Just built a new rig, want to get back into gaming....I was looking though and reviews of most games are pretty bleak. I like the Total War series...but Rome 2 is getting slaughtered, has like 2 stars on amazon, and the issues sound horrific. BF4 appears to crash constantly...Simcity...well we all know how that turned out. Is there any actual good gaming to be had, with a strong multiplayer experience?
Are there ANY good games released recently?
- Thread starter waterjug
- Start date
Sadly I agree. World of Tanks is pretty fun for what it is. Kerbal Space is cool if your into building stuff. CIv V was ok, but it is basically the same game with more graphics. Interested to see other suggestions
Bateluer
Lifer
- Jun 23, 2001
- 27,730
- 8
- 0
Utter trash of a game. Don't waste a single penny on it. Civ5 is a disgrace to the franchise, a text book example of dumbing a game down to the lowest factor. Get Civ4 if you want a good Civilization game.
Try out Dragon Commander though, its pretty awesome. Excellent merger of Turn Based, RTS, RPG, and card trading.
BF4 has been working fine for me for around a week. The latest couple of patches have fixed the majority of the problems I have been experiencing. And when it runs fine, it's a blast.
Assassin's Creed 4 was a fun game. If you enjoyed the previous series and have a passing interest in pirates/naval combat, you should give this game a shot. I'd wait for a better sale or look for one of those extra keys that people are selling on ebay/steam trade though. Not because the game isn't fun, but the influx of extra keys can have you net the game at around 20-30 dollars.
But now that I think about it, there hasn't been too many games released this year that I cared for. A lot of the fun games that came out this year has been more indie titles then anything.
Assassin's Creed 4 was a fun game. If you enjoyed the previous series and have a passing interest in pirates/naval combat, you should give this game a shot. I'd wait for a better sale or look for one of those extra keys that people are selling on ebay/steam trade though. Not because the game isn't fun, but the influx of extra keys can have you net the game at around 20-30 dollars.
But now that I think about it, there hasn't been too many games released this year that I cared for. A lot of the fun games that came out this year has been more indie titles then anything.
Atomic Playboy
Lifer
- Feb 6, 2007
- 16,432
- 1
- 81
Assassin's Creed 4 is one of the best games I've played in years, and for all the whining people did about optimization, it actually looks really good and runs fine if you've got a good rig (which you probably do, having just built a new one). So I'd highly recommend that.
Beyond that... yeah, not a great year for PC games. My cousin has been playing a lot of BF4 and swears by it, but the issues you mentioned have kept me from getting it. Crysis 3 was a decent enough game and good for justifying spending money on a new machine to make pretty pictures, but I don't imagine anyone is still playing multiplayer.
Beyond that... yeah, not a great year for PC games. My cousin has been playing a lot of BF4 and swears by it, but the issues you mentioned have kept me from getting it. Crysis 3 was a decent enough game and good for justifying spending money on a new machine to make pretty pictures, but I don't imagine anyone is still playing multiplayer.
Achilles97
Senior member
- May 10, 2000
- 401
- 14
- 81
It's been around for a while now, but take a look at FarCry3 if you haven't played it yet. I just picked it up on sale and I am pleasantly surprised at how fun it is. It's holding me over until I decide to finally install my copy of BF4.
Borderlands 2 is a BLAST. I am not sure if you consider this a recent release, but there are a lot of DLCs that you might not have tried yet - Torgue's and Tina's being my favorites.
Borderlands 2 is a BLAST. I am not sure if you consider this a recent release, but there are a lot of DLCs that you might not have tried yet - Torgue's and Tina's being my favorites.
Dumac
Diamond Member
- Dec 31, 2005
- 9,391
- 1
- 0
Path of Exile is a great diablo type game that has a lot of room for multiplayer, and it's free to play.
Dark Souls is another great game with interesting multiplayer. My favorite game of the past few years. Only $6 on steam right now. HOWEVER you really need to have a 360 controller to enjoy the game.
Rome Total War 2 isn't as bad as people make it out to be. I played an 80 hour campaign at launch and had a blast. I assume it is in an even better state now. That is singleplayer though.
Dark Souls is another great game with interesting multiplayer. My favorite game of the past few years. Only $6 on steam right now. HOWEVER you really need to have a 360 controller to enjoy the game.
Rome Total War 2 isn't as bad as people make it out to be. I played an 80 hour campaign at launch and had a blast. I assume it is in an even better state now. That is singleplayer though.
