I recently rebuilt my old budget HP AMD Athlon XP 3200+ PC into a new PC by moving the motherboard and processor to a new case and adding a bunch of goodies including more memory, an X1600 XT video card and an Audigy 4 soundcard with Logitech 5.1 surround speakers. I also have a nice 20.1" widescreen LCD now instead of the old flickering CRT I used for years. Now I have something that can actually play games. I hadn't even bothered with PC gaming since I finished Grim Fandango way back when and I have really discovered that I have missed out on some great games.
So far I have picked up Prey (finished it and enjoyed it), F.E.A.R. (3/4 of the way through and loving it), Oblivion (just started it and totally confused already), Half Life 2 Game of the Year edition (not started), Battlefield 2 (not started) and Doom 3 (didn't really like). I'm also going to replay a few of my old PC games at some point including Fandango and RealMyst.
My question is what games should I go back and buy that I missed over the last 5-6 years? My brother in law is telling me I have to go and find a copy of Freedom Force Vs the Third Reich and that I should also buy Darkstar One.
Basically I'm trying to put together a list of 10 or so PC titles that I missed that I should go back and find. Any suggestions are welcome.
PixyJunket
08-25-06, 08:54 AM
Do Japanese releases count? ;)
darkside
08-25-06, 09:02 AM
Do Japanese releases count? ;)
Yes, I may be able to find them. I'm definitely not against trying imports.
Far Cry (It is much better than the dumbed down Xbox port. PC Far Cry has actual intelligent enemy AI, and you will need to use some tactics to stay alive.)
No One Lives Forever 1 & 2 (NOLF 1 is actually 6 years old but it still ranks as one of the best FPS ever.)
Max Payne 1 & 2
Mafia (The PC original Mafia is much better than the console ports.)
Thief series (The first two are older than 5 years, but they are still my favorite stealth games.)
Deus Ex (It is 6 years old too, but it is still amazing. It is the perfect blend of FPS & RPG. You actually don't have to play it like a FPS if you don't want to. It is pretty open-ended. I played through it 6 times and found something new each time.)
Deus Ex 2: Invisible War (It is ok, but it is obviously dumbed down from the original Deus Ex. Invisible War is much more linear, less options, less RPG features, smaller missions, and an overall shorter game.)
Also, since you liked FEAR, be on the lookout for the FEAR expansion pack coming out in a few months.
Crysis is another upcoming game that looks to be awesome. It comes out early next year and will be the first DX10 game.
Dark Messiah of Might & Magic comes out next month. It is an action game that uses the HL2 Source engine. Some people compare it to Oblivion because they look very similar, but Oblivion is a pure RPG while Dark Messiah is an action game with a few RPG elements. If you find Oblivion too confusing, you might like Dark Messiah better.
Jeremy517
08-25-06, 11:15 AM
Counter-strike: Source
edstein
08-25-06, 11:29 AM
Counter-strike: Source
and Day of Defeat: source
kakihara1
08-25-06, 11:32 AM
Unreal Tournament 2K4
darkside
08-25-06, 11:40 AM
and Day of Defeat: source
Wow, lots of good stuff here from everyone. I have the Counter Strike source included in the Half Life 2 GOTY edition and will try to get the Day of Defeat source as well. Call of Duty 1 & 2 are definitely going to go on my list.
kgrogers1979 had a ton of good stuff to check out as well so I'm probably going to end up getting more than 10 titles. Hopefully I can find a lot of these used. As long as the CD Keys are included it should be safe to buy used games on Half.com right?
I have a question on Crysis. DX10 games will have to have Vista, correct? That is not something they will offer for XP from what I have read. I'm sure my video card won't support DX10 anyway. That stuff may have to wait a few years until I'm ready for an all new PC.
Lastblade
08-25-06, 11:48 AM
Civ 4, Freespace 2, Oblivion
murray731
08-25-06, 12:27 PM
From what I've played of Darkstar One so far, I'd have to recommend it. It has a very Freelancer/Elite-ish feel to it.
