Hey guys, I recently set up a steam account to do some PC game while on work travel. I'm looking for some single player PC games to occupy my time since hotel and overseas internet is usually pretty spotty? I've got an Xbox and PS3 so I'm not interested in anything I can play on console? Also, I've got Starcraft 2 and HoN but haven't played many PC games in the last 10 years besides those. Any suggestions? Thanks!
The Orange Box (yeah, this is on consoles, but deserves to be played on PC)
Torchlight
Civilization IV or V
Galcon Fusion
Medieval II: Total War
Mount & Blade: Warband
Non-Steam:
Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura
Dwarf Fortress
There's also a whole load of games on GOG.com which are DRM free and should run on a laptop:
- Baldur's Gate series (if you like your old-skool D&D RPG's)
- Planescape: Torment (still one of the best)
- Jagged Alliance 2 (top-down turn based tactical game)
- Freespace 1 & 2: Space Combat games. I can only really recommend these if you have a joystick (or possibly a gamepad? Not sure how well it works on analogue sticks). But if you do, they're freaking awesome, and have been modded constantly since release.
There's a tonne of games available on Steam, I'm sure others will have plenty of recommendations. For stuff you're not likely to have seen on consoles, here are a few:
- Defense Grid: Awesome Tower Defence style game (available on XBL IIRC, but I doubt many have played it)
- STALKER: Call of Pripyat: Assuming you can run it (iffy on a laptop), the Stalker series of games are sci-fi set in the exclusion zone around Chernobyl. They're games where it feels like you're not fighting monsters and bandits, so much as the Zone itself.
- Tropico 3: Awesome if you like your management sims, with a great sense of humour. Take control of your own banana republic, becoming saviour of the people or tin-pot dictator.
- Amnesia: The Dark Descent: Quite possibly one of the creepiest games ever made. Play in the dark, with headphones. Not sure if the effect will be dampened on a laptop screen, who knows.
- Most of the TellTale games: If you like adventure games, these are pretty much it. Monkey Island, Sam & Max, even Back to the Future now.
I'd recommend some others but I'm not sure how well they'd run on a laptop (I presume it's a laptop? If it's a desktop, have you got the specs for it?)
Just a heads up regarding Steam's offline mode. It can be iffy, and sometimes people have reported issues with it. As a general rule, if you want to play games in offline mode, first take Steam into Offline mode manually (Steam > Go offline), and start each game to test that it works. Usually you need to have run the game at least once online before you can take Steam offline and run it.
Once you've verified that's working, you should be able to keep Steam running in offline mode without any problems.
Ive got left 4 dead and the orange box on xbox already. I'll check out the list you posted Jazz. Thanks!
Edit:
Thanks subedii, yeah it's a laptop running windows xp. It's a work one so I can't upgrade it all so it probably won't run anything too graphic intensive. I do actually have Defense Grid on Xbox live as I like tower defense games. I'll check out the others you listed, I can usually get a pretty crappy internet connection so the starting up steam and going into offline mode shouldn't be a problem. The hotel I'm at now has a 30 min limit on free wifi and has a 50mb download cap so I can probably run offline mode this week. Thank you!
Hey guys, I recently set up a steam account to do some PC game while on work travel. I'm looking for some single player PC games to occupy my time since hotel and overseas internet is usually pretty spotty? I've got an Xbox and PS3 so I'm not interested in anything I can play on console? Also, I've got Starcraft 2 and HoN but haven't played many PC games in the last 10 years besides those. Any suggestions? Thanks!
The Orange Box (yeah, this is on consoles, but deserves to be played on PC)
Torchlight
Civilization IV or V
Galcon Fusion
Medieval II: Total War
Mount & Blade: Warband
Non-Steam:
Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura
Dwarf Fortress
There's also a whole load of games on GOG.com which are DRM free and should run on a laptop:
- Baldur's Gate series (if you like your old-skool D&D RPG's)
- Planescape: Torment (still one of the best)
- Jagged Alliance 2 (top-down turn based tactical game)
- Freespace 1 & 2: Space Combat games. I can only really recommend these if you have a joystick (or possibly a gamepad? Not sure how well it works on analogue sticks). But if you do, they're freaking awesome, and have been modded constantly since release.
