Windows in 2004. The macOS version was released on February 5, 2010 by Feral Interactive, who also released the iPad version on November 10, 2016, the iPhone version on August 23, 2018, and the Android version on December 19, 2018. The game is the third title in The Creative Assembly’s Total War series.
The game’s main campaign takes place from 270 BC to 14 AD showcasing the rise and final centuries of the Republican period and the early decades of the imperial period of Ancient Rome. The player initially assumes control of one of three Roman families; other non-Roman factions can be unlocked later. Gameplay is split between real-time tactical battles and a turn-based strategic campaign. Within the campaign, players manage the economy, government, diplomacy, and military of their faction and attempt to accomplish a series of objectives on a map that encompasses most of Europe, North Africa, and the Near East. On the battlefield, the player controls groups of soldiers and uses them to engage in combat with enemy forces.

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Ōkami (lit. “great god” or “great spirit”) is an action-adventure video game developed by Clover Studio and published by Capcom. It was released for PlayStation 2 in 2006 in Japan and North America, and in 2007 in Europe and Australia. After the closure of Clover Studio a few months after the release, a port for Wii was developed by Ready at Dawn, Tose, and Capcom, and released in 2008. Set in classical Japan, Ōkami combines Japanese mythology and folklore to tell the story of how the land was saved from darkness by the Shinto sun goddess, named Amaterasu, who took the form of a white wolf. It features a sumi-e-inspired cel-shaded visual style and the Celestial Brush, a gesture-system to perform miracles. The game was planned to use more traditional realistic rendering, but this had put a strain on the graphics processing of the PlayStation 2. Clover Studio switched to a cel-shaded style to reduce the processing, which led to the Celestial Brush concept. The gameplay is modeled on The Legend of Zelda, one of director Hideki Kamiya’s favorite series.
Ōkami is one of the last PlayStation 2 games released prior to the release of the PlayStation 3. Although it suffered from poor sales, the game received critical acclaim, earning IGN’s 2006 Game of the Year. The Wii version earned similar praise, though the motion control scheme received mixed reviews.

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Undertale is a 2D role-playing video game created by indie developer Toby Fox. The player controls a child who has fallen into the Underground: a large, secluded region under the surface of the Earth, separated by a magic barrier. The player meets various monsters during the journey back to the surface. Some monsters might engage the player in a fight. The combat system involves the player navigating through mini-bullet hell attacks by the opponent. They can opt to pacify or subdue monsters in order to spare them instead of killing them. These choices affect the game, with the dialogue, characters, and story changing based on outcomes.
Outside of some artwork, Fox developed the entirety of the game by himself, including the script and music. The game took inspiration from several sources, including the Brandish, Mario & Luigi, and Mother role-playing series, bullet hell shooter series Touhou Project, role-playing game Moon: Remix RPG Adventure, and British comedy show Mr. Bean. Originally, Undertale was meant to be two hours in length and was set to be released in mid-2014. However, development was delayed over the next three years.

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Thief: The Dark Project is a 1998 first-person stealth video game developed by Looking Glass Studios and published by Eidos Interactive. Set in a medieval gaslamp fantasy metropolis called the City, players take on the role of Garrett, a master thief trained by a secret society who, while carrying out a series of robberies, becomes embroiled in a complex plot that ultimately sees him attempting to prevent a great power from unleashing chaos on the world.
Thief was the first PC stealth game to use light and sound as game mechanics, and combined complex artificial intelligence with simulation systems to allow for emergent gameplay. The game is notable for its use of first-person perspective for non-confrontational gameplay, which challenged the first-person shooter market and led the developers to call it a “first-person sneaker”, while it also had influences in later stealth games such as Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell and Hitman.
The game received critical acclaim and has been placed on numerous hall-of-fame lists, achieving sales of half a million units by 2000, making it Looking Glass’ most commercially successful game. It is regarded as one of the greatest video games of all time and helped popularize the stealth genre. Thief was followed by an expanded edition entitled Thief Gold (1999) which modified certain missions and included a few brand new levels, two sequels: Thief II: The Metal Age (2000), and Thief: Deadly Shadows (2004), as well as a reboot of the series, Thief (2014).

