Tabletop Simulator

Tabletop Simulator is less a game and more a platform, and on those terms it is remarkably capable. The Steam Workshop library of over 70,000 community-created games means you can play virtually any board game ever made, from Catan to Warhammer, all in a physics-based 3D environment. The scripting API enables surprisingly sophisticated automated setups, and the VR support adds genuine immersion. As a tool for playing board games remotely with friends, nothing else comes close to its flexibility. However, Tabletop Simulator is also a deeply clunky experience. The physics, while realistic, make simple actions like drawing a card or moving a piece frustratingly imprecise. The UI is not intuitive, and teaching new players the controls adds friction before any actual game begins. Many Workshop mods exist in a legal grey area regarding intellectual property. The game requires everyone to own a copy, and performance can suffer with complex setups. It is an invaluable tool for board game enthusiasts, particularly for playing niche or out-of-print games, but the gap between what it enables and how it feels to use is significant.