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Good PC games for a brand new gamer?


MaxFrost
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I was just asked by a coworker where would be a good place to start with PC gaming. He's more interested with numbers and manipulation over say, FPS, so I was thinking Civilization games or maybe Sim-something.

Brand new gamer, older guy (30's-40's) so nothing fast and frantic. It's got to be very deliberate in pacing, and able to run on a new laptop, but one with basic gaming capabilities (no discrete GPU for starters)

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I second getting Steam. I recommend Spore, the Sam and Max series, Psychonauts, The Movies, Everyday Shooter, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Torchlight, etc. There's also a lot of non-steam games I'd recommend, like the Sim City series (preferably Sim City 4), The Sims, Diablo II, Starcraft(of course!), Age of Empires II, etc.

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I was just asked by a coworker where would be a good place to start with PC gaming. He's more interested with numbers and manipulation over say, FPS, so I was thinking Civilization games or maybe Sim-something.

Brand new gamer, older guy (30's-40's) so nothing fast and frantic. It's got to be very deliberate in pacing, and able to run on a new laptop, but one with basic gaming capabilities (no discrete GPU for starters)

Garry's Mod.

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This guy doesn't seem like the type to like FPS, which is why I'm trying to steer clear of them.
Team Fortress 2

1272856814457.jpg

Beathazard

Settlers5

Starcraft collection, older Warcraft games.

Mame emulator with donpachi and the arcade version of battletoads, in fact get him all the emulators available on the PC...

Would have also recommended the Touhou games but...

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Trying to get someone into video games is tough, even if they're the one who decided to try.

Just keep in mind that most games are very over the top to a non gamer, civilization sounds like a great idea for someone with the tastes you described.

I find it best to stick with a more "normal" themed game for someone in his age range as apposed to something he might find too weird of a concept to accept.

A slow paced puzzle game could work too.

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Civ is a good pick. For the Sim-types, it depends how hard he leans on those numbers and manipulation you mention.

Anything turn-based would probably do the job. HOMM, Fallout 1 or 2, X-Com... Of course you could do away with turns entirely, go with the old LucasArts adventure catalog. Being new to the hobby, I assume dated graphics won't bother him. That opens up your options a lot.

The Orange Box is a good buy six months down the line, when he's acclimated somewhat and looking for something new. Even if he never touches the other stuff in it, Portal is a must-play. Might need a new box for that, though; it depends on the exact specs of the laptop.

On that note, the Steam client can be a memory hog at times, so I would recommend something like D2D or GOG instead.

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well, unfortunately, I don't have the specs for the laptop, I just know it was bought in the last 2 months, so it at least has a dual core, but I think it's just onboard intel craptacular graphics. I'll have to ask him directly.

He does have Win7 though, so that's a plus.

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well, unfortunately, I don't have the specs for the laptop, I just know it was bought in the last 2 months, so it at least has a dual core, but I think it's just onboard intel craptacular graphics. I'll have to ask him directly.

He does have Win7 though, so that's a plus.

Anything bought within the last two years (sans netbooks) can run portal because my computer can and it's not as good as computers sold in that time period.

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lol

Also one more thing of note, he's not really looking for games to play with other people...so TF2 is right out.

Good suggestions, much along the lines of what I was already thinking of.

Oh is that all, in that case I'd recommend the Touhou games for the PC as there's plenty of games and all single player; except for a few.

Samples:

Imperishable Night

PM me for more info if you're interested!

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Plants Vs. Zombies.

There's no way to describe the game without making it sound stupid. It's very easy to get started, and it quickly grows more complex, but always at a good pace. $10 on Steam ($20 retail), and it's probably the best value I've ever gotten from a game for what I paid for. I'm sure that game will run on anything.

Certainly Portal at some point. It's really more of a puzzle game than FPS, as there's not really any 'S' in it...

There's the Railroad Tycoon series, with the latest being Sid Meier's Railroads! It scratches a nice itch of simulation, planning, growing, optimizing, and managing. The older versions look pretty ugly, and are less intuitive (and less helpful in-game) than the newest one. The newer one is 3d, though, and actually give my (very old) graphics card a bit of a work out. The Roller Coaster Tycoon series in very much in the same vein, but obviously different.

Braid, perhaps? Manipulating time and such... Hard to go wrong with Audiosurf... As other suggested, Heroes of Might and Magic could be good. World of Goo sounds like it would be very good for him...

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There's a serious lack of Monkey Island in this thread. For shame.

I definitely approve of mentioning Civilization (IV is best, in my opinion, until V comes out and I make a new opinion).

StarCraft is good, but if he's trying to avoid frantic games, that may not be the best idea. Still, it wouldn't hurt to try it.

SimCity 4 is great, if it hasn't been mentioned (I might have missed it being mentioned as I skimmed).

Worms Armeggedon is a wonderful game for PC (turn-based artillary game, if you don't know it).

I support the Rollercoaster Tycoon mention, which is a good series of games (I don't know what the most recent iteration is).

Star Control II is a great game (and free!).

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