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Yeah, I played Civ 4 for thousands and thousands of hours. All they had to do was get rid of the stacks of doom really, and it would have been the perfect game. Instead they made a kindergarten version of CIv 4 and called it civ 5. utter trash. Played it for about 15 hours, uninstalled, never looked back. Most disappointing game I've ever played
Dumac
Diamond Member
- Dec 31, 2005
- 9,391
- 1
- 0
It sounds like you guys only played vanilla Civ 5. I heard the expansion basically fixed everything and made it a decent game again.
That is only what I heard. I never played it, as I'm not a fan of Civ games.
Basically this. Civ 4 was pretty atrocious at launch. People forget that they're comparing a fully mature and patched Civ 4 to their first impressions of the start of vanilla Civ V. Civ V as is with all the patches and expansions = a very very solid experience.
Civ 5 vanilla was about as good as Civ 4 vanilla. People really forget how much was fixed in the expansions, and they are doing the same now.
Strongly recommend Civ 5 with Brave New World.
Zenoth
Diamond Member
- Jan 29, 2005
- 5,202
- 216
- 106
I would definitely recommend the new Tomb Raider (2013).
I always liked the series (although not a 'fan' of it either) and the reboot delivers. Also, Lara's animations are sublime and fluid, they transit so well and naturally between actions. I can't stress enough that the game's animations for characters are awesome (mostly Lara's as mentioned, but also enemies'). I don't know how much of them were motion-captured but it's just plain great to look at. The game's story is 'alright', there's some mysticism/esoterism thrown in and it adds to the overall mystery. I really like the pace of the game, although perhaps too linear for my tastes. But the game's events unfold rapidly enough to keep things interesting if you "keep going" and mostly play for the story progression, rather than the exploration there is to do (not that much to be honest, but there is some).
I'd also recommend Borderlands 2. I'd even say just skip the original. The sequel is better on every single aspects over the original's and more, in my opinion. Be it the story, characters and game-play. Especially the story, I mean BL2's story on its own it's exactly mind-blowing material (in fact I thought it was 'passable'), but in comparison to the first it's just a good light year ahead. If you haven't played the first but would still want to know what 'it was all about' I'd just say check its wikipedia/wikia pages to learn what happened (in the story) and from there just move on to the sequel. There's also a lot of DLCs (perhaps too many), some of which are worth it (most aren't in my book, but some are). It's definitely a very enjoyable game and can be quite addicting.
You said you like the Total War series, so if you haven't played it I'd recommend Shogun II, it's probably my second favorite in the series so far. I haven't played Rome 2 since I simply refuse to buy it (voting with my wallet, refusing to blatantly pay any amount of my earned money for an obviously rushed and bugs-filled game).
If you're into fighting games I'd highly recommend Injustice: Gods Among Us (especially if you like the DC universe, you know, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, that sort of thing). You might have heard of it most likely, if not then it was made by NetherRealm Studios, the Mortal Kombat kreators (oh yeah, totally spelled that with a 'k', couldn't resist the temptation). And speaking of it, I'd also recommend their Mortal Kombat (2011) reboot, which is also very good (but I do prefer Injustice). I especially like how fighting games can be more than 'just that' with those two. There's a story mode, cinematics, and the inevitable on-purpose cheesy dialog and voice acting (in both), but really it's done in a way that's reminiscent of reading a comics (it felt as such to me anyway).
They are still fighting games, however, so of course even though there's a story mode in both you shouldn't expect too much out of that, they are good entertainment though. I just do appreciate that they took the time to put some more meat around the fighting genre bone. I do believe that not all fighting games out there are meant to also have a story mode, some are just plain good being just fighting games, period (although I admit I would like a similar story mode for a Street Fighter game). The 'campaigns' aren't mandatory by the way, they are optional and you can simply play both purely as fighting games, but of course if you play the campaigns you'll gain points to unlock extras (costumes, concept art, tracks from the OSTs, characters in some cases, etc). Oh and, obviously, if you play any of them... heck, if you play any fighting game on the PC make sure that you buy yourself a good pad for that purpose. I'm using the MadCatz Fightpad myself and I love it (not good for everything but good for fighting games, not the best though, but still I'm ok with it).
I'd also recommend Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. I'm not really into other racing games like the Need for Speed, Grand Turismo, GRID or DIRT series. I usually enjoy racing games when they're based on fantasy or futuristic settings mostly (like Wipeout or Extreme-G for example), or if not at least if it differs from the more common ones. Give me a game where I can drive into powerups or accelerators laying on the road, give me crazy long-lasting tracks with things happening in the background as you drive, give me missiles, lasers or anything to shoot at my opponents and I'm happy panda. I've enjoyed racing games from series such as Mario Kart, Hydro Thunder (arcade), San Francisco Rush, Wipeout, Extreme-G, Road Rash (mostly due to the 'fighting your nearest opponent as you race' aspect) and Burnout. I can easily say that Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is my favorite racing game since many years (also recommending to buy a proper controller to play it, at least with a joystick, because a D-Pad only for a racing game wouldn't be ideal).
