Just got a new laptop as a graduation present.

[isiolia]

I'll probably still get Portal 2 and Team Fortress 2 since those series are pretty recent, but I'm still wary about the others I've listed. Am I being too paranoid or what?

In a word, yes. Any competitive game that's been around a while is like that - but that shouldn't keep you from picking up a game you think might be fun. It might mean trying to find some friendly people to play with you, using a private server or LAN play, whatever...but the games are there to enjoy.

Some game types tend to have ranking systems anyway. If you went online with Starcraft II, and didn't do so hot, you'd have a low rank and get pitted against other low-ranked players until you got better.

It depends on the game type too. The only MMO I have much experience with is FFXI (played for 7.5 years or so), but in that, most seasoned players were happy to help newer players if they could see they were trying. Then again, that game is reputed to have a fairly strong community.

Offhand, if you haven't played Deus Ex, that's a good one to look at, though older. The No One Lives Forever games are often overlooked. If you're looking at TF2, you might want to just make that the Orange Box as a whole. Metro 2033 maybe.

RPGs, some are perhaps nicer to play on PC, but you have a lot of older titles (especially) that never would have made it to consoles. Pretty much look up the past titles of Bioware, Black Isle (later Obsidian), and Troika and you'll have plenty to play. More recently, the Witcher series have been a high point.

[fastbilly1]

You should get The Witcher 2, but buy it from gog.com because it's DRM free there.

After the patch all versions but Steam are DRM free.

I highly suggest waiting a week or two if you can. Starting Monday GoG has their sale and like Mr Healthy said the Steam summer sale is coming soon.

[Hatta]

Any other recommendations?

[Dakinggamer87]

Awesome laptop pretty good specs!!

[Kevman]

Any other recommendations?

I've heard good things about this series. Would it be bad to start on the Deus Ex: Human Revolution? Is that a direct sequel?

[lisalover1]

There's a long history of games on the PC - is this just your first time having one that can run newer games? Preferred genres?

My computer goes spastic when trying to run a game, and any game that is old enough that it wouldn't cause a problem is old enough that it is incompatible with the OS. My laptop runs hot whenever it runs Windows at all; that is why I usually just stick to Ubuntu.

[J T]

Any other recommendations?

I've heard good things about this series. Would it be bad to start on the Deus Ex: Human Revolution? Is that a direct sequel?

Well, the series is marred by the 2nd one, but the first Deus Ex is well loved.

[isiolia]

I've heard good things about this series. Would it be bad to start on the Deus Ex: Human Revolution? Is that a direct sequel?

It's hard to say as Human Revolution hasn't been released yet. It's a prequel though, so I doubt it'll really require any existing familiarity with the series.

The first is regarded as a classic. The second...not so much (in part due to being designed around consoles).

There's a long history of games on the PC - is this just your first time having one that can run newer games? Preferred genres?

My computer goes spastic when trying to run a game, and any game that is old enough that it wouldn't cause a problem is old enough that it is incompatible with the OS. My laptop runs hot whenever it runs Windows at all; that is why I usually just stick to Ubuntu.

Depends on how old the game is. Some just need to get tweaked to run - set compatibility settings and so on. Others can be run in a virtual machine, whether running another version of Windows, or DOS. You could try to use WINE in Linux.

If you're having issues with Windows specifically, then I'd guess either an issue with a driver (or that one isn't there), or the inverse - that Windows is actually utilizing something that Ubuntu isn't (like 3D graphics maybe). Hard to say. Most laptops I've dealt with (which is a fair number) will heat up and start spinning fans full bore under any real amount of CPU/GPU load.

[YoshiEgg25]

Except Hobie.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

If you're into racing games AT ALL then Trackmania Nations/United is a must. Also Frozen Synapse is a great turn based strategy game that you should look into.