I should be getting a new rig sometime next month which will be capable of handling most recent releases. What games have I missed out on in the last decade or so?

I'm planning on replaying The Elder Scrolls from Morrowind through to Skyrim with mods. What other games should I pick up for peanuts? Doesn't have to be RPG, I'm really quite broad in my tastes I think the only thing I don't play is fighting, racing and football games. Enjoyed Total War, Civilisation, and Sim City back in the day. You can do a few honourable mentions for games that were multiplatform but have a different experience on PC.

The ES series is excellent, although Morrowind is by far the best of these.
For the best experience, get the Morrowind Overhaul mod.

After that, I'm struggling because so many titles get released across multiple platforms these days. I do note that Morrowind was released 13 years ago now, so you might want to consider other titles.

Baldurs Gate series and Planescape Torment are must plays if you haven't played these on an older PC and you like your RPGs.

I'm beginning to realise how much of my gaming time got eaten up by MMOs in the past 10 years.

It was around 2003/4 that I last had a PC powerful enough to play games when poverty forced me to make the switch to console.

Top of my mind ..

Sins of Solar Empire alternatively the new Homeworld HD or how its called.
Europa Universalis series
Total War Shogun 2
there is HD mod for System Shock 2
what else last ten years .. instead of Baldurs Gate you can get recent Pillars of Eternity as it looks nicer and some mechanics are more user friendly some not but ok

and that is the bottom I guess.

Europa Universalis 3 with all the expansions.

edit: tuco got there first I see.

Some indie games that are good...

Kerbal Space Program
Project Zomboid
FTL

Sendraks wrote:The ES series is excellent, although Morrowind is by far the best of these.
For the best experience, get the Morrowind Overhaul mod.

After that, I'm struggling because so many titles get released across multiple platforms these days. I do note that Morrowind was released 13 years ago now, so you might want to consider other titles.

Baldurs Gate series and Planescape Torment are must plays if you haven't played these on an older PC and you like your RPGs.

I'm beginning to realise how much of my gaming time got eaten up by MMOs in the past 10 years.

Got to disagree as far as Morrowind goes. Yes, you need to mod the graphics, which is not difficult, and maybe add a few other mods, but I'd say that for Baldur's Gate as well. Morrowind is still a classic. A must play.

Edit: Sorry I meant to reply to the post that stated morrowind is not worth playing.

Mass Effect 1-3, Dragon Age: Origins, Deus Ex: Human Revolution

As others have said, the Elder Scrolls series, particularly the latest three games*, isn't to be missed. The modding community for TES has produced excellent work that you can take advantage of with a PC.

http://www.nexusmods.com/games/?

For Skyrim in particular, this chap (Gopher) has masses of videos telling you how to mod just about every aspect of the game. You can improve the game drastically from the vanilla experience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxQ1JN_ ... NCqvO5MmKP - guide
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_4RotE ... B0B8BFC01D - mods
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JO952Cg ... ECouxU5N_i - more mods

Civilisation IV (with the "Beyond the Sword" expansion) - great strategy game, and again, pretty much everything in the game can be modified to suit your preferences.

Crusader Kings II - as above, really. Lots of DLC and mods available. This game, however, can be tricky to learn at the start.

Medieval II: Total War - another moddable strategy game. You get to play out real-time tactical battles involving thousands of soldiers. There's an excellent Lord of the Rings mod for it called Third Age: Total War.

Mount & Blade: Warband - a sandbox medieval warfare game with RPG elements and some simple questing. Build up an army, ride into battle, crush your foes, storm castles... etc. Skyrim could've learned something from the mounted combat in this game.

Dragon Age: Origins - a spiritual successor to the Baldur's Gate games, and an extremely good RPG in its own right.

Fallout: New Vegas - absorbing first person post-apocalyptic RPG.



* - not including The Elder Scrolls Online.

Dragon Age: Origins is on the list, when I eventually get round to it. I completed it again on console fairly recently. Mass Effect trilogy I honestly can't see being THAT much different on PC. I have Total War Medieval 2 and all the expansions, my laptop wasn't quite powerful enough to run the battles, so I played it auto resolving the battles. I'm looking forward to playing it properly.

- Tropico 3/4 (3 has better music, 4 has bugs from 3 fixed)
Be the dictator of a banana republic. Definitely much more fun than Sim City.
Tropico 5 is not as fun to play, they need to fix this in 6.

- Anno 2070
City builder game with futuristic setting. Requires powerful gaming PC.

- Company of Heroes 1/2
RTS game, super fun, but quite challenging. Requires powerful gaming PC.

- Bioshock 1/2
FPS. Amazing visuals. Gameplay on consoles suck, so it has to be played on PC. Requires powerful gaming PC.

- Dishonored.
FPS. Similar to Bioshock, but also quite different. Requires powerful gaming PC.

- Dota 2
The most addictive game ever made. This is chess on steroids on steroids. Requires fast internet connection.

