General News - Top 50 PC RPGs

Rock Paper Shotgun updated their top 50 PC RPG list:

The best RPGs on PC

There are a lot of good RPGs, aren't there? This list of the best RPGs was compiled by the collected minds of Adam Smith, Brendan Caldwell, Katharine Castle, Sin Vega, Matthew Castle and Graham Smith.

In the most recent update to this list, we removed 12 games: Dark Souls 3, Divinity: Original Sin, Diablo 2, The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, UnReal World, ADOM, Wasteland 2, Wizardry VIII, Recettear: An Item's Shop Tale, Torchlight 2, Risen and Hand Of Fate. They all remain great games, and the reasons for dismissal vary. With Dark Souls 3 and Original Sin, we decided we'd rather just recommend one game from their respective series. With Hand Of Fate and Diablo 2, we did a straight swap with their sequels. For some of the others, we felt that age had finally caught up with them, or at least that there were newer games we'd recommend first.

Here's the full list as it currently stands, with the new additions noted.

The best RPGs on PC

1. Divinity: Original Sin 2
2. Dark Souls
3. The Witcher 3
4. Mass Effect 2
5. Dragon Age: Origins
6. Deus Ex
7. Baldur's Gate 2
8. Disco Elysium [new entry]
9. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
10. System Shock 2
11. Undertale
12. Nier: Automata
13. Yakuza 0 [new entry]
14. Stardew Valley
15. Planescape: Torment
16. Path Of Exile [new entry]
17. Pillars Of Eternity
18. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
19. Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster [new entry]
20. NEO Scavenger
21. Monster Hunter World
22. Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic
23. Sunless Skies
24. Fallout: New Vegas
25. Mount & Blade: Warband
26. Legend Of Grimrock II
27. Darkest Dungeon
28. Fallout
29. Ultima VII
30. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
31. Final Fantasy XII [new entry]
32. Anachronox
33. Shadowrun Dragonfall Director's Cut
34. Star Traders: Frontiers [new entry]
35. Dragon Quest 11 [new entry]
36. Titan Quest
37. Arcanum: Of Steamworks And Magick Obscura
38. Brogue
39. Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind [new entry]
40. The Witcher 2: Assassins Of Kings [new entry]
41. Avernum: Escape From The Pit
42. Kenshi
43. Din's Curse
44. Vampire: Bloodlines
45. Chrono Trigger [new entry]
46. Diablo 3 [new entry]
47. Dwarf Fortress
48. Hand Of Fate 2 [new entry]
49. Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask Of The Betrayer
50. Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom [new entry]

More information.

In before all the "But games I love are not on the list, and ones I don't agree with are, so this list is pointless" nonsense begins.

Originally Posted by Nereida
In before all the "But games I love are not on the list, and ones I don't agree with are, so this list is pointless" nonsense begins.

You took the time to be in before all that but had nothing to say. It’s not nonsense. It’s the point of these lists, to generate discussion and debate.

I’ll be back with my “nonsense” after i have more time to look at it.

Originally Posted by Nereida
In before all the "But games I love are not on the list, and ones I don't agree with are, so this list is pointless" nonsense begins.

Actually, most of the games I love *are* on the list. A couple aren't, but that's expected from mainstream blind following sites lists (I mean, no Drakensang because RPS never played nonmainstream games).
No discussion could ever change such sites' choices so screw'em.

*shudders*

Plenty of good games on that list. Disagree with the order, of course.

I agree with Nereida. Discussions is of course relevant and as sakichop said the point of lists like this.

But there is a huge step from that to I-disagree-with-the-list-so-it is pointless-and-those-who-made-it-are incompetent|insane|corrupt|whatever - we see posts like that regularly. I think that is the his point. (Correct me if I'm wrong).

It's a list based on what RPS thinks. By all means discuss it (the list, that is), but it's just a list. Nothing more, nothing less.

a pibbur who observes that there are 30414093201713378043612608166064768844377641568960 512000000000000 ways to rank a list of 50 games (not counting removals and additions).

PS: You do what you want, of course. This is just my (pointless?) opinion, nothing more, nothing less. DS.

Originally Posted by a pibbur
I agree with Nereida. Discussions is of course relevant and as sakichop said the point of lists like this.

But there is a huge step from that to I-disagree-with-the-list-so-it is pointless-and-those-who-made-it-are incompetent|insane|corrupt|whatever - we see posts like that regularly. I think that is the his point. (Correct me if I'm wrong).

It's a list based on what RPS thinks. By all means discuss it (the list, that is), but it's just a list. Nothing more, nothing less.

a pibbur who observes that there are 30414093201713378043612608166064768844377641568960 512000000000000 ways to rank a list of 50 games (not counting removals and additions).

PS: You do what you want, of course. This is just my (pointless?) opinion, nothing more, nothing less. DS.

So far there seems to be more people in a state of near panic that someone might laugh uncontrollably at the list than there are people laughing uncontrollably at the list.