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Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings is a real-time strategy video game developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft. Released in 1999 for Microsoft Windows and Macintosh, it is the second game in the Age of Empires series. The Age of Kings is set in the Middle Ages and contains thirteen playable civilizations. Players aim to gather resources, which they use to build towns, create armies, and defeat their enemies. There are five historically based campaigns, which constrict the player to specialized and story-backed conditions. There are three additional single-player game modes, and multiplayer is supported.
Despite using the same game engine and similar code to its predecessor, development of The Age of Kings took a year longer than expected, forcing Ensemble Studios to release Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome in 1998 instead. The design team focused on resolving significant issues in Age of Empires, but noted on release that some problems remained.
Reception of The Age of Kings was highly positive. The significant number of new features was praised, as were the gameplay improvements. The Age of Kings received “universal acclaim”, according to video game review aggregator Metacritic. Three months after its release, two million copies of The Age of Kings had been shipped, and it topped sales charts in seven countries. The game won multiple awards and is today considered a classic of its type, having had a significant impact on future games in its genre. The original Age of Empires II and its 2000 expansion pack, The Conquerors, were later released as The Gold Edition. Age of Empires II is now considered one of the greatest games ever made.
An updated high-definition graphics version of the game, Age of Empires II: HD Edition, was released in 2013. The HD Edition includes the original game and the expansion The Conquerors, as well as new campaigns, civilizations, and updated graphics for high-resolution displays. Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, a remaster, was released in November 2019.

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Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri is a 4X video game, considered a spiritual sequel to the Civilization series. Set in a science fiction depiction of the 22nd century, the game begins as seven competing ideological factions land on the planet Chiron (“Planet”) in the Alpha Centauri star system. As the game progresses, Planet’s growing sentience becomes a formidable obstacle to the human colonists.
Sid Meier, designer of Civilization, and Brian Reynolds, designer of Civilization II, developed Alpha Centauri after they left MicroProse to join with Jeff Briggs in creating a new video game developer: Firaxis Games. Electronic Arts released both Alpha Centauri and its expansion, Sid Meier’s Alien Crossfire, in 1999. The following year, Aspyr Media ported both titles to Classic Mac OS while Loki Software ported them to Linux. Alpha Centauri features improvements on Civilization II’s game engine, including simultaneous multiplay, social engineering, climate, customizable units, alien native life, additional diplomatic and spy options, additional ways to win, and greater mod-ability. Alien Crossfire introduces five new human and two non-human factions, as well as additional technologies, facilities, secret projects, native life, unit abilities, and a victory condition.

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Unreal Tournament is a first-person shooter video game developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes. The second installment in the Unreal series, it was first published by GT Interactive in 1999 for Microsoft Windows, and later released on the PlayStation 2 and Dreamcast by Infogrames in 2000 and 2001, respectively. Players compete in a series of matches of various types, with the general aim of out-killing opponents. The PC version supports multiplayer online or over a local area network. Free expansion packs were released, some of which were bundled with a 2000 re-release: Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition.

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Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor, released April 30, 2008, is the second expansion pack to the turn-based strategy video game Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords, following the first expansion pack Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar, released February 2007. It has been affirmed by the developer, Stardock, that this is to be the last expansion.

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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Blood and Wine is the second and final expansion pack for the 2015 video game The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Developed by CD Projekt Red, Blood and Wine was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on 31 May 2016, later released for the Nintendo Switch on 15 October 2019, and PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S versions planning for release in 2021. The expansion follows Geralt of Rivia as he travels to Toussaint, a duchy untouched by the war taking place in the base game, as he hopes to track down a mysterious beast terrorizing the region. The expansion received widespread acclaim from critics, winning a number of awards.

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Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003 is a sports video game developed by EA Redwood Shores for the Xbox, PlayStation 2 and GameCube versions and Headgate Studios for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS versions and published by EA Sports for Xbox, PlayStation 2, GameCube, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS.

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Myth: The Fallen Lords is a 1997 real-time tactics video game developed by Bungie for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS. Released in November 1997 in North America and in February 1998 in Europe, the game was published by Bungie in North America and by Eidos Interactive in Europe. At the time, Bungie was known primarily as developers of Mac games, and The Fallen Lords was the first game they had developed and released simultaneously for both PC and Mac. It is the first game in the Myth series, which also includes a sequel, Myth II: Soulblighter, set sixty years after the events of the first game, and also developed by Bungie, and a prequel, Myth III: The Wolf Age, set one thousand years prior to the events depicted in The Fallen Lords, and developed by MumboJumbo.
The game tells the story of the battle between the forces of the “Light” and those of the “Dark” for control of an unnamed mythical land. The Dark are led by Balor and a group of lieutenants (the titular Fallen Lords), whilst the Light are led by “The Nine”; powerful sorcerers known as “Avatara,” chief amongst whom is Alric. The game begins in the seventeenth year of the war in the West, some fifty years since the rise of Balor, with the forces of Light on the brink of defeat; almost the entire land is under the dominion of the Dark, with only one major city and a few smaller towns remaining under the control of the Light. The plot follows the activities of “The Legion”, an elite unit in the army of the Light, as they attempt to turn back the tide and defeat Balor.

