The PC enjoyed the largest number of exclusives in recent memory in 2013, and it's all thanks to the indie explosion and the prevalance of Steam Greenlight. From tiny Game Jam games like Clockwork Cat to tiny, self-contained experiments like Slave of God to bigger, more mainstream projects like Gone Home, there have never been more quality PC titles on the market as there are now. It makes choosing a best nearly impossible, especially given the wide gult between the types of experiences we're seeing; a reactions-based challenge like Rogue Legacy can hardly be compared to the slow, emotional story of something like Shelter or The Novelist, after all. But we've got a job to do here, and so we've mashed up the best of both worlds into the definitive list of the best PC games of 2013.

We understand, then, if you're upset that your favored title of the year didn't make the cut. But hey, here's a picture of old-timey people futzing with a computer. Silly greyscale people!

3. Gone Home

Gone Home has an incredible story by video game standards, but what's even more impressive is how it plays on the player's expectations of what a video game should be. Although there are essentially no gameplay mechanics in Gone Home, it remains one of the more frightening games of the year simply because we as players keep expecting something to happen. Ghost story aside, the game sports relatable characters, great writing, and a slavish devotion to a very specific time and place that's likely to give lots of gamers the warm fuzzies. And beyond all that, it marks an important step towards inclusiveness in an industry that all too often goes for the standard gruff man/busty woman hero archetypes.

2. Rogue Legacy

Rogue Legacy was pure, randomly-generated chaos. Likely to elicit as many curses as cries of joy, this punishing rogue-lite had more than a little in common with last year's XBLA favorite Spelunky (since ported to everything under the sun), but shook the formula up with a series of persistent upgrades and powers. Grab an enchantment from the castle's depths, and you'll have a vampiric health-draining sword or a helmet that lets you triple-jump from now on. Collect enough gold on a run, and maybe you'll be able to upgrade your family's castle, where you can earn new classes, powers, and more. There's just enough forward momentum gained from each lost life that it's nearly impossible to stop playing until you've conquered the whole castle, even if the game's biggest selling point - its randomized Traits - turned out to be little more than a gimmick in the grand scheme of things.

And The Winner Is...

The Swapper is easily this year's most beautiful PC game, albeit in an unconventional way. While multi-million dollar projects like Crysis 3 and Tomb Raider wowed with near photo-real graphcis, The Swapper took a decidedly DIY approach and came out better for it. Everything onscreen, aside from the special effects, is constructed from real-world objects like aluminum foil and cups. Combined with the game's sparse soundtrack and eerie lighting, it makes for a look that's at once haunting and entirely singular. 

The Swapper's atmosphere and story make up the main reasons to play the game, but a series of mind-melting puzzles await all those who dare to venture through all of the game's Metroidvania environments. You'll never earn any new powers, meaning that all of the game's puzzles can be solved using just the opening weapon. This makes the game's puzzles at once accessible and daunting, because you'll have to come up with some truly creative ways to use your cloning powers.