My top 5 PC games of 2017

TOP 5 PC GAMES 2017

This is my list of MY top PC games from 2017. It's a selection of some of the games I have played during the year and found to be outstanding in nature, price and style.

This years list includes 5 different games all based on what I have been playing!

Terrorhedron

Summary

This is a tower defence game where you level up to gain more powerful defence weapons. You place turrets on fixed hard points in a 3D environment, upgrade them with credits obtained from damaging and destroying tetrahedron shapes. The shapes go from a 3D triangle shape all the way to large many sided balls with varying colour shifts the bigger they get. For example, the biggest ones, I have come across are dark in colour and have a large number of layers, you destroy each shape and it reduces the number of sides until it gets down to its 3D triangle, if there's another layer underneath, that spawns back as a ball and so on until it has been eliminated or gets to the end of the run. This game is unique in that you can layer multiple weapons on a single hard point by adding 1 to 3 sided blocks or 1 to 5 sided cubes. When I say 5, its a 6 sided cube but one is always used as the attachment to the hard point below. These can be layered as long as they are in range of the oncoming tetrahedrons.

Issues

This game is not without its problems however, in single player mode, it is almost impossible to pass levels, but in multi-player mode, you get the added bonus of a little extra credit split between more of you. In reality it doesn't make much difference credit wise but it appears to make the game easier.

There is a huge issue with desync in this game but if you know the first and only major rule, the host rules, then you will never have to worry about rogue tetra(hedron)s. Whatever happens on the host computer dictates what you are going to get. If the host is about to lose but you cant see it because you thought it was a great level, it can get frustrating. The desyncs however are fairly random and not related to the hardware at all.

Integration

The game nicely integrates with steams system allowing you to join through invite to game or to choose a player who's already playing it and connect to their game without the rig-moral of IP addresses.

Basic information

• Platforms: Steam (Windows)
• Release Date: 18 December 2011
• Singleplayer: Yes
• Multiplayer: Coop, upto 8 players
• Installation disk space usage: 272MB

Game rating: 8/10

Not maximum due to its bugs. The game has not been updated in 3 years since 2015 at time of writing. It is however VERY cheap, even when not on sale!

8 Bit Armies

Summary

A worthy game is 8 bit for any strategy game player. I will start with the immediate negative that you are unable to save a game in progress. This should be a must have for any strategy game player who wishes to play games with hordes. However, saying that, even on a large map and maxing out resource usage, 2 player games can last up to around 2 hours. So what do you do? Pretty simple. You place down buildings, within range of each other, you send out collectors to get you credits and you build an army of epic scale in order to destroy your enemy. There are a number of different factions, each one has its own speciality and there are sets of 2. Each set of 2 is specifically matched against each other and can really make a huge difference to the outcome by selecting the wrong one. I would highly recommend discussing which factions to use with your enemies before starting a game. The game has, like all good strategy games, ground units, ground vehicles and air units as well as healers and other support vehicles. There's cloaks, nukes and super power units on top of this too which you can utilise to ensure the swift destruction of your enemy.

Issues

As I initially said, you are unable to save a game in progress so you have to finish it off or resign if you need to stop playing for any reason. The days of age of empires have gone for a large portion of modern strategy games which is annoying for those of us who either need to pause the game for a couple of minutes or call a temporary truce as its 2 in the morning and you have work the following day.

Units are EXTREMELY unbalanced, there have been a few attempts to rectify this and the game does appear to be a little more balanced but you can almost guarantee which battles you can win and lose just by seeing what faction your enemies select. For example, tanks can run people over and there are a couple of factions units which do not have the ability to destroy them fast enough and so just get run over!

Integration

The game integrates with steams friend list in a similar way to Terrorhedron and therefore is as integrated as any other game making joining multi-player games simpler.

Basic information

• Platforms: Steam (Windows)
• Release Date: 22 Apr, 2016
• Singleplayer: Yes
• Multiplayer: Coop and VS, upto 8 players
• Installation disk space usage: 2,290MB (2.3GB)

Game rating: 9/10

Not maximum due to the couple of minor issues above, this game is an excellent find and well worth the small fee required for it. You won't save much when its on sale but it might be one of those sale purchases!

Worms: Weapons of Mass Destruction

Summary

I only acquired this game at the end of the year, but if its not in my list, I am not going to be happy. The entire Worms franchise is incredible, few to no bugs, simple concepts and ideas and somehow, the same old scenarios feel new for each game and also for every play of the game too! There are reduced statistical and comical features but this can be overlooked with the addition of vehicles and many new powerful weapons as well as "crafting". I use crafting in the loosest term, you collect crates and then select one item to be created at some point during your next turn.

Worms is a turn based strategy game which requires you to use what you collect and what you have as well as a small amount of skill for weapon use to use extremely explosive or damaging weapons. You soon get used to what works well, the old banana bomb is still in the game although I am yet to find a double damage crate to go alongside it. This is a must have for any flat turn based strategy gamer, but I would suggest waiting for a price drop. There, to me at least, is not enough new content to warrant the steep asking price outside of a sale, hence why I have only recently obtained it...

Issues

In my opinion, I have not found any issues which make the game unplayable in any form, its very well put together. However, as I mentioned earlier, the removal of additional stats and the change in how the game is played simplify getting a game running but remove that feel of it being a little more than another game in the series. This has been a trade off in a large number of games in the era of Call of Duty games, now you get going with a game faster rather than the complexities which could be nice. I recall Worms United and Reinforcements containing great comical scenes between single player levels, slidey land, options to turn off wind and CHEATS! as well as fire to fall into instead of water.

