I’m not a gamer. Suggestions?

barefootcyborg5000 said:

After about an hour on No Man's Sky and I'm moderately interested. The constant need to resupply is a little irritating but I'm sure eventual upgrades will make that part a lot less time consuming. Haven't died yet and I have a base built, if a modest one. I've never been very fond of pc controls...

Skyrim is still downloading. Eager to play that. 
 

Also of note, maybe it's proximity to the screen, but my head hurts after an hour. I wonder if those blue light glasses would help? I'm on a computer most of the day at work so maybe it's not that. Taking a break for a few hours. 

Check in your tv/monitor settings. Sometimes there's a blue light filet you can turn on. 

Something else may be the anti aliasing, motion blur, or contrast settings in the game. It's not often, but there are times even on console I need to mess with settings to stop from getting a headache. Cooking Simulator is the most recent that comes to mind, but anything that really really pushes bright whites AND dark shadows at the same time seem to hurt me. 

If you like Skyrim, give these a try next. Bonus, they're usually on sale on steam

Fantasy: Witcher 3 for sure, it's an experience you will never forget. The storyline and characters are actually interesting, feels more like a real world than Skyrim, lived in. Bonus if you like world building, the books have lots of background info and the Netflix show is alright.

Role playing fantasy: divinity original sin 2. Top down old school rpg, tons of depth, can play local co-op or online. You can literally talk to every character, open every box, it's the closest thing to D&D there is. A modern version of baldurs gate with more depth.

FPS RPG: fallout new Vegas, the most unique fallout in the series, hilarious dialogue and interactions. It's fun to play with the guns but the conversations are the best.

I just bought the Subnautica sequel this weekend, and spent about 6-8 hours playing it (spread over fri/sat/sun).  I really enjoy it, beautiful, lighthearted, nice mix of exploration, tech advancement, and minor puzzles.  No multiplayer, no microtransactions, just a solid single player experience.  Both the first and second Subnautica were very enjoyable.  
 

Plus, i'm a sucker for building underwater bases.  

Plus you get an exosuit:

I've played Atari, Nintendo, PS1 and XBox 1 over the years but now the extent of video games for me these days is billiards on my phone.

engiekev said:

If you like Skyrim, give these a try next. Bonus, they're usually on sale on steam

Fantasy: Witcher 3 for sure, it's an experience you will never forget. The storyline and characters are actually interesting, feels more like a real world than Skyrim, lived in. Bonus if you like world building, the books have lots of background info and the Netflix show is alright.

Role playing fantasy: divinity original sin 2. Top down old school rpg, tons of depth, can play local co-op or online. You can literally talk to every character, open every box, it's the closest thing to D&D there is. A modern version of baldurs gate with more depth.

FPS RPG: fallout new Vegas, the most unique fallout in the series, hilarious dialogue and interactions. It's fun to play with the guns but the conversations are the best.

+1 for all of these.  D:OS2 has a special place in my heart.

Flynlow (FS) said:

I just bought the Subnautica sequel this weekend, and spent about 6-8 hours playing it (spread over fri/sat/sun).  I really enjoy it, beautiful, lighthearted, nice mix of exploration, tech advancement, and minor puzzles.  No multiplayer, no microtransactions, just a solid single player experience.  Both the first and second Subnautica were very enjoyable.  

I played the first one for a bit.  It really is an excellent game, but I feel like its not my style.  I did about 3-4 hours of grinding and felt like I made very little progress. 

ProDarwin said:

Flynlow (FS) said:

I just bought the Subnautica sequel this weekend, and spent about 6-8 hours playing it (spread over fri/sat/sun).  I really enjoy it, beautiful, lighthearted, nice mix of exploration, tech advancement, and minor puzzles.  No multiplayer, no microtransactions, just a solid single player experience.  Both the first and second Subnautica were very enjoyable.  

I played the first one for a bit.  It really is an excellent game, but I feel like its not my style.  I did about 3-4 hours of grinding and felt like I made very little progress. 

Life gets infinitely easier once you get a vehicle (like the Seamoth).  Then you've got a mobile air source to take with you deep.  I also carry two tanks for hot swapping when I get close to running out.  Using the scanner on absolutely everything (sea debris, old base wrecks, etc.) gets you blueprints quick and also helps. 

The intro to Skyrim is right up my alley. So far so good. 

In reply to Flynlow (FS) : more adding on to what he said

​​​​​​ they don't really hold your hand in subnautica. I spent the first couple hours trying to get my bearings and thinking I was collecting useful stuff until I started finding the blueprints for actually useful stuff.

