Late to the Party: PC Games since 2000

The Death Of Hilarity

Well, I got my computer set up, and haven't played a new PC game in years. I was hoping I could get some recommendations on recent PC games that are worth playing. So far I have Dawn of War and Burning Crusade. Here are my specs:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6400
2x1 GB Corsair Dual Channel RAM DDR2 800
GeForce 7600 GT

Any recommendations you can give would be much appreciated.

Also, I plan on getting Half Life 2 and Company of Heroes, so no need to recommend those.

Isorn

So ehm what games do you have and what kind of genre are you looking for? Recent being the past 2/3 years right?


If you are in to turn based stuff I'd recommend civilization IV.

Tzen

Thief: Deadly Shadows
Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Call of Duty (If it's too dated looking, just go for CoD2)
Max Payne/2 (though, I'm not as fond of these as some others)
Star Wars Jedi Knight II (might be kind of dated now)
Grand Theft Auto III/Vice City/San Andreas
Mafia
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (never played the sequels)


Maybe:
Freelancer
Metal Gear Solid 2 (not the best port, but kind of worth it if you didn't play it on a console)
Brothers in Arms


I have a really short attention span and I managed to complete those games because they were enjoyable through and through. Some might be kind of dated now, or have been better on consoles. If I can think of any more, I'll add them.

FreddyD

I recommend you raid the bargain bin. You should pick up Psychonauts and Grim Fandango if you want a good story. Tribes Vengeance is nearly free and it has a really decent single player mode. Act of War is an even faster paced version of C&C Generals. Battlefield 2142 is a pretty decent multiplayer game with great sound and visuals. Serious Sam is a must play for any Doom fan. Sacrifice is a criminally underrated action strategy game.

None of these games should cost more than $10.

SageinaRage

FreddyD wrote:

I recommend you raid the bargain bin. You should pick up Psychonauts and Grim Fandango if you want a good story. Tribes Vengeance is nearly free and it has a really decent single player mode. Act of War is an even faster paced version of C&C Generals. Battlefield 2142 is a pretty decent multiplayer game with great sound and visuals. Serious Sam is a must play for any Doom fan. Sacrifice is a criminally underrated action strategy game.

None of these games should cost more than $10.

If you can find Grim Fandango for less than 10 bucks, mail it directly to me. I saw it in a discount jewel case like...once...2 years ago.

Isorn

Note that grim fandango may in random cases cause you to have real problems installing it on windows xp.

Also Baldur's gate II/I being about 7 years old by now but still highly worth it as they are excellent RPG games. If you like space shooters you should try to find freespace I/II.

Also no one lives forever 1/2 which are great shooter games. Think James Bond with a female lead.

SimBen

Diablo II/Lord of Destruction, Warcraft III/The Frozen Throne, obviously.

fogeyman

FEAR is another amazing FPS. I haven't tried the multiplayer (it's available freely), but the singleplayer is outstanding. I enjoyed it more than HL2.

Far Cry is another awesome FPS. It's not as good as FEAR and HL2, but it's still great, and probably available cheap.

You might want to consider Gametap. It's a subscription service with a lot of games from many consoles (and from the PC). It probably has a fair number of PC games you've missed and would let you play them all, cheaply. Examples: Prince of Persia, Splinter Cell, Far Cry, and more.

The Death Of Hilarity

Isorn wrote:

So ehm what games do you have and what kind of genre are you looking for? Recent being the past 2/3 years right?


If you are in to turn based stuff I'd recommend civilization IV.

I'm not a huge turn based fan, but I did love Civ 3.

At the moment, these are the games I have:

Sims + expansions
Sims 2
Sim City 4
Rollercoaster Tycoon
Rise of Nations Gold
Age of Empires 2 Gold
Morrowind
Dungeon Siege: Legends of Arrana
Burning Crusade
Dawn of War

fogeyman wrote:

FEAR is another amazing FPS. I haven't tried the multiplayer (it's available freely), but the singleplayer is outstanding. I enjoyed it more than HL2.