Drexl
08-25-06, 12:33 PM
Sid Meier's Pirates!
kakihara1
08-25-06, 12:39 PM
Wow, lots of good stuff here from everyone. I have the Counter Strike source included in the Half Life 2 GOTY edition and will try to get the Day of Defeat source as well. Call of Duty 1 & 2 are definitely going to go on my list.
kgrogers1979 had a ton of good stuff to check out as well so I'm probably going to end up getting more than 10 titles. Hopefully I can find a lot of these used. As long as the CD Keys are included it should be safe to buy used games on Half.com right?
I have a question on Crysis. DX10 games will have to have Vista, correct? That is not something they will offer for XP from what I have read. I'm sure my video card won't support DX10 anyway. That stuff may have to wait a few years until I'm ready for an all new PC.
I personally wouldn't buy "Used" PC games from half.com cause the bastards might have just made themselves a copy and still use the key. Places like jr.com often have slightly older PC titles for dirt cheap. UT2K4 On the Cheap (http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=3995482) and people still play the hell out of it.
boredsilly
08-25-06, 01:27 PM
My question is what games should I go back and buy that I missed over the last 5-6 years? My brother in law is telling me I have to go and find a copy of Freedom Force Vs the Third Reich and that I should also buy Darkstar One.
Freedom Force is one of my favorite franchises, but I think the first game was better over all. Definately get both as the story continues over to Third Reich and is worth it.
I've just recently purchased Battle for Middle-Earth 2 and have been enjoying the hell out of that.
Also Rise of Nations and Rise of Legends are about as good as an RTS can be.
darkside
08-25-06, 01:31 PM
I personally wouldn't buy "Used" PC games from half.com cause the bastards might have just made themselves a copy and still use the key. Places like jr.com often have slightly older PC titles for dirt cheap.
Thanks for the advice on the older titles. I will look there and maybe for new, sealed items on Half from people with good feedback. They had the second Freedom Force for less than $5 new on Half. Looks like I will pick up both of those. Didn't know the story was continued in the second game.
kgrogers1979
08-25-06, 04:42 PM
Hopefully I can find a lot of these used. As long as the CD Keys are included it should be safe to buy used games on Half.com right?
I have bought quite a few used PC games on ebay, and they have all been good transactions. You just have to be a little smart on what auctions to bid on. Never bid on an auction if the seller has a ton of negative feedback. My guideline is never to bid on an auction if the seller's feedback is less than 98%. Another rule is to never bid on an auction that has the location as Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand, etc as those are the bootleg capitals of the world. Odds are you will get a bootleg if you bid on those auctions. Also, keep in mind the saying "you get what you pay for." If an auction seems too good to be true, then it probably is.
I have a question on Crysis. DX10 games will have to have Vista, correct? That is not something they will offer for XP from what I have read. I'm sure my video card won't support DX10 anyway. That stuff may have to wait a few years until I'm ready for an all new PC.
Yes, DX10 will require Vista. XP is unable to use DX10. No, your video card is not a DX10 card as they haven't been released yet. The first DX10 cards come out late this year/early next year.
The good news is that Crysis does not require a DX10 card. It will run on a DX9 card on XP, so your PC should handle it fairly well. It just won't look quite as pretty as it would on a DX10 card with all the ultra high graphic options turned on.
dugan
08-25-06, 04:45 PM
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic should be in anyone's top-ten.
rennervision
08-25-06, 04:52 PM
Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City & San Andreas.
daniel18
08-25-06, 05:09 PM
Sim City 4.
peon73
08-25-06, 05:11 PM
civ 4, sim city 4, battlefield 1942, baldur's gate 2
lukewarmwater
08-25-06, 05:59 PM
Counter strike is really only good for multiplayer
Indigo Prophecy
F.e.a.r.
Call Of Duty 2
No One lives forever - great 60's spy game
Indigo Prophecy
Most of these games have demos and are worth checking out before buying. Freedom Force included. No one has mentioned it but star wars battlefront II, is not worth getting. I'm adding that on the do not buy list.
msdmoney
08-25-06, 10:01 PM
Most of these games have demos and are worth checking out before buying. Freedom Force included. No one has mentioned it but star wars battlefront II, is not worth getting. I'm adding that on the do not buy list.
What's wrong with Battlefront II, I was thinking of picking that up?
I agree with most of krodgers suggestions, especially Far Cry (this is great because it is so open-ended), NOLF 1 and 2, and the Max Payne games.