I still remember going to the crash site the first time and having my first run in with a Reaper Leviathan. 

The better stuff you find, the deeper you can go. It's super easy to get lost from the storyline, especially towards the beginning when you need to get parts from 300 meters down but can only go to 100 or so.

I haven't finished the sequel yet, got distracted with something else, but it didn't feel as special as the first one. 

The first Seamoth, then later building your own submarine with a prawn suit and being able to really travel the map truly felt like monumental accomplishments, and that's not a feeling I get very often in games. 

Don't know why this posted 4 times, but I fixed it. 

In reply to RevRico :

I hear you on the accomplishments. I would also add the launch rocket to get off the world and home to the list.  
 

I had a good long break between the first and sequel, maybe that helped. Also, the game is still in pre-release (i think), and I heard the story changed once or twice as they developed it.  They opened the beta up to the public to help fund their work without getting bought out (though they were acquired at the end of 2021).  I respected their attempts to keep control in house. 
 

I feel like EA and a bunch of the other large developers (activision, etc) have been failing at the "don't be evil" guideline the past few years, between recycled sequels, microtransactions, and a focus on maximizing time paying (edit: typo for playing, but it fits so leaving it) on multiplayer at the expense of a story or actual good game.  So i've been trying to support the little guy/developer (unknown worlds for this, iron gate for valheim, concerned ape, etc).  

Everyone says vote with your dollars and let the market work.  I don't think I'm going to win against the microtransactions onslaught, but at least i know i'm on the right side :p.

I saw this article over lunch and thought it was appopriate. 

https://lifehacker.com/14-boring-simulation-video-games-that-are-actually-to-1848516386

In reply to z31maniac :

I can't believe they didn't mention lawn mowing simulator. I know, I know, who wants to cut grass for fun?!? But it's really a rather relaxing game when you're all stressed out and can't focus on anything else. 

Unpacking was a surprisingly bfun couple hours.

I get farming simulator every other release. I tend to lose weekends playing them because it's so easy to get really involved, especially when you start hiring helpers so you can do a dozen fields at a time. 

Cooking simulator, which they didn't mention, is a combination of fun and hell on earth. I have years of kitchen experience from fast food to fine dining. This game puts you alone in a kitchen at a restaurant. Buy the ingredients, prep, cook, serve, all by yourself. Talk about stressful. Then the food critics start critiquing how you cut the lemon or potatoes, or if the temps were wrong or you didn't use enough seasoning or too much. I have a love hate relationship with it. If you've ever been curious about restaurant work, it's worthwhile, but if you just want to relax and unwind, look elsewhere.

barefootcyborg5000 said:

The intro to Skyrim is right up my alley. So far so good. 

Good! What is your character? 

In reply to birdmayne :

Can't remember. Seems like it was between dark elf and lizard on the list. I'll look when I get home. Name's Homer. 

RevRico said:

In reply to z31maniac :

I can't believe they didn't mention lawn mowing simulator. I know, I know, who wants to cut grass for fun?!? But it's really a rather relaxing game when you're all stressed out and can't focus on anything else. 

Unpacking was a surprisingly bfun couple hours.

I get farming simulator every other release. I tend to lose weekends playing them because it's so easy to get really involved, especially when you start hiring helpers so you can do a dozen fields at a time. 

Cooking simulator, which they didn't mention, is a combination of fun and hell on earth. I have years of kitchen experience from fast food to fine dining. This game puts you alone in a kitchen at a restaurant. Buy the ingredients, prep, cook, serve, all by yourself. Talk about stressful. Then the food critics start critiquing how you cut the lemon or potatoes, or if the temps were wrong or you didn't use enough seasoning or too much. I have a love hate relationship with it. If you've ever been curious about restaurant work, it's worthwhile, but if you just want to relax and unwind, look elsewhere.

I did fast food in college and have/had plenty of friends that did and still do work in actual restaurants..........I know how grueling it is.

I have Cities on my PS4, but trying to do it with a controller vs keyboard/mouse is incredibly frustrating. There were a couple of other ones in there that seem like I could get in to though.

In reply to z31maniac :

If you like city builders, you should try Surviving Mars. It felt like they developed it with console play in mind. 

The Jurassic World games are a fun spin on city builders too, but there's a lot more resource management involved, almost on par with Skylines. Dinosaurs are much more prone to erratic behavior than city dwellers are. 

RevRico said:

In reply to z31maniac :

If you like city builders, you should try Surviving Mars. It felt like they developed it with console play in mind. 

