Need PC Gaming Advice Please

[fastbilly1]

Just watch Steam and GoG every weekend for a sale. If you get a couple games to tie you over until fourth of July, Steam is going to go crazy then (it might do it on Memorial day too). At Christmas they had a deal for almost every THQ game they have for $50. 30 games for $50 is hard to top.

If you have trouble with your controller on your pc there are plenty of programs to redirect the inputs. Joy2key, xpadder, and ppjoy are the three most common for windows.

For adventure games, Broken Sword and Another World are two excellent places to start and both are on GoG for a fair price. You did just get the Witcher, so you should be set for awhile, but keep an eye on the sales.

[Wombatula]

Thanks so much!!! I feel like I'm finally figuring out what I want. Ack, you and I seem to have the same preference on types of games to play on the pc. Seems most of the games I would play on the pc would play better with a mouse and keyboard... unless there are some pc-exclusive action or platformers that I'm not aware of.

Thanks for the info on DOSBox too, maybe I can finally play old-school Scorched Earth again.

I will also be sure to keep my eye out on Steam and GOG, 30 games for $50 is insane.

[fastbilly1]

try out D-Fend reloaded if you arent use to command line. It gives Dosbox a Mame like interface.

[DinnerX]

You can get a lot of stuff running on a modern Windows vista/7 64-bit computer, but for old stuff it can be a pain.

Dosbox is great for old Dos games as has already been said. Dfend Reloaded makes setting up Dosbox configurations easy for different games. Vogons has lots of guides down in the Dosbox section.

Some games have had their programming released or reverse engineered. This means someone could have made a new executable for an old game. Wikipedia has some lists you can check for specific games. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open_source_games http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_engine_recreation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ga ... ce_engines

If you like point and click adventures ScummVM is where its at. They support a TON of games in the latest stable release. They even have a work in progress support for Myst if you download the latest development build. I don't thinks its completable. Yet. You need the original game media, but Scummvm replaces the old executable.

Usually PC games are better graphically than their console versions, but they can be inferior in other ways.

Hmmm, must play titles that aren't mainstream. Battle Chess maybe? Might be considered mainstream. Fun game either way. The fighting animations between the pieces are priceless. It's on GOG.

EDIT: Oh, I see Dfend reloaded was brought up while I was typing this.

[J T]

Check the links in my signature for free PC games.

In the last few years, I have really fallen in love with indie gaming on the PC. A few of my favorite titles are...

Minecraft
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Zeno Clash
World of Goo
Chef Boyardee's... Barkley: Shut Up and Jam Gaiden

As for the "must play" games of the PC platform, there are few that I feel like everyone expects you to have played: Deus Ex, Doom, Half Life 2, System Shock 2, Baldur's Gate 2, Fallout, Planescape: Torment, The Secret of Monkey Island, Diablo, Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. That being said, I haven't played much of many of these despite owning all of them. Also, a "must play" list for PC could easily be like 50 pages long.

You can also check the links in my signature and find a lot of good free indie games if you don't want to spend a lot of money, or if you care more about innovative gameplay ideas more than graphics and polish.

[Wombatula]

Thanks a ton J T. I am one of those who absolutely care more about gameplay than graphics. About games like Diablo, if I were to buy two copies, would my wife and I still be able to play together locally?

[fastbilly1]

Lan play is glorious on the PC and yes Diablo offers it. If you like Diablo there are several other titles in the same genre: Sacred, Titans Quest, Arcanum, etc. Or if you want alittle more meat you can dive into NeverWinter Nights - it is D&D 3rd edition in a videogame.

[GSZX1337]

In general I'd say that if a game is on both PC and console you're better off getting it on the PC, with some notable exceptions.

While I agree with MrPopo, I feel the need to add to that. Do your research first. The Steam forums are a great place to find out how a multiplatform game is on the PC. Some games have gotten terrible console ports. For example, I played The Suffering on the PC and I could never load a save. I'd save, but for whatever reason, I couldn't load a save game. Another example is Dark Void. That game has terrible mouse control. You can edit the config file to make it better, but not in the demo. Just remember to be careful when looking at console games ported to the PC.

If you bought the games from GOG or STEAM, you don't really need to worry about OS compatibility. They got you covered.

Nooooot quite. There's a few games on Steam that don't play nice on newer Operating Systems. OddWorld: Abe's Odysee and Star Wars: Dark Forces 2 have their problems when played on Windows Vista and 7.

I'm surprised no one's mentioned source ports, yet. For FPSes like Marathon and Doom, they're fantastic. They add new features like Mouse Look for Doom and let you play DOS games on modern OSes. For Ack's list, I'll link to the source ports for the games that them.

Wolfenstein 3D There's Wolf3D TC, but you can get away with just DOSBox.
Doom (There's many, but my favorite is Doomsday)
Doom 2 (ZDoom's pretty good, too.)
Heretic (Doomsday)
Quake (Dark Places)
Quake 2 (You don''t really need one, but there's KMQuake 2)
Dark Forces (Dark XL it says retail, but it works with the steam version too.)
Duke Nukem 3D (eDuke32)
Blood (Blood Apparently works in eDuke32)

Some FPSes I like that aren't on Ack's list:
Unreal 2
Serious Sam 2
Far Cry
Hexen
Star Wars Battlefront
Star Wars Republic Commando
Quake IV

[Ack]

Anyway, now that we've had a little time to let some of the FPS sink in, why not add a couple RPGs to the mix?

Arcanum
Baldur's Gate
Bard's Tale
Castle of the Winds
Diablo
Diablo II
Dungeon Siege
Elder Scrolls series
Exile series
Fallout series
Icewind Dale
Might and Magic series
Neverwinter Nights
Nox
Planescape: Torment
Rogue
Titan Quest
Ultima main series
Ultima Underworld
Wizardy main series

Yes, several of these are very long-running series, and not all of the games in those series are worth checking out. I've put these in alphabetical order, but there's a considerable amount of difference in design with these and time in these. And just like the FPS titles we mentioned, there are far, FAR more games to check out in this genre than what I mentioned. I didn't even bother with MMORPGs.

[GSZX1337]

I haven't played these, but I heard Torch Light and Magicka are good.