PC Gamer's Scores

  • Games
For 3,862 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 50% higher than the average critic
  • 5% same as the average critic
  • 45% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 2.7 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Game review score: 72
Highest review score: 98 Crysis
Lowest review score: 7 NRA Varmint Hunter
Score distribution:
3877 game reviews
    • 90 Metascore
    • 93 Critic Score
    A great port of what is still one of the best action games around. Bayonetta is the essential hack-'n-slash.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 93 Critic Score
    It's easily as good as its predecessor, and frequently better. As much as I've delved into the specifics of each individual system, what makes Dishonored 2 so exceptional is how it's all connected. The writing sheds light on the world, which sheds light on the systems, which sheds light on the environments and characters. For everything that works in isolation, the real trick is that Dishonored 2 feels unified—a powerful piece of world building where everything happens for a reason.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 93 Critic Score
    Full of 1970s atmosphere and attitude, I-76 proves that Activision has more tricks up its sleeve than giant robots. It's a blast. [June 1997, p.76]
    • PC Gamer
    • 85 Metascore
    • 93 Critic Score
    Undoubtedly one of the most original and best games of the year. [Oct 1998, p.198]
    • PC Gamer
    • 90 Metascore
    • 93 Critic Score
    Short, intense, and gripping is far superior to 40 hours of average FPS action, and Riddick is too excellent to miss merely because of its first-impression pedigree. [March 2005, p.62]
    • PC Gamer
    • 75 Metascore
    • 93 Critic Score
    But it's wealth of diverse missions--which includes assassinations, routing drug dealers and arms dealers, and liberating villages--will give you good cause to hope that unrest continues to flourish around the world. [Dec. 2006, p.52]
    • PC Gamer
    • 91 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    An outstanding story-driven RPG with fantastic writing, RPG depth and tough tactical combat. It's BioWare's best RPG since Baldur's Gate 2. [Holiday 2009, p.38]
    • PC Gamer
    • 76 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    Gun
    An exceptional Old West action game that everyone should play. [Feb 2006, p.34]
    • PC Gamer
    • 82 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    Any game in which a giant laser cannon pops out of Teddy Roosevelt's head on Mt. Rushmore is a winner in my book...Red Alert 3 is a highly polished game that doesn't take itself the least bit seriously, and co-op play might jus be the next big thing in RTS. [Holiday 2008, p.62]
    • PC Gamer
    • 75 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    Stylish, inventive and easily one of the funniest games in years. Jazzpunk just wants to make you laugh. Don't worry, it will.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    Shadow Tactics’ impressive missions, laden toy box and likeable cast make it one of the greatest stealth games of the last decade.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    Abiotic Factor is an unforgettable interdimensional odyssey with you and your closest friends.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    For SupCom owners, Forged Alliance is a must-have expansion. [Holiday 2007, p.70]
    • PC Gamer
    • 86 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    I keep promising myself one more go… just like I did the last one more go.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    GTAIV works well as a multiplayer game. [Feb 2009, p.70]
    • PC Gamer
    • 89 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    Strategy gaming at its finest - minus all the senseless violence. [Feb 1999, p.172]
    • PC Gamer
    • 93 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    Eventually I had to venture online, and the first sounds I heard (no lie) were "Oh yeah, you f******, I am the mother-f******'s s***!" It turns out UT 2004 has built-in voice support, and as easy as it is to set up, it's mercifully easy to turn off. [June 2004, p.79]
    • PC Gamer
    • 81 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    Tense, haunting and beautiful. Inventory shenanigans aside, one of the best survival horror games yet.
    • 91 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    The thing about Disco Elysium is that my experience of it is completely unique to me, such is the dizzying variety of skills, stats, thoughts, and conversation options on offer. You could play through it five times and still not see everything, so there's no one experience to assess. But I can say with certainty that it's one of the finest RPGs on PC if you value depth, freedom, customisation, and storytelling.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    Delivers everything that a dedicated flight-simmer could ask for. This game will be a very hard act to follow for a long time to come. [Jan 2002, p.58]
    • PC Gamer
    • 75 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    A third-person horror game that's elevated by some of the sharpest writing and acting in the genre.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    A brutal, uncompromising action game with sensational sword combat. From Software has done it again.
    • 94 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    An extremely immersive and detailed game that builds on the celebrated strengths of its predecessor. [August 2003, p.58]
    • PC Gamer
    • 90 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    Ghost Trick is an essential and engrossing experience for any PC gamer.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    A brilliant return to the series at its best that modernises the point-and-click form.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    A masterful metroidvania that builds on Sekiro-style combat and tells a great sci-fi story too. Unmissable.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    Finally, a hockey game that should appeal to every level of fan. [Dec 2000, p.158]
    • PC Gamer
    • 82 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    SM's grandest new feature is its random map generator. It works, it's terrific, and as much as I wish I could grouse about it so I don't come off as a fanboy, I can't. [Oct 2003, p.100]
    • PC Gamer
    • 82 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    Bloody and captivating, Valhalla is Assassin's Creed at its best.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    An artfully balanced essential upgrade for Street Fighter IV owners, and an amazing value for newcomers. [Oct 2011, p.80]
    • PC Gamer
This publication does not provide a score for their reviews.
This publication has not posted a final review score yet.
These unscored reviews do not factor into the Metascore calculation.