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Medal of Honor: Allied Assault is a first-person shooter video game developed by 2015, Inc. It was published by Electronic Arts and released for Microsoft Windows on January 22, 2002, in North America and on February 15, 2002, in Europe. Aspyr published the Mac OS X version released later that year in August. A Linux version was released in 2004.
Allied Assault is the third game in the Medal of Honor series. The game uses the id Tech 3 engine, with modifications from Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K.², to simulate infantry combat in the European and North African theaters during World War II.

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Dishonored is a 2012 action-adventure game developed by Arkane Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. Set in the fictional, plague-ridden industrial city of Dunwall, Dishonored follows the story of Corvo Attano, bodyguard to the Empress of the Isles. He is framed for her murder and forced to become an assassin, seeking revenge on those who conspired against him. Corvo is aided in his quest by the Loyalists—a resistance group fighting to reclaim Dunwall, and the Outsider—a powerful being who imbues Corvo with magical abilities. Several noted actors including Susan Sarandon, Brad Dourif, Carrie Fisher, Michael Madsen, John Slattery, Lena Headey and Chloë Grace Moretz provided voice work for the game.
The game is played from a first-person perspective and allows the player to undertake a series of missions in a variety of ways, with an emphasis on player choice. Missions can be completed through stealth, combat, or a combination of both. Exploring each level opens new paths and alternatives for accomplishing mission goals, and it is possible to complete all missions, eliminating all of Corvo’s targets, in a non-lethal manner. The story and missions are changed in response to the player’s violent actions or lack thereof. Magical abilities and equipment are designed to be combined to create new and varied effects.

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Microsoft Flight Simulator (often abbreviated as MSFS or FS) is a series of amateur flight simulator programs for Microsoft Windows operating systems, and earlier for MS-DOS and Classic Mac OS. It is one of the longest-running, best-known, and most comprehensive home flight simulator programs on the market. It was an early product in the Microsoft application portfolio and differed significantly from Microsoft’s other software, which was largely business-oriented. At 38 years old, it is the longest-running software product line for Microsoft, predating Windows by three years. Microsoft Flight Simulator is one of the longest-running PC video game series of all time.Bruce Artwick began the development of Flight Simulator in 1977. His company, Sublogic, initially distributed it for various personal computers. In 1981, Artwick was approached by Microsoft’s Alan M. Boyd who was interested in creating a “definitive game” that would graphically demonstrate the difference between older 8-bit computers, such as the Apple II, and the new 16-bit computers, such as the IBM PC, still in development. In 1982, Artwick’s company licensed a version of Flight Simulator for the IBM PC to Microsoft, which marketed it as Microsoft Flight Simulator 1.00.
In 2009, Microsoft closed down Aces Game Studio, which was the department responsible for creating and maintaining the Flight Simulator series. In 2014, Dovetail Games were granted the rights by Microsoft to port the Gold Edition of Microsoft’s Flight Simulator X to Steam and publish Flight Simulator X: Steam Edition.

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World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King is the second expansion set for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft, following The Burning Crusade. It launched on November 13, 2008 and sold 2.8 million copies within the first day, making it the fastest selling computer game of all time released at that point. The game added a substantial amount of new content into the game world, including the new continent of Northrend, home of the eponymous Lich King and his undead minions. In order to advance through Northrend, players are required to reach at least level 68 and the level cap for the expansion is 80. The first hero class was introduced, the Death Knight, that starts at level 55.

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Baldur’s Gate is a series of role-playing video games set in the Forgotten Realms Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting. The game has spawned two series, known as the Bhaalspawn Saga and the Dark Alliance, both taking place mostly within the Western Heartlands, but the Bhaalspawn Saga extends to Amn and Tethyr. The Dark Alliance series was released for consoles and was critically and commercially successful. The Bhaalspawn Saga was critically acclaimed for using pausable realtime gameplay, which is credited with revitalizing the computer role-playing game (CRPG) genre. The Bhaalspawn Saga was originally developed by BioWare for personal computers. In 2012, Atari revealed that Beamdog and Overhaul Games would remake the games in HD. The Dark Alliance series was originally set to be developed by Snowblind Studios, but ports were handled by Black Isle Studios, High Voltage Software, and Magic Pockets, with the second game developed by Black Isle.
Black Isle Studios had planned a third series to be set in the Dalelands and be a PC-exclusive hack and slash game with pausable real-time gameplay. The game would not have been connected to the Bhaalspawn Saga series. However, the game was cancelled when Interplay forfeited the D&D PC license to Atari.The series was revived in 2012 with the announcement of Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition, an update of the original Baldur’s Gate using an enhanced Infinity Engine.

