PC Gaming Recomendations

[DIS_1]

Over the passage of time I've kinda drifted away from PC gaming.
The last games I remember playing were Deus Ex, No One Lives Forever, Half Life, Max Payne and Quake 3.
I was waiting for Duke Nukem Forever, Deus Ex 2, Half Life 2 and New Doom to surface. After reading the feature in Edge on Half Life 2 plus seeing the Demo Videos plus it's "September" release, my interest in PC gaming was rekindled, and I started thinking about "upgrading" to be able to play the next wave of games.
After holding on, and holding on, thinking "sure Half Life has been delayed again, but it must be due imminently" I went and bought a new PC.
To cut a long story short, I've now got a very expensive box, and need some pointers as to which games to play.
I would really appreciate some help in a number of area's:

1. I find this site a very good resource for console gaming, and the tastes of the reviewers do tend to mirror my own. Any similar sites for PC Gaming? I just don't trust IGN / Gamespot / etc.

2. Any game recommendations. I kinda like single player, story led type affairs, which have the potential to take over your life. But I'll give any game type a whirl. Some of my fave's are Final Fantasy III, Secret of Mana, Zelda, Deus Ex, Half Life, Champ Manager, Doom.

3. Top 10 of PC games ever, maybe there's an old classic I've missed.

Thanks in advance for any response.

[MartyG]

PC Gaming really hasn't changed all that much, it's still mostly FPS and Strategy games.

UT2004, Far Cry, Battlefield Vietnam, Deus Ex 2, Call of Duty are all reasonably good FPS, with STALKER, Doom III and HL2 around the corner.

Strategy stuff worth looking at: Sim City 4, Medieval Total War, Civ 3, with Black and White 2 (well, it's sort of strategy) due soon. Q3 should see the release of Rome Total War, which I'm looking forward to.

There's an RPG called Sacred that's getting good reviews atm, but I've not been able to check this one out yet.

If you want to get into the online thing, there's Star Wars Galaxies and FFXI. These can eat away at your life.

Regards
Marty

[DIS_1]

Thanks for that, I've got something to go at now!

[PH]

Another FPS worth getting is the sequel to NOLF. I think Sierra re-released it as a budget title recently meaning you can buy it for no more than a tenner.

#Edit - Just checked. Gameplay are selling the game for ?9.99

[DIS_1]

Thanks again

[jrisgod]

I'm going to buy a spanking new PC soon mainly because my current one is so poor - Pentium 166 Booya!

I'm interested in more outre PC games - can anyone recommend stuff that isn't Champ Manager, a FPS, RPG or a RTS? I've placed an order for in memoriam which sounds ace and I used to love the old Point and Click games from Lucasarts - I still haven't played Grim Fandango so that's on my list too.

Any more?

[Garibaldi Biscuit]

If you value seminal and deeply written ( yet occasionally slow paced ) RPGs then Planescape: Torment is a must, it may be somewhat difficult to get hold of now but is well worth the effort ( I would go as far as to call it epic ).

A must-have FPS/RPG is System Shock 2, there are a number of mods available now to help counter the somewhat dated graphics and the core itself is as solid and scary as ever - simply an amazing experience ( although also difficult to get hold of ).

The Baldur's Gate series is also rather excellent, and no doubt available for a steal in compilation packs now.

Commandos2 ( not so much 3 ) is tougher than sun-baked army boots yet massivly rewarding, strategy gaming at it's finest ( I wrote a review for the site before we stopped doing P.C games, gave it 8/10, later heard some folk couldn't even get past the training missions ).

Fallout 1&2 are also excellent RPGs, the post-apocalyptic setting is genuinly refreshing and interesting to explore, these two should be cheap to pick up also.

For a more cerebral and tense FPS experience try Thief 1&2 ( 2 is highly recommended ), they are unlike any gaming experience I've had before.

These are off the top of my head, I'll post more if any come back to me.

[Magnakai]

May I just echo what Garibaldi said?
In addition to Planescape: Torment, I'd also recommend the almost-as-good Baldur's Gate 2. Both are superb games.
Morrowind's an excellent and immersive RPG that you should be able to pick up fairly cheap now.

Freelancer's a fun space combat/trading game that doesn't quite live up to its potential. It's a bit like Diablo 2 in space, I guess.
X2 is Freelancers exact opposite. It's got depth in spades, but you'll have to put some time into it to get satisfaction out of it.

As far as FPSs go, UT2004 is the best one out recently for arcade action. If you have broadband it's virtually essential. Far Cry is more of a tactical FPS. Halo PC was excellent online, and they've just announced a free expansion for it.

[SuperBrother]

Asda are knocking out older PC games for peanuts at the mo - I picked up Diablo 2 & Sim City 3000 today for a fiver each (I've never played D2 - criminal I tells ya!). They also had Starcraft, Thief 2, Age of Empires Gold and quite a few others.

Time to start playing these classics on my lappy when Big Brother starts again and I lose control of the TV for bloody yonks........ ft: ft: ft:

[superkully]

XCOM: UFO Defence (old) or XCOM: Apocolypse (newer) and none of the others in the series. I've said enough about these games here so I won't procrastinate any more.

They are astouding, compelling games that cmpletely sucked me in.

[demon9k]

If you are looking for something a bit different go for uplink

http://www.introversion.co.uk/uplink/

Basically you are a computer hacker and you have to break into bank computer systems and the such and transfer money. Oh and it looks like champ manager....it really doesn't sound like much but I thought it was rather good. Totally different

As for normal PC games:

Far Cry
Command & Conquer Generals: Zero Hour
Call of Duty

All quality.

[chevkoch]

Thanks a lot, I've been playing with the demo of uplink for the last 2 hrs or so and it's been fun. What is a bit annoying is that if you want to cover your tracks and delete the log files to do so, you need to start the log delete software anew for each and every log file; I believe this will feel very tedious when you're halfway into the full version.

[demon9k]

You should only have to delete like 2-3 log files or so I think. Although I have not played it in a good while.

I just think its so different to anything out there that I wasn't to bothered with its little annoying bits.

Although I can certainly say its not for everyone.

[chevkoch]

Right, the bedroom coding effort needs to be applauded as well as the idea which certainly is something other than your usual generic, corporate-funded release. I didn't want to be picky, I enjoyed the demo a lot.

[Ish]

Jagged Alliance 2 is a great oldie. One of the very best PC games I've ever played (if you do a search for it on this site myself and others have spoken about it before).

Its on budget now too - I saw it in PC Worls yesterday for 5 or 10 pound.