The Gaming Den

For what will be in the very very near future, I'll have access to a pretty good PC in which I can play video games on. However, I've never really played PC games...having been raised on Consoles since childhood. There's always been good games I've wanted to play, but couldn't because they're on PC-only.

Now, I'll have the chance to do that, and asking others of Good games (New and Old especially the latter) that I should likely play and would be missing out not to. I plan to own a Controller, since that's what I'm used to, can't say I look forward to dealing with keyboard + Mouse nonsense (obviously fine for games like Fallout).

I know game wise, there's Fallout 1&2, Rogue Legacy, S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow over Chernobyl, FTL, and Legend of Grimrock I should try. Games that have Consoles releases "could" count, if in some way the PC counterpart offers something more substantial (like TF2 on PC, or Dragon Age 1's turn based tactical combat).

Make an account with Good Old Games. That can get you the Fallouts and Planescape: Torment and some of the other old classics.

My 'must-play' list involves a couple of old Sierra games. King's Quest 6 and Quest for Glory (all).

You should find out if you like real time strategy games. Those are usually PC only.

Maxus wrote:Make an account with Good Old Games. That can get you the Fallouts and Planescape: Torment and some of the other old classics.

My 'must-play' list involves a couple of old Sierra games. King's Quest 6 and Quest for Glory (all).

You can't get Fallouts at GOG any more.

Really? I'm glad I got them when I did, then.

Legend of Grimrock gets tedious really quickly. It would be less so if you could bind keys to the various actions for each character, but you can't, so ... It's a case of the interface providing most of the difficulty, because the enemies themselves are actually super easy to beat.

It's cliché, but you should play Half-Life, Half-Life 2, and the two episodic add-ons. *shrug*

Other older things that go on the list of "games that should be played at least once":

• Civilization IV - better than the sequel
• StarCraft
• Deus Ex
• MechWarrior 2 - holy shit, the autocorrect switched it to CamelCase.
• Planescape: Torment
• Wing Commander series - the first is skippable, and you can cheat through the second just for the story. From then on it's amazing.

Aryxbez wrote:Games that have Consoles releases "could" count, if in some way the PC counterpart offers something more substantial

Say hello to mouse aiming in FPS games.

Anyway. I think you might want to focus a little on newer shinier titles.

Titanfall is apparently coming out on PC and consoles in March and it looks like a contender for a fun place to experience mouse aiming and higher quality graphics compared to a directly equivalent console release.

But you could also go and play Planetside 2 right now and experience ludicrously large numbers of humans playing an FPS on the same map. It is the number one "Fifteen troopers screaming and leaping to their death while one incompetent flies a burning troop transport aircraft upside-down and jams it on a street lamp while one hundred others watch and some idiot rams them all with a fighter plane in a misguided attempt to help" simulator.

Also. Strategy games are better on PC. And more numerous. Sometime in the nearish future you can expect to see Warlock 2 and Age Of Wonders SomethingOrOther coming out as turn based new shiny releases.

Real time strategy games are ALSO better on PC. Planetary Annihilation is coming out soonish, and it is looking. Well. It's an RTS on spherical planets and you can in a single match travel to other planets, fight on the other planets, then build giant engines on the planets and ram them together. If that seems ambitious... well they already have that basic functionality in the Beta.

Weird indy games are more numerous and interesting on PC. Octodad, dadliest catch is just out, and is the premiere Octopus Disguised As Human Parent simulator on the market. But there are a million cheap, weird, fun, small, but also new and shiny games like it not at all like it out there on Steam, and GOG and Desura.

Don't get Starbound. For now at least, it's complete shit.

Minecraft is a huge craze, but there are a million much more interesting competitors in the "procedural lego exploring game" launching around about nowish and ONE of them is almost inevitably going to blow minecraft out of the water sooner or later what with minecraft, well, kinda sucking and all.

I'd definitely give Half-Life (the original) a shot. It remains one of the best PC games ever.

