Going to take a random day off and probably binge a PC game of some sort. What's the best PC game you've played of recent?

If I can grab it off steam bonus points.

I've been playing Star Citizen for last x6 months or so. But there is a release / wipe inbound. So looking for something else to keep me busy.

My brother has been raving about 'Sniper Elite 5' on Steam. 11 long missions on the campaign + other extras.

I've played it on XBox One, and it's pretty damn good and not too pricey.

In order:

Red Dead Redemption 2 - I’ve played it fully thru five times.

Ghost of Tsushima - wow!

Easily cyberpunk 2077. It's fantastic and I'm still discovering new things despite playing it for over two years. While it was fine on playstation, the pc version with all the mods is probably the way to play.

I was gifted a ps5 and am trying Hogwarts legacy. I like it so far.

Cyberpunk 2077 was a bugged, easy-to-exploit game when it was released. Since then, CD Projekt Red have continuously updated it to repair all the issues it had and it’s an awesome game. I’ve played through it about five times and am looking forward to the expansion, as well as the recently-announced sequel.

Yep, of the games I've played in the last year, Cyberpunk 2077 would be my suggestion.

And while I haven't played it yet, the reviews for the just-released Hogwarts Legacy have been overwhelmingly positive. (Anti-JK-Rowling protests by the woke crybabies aside.)

Or if you're willing to go back a few years in release dates, Witcher 3 and Red Dead Redemption 2 are well worth checking out too.


The thing is, games have become so long and complex over the past decade or two that you're unlikely to be able to finish any recent game within a single day off. 8-12 hours of binging on a day off will only scratch the surface of some of these games. Even the simplest/shortest of campaigns tend to have ~20 hours of gameplay, and 100+ hours of gameplay is the norm for a lot of games nowadays.

I’ve played and beat Cyberpunk. I don’t expect to finish a game. Just get in a solid session with some new content.

Redemption 2 or the Potter game might be contenders. I’ve heard good things about both. But im not a potter fanatic. But if it’s a good game I don’t care,

Some other suggestions:
Hell Let Loose. It is a WW2 FPS that leans more towards realism than arcade. If you try to Rambo you will die quickly and often. But work as a squad and communicate, you will do well. There is no single player mode. A match typically lasts an hour to 90 minutes.
Microsoft Flight Sim. This one is amazing. I love that it pulls from real world data to generate the globe. OK, it uses Bing Maps instead of Google Earth, and there are places the Google's 3D modeling of buildings and objects would be a vast improvement. But they also have been doing world updates to improve locales around the world. MFS adds in real world weather data and air traffic pulled from the net, and it adds to the realism greatly.
GTA 5. Older, but still good.
Second Front. This was just released. It is a semi-port of the Avalon Hill boardgame Squad Leader. Single player only.
Civilization 4 or 6. Classic 'just one more turn' game. I prefer 4 over 6.
Baldur's Gate 1&2 and 3. 1 & 2 is pushing 25 years old. And still hold up. Icewind Dale is built on the same engine and worth getting too. BG3 has been in early release since 2020 and should get it's full release at the end of the year.

And a few honorable mentions:
Lego The Lord of the Rings
Command and Conquer Remastered collection
Half Life 1 & 2 + the episodes

I am in my first playthrough of Cyberpunk and would vote for that but you have already played it.

Marvel's Midnight Suns was pretty fun. The combat was more of a puzzle than a twitch fest. Turn based and card driven.

If you want a hard turn based RPG with a campaign structure around it try Gloomhaven. A faithful port of the best boardgame released in the last 5 years.

quote:

Originally posted by IrishWind:
Baldur's Gate 1&2 and 3. 1 & 2 is pushing 25 years old. And still hold up. Icewind Dale is built on the same engine and worth getting too. BG3 has been in early release since 2020 and should get it's full release at the end of the year.

Baldur's Gate 2 and Icewind Dale are still my two favorite computer games of all time. And despite being nearly 23 years old (they were both released in 2000), they're still excellent games that can stand with even today's more modern games.

If you want to try them, grab the Enhanced Editions from Beamdog. They are updated editions that have extra content and graphics updates from the original games: https://www.beamdog.com/games/

Mostly a console gamer these days, but there's plenty of crossover titles that are on PC as well. The game I've been playing the most this past year has been Elden Ring. Brutal gameplay, but oh so psychologically rewarding when advancing through its campaign. But not without a lot of swearing and disappointment at how often I managed to doom my character during battle. Though there's definitely euphoria when a boss finally is beaten. And some level of exhaustion. I also admit there's been more than a few times that I've cursed at the game creators for not putting in a more-than-slightly dumbed-down mode for us "arthritic, gray hair" types that had that first baptism of fire playing vid games on the original Pong console...in period. I mean, Asteroids and Space Invaders could never have prepared anyone for a game the likes of Elden Scrolls...

Really good stuff if you like your game action hot and heavy.

If you like shooters, perhaps Escape from Tarkov would also be a good, challenging game to occupy your time.

