With surprise hits from independent adventures like Rebel Galaxy Outlaw, or VR experiences like Asgard's Wrath, it's been an excellent - and eclectic - year for the PC gamers this year.

Best PC Game of 2019: Disco Elysium

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This year, our favorite PC exclusive was a unique take on the classic PC games of yesteryear.Disco Elysium evokes classic CRPGs while throwing you into a David Lynch inspired noir-esque setting. Your down-and-out detective is tasked with solving a murder, but with all great stories its not the conclusion that is solely gratifying, but the journey you took to get there.Through sharply written dialogue and an expertly crafted world, it uses some unique game mechanics - such as debating against 24 different sections of your own brain, each representative of a different skill - to create an experience that will stay with me for a long time. It’s unlike any game to come out on PC this year, or indeed in any other platform in any other year.These are our nominees for the best PC exclusives of 2019.

Best PC Exclusive Nominees 6 IMAGES

Click through the gallery above or scroll down the page for the full list!

Total War: Three Kingdoms

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Asgard’s Wrath

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MTG: Arena

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Rebel Galaxy Outlaw

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People's Choice Winner: Asgard's Wrath

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Total War has been one of the PC's most ambitious and iconic series since Shogun all the way back in 2000, and this year it took its historical gameplay to a new level with Total War: Three Kingdoms.Focusing on a single conflict, which has always been the series strength, Creative Assembly's character-driven look at the Three Kingdoms period managed to make a 19-year-old series feel fresh and exciting again.Asgard’s Wrath, despite being a VR title, manages to encapsulate the best of gaming as a whole. It’s a fully-fledged action RPG with roughly 40 hours of content to adventure through, but unlike the conceptually similar Skyrim VR, it doesn’t feel like virtual reality was tacked on as a gimmicky afterthought.The fun of Asgard’s Wrath is entirely gesture-based - you can reach out and influence the world with your own two hands. Whether you’re pulling a lever or slicing a monster down the center, Asgard’s Wrath is as tactile as it is robust. A combination of classic elements and innovative new interaction mechanics, Asgard’s Wrath is not one to be missed if you have access to a VR system.For such an enormously popular physical game, it’s taken an absurdly long time for the creators of Magic: The Gathering to work out how to turn it into a good video game. This year, a solution was found - just copy the people who copied you.Hearthstone was Blizzard’s bold digital reinvention of Magic, and Arena is Magic’s bold reinvention of Hearthstone. The result isn’t a 1:1 depiction of tabletop Magic, nor should it be - this is a version of that game, equally able to bring in new fans, while offering longtime players a new avenue for their high-level card combo shenanigans.Resurrecting the spirit of Wing Commander: Privateer and Freelancer with some flashy new explosions, Rebel Galaxy Outlaw brings back the joy of lasers-blazing space dogfighting and piracy across multiple solar systems without the excessive feature-creep baggage that comes with something like the still-unfinished Star Citizen. Plus, being able to custom-paint your ship any way you like is fantastic.Asgard's Wrath was the best PC exclusive of 2019 according to our readers, narrowly beating Disco Elysium with 39% of the vote in our People's Choice polling. From our review:Asgard’s Wrath is a fantastic action-adventure RPG that can stand with the best of them on consoles and PC, but the fact that it’s meticulously crafted for VR means it sits in a league of its own. Asgard’s Wrath represents something VR enthusiasts have been waiting for for years now: the first absolute must-play virtual reality game that feels fully fleshed-out rather than a glorified tech demo. Its beautiful world, excellent combat, great interface, and straightforward but detailed story come together to form something spectacular.There are plenty of other awards beyond just the Game of the Year! Check out all our genre and technical/craft awards below!What was your favorite PC-exclusive game this year? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to check out all of our other Game of the Year award nominees as well as our picks for the best movies, TV shows, comics, and anime of 2019

Art for IGN’s Best of 2019 is by Julia Rago Angela Nguyen , and Nicole Cagampan