Best space game pc 2013

No Man's Sky has gone from strength to strength in recent years, adding a proper multiplayer experience, full VR support, aquatic biomes, and even more beasts, flora, fauna and customisation options. Heck, you can even fly around in sentient, living, breathing space ships now, and if that doesn't shout 'best space game' material, we don't know what does. It is, without doubt, one of the greatest comeback stories of the last decade. At its heart, No Man's Sky is still a crafting-based survival 'em up that sees you journeying toward the centre of the universe and gradually upgrading your ship so you can jump farther and farther distances, but it's also about flying to and from stunning looking planets and staring slack-jawed at all the mad creatures you'll find therein.

You no longer have to make the journey alone, either, as up to 32 players can now join a single server, and you'll see other players appear onscreen when they're nearby.

Its VR support is also first rate, making it one of the best VR games you can play on PC right now, and it's also one of the best games to play in ultrawide mode, too. What makes Elite Dangerous so compelling isn't so much about the game as the experience. It's the tinkering with and the taking out of a performance car for a Sunday drive, not to rack up more miles, nor to break any speed limits, but to just feel the growl of the engine and the wind comb through what's left of your hair.

To remember those carefree days arched over a BBC Micro or blinking angrily into a Lenslok and to forget for a short while that you have to make people redundant in the morning. Elite is a hermetically-sealed escape capsule and it's the best there is. Hell, you could fire the game up and just sit there on a launch pad and the sounds are enough to carry you away, so strong is your ship's presence and so absorbing are the station surroundings.

Taking off, tearing through the station entrance a little too fast and just missing a Python, angling for the next jump, scooping fuel from a blazing sun, spinning the camera around your ship to catch its best profile, starting a fight just for the hell of it, seeing smoke rise from the command console, hearing the screen crack and precious oxygen escaping into space and landing back at base with seconds to spare - these are the moments that make Elite essential.

Trading, missions, mining - not so much. But it's all right, we're not going anywhere. It could be argued that Kerbal Space Program doesn't belong on this list, because it's a game about trying but mostly failing to get into space.

Sometimes it's a game about smashing into the ground. Botched attempts and hopeless failures litter the path to success, but it's those disastrous experiments that often prove to be the most fun. That might not be the Kerbal Space Program everybody recognises, though. We're sure it feels great to successfully get the Kerbals on and off the Mun without breaking a sweat, but we're just happy to see them drifting around in space. We don't even see our many misadventures as failures anymore because that implies that we haven't done what we set out to do, which is to draw a blank on everything we know about physics and just muck around with some cool rockets.

Was it Freespace 2 that almost killed the space combat genre? Some like to think it was the game's commercial failure that did the damage; that there was no interest in space combat games any more and that if anyone persisted in making one, their sales would suffer the same fate.

If it ever was a wreck, we now know that Freespace 2 wasn't left empty for very long, and that the message in the static was soon changed to offer a place of refuge, a rallying point for gamers uninterested in a New World Order of terrorist take-downs. It's not simply that Freespace 2 is a highly accomplished sequel to what was arguably the finest game in its genre, but that it has become the source of so much creativity over the years. For space genre fans, Diaspora, The Babylon Project, Blue Planet and Wing Commander Saga have been some of the brightest releases in what has, until the last couple of years, been a veritable dark age.

The thing is, standard issue Freespace 2 remains largely unchallenged. Considering it was barely a year in development and many of Volition's ideas for ground attacks and super weapons went unrealised, it offers a number of improvements on the original game.

Prior to Freespace 2, capital ships were largely treated as static backgrounds, but now they were part of the foreground, one that fizzed and crackled with explosive energy like never before. Of course Freespace wasn't perfect. But what the Freespace games did better than anything else was put the player in the midst of a series of epic battles, fighting against the odds versus a relentless and unknowable foe. The spectacular weapons, the frenetic and desperate movement that remains a perfect marriage of UI and controller and graphics that were so in advance of everything all those years ago that, even un-modded today, the game can maintain the fantasy.

Even in this new space age, one of procedurally-generated universes and forceless feedback joysticks, Freespace 2 stands as a titan of the genre. The Galactica among Battlestars. The game that has lead the genre home. The Settlers has finally emerged from development hell, and it's fighting fit. We've been hands on with the upcoming closed beta ahead of its release in March. In defense of Cyberpunk 's constant phone calls. The Anacrusis is so much more than a sci-fi Left 4 Dead-like.

Democracy 4 is out now, putting you in charge of a whole country. Project Zomboid infections. The best Genshin Impact Qiqi build. If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission.