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F1 Career Challenge (F1 Challenge ’99-’02 for the Microsoft Windows version) is a racing video game based on four seasons: the 1999 Formula One season, the 2000 Formula One season, the 2001 Formula One season and the 2002 Formula One season. In the 2002 season, Nürburgring still uses its original layout. This was rectified in the Microsoft Windows version.

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Deus Ex: Human Revolution is an action role-playing game developed by Eidos Montréal and published by Square Enix’s European subsidiary in August 2011 for Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. A version for OS X was released the following year. It is the third game in the Deus Ex series, and a prequel to the original Deus Ex (2000). The gameplay—combining first-person shooter, stealth, and role-playing elements—features exploration and combat in environments connected to multiple city-based hubs, in addition to quests that grant experience and allow customization of the main character’s abilities with items called Praxis Kits. Conversations between characters feature a variety of responses, with options in conversations and at crucial story points affecting how some events play out.
Set in the year 2027, players control Adam Jensen, a security officer for Sarif Industries, which develops controversial artificial organs dubbed “augmentations”. After an attack on Sarif, Jensen undergoes extensive augmentation and investigates the shadowy organization behind the attack. The story explores themes of transhumanism and the growing power of megacorporations and their impact on social class. It also uses the series’ cyberpunk setting and conspiracy theory motif.

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Halo: The Master Chief Collection is a compilation of first-person shooter video games in the Halo series, originally released in November 2014 for the Xbox One, and later on Microsoft Windows through 2019 and 2020. The enhanced version was released for the Xbox Series X|S in November 2020. The collection was developed by 343 Industries in partnership with other studios and was published by Xbox Game Studios. The collection consists of Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary (an Xbox 360 updated version of Halo: Combat Evolved, which was originally released on the original Xbox), Halo 2: Anniversary (an Xbox One updated version of Halo 2, which was originally released on the original Xbox), Halo 3 (originally released on the Xbox 360), Halo 3: ODST (originally released on the Xbox 360), Halo: Reach (originally released on the Xbox 360), and Halo 4 (originally released on the Xbox 360). A “living” anthology of past Halo games, it continues to receive regular updates and new content as more games age-out of being commonly offered in the retail setting. Each game added to the Master Chief Collection receives a graphical upgrade, with Halo 2 receiving a complete high-definition redesign of its audio and cutscenes, exclusive to the collection, to celebrate its 10th anniversary.

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FreeSpace 2 is a 1999 space combat simulation computer game developed by Volition as the sequel to Descent: FreeSpace – The Great War. It was completed ahead of schedule in less than a year, and released to very positive reviews, but the game became a commercial failure, and was described by certain critics as one of 1999’s most unfairly overlooked titles.
The game continues on the story from Descent: FreeSpace, once again thrusting the player into the role of a pilot fighting against the mysterious aliens, the Shivans. While defending the human race and its alien Vasudan allies, the player also gets involved in putting down a rebellion. The game features large numbers of fighters alongside gigantic capital ships in a battlefield fraught with beams, shells and missiles in detailed star systems and nebulae. Free multiplayer games were available via Parallax Online which also ranked players by their statistics. A persistent galaxy was also available as SquadWar for players to fight with each other over territories.

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IL-2 Sturmovik is a 2001 World War II combat flight simulator video game and is the first installment in the IL-2 Sturmovik series. The release focused on the air battles of the Eastern Front. It was named after the Soviet Ilyushin Il-2 ground-attack fighter, which played a prominent role in this theatre and is the single most produced military aircraft design to date. Along with its sequels, IL-2 Sturmovik is considered one of the leading World War II flight simulators.

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Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is an open world stealth game developed by Kojima Productions and published by Konami. It was released worldwide for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on September 1, 2015. It is the ninth installment in the Metal Gear series that was directed, written, and designed by Hideo Kojima following Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, a stand-alone prologue released the previous year, as well as his final work at Konami.
Set in 1984, nine years after the events of Ground Zeroes and eleven years before the events of the original Metal Gear, the story follows mercenary leader Punished “Venom” Snake as he ventures into Soviet-occupied Afghanistan and the Angola–Zaire border region to exact revenge on the people who destroyed his forces and came close to killing him during the climax of Ground Zeroes. It carries over the tagline of Tactical Espionage Operations first used in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.

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Factorio is a construction and management simulation game developed by the Czech studio Wube Software. The game was announced via an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign in 2013 and released for Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux on 14 August 2020 following a four-year long early access phase. The game follows an engineer who crash-landed on an alien planet and must harvest resources and create industry to build a rocket; however, as an open-world game, players can continue the game past the end of the storyline. The game features both single-player and multiplayer modes.