I've purchased Far Cry 3 barely two days ago and only started it. I've played it for a total of maybe two hours so far. I know that most reviews out there basically praise it, despite the shortcomings (I also don't like to get a million tutorial pop-ups and not being able to save my progress "during a mission" even though I'm a dozen kilometers away from said mission destination in a 'sandbox' game). I did play FC3 on the 360 at my cousin's place before so I knew what to expect. So far I myself do enjoy it. To be honest when I first played it I actually expected significantly worse right from the start, but I was very pleasantly surprised. I do recommend it.
If you've never played them before I'd highly recommend both Saints Row: The Third and Saints Row IV. I like them both equally for different reasons and I honestly can't find anything to complain about... well maybe other than the fact that the game's map (Steelport city) is rather small for a 'modern' open world game. I haven't completed SRIV, but I did complete SR3 and it was an absolute blast. I also love the animations, the music, the voice acting, the dialog, it's all there and great, in my opinion (for both games). There's technically more things to do in SRIV, but I should point at the fact that there's a very active modding community for both games. I've used a couple of mods for SR3 and it does add to the content. Not all mods are good of course but some are worth it, notably the 'NPC Behavior and Spawn' mod which randomizes things to a new degree, making the game a bit more chaotic at times and less predictable (which for me is fun although that might not be everyone's cup of tea).
That's about it for my recommendations for now.
I always liked the series (although not a 'fan' of it either) and the reboot delivers. Also, Lara's animations are sublime and fluid, they transit so well and naturally between actions. I can't stress enough that the game's animations for characters are awesome (mostly Lara's as mentioned, but also enemies'). I don't know how much of them were motion-captured but it's just plain great to look at. The game's story is 'alright', there's some mysticism/esoterism thrown in and it adds to the overall mystery. I really like the pace of the game, although perhaps too linear for my tastes. But the game's events unfold rapidly enough to keep things interesting if you "keep going" and mostly play for the story progression, rather than the exploration there is to do (not that much to be honest, but there is some).
I'd also recommend Borderlands 2. I'd even say just skip the original. The sequel is better on every single aspects over the original's and more, in my opinion. Be it the story, characters and game-play. Especially the story, I mean BL2's story on its own it's exactly mind-blowing material (in fact I thought it was 'passable'), but in comparison to the first it's just a good light year ahead. If you haven't played the first but would still want to know what 'it was all about' I'd just say check its wikipedia/wikia pages to learn what happened (in the story) and from there just move on to the sequel. There's also a lot of DLCs (perhaps too many), some of which are worth it (most aren't in my book, but some are). It's definitely a very enjoyable game and can be quite addicting.
You said you like the Total War series, so if you haven't played it I'd recommend Shogun II, it's probably my second favorite in the series so far. I haven't played Rome 2 since I simply refuse to buy it (voting with my wallet, refusing to blatantly pay any amount of my earned money for an obviously rushed and bugs-filled game).
If you're into fighting games I'd highly recommend Injustice: Gods Among Us (especially if you like the DC universe, you know, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, that sort of thing). You might have heard of it most likely, if not then it was made by NetherRealm Studios, the Mortal Kombat kreators (oh yeah, totally spelled that with a 'k', couldn't resist the temptation). And speaking of it, I'd also recommend their Mortal Kombat (2011) reboot, which is also very good (but I do prefer Injustice). I especially like how fighting games can be more than 'just that' with those two. There's a story mode, cinematics, and the inevitable on-purpose cheesy dialog and voice acting (in both), but really it's done in a way that's reminiscent of reading a comics (it felt as such to me anyway).
They are still fighting games, however, so of course even though there's a story mode in both you shouldn't expect too much out of that, they are good entertainment though. I just do appreciate that they took the time to put some more meat around the fighting genre bone. I do believe that not all fighting games out there are meant to also have a story mode, some are just plain good being just fighting games, period (although I admit I would like a similar story mode for a Street Fighter game). The 'campaigns' aren't mandatory by the way, they are optional and you can simply play both purely as fighting games, but of course if you play the campaigns you'll gain points to unlock extras (costumes, concept art, tracks from the OSTs, characters in some cases, etc). Oh and, obviously, if you play any of them... heck, if you play any fighting game on the PC make sure that you buy yourself a good pad for that purpose. I'm using the MadCatz Fightpad myself and I love it (not good for everything but good for fighting games, not the best though, but still I'm ok with it).
