You can play games over hours, days or weeks as you don't need to play words straight away, so it's a nice way of staying connected to people by playing a game in the background to your life. Words with Friends is a hugely popular version of Scrabble that you can play with friends. Some of your favorite games might be available under different names. Lots of these have single-player modes too, if you want to play but your competitors aren't available. If you search the App Store or Play Store for the best games, plenty of them come up – Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne, Ticket to Ride, 7 Wonders, Pandemic and Terraforming Mars are all available to buy and download. If you're playing on a smartphone, maybe a tablet with a bigger screen will be useful? Check out our list of the best tablets, as well as the best iPads and best Android tablets. Play on smartphone or tablet apps together You can download Tabletop Simulator on Steam here. If you play loads of games on Tabletop Simulator, though, it could end up more affordable than the physical object. The only problem is that Tabletop Simulator isn't free, and of course the DLC has to be bought separately – the game and DLC has to be bought by all your players too, so this option might end up costing more than the game itself. All you need to do now is jump on a voice call, book up the game and you're good to go. There are DLC versions of Scyth, Cosmic Encounters, Viticulture, Tortuga 1667 and more, all which let you play the full game over this simulator. However it gets more interesting when you look at the plethora of downloadable extras you can get, for a variety of popular board games. It's a steam app that puts you and your friends around the desk with puzzles, chess, poker and more. Tabletop Simulator is, as the name suggests, a way of emulating a real table but in a video game. If you want that tabletop gaming experience but can't actually get around a table with your friends or family, there's an alternative in the form of Tabletop Simulator.

Free multiplayer board games online