Read our editorial policy. Watch on YouTube. The Settlers has finally emerged from development hell, and it's fighting fit We've been hands on with the upcoming closed beta ahead of its release in March. Katharine Castle 23 hours ago James Archer 23 hours ago 9. In defense of Cyberpunk 's constant phone calls "Hey V, got a minute? Her goal - to become the greatest hero of all time - was foiled under mysterious circumstances. Something had occurred, the girl disappeared and her tale was eventually forgotten.

Five centuries pass, until one day Geron, a young bird catcher, meets a traveling merchant named Fahi in his native forest. This merchant promises to turn Gerons girlfriend Nuri, who has been transformed into a Raven, back into human form. But this favor comes at a price: Geron has to finally solve the mystery of Sadja's fate. He agrees without hesitation - knowing that this will trigger a chain of events that will soon cast a shadow on his homeland and turn his present into a dark image of its long forgotten past Race the Sun is an intense action game that could be described as a mash-up of Star Fox and Temple Run with a community focus.

Meet Ray, he lives in a world where everything is made out of paper and stickers. One day he has an accident and wakes up with a giant pink spaghetti arm sticking out of his brain. This gives him awesome powers and he can suddenly change the world around him by folding it, tearing it, pulling stickers off and sticking them elsewhere! And if that weren't enough, Ray can also read peoples minds! Digging into the brains of his fellow citizens, Ray can hear their thoughts and use that to his advantage.

Unfortunately, Ray doesn't have much time to get to grips with his new abilities. He is framed by 'The Man' with a crime he didn't commit, and is on the run. Can you help to get Ray out of this sticky situation? Assume the role of Wilson, an intrepid Gentleman Scientist who has been trapped by a demon and transported to a mysterious wilderness world.

Wilson must learn to utilize his environment and its inhabitants if he ever hopes to escape and find his way back home. Enter a strange and unexplored world full of strange creatures, dangers, and surprises. Collect resources to craft items and structures that match your survival style.

Play your way as you unravel the mysteries of this strange land. The end is here. Life as you knew it has gone to hell after the mother of all zombie outbreaks. Now you and the few scattered survivors must band together to survive and rebuild in a 3rd-person action game set in a dynamic open world.

You choose where to make your stand, designing and fortifying your home base, performing daring raids for food and ammunition, and rescuing other playable survivors with unique talents. The open, sandbox world develops in real-time, shaped by your actions, dynamically generating content based on your choices and the ever-increasing zombie threat.

The Walking Dead: Season Two continues the story of Clementine, a young girl orphaned by the zombie apocalypse. Left to fend for herself, she has been forced to learn how to survive in a world gone mad. Many months have passed since the events seen in Season One of The Walking Dead, and Clementine is in search of safety. But what can an ordinary child do to stay alive when the living can be just as bad — and sometimes worse — than the dead? As Clementine, you will be tested by situations and dilemmas that will test your morals and your instinct for survival.

Your decisions and actions will change the story around you. Become immersed in a futuristic and dreamlike adventure which will see you climb a huge Tower born from the void and truly put your capabilities to the test. Can you reveal the secrets that lie beneath this fog-ridden world? Teleglitch is a roguelike top-down shooter with pixel graphics.

Dead Space 3 embodies deep space terror. Players embark on a ride through space that takes them to a hostile new planet, Tau Volantis. Fortunately, they are not alone this time around. Players that choose to take down the terror together experience additional story details, side missions and gameplay mechanics only found when playing as John Carver. You have been kidnapped, imprisoned, and tortured. The wizard Irenicus holds you captive in his stronghold, attempting to strip you of the powers that are your birthright.

Can you resist the evil within you, forge a legend of heroic proportions, and ultimately destroy the dark essence that haunts your dreams? Samurai Gunn is a Player local multiplayer game. Each player is armed with a sword and gun, with only 3 bullets to a life.

Both swords and bullets can be deflected with clever control and timing. Levels range from thick bamboo forests that can be hacked through, to vertically-looping cliffs and caverns which bear walls that can be sharpened to deadly points.

Join five new characters as they struggle to survive in The Walking Dead: Days. Battlefield 3: End Game is a digital expansion pack for Battlefield 3 that brings four distinct maps, a new dirt bike, new lightweight AA vehicles, and two classic Battlefield game modes - Capture the Flag and Air Superiority. F1 sees Codemasters introducing a new F1 Classics mode, opening up circuits and drivers from the s. Expeditions: Conquistador is a story-driven tactical roleplaying game with a touch of strategic resource management and a pinch of choose-your-own-adventure.

Element4l is a moody and experimental platform game, with a strong focus on flow and smooth gameplay, wrapped in an exceptional soundtrack by MindTree In Element4l, you control the state of your character to find your way through a dreamy underworld. Your only hindrances are nature and the sun. It takes a different, experimental approach to classic platform games and challenges you to rearrange your reflexes.

