Best games to play?

Hey everyone.

Not even three months ago I decided that I was going to take the step from console gaming to PC gaming, and I have to say, it is one of the best choices I have ever made. It took many hours of research and ordering, but, when all was said and done, I had built my very own (and pretty beast) PC. I went from being an ignorant xbox gamer to a well educated PC gamer, and took all the steps necessary to get there.

Now, that said, this is not my first PC gaming experience. About seven years ago, I played a few titles on my family computer (which wasn't very good at all), and got a taste of titles which were new at the time, such as Call of Duty, Far Cry, and the Sims. This actually served as my first "real" gaming experience. Unfortunately, not knowing any better, I ended up leaving that behind, and moved on to buy an xbox 360 (because playing on my TV with a controller seemed so much cooler). From that point until just recently, it was the only thing I gamed on, and I did have quite a good time with it. But, now all that is the past, and I am looking to re-new my bond with PC gaming.

Of course, the first thing I played on my brand new system was Crysis (being more of a means to performance-test than anything else). I then purchased the Fallout 3 GOTY Edition (store-bought), and played that for a while. Then we reach present day, where I am quite bored of Fallout and wish to experience something new (or old actually, depending on the way you see it). Yes, I have a PC and will definitely be playing many new major titles, but, seeing as most great gaming franchises originated from the PC, I feel that I am missing out on many classics. This lead me to look into Steam, where I have access to an excess amount of classics that I missed out on over the years. Some games which I would like to experience are Doom 3, Half-Life (one and two), Diablo, and Starcraft, but, I'm want to wait until I get some feedback on which games are truly worth experiencing before purchasing anything.

So, my question to any PC veterans is, what game(s) should I purchase? There are tons out there, and it really is too hard to make the decision(s) on my own. Thanks in advance for any feedback.

TT;DR: To be able to truly call myself a PC gamer, I feel that I need to first brush up on the system's history by playing some classics. Any recommendations will be appreciated.

the orange box.

The Orange Box, Oblivion, Rome: Total War, Company of Heroes

I'll list the ones that are easiest to get into instead of milestones in the PC gaming history as a lot of the milestones aren't fun anymore for someone who has never played them.

Shooter: Orange Box, STALKER: Shadow of Shernobyl (don't tackle this until you are accustomed to the controls of an FPS) + Call of Pripyat, Alien Swarm (free), Killing Floor (or Left 4 Dead, I prefer Killing Floor), and Unreal Tournament 2004.

RPG: Witcher, Neverwinter Nights 2: Gold (you NEED to read the manual, easy to understand since the manual is really thick and does a good job of explaining the compelx game), Mount & Blade: Warband (most action packed RPG out of all of these and almost looks like an action game), Deus Ex and Titan Quest.

Strategy: League of Legends (the genre this falls into is rather unforgiving and this is the best intro without a doubt, free), King's Bounty, and Medieval II: Total War (do the tutorial and you should be fine).

Adventure: Sanitarium and Penumbra (technically survival horror but I consider it an adventure game).

oh! and starcraft 2

Combat in witcher was bad? in what way? I thought it was fine.

Hmmm... good ideas so far. I'm really excited about going out and experiencing these titles. I think I'll do The Orange Box first because of how much praise it still gets amongst PC gamers. I have a question though. Should I go even further back and play the originals of these franchises (ex: Half Life 1, Doom 1, Diablo, Quake, etc.)? Or should I skip over that and simply play the newer (as in, not from the 1990s) games?

Also, on a side note, since I'm coming straight from FO3, I'd rather not play Oblivion right now (same engine and all). Besides, I've played the console version, so it's not something I urgently need to play again.

i wouldnt go back and play the originals unless they were released in the past 3-4 years. going back to games released in the 90s even early 2000s wount really tell you much about the game released recently. they all seem to have changed so much. normally for the better and most games i have found can stand on their own 2 feet with out having to know the back story for the previous 2 games in the series.

Hmmm... good ideas so far. I'm really excited about going out and experiencing these titles. I think I'll do The Orange Box first because of how much praise it still gets amongst PC gamers. I have a question though. Should I go even further back and play the originals of these franchises (ex: Half Life 1, Doom 1, Diablo, Quake, etc.)? Or should I skip over that and simply play the newer (as in, not from the 1990s) games?

Also, on a side note, since I'm coming straight from FO3, I'd rather not play Oblivion right now (same engine and all). Besides, I've played the console version, so it's not something I urgently need to play again.

Halak41

I still play the classics. Doom never gets old and is more fun monster slayer than any game today. Half Life is very cool, you could just wait for the Black Mesa Mod if you get the Orange Box though. Some findit hard to appreciate the oldergames because they didnt play them when they were released. Deus Ex is a must, and I would say AvP 2, In terms of gameplay they havnt aged at all. If anything Deus Ex is still ahead of games now.

Okay, so far this is what I have listed as must plays:

-Half Life 2 (maybe 1 as well)

-Doom 3 (not sure about 1 and 2)

-Diablo

-Starcraft

-Far Cry (loved this game five/six years ago and want to play it again)

-S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (all three)

-Fable (before Fable 3 is released, but I will need GFWL for this one)

-and maybe some RPGs such as Baldur's Gate, The Witcher, and Neverwinter Nights

How does that sound?

