PC Gaming - Patronise a Newbie

[Johnny Townmouse]

OK, so gaming is something I know virtually nothing about, but for which I have a passing interest. I have had my obsessions in the past - Jedi Knight II on the PC in the late 90s, and before that Super Mario Kart on the N64. I was also partial to Bomberman as a communal game. I got a hopelessly outdated PS2 a few years ago because it enabled me to pick up games for £3 from CEX. But I only really enjoyed the Army/Black Ops/Sniper type games.

I have avoided games on the PC for the past few years because I was completing my PhD and frankly did not need another distraction/procrastination tool, but now I have a decent desktop and would like to dip my toes into gaming again.

Obviously I have Grim Fandango to work through, but what other games do you think I should get? I don't even mind if they are a few years old. Like I said, I tend to enjoy playing war games, but also rather like dogfighting games. I imagine I should get Wolfenstein as that seems like the nuts due to its incredible creepy tone. I am put-off by big fantasy games, and if I see an advert for a game on TV in which there are flashes flying everywhere and a big dragon, and it just looks like a spectacle I tend to think "I would hate playing that."

Any recommendations? Perhaps a couple of games that I don't even realise I would like to play. Help me, I know fuck-all. 

[Zetetic]

Wolfenstein

The reboot (2013) of the reboot (2009) of the sort-of reboot (1992)?
Who knows at the moment, might be a load of toss to play regardless of the tone. Wait for release is always good advice... Of course not having played anything for ages is a pretty good state to be in from the point of view avoiding over-hyped toss over the last decade.

But I only really enjoyed the Army/Black Ops/Sniper type games. ... Like I said, I tend to enjoy playing war games, but also rather like dogfighting games.

How 'realistic'[nb]How fiddly and easy to die in, basically.[/nb] do you like this stuff?
You might want to look into Arma at the more fiddly end and the Battlefield games at easier-to-get-into end. These also involve flying and driving stuff if you want. (If you have a Steam account, I'll happily give you a copy of Arma 3-lite. I've no idea what that is, but it came free with a preorder.[nb]I'll also give you Half-Life 2 if you want it.[/nb])

On that note, how interested would you be in multiplayer for these sort of games? Planetside 2 is futuristic, but again involves playing soldiers and flying stuff(ish). I haven't been able to play it because of my rubbish computer, but I've heard good things.

Super Mario Kart on the N64.

Still interested at all in that? I can recommend Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed if you want a decent kart racer.

I am put-off by big fantasy games

Does this extend to role-playing games in general? Games you can't just dip in and out of?
If not, I wonder if you'd be interested in the modern Fallout games.

it just looks like a spectacle

Hmm. What do you mean by that?

[madhair60]

I'd recommend Spec Ops: The Line, you can get it on PC for about a fiver every now and then.  It's not got the spectacle per se, it's more of a deconstruction but thinking about it you might not get as much out of it if you haven't experienced the ridiculous bombast of the Modern Warfare series.

[Zetetic]

Really? It's not a particularly good (as a shooty game) shooty game and I'd absolutely agree that it doesn't really mean very much without the context of a decade of CODBLOPS/WarFace/Modern Warfare games.. (And it does have a fair bit of straight 'spectacle'!)

[madhair60]

I beat it the other day and it's kind of resonated with me in a way that I'm going to every cunt who'll listen "PLAY THIS GAME"

[Zetetic]

I think people should play it, but I guess I'd hesitate to recommend it as a starting point.

What about Borderlands 2?

[Steve Lampkins]

What are your specs?

I would second Battlefield 3 (Premium edition). I'm 800 hours into the online portion and still playing...

[madhair60]

Oh, yeah, Team Fortress 2, obviously.  And it's free.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Civilisation 2
Rollercoaster Tycoon 2
Theme Hospital
Medieval: Total War
Pirates Gold
Pharoah
Grand Prix 2

Job is a good one.

[madhair60]

^ Ignore this man, he likes SimHealth, which looks like this:



AH THAT WAS A HARD DAY AT WORK TIME FOR MORE WORK.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

I prefer Great Britain Ltd. It doesn't have the shithot graphics power of Sim Health but the election night is genuinely tense.

Managing things rules.

[syntaxerror]

As mentioned further upstream, Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas are worth a recommendation - There's a lot there for most types of gamers, and if you don't want to get too deep into it you can pretty much play them as straightforward shooters, but obviously the more you put in, the more you get out. I know quite a few people who seem to, like you,  hate all those big dragons and wizards and spells and dungeons games but love the new Fallout games. Big fuck off guns, apocalyptic world, fucking loads to do.

RATING: THUMBS UP.