There's a tonne of games available on Steam, I'm sure others will have plenty of recommendations. For stuff you're not likely to have seen on consoles, here are a few:
- Defense Grid: Awesome Tower Defence style game (available on XBL IIRC, but I doubt many have played it)
- STALKER: Call of Pripyat: Assuming you can run it (iffy on a laptop), the Stalker series of games are sci-fi set in the exclusion zone around Chernobyl. They're games where it feels like you're not fighting monsters and bandits, so much as the Zone itself.
- Tropico 3: Awesome if you like your management sims, with a great sense of humour. Take control of your own banana republic, becoming saviour of the people or tin-pot dictator.
- Amnesia: The Dark Descent: Quite possibly one of the creepiest games ever made. Play in the dark, with headphones. Not sure if the effect will be dampened on a laptop screen, who knows.
- Most of the TellTale games: If you like adventure games, these are pretty much it. Monkey Island, Sam & Max, even Back to the Future now.
I'd recommend some others but I'm not sure how well they'd run on a laptop (I presume it's a laptop? If it's a desktop, have you got the specs for it?)
Just a heads up regarding Steam's offline mode. It can be iffy, and sometimes people have reported issues with it. As a general rule, if you want to play games in offline mode, first take Steam into Offline mode manually (Steam > Go offline), and start each game to test that it works. Usually you need to have run the game at least once online before you can take Steam offline and run it.
Once you've verified that's working, you should be able to keep Steam running in offline mode without any problems.
Quote'd because there's some great suggestions (and instructions) here that don't deserve to be BOTP'd.
Steam thread! Have you played Trine? Very nice game. I find myself playing as the Thief through almost all of it, except for the parts where I have to change characters briefly in order to solve a quick puzzle, but then I'm right back to the Thief.
Is there another game where I can play a character like Trine's Thief?
To summarize:
- Side scrolling game (doesn't have to be)
- Physics puzzles (don't have to be)
- Thief shoots arrows that respond to gravity/physics, so combat is more dynamic than just click,click,click.
- Thief has a grapple hook that you use to swing around and shit.
Any ideas?
Screenshot, using Steam's cool beta screenshot tool
I know it's not exactly the type of game you're looking for, but for grappling hook usage, Worms World Party was great fun, particularly the cave levels. It's been a while since I played it a lot, but I think there's even a kind of challenge mode. It seems to me like one of the challenges was in a cave level and you only had grappling hooks and shotguns or something....or maybe we made that mode up for fun using the customized battle interface. I forget. Anyway, this game nearly ruined my third year of college, since a bunch of us would play it in class.
Steam thread! Have you played Trine? Very nice game. I find myself playing as the Thief through almost all of it, except for the parts where I have to change characters briefly in order to solve a quick puzzle, but then I'm right back to the Thief.
Is there another game where I can play a character like Trine's Thief?
To summarize:
- Side scrolling game (doesn't have to be)
- Physics puzzles (don't have to be)
- Thief shoots arrows that respond to gravity/physics, so combat is more dynamic than just click,click,click.
- Thief has a grapple hook that you use to swing around and shit.
Any ideas?
Screenshot, using Steam's cool beta screenshot tool
I know it's not exactly the type of game you're looking for, but for grappling hook usage, Worms World Party was great fun, particularly the cave levels. It's been a while since I played it a lot, but I think there's even a kind of challenge mode. It seems to me like one of the challenges was in a cave level and you only had grappling hooks and shotguns or something....or maybe we made that mode up for fun using the customized battle interface. I forget. Anyway, this game nearly ruined my third year of college, since a bunch of us would play it in class.