If you want to do retro, I would recommend Doom 1 and 2, and Warcraft 2. You may need to find an emulator for them.

YMMV there. I feel like all those games are pointlessly outdated and painful to play.

I'd consider playing an RTS, since that is basically something that doesn't exist on consoles. It may or may not be your cup of tea, and I'm not sure what the best starter RTS is these days, but it is something to consider.

Oh man...

Resource management / city builders
* The Civilization games ( Civ V is most current. You can get THE WHOLE SHEBANG for $15, too.
* Tropico 4 (when it's on sale)

RPGs
* Shadowrun Returns
* Fallout ( ALL OF THEM ... I'm sort of a fanboy)
* * ( Of the two newest, I prefer 'New Vegas' over FO3 )

* Baldur's Gate original and enhanced, all good. (Original is up to 80% off for a few more hours )
* * Planescape is also included in that DnD GoG pack. All together it's like $22 for BG 1/2, IWD 1/2, Planescape and a few others
* * ( The Enhanced Editions are actually worth the money when they're on sale, imo)

* Skyrim (low on my personal list, though)
* Bastion (action/adventure more than RPG)

FPS / FPRPG
* Borderlands 2 (get it on sale)
* Team Fortress 2 (Free and great for killing time)

RTS / Wargames
* Starcraft original series (Replayed it not too long ago, still loved it)
* Starcraft 2 (YMMV, I like the campaigns but don't play single player)
* Total War franchise. Love it. I prefer Shogun/Rom/Medieval in that order (empire/napoleon... are ... "okay")

Point and Click
* Deponia / 2/ 3
* Machinarium
* The Whispered World

Indie / Other
* Reus is fun to kill some time with (get it on sale)
* Gnomoria is also a great/frustrating time killer (Dwarf Fortress w/ graphics)
* Portal / Portal 2
* Game Dev Tycoon (I wasted several days on it. It's like ... 10 bucks)
* Trine 2 (VERY pretty)

radthemad4 wrote:You should find out if you like real time strategy games. Those are usually PC only.

Good Question, I'm not sure, only really done Turn Based Strategy, and those games weren't too advanced in tactics I'm sure (Disgaea, Fire Emblem, Shining Force,Spectral Force, Luminous Arc come to mind).

Leress wrote:You can't get Fallouts at GOG any more.

Fallout shouldn't be a problem, a friend of mine has a PC copy of it, so I should be able to just borrow that (it has 1,2, and Tactics).

PhoneLobster wrote:Say hello to mouse aiming in FPS games.
Anyway. I think you might want to focus a little on newer shinier titles.

Yeah...I'm not looking forward to the keyboard + Mouse interface..but I hear one gets used to it in time.

Not sure why to that suggestion, I assume it's to make most of the PC's capabilities? Otherwise, I have played older games, and can appreciate those type of experiences, and don't just play shooters.

Shrapnel wrote:If you want to do retro, I would recommend Doom 1 and 2, and Warcraft 2. You may need to find an emulator for them.

Hell yeah I do!, I haven't Tried Warcraft 2, but Xbox Live has Doom 1 & 2, so won't need an emulator to play them (Xbox controls make DOOM playable for me).

codeGlaze wrote:* Fallout ( ALL OF THEM ... I'm sort of a fanboy)
* * ( Of the two newest, I prefer 'New Vegas' over FO3 )

I too am a fan ( I've spent hours reading the wiki-lore) and New Vegas is likely my favorite RPG of last console generation. Oh, and Bastion's on Xbox Live, so I've played and beaten that, great game, however, wasn't Shadowrun Returns apparently "eh to awful"?

If you're up for multiplayer stuff, which absolutely requires keyboard+mouse interface, you could try one of the MOBAs. These are games where you pick a single character to be part of a team of five people, and play against an opposing team of five, ultimately to try to destroy their base before they can destroy yours; along the way you get skills and abilities and items and level up like in a really shallow rpg progression, and try to interfere with the other team doing the same.