Here's a list of the games I've enjoyed the most on PC over the last 3-4 years:-

Aarklash: Legacy
A short indie game with a good setting but rather poor story based on RPG combat like Dragon Age Origins, although much more tightly polished. I enjoyed my playthrough a lot, but it can't have been more than 15 hours of gameplay. Pleasingly challenging on the hardest difficulty.
The Banner Saga
Turned based tactical RPG with an excellent and unique atmosphere based on Norse mythology with new elements mixed in. It boasts a gorgeous hand drawn classic art style that is very distinctive. Combat again is pleasantly challenging on hardest difficulty, but the varied mechanics from normal TRPGs left some players cold. One of my favourite games of all time.
The Binding of Isaac
Challenging indie roguelike with a unique atmosphere and excellent if warped imagination.
Divinity: Original Sin
Classic western RPG with interesting turn based mechanics.
Europa Universalis III
World conquest strategy rooted in real history, mechanically deep but can be a bit dense at times. Difficulty tails off once you start doing well.
Expeditions: Conquistador
Turn based RPG set in the Spanish conquest of the Americas, rich in story and the gameplay was very satisfying with all difficulty sliders maxed out.
Fallout: New Vegas
Another of my favourite games of all time. True to Obsidian form this first person shooter/RPG hybrid is mechanically a bit wonky and was buggy as hell at release, but the quality of the world and writing and the sheer depth and width of content is enough to keep you going for hundreds of hours if it's your sort of thing.
FTL: Faster Than Light
Another of my all time favourites. Insanely fun roguelike that is genuinely challenging on Normal difficulty and actually hard on the newly added Hard difficulty. Although playthroughs only last 2 hours at most I've racked up hundreds of hours on this due to its fascinating core gameplay and challenge.
King's Bounty: Crossworlds/Armored Princess/Warriors of the North
Strangely camp and poorly translate but lots of fun. Turn based combat with a sort of RPG overworld.
Pillars of Eternity
A re-imagining of the old infinity engine games, but updated for 2015. Despite rave reviews I never played any of the old Baldur's gate or Planescape games until very recently, and I found that they truly had not stood up to the test of time. Nonetheless this game shines, by removing a lot of the faults and rough edges from the genre.
Rogue Legacy
Another roguelike. Tightly tuned combat and quality gameplay are about all this offers other than substantial difficulty. Somehow it works really well though. Gameplay is basically a mixture of platforming and timing your sword swing attack to perfection.
Saints Row IV
Grand Theft Auto meets superhero genre. Funny, strange and immensely enjoyable. Gameplay is nominally GTA like, but it ends up being more like a hack and slash game.
South Park: The Stick of Truth
RPG based on south park. Well implemented, but probably only enjoyable if you're a fan of the show.
The Walking Dead Season I
Story based Telltale game set in the walking dead universe. Season 1 was brilliantly executed with human relationship shining through a bloody tableaux of human frailty and bloody violence. Season 2 was much less enjoyable.
XCOM: Enemy Unkown/Enemy Within
Another of my favourite games of all time. Turn based "isometric" tactical gameplay based on the original XCOM games of yesteryear. Despite being streamlined it works brilliantly, with each class feeling both unique and powerful.

quas wrote:
- Bioshock 1/2
FPS. Amazing visuals. Gameplay on consoles suck, so it has to be played on PC. Requires powerful gaming PC.

- Dishonored.
FPS. Similar to Bioshock, but also quite different. Requires powerful gaming PC.

I'm building the rig to comfortably handle Witcher 3, these shouldn't be a problem.

Not sure Bioshock has to be played on PC, but it's a game I will probably replay again, may as well pick it up.

Dishonoured was amazing, it was more "Thief" than the disappointing Thief reboot.

Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes

Currently at full price but is regularly in Steam sales at -75% (£7.50 ish).

catbasket wrote:Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes

Currently at full price but is regularly in Steam sales at -75% (£7.50 ish).

Love that game. The other day I found a spiked collar and tamed an umberdroth within about 20 turns of starting. The rest was just a formality...

MacIver wrote:Europa Universalis 3 with all the expansions.

edit: tuco got there first I see.

Some indie games that are good...

Kerbal Space Program
Project Zomboid
FTL

I was also going to say that, but I'd say EUIV - it's already a far more detailed and balanced game than E3 ever was.

The others on the list are good ones too.

There are just too many great games to list, though!

You could give Gone Home a look. It's not going to be to everyone's taste - some would even barely consider it to be a game - but it's certainly something very different to what you get on consoles.

Briton wrote:

Edit: Sorry I meant to reply to the post that stated morrowind is not worth playing.

I don't think anyone has posted saying Morrowind is not worth playing, quite the opposite by the looks of things.

I'm going to add Elite Dangerous to the list. It's already a worthy successor to the earlier games in every respect and steadily keeps getting better.

Sendraks wrote:I'm going to add Elite Dangerous to the list. It's already a worthy successor to the earlier games in every respect and steadily keeps getting better.

You know, I was entirely hyped by that game right up until they said no offline SP. I wanted my own universe, damnit!

Is it really worth playing?

Friend of mine is trying to persuade me to get into Star Citizen which sounds like it will be the thief of all productive time.