Well, I think it hits a number of his requirements:
side scrolling, limited physics (during the "campaign" of some of the versions); combat is very much not 'click, click, click'
The entire (2D) series has lived a long time, and there's lots of fun to be had there.
I guess so, it sucks because I wanna know if my copy of Rainbow six Vegas 2 would register or not. (The disc is downstairs, I'm too tired to go get it).
It seems that they only recently stopped updating it, so I don't think Vegas 2 was ever possible to register.
I had to wait until it went on sale. I enjoyed the first game a lot.
Tbh I'm not a fan of the new direction they took with the third person cover mechanic. I know the reason for it, I just don't like it. It seems way too different to the original Rainbow six game. I just miss planning which entrance to storm.
Ive got left 4 dead and the orange box on xbox already. I'll check out the list you posted Jazz. Thanks!
Edit:
Thanks subedii, yeah it's a laptop running windows xp. It's a work one so I can't upgrade it all so it probably won't run anything too graphic intensive. I do actually have Defense Grid on Xbox live as I like tower defense games. I'll check out the others you listed, I can usually get a pretty crappy internet connection so the starting up steam and going into offline mode shouldn't be a problem. The hotel I'm at now has a 30 min limit on free wifi and has a 50mb download cap so I can probably run offline mode this week. Thank you!
Just be careful with taking Steam online with a connection like that. If there's a Steam update that comes in at 100 MB or something then you basically won't be able to play anything until Steam's fully up-to-date. Similarly if any games have updates pending, they won't be playable.
Zxerolfor the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't doso i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered Userregular
edited February 2011
It's a niche product targeted to a specific group of hobbyists. We all love to make fun of the damn thing, and the game itself probably wouldn't hold interest to us at all, but I'm sure there's a dedicated set of train enthusiasts out there that thinks it's just the great. It's just that type of thing.
And if you're marketing to a specific group with lots of disposable income, you can afford that crazy stream of DLC.
Zxerol on
0
SteevLWhat can I do for you?Registered Userregular
edited February 2011
I think watching Giant Bomb's quick look of Railworks summed up pretty well what most of us in this thread would do with it.
Given that the majority of us are gamers with an eclectic taste, we're used to sampling a little bit of every genre available to us. It's not uncommon for us to play a sports game, then a first person shooter, then a strategy game, then a puzzle game, and so on.
But as Zxerol pointed out, this game is designed to appeal solely to people who would otherwise buy train sets, build them, and run them on miniature train tracks in their basements.
It also explains the DLC, since they were already spending plenty on the different train sets. Now they get to buy the same train sets, but in a video game, and drive them around their favourite tracks from the real world.
I'm sure if you shifted your perspective to that of a train enthusiast, you'd be able to see the appeal. I certainly can, and I don't give a damn about trains.
It's similar to a military plane enthusiast and a military flight sim.
In other Steams thread this has been discussed and the conclusion was that if you're a model train enthusiast, then $1,000 is still far cheaper than constructing your own model train town in your [strike]mom's[/strike] basement.
DisruptedCapitalist on
"Simple, real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time." -Mustrum Ridcully in Terry Pratchett's Hogfather p. 142 (HarperPrism 1996)
0
FiggyFighter of the night manChampion of the sunRegistered Userregular
In other Steams thread this has been discussed and the conclusion was that if you're a model train enthusiast, then $1,000 is still far cheaper than constructing your own model train town in your [strike]mom's[/strike] basement.
And you actually drive it with realistic controls, not a forward and backward trigger.
Oh man, that reminds me of the many sweet slot-car type sets I had as a kid. One had cars that were only notched into the track by the front so that they slid off the track around corners a bit. It also came with booby traps and shit you could set up.
They need to make a simulation for that on PC. I'd buy me some DLC for that.
