When you’re looking for the best free games on PC, what are you looking for? We think we’ve got you covered with our selection below, whether it’s browser games you can start playing instantly, free-to-play games to rival anything you’d spend money on, or downloadable games that you can play for a lifetime.

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On a rainy night, some people enjoy getting comfy, grabbing their beverage of choice, and curling up with a good book. Some others like doing the same exact thing, but with a game. I say, why not both? Visual novels are the perfect genre of game to curl up with. Here s our collection for the ten best visual novels.

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This article spoils Doki Doki Literature Club in the first sentence, it presupposes you ve played it, and goes on to spoil the narrative tricks the game uses to make its story meaningful. So if you haven t played the game, get it (it s free),make a pot of coffee, set aside four hours, play it, and then come back here and read this. Like the dentist, it s good for you and in no way painful at all I promise I really do and I wouldn’t lie to you xx>

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What if your favorite game got removed from Steam, but nobody seemed to notice? That s what happened to Muv-Luv Alternative, a nigh-hundred-hour visual novel from Japanese developers Age that some have called the magnum opus of the genre. It s currently the highest-rated title on the Visual Novel Database, barely eclipsing the better-known Steins;Gate. But in January, the censored non-18+ version of the game disappeared from the Steam storefront without explanation, with members of the development team apparently scrambling to get it back up, using the discussion board to document their progress, or lack thereof. Very few sites reported the news, and understandably so: according to SteamSpy, this hyper-niche game with its adoring fanbase has sold just shy of 10,000 copies on Steam, roughly half of its predecessor.

Meanwhile, a newcomer to the genre, that broke many of the rules that epics like Muv-Luv follow, was reaching millions of people. This is the story of Doki Doki Literature Club.

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We’ve already seen which games sold best on Steam last year, but a perhaps more meaningful insight into movin’ and a-shakin’ in PC-land is the games that people feel warmest and snuggliest about. To that end, Valve have announced the winners of the 2017 Steam Awards, a fully community-voted affair which names the most-loved games across categories including best post-launch support, most player agency, exceeding pre-release expectations and most head-messing-with. Vintage cartoon-themed reflex-tester Cuphead leads the charge with two gongs, but ol’ Plunkbat and The Witcher series also do rather well – as do a host of other games from 2017’s great and good.

Full winners and runners-up below, with links to our previous coverage of each game if you’re so-minded. Plus: I reveal which game I’d have gone for in each category. (more…)

We players like to be in charge of our games. We save before boss battles. We watch how our choices change the story flow. Many of us know how to access game data if needed. Most of all, we like knowing we’ve out-smarted the game. And there’s no easier style of game to out-smart than a dating sim. Right?

Japanese-style dating games often stick to an aesthetic and tone that’s all but synonymous with the genre: bouncy anime blended with air-headed girls, all clamouring to get the attention of the male protagonist. Doki Doki Literature Club slips into that style seamlessly. Only one thing sets it apart – the tagline. “This game is not suitable for children or those who are easily disturbed.” Beyond that there are no hints in the game trailer, no secrets in the description.

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