What game should I play?

[Darxide]

Looking for some input on some newer games to play. By newer, I mean anything made in the last 5 to 10 years because I haven't played anything new in a very long time. Most modern games just don't have any appeal for me. I've been gaming since I got my first Atari 2600 back in 82 or 83 and the last console I bought was a Gamecube. I do not own, nor will I ever own, a Piss4 or a Bone. I might pick up a 360 at some point since they will probably be rather cheap in the coming months, but that's later, not now.

Since I don't own any newer consoles, naturally the suggestions must be available for the Master Race. I've got a brand spanking new custom gaming rig (I am an MMO player) so don't be afraid to throw some CPU torturing games at me.

All games must be playable single player, offline. I'm not looking to get involved in any more multiplayer games right now, but having a multiplayer option isn't a disqualification. Only that the single player game must be good and enjoyable.

Finally, games suggested must be playable with keyboard and mouse. I will be ordering a 360 controller for PC soon, but I don't have it yet.

Show me what you've got, Escapist.

 

[Clowndoe]

More specific. Narrow it down to a few genres at least, length of game, importance of narrative, etc.

 

[Darxide]

More specific. Narrow it down to a few genres at least, length of game, importance of narrative, etc.

I was trying to leave it open on purpose. Trying to catch as many suggestions as I could.

For genre I guess I could exclude pure lolshooters. CoD, MW, that kind of thing. Multigenre shooters might be ok. RPG shooters, perhaps. Always been a fan of RPGs, so there's that.

Length of game isn't terribly important to me as long as the length feels appropriate to the game. Some games feel like they should end long before they do and drag on and on while other games feel like they're over too soon.

I do like a good narrative, but it's less important if the game is good on it's own merits. Story driven games are fun, but not when there's more dialog than actual gameplay.

Bottom line: I'm open to trying anything.

 

[Barbas]

Hmmmm...what about Torchlight II? Shadow Warrior (the remake)? Those are great fun. The latter in particular is an absolute hoot of an FPS with great weapons, not the least of which is the katana that will slice through an enemy depending on the direction you slash it in, rather than just chopping limbs neatly off at the base.

Titan Quest is an RPG from further back by Iron Lore (who are currently making Grim Dawn as Crate Entertainment. It's a bit repetitive at points, but good fun and plenty long. It's set across ancient Greece, Egypt and the Orient and pits you against mythological monsters. Skyrim, Killing Floor and Borderlands 2 are games I spend a lot of time in as well. I find myself going back to them constantly. All the aforementioned games are considerably heavier on combat than dialogue, particularly Killing Floor, which is basically a wave-based shooter.

 

[Poppy JR.]

If you're keeping it indie (and pretty cheap too) try Rogue Legacy. It is playable on keyboards, but better on XBOX controllers. Any of the Half-life games are great, especially II. On that note, Portal is god-levels on just about every category you mentioned.

 

[PFCboom]

Dust: An Elysian Tail. I will sing of its glories until I cannot speak, and then I will make endless infographic animations after that. I love absolutely everything about this game. I love the main character, I love the sidekick, I love the combat, I love the art, I love the story, I love the level design, I love the level diversity, I love the music. The name of the developer is Humble Hearts, and I love it. Go play it, god dammit.

LIMBO. Here's a game that has a simple goal: continuously solve puzzles in order to go in a general right-ward direction. Why are you doing this? The game sure as hell isn't telling you, but that's okay. The atmosphere that comes from the somber music and use of blacks, whites and grays gives you the impression that you're really in Limbo, a place where uncertainty is the norm. Normally I might call this kind of artistic approach artsy-fartsy, or even a tiny bit pretentious, but it kinda works here.

Little Inferno. So... you burn stuff, right? The stuff you burn gives you money, which you use to buy stuff to burn. You can burn things in combos to get more money to burn more expensive stuff. There are a lot of things to buy and burn and a lot of combos. And then your neighbor comes into play, and things slowly start to take a turn for the creepy and disturbing.

 

[Darxide]

Hmmmm...what about Torchlight II? Shadow Warrior (the remake)? Those are great fun. The latter in particular is an absolute hoot of an FPS with great weapons, not the least of which is the katana that will slice through an enemy depending on the direction you slash it in, rather than just chopping limbs neatly off at the base.

Titan Quest is an RPG from further back by Iron Lore (who are currently making Grim Dawn as Crate Entertainment. It's a bit repetitive at points, but good fun and plenty long. It's set across ancient Greece, Egypt and the Orient and pits you against mythological monsters. Skyrim, Killing Floor and Borderlands 2 are games I spend a lot of time in as well. I find myself going back to them constantly. All the aforementioned games are considerably heavier on combat than dialogue, particularly Killing Floor, which is basically a wave-based shooter.

Torchlight II is one of the few I have played. Picked it up from GoG when it they were giving it away for free (I can't pass up free). Played about halfway through it. Also picked up Fez, Amnesia, FTL and Alan Wake on a 90% off sale.