I was intrigued by it when it first came out, put it on my wishlist since it went Non-sub, and I finally got it during the Christmas sale for I believe this same price. I sunk about 6 hours into it, playing each class to the point where I could play competitive matches. While it was fun, it was like any class based, team objective focused shooter game. There's a thrown in/patched in MMO element in the form of a desert area for you to quest in, and while that's nice, the quests are generic, spread out and not really setup in a flowing type way (Lots of backtracking).
My recommendation: If you've already done the free trial and have been looking to buy it, $7.50 is a good price. If you just want to try it out to see if you'll like it, try the free trial, THEN buy if you like it.
Decoy on
0
FiggyFighter of the night manChampion of the sunRegistered Userregular
edited February 2011
Yeah. Not much to Global Agenda. I was talked into pre-ordering by a co-worker and played beta and some of release. Just repetitive and the combat was laggy and unresponsive, even with double digit pings. The RPG/customization/MMO elements are extremely shallow and feel very much tacked on.
Posts
Steam | XBL
There's also a whole load of games on GOG.com which are DRM free and should run on a laptop:
- Baldur's Gate series (if you like your old-skool D&D RPG's)
- Planescape: Torment (still one of the best)
- Jagged Alliance 2 (top-down turn based tactical game)
- Freespace 1 & 2: Space Combat games. I can only really recommend these if you have a joystick (or possibly a gamepad? Not sure how well it works on analogue sticks). But if you do, they're freaking awesome, and have been modded constantly since release.
There's a tonne of games available on Steam, I'm sure others will have plenty of recommendations. For stuff you're not likely to have seen on consoles, here are a few:
- Defense Grid: Awesome Tower Defence style game (available on XBL IIRC, but I doubt many have played it)
- STALKER: Call of Pripyat: Assuming you can run it (iffy on a laptop), the Stalker series of games are sci-fi set in the exclusion zone around Chernobyl. They're games where it feels like you're not fighting monsters and bandits, so much as the Zone itself.
- Tropico 3: Awesome if you like your management sims, with a great sense of humour. Take control of your own banana republic, becoming saviour of the people or tin-pot dictator.
- Amnesia: The Dark Descent: Quite possibly one of the creepiest games ever made. Play in the dark, with headphones. Not sure if the effect will be dampened on a laptop screen, who knows.
- Most of the TellTale games: If you like adventure games, these are pretty much it. Monkey Island, Sam & Max, even Back to the Future now.
I'd recommend some others but I'm not sure how well they'd run on a laptop (I presume it's a laptop? If it's a desktop, have you got the specs for it?)
Just a heads up regarding Steam's offline mode. It can be iffy, and sometimes people have reported issues with it. As a general rule, if you want to play games in offline mode, first take Steam into Offline mode manually (Steam > Go offline), and start each game to test that it works. Usually you need to have run the game at least once online before you can take Steam offline and run it.
Once you've verified that's working, you should be able to keep Steam running in offline mode without any problems.
Edit:
Thanks subedii, yeah it's a laptop running windows xp. It's a work one so I can't upgrade it all so it probably won't run anything too graphic intensive. I do actually have Defense Grid on Xbox live as I like tower defense games. I'll check out the others you listed, I can usually get a pretty crappy internet connection so the starting up steam and going into offline mode shouldn't be a problem. The hotel I'm at now has a 30 min limit on free wifi and has a 50mb download cap so I can probably run offline mode this week. Thank you!
Quote'd because there's some great suggestions (and instructions) here that don't deserve to be BOTP'd.
Steam | XBL
I know it's not exactly the type of game you're looking for, but for grappling hook usage, Worms World Party was great fun, particularly the cave levels. It's been a while since I played it a lot, but I think there's even a kind of challenge mode. It seems to me like one of the challenges was in a cave level and you only had grappling hooks and shotguns or something....or maybe we made that mode up for fun using the customized battle interface. I forget. Anyway, this game nearly ruined my third year of college, since a bunch of us would play it in class.