[Consignia]

AH THAT WAS A HARD DAY AT WORK TIME FOR MORE WORK.

Ah, that reminds me of a PC Format article I read nearly two decades ago, where they rang up people whose jobs matched various simulation games. The town planner said his job was so great that the £40 for SimCity not enough for the privilege of doing it. The ant was rather silent about SimAnt.

[Hangthebuggers]

Terraria

Minecraft

Civilisation IV

Company of heroes

[WesterlyWinds]

Seven Kingdoms: Ancient Adversaries

[finley]

It's not a game, but download Steam if you haven't already and check out GOG.com for good offers.

Fallout series is a good shout, whether old or new shiny versions. Ditto for the Deus Ex series which can usually be had for cheap.

But my favourite PC game just might be Spelunky, it is an 8bit style 2D game and is free:
http://spelunkyworld.com/original.html

I have something like 2000 games in this, it is excellent.

[Johnny Townmouse]

THANKS!

Thanks all for your replies. I have heard about Steam but frankly know nothing about it. My PC does not look like a 1980s TV SF spaceship like gaming puters, but it is a decent 8GB RAM, i5 processor, 2TB HD PC with what I assume is probably a not so impressive graphics card.

Battlefield sounds like it might be up my street, so I think I will look into the older games in the series which will be cheaper and will probably run on my PC. I really lover Mario Kart so thanks Zetetic for the reference to those two racing games - I will be looking to get them first. For reference, I am not interested in world-building games, role-playing, clue solving (apart from Grim Fandango), and so I imagine my tastes are rather unrefined and basic.

I'd recommend Spec Ops: The Line...but thinking about it you might not get as much out of it if you haven't experienced the ridiculous bombast of the Modern Warfare series.

Should I just start with the first Modern Warfare game and work my way through?

Borderlands 2, Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, Team Fortress 2,  Terraria, Minecraft, Company of heroes and Battlefield 3 are added to the list.

In terms of going retro, I am about to embark on the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game as part of my research into Tarkovsky!

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Those games where you don't just point a gun and fire at people but do other things.

They are also available on PC.

[madhair60]

All the Modern Warfare games are great fun, but they are exclusively ridiculous gung-ho bombast, so might not be up your alley.

I once switched one of Shoulders' games with an Excel spreadsheet as a joke and he didn't even notice

[Still Not George]

JT - seriously. Get Steam. Install it. Gawp at the Store for a bit. Wonder why the hell you ever left the PC.

[Eis Nein]

Legit PC gaming is now much less hassle than pirating, and costs buttons. Newell only went and did it.

[Johnny Townmouse]

All the Modern Warfare games are great fun, but they are exclusively ridiculous gung-ho bombast, so might not be up your alley.
I once switched one of Shoulders' games with an Excel spreadsheet as a joke and he didn't even notice

Yeah, the full-on 'roid American shooting stuff is quite off-putting. The two games I played on the PS2 that I enjoyed were Black and I just started playing Medal of Honor when the PhD came calling, and I put the console in the attic.

I'm not adverse to games that can be played in DOS - in fact I let Druglord take up vast amounts of my time in the early 90s.

OK SNG, I will look into this Steam thing when I get home - I hope my PC can take it.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

I once switched one of Shoulders' games with an Excel spreadsheet as a joke and he didn't even notice

That is more or less what some of them are!



O HAI THERE

[Still Not George]

Oi you git. Stop making me want to play HOI again.

That said, HOI3 isn't really a spreadsheet game. Aurora 4X... that actually is a spreadsheet masquerading as a game.

[Consignia]

I say, what's wrong with spread sheets? I've even played some games that use VBA in Excel.

[madhair60]

Oi you git. Stop making me want to play HOI again.

That said, HOI3 isn't really a spreadsheet game. Aurora 4X... that actually is a spreadsheet masquerading as a game.

Someone bought me Hearts of Iron 3 as a gift once.  That was a wide miss.

[Still Not George]

HOI3 got really good about 12 months after it came out. Y'know, like all Paradox games.

[Johnny Townmouse]

That's a scopohilic feast of game technology compared to Druglord!

[Still Not George]

I'm always particularly amused by people who lambast "spreadsheet games" and then go on about playing Football Manager obsessively.

Not actually accusing anyone on here, but it has happened.

[Consignia]

That's a scopohilic feast of game technology compared to Druglord!

That sounds like the game all my school mates played to feel like they playing something that was edgy, when in reality if you changed a few words here and there, it'd be a business intelligence application. I refuse to believe that drug dealing would be so boring.

Although I wonder if druglords do use spreadsheets or they eschew such primitive data usage for CRM tools and long term business analytics?