Is this how all threads are going to be in the future? Just several posts clawing at the walls about how awful all the posts are going to be? I dunno, that sounds just as awful, or perhaps even more awful, than just letting a couple of people chew the fat for an hour or two…

Today, a Nereida was snarky, and a pibbur was wise.

lackblogger - I'm sorry we ruined the only reason for you checked this thread. In future, I'll respect everyone's need to proclaim how their own tastes are the rightful law and list makers are ignorant click baiters.

Nereida - I'm sorry I ruined the only reason for you checked this thread. In future, I'll just respect everyone's need to proclaim how their own posts are the rightful law and list commentors are all ignorant nonsense spewers.

I quite agree with many if not most of the games in that list, the ones I don't agree with are just not my cup of tea so I haven't even tried them.

They even managed to get the right Final Fantasy games on there (X and XII) instead if the (to me) overrated VII. That's not consistent with their "only one per series" policy that pushed DS3 and DOS out though, I don't see why certain series are allowed multiple entries when others are not? (Some exceptions like Fallout and New Vegas are perfectly understandable, perhaps they reason that if the games are dissimilar enough it's fine).

Of all the games I've played on the list (roughly half) only one or two wouldn't make my own top 50.

Originally Posted by TomRon
That's not consistent with their "only one per series" policy that pushed DS3 and DOS out though, I don't see why certain series are allowed multiple entries when others are not?

As far as I'm aware, each time they update the list they write the name of all 50 current games on a piece of paper and put them in a hat.

They then write the names of all the new games they've been playing recently on a piece of paper and put them in a second hat.

Someone then decides how many new games they want to put on the list, a figure arrived at from years of experience about what is the perfect number to generate the exact right amount of controversy.

They then randomly select this exact number of games from the new games hat. The rest are discarded. These selected winners are then put next to the old games hat.

The same select number of games are then picked out randomly from the old games hat and are discarded. The winners from the new games hat are then added to the hat of old games.

This hat of random games is then given to a junior member of staff as a means of initiation as they then have to write words that somehow correlate to the results, to the wonderous amusement of the old-timers at the site.

Always knew divinity original sin 2 was a batter game than pathfinder kingmaker; and this list proves it

Thanks @lackblogger, that makes perfect sense!

Originally Posted by lackblogger
So far there seems to be more people in a state of near panic that someone might laugh uncontrollably at the list than there are people laughing uncontrollably at the list.

Is this how all threads are going to be in the future? Just several posts clawing at the walls about how awful all the posts are going to be? I dunno, that sounds just as awful, or perhaps even more awful, than just letting a couple of people chew the fat for an hour or two…

For the record: I was commenting on what Nereida said and Sakichop's reply, nothing else, and not on any other existing or future post in the thread. I have no wish to constrain what people write. But I think I'm allowed to for once express my opinion on how we discuss lists like that. I've not done that before, and I'll most likely not do it again (no reason to repeat myself).

So to all of you: write whatever you like, I certainly won't try stop you. I think some types of posts are more useful than others, but I'm not going to keep commenting on it.

a pibbur who thinks he has very little influence on what people do, and is actually grateful for that.

PS. One of my basic principles in life is that several of my opinions are wrong (it's quite obvious, I've changed my views several times and will do so again). Doesn't keep me from saying what I mean, but I does prevent me from putting much prestige into it. DS.

This list is so crap lol.. that is all.

Originally Posted by lackblogger
As far as I'm aware, each time they update the list they write the name of all 50 current games on a piece of paper and put them in a hat.

They then write the names of all the new games they've been playing recently on a piece of paper and put them in a second hat.

Someone then decides how many new games they want to put on the list, a figure arrived at from years of experience about what is the perfect number to generate the exact right amount of controversy.

They then randomly select this exact number of games from the new games hat. The rest are discarded. These selected winners are then put next to the old games hat.

The same select number of games are then picked out randomly from the old games hat and are discarded. The winners from the new games hat are then added to the hat of old games.

This hat of random games is then given to a junior member of staff as a means of initiation as they then have to write words that somehow correlate to the results, to the wonderous amusement of the old-timers at the site.

I hope this is the system your're using for RpgWatch game of the decade.

I think It's just too hard to do a top 50 list. At least for me it would be. I can think of 5 maybe 10 games that I would put head and shoulders above the rest. After that 11-50 would just be a collection of games I thought were pretty good but probably there wouldn't be much to differentiate them from games 51-90.

As for this list I don't have time to go over the number of games I wouldn't have in my top 100 let alone top 50. I will say as Tomron pointed out they seem to ignore their no duplicate games from the same series rule. Also unless I'm missing it Gothic 2 not being in a top 50 list seems a glaring omission.

8. Disco Elysium [new entry]


*facepalm*

Yakuza 0 (an action adventure game) higher than fallout and Ultima VII. Yeah right! And somehow Final Fantasy 10 and 12 make the list when some of the earlier (and superior) games in the series don't. Anyway, not wasting anymore time on this nonsense list.

Everyone knows these kind of lists always have heavy recency bias, and that spawns a lot of debates. But when Kingmaker, from just over a year ago, doesn't even fit into their top 50, then there's no need to even debate - you know the list is actually just plain old horseshit, objectively.