This is a clickable link to my Steam Profile.
Well, I think it hits a number of his requirements:
side scrolling, limited physics (during the "campaign" of some of the versions); combat is very much not 'click, click, click'
The entire (2D) series has lived a long time, and there's lots of fun to be had there.
Can anybody comment on it? Is it any good?
For that price I'm tempted to just try it...
Twitter: busfahrer -- Quake Live: busfahrer -- StarCraft II: busfahrer.184 (EU)
Tbh I'm not a fan of the new direction they took with the third person cover mechanic. I know the reason for it, I just don't like it. It seems way too different to the original Rainbow six game. I just miss planning which entrance to storm.
It has RE-style tank control, and that's enough reason for me to stop playing the game after trying it for 2 hours or so.
Could you explain that, please? The Google, it did nothing
Twitter: busfahrer -- Quake Live: busfahrer -- StarCraft II: busfahrer.184 (EU)
Just be careful with taking Steam online with a connection like that. If there's a Steam update that comes in at 100 MB or something then you basically won't be able to play anything until Steam's fully up-to-date. Similarly if any games have updates pending, they won't be playable.
This. I don't like that control scheme to begin with, and having to use that in a hack and slash action RPG is just wrong.
Well now, that's a fun new take on that Meme, I'm going to have to use it from now on. :^:
And if you're marketing to a specific group with lots of disposable income, you can afford that crazy stream of DLC.
I haven't seen the quick look, but I'm guessing it has something to do with the crashing of trains?
This is a clickable link to my Steam Profile.
Yes.
But as Zxerol pointed out, this game is designed to appeal solely to people who would otherwise buy train sets, build them, and run them on miniature train tracks in their basements.
It also explains the DLC, since they were already spending plenty on the different train sets. Now they get to buy the same train sets, but in a video game, and drive them around their favourite tracks from the real world.
I'm sure if you shifted your perspective to that of a train enthusiast, you'd be able to see the appeal. I certainly can, and I don't give a damn about trains.
It's similar to a military plane enthusiast and a military flight sim.
When you give a thumbs up instead of deploying your parachute.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
I'm loving the Steam Screenshots feature already.
Glad to help ;-)
Twitter: busfahrer -- Quake Live: busfahrer -- StarCraft II: busfahrer.184 (EU)
No I haven't played it, but no it isn't worth any money at all.
Watch some videos of it being played, and hopefully you'll see that it's not worth the money:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAkksO-nJ80
Edit: Here's a GiantBomb Quick Look if you want a more prolonged gameplay session, with commentary explaining why it's not very good:
http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-breach/17-3723/
EDIT: Nevermind, found it!
$1082.34
PSN: Beltaine-77 | Steam: beltane77 | Battle.net BadHaggis#1433
That´s just the DLC, you have to add the $39.99 of the game... :?
PSN: Beltaine-77 | Steam: beltane77 | Battle.net BadHaggis#1433
And you actually drive it with realistic controls, not a forward and backward trigger.
Oh man, that reminds me of the many sweet slot-car type sets I had as a kid. One had cars that were only notched into the track by the front so that they slid off the track around corners a bit. It also came with booby traps and shit you could set up.
They need to make a simulation for that on PC. I'd buy me some DLC for that.
Global Agenda for $7.50
I was intrigued by it when it first came out, put it on my wishlist since it went Non-sub, and I finally got it during the Christmas sale for I believe this same price. I sunk about 6 hours into it, playing each class to the point where I could play competitive matches. While it was fun, it was like any class based, team objective focused shooter game. There's a thrown in/patched in MMO element in the form of a desert area for you to quest in, and while that's nice, the quests are generic, spread out and not really setup in a flowing type way (Lots of backtracking).
My recommendation: If you've already done the free trial and have been looking to buy it, $7.50 is a good price. If you just want to try it out to see if you'll like it, try the free trial, THEN buy if you like it.
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