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
    • 88 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    Strong strategy, great graphics, and variety make this one of the year's best. [July 1998, p.114]
    • PC Gamer
    • 92 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    To say I loved every minute of Rome: Total War is a tremendous understatement. For my money, it's the ultimate strategy game. Not only does it effortlessly combine turn-based strategy with raucous real-time warmongering, but it delivers them in a package that is accessibe and easy to play. [Nov 2004, p.76]
    • PC Gamer
    • 93 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    With old friends, new enemies, and an exciting story, revisiting City 17 in VR is a thrill in Half-Life: Alyx.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    The finest WWII prop sim of its era. Perhaps even of all time. [June 2003, p.80]
    • PC Gamer
    • 81 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    Developer dream teams should get together more often. AoE III may be an elder statesman in the RTS world these days, but BHG has dipped the game in the fountain of youth with this revitalizing add-on. [Jan 2008, p.80]
    • PC Gamer
    • 88 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    A sprawling, ridiculous, and endlessly surprising roguelike that will drag you body and soul into its chaotic world.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    A deep, rich, and wonderfully written RPG that lives up to the towering legacy of the games that inspired it.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    Immense fun for both the empire-builder and the medieval combatant with all the intrigue and bloodletting you could want. [Feb 1997, p.148]
    • PC Gamer
    • 89 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    And while NHLEHM 2007 doesn't look much different than NHLEHM 2005...it's still a fantastic game, and the best in its genre. [Feb. 2007, p.77]
    • PC Gamer
    • 93 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    One of the very best things about this game is its almost total lack of any visible interface. [July 2002, p.56]
    • PC Gamer
    • 89 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    A strategically deep deckbuilder that, with any luck, has spawned a brilliant new subgenre.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    N++
    A masterful distillation of classic action-platforming gameplay, doling out tension and elation in equal measure.
    • 96 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    OOTP 2007 gets a once-great series back on the road to Cooperstown by balancing depth with a user-friendly interface. [July 2007, p.60]
    • PC Gamer
    • 92 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    I love Blue Prince so much I'm going to spend the next 1,500 words or so telling you as little about it as possible. Unraveling its many mysteries and solving its multitude of puzzles—several of which I'm still working on even after finishing the game—is best done if you go in with nearly no information. Don't watch videos. Don't Google solutions. Don't even finish reading this review. Just go play it.
    • 96 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    A sandbox of extraordinary scope created with a masterful attention to detail. A patchy campaign doesn't spoil this wonderful, evocative city.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    Huge, inventive and the reason I'm sleep deprived. It's brilliant.
    • 89 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    It's simply the best Destiny 2 expansion—both a satisfying conclusion to the series' first saga, and a compelling shooter packed full of stuff to do.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    A maximalist sequel that improves on almost every aspect of the first game.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    The best Sims game yet. It's still about playing with virtual dolls, but it's never been this big, beautiful and eager to please. [July 2009, p.69]
    • PC Gamer
    • 86 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    Forza Horizon 3 is huge, varied and constantly entertaining. It treads a fine balance between simulation and arcade—bombastic and silly at times, but also an accomplished populist racing game. I don't like the script, the cast of irritants manning the radio stations, the way playing your own music in-game requires the use of Microsoft Groove, or the fact that one of the nicknames you can choose is ‘Bantersaurus Rex’. More seriously, I worry Microsoft will continue its habit of integrating DLC cars and expansions in overbearing ways (Forza Horizon 2 went as far as playing an in-game trailer for its Storm Island expansion.) But these are annoyances I'm prepared to forgive in a game as good as this.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    Not only the most accessible wargame on the market, but it's also a rich and fascinating tactical simulation. It's war on your computer. [Mar 2004, p.76]
    • PC Gamer
    • 92 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    Resident Evil Requiem sets itself out with a hard task: wrapping all the best elements of previous Resident Evil games into one. Miraculously it succeeds, with very few moments which left me wanting more.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    Infuriatingly difficult, but perfectly constructed. Ikaruga is the PC's best bullet-hell shooter.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    <i>Space Rangers 2</i> should have shipped with better documentation, and beating the game can prove difficult for new players, even on the easiest difficulty setting. But at 29 bucks(which includes the original <i.Space rangers</i>, a game that never shipped in the U.S.), it's the deal of the century. [July 2006, p.66]
    • PC Gamer
    • 91 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    A gorgeous, complex and slick assassination sim, with fascinating systems to play with and huge open levels to explore.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    As a shooter, F.E.A.R. succeeds admirably. It's the first game to convincingly channel the kinetic exhilaration of "John Woo violence" in the FPS format. [Nov 2005, p.48]
    • PC Gamer
    • 93 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    A big, beautiful, sprawling action RPG full of rich stories, and suffused with an oppressive darkness.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    Nioh 2 runs and plays beautifully. Ever since Dark Souls set the world alight, FromSoftware have had plenty of imitators come for the crown. Often, even the better ones come with the caveat of not being as good. Nioh 2, though, evolves what was already unique about Nioh into something that Team Ninja can very much call their own. It might be operating in the same genre space, but Nioh 2 has its own flavour, and it’s like nothing else out there.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    A worthy upgrade to one of the best strategy games ever, featuring the best space battles in the business.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 92 Critic Score
    Stormblood’s rousing tale of rebellion and exceptional boss fights aren’t just exquisite by MMO standards, but rival even the most beloved Final Fantasy games.
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.

Top Trailers