You already have some of the best recent games. HL2 is great, you should pick up Episode 1 also, especially if Circuit City has it for $7.99 again. FEAR is also great the AI is the best I have seen in a FPS. I didn't really like Doom 3 and Prey was just okay.
I would also reccomend:
Call of Duty series, even though WWII games are so common all the Call of Duty games are a lot of fun.
Warcraft 3 if you like strategy games at all.
Condemned is a fun, a very different FPS with hand to hand combat
World of Warcraft if you have never tried a MMORPG.
lukewarmwater
08-25-06, 10:21 PM
What's wrong with Battlefront II, I was thinking of picking that up?
I hate to hijack this thread, but thought I should answer.
First off the single player is pointless, it's just like multiplayer but the enemys are really easy to kill. Same maps as multiplayer and you play through most levels as rebels/republic. The actual characters you play as aren't nearlly as fun as other shooters. It's pretty much rifle, rocket launcher, shotgun, sniper, but the game moves so fast that sniper rifle and shotgun are pointless, if you use either of those you will die pretty quickly. You pretty much spend the entire game using your rifle, and it gets old very fast. They do say you can play as heroes but it's pretty much button mashing and you can't really do anything cool, it's just swinging your lightsaber, and if you play against other heroes, ala multiplayer, it's who ever attacks first wins, no real skill involved. And the maps aren't that great either, it's pretty much the same map over and over, which is outside and inside hallways. They say you can play as different characters, droids, republic, rebels, empire, etc, and you can but they're all the same class and they all play the exact same so there really isn't any variety. You can get into some vehicles and ships but they're not really easy to control and they don't do any real damage so you end up having to attack the same guy over and over to kill him, which is a pain in the ass if you're in a x-wing/tie fighter. I picked this up at Walmart for 20 bucks and it really wasn't worth it. I think it would have been much if they just stuck with one thing, heroes/shooter/vehicles and worked on it rather then mixing them all. Just my opinion though.
UAIOE
08-25-06, 10:23 PM
Serious Sam
kgrogers1979
08-25-06, 11:29 PM
Serious Sam
I can't believe I forgot Serious Sam.
Also add Painkiller to the list.
Although, if you don't like the Doom style "kill everything that moves" FPS, then you might not like those two games.
CKMorpheus
08-25-06, 11:33 PM
Hitman - Bloody Money
if you can find a copy of SYSTEM SHOCK 2, then you'll be set. The scariest, and greatest first-person shooter/RPG of all time.
darkside
08-25-06, 11:46 PM
I can't believe I forgot Serious Sam.
Also add Painkiller to the list.
Although, if you don't like the Doom style "kill everything that moves" FPS, then you might not like those two games.
Normally I do, but Doom 3's darkness hurt the game for me. I had more fun playing the Doom 1 mod for Doom 3. I also had fun playing Prey which was built on the Doom 3 engine.
I'm already downloading a bunch of demos and really appreciate everyone's suggestions. Finding time to play all of these will be a challenge, but considering how cheap many of the titles are now its not too bad of a deal.
BTW, though not really mentioned here I downloaded the Just Cause demo. It looked nice, but they don't seem to have added controller support to the PC demo and its a pain in the ass to play with a keyboard. How an Xbox360 title is released for the PC without supporting the Xbox360 controller is beyone me. The Darkstar One demo was a lot of fun. Not sure I want to spend $40 for it, but I will pick it up if I can find a deal on it. I've got several other games downloading as well.
astrochimp
08-26-06, 12:03 AM
Bf2 :)
gcribbs
08-26-06, 05:20 AM
My favorite games of all time would be Baldur's Gate 2, Diablo 2 and Warcraft 3 for the PC.
msdmoney
08-26-06, 05:33 AM
I can't believe I forgot Serious Sam.
Also add Painkiller to the list.
Although, if you don't like the Doom style "kill everything that moves" FPS, then you might not like those two games.
I couldn't get into painkiller, I really think the move to more objective based FPS's is for the best. The swarms of enemies just made the game mindless.
boredsilly
08-26-06, 08:15 AM
I couldn't get into painkiller, I really think the move to more objective based FPS's is for the best. The swarms of enemies just made the game mindless.
The swarms thing seems a little old to me and I haven't played that many fps games in my life, but I really want to play painkiller as I've heard great things about the last level. Same thing goes for FEAR which I hear has a great ending.