There are two major games worth mentioning in the genre - DotA 2 (Valve Software) and League of Legends (Riot Games). Both are free to download and play, for varying definitions of free.

Reasons to Play League Of Legends:
- Easier to pick up and learn (still a high learning curve, but not as sheer as Dota 2's.)
- Larger playerbase, more people playing creates nice networking effects - if you have friends that play a MOBA, it is more likely to be League than Dota 2.
- Progression that unlocks stuff as you play may be motivating to some players (such stuff that can be unlocked very slowly by playing or faster by paying includes stuff that affects gameplay directly such as hero options, runes that give you stat bonuses, etc).

Reasons to Play Dota 2:
- Better client and support (interface better, faster, supports a lot of things like viewing replays that League doesn't), better graphics and detail possible (but still playable on older PCs with worse settings), more/better voice acting. A lot of shininess and attention to detail in terms of audiovisuals, presentation, etc.
- A more flexible game at high levels with more variation and differing viable strategies.
- REALLY free to play - there is no way to spend money to do anything that affects gameplay, only character appearance and things like that are for sale, you can't pay for any concrete advantages, everything in gameplay is unlocked and even for all players at the start of a match.

There are a few others that are out there as well. I don't think there's a good reason to get into Heros of Newearth, it is dying and never was amazing. Smite last I played it seemed unfinished and in alpha stages, but it seems like it's improving? Awesomenauts is not free to play and is nowhere near as complicated or deep as these others, but is really fun for a casual timewaster.

Finally, I suggest you spend conservatively when buying for full price on games especially on Steam. Old games on steam periodically go on sale for steep discounts, and moreover twice yearly (middle of summer and around Christmas) Steam has huge sales on most of it's catalog for insane discounts of between 33-50% for newer stuff to like 90% off of older stuff - spend conservatively now, and at those times pick up stuff for a fraction the cost it would take you now.

There are a lot of indie games and lesser known titles I really enjoyed that I strongly recommend trying out for a number of reasons, but I can't really recommend you spend $20 on Antichamber or Gone Home, $15 for the Stanley Parable or Mark of the Ninja, or even the $10 for Painkiller - Black Edition or Dungeons of Dredmor + expansions, when you will probably be able to get all of them together for $25 or less when the inevitable Steam Summer Sale rolls around.

If you're going to bust out the old Fallouts, do yourself a favor and pickup Fallout FIXT (For FO1) and the Fallout Restoration Project (For FO2). You can find both in the sticky threads here: http://www.nma-fallout.com/forumdisplay ... al-Modding

Mount and Blade is an excellent medieval combat army commanding simulator thingy. You want some mods, though.

Zeno Clash is a weird as fuck first person brawler with a trippy art style.

Gothic II is a niche-y German rpg that's difficult to get into but is still really rewarding. It does the whole "world simulation, npcs have schedules" thing better than anything Bethesda has ever made.

I've probably put more hours into Crusader Kings II than I have in any other game in the past decade.

As far as random indie games go, Machinarium is a gorgeous, charming adventure game about a little robot dude.

Since you're not opposed to going retro, Heroes of Might and Magic III is still pretty charming.

Aryxbez wrote: Yeah...I'm not looking forward to the keyboard + Mouse interface..but I hear one gets used to it in time.

Embrace it. Mouse+keyboard is much quicker and more precise than two-stick. After a while you'll be annoyed going back to the gamepad. No joke.

If you had never played any of the genre before and had to choose between League of Legends and Dota 2, I'd say go for Dota 2. I say this as someone who almost exclusively plays League of Legends nowadays.

Riot Games is very much a company that accidentally stumbled its way into success. Despite having one of the most monumental successes the industry has ever seen and going on a huge hiring binge they somehow manage to make their game a little bit worse every month and can't even keep their own servers online despite persistent failings for years. Admittedly their e-sports division is really good though. Props to those guys, it's the only reason I'm still interested in their game.