The Jurassic World games are a fun spin on city builders too, but there's a lot more resource management involved, almost on par with Skylines. Dinosaurs are much more prone to erratic behavior than city dwellers are. 

Those both sound kind of interesting. 

I really need to narrow down my hobbies and/or stop wasting so much time. I have 3 Lego Technic Kits waiting to be built, the full on sim rig, and like 8 books I haven't started reading. And it's been quite a while since I've touched any of my guitars. 

For builder/base games. I enjoyed Evil Genius. Man was that a great time waster. And getting to feel like a Bond Villain is fun.

This is an odd one, but: "Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes" is fantastic.  Its "multiplayer", but can be played with any number of people and only one computer.

Its a blast in VR, but still great without it, especially if you are in a separate room/divided from the player.

Does anyone remember LA Noire?

I'm wondering if more modern graphics would make it a bit more realistic, I wasn't very good at the original, but I loved the concept. 

In reply to z31maniac :

That's the only rockstar game I never finished. Liked the idea, liked the first few hours, but for some reason I never got past the first disc. Might have to put it on my watch list for a sale. 

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Firewatch has just had touch controls added so it can be played through game pass on mobile now. I forgot about this game. Set in the 80s, you have a messy divorce and move to Colorado or Wyoming or somewhere out west for a summer to work at a Ranger station. It's short, like 8 hours total, but for an Indy game it's pretty innovative. Interesting enough story, nothing really crazy or sci-fi, no crafting. I don't want to call it a walking simulator, but not much for action either. 

It's a lot moor fun than I can describe. 

There's been a run of games like this lately, and I'm embracing them just because they're different. The Lake comes to mind, where you are a mail carrier for 2 weeks in a New England 80s town, the Good Life where your a reporter investigating a strange town where people turn into pets at night, Moonglow Bay came highly recommend but I don't get. 

Civilization...

Just one more turn...

I didnt read the whole thread but if you are a Amazon Prime member, you can get free games every month:

https://gaming.amazon.com/intro

I somehow missed this thread when it was posted originally, but I'll add my $0.02:

I'm also sorta new to modern PC gaming, but I've been a gamer pretty much since I could hold a joystick. I have an extensive collection of consoles and handhelds, but I only dabbled in PC gaming over the years. I had a great PC rig in the 90's, but I didn't get back into it until a few years ago. Console retro gaming is still my bread and butter, but man, the PC stuff can be really great. 

Some notes:
-All of the different PC gaming platforms can be confusing, but are worth having. Right now, I have Steam, GOG, Prime Gaming, Origin, and Epic Games Store all loaded up. Steam is the gold standard and has the best sales, GOG has tons of classic PC games that will run right on a modern system, Origin is just EA's gaming portal, and Prime and Epic give free games away all the time; monthly with Prime and weekly with Epic. 

-I won't go too much into the touchy subject that is emulation, but it's an option. And I do emulate stuff, especially weird old arcade games and obscure systems you can't find on this side of the planet. A properly set-up MAME environment is a great trip down memory lane. 

-Lots of casual/retro-style games don't need high horsepower PC's, and there are TONS of great games that fit the bill here. 

Some recent favorites:
Skyrim: Because of course. It's just so much fun to boot up and explore that world. It's like video game comfort food.

GTA V: Still tons of stupid fun!

The Yakuza Series (especially Yakuza Zero): Imagine GTA-style sandbox game in Japan with completely ridiculous characters and storylines. Only big difference is the lack of vehicles; you run around on foot mostly. Combat is excellent with multiple styles to master, and you can use pretty much anything/everything as a weapon (traffic cones, food, bicycles, etc). Zero takes place in the 80's, kind of like a Japanese GTA: Vice City, but better. 

Loop Hero: a very simple RPG that gets addictive if you give it time. 

Shovel Knight: A side-scrolling retro-style game that incorporates elements of NES classics like Castlevania, Mega Man, and Duck Tales with some of the best chiptune music you've ever heard

Forza Horizon 4: This one has been taking up much of my time lately. It's great. 

Wreckfest: Like the old Destruction Derby games? You'll love this. 

Broforce: Retro-style side scrolling shooter with a "Bro-ified" version of every 80's-00's action hero you can think of (Rambro, Brobocop, Commandbro, Brogyver, etc". Everything is destructible and the game is hilarious. 
 

Tony Sestito said:

Broforce: Retro-style side scrolling shooter with a "Bro-ified" version of every 80's-00's action hero you can think of (Rambro, Brobocop, Commandbro, Brogyver, etc". Everything is destructible and the game is hilarious. 

I forgot how epic Broforce is. Hours of pointless mayhem and laughter