Everyone is always on and on about Skyrim. I've had a copy of the game since 2 days after it was released. I just put the box away and never installed it. Maybe it's time to give it a try?

If you're keeping it indie (and pretty cheap too) try Rogue Legacy. It is playable on keyboards, but better on XBOX controllers. Any of the Half-life games are great, especially II. On that note, Portal is god-levels on just about every category you mentioned.

Doesn't have to be kept indie. I've played through HL2 a few times. It was one of the last big titles I bought while still new, but that was 2004. Lots of in between to catch up on.

Dust: An Elysian Tail. I will sing of its glories until I cannot speak, and then I will make endless infographic animations after that. I love absolutely everything about this game. I love the main character, I love the sidekick, I love the combat, I love the art, I love the story, I love the level design, I love the level diversity, I love the music. The name of the developer is Humble Hearts, and I love it. Go play it, god dammit.

Found a review from TotalBiscuit on this one. It may have convinced me to try it out.

 

[Barbas]

Everyone is always on and on about Skyrim. I've had a copy of the game since 2 days after it was released. I just put the box away and never installed it. Maybe it's time to give it a try?

If you want to try Skyrim, it's worth logging on to the Nexus website to download a few good mods that sort out the inventory system ('SkyUI'), add roads to the world map, that sort of thing:

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/

There are some good graphics mods that improve facial textures to remove the sort of 'blocky' look on people's noses, plus other fixes and tweaks. As with the Fallout games, the unofficial patch is an indispensable download. 'Alternate Start' is a mod that allows you to skip the intro sequence completely by deciding if you started off in that situation, or if your character came to Skyrim in some other way.

 

[Darxide]

There are some good graphics mods that improve facial textures to remove the sort of 'blocky' look on people's noses, plus other fixes and tweaks. As with the Fallout games, the unofficial patch is an indispensable download. 'Alternate Start' is a mod that allows you to skip the intro sequence completely by deciding if you started off in that situation, or if your character came to Skyrim in some other way.

I've seen screenshot galleries and videos of the graphic mod packages that make the game look freaking photo-realistic.

 

[StormDragonZ]

MegaMan X7 or X8

 

[Barbas]

There are some good graphics mods that improve facial textures to remove the sort of 'blocky' look on people's noses, plus other fixes and tweaks. As with the Fallout games, the unofficial patch is an indispensable download. 'Alternate Start' is a mod that allows you to skip the intro sequence completely by deciding if you started off in that situation, or if your character came to Skyrim in some other way.

I've seen screenshot galleries and videos of the graphic mod packages that make the game look freaking photo-realistic.

Ah, yes. I remember the great ENB invasion some while back. Those presets really do make the game look amazing, but they're a serious drain on frame-rate. They're also too bright a lot of the time and require some extra tweaking with console commands and hotkeys. You'd get a considerable improvement over the Vanilla Skyrim lighting just by downloading the 'Ultra-Realistic World Lighting' mod. It hardly lowers performance at all, which is a huge boon.

 

[MysticSlayer]

I do not own, nor will I ever own, a Piss4 or a Bone.

For genre I guess I could exclude pure lolshooters.

You know, you can dislike something without being obnoxious about it. Just a thought. Maybe try games like the first Call of Duty, CoD2, CoD4, and Medal of Honor: Allied Assault to see that military shooters weren't always as bad as they have been the last few years.

Anyways:

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Metro: Both of these are excellent shooter RPGs. The former is arguably the most atmospheric franchise ever made, and while Metro is a similar yet not as good of a game, it is still very good in its own right. Just make sure you patch the former up before playing any of the games. In any case, though, Shadow of Chernobyl is possibly the best shooter of this...er...last generation.

The Witcher: I'm guessing you've already tried The Witcher games, but if you haven't, consider this another recommendation for an incredible RPG series. It isn't the best by any stretch of the imagination, but something about the series is just incredibly appealing.

Dragon Age: Origins: Regardless of BioWare's recent failings, Origins was still a great game. It's rather cliche, and anything "new" was done by other games like The Witcher, but it's relative lack of creativity is made up for in a very solid game set in a fantastic world with highly memorable characters.

 

[likalaruku]

You said you like MMOs. Jon of MMOGrinder does really good in-depth reviews of MMOs of various genres to help you decide for yourself. Personally I'd recommend RIFT.

I'd give you more recommendations, but I'd need a list of everything you've played since 2005.

 

[Darxide]

You said you like MMOs. Jon of MMOGrinder does really good in-depth reviews of MMOs of various genres to help you decide for yourself. Personally I'd recommend RIFT.

I'd give you more recommendations, but I'd need a list of everything you've played since 2005.

Rift was boring. I'm not looking to start a new MMO. I'm happy with the one I'm playing now. I don't know that I could give you a list, but to be clear, the number of big titles (what might be called "Triple A" releases) number in the single digits and the smaller, indie titles, might number around a dozen.

