Far too many games these days are built to be played in minor bursts: brief encounters, designed for a world with also few hours in the solar day and also many digital distractions. And that's fine! Blasting through a few rounds ofValorantorRocket Leaguematches is a wonderful manner to spend some time.
But sometimes, yous desire something more than—somethingmeatier. Whether you're looking for an entertaining way to blow a long stint at dwelling or simply desire to wrap your head around a satisfyingly complex feel, these 20 deep, intricate, and just plaingreat PC games will agree you for hours and hours and hours on end. They're the all-time long PC games that you can play, and better yet in a time where it'due south difficult to get your hands on a new graphics card, many of them can exist streamed via GeForce Now or Xbox Game Pass'southward cloud streaming as well—no GPU required.
The best long PC games
Age of Empires 4
Microsoft
All these years later, Age of Empires II remains a gold standard in the real-time strategy genre, and information technology's merely getting stronger with the actress attention devoted to the recent Definite Edition release—but that's not the only way to scratch that AoE itch. Historic period of Empires IV stays truthful (almost too true, at times) to the classic formula, offering 4 campaigns (each with branching civ-specific landmark choices that change your empire's direction in unlike means) and eight unlike empires to play in skirmish battles or multiplayer clashes. Each civilization brings its own quirks and advantages to the table, and as ever, you tin win the game in several different means, from scoring a religious victory to edifice and holding a tardily-game Wonder.
It'due south not quite as deep as AoE 2 is still—that game has been out and existence tweaked for over 20 years—only Age of Empires IV is however fun and deep. Better yet, information technology'due south a strong foundation for updates yet to come, and yous tin can play it for "free" as part of a monthly Xbox Games Pass subscription, the all-time bargain in PC gaming.
Forza Horizon v
Microsoft
Forza Horizon remains the all-time pure arcade racer around, and Forza Horizon 5 perfects the serial' flatulent open-world action. Chasing down vehicles hidden in barns throughout Mexico never gets boring, especially when new races or goodies hide effectually seemingly every curve. Simply changing car classes can change the feel of almost every race (before you fifty-fifty wade into tuning your vehicles) and you can even create your own racing challenges, or play challenges crafted past others. If y'all're a completionist who wants to cross off every box and collect all 500-plus cars, yous'll be blasting down streets for a long, long, long time—and enjoying every over-the-top second of it.
Similar Historic period of Empires Iv, you can snag Forza Horizon 5 on Steam, but it's as well bachelor as role of a $x per month Xbox Games Laissez passer for PC subscription.
Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade
Concluding Fantasy Vii Remake Intergrade
Remaking 1 of the well-nigh love JRPGs of all time took a very,very long time, and could take hands missed the mark, but this 're-imagining' of the classic Last Fantasy VII gets virtually everything right. It's not a truthful remaster with merely up-rezzed avails over the original, it literally retells and respins the tale of Cloud, Aerith, and Sephiroth with the same broad-brush strokes while going far deeper than the original always could. But information technology's non merely the story that has inverse, the combat now forgoes the traditional turn-based style in favor of team-based action that feels both frantic and fluid in pleasing ways. While the PC port of Terminal Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade is lackluster, if you're a fan of the original and want to dive back into that world, this is well worth your time.
Back 4 Blood
Back 4 Claret, the spiritual successor to the Left 4 Dead series—by L4D developers Turtle Rock, no less—offers a surprisingly long entrada, and like past games the replayability value is very high in this one. Calculation to the tried-and-true zombie shooting is a new card arrangement that mixes up the combat encounters in many ways for both you and your teammates. Information technology'southward a tougher feel that requires more patience to go through, but the payoff for immigration a level is only that much greater.
Mass Outcome: Legendary Edition
C'monday. It'sMass Outcome—and no, not just the start one, but all iii games in the iconic sci-fi space epic, forth with all of the DLC and expansions for each. That'southwell over 100 hours worth of gameplay. If you've never played the trilogy, you owe it to yourself to finally practice so (it truly is legendary). And even if you've already battled the reapers and wooed your crewmates as Captain Shepard, information technology's worth diving back in afterward all these years thank you to theLegendary Edition's graphical upgrades, increased technical polish, and rejiggered mechanics forME1.
