This is why the list is angled heavily towards the last decade or so of PC gaming. The key was to focus on the most fun games to play today, rather than a more academic list of the greatest PC games in history. Even if you limit yourself to games that are easy to acquire and compatible with modern versions of Windows (we do), the list of cast-iron classics stretches all the way back to early-90s titles like Doom and beyond. How can you possibly distil all this into a list of just 20 great games? It wasn't easy, and while compiling this list we cursed our self-imposed limit many times. PC is where Minecraft and the MOBA revolution happened, and it encompasses everything from cutting-edge new technologies like virtual reality to retro-styled creative experiments that will run on any old laptop. In 2015, revitalised by digital distribution, immense global multiplayer communities and a booming indie scene, and with the industry's worries about software piracy receding fast, it is arguably the most exciting and inarguably the most popular gaming platform in the planet.

Its demise at the hands of its more consumer-friendly - or at least, marketing-friendly - console rivals has been predicted many times, always falsely.

With a history as long as video games themselves and a breadth and depth in its software catalogue that will never be rivalled by any console, there is no other gaming platform like the PC.

Each regularly updated list presents between 10 and 20 varied games that we think would make a fine foundation for any game collection. Eurogamer's best games lists aim to guide you to the highest quality, most original, most exciting games around today.

Top pc games 2015 so far