In Progress & Unscored

?
    • 87 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Clever innovations and a generous economy make Legends of Runeterra easy to love. [Open Beta review score = 85]
    • 75 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    The result is a competent remaster and the best way to play this classic Total War, but it still can't compete with its modern heirs.
    • tbd Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Mycopunk shows a ton of promise, but that doesn't mean it's infallible. The progression can become a bit of a slog, and it can take a while to level up or collect enough resources to upgrade your kit. There's also definitely a cap as to how many missions you can do in a row before it all just blends into a violent blur. The variety in mission types only keeps things fresh for so long. There are also some glitches, many of which the devs are aware of, but that doesn't make them any less annoying. I've been lasered by an Abomination through a wall more than once now—you're never safe, even when you think you are. But none of this ruins the fun, it's just something to bear in mind: The fungal growths of Early Access. [Early Access Provisional Score = 79]
    • tbd Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Honestly, I would have preferred Krafton give this game even more time to cook. It almost feels like I'm playing pretend at playing pretend right now—engaging with a variety of set pieces I can do a cute peace sign in front of before moving onto the next thing. In an attempt to offer something different to The Sims, Inzoi has failed to establish any sort of identity of its own. I'm not even sure Krafton knows what direction it wants to take right now, but it needs to figure that out quickly, otherwise I fear it'll be another casualty of the genre. [Impressions]
    • 40 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    It's a spectacular disaster, which feels like a rarity these days: there are lots of bad games, but for a game that was announced at E3 and made by a major publisher and studio to be this catastrophic is something.
    • 86 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Playing Mass Effect Legendary Edition is a constant see-saw of noticing an improvement, then wishing it went further. You can sprint outside combat, but only for like three seconds. There's a dedicated melee button, yet no way to separate the sprint and take cover actions to separate keys. You can skip the elevator rides, which are the only way to hear banter that could be filling the stretches where you jog from place to place. The graphics are better, but there's no FOV slider. [Mass Effect 1 score = 77]
    • 39 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    The action would be passable if it were buoyed by a compelling story, but I ain't gripped so far. [2-Hour Impressions]
    • tbd Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Repo is a fantastic co-op horror game that can hold its own against big shots like Lethal Company. It's also only in early access right now, and with plans to introduce more player customisation, story elements, equipment, levels, and enemies, all I can say is that I'm really looking forward to seeing where the devs take this co-op horror game. [Early Access Impressions]
    • tbd Metascore
    • Critic Score
    Subnautica 2 is a decidedly well-balanced survival game. In a handful of hours of pre-release play, I've never found the scavenging and crafting grueling, but neither have I found it so easy that the expansion of my underwater base feels unearned. [Early Access Impressions]
    • tbd Metascore
    • Critic Score
    It's so mundane that I expected Schedule 1 to get boring by the fifteenth time I'd lugged a bulk order of plastic baggies to my crappy apartment, but like my latest strand of weed called "Wedding Ass," the drug-dealing sim dominating Steam right now is undeniably habit-forming...Chalk up that success to a lot of smart design choices from developer TVGS—its constant sense of progression, clockwork open world, expressive characters, gratifying supply/demand loop, day one co-op support—but I reckon Schedule 1's secret sauce is a crafting system that doesn't suck. [Early Access Impressions]
    • tbd Metascore
    • Critic Score
    I haven't been too blown away by what I've seen of it so far, but if Masters of Albion could help revive the god game genre, at least a little? That'd be fine by me. [Early Access Impressions]
    • 55 Metascore
    • Critic Score
    I'm enjoying Battlefield 1. It's not a huge departure for the series, despite the period, but it is meaningfully distinct from Battlefield 4. That may disappoint those who simply want progression that mirrors the jump from Battlefield 3 to 4 – more guns, more features and new maps.
    • tbd Metascore
    • Critic Score
    But as I should've guessed from developer Traveller's Tales' modern Lego run, Legacy of the Dark Knight is just too darn delightful to sustain a stormy mood. It took all of five minutes for the brick-based brawler to put a smile on my face, and it didn't go away for two hours of play. [2-Hour Hands-On Impressions]
    • tbd Metascore
    • Critic Score
    On the surface, Bond might seem a natural fit for IO: all glitz and gadgets that make it feel like barely a skip away from the world of Hitman. But what I saw had me feeling that the studio has not leaned into its strengths, trading the absurd clockwork worlds of Agent 47 for a more tightly choreographed, linear, and "cinematic" game that IO has never been all that good at. The last time it tried was Hitman: Absolution. We know how that worked out. [3-Hour Hands-On Impressions]
    • tbd Metascore
    • Critic Score
    There's two chapters left to turn things around but Tell Me Why is going to have to pull out all the stops to make up for a bungled first act.

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