Days Gone
Former PlayStation exclusiveDays Gone made the leap over to PC in early on 2021, following in the footsteps ofHorizon Zero Dawn. This game doesn't get equally much love equallyHZD, but a large role of that is due to its wearisome fire of an opening—information technology takesDays Gone many hours to really boot it into high gear, and some people burn out in the opening human action. But if you stick with it, you'll find a lot to like in this gritty mail service-apocalypse open up-earth zombie game, including a sick motorcycle and some truly terrifying hordes that come up at y'all similar an ocean of death. (It's currently sitting pretty with a "Very Positive" rating on Steam after thousands of reviews.) If you breeze through the master story yous'll wrap this upwards in around 50 hours, simply How Long To Shell says the game can last up to about 100 hours if y'all're wandering at your leisure and tracking down all the extras.Days Gone, indeed.
Valheim
We don't normally consider Early on Access games for lists like this—you know, since they're not finished—butValheim deserves an exception. Not only is the game incredibly polished and feature-filled for its land, but it'south also a genuine sensation, selling overvi million copies in its first month on the streets. Hot damn.
If you lot haven't heard ofValheim, it'southward a cooperative survival RPG where you lot and upwards to x other players control Vikings in a "procedurally generated purgatory," battling against nature and monsters while trying to establish a foothold in the globe via impressive base-edifice mechanics. (You tin play information technology solo, too.) Slowly gaining skills and materials to be able to start exploring more of the massive open world never fails to satisfy. After you pick off the boss in each biome, various events ensue as a issue—killing the frost dragon volition ship mountain drakes into a rage and provoke them into attacking your encampments, for example.
At that place'southward all the same plenty of room for improvements, simplyValheim already delivers a deep, meaty chance with amazing blindside-for-buck considering its humble $xx price tag. It's a social experience like no other. And hey, you can go fishing!
Microsoft Flight Simulator
The series sat dormant for years, onlyMicrosoft Flying Simulator 2020 was worth the wait. The calibration and scope of the game—yous can explore the entire world!—stuns, and it's fabricated even more impressive by the apply of real-time atmospheric condition provided by Microsoft's Azure service. Shortly afterwards the game launched, a hurricane struck the The states, and you lot could fly into the middle of information technology inFlying Simulator while the storm battered the coastline. That makes revisiting previously toured locales rewarding over and over again, specially since the bachelor planes each handle very differently. Dust off that flight stick and fix to be enthralled for a long, long time.
Hitman iii
The terminal chapter of Agent 47'due south modernistic adventures,Hitman 3 isn't long in the traditional sense. Each of the half-dozen levels can exist beaten in an hour or so if you lot know what you're doing, and new players will probably blow through the campaign in about a dozen hours.
You lot don't buyHitmanto mainline the campaign though.
Like theHitmanandHitman 2 games that precede it (which I highly recommend playing outset),Hitman 3's levels are massive, intricate, and distinctive cause-and-result murder sandboxes, with seemingly endless ways to neutralize your targets. A big function of the fun is replaying levels not once, not twice, butdozensof times—finding new areas, trying out fresh disguises, and discovering delightfully offbeat ways to stealthily kill people—in the quest for new loftier scores and, hopefully, an elusive Silent Assassin rating. IO Interactive's modHitman trilogy has been one of the near spectacular gaming successes in contempo retentivity, a pitch-perfect blend of old-school and new-school, seriousness and silliness. If you give yourself fully to information technology, you'll observe hours and hours of hilariously macabre fun. Yous can play the tutorial level for gratuitous if you want to get a feel for the mechanics.
Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remaster
Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne
While the Persona series has seen more than popularity in the west, the mainline Shin Megami Tensei JRPG series is very like, yet very dissimilar at the aforementioned fourth dimension. Persona games tend have a heavy focus on up-trounce teenage stories of a team taking on the world, while the SMT games are typically darker and solitary. Sure, in Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne HD Remaster y'all have a political party just like in Persona, simply instead of getting to know a set grapheme roster through a scripted story, over the course of SMT III you recruit demons that you fight in the world to circular out your political party, and they're typically dispensable. In fact, it'southward probably best non to go too fastened to political party members considering SMT III is known for its steep difficulty. Y'all will lose demons and you will frequently die yourself. Grindy turn-based combat is the name of the game here. If y'all do manage to make it through Shin Megami Tensei Three: Nocturne, you will feel similar a god and be pleased to know you lot fabricated information technology through one of the best HD remasters out there.
Yakuza serial
It's been a long time coming but theYakuza games are finally on PC, including the newerYakuza half-dozen and zany—notwithstanding touching—spinoffLike A Dragon.
It's a journey worth taking.Yakuza vacillates between silliness and soap opera with more than grace than whatever other serial, making you laugh right before it punches you in the gut. Information technology's a fascinating dichotomy, and only becomes more interesting over time as you lot get to know Kazuma Kiryu, Majima, and the rest ofYakuza'due south sprawling cast. The metropolis is a character in itself as well, with Kiryu'south modest slice of Tokyo evolving over the grade of multiple decades. New buildings appear, sometime ones disappear, and occasionally Kiryu's deportment leave scars the metropolis never quite recovers from. Information technology'due south an incredible saga.
Elite: Dangerous
A sequel to the loveAristocracy from the Amiga-era days,Elite: Dangerousismassive. This mammoth game drops you into the middle of a ginormous universe with more than400 billion—aye,billion—individual star systems, each with their own planets, infinite stations, asteroids, players, and more. And new things are being added all the time, aided by the game's connectivity requirement. Merely traveling from our reviewer'southward starting indicate to Earth's home system took roughly thirty hours.
Elite: Unsafe would be well served past better introductory tutorials. Just for sheer size and scope, near no game beats this living, animate universe, which receives ongoing updates, adding in things like gameplay enhancements, more story, and even total-fledged alien invasions. The game fifty-fifty just added foot-based combat with theOdysseyexpansion after years of focusing on vehicular gameplay. Eat your center out,Star Denizen.
Wasteland 3
Wasteland 2was our favorite game of 2014, heralding a glorious return to class for CRPGs.Wasteland 3is better in every style, with wonderfully defined worldbuilding, much more streamlined gameplay, and a story that keeps y'all hooked. The turn-based tactical gameplay never starts to feel stale, different the end ofWasteland two, and the game is brilliant at responding to your choices. Crucially, it's much more than polished too.
IsWasteland iiiinnovative? Not actually. But it's terrifically executed. This is the truthfulFalloutsuccessor that Bethesda never delivered. Don't miss out on this lightheaded, yet serious mail service-apocalyptic thrill ride.
Crusader Kings Three
It's non easy running a state, butCrusader Kings Three issignificantly easier on newcomers than its dearest—but dumbo—predecessor. The deep tutorial is a much-needed improvement, but Paradox likewise added a heavy coat of polish that makes the game feel much more friendly. Of course, that friendliness disappears the second your nephew initiates a plot with a coven of witches to try to assume your throne, justCrusader Kings III easily stands out as the best grand strategy game yet, with incredible levels of complexity, flexibility, and insane political machinations.
Crusader Kings Ii became a cult classic.Crusader Kings III seized the crown outright. You can sink hundreds of hours into this and however barely scratch the surface.
Cyberpunk 2077
Equally CD Projekt Red's beginning triple-A game later the legendaryWitcher 3,Cyberpunk 2077 wound up becoming hyped to impossible levels, then saw its reputation dragged through the mud when the game launched in a dire state on last-gen consoles. Don't allow that scare you lot off it on PC, though. Sure, in that location are bugs, butCyberpunk 2077'south Nighttime Urban center feels alive like no other virtual metropolis, with dense streets and an unprecedented verticality that opens up all style of paths. You'll observe secrets tuckedeverywhere too. CD Projekt's writing remains best-in-form, the deep character builds allow immense flexibility in play styles, missions oft have more one available consequence, and a robust photo mode provides hours of extra amusement if you're into that sort of thing.
Cyberpunk 2077's story tin be completed in a couple dozen hours if you stick to the chief quests, but the real depth lies in the arable side missions and gigs, and simply exploring every nook and cranny of Night Metropolis. Take your time and enjoy—though since the character builds are so varied, and the quests offer then many outcomes, you can hop right dorsum in with a totally dissimilar playthrough equally soon as you're washed.
