GAMES TO PLAY IN 2017

BEST PC GAMES TO PLAY IN 2017

Here it is: our exhaustive list of just about every new game coming to PC in 2017

Our guide to the new games of 2017 is broken down by genre, and we've updated it with the most recent release date info we have, from promising indie games to the biggest PC series. Of course, with dozens of games hitting Steam every day, we can't hit everything. But this list of new PC games are the ones we think you should keep an eye on. For the surprise releases, check out our weekly guide to five new Steam games you probably missed this week. There's even more goodness in there that you won't find on this massive list.

Now it's time to buckle in. There's a lot to cover.

We'll update this post throughout the year to keep up with new announcements and game releases.

Table of contents

Action and FPS
Action and FPS (cont.)
2D action
Fighting and brawlers
RPGs
MMOs
Exploration and survival
Strategy and sims
Platforming and puzzle
Adventure games
Sports and racing games

Action and FPS

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Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus

Release date: October 27, 2017
Developer: MachineGames

It’s a game about shooting Nazis, of course. Some people say there are too many games about shooting Nazis, but we say: nope. This sequel to the 2014 reboot sees BJ Blazkowicz taking the fight to the United States, and will feature more ludicrous, unrealistic weaponry compared to its predecessor. MachineGames doesn’t seem to be departing from the relatively linear, narrative focused template it established with The New Order, but the studio has also proven it doesn’t really need to.

Assassin's Creed: Origins

Release date: October 27, 2017
Developer: Ubisoft

An open secret for months, E3 2017 finally confirmed that Assassin's Creed is headed to Egypt. It also looks to be making the biggest changes to the series formula since it started. There's an RPG-style skill tree, Far Cry-style time and nature systems at work, and a lot more. Ubisoft has (rather symbolically) done away with the icon-strewn mini map. Oh, and you have an eagle companion—a very promising feature for eagle enthusiasts worldwide. 

Middle-earth: Shadow of War

Release date: 2017
Developer: Monolith Productions

A sequel to the surprisingly good 2014 orc slayer Shadow of Mordor that so far looks to be seriously expanding on the Nemesis system with a huge variety of stories and personalities for enemies and allies, with a new strategy layer on top of the open world combat and adventuring. The environments look a bit more colourful and diverse this time (thanks to no longer being set exclusively in Mordor). Also check out the new cinematic trailer which debuted at the PC Gaming Show. 

Destiny 2

Release date: 2017
Developer: Bungie

PC's not missing out this time around: Bungie's MMO shooter is making its grand debut on PC this fall with the sequel, which the Destiny faithful are already head over heels for. It's out on September 8 on consoles, but we don't know when it'll hit the PC just yet. As Tim wrote in our hands-on: "I sank an ungodly amount of time into the original, but having played Destiny 2’s first campaign mission and Strike through multiple times, and dabbled in some PvP, there’s absolutely no question in my mind now that the PC version is going to be the definitive one. Yes it sucks that we’re getting it later, and doubly so that we don’t how much later, but if the final version retains the polish we saw today, it’ll be worth the wait."

Rising Storm 2: Vietnam

Release date: 2017
Developer: Tripwire

We loved the asymmetry of Rising Storm, the authenticity-focused WWII shooter we named our Multiplayer Game of the Year in 2013, and it's even more dramatic in the Vietnam-set sequel. The Americans are loud and fast, skimming the treetops with helicopters, while the Viet Cong spawn in squad tunnels, appearing behind capture points and ambushing LZs. More than being a good shot, strictly managed teamwork remains the key to success. Tyler tried his hand at both piloting helicopters and manning their guns, and found it nigh on impossible to hit anything without spotters and direction over comms.

The addition of modern, automatic weapons might be an even bigger shift for the series than helicopters, though, as part of the Red Orchestra and Rising Storm identity has been their demand for precision aiming with bolt-action and semi-auto weapons. But the quest for authenticity hasn’t changed here. Rising Storm 2: Vietnam’s guns aren’t easy to handle by any means, and scoring kills still sometimes means picking out specks on the horizon and taking cautious, well-planned shots. Read more about Vietnam’s helicopters, guns, and new mode in our hands-on preview from August.

Call of Duty: WWII

 Release date: November 3, 2017
Developer: Sledgehammer Games, Raven Software

We're going back to World War 2. This Call of Duty's revolutionary introduction? Health packs. The CoD:WWII multiplayer reveal trailer is directed like any other free-camera gameplay montage, but despite masking the real look of it, we do learn a lot: there are paratroopers, objectives like bomb planting and vehicle escorts, and what appear to be bombing and strafing killstreaks. After Sony’s show, we learned a bit more from Activision about how the replacement for create-a-class works, and what sort of weapons to expect. Evan got some hands-on time in, and was pleased to find that the new War Mode brings real change to the series. 

