So whats in for the PC?

Post Reply New Topic

I'm kinda feeling an urge to go out and buy something to have some fun with.
Got a beast of a machine I use for graphic design, just rebuilt a few months ago and kinda feel like making some kind of use out of it.

I havnt played video games in probably 10 years. I used to work at a computer store in high school and we'd open up every new game when it came in and burn copies for ourselves. So the last games I played were like Half Life, Total Annihilation, Heroes of Might and Magic, and I think the last one I got was the second Diablo.

So you can tell I'm completely out of the loop game wise =P. My nephews always got cool stuff that I'm forced to play with them, it's fun but I cant sit down for more than 20 minutes before I gotta stop, just dont have the attention span anymore. Probably why i've never found a need to buy anything, i get my monthly 20 minute fix if I'm over at my brothers.

I was in Best Buy the other day and decided to take a look and some of that stuff looks bad ass.

So I like those strategy games, first person shooters are fun but I suck at them, seriously, my 7 year old nephew schools me when I play. But I f*****g owned the Command and Conquer and Total Annihilation games back in the days of AOL gaming.

What can I get that isnt going to take me hours to learn and I can sit down and have some fun with in like 30 minute intervals?

cards.

I know! One game of Free Cell solitaire can occupy for hours! Never underestimate the obsession potential of cards.

You haven't really missed much in the last ten years.

If you liked Half-Life, you might enjoy the sequels. They don't take very long to beat, either.

As far as games that can be enjoyed in short bursts, I can't really think of any...all the really good games that have come out lately are really long.

I wouldn't know about strategy games though, not my thing.

Last edited by SabbraCadabra on 18 Jul 2009, 11:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

You can play at yahoo games, euchre will fill about half an hour, it gets addictive because you have a rank. backgammon would be about half an hour too. they have lots of other types of games but i mainly stick with cards.

I really like the new "Bionic Commando" on my PS3. It's going to be available for PC in a week or so, and the minimum system requirements will be pretty steep.



Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP SP2 / Windows Vista (service pack is optional, the game can run with no SP)
Processor: Dual-core processor (Intel CoreTM2 Duo 2.4 GHz or AMD AthlonTM X2 5200+ 2.6 GHz)
Memory: 1.5 GB RAM
Video Card: DirectX9.0c/Shader3.0 compatible, VRAM 512 MB (NVIDIA GeForce 7800 series or ATI RadeonTM X1900)
Sound Card: DirectX9.0c compatible sound cards
Hard Disc Space: 8.0 GB free space
DVD Drive: DVD9 compatible drive (DVD DL)
Monitor: 800x600
Input Devices: Mouse & Keyboard required (Recommended: Xbox 360 Controller for Windows)
Multiplayer: Internet connection required for online play.

Civilization IV is amazing, especially with the Fall From Heaven mod. You might not want to buy it if you plan on sticking to 30 minutes at a time, though (you can stop playing easily, you just won't).

Also, if you feel like putting in some extra effort, you can download an emulator (I recommend the VBA) and some ROMs for it. Pokemon is an easy game to get into.

If you like real time strategy, then Sins Of A Solar Empire is fairly excellent in my opinion.
For first person shooter, the best that has come out, that I've played at least, is Halo.

well you might want to consider the new command and conquer game or red alert 3 but that might be complicated to learn the units so even if you said you sucked at shooters i would recommend half life 2 , call of duty 4 , or if you want to full use your beast computer get prototype (i think its the most graphic intensive game )

ARMA2

Sins of a Solar Empire? Seriously? In half an hour intervals? You'd be lucky to finish a game of that over several months.

I highly recommend the casual games Peggle and Puzzle Quest. They are good time killers and can easily be played in five minute play sessions. Plants Vs Zombies is also recommended if you enjoy tower defence games, which I don't. For shooters, Call of Duty 4 is great. The game is mission based and each mission is fairly brief in length, plus the multiplayer is drop in, drop out at any time. For multiplayer shooters, Left 4 Dead is fun and perfect for short games. For puzzle games, Braid is a particularly well designed one that will last you for a while. For platformer games, Cave Story which is also freeware is all you need. It won't tax your graphics card however. For racers, I recommend Burnout Paradise but take note that it's more arcade racer than realistic simulator.

Personally, I've pretty much ditched PC gaming for consoles. MY PC is a few years old and struggled running Command & Conquer 3, the last PC game I purchased. Since then, there has only been 2 or 3 games I've wanted to play on the PC, definitely not enough to warrant spending circa $1,500 on a new PC for gaming.

If your pc is good enough I would definetly recomend ArmA2

I don't know where people get this number from...is that what Dell charges or something?

If you build it yourself, it'll cost anywhere between $100-600, depending on what needs upgrading. About two years ago, I had to upgrade almost my entire tower (since it was AGP) and it only cost me around $600...and I didn't go for the cheap parts either. Two years later, and I'm still running games at max graphical settings.

I priced out all the parts I wanted. The graphics card alone was almost $500.

Dawn of War I guess, that sort of multiplayer game is good for short bursts. Admittedly, I never liked it too much but it is very popular.