Are you looking for a good campaign/storyline single player experience, or multiplayer, or both?

Without repeating some suggestions or going back twenty years, but these are some single player standouts for me for either storyline, being different from the usual, or both:

Assassin's Creed Origins (I've played everything in the franchise except Liberation and Syndicate and I think this one has the best story out of all of them, far and away)
Bioshock Infinite (one of the best storylines in a game, ever)
Kingdom Come: Deliverance (Expansive, and yet focused. It's a 1403 Bohemia simulator and that's no joke.)
Ori and the Blind Forest
Ori and the Will of the Wisps
Jedi: Fallen Order (the sequel is coming out in April)
Trek To Yomi
Unravel 1 & 2

For multiplayer only, I've been thoroughly enjoying Chivalry 2. There are some faults with the game and the community, but they haven't been game breakers for me. I love a good hack and slash and this one is a good mix of enough history, realism and arcade.

Interestingly enough, I bought the Star Citizen beta back in like, 2015. I messed around with it for about an hour and decided it was too broken to bother with and it would be an endless beta. Would it be worth giving another look after this update/wipe thing you mention?

Really addicted to Dead by Daylight been playing for 5 years, only game that has consistently held my attention, also good is War Thunder and 7 Days to Die.

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:
Are you looking for a good campaign/storyline single player experience, or multiplayer, or both?

Without repeating some suggestions or going back twenty years, but these are some single player standouts for me for either storyline, being different from the usual, or both:

Assassin's Creed Origins (I've played everything in the franchise except Liberation and Syndicate and I think this one has the best story out of all of them, far and away)
Bioshock Infinite (one of the best storylines in a game, ever)
Kingdom Come: Deliverance (Expansive, and yet focused. It's a 1403 Bohemia simulator and that's no joke.)
Ori and the Blind Forest
Ori and the Will of the Wisps
Jedi: Fallen Order (the sequel is coming out in April)
Trek To Yomi
Unravel 1 & 2

For multiplayer only, I've been thoroughly enjoying Chivalry 2. There are some faults with the game and the community, but they haven't been game breakers for me. I love a good hack and slash and this one is a good mix of enough history, realism and arcade.

Interestingly enough, I bought the Star Citizen beta back in like, 2015. I messed around with it for about an hour and decided it was too broken to bother with and it would be an endless beta. Would it be worth giving another look after this update/wipe thing you mention?

Star Citizen is amazing. If you have already pledged a ship, definitely go check it out. Feel free to message me and I can give you my Org info. They can help you get sorted. Game has so much gameplay available,

I'm kind of in the same boat as P220 Smudge. I got the Avenger Titan package and was able to figure out how to barely fly it enough to do a couple courier missions before I augered in and broke the front cannon clean off the ship. Repaired it improperly and now I've got no cannon. I joined an Organization and they were a bit helpful but the lack of common chat abilities really hurt and I quit, deciding to wait for the full release in the hopes that RSI puts out a product that's a little more accessible for casual players.

If you like MMORPGs, I enjoy The Elder Scrolls Online.

The base game is frequently found on Steam for free.

quote:

Originally posted by myrottiety:
Star Citizen is amazing. If you have already pledged a ship, definitely go check it out. Feel free to message me and I can give you my Org info. They can help you get sorted. Game has so much gameplay available,

It's been so long, I honestly can't remember. Between your email and Orguss posting about it, I decided I'll try to dust it off tonight. If I can get it running, I'll shoot you an email.

quote:

Originally posted by Orguss:
...I quit, deciding to wait for the full release in the hopes that RSI puts out a product that's a little more accessible for casual players.

One of the guys my wife worked with in Washington is a friend of Chris Roberts. They're friends from the original Wing Commander days. Yes, Wing Commander as in 1990. They still game together. I asked him one time at a social thing years ago if he thought Star Citizen would ever come out of beta and he laughed at me.

The dude is making hella money off us suckers paying him for his decade-long beta test. Granted, the game has come a long way but it's ridiculous that the planned full version is only now coming in 2023.

I'm definitely interested in it, but I want an official release plus at least six months for additional polishing before I try it again. I also think in order to get even a modicum of enjoyment out of it requires, at the very least, an RPG-style, 12-key mouse. There are way too many key commands.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:

quote:

Originally posted by IrishWind:
Baldur's Gate 1&2 and 3. 1 & 2 is pushing 25 years old. And still hold up. Icewind Dale is built on the same engine and worth getting too. BG3 has been in early release since 2020 and should get it's full release at the end of the year.

Baldur's Gate 2 and Icewind Dale are still my two favorite computer games of all time. And despite being nearly 23 years old (they were both released in 2000), they're still excellent games that can stand with even today's more modern games.

If you want to try them, grab the Enhanced Editions from Beamdog. They are updated editions that have extra content and graphics updates from the original games: https://www.beamdog.com/games/

If you have Amazon Prime, you can grab Baldur's Gate 1's Enhanced Edition for free this month via Prime Gaming:

https://gaming.amazon.com/home