Recommend me a game

[Narly Bird]

I just got a new computer and am thinking about buying a game to go along with it. But what game to buy? I’m hoping that I can get some good suggestions from the forums here.

As a result of embracing the joys of parenthood and the life of a salaryman in Tokyo, I have very little free time. This means my gaming sessions will generally be 1 hour here and there and the occasional 2 hour game when everyone else is asleep. Currently I only play Bloodbowl and Panzer Corp (both turn based games, the former online and the latter single player) and am thinking I could do with a change, such as something in the vein of a fps game. But given my limited availability and crap timezone I think I would be better suited to a game that is focused on single player, rather than multiplayer.

Games I have owned in the last 5 years and enjoyed include:
Halflife 2 and all the add-ons which I absolutely loved and will definitely by ep3, but want something in the interim. I was also heavily into counterstrike for a while.
Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War and the add-ons. Mostly single player as I kept getting matched up against Koreans in multiplayer (due to timezone) and they kicked my arse every single match.
Amnesia – Dark Descent.
Civilisation

To be honest i was more of a gamer in the 90's when i was a student and had way more free time. If only I was a student now i would be interested in getting involved in a mmo, but i have no delusions that i would never have the time to play a mmo under my current circumstances.

 

[Kasatka]

If you are getting a top-quality system and like some mecha action, i'd highly suggest getting Crysis Wars (comes with Crysis Warhead found here http://store.steampowered.com/app/17330/ ) and then the free total-conversion Mechwarrior Living Legends (found here http://www.mechlivinglegends.net/ )
It's a full on infantry, mech, vehicles and aerospace multiplayer game, with rounds lasting roughly an hour. Arena deathmatch, team-deathmatch, territory control and several other game modes.
Although a few of us are currently occupied with university stuff we have have a small group of players and it is just great fun for brawling, duelling, sniping, stealthing, flanking and general co-op online teamplay.

 

[Panda with issues...]

As far as strategy is going, look no further than Wargame: European Escalation. Action orientated, and missions lasting roughly 30mins to an hour. It has some rough edges, but 4-5 of us on here are REALLY enjoying it.

http://games.thehavennet.org.uk/showthread.php?t=21403

World in Conflict (+soviet assault) is still an incredible game, and has easily the best singleplayer rts experience. Should be able to pick it up fairly cheap now. (£15).

This shooter generation I plumped for Red Orchestra 2, and enjoyed it, but that is a solely multiplayer experience really. I'm struggling to remember the last fps single player I played. Not a lot of them seem to be coming out.

For old school stuff, Call of Duty and Call of Duty 2 are utterly awesome, from before the franchise went all modern warfairy and crap.

ArmA II is great as well, but EXTREMELY rough around the edges, and too sim-like for most.

Hard Reset is something that caught my eye, and is billed as a single player shooter. I haven't played it, but there's a free demo available through steam which I'll give a go.

 

[Narly Bird]

Thanks for the recommendations. A couple of points:
1. My graphics card is a Nvidia Geforce GT540M. Notebookcheck classifies this as a Class 2 graphics card (upper mid level). The actual notebook specs are fine, so it would be the graphics card that would limit what i can play.
2. Some of the fps multiplayer games look really awesome, but with a 3 year old and 10 month old I often finding myself having to leave the computer for a couple of minutes to look after the crying baby, change a nappy, etc. Therefore I am leaning heavily towards a single player game where pausing is an option.
3. I value a good storyline and believable, likable characters in a single player game. This is almost as important as the action itself.

Speaking of which, most of the fps shooters put you on the side of the US fighting against various foes. For those of us that are sick of "USA are #1", Are there any decent shooters that see you fighting against the US?

 

[waterproofbob]

For sp games I loved both batman arkham asylum and Arkham city. Storyline keep my attention and although tricky to put down also can be a great game to come back to as and when you have time.

Also get both the portals if you haven't already. They are both cracking SP games. They are also a lot of mods for the first one that can add to it as well.

 

[Ki!ler-Mk1]

You could put down a pre order on Diablo 3 which comes out on the 15th, supports up to 4 players, and before anyone says it cant, it can be paused when in solo play.

 

[Zooggy]

Hoy,

The last single player FPS I played was Borderlands... I quite enjoyed it.

Cheers,
J.

 

[Silk]

I think Borderlands may be up your street dear sir. You can get the GOTY version for around a fiver if you watch for sales.

It's an FPS with RPG elements, e.g. Mobs/you have levels, you level up, you upgrade weps and items, there are quests. There's a strategy to beating the harder mobs if you are low level, using terrain to advantage and kiting and whatnot. Skill plays a massive part. Also mobs generally have weakspots, sometimes obvious one like headshots, sometimes less obvious.

It's definitely playable in hourly timeslots too, I don't think any single mission takes longer than that although some of them may well get close.

You can pause it in single player just fine.

Should work fine on a 540M.

Also, a bit older but still a fine looking game, and up your street if you enjoy HL2 I'm sure: Prey. You can get it cheap. Cheapy cheap. It's an awesome game.

 

[Panda with issues...]

(Thought borderlands was poo, but a lot of others definitely enjoyed it)

The cell shaded look was pretty, and not graphically intensive. Really didn't feel it played like the half life series though.