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Kentucky Route Zero is a point-and-click adventure game developed by Cardboard Computer and published by Annapurna Interactive. The game was first revealed in 2011 via the crowd-funding platform Kickstarter and is separated into five acts that were released sporadically throughout its development; the first releasing in January 2013 and the last releasing in January 2020. The game was originally developed for Linux, Microsoft Windows, and OS X, with console ports for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One under the subtitle of “TV Edition”, coinciding with the release of the final act.
Kentucky Route Zero follows the narrative of a truck driver named Conway and the strange people he meets as he tries to cross the fictitious Route Zero in Kentucky to make a final delivery for the antiques company for which he works. The game received acclaim for its visual art, narrative, characterization, atmosphere and themes, appearing on several best-of-the-decade lists.

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Crysis is a first-person shooter video game series created by German developer Crytek. The series revolves around a group of military protagonists with “nanosuits”, technologically advanced suits of armor that give them enhanced physical strength, speed, defense, and cloaking abilities. The protagonists face off against hostile North Korean soldiers, heavily armed mercenaries, and a race of technologically advanced aliens known as the Ceph, who arrived on Earth millions of years ago and have recently been awakened. The series consists of three main installments, a standalone spinoff of the first game with a separate multiplayer title, and a compilation.

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World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade is the first expansion set for the MMORPG World of Warcraft. It was released on January 16, 2007 at local midnight in Europe and North America, selling nearly 2.4 million copies on release day alone and making it, at the time, the fastest-selling PC game released at that point. Approximately 3.53 million copies were sold in the first month of release, including 1.9 million in North America, nearly 1.6 million in Europe, and over 100,000 copies in Australasia.

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The Longest Journey is a point-and-click adventure video game developed by Norwegian studio Funcom for Microsoft Windows and released in 1999.
The game was a commercial success, with sales in excess of 500,000 units by 2004, and was acclaimed by critics. An iOS version was released on October 28, 2014.

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Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 is a skateboarding video game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision. It is the second installment in the Tony Hawk’s series of sports games and was released for the PlayStation in 2000, with subsequent ports to Microsoft Windows, Game Boy Color, and Dreamcast the same year. In 2001, the game was ported to the Mac OS, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo 64, and Xbox (as part of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2x). The game was later ported to Windows Mobile and Windows Phone devices in 2006 and to iOS devices in 2010.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 uses the same game engine as its predecessor while improving the graphics and gameplay, most notably with the introduction of manuals and cash rewards. The game takes place in a three-dimensional urban environment permeated by an ambience of punk rock and hip hop music. The player takes control of a variety of skateboarders and either performs skateboarding tricks or collects certain objects. The game offers several modes of gameplay, including a career mode in which the player must complete objectives and evolve their character’s attributes with earned profits, a free-play mode in which the player may skate without any given objective, a multiplayer mode that features a number of competitive games, and a level editor that allows the player to create customized levels.

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Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 is a sports video game developed by EA Redwood Shores for the GameCube, Xbox and PlayStation 2 versions, Headgate Studios for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X versions, Sensory Sweep Studios for the Nintendo DS version and EA Canada for the PlayStation Portable version and published by EA Sports for GameCube, Microsoft Windows, Xbox, PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable and Mac OS X. An N-Gage version was planned but never released.

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Batman: Arkham Asylum is a 2009 action-adventure game developed by Rocksteady Studios and published by Eidos Interactive in conjunction with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Based on the DC Comics superhero Batman and written by veteran Batman writer Paul Dini, Arkham Asylum was inspired by the long-running comic book mythos. In the game’s main storyline, Batman battles his archenemy, the Joker, who instigates an elaborate plot to seize control of Arkham Asylum, trap Batman inside with many of his incarcerated foes, and threaten the fictional Gotham City with hidden bombs. Most of the game’s leading characters are voiced by actors who have appeared in other media based on the DC Animated Universe; Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, and Arleen Sorkin reprised their roles as Batman, the Joker, and his sidekick Harley Quinn respectively.

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Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar is the first expansion pack to the turn-based strategy game Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords. It was released by Stardock in February 2007, both as a separately downloadable expansion and the combination retail box Galactic Civilizations II: Gold Edition.