Meanwhile Dota 2 is tuned pretty meticulously and reactively. Despite lingering neckbeardism in some of the mechanics (Riot Games did a pretty good job of stamping that out despite their shortcomings), it's probably the better game at this point.

GreatGreyShrike wrote:If you're up for multiplayer stuff...

Not so much, I've never really been into competitive games or "Sports". A few friends of mine play League of Legends actually, and don't really desire to get into it at all (even if I think could pose some nice lessons for Tabletop RPGs). I've been heavily turned off to the notion of playing games competitively ever since I saw the unappealing mentality with "Super Smash Bros-series", and personally sucking beyond measure in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (w/pros who can stunlock ya into a corner for one wrong move at start of match..no purpose for me to attempt to try).

Ah yes Zeno Clash, I've heard of it long while back, it's on Xbox Live as well (played the demo there), but I'll get it wherever it ends up being cheaper cost wise.

Thanks for the link on Fallout mods Hadanelith.

NineInchNall wrote:Embrace it. Mouse+keyboard is much quicker and more precise than two-stick. After a while you'll be annoyed going back to the gamepad. No joke.

Eh..but I suppose all too many have felt what I have towards the control set-up yeah? Though I hope not I'd be "annoyed" at it, it'd be a sad day, given my console playing history. I've heard people who can't go back to the controller at all, after using PC controls.

Also, thanks to everyone so far for the information, I've read every post at least twice.

Killer is Dead is coming to PC. I've played it on the PS3, haven't beaten it yet (at a friend's place) but had a looooot of fun with its fighting system, it's very straight forward.

Aryxbez wrote:Eh..but I suppose all too many have felt what I have towards the control set-up yeah? Though I hope not I'd be "annoyed" at it, it'd be a sad day, given my console playing history. I've heard people who can't go back to the controller at all, after using PC controls.

I have no idea what you feel towards the control set up or even which set up you are referring to, but you can always go back to playing on controllers. Mouse keyboard is in fact better, don't get me wrong, but you can play on controllers still. When people say they can't go back they mean that they don't want to, which is fine. You still can if you want to.

Aryxbez wrote:

codeGlaze wrote:* Fallout ( ALL OF THEM ... I'm sort of a fanboy) * * ( Of the two newest, I prefer 'New Vegas' over FO3 )

I too am a fan ( I've spent hours reading the wiki-lore) and New Vegas is likely my favorite RPG of last console generation. Oh, and Bastion's on Xbox Live, so I've played and beaten that, great game, however, wasn't Shadowrun Returns apparently "eh to awful"?

I've thoroughly enjoyed the game so far.
But I've only just finished the intro 'arc'.

Is it game of the year? Fuck no.You can only save between levels.
But get it for 50 - 75% and it's still enjpyable.

Don't pay full price for anytghing anymore.
Troll sites like HumbleBundle, Steam, gog.com and gamersgate weekly (and once more on weekends) for awesome deals... and you'll quickly have a huge catalogue of games for very little money down.

codeglaze, tags.

I'll second the recommendation of Heroes of Might and Magic 3. I've played that game for countless hours. Other older games I've enjoyed include Stronghold and Majesty. I've had fun with Bastion but haven't completed it yet - the narrator really makes the game. FTL: Faster Than Light was also entertaining, and pretty cheap if you can pick it up on sale.

rampaging-poet wrote:codeglaze, tags.

FML ... thanks.
(Trying to clip quotes from mobile sucks)

rampaging-poet wrote: I'll second the recommendation of Heroes of Might and Magic 3. I've played that game for countless hours. Other older games I've enjoyed include Stronghold and Majesty. I've had fun with Bastion but haven't completed it yet - the narrator really makes the game. FTL: Faster Than Light was also entertaining, and pretty cheap if you can pick it up on sale.

I'll second FTL, on sale.

The randomness can be really frustrating.
My lose : win ratio is something like 20 : 1.