Integration

Steam integration has been thought about and just like most of the other games listed here, you can send a friend invite without issues or port forwards.

Basic information

• Platforms: Steam (Windows, MAC or Linux)
• Release Date: 23 Aug, 2016
• Singleplayer: Yes
• Multiplayer: Coop and VS, upto 6 players
• Installation disk space usage: 6,266MB (6.3GB)

Game rating: 9/10

Slightly reduced from maximum due to the feeling that your not getting everything still based on the previous games in the franchise, still only getting a 3/4's game.

Euro/American Truck Simulator

Summary

I started with Euro Truck Simulator 2 quite some time back on a demo. I was highly impressed with it and when it came on sale on steam with all the bells and whistles for such a great discounted price, I couldn't resist buying it. I generally don't spend much on games but this is one of the more costly purchases I have made in the recent past. This is a truck driving simulation game where you can drive across Europe to ever increasing numbers of official destinations. Don't get me wrong, they aren't to scale with the real world but if they were, you would probably get bored driving on a motorway, not really getting anywhere for 14 hours before your break. I have never found a game which has given me so much satisfaction to following road rules. You get penalised for jumping red lights, speeding or crashing into other vehicles (deliberately or non deliberately). There are tonnes of places to visit and so much realism, yet its still a game. This is one of my all time favourite games, which is quite hard to get into. You do need quite some period of time to sit and play this but just watching the cash roll in so easily makes you consider doing it as your job for real! There is something relaxing about driving a simulated truck across Europe and now America.

I purchased ATS to try it out, it really is a different feeling driving in America as opposed to Europe which I didn't think would happen. The detailing in ATS feels much more complete than in Europe, I guess where ETS had not brought in the cash and therefore the highest quality development. They are still releasing new content for both games and as with all gamers, it feels more expensive and much slower than before! I will however, when the price is right, upgrade to include more new states and more of Europe as it becomes available.

Issues

There are no major issues with this game, just minor bugs which will iron out in time. For example, Police have only recently been introduced to ETS where they were in ATS from the start. This makes speeding much more difficult but still possible. America feels too slow and too big. I guess this is due to the fact they don't have that many towns and massive gaps between them unlike in Europe where you don't have to drive far to the next place. The rain doesn't splash on the external camera when driving which does on the window inside, this is fine but makes the rain feel less real. I would love to see seasons and snow introduced as a core element in the game. Emails appear to stop shortly after starting the game meaning there doesn't appear to be any company progression outside what you do with trucks and drivers. For example, there are no offers, adverts or any other thing which could enhance the game-play.

Integration

There is no native multi-player feature in this game. There is an add-on called Truckers MP which allows you to join thousands of other truckers around the world all on the same map. There is no steam integration beyond the overlay for this game.

Basic information

• Platforms: Steam (Windows, MAC or Linux), Disk
• Release Date:
  16 Jan, 2013 (ETS2)
  2 Feb, 2016 (ATS)
• Singleplayer: Yes
• Multiplayer: No
• Installation disk space usage:
  3,708MB (3.7GB, I do not have all purchasable DLC (ETS2)),
  1,749MB (1.8GB, I do not have all purchasable DLC (ATS))

Game rating: 10/10

I cannot fault this games game play and if the game is the right kind of game for you, I would always recommend buying it!

Windward

Summary

What a gem this game is, It was on sale when I found it, like most other games, it looked interesting and has provided me with over 40 hours of game play so far. Basically, you control a ship to loot the seas of a randomly generated map. You can invite your friends to join with their ships too. Your ship level is carried across to other maps and other players games meaning you won't be lagging behind on someone else's new map. This game has an MMO style loot system with grades of loot dropped from common to rare with all the drop types in between and special colours for them as you go. You can setup your ships with speed or fire power, defence or assistance, you can specialise in an area or you can generalise. You can take on "missions" to expand towns and trade, mission or loot to earn money. There are dungeon style levels and peaceful levels which you can enter at any time from anywhere, with or without friends.

Customisation doesn't end there however. You can choose the colour of your ships hull and decks, the motive on the sails and the colour of them! The best bit about this game is you play practically all of it with the mouse!

Issues

Well, there aren't many. The only real complaint I would have is the levelling system. I haven't played this game much after reaching a certain level as pretty much everything is unlocked. Yes you can get better stuff but it becomes a farming type game when you reach it. There are, as far as I have found, 15 different ships in the game, all with their own various abilities but once you have them all, there is not much point in going any further unless you plan on PVP.

Integration

Steam is amazing for this game, you can join a game in progress. There is one minor blip where you might not be able to join a game you have had an invite for if you have already started the game but that's about it. There are 6 factions on each map (not counting pirates) but to be fair, that's a little overkill. 4 would be enough as once you have conquered it all, the zones are generally not taken back from you and not from enemy factions unless there is a player in them.

Basic information

• Platforms: Steam (Windows, MAC or Linux)
• Release Date: 12 May, 2015
• Singleplayer: Yes
• Multiplayer: Yes, maximum unknown
• Installation disk space usage: 146MB

Game rating: 7/10

Buy a 4 pack! Why so low? Its repetitive, it requires a large number of players and does require a little more but great to play still.

Finally...

So I wanted to add more games to this list but unfortunately I bought them too late for the 2017 game list so will just have to wait for the 2018 list!