I do not own, nor will I ever own, a Piss4 or a Bone.

For genre I guess I could exclude pure lolshooters.

You know, you can dislike something without being obnoxious about it. Just a thought. Maybe try games like the first Call of Duty, CoD2, CoD4, and Medal of Honor: Allied Assault to see that military shooters weren't always as bad as they have been the last few years.

I enjoyed the old MoH games from about 8 or 9 years ago. Yea, I played the original CoD as well as one of the more recent ones (Black Ops I believe it was. My former roommate had it) and couldn't stand them. I never said I didn't like military shooters. You simply assumed. I named some franchises that I hated instead. I used to play almost exclusively shooters back in the day. Quake 2 and Unreal Tournament (the original one from 1999) as well as the even older classics like Duke Nukem 3D and Doom. I haven't really gotten into any shooters since and most of them have become predictable which means boring. That's why I said the multigenre shooters might be something I'd try out since they mix up the formula.

And yes, I will make disparaging remarks about the current (and to some extent the previous) console generation at any time I choose. I got out of console gaming because I was disgusted at the direction the console manufacturers and were going and still am. If you don't like my opinion, that's your prerogative, but to tell me I have no right to it is outside of your own right. If I were saying that people who play consoles were scum and trash and other things, perhaps you'd have a leg to stand on. I will put down the things all I want, but I won't put down the people. Learn from that, and thank you for your game suggestions.

Dragon Age: Origins: Regardless of BioWare's recent failings, Origins was still a great game. It's rather cliche, and anything "new" was done by other games like The Witcher, but it's relative lack of creativity is made up for in a very solid game set in a fantastic world with highly memorable characters.

This is one I did play. Well, I played it with my former roommate. We'd just trade off the controller and play through the game. I do remember that it was enjoyable at the time, but to be honest, I don't remember much of the game. Yea, some of the characters I remember, but not the game itself, so the game itself was less than memorable. At least I didn't hate it.

 

[Pikey Mikey]

I'd recommend *Smite, sort of like Dota2/League of Legends in 3rd person and the characters are gods from various pantheons.
*Baldur's Gate 2 ('original' or enhanced, whichever you want) I personally love those games (I & II) so I'm very biased, take it with a pinch of salt
*The Hitman games
*Metro 2033 & Last Light
those are just some of the games I like, Smite looks really good and if you wanna punish the PC, play Metro on the highest settings =)

 

[Muspelheim]

ArmA 2, perhaps? It looks suspiciously like a modern lolshooter, but rather than have realism as a dubious sort of stage background, they've really tried to make it the very core of the game. While lolshooters would say "Right, you're a U.S. marine sergeant. Advance down that narrow hallway full of terrorists", ArmA 2 asks you to think tactically, usually giving you a mission objective, some intel and then letting you get to it the best you can with the tools you have.

It's not going to be an easy one, though. It's a rather difficult game, which will take some time getting used to. And the emphasis on realism does make the parts where it inevitably breaks slightly stand out a lot more, like hitting someone's garden fence with a car at low speed and breaking all the windows at the same time.

It's great fun, though, and a rather unusual experience.

 

[TehCookie]

Monster Girl Quest, it's on PC. There's also a browser game called Corruption of Champions you could check out.

 

[teamcharlie]

Everybody should be playing Starbound right now. That game is the tits.

 

[Darxide]

ArmA 2, perhaps? It looks suspiciously like a modern lolshooter, but rather than have realism as a dubious sort of stage background, they've really tried to make it the very core of the game. While lolshooters would say "Right, you're a U.S. marine sergeant. Advance down that narrow hallway full of terrorists", ArmA 2 asks you to think tactically, usually giving you a mission objective, some intel and then letting you get to it the best you can with the tools you have.

That sounds a lot better, more like what I'd like in that type of game.

Everybody should be playing Starbound right now. That game is the tits.

That just looks like Terraria: The MMO.

Monster Girl Quest, it's on PC.

So, I just looked at that. It's basically a Hentai porn game. Think I'm going to take a pass on that....

 

[Darxide]

ArmA 2, perhaps? It looks suspiciously like a modern lolshooter, but rather than have realism as a dubious sort of stage background, they've really tried to make it the very core of the game. While lolshooters would say "Right, you're a U.S. marine sergeant. Advance down that narrow hallway full of terrorists", ArmA 2 asks you to think tactically, usually giving you a mission objective, some intel and then letting you get to it the best you can with the tools you have.

That sounds a lot better, more like what I'd like in that type of game.

Everybody should be playing Starbound right now. That game is the tits.

That just looks like Terraria: The MMO.

Monster Girl Quest, it's on PC.

So, I just looked at that. It's basically a Hentai porn game. Think I'm going to take a pass on that....

There's also a browser game called Corruption of Champions you could check out.

And another porn game. You're into some weird stuff....

Edit:
I meant to edit my post, not quote it and double post. Oh well.