The state-changing, physics-based gameplay invites all ages to think logically, and reveals that pressing the right button at the right time, is often more rewarding than mashing buttons. Just when you thought pressing the left button would make your character go left, Element4l crushes this doctrine.

Just don't expect an easy platformer. The first time you play element4l, you will struggle Teslagrad is a 2D puzzle-platformer, where you play as a young lad who suddenly finds himself embroiled in an ancient conflict that will shake the foundations of his entire existence, and bring a gruesome truth to light.

The game revolves around the use of electricity and magnetism, and your ingenuity will be put to the test as you employ the amazing technology of the Teslamancers to traverse the abandoned Tesla Tower.

The game is completely devoid of both text and dialogue, and prefers to tell the story purely through visual means. Eldritch is a 1st-person action game inspired by roguelikes, immersive sims, and H.

Unearth ancient secrets and find your path to freedom. Sneak, fight, and explore strange worlds. Invoke mystical powers to augment your play style. Randomly generated levels provide fresh challenges and opportunities. Unlock shortcuts to jump directly to deeper dungeons. In Sanctum 2 players assume the role of one of four elite soldiers, each with their own unique abilities and weapons whose mission is to protect the Cores from hordes of mysterious alien creatures on the human colony planet, LOEK III.

Melding the best elements of the tower defense and first-person genres, players are challenged to protect the Cores. In each scenario, players must set up defensive towers to take out waves of attacking enemies and ensure victory.

However, Sanctum 2 is not just a game where players sit back and watch the action unfold. Instead they jump into the fray head-on in FPS mode to light up the opposition with a wide array of weapons, some of which you've never seen before in an FPS game. An immersive storyline and strong integration with the Magic - Core Set ties the experience together for players, culminating in an end-of-summer Magic Celebration that brings all Magic fans together in stores across the world.

Players will have immediate access to additional aircrafts and numerous aircraft skins as well as skills and maps.

The multiplayer portion of the game will feature support through Games for Windows Live from Microsoft. The game will be available at retailers and for download via Steam and the Games for Windows Marketplace.

Get your bishops appointed cardinals and tap the might of the Papacy, borrow money from the Knights Templar and send troublesome relatives off to live out their days in a monastery. Sons of Abraham also introduces the Jewish religion and allows you to recreate the Kingdom of Israel and rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. The expansion for Crusader Kings II explores one of the defining periods in world history in an experience crafted by Paradox Development Studio, the masters of Grand Strategy.

Medieval Europe is brought to life in this epic game of knights, schemes, and thrones. Risk of Rain is an action platformer with roguelike elements. With permanent death as a primary feature, players will have to play their best to get as far as possible. Fight on a mysterious planet with randomly spawning enemies and bosses, either alone or with 3 friends in online co-op. Explore a forest island, learn magical songs and interact with the local wildlife to solve environmental puzzles. It's super accessible, yet it builds up to incredible complexity later on.

After puzzle-solving your way to five Ancient Frogs and saving the island from a strange pollution, you can still find s of golden wings, snap dozens of creature pictures and go Achievement hunting. The clock has stopped around the turn of the 19th century, and humankind has prematurely blown itself to bits.

The remaining scraps are huddling in caves beneath the surface, and steam-powered robots have taken over the Wild West. Coming Soon. Essential Links. Highs and Lows. Highest of the Month. Lowest of the Month. BioShock Infinite Platform: PC March 25, Initially conceived as a floating symbol of American ideals at a time when the United States was emerging as a world power, Columbia is sent to distant shores with great fanfare by a captivated public.

Metascore: 94 User Score: 8. Metascore: 91 User Score: 6. Spelunky Platform: PC August 8, Spelunky is a unique platformer with randomized levels that offer a new and challenging experience each time you play.

Metascore: 90 User Score: 7. Elite: Dangerous feels a bit like Space: The Game. It hands you a ship, boots up the engine and asks you to make your living however you like in a galaxy full of other players, be that via trading, smuggling, mining, exploring or dogfighting. Sit back and enjoy the gorgeous views. The year old MMO is bigger and better than ever, and every single element of its game is player-directed. Players form their own alliances, and the whole economy is dictated by player actions.

With so many different factors at play — 25, players online at any one time, each with their own goals — you find that cool stuff just constantly happens, from the collapse of superpowers to huge PvP fights with thousands of ships spewing lasers across the sky check out some of the best stories here.

No doubt will throw up plenty more surprises. Half toybox, half science project, Kerbal Space Program is the most fun you can have while learning about space. But the more you play, the more you want to understand it. The proper rules of physics apply, and the most satisfying achievements require careful planning and attention to detail.