Cerise Expressionless Redemption 2
Rockstar'south critically acclaimed and utterlymassive open-world western finally landed on PCs a long year afterward its console debut, just the wait was worthwhile.Red Dead Redemption 2 on PC is the definitive way to play, with options galore and luscious graphics that can even bring a fearsome GeForce RTX 2080 Ti to its knees if you creepo up all the eye candy.
Information technology's one of the longer games in recent retention too, fleshed out even more by all the diversions. We've been even more enthralled by just wandering the massive landscape, hunting animals, ownership pomade for Arthur Morgan'southward mustache, and caring for our horse than the actual story. Rockstar truly made a living earth here, and yous'll desire to get lost in information technology for a while—especially if the superb Photo Manner sinks its hooks into you.
Temtem
Pokemon, for all its popularity, has never actually had a great PC equivalent—until now.Temtem is a "loving homage," by which I hateful it's as close toPokemon every bit you could get without being sued. It's the knock-off Oreos of video games.
Still, I'm not complaining. Sure, it'south a chip disorienting visiting Professor Konstantinos and picking from three starter Temtems and capturing your start definitely-not-Pidgey in a card instead of a brawl. Y'all go used to information technology though, andTemtem fifty-fifty improves on the source material in some ways, upping the difficulty and depth with 2-on-two battles. I wish information technology was less of a grind, but hey, information technology'south in Early on Access and information technology's as close to a competentPokemon clone as we've always received on PC.
Disco Elysium
Disco Elysiumis likePlanescape Torment, ifPlanescapeplopped you in the shoes of an amnesiac drug-addicted cop recovering from 1 hell of a bender in the middle of a murder investigation. And, uh, your party consisted of the warring voices and emotions shouting in your caput instead of other people. And there was no combat.
It's the most transformative RPG we've played in a long time, and the best PC game of 2019. Meliorate yet, information technology transforms around you, heavily adapting to the skills you choose, the voices in your caput you make up one's mind to listen to, and whether or not you decide to play things direct or indulge the wild impulses suggested by those whispers. It'southward wild stuff—much more than we can get into here. Check out our review for more details. And it's more than than you can likely seize with teeth off also, as the developers say the game last 60 to xc hours, and it justscreamsfor repeated playthroughs.
If you prefer your deep roleplaying experiences with a moreFallout-y vibe thanDisco Elysium's strict CRPG roots, check out Obsidian'sThe Outer Worlds, a.grand.a. theFallout: New Vegas spiritual successor yous ever pined for. It's great.
Planet Zoo
Planet Zoo is dangerous. While writing this, I idea "I judge I'll pop into the Steam Workshop and see what people accept been working on." Then almost an hour disappeared, as I dug into donation bin covers and custom blossom arrangements and unlike fences and reptile houses and—wow, apparently someone made a McDonald'due south?
There's an incredible construction set at the center of Frontier's builders, bothPlanet Coaster and nowPlanet Zoo. If you want to pattern every last item of an showroom, every establish and rock and water feature, then there'southward zip better thanPlanet Zoo. And if yous just want to watch the simulation play out, lookout animals go about their lives? Yeah, information technology's pretty nifty for that also.
Information technology's one of those games I'g always sad to finish playing—and subsequently tonight's trip through Steam Workshop, it looks like it's about time to start once more.
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous
At that place's nothing quite like a adept isometric role-playing game to suck you into its grap, and this sequel to 2018's ambitious Pathfinder: Kingmaker ups the ante in nearly every fashion. The game engine received a massive overhaul to address concerns from the previous game, and Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous is much easier to play than its predecessor thank you to a great on-boarding process and improved tooltips. The story is dissever from Kingmaker, but yet follows an take a chance path of the same name from the Pathfinder tabletop franchise, and then don't worry if you haven't played the older release. Wrath of the Righteous features deep and involved quests, mind-bending combat encounters, and enough of customization options that will keep you decorated for many weeks and months to come.
Final Fantasy Fourteen
I can't believe nosotros got here. Lest we forget:Final Fantasy XIV was so bad upon initial release, Square Enix killed information technology dead.Cached it. So they rebuilt basically the unabridged game from scratch and releasedFinal Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn.