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The Operative: No One Lives Forever (abbreviated as NOLF) is a first-person shooter video game with stealth gameplay elements, developed by Monolith Productions and published by Fox Interactive, released for Microsoft Windows in 2000. The game was ported later to the PlayStation 2 and Mac OS X.
A story-driven game set in the 1960s, No One Lives Forever has been critically acclaimed for its stylistic representation of the era in the spirit of many spy films and television series of that decade, as well as for its humor. Players control female protagonist Cate Archer, who works for a secret organization that watches over world peace. In addition to a range of firearms, the game contains several gadgets disguised as ordinary female fashion items.
At the time of its release, many reviewers felt that No One Lives Forever was the best first-person shooter since 1998’s Half-Life. After receiving several Game of the Year awards in the press, a special Game of the Year Edition was released in 2001, which included an additional mission. The Operative: No One Lives Forever was followed by a sequel, No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.’s Way, in 2002, and a spin-off that takes place during the time between the first two games entitled Contract J.A.C.K. released in 2003, both developed by Monolith.

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Crusader Kings III is a role-playing game and grand strategy game set in the Middle Ages, developed by Paradox Development Studio and published by Paradox Interactive as a sequel to Crusader Kings (2004) and Crusader Kings II (2012). The game was released on 1 September 2020.

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Battlefield 2 is a 2005 first-person shooter military simulator video game, developed by Digital Illusions CE and published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows as the third game in the Battlefield series.Players fight in a modern battlefield, using modern weapon systems. Battlefield 2 is a first-person shooter with some strategy and Tactical Shooter elements.The single-player aspect features missions that involve clashes between U.S. Marines, China and the fictional Middle Eastern Coalition. The multiplayer aspect of the game allows players to organize into squads that come under the leadership of a single commander to promote teamwork. The story takes place in the early 21st century during a fictional world war between various power blocs: China, the European Union, the fictional Middle Eastern Coalition (MEC), Russia and the United States. The game takes place in different fronts, as the Middle East and China are being invaded by US and EU forces, and the United States is being invaded by Chinese and MEC forces. A sequel, Battlefield 3, was released in October 2011. On June 30, 2014, the multiplayer master server was shut down alongside other GameSpy-powered titles.

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Street Fighter IV (ストリートファイター IV, Sutorīto Faitā Fō) is a 2008 fighting game published by Capcom, who also co-developed the game with Dimps. It was the first original main entry in the series since Street Fighter III in 1997, a hiatus of eleven years.
The co-operated arcade game version was released in Japan on July 18, 2008, with North American arcades importing the machines by August. The console versions for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 were released in Japan on February 12, 2009, and were sold in North American stores as early as February 16, with a February 18 intended release date. The official European release was on February 20. A Microsoft Windows version was released on July 2, 2009 in Japan, July 3, 2009 in Europe and July 7, 2009 in the United States. A version for iOS was released on March 10, 2010. Also, an Android version was launched, initially as an exclusive for certain LG devices. Then by December 31, 2012, the exclusivity expired and the game was made available for all Android devices on the Play Store, with a region restriction that makes it available only in Japan. An updated version, Super Street Fighter IV, was released as a standalone title in April 2010.Upon its release, the game received universal critical acclaim; receiving universally high scores from many gaming websites and magazines. It was followed by Super Street Fighter IV and Arcade Edition in 2010, 3D Edition in 2011, and Ultra Street Fighter IV in 2014. All versions of Street Fighter IV have sold over 9 million units across all platforms.

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Fallout 3 is a post-apocalyptic action role-playing open world video game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. The third major installment in the Fallout series, it is the first game to be created by Bethesda since it bought the franchise from Interplay Entertainment. The game marks a major shift in the series by using 3D graphics and real-time combat, replacing the 2D isometric graphics and turn-based combat of previous installments. It was released worldwide in October 2008 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.The game is set within a post-apocalyptic, open world environment that encompasses a scaled region consisting of the ruins of Washington, D.C., and much of the countryside to the north and west of it, referred to as the Capital Wasteland. It takes place within Fallout’s usual setting of a world that deviated into an alternate timeline thanks to atomic age technology, which eventually led to its devastation by a nuclear apocalypse in the year 2077 (referred to as the Great War), caused by a major international conflict between the United States and China over natural resources and the last remaining supplies of untapped uranium and crude oil. The main story takes place in the year 2277, around 36 years after the events of Fallout 2, of which it is not a direct sequel. Players take control of an inhabitant of Vault 101, one of several underground shelters created before the Great War to protect around 1,000 humans from the nuclear fallout, who is forced to venture out into the Capital Wasteland to find their father after he disappears from the Vault under mysterious circumstances. They find themselves seeking to complete their father’s work while fighting against the Enclave, the corrupt remnants of the former U.S. government that seeks to use it for their own purposes.
Fallout 3 was met with critical acclaim and received a number of Game of the Year awards, praising the game’s open-ended gameplay and flexible character-leveling system, and is considered one of the greatest video games of all time. The NPD Group estimated that Fallout 3 sold over 610,000 units during its initial month of release in October 2008, performing better than Bethesda’s previous game, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which sold nearly 500,000 units in its first month. The game received post-launch support, with Bethesda releasing five downloadable add-ons. The game was met with controversy upon release in Australia, for the recreational drug use and the ability to be addicted to alchohol and drugs, and in India, for cultural and religious sentiments over the mutated cattle in the game being called Brahmin, a varna (class) in Hinduism.