This is another I forgot to add, a friend gave me this for my birthday last year after he beat it on his brand new Alienware just so he could laugh at me. I gave it back to him then, but I should go get it. From what I played it's a great PC game (360 version not so much).

Tzen wrote:

Thief: Deadly Shadows
Max Payne/2 (though, I'm not as fond of these as some others)
Star Wars Jedi Knight II (might be kind of dated now)
Mafia
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (never played the sequels)

Maybe:
Freelancer
Brothers in Arms

I'll look into these. The rest I've played before or aren't interested in.



As far as genres, I mainly enjoy FPS on computer, with the occasional RTS or RPG thrown in to mix it up. My current collection doesn't show that as much, but mainly just because my old computer was too bad to be anything except a Sims machine pretty much.

Daedalus

Unreal Tournament 2004. Then again, you might want to just hold out for UT3 coming out later this year.

X3: Reunion if you like space sims.

I've heard good things about Gothic II, as well.

Splinter Cell and its sequels (except Pandora Tomorrow, which was ass).

Call of Duty 2.

Sushisource

The Warlock wrote:

Unreal Tournament 2004. Then again, you might want to just hold out for UT3 coming out later this year.

X3: Reunion if you like space sims.

I've heard good things about Gothic II, as well.

Splinter Cell and its sequels (except Pandora Tomorrow, which was ass).

Call of Duty 2.

Lies! Pandora Tomorrow was great! Double Agent, on the other hand, is ass.

The Death Of Hilarity

The Warlock wrote:

Unreal Tournament 2004. Then again, you might want to just hold out for UT3 coming out later this year.

X3: Reunion if you like space sims.

I've heard good things about Gothic II, as well.

Splinter Cell and its sequels (except Pandora Tomorrow, which was ass).

Call of Duty 2.

Not a big space sim fan, and I have already played Splinter Cells and Call of Duty 2 on consoles. Unreal Tournament games last time I tried them were amazing, I'll have to keep an eye out for UT3.

Daedalus

TheScythe21 wrote:

The Warlock wrote:

Unreal Tournament 2004. Then again, you might want to just hold out for UT3 coming out later this year.

X3: Reunion if you like space sims.

I've heard good things about Gothic II, as well.

Splinter Cell and its sequels (except Pandora Tomorrow, which was ass).

Call of Duty 2.

Not a big space sim fan, and I have already played Splinter Cells and Call of Duty 2 on consoles. Unreal Tournament games last time I tried them were amazing, I'll have to keep an eye out for UT3.

Do you like turn-based strategy? Galactic Civilizations II was fucking amazing.

What kind of games are you looking for here?

fogeyman

The Warlock wrote:

TheScythe21 wrote:

The Warlock wrote:

Unreal Tournament 2004. Then again, you might want to just hold out for UT3 coming out later this year.

X3: Reunion if you like space sims.

I've heard good things about Gothic II, as well.

Splinter Cell and its sequels (except Pandora Tomorrow, which was ass).

Call of Duty 2.

Not a big space sim fan, and I have already played Splinter Cells and Call of Duty 2 on consoles. Unreal Tournament games last time I tried them were amazing, I'll have to keep an eye out for UT3.

Do you like turn-based strategy? Galactic Civilizations II was fucking amazing.

What kind of games are you looking for here?

TheScythe21 wrote:

As far as genres, I mainly enjoy FPS on computer, with the occasional RTS or RPG thrown in to mix it up.

This genre stuff should be edited into the OP.

The Death Of Hilarity

The Warlock wrote:

TheScythe21 wrote:

The Warlock wrote:

Unreal Tournament 2004. Then again, you might want to just hold out for UT3 coming out later this year.

X3: Reunion if you like space sims.

I've heard good things about Gothic II, as well.

Splinter Cell and its sequels (except Pandora Tomorrow, which was ass).

Call of Duty 2.

Not a big space sim fan, and I have already played Splinter Cells and Call of Duty 2 on consoles. Unreal Tournament games last time I tried them were amazing, I'll have to keep an eye out for UT3.

Do you like turn-based strategy? Galactic Civilizations II was fucking amazing.

What kind of games are you looking for here?

Mainly FPS games, and good RTS and RPG games.