Dishonored: Death of the Outsider

Release date: September 15, 2017
Developer: Arkane Studios

This is not an expansion: it’s a standalone, budget-priced Dishonored game starring ex-Whalers lieutenant Billie Lurk. The best thing about playing as a new protagonist will be, of course, the new powers, and Billie appears to have some cool ones: for instance the ‘displace’ ability which allows movement through walls. We don’t know how substantial this outing will be compared to the main Dishonored games, but more time spent in this universe is welcome. 

Lawbreakers

Release date: August 8, 2017
Developer: Boss Key

Boss Key's frenetic multiplayer FPS will arrive this August following its final closed beta in early July, as announced during the PC Gaming Show. Cliff Bleszinski has says he's not attempting to take on Overwatch, but we'll soon see if Lawbreakers manages to stand out—our hands-on time with the shooter has proved enjoyable, and the $30 price tag should help. 

Sea of Thieves

Release date: 2017
Developer: Rare

Rare's ambitious pirating MMO adventure (or, more accurately, massively co-op adventure) aims to let you do whatever you'd expect from the pirate life alongside a crew of your best mateys. That means searching for treasure, drinking grog, sailing, and fighting ship battles against other pirate crews, but Rare still seems to be working out the exact scope of your activities and how this living pirate world will work. The most interesting choice is the bold lack of UI. You'll find almost no sign of reticles or health bars or maps or any of the usual clutter in Sea of Thieves.

Friday the 13th: The Game 

Release date: May 26, 2017
Developer: Gun Media

Delayed a few months so the devs could include a single-player mode with bots, this asymmetrical multiplayer game pits one player—as the unstoppable movie slasher Jason Voorhees—against the rest, who play as campers at Crystal Lake, the one place everyone should know by now is not a great place to camp. Jason will enjoy all manner of brutal means to dispatch his prey, be it smashing their faces into a tree, impaling them on spikes, or just going hog-wild with a machete. Campers won’t be entirely helpless, however, and we’re promised that by working together it is in fact possible not to simply elude and survive, but to actually take Jason down.

Dusk

Release date: 2017
Developer: David Szymanski

An ode to southern gothic horror and Quake-era FPS design, Dusk is aiming for the low-poly scares and hectic precision shooter action a good chunk of PC gamers grew up on. So far, it’s pitch perfect, throwing chainsaw-wielding maniacs, witches, and all sorts of occult enemies your way in massive levels hiding secrets rooms, weapons, and bosses in every corner.

Metal Gear Survive

Release date: 2017
Developer: Konami

A
four-player co-op stealth game with zombies that is also Metal Gear? Well, OK. We expected
things would change at Konami post-Kojima, and this is certainly a change. After being sucked out of Mother Base by a rogue wormhole, you wake up in an alien landscape that looks suspiciously like the Middle East, and must battle hordes of the undead with your fellow grunts. There’s plenty of MGS 5-style stealth, fulton devices, and both base infiltration and defense in the 15 minutes of gameplay you can see below.

Vanquish

Release date: May 25, 2017 (Out now)
Developer: Platinum Games

The dream Sega port from last generation. Shinji Mikami's take on Gears of War finally gets its chance to shine on PC with unlocked framerate and resolution support. Combo a slide into a slow-mo shotgun blast to the face. Dodge a hundred missiles and punch a giant robot in the face. Defeat evil Space Russians. This is one hell of a third person shooter.

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds

Release date: March 23, 2017 (Out now in Early Access)
Developer: Bluehole, Inc.

The hit of the year, a refined version of the now-booming battle royale genre that started with Arma and continued in H1Z1. 100 players parachute into an expansive map and scramble for weapons as a killzone slowly constricts around them, narrowing the playfield until only one remains. As we wrote around release, "Battlegrounds isn't a simulation, but it retains plenty of Arma's spirit. Using your eyes to spot and track enemies is an essential skill, for example. When you see someone running across a field, there's this 'I know something you don't know' sensation—I can totally shoot this guy, he doesn't see me, you'll think. But like Arma and DayZ, it's usually not a matter of putting them under your crosshairs and jabbing the left mouse button. You want to wait until they're out in the open, when they're checking their inventory, when they're preoccupied and aloof. In these moments, I love the way Battlegrounds asks me to think critically and examine an enemy's body language, check which towns are nearby, or guess based on the state of the ever-changing safe zone what that enemy might do next."

The Signal From Tolva

Release date: April 10, 2017 (Out now)
Developer: Big Robot Ltd

A first person shooter that's more about mystery and nuance than blasting away, as you take control of a robot on an alien planet and explore a smartly compact open world. As we said in our review, Tolva is "a lean, intelligent sci-fi shooter with a watchmaker’s eye for detail that knows its strengths and plays to them beautifully."