A game that really gets no love, but I find relaxing as hell is Sim Golf.
darkside
08-26-06, 09:37 AM
My favorite games of all time would be Baldur's Gate 2, Diablo 2 and Warcraft 3 for the PC.
Diablo 2 is $7.99 this Sunday at Circuit City so I will definitely pick that one up. I think I played and enjoyed Baldur's Gate on the GameCube so I will look into the PC versions. Not sure on Warcraft 3 and I'm actually nervous about trying World of Warcraft. That could be an expensive habit if I end up liking the game.
kgrogers1979
08-26-06, 11:22 AM
The swarms thing seems a little old to me and I haven't played that many fps games in my life, but I really want to play painkiller as I've heard great things about the last level. Same thing goes for FEAR which I hear has a great ending.
If you liked the original Doom games, then you will like Painkiller. Painkiller seems more like the original Doom games than Doom 3 did. Otherwise, if you don't like the old-school style FPS games, then don't bother with Painkiller or you will be disappointed.
FEAR is an awesome game. It actually has a pretty good story. The ending was pretty good, but it is a bit of a cliffhanger. At least the FEAR expansion pack and FEAR sequel have both been announced, so it won't be stuck as an unresolved cliffhanger (like Beyond Good & Evil :mad: ).
I think I played and enjoyed Baldur's Gate on the GameCube so I will look into the PC versions.
Just a word of warning: the console Baldur's Gate games and the original PC Baldur's Gate games are as different as night and day. The console BG games were hack n slash action/adventure games with a few RPG elements tacked on.
The PC BG games are true RPGs that use the 2nd edition D&D ruleset. Both PC games are very good. If you never played D&D before, then you will probably be lost for awhile until you learn the rules. If you loved D&D as a kid, then the BG games will be your nerdy wet dream. :) Both games are long too. You can easily spend over 100 hours on BG2 if you do all the sidequests.
Also, it would be best to start with BG1 as BG2 begins right where BG1 ends. You can import your BG1 character into BG2, so you can play the entire saga as the same character and see your character go from a level 1 weakling to a level 40 godlike hero.
K&AJones
08-26-06, 04:11 PM
Unreal Tournament 2K4
That's a big "AMEN" on that! I'll also second the Half-Life 2
Kenny J. - Buzz
boredsilly
08-26-06, 07:26 PM
If you liked the original Doom games, then you will like Painkiller. Painkiller seems more like the original Doom games than Doom 3 did. Otherwise, if you don't like the old-school style FPS games, then don't bother with Painkiller or you will be disappointed.
Well just because the game play style is old doesn't mean it can't be fun. I look at it like I might look at console games like Streets of Rage. The days of the sidescrolling beat em ups are dead (replaced with the God of Wars and Devil May Crys), but those games can still be fun every now and again. Especially for letting off steam.
I played the demo of FEAR and was freaked out when the shadow of some little girl was running in front of me. Survival horror games, well good ones, are 1,000 times scarier for me than any horror movie. I'm such a chicken shit when it comes to those games even though I really like being scared. You should have seen me playing the early stages of Resident Evil 4. :lol:
darkside
08-26-06, 11:33 PM
Survival horror games, well good ones, are 1,000 times scarier for me than any horror movie. I'm such a chicken shit when it comes to those games even though I really like being scared. You should have seen me playing the early stages of Resident Evil 4. :lol:
FEAR is pretty intense with the surround sound going. I was sneaking around in the dark today during interval 6 and knocked over a chair or something behind me. The sound made me jump and I ended up shooting out a window letting all the enemy soldiers know exactly were I was hiding. They mix in enough of the crazy ghosts and flashbacks to keep you on edge the whole time you play.
BTW, I made a run today to a Half Priced Books and scored a few games.
Freedom Force vs The Third Reich ($5) still can't find the first one locally
Painkiller single disc 12 level version ($5) figure if I like it I will hunt down the full game
Mafia ($1)
No One Lives Forever 2 ($5) Still looking for the first one
Broken Sword The Sleeping Dragon ($5)
I'm going to hit a few other places over the next week or so and online if I strike out there. Hoping I can find many of them in the $5 range. Thanks again to everyone for all the suggestions. I have a huge list right now to slowly fill.
Buy: