PC games

[DemonicAngel]

well, lately, I've been bored out of my mind. I don't have any consoles, and Company of heroes gold wasn't in the shop when I wanted to buy it. so yeah, I'm looking some good, if a bit old, games. genre is really unimportant, as long as its good and wont make my graphic card revert to the old 8 colors 640 resolution which happened when I played fallout 2.

so yeah... any suggestions?

[Flickerdart]

1. Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
2. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Shivering Isles, Knights of the Nine
3. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl, Clear Skies
4. Sid Meier's Pirates!
5. Sid Meier's Civilization III, IV
6. Neverwinter Nights, Shadow of Underntide, Hordes of the Underdark
7. Neverwinter Nights II, Mask of the Betrayer
8. Knights of the Old Republic I, II
9. Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords, Dark Avatar
10. Guild Wars, Factions, Nightfall, Eye of the North

In no particular order, multiple titles on one line are sequels or expansion packs.

[DemonicAngel]

PoP: SoT is done and finished, already got that over with.
Oblivion can also be marked... finished everything, including modding the hell out of it.
NwN2 was a bit meh. trhe expansion was better.
KOTOR (both) were good.
GW: yeah, already got prophecies and NF... still need to get factions and GWEN.
that leaves us with STALKER, Sid Meier's thingies, Galactic Civilizations and NWN 1, right?

[MeklorIlavator]

Well, if you want a decent RTS, Dawn of War is pretty good(ahhh, synch-kills), though I have heard that Company of Heroes is better.

[Flickerdart]

PoP: SoT is done and finished, already got that over with.
Oblivion can also be marked... finished everything, including modding the hell out of it.
NwN2 was a bit meh. trhe expansion was better.
KOTOR (both) were good.
GW: yeah, already got prophecies and NF... still need to get factions and GWEN.
that leaves us with STALKER, Sid Meier's thingies, Galactic Civilizations and NWN 1, right?

Yup. You can get GalCiv Dark Avatar for $40, it includes Dread Lords. GWEN is $30. NWN1 can be gotten in the Diamond Edition, which is all 3 plus the Kingmaker modules, for dirt cheap. STALKER I'm not sure about, same for Civ's. Pirates! shouldn't be more than $20. (All prices Canadian)

[onasuma]

If you can bear sub-par graphics, i really recommend the thief titles. Kinda of a mix of a medival FPS, but alot more stratagy. Actually, only the first two. After looking glass got borght out and whoever it was took over, they made it suck, big time. I think twos the best, kept me going for ages, lots of secrets and a dozen ways to do each level. Also, since soldout now own them, they're incredibley cheap, like 5 pounds each.

[Blayze]

I'm looking some good, if a bit old, games. genre is really unimportant, as long as its good and wont make my graphic card revert to the old 8 colors 640 resolution which happened when I played fallout 2.

Planescape: Torment. Jagged Alliance 2. Deus Ex. Sacrifice. System Shock 2.

[Thiel]

Baldur's Gate + Expansions, Baldur's Gate II - Shadow of Amn + Espansions

[Dhavaer]

I've heard good things about Sins of a Solar Empire.

[Triaxx]

Total Annihilation is a must, and even on a faster computer it doesn't look bad. If your computer can handle it, Supreme Commander is good. Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds is good if you liked the AOE series.

Dungeon Siege was fun, though replay is a bit limited. Sacred is good especially if you liked Diablo.

Freelancer is a great game and very easily modable.

[LBO]

Total Annihilation is a must
I agree with this. So hard.

[DemonicAngel]

Freelancer is one of the best.
BG series: already finished it up.
Ps:T is already a done deal... I have the disk somewhere, really need to play it again.
Dungeon siege was fun, although a bit limited.
Total Annihilation looks cool.
already played through the thief series... great stealth gameplay.
Sins of a Solar Empire was nice, a bit too slow for my taste.

that leaves me with TA, supreme commander, and GalCiv. I'll look at those first.

any other recommendations?