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Batman: Arkham City is a 2011 action-adventure game developed by Rocksteady Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Based on the DC Comics superhero Batman, it is the sequel to the 2009 video game Batman: Arkham Asylum and the second installment in the Batman: Arkham series. Written by veteran Batman writer Paul Dini with Paul Crocker and Sefton Hill, Arkham City was inspired by the long-running comic book mythos. In the game’s main storyline, Batman is incarcerated in Arkham City, a super-prison enclosing the decaying urban slums of fictional Gotham City. He must uncover the secret behind a sinister scheme orchestrated by the facility’s warden, Hugo Strange. The game’s leading characters are predominantly voiced by actors from the DC Animated Universe, with Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill reprising their roles as Batman and the Joker, respectively.
The game is presented from the third-person perspective with a primary focus on Batman’s combat and stealth abilities, detective skills, and gadgets that can be used in both combat and exploration. Batman can freely move around the Arkham City prison, interacting with characters and undertaking missions, and unlocking new areas by progressing through the main story or obtaining new equipment.

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Fez is an indie puzzle-platform video game developed by Polytron Corporation and published by Trapdoor. The player-character Gomez receives a fez that reveals his two-dimensional (2D) world to be one of four sides of a three-dimensional (3D) world. The player rotates between these four 2D views to realign platforms and solve the game’s puzzles. The objective of the game is to collect cubes and cube fragments to restore order to the universe. The game was called an “underdog darling of the indie game scene” during its high-profile and protracted five-year development cycle. Fez designer and Polytron founder Phil Fish gained celebrity status for his outspoken public persona and his prominence in the 2012 documentary Indie Game: The Movie, which detailed Fez’s final stages of development and Polytron’s related legal issues. Fez met critical acclaim upon its April 2012 release for Xbox Live Arcade. The game was ported to other platforms following the expiration of a yearlong exclusivity agreement.
Reviewers commended the game’s emphasis on discovery and freedom, but criticized its technical issues, in-game navigation, and endgame backtracking. They likened the game’s rotation mechanic to the 2D–3D shifts of Echochrome, Nebulus, Super Paper Mario, and Crush. Fez won awards including the Seumas McNally Grand Prize and Eurogamer’s 2012 Game of the Year. It had sold one million copies by the end of 2013, and it influenced games such as Monument Valley, Crossy Road, and Secrets of Rætikon. A planned sequel was canceled when Fish abruptly left the indie game industry.

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Planescape: Torment is a role-playing video game developed by Black Isle Studios and published by Interplay Entertainment. Released for Microsoft Windows on December 12, 1999, the game takes place in locations from the multiverse of Planescape, a Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy campaign setting. The game’s engine is a modified version of the Infinity Engine, which was used for BioWare’s Baldur’s Gate, a previous D&D game set in the Forgotten Realms.
Planescape: Torment is primarily story-driven, with combat not being prominently featured. The protagonist, known as The Nameless One, is an immortal man who forgets everything if killed. The game focuses on his journey through the city of Sigil and other planes to reclaim his memories of these previous lives, and to discover why he was made immortal in the first place. Several characters in the game may join the Nameless One on his journey; most of these characters have encountered him in the past or have been influenced by his actions in some way.
The game was not a commercial success, but received critical acclaim and has since become a cult classic. Claimed by video game journalists to be the best role-playing video game of 1999, it was lauded for its immersive dialogue, for the dark and relatively obscure Planescape setting, and for the protagonist’s unique persona, which shirked many characteristics of traditional role-playing games. It is considered one of the greatest video games of all time, and continues to receive attention long after its release. An enhanced version, featuring enhancements made for modern platforms, was made by Beamdog and released for Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, and iOS in April 2017, and for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in October 2019.

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Neverwinter Nights is a series of video games developed by BioWare and Obsidian Entertainment, based on the Forgotten Realms campaign setting of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. It is unrelated to the 1991 Neverwinter Nights online game hosted by AOL.

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No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.’s Way is a first-person shooter video game developed by Monolith Productions and published by Sierra Entertainment, released for Windows in September 30, 2002, later ported to MacOS in 2003. It is the second game in the No One Lives Forever series, the sequel to the 2000 game The Operative: No One Lives Forever.
The story follows spy Cate Archer as she once again takes up arms against the international criminal organization H.A.R.M. Throughout the game, Cate Archer is sent to exotic locales, such as a ninja village, a secret submarine base, and a trailer park in Ohio during a tornado. A whole new range of uniquely designed gadgets and weapons are also introduced, including a blowtorch disguised as a can of hair spray and a robotic bomb disguised as a kitten. A spin-off to the game, entitled Contract J.A.C.K., was released in 2003.