The original alien vs predator was a fucking awesome game, and the single player very very good. If you appreciated the horror of amnesia, you'll probably enjoy the scary parts of AVP classic, just at a more hectic pace. At 2.99 you can't go wrong.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/3730/

Good old games has thief and thief 2 I think, and those are BRILLIANT first person games, though more thinky, and less shooty. If you're shooting people rather than coshing them, you probably messed up.

 

[Silk]

I never compared Borderlands 2 to HL2, I did however say Prey is like HL2.

BL is just a general recommendation, as like you say most people enjoy it. It's hard not to.

AVP is a bit hard, esp since you start as the alien who dies in like 2 shots!

 

[Panda with issues...]

I never compared Borderlands 2 to HL2, I did however say Prey is like HL2.

BL is just a general recommendation, as like you say most people enjoy it. It's hard not to.

AVP is a bit hard, esp since you start as the alien who dies in like 2 shots!

Panda has comprehension fail. That makes far more sense now!

The Alien and Marine campaigns are where AvP really shines. The alien was a masterpiece of varied play experience that has never been repeated in a first person game (plus made people feel ill with its wall crawling antics.)

The marine was a more standard experience, but really captured the feel of the Aliens film. Limited flares, poor visibility, the classic motion sensor...

Scuttling of facehugger noise haunts me to this day. Avoid any of the other AvP games apart from classic like the plague.

I know a few people enjoyed F.E.A.R (only the first one, the others were poo) which shouldn't be very graphically taxing.

 

[Zhar]

If you liked Half Life a lot, I think it's safe to say the athmosphere of such a game is very important to you.
Therefore I can highly recommend Bioshock.
It's a great shooter with a good story, the atmosphere just drips off of it and it's decently pretty (it runs on the unreal 3 engine I believe)

 

[Panda with issues...]

If you liked Half Life a lot, I think it's safe to say the athmosphere of such a game is very important to you.
Therefore I can highly recommend Bioshock.
It's a great shooter with a good story, the atmosphere just drips off of it and it's decently pretty (it runs on the unreal 3 engine I believe)

And by the same design team, and a stronger game (though less pretty) System Shock 2. Probably the best game ever made.

 

[Ghostwolf67]

+1 to pretty much everything Panda has said. He and I share much the same gaming heritage.

Also bobs reccomendation of Batman is solid. He's friggin batman after all and these two games have both been made superbly.

For my two cents i'd throw in some choices that are fun and save alot of time as you have said one or two hours to spare are hard to grind out in a long, complicated game.

Orc's must die- My would be game of 2011 if it had multiplayer. Fun little almost tower defency game with humour and gore.

Left for dead 2- Still sees a lot of play in my household. Fast paced, action orientated and full of 'workasateamoryoudie' attitude. And with campaigns (multiplayerwise) taking roughly an hour to complete amoung friends and a riot of fun in vs mode its still a solid choice that runs on the HL engine.

I'd also say get tribes but thats only a selfish request as i've just worked out we are in the same timezone.

 

[Lebe666]

Panzer Corps ? I used to love the Panzer General series... will check it out.

Its single play ? How different from Panzer General ?

 

[Narly Bird]

Panzer Corps ? I used to love the Panzer General series... will check it out.

Its single play ? How different from Panzer General ?

Its very similar to Panzer General, although updated for prettier graphics and slightly different rules. There are also more units available and it is more balanced than the original. I also used to play the original and loved it, which is how I got onto this one. Its not entirely true to say that it is a single player game as they have a play by email function. I’ve never tried it myself and don’t know how easy it is to find an opponent.

I will check out Batman, Bioshock and System Shock 2 when I have some free time. They all sound like good games. Thanks again everyone for the recommendations. Also, if there are any sales of these games on Steam, etc., please let me know.

 

[Narly Bird]

Regarding Left for Dead i recently read something from the developer of a game called Revelations 2012, which sounded like a pretty cool game. They said it was like a modern version of L4D, but set in the Aztec ruins of Peru. Basically builds on L4D style gameplay, but better and with a different setting - fighting ancient aztec warriors and witch doctors rather than zombies. Anyone heard if this game is any good or not?

 

[Angelic]

Regarding Left for Dead i recently read something from the developer of a game called Revelations 2012, which sounded like a pretty cool game. They said it was like a modern version of L4D, but set in the Aztec ruins of Peru. Basically builds on L4D style gameplay, but better and with a different setting - fighting ancient aztec warriors and witch doctors rather than zombies. Anyone heard if this game is any good or not?

Oh god please don't. From what I've heard, it's ABYSSMAL. Like, properly horrendous. I saw the gameplay, it's... Well, it looks like it came out in 2000. Worse, maybe. The gunplay lacks any punch. There's only one gun. There's no enemy AI to speak of. If you don't mind TotalBiscuit, youtube WTF is Revelations 2012 and give it a watch.

 

[Tempscire]

Oh god please don't. From what I've heard, it's ABYSSMAL. Like, properly horrendous. I saw the gameplay, it's... Well, it looks like it came out in 2000. Worse, maybe. The gunplay lacks any punch. There's only one gun. There's no enemy AI to speak of. If you don't mind TotalBiscuit, youtube WTF is Revelations 2012 and give it a watch.