Ten best PC games to while away the coronavirus lockdown

'Working' from home? Furloughed? Why not while away the hours with some of these great games

Plague Inc: Evolved (£11.99)

No top-ten list of the best games to play while in lockdown could possibly exclude this little gem.

Plague Inc is one of those games, like Kerbal Space Program, that is as educational - terrifyingly educational - as it is fun. Choose from ten different diseases (everything from bacteria to zombie outbreak), decide on a location for 'patient zero', then adapt to counter everything that humanity can throw at it. It's even more fun than being elected US president.

This game from - and we're not making this up - Ndemic Creations is described by its creators as a "mix of high strategy and terrifyingly realistic simulation". Let's hope it's not too realistic, if one Steam reviewer's experience is any guide:

"I put all the symptoms for the Wuhan Coronavirus into a normal game and just let it run on the fastest speed and the world died in three years... If in three years we're all dead you know this game is hyper realistic and gets a 10/10, if we're all alive in three years than this game is fake and bad."*

Plague Inc has an ‘overwhelmingly positive' recommendation among Steam users and, given what a bunch of whiners most of them, this is high praise indeed. The fact that it was banned by China's prissy, censorious government is even higher praise in the current climate.

Note: The game is not intended to be an a realistic 'disease simulator'

Left 4 Dead 2 (£7.19)

With the zombie apocalypse almost upon us, it's well-worth revisiting this classic, which despite being ten years old still stands the test of time. Set-up your own lobby, then invite three colleagues to join you in your escape from a zombie-fied city. It'll be just like travelling home from work at 5.30pm before the lockdown. Levels are well designed, guns ‘feel' good and the game itself is challenging, without feeling impossible. If you've no colleagues left to game with because they've all be furloughed or laid off, AI can take their place. Still excellent fun after all of these years.

Train Valley (£6.99) and Train Valley 2 (£11.39)

Missing the morning commute already? Recreate it with these two puzzle games from a trio of Russian developers. Build your railway with the financial resources at your disposal and make sure your trains can go from A to B without crashing into the trains going from C to D. Sounds easy? Well, it rapidly gets much harder. Highly recommended.

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds/PUBG (£26.99)

After working, or trying to work, in close confines with unruly kids off school and the partner demanding help with their office set-up, you'll probably be fit to blow. PUBG, therefore, could be the perfect antidote. As a Battle Royale portraying a ‘realistic' aesthetic, there really is nothing more satisfying than blowing someone's head off armed only with a R1895 pistol when your adversary is armed with a Beryl assault rifle.

That said, more often than not, you're more likely to accidentally burn yourself to death with the mis-timed throw of a Molotov cocktail, drive a vehicle into the middle of a firefight or otherwise terminate your game in some kind of ‘whoops there go my trousers' kind-of incompetence. Tough, infuriating and uncompromising. It's still highly recommended, though.

Fortnite (Free)

On the subject of Battle Royales, it's hard to avoid mentioning Epic's hugely popular free-to-play Fortnite. Unlike PUBG, it doesn't require such serious hardware to run and the cartoony graphics makes the game less stressful. Many players, though, are less keen on the building mechanics, but that's just a matter of taste. Less a matter of taste, though, is getting your backside comprehensively kicked by your own 11-year-old son or daughter.

Doorkickers (£14.99)

Many people, working from home, slaving away over a hot keyboard writing a report almost no-one is going to read or care about, will no doubt be tempted to consider a change of career. And what more rewarding new career could you possibly desire than one in public service, in a police force dedicated to kicking down people's doors and blowing away the occupants inside? If that sounds like just another RPG, think again, because Doorkickers is, when it comes down to it, a top-down, turn-based puzzle game with a bit of shooting thrown in. There's certainly a lot to be said for reducing a whole series of gun-toting miscreants to little more than red puddles on the floor.

Farming Simulator 19 (£21.99)

And on the subject of career changes, how about jacking it all in and becoming a farmer? Well, before you do, why not try out Farming Simulator and see if you're really cut out for all that tractor driving and, well, other stuff farmers have to do. The difference with Farming Simulator from other games is that you can play it in your own time - there's no clock running down and you're not competing against Farmer Giles next door. The perfect antidote when you've been reduced to an infuriated gibbering wreck after playing PUBG.

Kopanito All-Stars Soccer (£4.79)

While football clubs across the world are limbering up for the QuarantTeam Cup in EA's FIFA 20, maybe it would be more entertaining played out with Kopanito All-Stars Soccer? While there are a number of football games for the PC that don't take themselves quite as seriously as EA's flagship title, few are as fun, polished or as silly as Kopanito All-Stars Soccer. And, unlike FIFA 20, it's entirely skill-based, with a few ‘super moves' thrown in. In many respects, this is the spiritual successor to Sensible Soccer and there can be no higher praise than that. Ask your dad if you've no idea what that is.

Minion Masters (Free)

Minion Masters is, essentially, Clash of Clans brought to the big screen - your PC's big screen, that is. Like Clash of Clans, it's free to play and developers BetaDwarf do generally keep it from being pay-to-win, too, making it competitive and fun even if you don't invest a single bean in the game - perfect if your job security is now looking a bit iffy. Unlike Clash of Clans, you can also play in duos alongside friends, if you have any. The advantage of working from home on your own PC (of course), is that you don't need to hunch over your desk so that people can't see you're playing it, in the same way that you have to in order to feed your Clash of Clans addiction during office hours at work.

Figment (Free until Thursday on Epic or £14.99 on Steam)

Delightful graphics, marvellous music and challenging (but not too challenging) puzzles and game play make Figment a great game to wind-down to. Currently free in the Epic game store until midnight on Thursday, Figment is thoroughly charming and highly recommended at two or three times the price.

What will you be doing to combat lockdown boredom? Tell us in the comments section below