Rock Paper Shotgun’s The RPS 100: Reader Edition (2025) arrives as a communal snapshot of the PC gaming imagination. This is the readers’ list, voted on by you and your fellow readers, and the editors have once again adjusted the format to spotlight variety: entries from the same series are merged to free up space for more games, while still revealing the breakdown by series so the crowd can see which entries carried the most weight. The editorial voice is clear about the spirit of the project: there isn’t a single game in the top 100 that doesn’t have something written about it, turning this list into a genuine celebration of the pastime. And just like the main 100, the plan is to reveal twenty games a day until the full 100 are laid bare. As the notes put it, this is a conversation as much as a canon, a record of why readers fell in love with these games and kept loving them.
The edition’s methodology matters because it frames how readers experience the list. By combining series entries, the editors create space for broader tastes to surface—responsible crowd-sourcing that values both landmark titles and the whispered favorites readers return to after long gaps in their gaming lives. The result is a document that looks like a map of PC gaming’s cultural terrain: a landscape stitched together from memory, talkback posts, and late-night rereads of sprawling comment threads. The introduction underscores the social nature of the piece: a huge thank you to everyone who weighed in, and a reminder that the comments attached to each entry become part of the top 100’s texture.
One striking through-line is how much readers prize writing, systems, and world-building. The early positions set a tone that favors worlds with interior lives: characters with agency, landscapes with history, and mechanics that feel justified within a living universe. The top of the list anchors Crackling with Disco Elysium at number one, a CRPG that many readers treat as a watershed moment for narrative games. The comments hint at why it resonates: a chorus of readers describe its writing as both deeply musical and relentlessly honest, capable of comedy and tragedy in the same breath. OmegaJak calls it “the best writing in any game ever made,” while Cornelis stresses that the game’s heart is the quiet, personal moments as much as its grand ideas. The sense is not merely to admire the game’s ambition, but to feel it vibrating through the readers’ own thoughts about what a game can be when it really commits to its themes.
The second slot belongs to Baldur’s Gate in its contemporary form, Baldur’s Gate 3, a title that becomes a focal point for discussion about modern CRPGs. Readers repeatedly praise its breadth and authorial feel, while balancing it against the classic Baldur’s Gate 2-era memory of the series. Several voices illustrate the mix of reverence and active engagement: CinnamonK says Baldur’s Gate remains a pegged reference point, admitting that they’d replay multiple companions to experience the story in different ways. Jovian09 is more expansive, urging everyone to “Everybody should play Baldur’s Gate 3,” while Fallen Empire and DoomsdayDevice add their own layers of endorsement—arguing that the game sets a new standard for the RPG genre. The thread around Baldur’s Gate 3 reflects a crowd that treats contemporary CRPGs as both a continuation of older design and a proving ground for new possibilities in storytelling, choice, and systems.
Alongside these heavyweights, the list keeps returning to outer space, mystery, and exploration. Outer Wilds sits at number three, and readers’ notes reveal a readerly affection for its delicate blend of curiosity, time loops, and a universe that rewards patient observation. Cedric EcoleD explains he preferred watching others navigate the space, which in turn reinforces the game’s emphasis on discovery as a shared human experience. Ulukaï dreams of the Quantum Moon, and Thrownfootfalls frames Outer Wilds as a ball of physics, whimsy, and wonder. The passion in these responses confirms a cultural appetite for games that reward thinking, not just doing, and that turn exploration into a narrative engine rather than a collection of tasks.
Beyond the top three, the list features a broad swath of strategy, role-playing, and design-minded titles that speak to readers’ diverse tastes. The Witcher series makes a strong showing, led by The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s reputation for sprawling storytelling and dense world-building. Readers celebrate its capacity to balance vast landscapes with focused character arcs and meaningful, often morally ambiguous decisions. The comments range from praise of the world’s texture to admiration for the way side quests push the main story forward in meaningful, often surprising ways. It’s a reminder that the reader-driven canon can elevate a single memorable trilogy to a status comparable with the very best in interactive storytelling.
The list also foregrounds a cornerstone of PC gaming culture: the power of puzzle boxes and design elegance. Portal and Portal 2 sit high enough to remind readers that compact, ingenious design can outlast flashier, bigger-budget rivals. The notes praise Portal for its sharp humor and puzzle design that doubles as storytelling, with lines like ‘Come for the puzzles, stay for the story’ echoing through the discussion. The enduring love for Half-Life 2— hailed here as a benchmark for first-person narrative, level design, and physics-driven play—underscores how readers value a game that taught the modern FPS how to think about space, interactivity, and atmosphere in equal measure.
Strategy and empire-building have a parallel life in the Reader Edition. The Civilization line, Crusader Kings, Stellaris, and the Total War family populate the middle and upper tiers, illustrating a crowd that prizes epic scope, historical or mythic narration, and the way strategy games can produce sprawling, long-form stories across dozens or hundreds of hours. Civilizations saturate the list, with Civ 4 and Civ 6 cited as high-water marks, while Crusader Kings 2 and 3 demonstrate the ongoing appeal of dynastic drama and political storytelling. The inclusion of Total War: Warhammer 3 and its Immortal Empires expansion sits alongside discussions of how fantasy grand strategy can expand the canvas for personal and collective strategic mythmaking. The reader comments here read like a collective case file on why large-scale strategy games remain central to PC gaming culture—their capacity to sustain long, evolving conversations about world-building, power, and consequence.
The breadth of the list, from the minutiae of Hitman’s design to the collaborative joys of Minecraft, from the calm curiosity of Subnautica to the kinetic thrill of Doom’s arena design, suggests a culture that treats games as long-form art and conversation. The editors close with gratitude for the readers’ engagement, acknowledging that the list is less a final word than a living archive: a place where memories are annotated, debates are sparked, and new rereads of old favorites are always waiting just around the corner. The opening note captures the mood perfectly: the edition is a celebration of readers’ past time, a chorus of voices that turns a ranking into a shared experience.
As the 2025 edition continues to unfold, readers will no doubt carry forward the debates over what counts as the “best” PC game and why certain games resonate across generations. The conversation around Disco Elysium, Baldur’s Gate 3, Outer Wilds, and The Witcher—the quartet that leads the list—will likely shape how we remember this era of PC gaming. But the real takeaway is less about the top ranks and more about the act of reading, writing, and arguing about games together: a culture that treats a hundred titles as a living, breathing landscape rather than a fixed monument.
The conversation continues as readers refresh the page each day, ready to see which memories—newly rediscovered or long-held favorites—join Disco Elysium, Baldur’s Gate, Outer Wilds, and The Witcher in the final top 100. The editors’ invitation stands: bring your stories, your reasons, and your enthusiasm for the games you love, and let the conversation carry us toward a richer sense of what PC gaming has been, is, and can become.