What PC game(s) to buy?
 

Until recently, I pretty much had to forego computer gaming due to two factors:

1) Lack of time due to wedding planning, selling my old house, fixing the new house, etc.

2) Lack of money due to two mortgage payments, home improvement costs, and saving money for honeymoon.

Well, I'm now married, back from the honeymoon, and my old house is sold. The new house still needs some work, but most of the expensive stuff is done. So I find myself with a little extra time and money, and I thought I'd start gaming a little bit again. But a lot of PC games have come out in the past year or so, and I don't know which ones are worth playing.

I host LAN games occasionally, but most of my gaming will be single-player. I'm looking for first-person shooters and similar, particularly those with a strong storyline and involving gameplay. I got burned out on Real-time Strategy games.

Single-player games I've enjoyed:

Deus Ex
Rainbow Six (and all addons)
Rogue Spear (and all addons)
Hidden and Dangerous
Half-life
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault
GTA3 and GTA:Vice City
Max Payne
Mafia
Soldier of Fortune and SOF2

Games I'm looking forward to in the near future (lots of sequels):

Deus Ex 2
Half-life 2
Hidden and Dangerous 2
Max Payne 2
Doom 3
Halo
Duke Nukem Forever (cough)

Games I was disappointed by:

Ghost Recon
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
SWAT 3

...any suggestions for games (or add-ons to my existing games) to try? I've been reading some game reviews, but damn there's a lot to sift through. The new Clancy-based games look like they might be fun... any impressions?

Thanks!

Congrats on the wedding, man.:)

Go old school
 

Try and dig up an old copy of System Shock 2, and download the recent graphics upgrade. Good storyline and good replayability, with three character classes and a good skill advancement system.

Re: Go old school
 

I actually have that game, found it pretty enjoyable back when I bought it. It may be fun to get the graphics update and play through it again.

I also just remembered that I have No One Live Forever 2, which I bought back when I had some spare time, and I didn't beat it yet. I'll have to intsall that one again... what I managed to play of it was good stuff. It's predecessor was entertaining.

Well there goes any chance I've had of hosting the Cellar GR server with official Cellar games etc. Now everybody thinks it'll suck! I still think it's a fun multiplayer. It plays like War when you were a kid, but with real guns.

I can understand being unhappy with the clunky command interface which doesn't really get it done in single player.

I didn't think it was an awful game, it just should have been way better. Thinking back, I can't remember all of the reasons we disliked it... me and my good friend kept playing it and really wanting to enjoy it, but no go. I think one of our big gripes was that AI enemies were sniper-accurate from long distances with all weapons, but I may be confusing it with another game. I also seem to remember that every AI teammate was dumber than a bucket of hair, but again, I may be confusing it with another.

I do remember trying to enjoy it for many hours though before turning back to other games.

Frogger. Pacman. Qix. Q*Bert.

Deus Ex. That was the best game that I have ever played. I remember thinking, after having spent days in New York, that I had nearly beaten the game -- I didn't think that anything more could fit on the CD!

I'm planning to postpone my next computer upgrade until either Deus Ex 2 or Thief 3 is released. Speaking of which, have you played the Thief games? They aren't up to the level of Deus Ex, but they're still very good and they're still by Warren Spector. The last level of Thief: The Dark Project was probably one of my favorite computer games levels ever.

Just out of curiosity, what did you find disappointing about RTCW? I found it extremely enjoyable once I was past the boring generic Zombies-in-dark-caves stuff...it still had some rather weak levels after the Zombie trash, but some of the stuff was pure genius.

Well, maybe I gave up on it too soon. I never got past the zombies. To me, a game is like a book... if they don't capture my interest about 5-10% of the way into it, I give up trrying to force myself to enjoy it. I may give it another chance eventually, when I am very bored.

The multiplayer in RTCW looks striong, though. But few of my friends have copies, so we've never been able to give it a go.

Quake Arena is still the best, no bullshit, gore-spattered, kill or be killed FPS around, IMHO. But them my opinions are *very* humble, indeed.

"Alice" was pretty cool. It's based on the Quake 3 engine, but it has a very immersive storyline.

Splinter Cell -- get it. First person shooter, where you can shoot, or knock out your opponents. Stealth is always preferred. I love it.

My wife played through Alice and enjoyed it quite a bit. It's also down to $10, as are the Serious Sam games, if you want substantial bang for your buck.

I played Thief for a while, hit the steep end of the learning curve two or three levels in, and moved on to other games. I definitely enjoyed it, but I'm waiting until I can devote enough time to it and Thief 2 to master it, and that may be a while. (Can't... stop... playing... Dynasty Warriors 3... on... my... PS2...)

I loved Morrowind, and hated its crash bugs. The latest upgrade (Bloodmoon) seemed interesting but crashed left and right -- or, to be precise, it's geared towards advanced characters, and it seems like the longer you play and build up a particular character, the more CTD-prone the game gets. Ah well.

Icewind Dale is on my to-do-after-six-other-games list.

Tried Mechwarrior 3, got nowhere, uninstalled it.

My most popular game lately has been eBay, where sniping is always in season. (I'm up to 27 hockey jerseys and counting.)

Just finished Postal 2, that was pretty fun. NPC's react to your actions, and don't just run around and shoot. Funny, and a little twisted.