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Dragon Age: Origins is a role-playing game developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts. It is the first game in the Dragon Age franchise, and was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 in November 2009, and for Mac OS X in December 2009. Set in the fictional kingdom of Ferelden during a period of civil strife, the game puts the player in the role of a warrior, mage, or rogue coming from an elven, human, or dwarven background. The player character is recruited into the Grey Wardens, an ancient order that stands against bestial forces known as “Darkspawn”, and is tasked with defeating the Archdemon that commands them and ending their invasion. The game is played from a third-person perspective that can be shifted to a top-down perspective. Throughout the game, players encounter various companions, who play major roles in the game’s plot and gameplay.
BioWare described Dragon Age: Origins as a “dark heroic fantasy” set in a unique world, and a spiritual successor to their previous Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights franchises. Its setting was inspired by The Lord of the Rings and A Song of Ice & Fire, and was described by BioWare as a mix between high fantasy and low fantasy. Development of the game began in 2002 and BioWare employed more than 144 voice-actors, and hired Inon Zur to compose the game’s music. The development of the game’s console versions was outsourced to Edge of Reality.

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Mark of the Ninja is a side-scrolling action stealth video game developed by Klei Entertainment and published by Microsoft Studios. It was announced on February 28, 2012 and later released for the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade on September 7, 2012. A Microsoft Windows version was released on October 16, 2012, later released for Linux and OS X on September 11, 2013. A remaster was released on October 9, 2018 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows, macOS and Linux.It follows the story of a nameless ninja in the present day, and features a themed conflict between ancient ninja tradition and modern technology. Cutscenes for the game are rendered in a Saturday-morning cartoon animation style.
The game received critical acclaim from reviewers. Aggregate scores for the game hold in the 90% range at website Metacritic, and it received eight perfect scores from media outlets. Reviewers praised the game’s visual and audio atmosphere, strong gameplay and new take on the stealth video game genre, while criticizing minor gameplay frustrations surrounding the control scheme and difficult puzzles.

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Disco Elysium is a role-playing video game developed and published by ZA/UM. The game takes place in a large city still recovering from a war decades prior to the game’s start, with players taking the role of an amnesic detective who has been charged with solving a murder mystery. During the investigation, he comes to recall events about his own past as well as current forces trying to affect the city. Inspired by Infinity Engine–era role-playing games, particularly Planescape: Torment, Disco Elysium was written and designed by Karelian-Estonian novelist Robert Kurvitz. It features a distinctive watercolor art style, and music by the band British Sea Power. It was released for Microsoft Windows in October 2019 and macOS in April 2020. An expanded version of the game, subtitled The Final Cut, featuring full voice acting and new content, was released for consoles in 2021 alongside a free update for the PC versions.
Disco Elysium is a non-traditional role-playing game featuring no combat. Instead, events are resolved through skill checks and dialog trees via a system of 24 skills that represent different aspects of the protagonist, such as his perception and pain threshold. In addition, a system called the Thought Cabinet represents his other ideologies and personality traits, with players having the ability to freely support or suppress them. The game is based on a tabletop role-playing game setting that Kurvitz had previously created, with him forming ZA/UM in 2016 to work on the game.

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Dark Souls II is an action role-playing game developed by FromSoftware and published by Bandai Namco Games. The third game in the Souls series, it was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Although both are set in the same universe, there is no overt story connection between the first Dark Souls and the sequel. The game uses dedicated multiplayer servers. Taking place in the kingdom of Drangleic, the game features both player versus environment (PvE) and player versus player (PvP) gameplay, in addition to having some co-op components. As in the earlier games in the series, it again features challenging gameplay, but with a more powerful graphics engine and more advanced artificial intelligence system.
After some initial delays, the game was released worldwide in March 2014, with the Windows version being released on April 24, 2014. The game received both critical acclaim, and high sales. An updated version of the game, subtitled Scholar of the First Sin, was released for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and Windows in April 2015. The title is a compilation of the original game and all of its downloadable content with upgraded graphics, expanded online multiplayer capacity, and various other changes. A sequel, Dark Souls III, was released in 2016.

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Spelunky 2 is a 2020 platform video game developed by Mossmouth and BlitWorks. It is the sequel to Spelunky (2008) and was released for Windows and PlayStation 4 in September 2020, with a Nintendo Switch release announced for mid-2021. The game received critical acclaim upon release.

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