No Man's Sky has so much to offer when it comes to space exploration. With a wealth of big updates recently added to make the experience even more in-depth, Hello Games presents you with infinite galaxies to discover, as well as more than 30 hours of story. The massive and ambitious Beyond update brought with it even more features and improvements, and along with the recent Origins , Prisms , and Expeditions updates, there's never been a better time to jump right in.

And if you're don't feel like exploring on your own, you can also play the space-faring adventure with your pals. Last word from Matrix points to a Q1 release. StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm. This one was also on the list, but now the new release date seems firmer Mar 12, HotS will pickup up from Wings of Liberty with 20 new missions, now focusing on the Zerg race.

StarCraft 2 has received outstanding acclaim by the critics but not as much from the player base. I find it too quick-paced and ultimately too much of a clickfest for my taste. Planetary Annihilation. After their astonishing success on Kickstarter , Uber Entertainment will bring us Planetary Annihilation , a Total Annihilation inspired sci-fi RTS about planet smashing, big explosions, base building, resource collection, huge battles with robots and asteroid bombardment.

There will be single-player and co-op skirmish multiplayer against AIs. Modding support is also expected. And, if all goes according to plan, it shall release in July Star Lords combines many good things from previous space 4X titles, especially from older games like Master of Orion, Space Empires or the Galactic Civilizations series. Its focus is on providing a deeper political layer than usually found in these types of games, namely diplomacy and espionage aspects.

At the time I wrote my first look impressions , it was evident that there was still a lot of work to do, but the game is already quite playable. The devs expect to release on Q2 , but as always in indie game development, this may still be a tentative date.

This one is only for Windows. The development dates to at least. In I did an interview with the main developer. Then there was a long silent period. But, by middle of last year the devs suddenly re-emerged and apparently have been doing good progress since then, at least judging from the screenshots that they have been posting recently.

If you have played Master of Orion 1 and 2 you will feel right at home. So, I guess that says much about their game. Recently, I received word from the devs that they expect to start beta testing early this year, and estimate a release date for Q2 And, Xenonauts does feel like an X-COM game indeed, starting from the base management, the interceptor missions, to the mystery and fear factors.

Basically, Xenonauts feels like a straight remake, or a very close remake, with a graphics overhaul, and a somewhat different art style.

When I tried the game — and this was in April of last year — there were still a lot of things to do, and the game was not exactly playable yet.

Goldhawk Interactive plans to go with a two-phased beta, which to my best knowledge has not started yet. Game-access pre-orders are available. The game is for the Windows PC. Pandora: First Contact. In fact, beta testing has already started and should be now well in its way. Features include a research tree, diplomacy, settling and managing cities, terraforming, landscape improvements e.

Galaxial is a real-time space strategy game where you can explore, mine, colonize, and conquer. Game features include exploration, resource mining, colonization, different types of ships to control, ship customization and technology progression. The visuals are very interesting and unique.

In fact, everything in Galaxial looks and sounds really good. Explosions are cool and weapon effects also look great. Music is also special. So, aesthetically speaking, the game is very interesting and refreshing.

Galaxial will be available for the PC. The dev hopes to have a beta pre-order version ready shortly before the full release, which will happen somewhere in Check out our preview for further information.

After going through a successful Kickstarter campaign, indie developer Simon Roth will bring you a space colony management simulation god game. There will be a single-player campaign, first-person and third-person modes and modding capability.

Simon expects to have a playable release already in January and a final release in the summer of Starship Corporation. David Murent proposed a real-time space strategy game for the PC about spaceship design, crew management, trade and war. This allowed David to implement not only his proposed core features but also online multiplayer and a story-driven single-player campaign with cutscenes.

In Starship Corporation expect to design multiple types of ships, sell those designs, build your ships, train your crew, trade, raid and terraform. Ever wondered how it would be like to be in charge of a spaceship manufacturer company, and be able to design and build spaceships?

Well, this is probably as close as it gets to that dream : The game will run on Windows. Aliens: Colonial Marines. The story starts on-board of the USS Sulaco, which was recovered in orbit around LV the planet where the Aliens movie unfolds — and part of the first Alien movie too. The story should then continue on the surface of LV Better be careful about this one.

Another successful Kickstarter campaign. Strike Suit Zero should be releasing somewhere in January A group of indie developers from Northern Ireland decided to take the plunge and go ahead with a Kickstarter campaign for a turn-based space 4X game. And, they made it. I had an eye on this one for some time now. Predestination is a space 4X game in the traditional sense, but with a particular focus on exploration aspects.

Other features include 3D galaxy maps, custom races, turn-based tactical space combat, and terraforming. The Brain and Nerd team also proposed a concept to reduce late-game micromanagement, which will make use of building blueprints as plans for building and running a particular type of colony.

At this time, only Windows support is envisaged.