And... should I start with Diablo or Half-Life? I know Diablo is supposed to be one of the best PC games ever created, but the fact that it is so dated makes me unsure of whether or not it is still worth playing (although, in it's won respect, Half-Life is also quite dated).

Hmmm... good ideas so far. I'm really excited about going out and experiencing these titles. I think I'll do The Orange Box first because of how much praise it still gets amongst PC gamers. I have a question though. Should I go even further back and play the originals of these franchises (ex: Half Life 1, Doom 1, Diablo, Quake, etc.)? Or should I skip over that and simply play the newer (as in, not from the 1990s) games?

Also, on a side note, since I'm coming straight from FO3, I'd rather not play Oblivion right now (same engine and all). Besides, I've played the console version, so it's not something I urgently need to play again.

Halak41

Ill try making a list of games I think are Must play games.

Oldies

Fallout 1

Fallout 2

Xcom UFO Defence (UFo:enemy unknown)

Baldurs gate1

Baldurs gate 2

Heroes of might and magic 3

Might and magic 6 and 7 (they are a VERY aquired taste, so look them up beforehand and make judgement)

Shogo: Mobile armor division.

Arcanum: Of steamwors and magic obscura

Halflife

Duke nukem 3d (also on 360)

Deus Ex

System shock 2

Outlaws

Doom

Doom 2

Commander Keen (think it is the only platformer on the list :X)

Death Rally (Its free now too, so not much you will miss out on)

Conflict Freespace

Conflict Freespace 2

StarCraft

Planescape Torment

More modern games:

Far Cry

Vampire the masquerade: Bloodlines

Battlefield 2

Halflife 2 (basicly everything valve, the Orange box is cheap anyways)

FEAR

Doom 3 (if you can find it cheap, while it is decent it is not mindblowing)

STALKER (SoC and CoP, then CS if you liked the others)

CS:S

Company of Heroes

StarCraft 2

The Witcher

Dragon Age Origins (IF you did not have in on console, while the PC version was the better one, the story wont change)

Never Winter Nights 2

Metro 2033 (also If you had it on console skip it)

Supreme Commander 1 (not 2)

Oblivion (If you did not have it on console, The PC version allows user created content, so the world is alot bigger, and more varried)

Fallout 3 (read above reason)

Killing Floor (zombie killing game with great shooting mechanics)

Red Orcestra (a bit more then average realsitic ww2 shooter)

Torchlight

Borderlands (if you did nto have it on console)

ARMA 2 (and or stand alone exp pack)

Dawn of War 1 (and all expansions)

Dawn of war 2 (and expansions so far)

Civ 4 (altho civ 5 comes out soon, might spring for that instead)

Alien Swarm (it is free on steam anyways, so might aswell, right?)

Ah there we go, that is the list of Must plays in my mind, ofcourse everyone has different tastes, it is a mix of fps, rpg and rts mostly.

Ithink I made sure not to include games you can not find (with the exception of System shock 2 and Outlaws, they might be a little tough to find instores, altho you can still find themat some onlineretailers).

Otherwise most of those old games can be found either at Steam or at www.gog.com (a site that dealsinmaking old titles work on new systems, with little or no problems, they are pretty cheap). With the exception of the baldurs gate and Planescape tormentgames, they should have them most places, since it is considered one of "the games to have for the pc)

Thenewer ones can be found at online reatailers or steam.

If you want older games.

Fallout 1/2, Baldur's Gate 1/2, Icewind Dale, Planescape Torment, Half Life, Quake, Comand & Conquer, Civilization, Starcraft, Diablo, Warcraft 2, The Lost Vikings, Age of Empires 1/2, and some others I can't remember at the moment.

Unreal 2004. Nuff said.

Half Life 1 still holds up pretty well today, So I would recommend getting that and the Orange Box. Get the expansions for half Life 1 as well as they are pretty short, and they might be referenced in future Half Lives.

omg ignore NWN2 cuz of the wanky camera work no matter what you do and as for The Witcher the combat in that was pretty bad .....

DeViLzzz

Because its hard to switch the camera mode to something really intuitive? Gold has 3 camera modes, 1 of which is bad and the other 2 are good depending on how you want to play the game.

I think I'm going to purchase all the Half Life's separately, and not the Orange Box. This is because I have little to no interest whatsoever in Team Fortress 2 and I've already played the hell out of portal on the console. About to go do this now actually.

I think I'm going to purchase all the Half Life's separately, and not the Orange Box. This is because I have little to no interest whatsoever in Team Fortress 2 and I've already played the hell out of portal on the console. About to go do this now actually.

Halak41

It will be cheaper if you get the Orange Box. TF2 is amazing, you may as well get the package and give it a go.

Man, that's an awesome rig for your first gaming PC. Anyways, I recommend The Orange Box, Civilization IV (has a pretty steep learning curve), The Witcher, and Crysis, just because it's pretty.