PC Gamer Annual - UK (2022)

89

SEA OF

THIEVES

RELEASED 2018 | LAST POSITION 78

Mollie: I think I may be one of the last

remaining Sea of Thieves likers on our

team, and that’s mostly because I’m a

massive gremlin in the game. In no

other situation would it be socially

acceptable for me to get absolutely

trollied, vomit into a bucket and then

douse my friends with my chunky

goodness. Sailing the seas and plundering

booty is fun and all, but drunkenly playing

the concertina is the real reason I love this

game so much.

MASS EFFECT LEGENDARY EDITION

RELEASED 2021 | LAST POSITION New

Jody: The three good space opera RPGs
jammed together, with fewer bugs, more
DLC. What kind of space captain do you
want to be? Your version of Commander
Shepard is free to be a diplomat giving
inspiring speeches, a badass punching first
and shooting later, or a dreamboat
smooching blue aliens.
The first game starts strongly,
introducing a galaxy built on familiar sci-fi
ideas, but with weird aliens too. It finishes
strongly as well, a run of missions building
to a the defeat of an impossibly powerful
invader. In the middle there’s some
padding where you drive across identikit
planets, which is a shame. And the less

said about the third game’s ending, the

b e t te r. Mass Effect Legendary Edition is

mostly in this list for Mass Effect 2, the

Goldilocks centrepiece that set plot aside

to focus on character. Mass Effect 2 has

you put together a crew of 12 who, like the

universe, build on familiar clichés taken to

surprising places. Across missions that

jump from undercover infiltration to action

setpiece to mystery thriller you get to know

your Dirty Dozen, and in choosing how you

respond to their dilemmas, build a hero to

lead them. By the end you feel so much

ownership of your Shepard, you’ll get

confused by screenshots because the

wrong character is in them.

91

86

WHAT REMAINS

OF EDITH FINCH

RELEASED 2017 | LAST POSITION 26

Rachel: It may have fallen

a fair way down in our top

100, but Edith Finch is still a

powerhouse of storytelling

as you explore Edith’s

childhood home to

discover how each of her

relatives met their end. It’s

an incredibly elegant game,

that lets you into the

headspace of each person

at a particular moment in

their lives. A gorgeous and

bittersweet experience.

87

FALLOUT:

NEW VEGAS

RELEASED 2010

LAST POSITION No change

Robin: This underdog-

turned-critical-darling

understands what Fallout

should be in a way I don’t

think Bethesda ever has. A

rich role-playing adventure

with an intricate web of

choices that holds up well,

even if its visuals don’t.

Chris: It’s so deep that no

matter how many times

you’ve played, there are still

new choices to make.

88

TITANFALL 2

RELEASED 2016 | LAST POSITION 11

Nat: Titanfall 2 has seen

better days. That

singleplayer campaign is

still an all-timer, but the

game really shone in

multiplayer – and sadly,

Titanfall 2’s servers are

getting wracked by the

kinds of DDOS attacks

that left the first game

nothing but unplayable.

Morgan: It breaks my

heart that Titanfall 3 seems

like a fantasy at this point.

90

OPUS

MAGNUM

RELEASED 2017 | LAST POSITION 49

Phil: A puzzle game about beautiful
machines. You’re tasked with creating
alchemical compounds, using pistons and
rotators to manipulate atoms into their
desired form. But as much as the story has
fun with the conceit, the real satisfaction of
Opus Magnum comes from the process of
engineering a solution. There is no one way
to solve any of the problems, so every
machine is inherently your own design.
Your attempt may be inefficient, even
inelegant, but you’ll love it all the same.

The Top 100

FE ATURE