If you want to play the best PC games, Steam is the place to go. Other storefronts have tried to carve out a piece of the market, but it is clear that Valve’s platform is the undisputed king. With tons of Steam sales on everything from indie games to giant open-world games, there are too many games on Steam to pick from. And, we’re sad to say, most games aren’t worth your time or money. If your backlog isn’t already intimidating enough, these are the best games on Steam that you need to check out.
Monster Hunter Worlds was the first entry in the series to come to PC and absolutely exploded in popularity. That paved the way for Monster Hunter Wilds to be one of the biggest launches in the series’ history and somehow managed to crush even those lofty expectations. While it does have a few systems that are still unclear that newcomers will have trouble grasping, the entire experience is as smooth and appealing as it has ever been (especially with some mods). The story is essentially an excuse to showcase the world and all the monsters, with the meat of the game coming after you finish and can truly begin the loop of fighting these beasts for materials. Bringing in your friends to go on hunts with all the different weapons and tools is some of the best pure gameplay experiences you can have on PS5. If you have any love for upgrading your gear, deep combat systems, and giant monsters, you will love Monster Hunter Wilds.
Final Fantasy XIV is quickly becoming the go-to MMORPG on the market. It has grown from a buggy, empty mess at launch to one of the richest MMO experiences available, teeming with players and content to keep you busy. It still requires a monthly subscription, but that’s only after the free trial, which includes all but the most recent expansion. At this point, that’s hundreds of hours of content you can dig into without spending a dime.
The king of CRPGs has returned in all its glory with Baldur’s Gate 3. This game crushed expectations during a year filled with stiff competition despite being a CRPG. The quality, performance, and graphics are one thing, but it’s in the story and level of freedom to actually role play that put this game head and shoulders above the rest. Just about anything you think you should be able to do in a game, you can. Not only that, but the developers somehow seem to have planned for it and made the world and NPCs react realistically. It is as close to playing a game of Dungeons & Dragons around a table with your friends as a video game can get, with all the unpredictable humor and fun that entails.
It’s hard to choose a better Steam game than one made by the developers who made Steam. Counter-Strike: 2 remains one of the most relevant competitive shooters despite being nearly a decade old after evolving out of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. CS:2′s simplistic yet ruthlessly competitive multiplayer traps players in for hours on end. It’s a game where you want to play for just one more round.
Jesse Lennox covers all things gaming but has a specific interest in all things PlayStation, JRPGs, and experimental indies. Jesse has been writing about games for over 10 years, starting off as a volunteer and eventually finding his way into doing it full-time. He is constantly striving to push his boundaries in what he covers and finds thought-provoking and important angles to highlight within the games industry.
Originally double-majoring in English and Education, Jesse came into games media as a profession by accident. After an unfortunate layoff, he took his passion for writing about games seriously and was lucky enough to find Digital Trends and other outlets such as Pocket-Lint, Classic Nerd, and Gamepur to write for. He has held numerous writing positions, as well as several editing roles, and is always on the hunt for new opportunities to grow his skillset.
Based in Colorado, Jesse spends at least two hours every morning training in the gym to set his mind straight before a full day of writing and gaming.
The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.
Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.
Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”
It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.
Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.