Ghost Recon: Wildlands

Release date: March 7, 2017 (Out now)
Developer: Ubisoft Paris

Take a big open world, stuff it with 100 Far Cry-type outpost missions, and jump in with some co-op partners. Ghost Recon: Wildlands takes place in a Bolivian landmass where four players comprise a military taskforce sent to disrupt a drug cartel and the government it’s aligned with. While players may have a specific missions—whether it’s to steal some intel or kidnap an informant—how they choose to tackle it is up to them. Guns blazing? Stealth? Or, as often happens, failed stealth that leads to guns blazing?

The open world—the first in Ghost Recon’s ten-game history—promises diverse environments like mountains, forests, and deserts, explorable by ground vehicles, helicopters, and parachutes. The setting is close to modern day, so weapons and gear aren’t as futuristic as they have been in earlier Recon games. 

We had some fun with Wildlands, but as we wrote in our review, it's "not worth it as a solo adventure. In co-op, Wildlands is an enjoyable stealth romp that too often gets in its own way."

Prey

Release date: May 5, 2017 (Out now)
Developer: Arkane

New Prey has nothing to do with the old Prey, or Prey 2, which was cancelled back in 2014. Now in the hands of Arkane’s Austin studio, Prey is only familiar in name. Set in
an alternate history where President Kennedy was never assassinated, the Soviets and the States continued their rivalry, until one took control of the Kletka Program, a space installation meant to control an alien threat. The project is eventually abandoned, and a corporation takes over (uh-oh), turning the station into “a cutting edge innovation center” called Talos 1. Big surprise, things don’t go well.

In our review, we found that "it's let down by lacklustre combat and some annoying enemy design, but Prey is still a compelling, beautiful immersive sim."

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

Release date: January 24, 2017 (Out now)
Developer: Capcom

The spooks came early in 2017, with a first-person Resident Evil that we loved. "It’s a return to the atmospheric, slow-burning horror of the original, with a few nods to contemporary games like Alien: Isolation and Amnesia," wrote Andy in our review. Later, he elaborated on how the game saved a troubled series. 

Needless to say, Andy's a fan, as is the rest of PC Gamer. James also tried RE7 on PSVR and lamented the exclusivity deal that's currently preventing us from such a good (horrifying) VR experience on PC. It's a damn shame, as he said, but otherwise the PC version is in good shape—outside of its 90 fps cap and lack of ultrawide support.

Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition

Release date: April 7, 2017 (Out now)
Developer: People Can Fly

A remaster of
a wildly over-the-top, inventive FPS that asks you to electro-whip enemies into spike traps and explosions and your big-ass boot as often as you shoot them. It's still a blast if you missed it the first time around. The old version's cheap on Steam, while the new Full Clip edition includes remastered graphics and audio, a campaign mode that gives you every weapon from the start, and more levels for the score attack Echo mode. Oh, and you can play the whole campaign as Duke Nukem, with new dialogue that probably includes a lot of cuss words. We love Bulletstorm, but found this to be a pricey remaster.

Sniper Elite 4

Release date: February 14, 2017 (Out now)
Developer: Rebellion Developments

If you don’t have a date for Valentine’s Day, no worries: you can
spend your the romantic holiday shooting Nazis in the nuts. We got a look at
Sniper Elite 4 during 2016’s GDC, and the World War II third-person sandbox shooter featured stealth, melee kills, and a whole lot of disturbingly graphic slow-motion x-ray sniper shots the series is famous for. Turns out it's "a hearty improvement on Sniper Elite 3 that embraces freeform play, gets better in co-op, and most importantly lets us shoot things from very far away," according to our review.

Strafe

Release date: May 9, 2017 (Out now)
Developer: Pixel Titans

Strafe is a deliberately antiquated FPS, borrowing from the bread and butter simplicity of Quake’s breakneck template. It’s not just a nostalgia trip, though: Strafe
is also pulls from Rogue. In our review, we found that Strafe "skillfully recaptures the look and experience of a full-tilt twitch 1990s shooter while faltering at building upon its potential."

Desync

Release date: February 28, 2017 (Out now)
Developer: The Foregone Syndicate

Coated in the neon colour schemes of 1980s cyberpunk, Desync is among the most visually striking shooters you’re likely to see in 2017. Developed by Melbourne studio The Foregone Syndicate, Desync is a precision-oriented twitch shooter with a focus on performative gameplay: basically, it rewards you for pulling off kills in the most spectacular ways possible. The studio is also working on a bafflingly granular leaderboard system, incentivising stylish play. If you can imagine a strange meeting of Hotline Miami, Lovely Planet, and Quake, you’re close to how Desync plays out. Sadly, we thought it was a shooter with no heart.