So far from this thread, here's my main list of games to get or look for.

FEAR
Unreal Tournament 3
Max Payne's
Thief: Deadly SHadows
Prince of Persia
Far Cry
Half Life 2
Diablo 2
Warcraft 3
Baldur's Gate games
Battlefield 2142

fogeyman

While looking into Battlefield 2142, you should also look into Battlefield 2. The two games are fairly similar so you'd buy only one of the two, but they have stylistic differences (and other little things) that may make you like one over the other. Specifically, 2142 is all futuristic while BF2 is modern combat. Plus, BF2 is probably cheaper.

Oh and if you get Diablo 2, you pretty much have to get the expansion (Lord of Destruction). It improves the game significantly.

TVs_Frank

Isorn wrote:

Note that grim fandango may in random cases cause you to have real problems installing it on windows xp.

Also Baldur's gate II/I being about 7 years old by now but still highly worth it as they are excellent RPG games.

Yeah and last time I was at Amazon, they were offering the BG2+Expansion bundle and Neverwinter Nights Platinum together for $25. Great deal considering that's 100+ hours of great gameplay.

BG1 was pretty forgettable IMO. Too much roaming around in the wilderness.

gneGne

There's alot of great FPS' on the PC. You've got tactical shooters like Counter-Strike, all out slaughterfests like Quake, adventure type No One Lives Forever....

RTS you've got Blizzard RTS like Warcraft/Starcraft you already mentioned, Total War series, Command & Conquer, Black & White 2, Age of Empires...

RPG there is Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic and other Bioware RPGs, Hack n Slash Diablo/Titan Quest...

Theres alot

Pheezer

If you liked Civ 3 at all, you basically need Civ IV more than you need food, water or air. It's easily the best in the series by a long shot.

Kewop Decam

We both have the same PC basically. I was playing HL2 with everything to the max and it ran perfectly smooth. Too bad I think HL2 is a boring game.

Golden Leg

Personally, I find Battlefield 1942 to be the best entry in the Battlefield series. It still has a good fanbase, too, so you'll have plenty of people to play with.

Deusfaux

hit the link im my sig, arrange by release date and console

srsly

cwapfobrains

You must get Sid Meier's Pirates! I've been playing it again on PSP and am remembering why i loved the PC version so much.

VeritasVR

Golden Leg wrote:

Personally, I find Battlefield 1942 to be the best entry in the Battlefield series. It still has a good fanbase, too, so you'll have plenty of people to play with.

Agreed here, except most public servers tend to be ass.

Also worth a huge mention is Company of Heroes.

143999

Squeaking in at six months into 2000, it's Deus Ex.

BornToHula

If you're a fan of realism in shooters, I heartily recommend the following:

Operation Flashpoint and Resistance
Red Orchestra
Armed Assault

Otherwise some of my favorites are pretty blatant.

F.E.A.R., Dawn of War and both expansions, Counter-Strike: Source, and the others that have been mentioned are worth it as well.

SimBen

Oh, can't believe I forgot to mention Tron 2.0.

One of my favorite PC games from the 2000s, even though not everyone likes it.

Also, Jedi Outcast, if you're looking for a more action-oriented alternative to KOTOR.

wobblyheadedbob

Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War and its expansions.

So good.

Psychonuats is fantastic. So imaginative.

I love RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 and its first expansion Soaked!

Oh and Civ IV. You need it more than anything ever.

august

Except for the levels being chopped up, Thief DS is pretty fantastic and worthy of the name.

Ah_Pook

Company Of Heroes

its by the same developers that made Dawn Of War, and its the same basic kind of gameplay only improved in every possible way

Golden Leg

Ruiner999 wrote:

If you're a fan of realism in shooters, I heartily recommend the following:

Operation Flashpoint and Resistance

...

Hooooly crap YES

That's a really good one. Don't miss out on Op. Flash.

The Death Of Hilarity

Thanks for all the input everybody. So far I think the top of my list consists of Company of Heroes and Civilizations 4. Keep all the recommendations coming.

Ah_Pook

i'll strongly second Galactic Civilizations 2, also