I'd also recommend Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. I'm not really into other racing games like the Need for Speed, Grand Turismo, GRID or DIRT series. I usually enjoy racing games when they're based on fantasy or futuristic settings mostly (like Wipeout or Extreme-G for example), or if not at least if it differs from the more common ones. Give me a game where I can drive into powerups or accelerators laying on the road, give me crazy long-lasting tracks with things happening in the background as you drive, give me missiles, lasers or anything to shoot at my opponents and I'm happy panda. I've enjoyed racing games from series such as Mario Kart, Hydro Thunder (arcade), San Francisco Rush, Wipeout, Extreme-G, Road Rash (mostly due to the 'fighting your nearest opponent as you race' aspect) and Burnout. I can easily say that Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is my favorite racing game since many years (also recommending to buy a proper controller to play it, at least with a joystick, because a D-Pad only for a racing game wouldn't be ideal).
I've purchased Far Cry 3 barely two days ago and only started it. I've played it for a total of maybe two hours so far. I know that most reviews out there basically praise it, despite the shortcomings (I also don't like to get a million tutorial pop-ups and not being able to save my progress "during a mission" even though I'm a dozen kilometers away from said mission destination in a 'sandbox' game). I did play FC3 on the 360 at my cousin's place before so I knew what to expect. So far I myself do enjoy it. To be honest when I first played it I actually expected significantly worse right from the start, but I was very pleasantly surprised. I do recommend it.
If you've never played them before I'd highly recommend both Saints Row: The Third and Saints Row IV. I like them both equally for different reasons and I honestly can't find anything to complain about... well maybe other than the fact that the game's map (Steelport city) is rather small for a 'modern' open world game. I haven't completed SRIV, but I did complete SR3 and it was an absolute blast. I also love the animations, the music, the voice acting, the dialog, it's all there and great, in my opinion (for both games). There's technically more things to do in SRIV, but I should point at the fact that there's a very active modding community for both games. I've used a couple of mods for SR3 and it does add to the content. Not all mods are good of course but some are worth it, notably the 'NPC Behavior and Spawn' mod which randomizes things to a new degree, making the game a bit more chaotic at times and less predictable (which for me is fun although that might not be everyone's cup of tea).
That's about it for my recommendations for now.
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Endless Space (in the Steam sale) looks fun.
Have you played:
Bioshock Infinite
Borderlands 2 GOTY
Saints Row 3 - 4
Have you played:
Bioshock Infinite
Borderlands 2 GOTY
Saints Row 3 - 4
Geosurface
Diamond Member
- Mar 22, 2012
- 5,773
- 4
- 0
I second the suggestions of Far Cry 3 and Tomb Raider if you didn't play those on console.
StarCraft II and MechWarrior Online also.
StarCraft II and MechWarrior Online also.
I've heard good things about the Tomb Raider remake as others in this thread have said. Otherwise, Saints Row IV and Just Cause 2 are fun sandbox action games. If you're looking into RPG's, Skyrim is the latest installment in the Elder Scrolls series. Deus Ex Human Revolution if you're looking into an action/RPG type game.
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videogames101
Diamond Member
- Aug 24, 2005
- 6,783
- 27
- 91
Bateluer
Lifer
- Jun 23, 2001
- 27,730
- 8
- 0
I have Civ5 & BNW, still trash. I bought Civ4 at release, pre-ordered, I think. And it was light years ahead of Civ5 was at launch, which I also pre-ordered. Civ5 comes in the age of micro transactions and cutting features for DLC.
Unlike waterjug though, I despite 1UPT. That needs to be scrapped in Civ6, at least given the option to turn off. It was so tedious moving armies in Civ5 because they all had to be moved individually. And the game's crippling pacing problems, you'd have researched new units before you'd even gotten the first group into combat. Ie, in the time it takes to build a single musketman, you've researched rifling. By the time you get your musketmen moved into enemy territory or an attacking position, you've built several riflemen.
Would be useful to know how recent you want the games to be. You also said you liked Simcity and Civ 4 so I assume multiplayer is not a necessity. If that is the case I would heartily recommend the grand strategy genre. Try the likes of Crusader Kings 2 or Europa Universalis IV. They're like the natural progression that you go through after "graduating" from Civ.
I would also recommend Dark Souls to anyone who hasn't tried any of the Souls game. The combat in this game far outstrips the likes of Skyrim or Witcher series. The multiplayer invade is also one of a kind.
KentState
Diamond Member
- Oct 19, 2001
- 8,397
- 393
- 126
I saw that Dark Souls is $5.99 on Steam so I picked it up. Isn't there some type of mod to make the controls better on the PC?
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