More content of all kinds is being created now than ever, and review aggregator sites have always played a crucial part in separating the good from the bad. Metacritic is the leading video game ranking platform that gives titles a score based on professional critic ratings, and the games mentioned below have been certified by them to be the best of all time, at least on PC. Some of the names such as Half-Life 2 and GTA 5 are expected, as they are not just hailed by critics but immensely popular among the masses as well. As the oldest of the bunch, Baldur's Gate II hasn't aged very well, while Disco Elysium suffers from a lack of popularity due to being too new perhaps.

RELATED: 10 Best Modern Games With Vintage Themes & Settings

There are surely other fantastic games out there, but these few have managed to leave their marks behind better than most, for which they deserve to be recognized.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2003) - 94

poster for Grand Theft Auto Vice City featuring a man on a speedboat and images in the background

As great as GTA 5 is, it's the classics Vice City and San Andreas that form the backbone of the franchise, and they definitely deserve to get remastered. Open world games were not as mainstream in 2002 as they are now, and Vice City pushed the boundaries of how awesome exploration can be in a video game. Like every other GTA game, it is set in a fictional city based on real-life locations, and the player has full reign to walk, run, drive or even fly to its deepest corners and explore everything there is to explore. The content of GTA games has never been what would be called family-friendly, but that's what makes them fun.

Mass Effect 2 (2010) - 94

Commander Shepard, Miranda Lawson, and Thane Krios holding firearms in the poster for Mass Effect 2

RPG games nowadays commonly offer the option to choose the gender of the main playable character, and Mass Effect implemented this feature better than most in the form of Commander Shepard. Awesome storytelling set in a futuristic sci-fi setting is what the Mass Effect series is all about, and the second installment puts more emphasis on the action elements while allowing players the opportunity to shape the game's story in their own way. As a game Mass Effect 2 has certainly aged, but a story worth telling only gets better with time. Luckily for new players, the entire trilogy was remastered and released under the name "Legendary Edition" recently, which is an excellent introduction to the franchise.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011) - 94

poster for The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim featuring the Dragonborn with mountains in the background

Open worlds games are many, but then there are true open-world RPGs like Skyrim that just hand over the reins to the player and let them decide what they want to do and how they want to do it. This open-ended gameplay style is what makes the Elder Scrolls series such a favorite for so many people.

RELATED: 10 Funniest Events In Skyrim

There are many different types of skills to learn, side-quests to finish, and countless NPC's to interact with, and even marry in some cases. One of the things that makes Skyrim such an amazing game even in 2021 is the ever-growing mod community, filled with people hard at work to make the game a better version of itself.

Portal 2 (2011) - 95

poster for Portal featuring the main characters GLaDOS and Chell

Virtually every game Valve made in the 2000-2010 period went on to become massive hits, and it continued the trend in the next decade with 2011's Portal 2. The first game introduced the series' core gameplay mechanic  - the portal gun using which the player solves puzzles by creating portals that can pass from anywhere to anywhere, something that is enjoyable even by modern standards. Portal 2 improved upon this by adding more features that stimulated creative puzzle-solving. The primary antagonist GLaDOS is one of the most iconic villains in video game history, and also one of the best things about the game.

Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (2000) - 95

The overhead map from Baldur's Gate II

Dungeons and Dragons is one of the most popular non-virtual games in the world, so it's only fair that a video game based on it is also regarded in such high acclaim. Like many of its time, Baldur's Gate II is played from a top-down isometric perspective and a majority of the actions happen through pointing and clicking.

RELATED: 10 Movies to Watch if You Love the Baldur's Gate Franchise

As a D&D game, it is essential for there to be a group of people and not just one character, and thus it is possible to recruit NPC's in the game who will tag along with the player on adventures.

BioShock (2007) - 96

A poster for Bioshock featuring the iconic Bouncer-type Big Daddy alongside a Little Sister.

The Bioshock franchise has been long-inactive, but the legacy it has built is one for the ages. The first game was set in the creepy, unique, and unforgettable world of Rapture, an underwater city that was built to be a utopia but ultimately collapsed into anything but. The player has access to a variety of unique superpowers, which, along with weapons are the only defense against the many enemies that must be faced. Played from a first-person perspective, the horror mixed with sci-fi elements of the game, such as the Big Daddies and Little Sisters, will be forever iconic. It's one of the best horror games to play on the Switch right now.

Half-Life (1998) - 96

poster for Half-Life one featuring the main character Gordon Freeman with a gun and the iconic logo

The things that made Half-Life a revolutionary game for its time are commonly found features nowadays, which is why it's difficult to quantify exactly how special Half-Life was from a modern-day perspective. Players are introduced into the world of Half-Life through the eyes of the ever-silent protagonist Gordon Freeman, who is forced into having to fight for his life against aliens from another dimension. There are plenty of enemies to defeat and puzzles to solve, and most importantly an immersive story to enjoy.

Grand Theft Auto V (2015) - 96

Franklin Trevor and Michael stand in front of car GTA5

Rockstar Games' GTA franchise has always been successful, and GTA 5 was the absolute pinnacle in terms of success and acclaim, proven by the fact that it is one of the best-selling video games of all time with over 145 million copies sold. The game revolves around three protagonists that the player can control whenever they want (a complicated system in itself) and how their crime-ridden lives intersect in the fictional city of Los Santos.

RELATED: 10 Hilarious Rockstar Memes Only Fans Of GTA & Red Dead Redemption Understand

Its massive success as both a single-player and online multiplayer game is probably the reason a sequel is nowhere to be seen yet, even after 8 years.

Half-Life 2 (2004) - 96

poster for the game Half-Life 2 featuring the main characters Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance

Valve continued its influential streak in the PC gaming community after Half-Life with an even bigger hit in the form of Half-Life 2. The sequel improved upon everything that made its predecessor great, from the gameplay to the physics, and it still boasts amazing graphics despite being so old. Gordon Freeman's gravity gun was an incredible addition to the game, which the player was free to use in many creative ways to solve puzzles and kill the various kinds of enemies that populate the world of the game. The story takes place 20 years after the original game, on an Earth that has been taken over by an alien species.

Disco Elysium: The Final Cut (2021) - 97

An image from Disco Elysium showing two characters having a gunfight

It's surprising to such a new game on the top of a list that deals with decade-old classics, but Disco Elysium: The Final Cut has been met with rave reviews from every possible source. With a unique oil-painting-like art style, the game is an old-school isometric RPG that is heavily based around dialogue-driven interactions. The skills that the player chooses to develop all ultimately affect the way interactions happen with NPC's, which crucial to the gameplay which at its core revolves around playing the part of a detective trying to solve a murder.

NEXT:  10 Best Medieval-Themed Video Games Of All Time, Ranked