PC-Game Recommendations.

[YingDerpington]

Dwarf Fortress. It's free, DRM-free and fantastic.

http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/features.html

It's a very different experience from most games. It's got an insane difficulty cruve, but it's certainly a challenge. How awesome is it? Very awesome.

Exactly how awesome? Let the legends of Boatmurdered testify to that.

http://lparchive.org/Dwarf-Fortress-Boatmurdered/Introduction/

Oh god...
Boatmurdered...

Absolutely hilarious, especially at the end.

But listen to this guy. Dwarf Fortress is fun. Getting into it is like walking into a wall, but there are tutorials out there that will level the wall so you can just walk on in.
Although, not 1 person I know has actually lived on their first playthrough. Most died due to dehydration. One guy made it to a goblin raid, and one guy made the mistake of embarking in a savage Biome, where giant Panda's tore his Dwarfs to shreds. Be careful, and if you ever get bored - lose. Losing is fun [Especially when it involves the Circus].

Why in the hell didn't you warn me about the ridiculousness of the learning curve!!! walking into a wall doesn't do it justice, it's about as friendly to a new player as a particularely savage, ill-tempered rottweiler that's been confronted with a disabled elderly person that smells like off sausage!

 

[Joccaren]

Why in the hell didn't you warn me about the ridiculousness of the learning curve!!! walking into a wall doesn't do it justice, it's about as friendly to a new player as a particularely savage, ill-tempered rottweiler that's been confronted with a disabled elderly person that smells like off sausage!

You can at least beat the rottweiler to death, whilst a brick wall just sits there in your way until you get a wreckingball.
Get a tileset though, preferably alongside DFHack. It makes it a lot easier to see what is going on, and DFhack is useful late game for reducing lag. When you have 25000 infections all being processed on your map, things slow down a lot -.-
Either way, the walkthrough I mentioned that will help a lot:
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/v0.31:Quickstart_guide

Makes it a lot easier to understand WTH is going on, and what to do, though it'll still take a few games to actually get the hang of it.

 

[Bertylicious]

I've started playing this game called Starpoint Gemini, got it on offer on Steam. It's a big sandbox space game played on a 2D plane. It's very Russian in it's implementation and some aspects are hilariously bad (the eye patch accesory in the profile is priceless) but it's good, open worldy, fun. Should run well on a laptop too.

Cave story might be jolly too.

 

[Muspelheim]

Why in the hell didn't you warn me about the ridiculousness of the learning curve!!! walking into a wall doesn't do it justice, it's about as friendly to a new player as a particularely savage, ill-tempered rottweiler that's been confronted with a disabled elderly person that smells like off sausage!

It's one of those things that has to be experienced to believe. :3

But trust me, after a few failed fortresses, you'll have an idea of what to do. It's one of those games where you learn something new each time you play. Ridiculous learning curves were meant to be beaten! Keep striking that earth!

Oh god...
Boatmurdered...

Absolutely hilarious, especially at the end.

But listen to this guy. Dwarf Fortress is fun. Getting into it is like walking into a wall, but there are tutorials out there that will level the wall so you can just walk on in.
Although, not 1 person I know has actually lived on their first playthrough. Most died due to dehydration. One guy made it to a goblin raid, and one guy made the mistake of embarking in a savage Biome, where giant Panda's tore his Dwarfs to shreds. Be careful, and if you ever get bored - lose. Losing is fun [Especially when it involves the Circus].

Oh, indeed. That's one of the great charms about it, there's so many colourful ways to get absolutely slaughtered that losing really is fun.

It can always get worse, I once embarked right into an evil swamp biome, filled with undead slugmen. The dwarves that didn't die when a mysterious fog rolled in and turned them inside out died when the expedition leader became mad with grief and attacked them in their sleep with my spare pickaxe. Afterwards, she just wandered aimlessly around the tunnels covered in blood while the lone surviving sane dwarf I'd locked up in a closet for his safety slowly starved to death.

The Dwarven way of life!