[Myatar_Panwar]

Well hey, I'm surprised no one has yet mentioned the Orange Box. I just got it for the 360 and its so awesome! I totally regret not playing Half life 2 before getting the box. Most. Awesome. Physics. Evar.

It also has Portal, which is of course great, and I wouldn't doubt that people have made modded maps for the PC, and TF2 is probally also much better on the PC (and its already great).

So yeah, get the OB if you don't already have it.

Edit: And the OB is only 40 bucks off of Steam. Great deal for 3 different games, which all got a Metascore of 90 or higher (and two expansions)

[Blayze]

Edit: And the OB is only 40 bucks off of Steam. Great deal for 3 different games, which all got a Metascore of 90 or higher (and two expansions)

The Valve Complete Pack is also worth a look.

[factotum]

Freelancer is one of the best.
.
.
.
any other recommendations?

X2: The Threat or X3: Reunion...both MUCH deeper gameplay than Freelancer.

[Muz]

Two words:

Deus Ex.

I know it's already been mentioned, but it bears mentioning again. Play it, then pray to whatever gods you believe in that Deus Ex 3 doesn't suck. :smallwink:

[Corlindale]

I'd like to nth the Deus Ex suggestion. One of the best games for any system ever.

The Orange Box is great, especially for Portal, and of course HL2 if you haven't played that yet. The other titles didn't appeal that much to me, but they've been well reviewed.

System Shock II might be hard to find, but it's probably one of the best survival horror games, even if it's ancient. I'm still too scared of playing it to get any further, but I plan to get back to it one day...

Psychonauts is an absolutely great and very overlooked adventure/platformer game. It's funny, bizarre and full of creative ideas. Almost all of the individual levels are simply strokes of genius, and they play very differently.
A few downsides are the clunky controls, and some hideously difficult platforming towards the end that makes the last part more frustrating than fun. But those are minor issues compared with the great humor and characterization, and the creative level design. It can be bought for 20$ off Steam.

[Jade Falcon]

Deus Ex, Thief I & II, as mentioned before. You won´t regret it :smallsmile:
And Clive Barkers Undying is worth a look: First Person Shooter, spooky atmosphere, strong story.

[13_CBS]

Dark Messiah is an excellent swordplay game.

It's basically a FPH-S: First Person Hack-and-Slasher. As I said, the combat is quite fun.

[LBO]

Getting hold of TA is annoyingly tough these days (legally), but the open-source game Spring lets you essentially play TA in 3d. It's basically freeware Supreme Commander, and is beautiful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpKqQxTURik

[Hoggy]

System Shock II might be hard to find, but it's probably one of the best survival horror games, even if it's ancient. I'm still too scared of playing it to get any further, but I plan to get back to it one day...

Can get it off the underdogs, I think.

[DemonicAngel]

now that looks amazing... downloaded.

[AlterForm]

+1 for Psychonauts. You can grab it for free with GameTap.

[Mando Knight]

Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds is good if you liked the AOE series.

*gasp!* I'm not the only one who's played that game?

Star Wars: Empire At War is... an odd game... but good if you like to annihilate stuff with massive fleets of Star Destroyers and... THE DEATH STAR!

Republic Commando is a First Person tactical shooter, but some parts are Nintendo Hard (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NintendoHard)...

[Leper_Kahn]

Got 10 bucks? (Only in stores. More online.)
Got an ambition to be great at one of the hardest, most competitive games ever?

Starcraft Battle Chest. (Just get the Starcraft Anthology online. The guide is useless.)

In fact you don't even need to go to the store: http://www.blizzard.com/store/

[Fostire]

Is half-life 2 playable (storywise) without having played the first one?

[EvilElitest]

Baldur's Gate + Expansions, Baldur's Gate II - Shadow of Amn + Espansions

Plus PLanescape, plus Jade Empire, plus mass effect
from
EE

[Myatar_Panwar]

Is half-life 2 playable (storywise) without having played the first one?

I'm doing it right now. Although, while im playing, there have been a few questions to cross my mind (such as where Head Crabs and all that stuff came from), but I have a friend who has played them both, and ive just been asking him questions. And if you really concerned about the entire story of HL1 getting in the way of HL2, you could just find the basic story on the internet.

[DemonicAngel]

played both portal and HL2, both are fun. TF doesn't really appeal to my likings.
SC... ah, the good old days of brood war. I have that game installed, really need to start playing it again together with torment.

[poleboy]

Is half-life 2 playable (storywise) without having played the first one?

Sure. There are lots of little references to the first game, but you don't need to understand them to enjoy the game. The story is kinda kooky anyway, with lots of evil aliens and goverment cover-ups.
All you really need to know is that aliens invaded Earth, you are partially to blame (even though you were the only one who tried to fix things once everything went wrong) and it's time to set things straight. Now go gravity-gun the hell out of something.

I have to second Deus Ex and Warhammmer 40K: Dawn of War. Excellent games.

[Mc. Lovin']

I recomend the orange box as a good PC game, but maybe you ould look into another hobby if you're that bored?

[DemonicAngel]

my other hobby is climbing cliffs, so yeah, I need some home entertainment between my trips ^^"

[poleboy]

I don't have any consoles

I just noticed that. There's the answer to all your problems right there. PC gaming might have been the king of the 90's but console gaming has come a looong way. Do yourself a favor and have a sitdown with Mario Galaxies or some Halo multiplayer if you haven't done it yet.

[RS14]

If you don't mind seriously old games, Nethack (http://nethack.org/) might be worth trying.

[Dhavaer]

Add another vote for Deus Ex.

[warty goblin]

I just noticed that. There's the answer to all your problems right there. PC gaming might have been the king of the 90's but console gaming has come a looong way. Do yourself a favor and have a sitdown with Mario Galaxies or some Halo multiplayer if you haven't done it yet.

While I agree that consoles have come a long way, there are legitimate reasons to be a PC only gamer. Here's why I go that way:
1) Cost. I can only afford to maintain one gaming system max, and as long as I don't mind running things at less than max settings the PC is cheapest. I'd need a computer to do e-mail and word processing anyway, and since TV holds no interest, it makes most sense to combine everything into one platform.

2) Controls. I dislike dual analog for it's lack of precision and find the whole Wii mote to lack dignity. Keyboard and mouse however is, in my opinion anyway, frankly unrivaled.

3) Options. I'm one of those sick people who like tinkering with options for maximum performance, so I don't suffer slowdown doing key moments. On a console if the game slows down, there's nothing I can do about it. On the PC I just lower the resolution a bit, or turn down shadows or something, then get back to having fun. Similarly on the PC I can re-bind keys and edit .cfg files so I can play the game the way I want to play. Consoles don't let me do this.

4) Games available. I still play games from the nineties with some frequency, and it really couldn't be easier. I just pop 'em in the drive, maybe turn off DirectDraw or something, and get too it. No downloading patches or re-purchasing or anything, just straight out playage. Consoles are getting better about this, but are still not there. This isn't even getting into casual games, which are a whole other bucket of (casual) fish.

5) Genres available. People keep saying how the PC doesn't get that many exclusives anymore, which seems fairly weird to me. The PC after all has exclusive genres, not just games. Sim games, x4 strategy games, and (gracefully controllable) RTS games are all pretty much PC exclusive. These are also some of the most replayable games ever made, giving much better value for money than pretty much everything else. Particularly when you combine this with:

6) A better and more useful community. At the risk of getting myself drawn and quartered, PC gaming communities are in just about every way better than their console counterparts. I mean really, sure both have game guides and walkthroughs, but the PC community has extra maps, mods, save-game editors, and about a billion other usefull little things. For example I love the new Crystal Dynamics Tomb Raider games, but hate the boss fights with a passion, and got totally stuck on the Centaur fight in Anniversary. On a console I would either have had to stop playing or else spend the requisate six or eight hours playing the fight until I got lucky and won. On the PC after the fight stopped being fun, and showed no signs of becoming fun again, I simply downloaded a Saved Game Generator, and booted up the checkpoint right after the Centaur battle. Some of my favorite maps for Company of Heroes are community made as well, and I've been known to run Oblivion with upwards of twenty or thirty mods. On the PC, the gaming community isn't just a bunch of people who all play a particular game, but who actually make the game better, and that is, at least to me, a fairly irreplacible feature.

[Ziren]

I feel a distinct lack of Total War and Civilization in this thread.


... That sounds awfully odd if you don't know that these are game titles.

[Blayze]

and I've been known to run Oblivion with upwards of twenty or thirty mods.

The number of mods I tack onto a single install of Baldur's Gate 2 can be described as nothing short of horrifying. People like myself are quite possibly the sole reason why mod merging mods exist, and I agree that the PC is a superior machine with which to game. I simply have *much* more variety, many more options from which to choose.

And that's saying nothing of product ranges like Sold-Out and Explosiv, which gather together some of the most awesome games of yesteryear and supply them to us PC gamers.

[warty goblin]

The number of mods I tack onto a single install of Baldur's Gate 2 can be described as nothing short of horrifying. People like myself are quite possibly the sole reason why mod merging mods exist, and I agree that the PC is a superior machine with which to game. I simply have *much* more variety, many more options from which to choose.

And that's saying nothing of product ranges like Sold-Out and Explosiv, which gather together some of the most awesome games of yesteryear and supply them to us PC gamers.

Ah yes, I know what you mean. I once personally downloaded something described as a mod of a mod of a mod. I have also had mods running that added content I never even saw before they got removed in my great de-modification purge a few months ago now.

Thanks for the agreement. I was reasonably certain that the console fans were going to track down my ISP, then burn me out of dorm and college before lashing my wrists to a flaming Sony symbol with Wii-remote cords and then beating me to death with original XBox controllers.

Which I actually wouldn't mind them doing, as long as it happens before my calc II exam on Thursday. I mean, a person would survive what? Three minutes under a hail of XBox controllers? Saves me two hours and fifty-seven minutes of calculus II, and I'd imagine the experiences to be equally painful on a per-minute basis.

Anyways, then I would be a PC martyr, and every year gamers would burn a half-gig of outdated RAM in my memory.

[Kane]

PC games happen to be my favorite, too, since A, the only console I can afford, Wii, is vaguely disappointing, at least until Rockband is out for it, and B, A computer has RTSs, and C, I get to build my computer. (Hey, I like it!)

But as for games.... I've heard good and slightly horrified things about an RPG called 'Witcher', and I happen to know that Command and Conquer 3 and World in Conflict (both RTSs) kick ass. I liked Rise of Legends, but it might be that noone else did. Old-time strategy game Age of Wonders I've always loved, uh...

Black and White, one preferably, is a hell of a lot of fun. Same with MechWarrior 4 Mercenaries, if you've ever heard of it. (I hadn't.) Dungeon Keeper is old, but still good. I think it gets a bit of fake difficulty later, and suffers from lack of skirmish.

Warcraft III and Starcraft, naturally.

Oh yes. And this, (http://sc2.sourceforge.net/downloads.php)this is a good game. StarControl 2, by the name of Ur-Quan Masters. Wonderful game, fun multiplayer, and quite entertaining too. (Those Spathi...)

[Prustan]

Hmm, wasn't planning on joining the discussion, but what the heck. Here's a few I like.

Dues Ex - brilliant, though 2 was far too dumbed down.
NWN series - also brilliant, though I could never manage to auto-patch NWN 2.
Dark Messiah - good.
The Witcher - kind of dark, and not safe for work, but I kind of like it.
Hellgate: London - FPS Diablo type game. Really like it.
Heroes of Might and Magic series - really like these.
Master of Magic - need a DOS emulator, but if you like Civilization 1, then it's good. Just take note of which races can use which units, or you'll get severely screwed.
Sacred - really good Diablo type game.
Spellforge(?) series - rather good RPG/RTS cross. Not sure I have the name exactly right, but you should be able to find it.
Oblivion - not as engaging as Morrowind, but still enjoyable.

[JabberwockySupafly]

Gothic I & II and the expansion. Just get the Gothic Universe box, it's $50 AUD, which means it's probably 20-25 USD. Just pretend you don't own Gothic III, gods that game had so much potential, but fell horribly short of the mark.

[poleboy]

rack down my ISP, then burn me out of dorm and college before lashing my wrists to a flaming Sony symbol with Wii-remote cords and then beating me to death with original XBox controllers.

Hmm... *takes notes*

Nice burn there with the original X-box controllers. That would be a painful death indeed. That is, if any human actually had hands large enough to hold them and bludgeon you with them :smallbiggrin:

I had consoles long before I even considered owning a PC, so I'm probably biased. And while I agree that PC games usually offer a colorful multitude of modding, patches and optimizations, PC games often need these things. I've had a few minor problems with Sony and Microsoft machines, but no Nintendo piece of hard -or software has ever screwed me over. I don't think I've played more than a handful of PC games that didn't at one point just black out, crash, freeze, or piss off windows somehow and then be shut down.
The endless tinkering with the settings and tweaks of PC games have nothing to do with games IMO. It's a challenge all right, called "the Windows hates you game" and I usually lose it. Especially now that I had to get *shudder* Vista.

That being said, I still prefer to play Morrowind/Oblivion on the PC because of all the modding goodness.

I think an acceptable comparison would be coffee. You can go to a coffee shop (the coffee kind) and you can get your coffee ground up there and ready to brew, or you can buy coffee beans and grind them yourself. Now, some people argue that grinding the beans seconds before the brewing process begins preserves the flavour. That's probably true, and while I do enjoy a coffee with optimal flavor, at the end of the day, I still get my caffeine shot from the less fresh coffee and the taste is very similar. Only, I don't have to work as much for it.

Then there's instant coffee, but that's a whole different story. That's like the Virtual Boy or something.

[Tusalu]

You must have Neverwinter Nights!

[Triaxx]

NEVER MENTION THE VIRTUAL BOY. IT NEVER HAPPENED.

---

The Wiimote doesn't even have a cord, unless you're using the Nunchuck, and I've seen pretty good third party versions that are wireless.

The XboX controller is used by swinging the cord. I prefer to just smash with the console.

---

The Wiimote only lacks dignity in stupid commercials. Though I'll hand you MP3 doesn't always pick up the pull.

[hajo]

I'm looking some good, if a bit old, games.
Civ-type games:
* Master of Orion
* Settlers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Settlers)
* Anno 1602 (http://www.mobygames.com/game/1602-ad) / 1503 / 1701
* c-evo (http://www.c-evo.org/) a better Civ2
Some of those have inspired open-source projects, e.g. FreeOrion (http://www.freeorion.org/index.php/Main_Page), Widelands (http://xoops.widelands.org)

Tactic&Strategy:
* Ufo/XCom - Series, plus Open-Source projects still in development:
** Ufo2000 (http://ufo2000.sourceforge.net/) (no AI, so duels only)
** Ufo-AlienInvasion (http://ufoai.sourceforge.net/) playable, but story not finished yet
* Battle for Wesnoth (http://www.wesnoth.org) - turn-based strategy game with a fantasy theme.
Several single-player campains, many multiplayer-maps, very active community.

Simulations:
* OoLite (http://oolite.aegidian.org) Elite-Remake
* SimuTrans (http://www.simutrans.com) Transport-Sim (Railroads, Ships, Busses...)

Shooters:
* Sauerbraten (http://sauerbraten.org/)
* CodeRED: Alien Arena (http://red.planetarena.org) Quake meets 'Mars Attacks!' :smallcool:

Some others have already been mentioned (Ur-Quan, Wizardy, BaldursGate ...)

[DemonicAngel]

PC FTW.
I mean, come on... A) no money for a console
B) its so much better to play with the mouse and keyboard
C) you can actually mod the games... I've had almost 50 mods on Oblivion alone.

PC martyrs unite! thanks for all the great suggestions.. .I'll check some of them out. (looks like my Deus Ex has finished installing... bought it out for a really low price, and it works.)

[Muz]

(looks like my Deus Ex has finished installing... bought it out for a really low price, and it works.)

Cooool. :smallbiggrin:

Just a (non-spoiler) gameplay warning: Ammo isn't as plentiful in that game as it is in more traditional shooters. Just...be aware. (Personally I like that it isn't, but I've heard people complain about it before, too.) :smallsmile:

[DemonicAngel]

I really don wanna play the shootie-style... more like me playing the back stabber, y'know.. stealthy.

[Prustan]

Been quite a while since I played Deus Ex, but if you're careful, and choose your weapons right (and if you're accurate!), there is plenty of ammo by the end of the game. Just be careful of where you put your skill points. You really want to be able to hack ATMs at the very least.

[Blayze]

Here's a warning about Deus Ex if you're looking to conserve ammo.

After you get captured, when you recover your gear you might notice (As I did) that some of it is missing. I lost a bunch of grenades that way.

Then again, it's a hell of a lot better than what happens in FEAR. I'd played through the entire game conserving ammo, and had I know *that* would happen I would have wasted most of it.

[Manga Shoggoth]

Dungeon siege was fun, although a bit limited.

If you have Dungeon Siege then it is worth downloading the Lazarus mod (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima_V:_Lazarus) (links at end of article) for it. It gives you an expanded game of Ultima 5 using the DS engine.

There are a lot of mods for Lazarus as well...

[Breltar]

Here are my tops...

NWN 1 & 2 with expansions - You can get all this for around 40-50 bucks US and it has hours and hours of play. NWN2 had some issues when first released, but the patches out have improved it dramatically.

Sid Meier's Pirates - This is the only game I have seen my father play at my house then immediately go out and buy himself. Literally hours and hours of play and lots of replay value for such a simple concept.

Star Wars Compilation: Can't remember the name of it, but there is a compilation of a ton of star wars games out there for one price. Included are games like KoToR 1, Jedi Knight 2, Republic Commando, Empire at War, and Battlegrounds.

Dawn of War - Really great group of games if you like RTS, and has a different feel than the 'build the town' style RTS like Warcraft.

Battlefield 2 - an older shooter but has a few mods out, the one I favor being from the Marines is the Project Reality mod. You can get it and the expansions pretty cheap now.

[DeathQuaker]

If you're bored and looking for essentially endless gaming, and like D&D based RPGs, definitely pick up Neverwinter Nights. After you play through the OC, 2 expansions, and (counts on fingers) 6? premium mods--or even if you don't play those at all--you can then download a number of very good fan-made mods to your heart's content. "Darkness Over Daggerford" would be good place to start.

Obviously, if your computer will handle it, NWN2 is a good choice for similar reasons (and Mask of the Betrayer is worth the purchase alone), although there are fewer mods available as it's a newer game, obviously. Took a few years for the first NWN to build up its library. In both cases, just remember to download the latest patch!

Other stuff.... for "old," good fun clicky hack'n'slash dungeon crawl, "Diablo" is always fun. In a similar vein, for a new series, "Titan Quest."

Most Civilization games if you like strategy. The Warcraft and Starcraft franchises for RTS. For really oldschool, try to find a copy of Master of Magic.

If you like simulations, voyeurism, and building things--not to mention possibly torture--"The Sims" and its sequel will eat your soul and all your free time. I'd recommend the second over the first. I think you can get a deluxe pack with the main game plus a couple expansions for $40-50.