Merely from ignominious beginnings arose perhaps the all-time MMO of the modernistic era. Maybe even more than that. According to our own Leif Johnson, "There'southward no longer any question thatFinal Fantasy Fourteen warrants inclusion in discussions of the all-timeFinal Fantasy games of all time." The grab? Yous'll need to put in up of 100 hours in order to experience its best bits, working your way through six years of story and the accompanying grind. Then once again, that'southward perfect for this article, so what are yous waiting for? Better create your very ain cat-lady and give it a go.
Divinity: Original Sin two
The first Divinity: Original Sinwas 1 of the all-time PC games of 2014 thank you to its deep systematic combat, which felt like what isometric CRPGs could have been if they had thrived over the years instead of temporarily dying in the early 2000s.Divinity: Original Sin 2 is better in every mode, and sits abreastThe Witcher 3 every bit one of the all-time role-playing games released this decade.
Original Sin ii doubles down on theXCOM-like mechanics of the original, but the real improvement came in the story. To say narrative was an afterthought in the original would exist an understatement.Divinity: Original Sin 2 steps it up, weaving compelling dialogue together with Larian's hallmark mechanics-offset approach. Every quest, dialogue, and interaction is modified by your grapheme's unique traits, such as race and upbringing—doubly so if you play equally one of five preset "Origin" characters.
This game clocks in at a meaty eighty-plus hours. The ability to curl your own characters, shift around the characters of your party, or even play the whole thing in four-player co-op gives the game near endless replayability. Play this!
No Man's Heaven
No Homo'due south Sky might never be the game people wanted it to be pre-release, only it's gotten damn close over the past few years later a slew of serious (free) upgrades. Multiplayer! Better crafting! Base edifice!
As I said when nosotros re-evaluated the game, "If you're nonetheless somehow hoping for that 'Wow' moment, exploring this 'limitless' universe, I don't think you'll find it."No Man's Sky is still the greatest example of procedural generation'southward failings, as you lot go on seeing the aforementioned plants and stone formations andet cetera across the entire universe, watching the ingredients combined and recombined into "new" combinations similar a video game version of the Taco Bell menu.
That said, really playingNo Homo'due south Heaven has improved a lot since release. If you're looking for a lite space sim, anElite Dangerous or aStar Denizen where you can lean your chair back and explore in peace, it's worth a 2d look—especially if you bought it in 2016 and it'south still kicking around in your Steam library. I'm sure that applies to some of you reading this.
Witcher three
The last chapter of witcher Geralt of Rivia's trilogy mixes the grim, realistic atmosphere the serial is famous for with an open earth reminiscent ofSkyrim—but oh so different.
Rather than ruining the experience, I'll just say thatWitcher iii: Wild Hunt earned a rare v-star review, easily won PCWorld's 2015 game of the year award, and is my personal favorite game of all time. If you lot're rushing, yous'll wrap it upward in 60 to 80 hours. Feeling more than explorative? Expect to spend as much equally 200 hours-plus wandering the world, slaying monsters, and that'sbefore yous dip into the fantastic expansions.
XCOM 2
XCOM ii ratchets the tension even college than the original reboot by puttingyou on the law-breaking, as XCOM becomes a guerrilla force in a world conquered by aliens. You command a strength of soldiers putting their lives on the line to conquer the threat. That'south no joke: If i of the commandos nether your watch dies, he stays dead, taking his hard-won experience with him. Too many wrong moves could exit your squad stacked with rookies rather than grizzled vets, possibly forcing you into restarting the game.
XCOM 2's tactical, turn-based gainsay is tough, with both maps and enemies randomized for every battle, but the game gives you enough of fourth dimension to think through your moves. During the strategic stage betwixt missions, you bargain with organizational tasks—managing finances, expanding XCOM'south influence, researching newly uncovered alien tech,et cetera. You accept to balance between striking the aliens where it hurts while fugitive their counterattacks, juggling scarce resources all the while. Information technology's excellent.
The game offers nigh endless replayability, but if you get sick of the basic scheme, two additional modes ploughXCOM 2into whole new games, essentially.State of war of the Called is an official expansion by Firaxis that adds a ton of new factions, enemies, storylines, weapons, and more, while the sublimeLong War 2 full conversion modern greatly extends the duration of the game and ramps up the importance of the strategic map and resource planning. They're both fantabulous, full end.
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