These games brought engaging new ideas to the already stalwart genre roster available on PC. Statistics, spreadsheets, intricate battle commands, economies, sewerage systems-these games keep you obsessing over the smallest decisions and keep you up all night.Ģ018 saw the release of some exceptional new strategy titles, like the phenomenal Into The Breach, the slow and deliberate Battletech, the perilously stressful Frostpunk and the frantic They Are BIllions.
But there's one genre that you absolutely need a PC to experience the best of: strategy and management games. Sure, the major consoles have their exclusive titles. How many will make it in the end? Probably just one, really. Fortnite and Call of Duty's Blackout aside, PC players also have access to SCUM, Ring of Elysium, H1Z1, Battlerite Royale, Fear The Wolves, Fractured Lands, Realm Royale, Cuisine Royale, Darwin Project, Maelstrom, and Radical Heights (R.I.P.), to name a few.
On the plus side, if battle royale is your jam, the PC is the best place to get access to all the up-and-coming competitors trying to make waves with their own unique takes on the popular format. But that hasn't stopped its player base from shrinking. PUBG developer Bluehole eventually acknowledged that the game had numerous issues, launched Fix PUBG, a development roadmap that let everyone know that it is listening, they are working on it, and they want to be transparent about it. But the charm started to wear off through 2018, especially since its competition was a more polished alternative. When the concept felt new and exciting, it was easier to overlook its problems. PUBG's raw, early-access feel was endearing at first. The game had numerous bugs, technical issues, matchmaking problems, and a general jankiness that never really went away. The obvious reason is likely Fortnite, which dominated the talk of 2018 to a much larger and more unprecedented scale than PUBG ever did-it's become a mainstream cultural phenomenon. But while PUBG hit its absolute peak popularity on PC in January of 2018, its player base diminished drastically throughout the year. PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds dominated PC gaming talk in 2017, capturing a lot of attention and spawning many imitators. The PC version of Rockstar's previous game, Grand Theft Auto V, was announced roughly a year after its initial release.Įnter The Battle Royale For Battle Royale Intensifies Red Dead Redemption 2 released to near-universal acclaim in October, but Rockstar hasn't made any comments about the potential for a PC version just yet. There was one incredibly notable third-party game that didn't make its way to PC, however. At least, not to the extent of Nier: Automata in 2017. With the higher potential power of gaming PCs, multiplatform titles overall continue to perform better, too, and there were few instances of dodgy PC ports this year. Ports and remasters of existing games like Yakuza 0, Devil May Cry, Shenmue I & II, and Katamari Damacy appeared, but we also got significant new releases like Valkyria Chronicles 4, and the mammoth Monster Hunter: World, and we also have Devil May Cry 5 and Resident Evil 2 Remake to look forward to. Meanwhile, Japanese third-party publishers like Capcom and Sega continued to recognize the value of their PC audiences, and we saw more traditionally console-only franchises make the transition to Steam.
Now Playing: PC Gaming Is Still Full Of Surprises - 2018 Year In Review Forza Horizon continued to be a welcome asset though, so we're looking forward to seeing what Microsoft Game Studios has in store for 2019, especially with its current focus on acquiring major developers.īy clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot's The critical consensus was mixed on Sea Of Thieves and State of Decay 2, though both have seen continual content updates since launch.
That's certainly still the case with Sony and Nintendo, but Microsoft's Play Anywhere initiative, introduced in 2017, continued to see a small handful of Xbox One releases come to Windows 10 as well.
If you only have a PC, you might find yourself feeling left out when a major console release rolls around. The Walls Between Console And PC Continue To Fall The PC has continued to be an outstanding place to play video games in 2018, and with some companies making interesting technological headway this year, it's also the place where the first steps to the next generation of games are already taking place. If you've got a Windows machine with the right hardware, you're already in a good position to experience the overwhelming majority of it. 2018 was a fantastic year for video games, a non-stop hit parade of amazing titles all over the scene-AAA blockbusters, indies, and everything in between.