PC Gaming - Hot Games and Demos to Check?

I'm back on a bit of a PC Gaming kick so I'm looking for some great advice on what demos to give a spin. I've ripped myself away from the 360 for a bit (about time the two of us took a break!). So I'm pretty much looking for some cool exclusive stuff to check out.

In the past couple of weeks I've loaded up some oldies:

WoW

Started a new Undead Horde on PvP server as I've only played PvE on Blackhand. I'm taking this very casually as I don't want it to become a huge timesink again, so far it's working out.

City of Villains

Got the full CE for $19 and a month's play out of it. So far, it's been pretty fun to just pop on and play in short bursts. I played CoH for a month when it came out, so it's a little familiar.

Guild Wars

Very pretty, although a bit tougher to "get into" for some reason. I have no idea what to expect from the "end game" PvP stuff once the Factions story is done, but I hope it's better than WoW's.

Dawn of War Gold

Edwin turned me onto Dawn of War (actually it went more like this: DUDE, get DoW, it's not an option) so fearing a roundhouse kick I picked up the Gold edition and have been playing through the first couple campaign missions. So much blood. Bodies. Awesome.

Rise of Legends

Kinda chuggy on my machine, haven't really sunk my teeth into it yet. Seemed pretty advanced, but the units looked pretty wild.

Half Life 2 / EP1

Finally - yes - finally knuckled down and finished Half Life 2 after putting it off for a year. Boy, was I glad I did. Currently playing through the Episode 1.

I'd really like to try out FEAR, Far Cry, and BF2. The problem I have with BF2 is the "CounterStrike" syndrome. I didn't jump on the CS bandwagon at all because people had been playing for too long, so I thought it would be an "instant noob-toasting".

Any other really cool, AAA+ games I should check out? Any older ones that are hitting the bargain bin (like DoW) that I should scoop up 'on the cheap?

I've been playing Galactic Civilizations II and having a blast, even though I have just started. Guild Wars is tempting me, but I think I'll wait until I move into my new house before I try that one (need more time/room, and I'm not sure I want to lose my life to another MMORPG like I did with FFXI). Just finished FEAR, was entertaining. Got HL2 and Dawn of War to look forward to. Need to finish Oblivion.

I'm looking forward to HoMM V, Spellforce 2, Dark Star One, Pacific Storm, and, of course, Titan Quest in the coming months. Hopefully Neverwinter Nights 2 gets released, and not in a crappy state, before Atari dies. Is Gothic III still scheduled for this year?

It is a good time to be a PC gamer again....

God. Made it 6 hours into Final Fantasy XI. I tried. I really, really tried. Then I kicked my own ass for buying such an old game with such a huge time investment quota.

I'm kind of curious about the Gothic series but I wonder how well it's aged. I know there's some die-hard fans.

So far Guild Wars isn't near the grind of WoW and FFXI, so I don't think you'd have a problem playing it casually, plus there's no monthly charge so bonus

I put in about 18 months into FFXI, from the start of the North American PC launch until about March of 2005. The withdrawl symptoms were....painful. Luckily, Rome: Total War was there to ease the cravings and help me admit I had a problem.

I have the gold edition of Gothic II right now, but, again, do to lack of serious playing space (Gothic II has fairly bad controls, and you need lots of mouse room) I'll wait until I move next month.

Rome TW is calling me back, with a new expansion coming out this month and M:TW 2 coming out in October/November. Great game if you are into turn/real time stategy games.

Looking at my bookshelf here are some awesome games that I LOVED and kept after beating them. You also have no choice with these games as I am nearly done on my stab-people-over-the-internet invention.

You already have Half-Life 2 and expansion, as well as Oblivion. How about Call of Duty 1 and Medal of Honor Allied Assault? I know it was PC only and its a bit old but it is still really good. No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way is a must. No excuses. The sheer comedy and awesomeness from that game knows no bounds.
Sacrifice and Giants: Citizen Kabuto are two other really good PC games that are like a mish mash of FPS and RTS. Really well done. Alexander can vouch for me on Giants if need be. Max Payne 1/2 if you haven't tried those either. Grab the Kung Fu mod for the games too. Quite fun. Homeworld is one that is more for story and for being different. Not often do you see a space RTS with the third dimention and a awesome story. I still have the novel like manual.

Now for games that are just damn good and but are really old and won't showcase your PC hardware I turn you over to our list already made.

One game that I liked alot but didn't make the list was Sim Tower. I played that all through middle school and begining of high school. Also Day of Defeat and DoD:Source are really good. Me and Thin_J played earlier today and we had a blast on the Love us or Hate us server. We rocked them till their parents had to put them to bed.

Lastly my almost all time favorite PC game has to be Freedom Fighters. Videos and demo at the link. Demo is not as good as the main game.

I know there is a ton more but I just can't think of them right now.

edit: Oh! Oh! Serious Sam first and second encounter are AWESOME as co-op on a lan. Good times in high school with that one. Super cheap now for a once through. Besides co-op makes everything much better.

Mount & Blade (www.taleworlds.com) has been sucking up all of my time lately. It's a bit primitive (it's still in beta), but I've a lot of fun with it and the great mods available. Give the demo a shot, but the true glory of the game lies in the mounted combat, which can be a bit tough to get to at the low demo level cap.

Pick up Giants: Citizen Kabuto. I laughed my head off playing it. Classic. The cutscenes were hilarious. Gameplay was fun too, but the cutscenes kept me going. I couldn't wait to see what the goofy characters said and did next.

Edit: And another vote for NOLF2 (and NOLF, come to think of it.) Both entertaining and funny. Hmm. Seems to be a pattern here. I guess humor is an important element of a great game for me.

Sacrifice and Giants: Citizen Kabuto have a lot of humor in them, and are excellent games. They are definately worth playing through. Homeworld has probably the best story I've ever played through, though the story for Cataclysm (stand-alone Homeworld expansion), and Homeworld 2 just don't compare.

Hmm... other than that? Knights of the Old Republic (1 or 2, though 1 has a much better story). Either will keep you busy for about 30 hours. They are probably near the budget bin by now. Evil Genius is a nice little game, but I didn't get far in it because of my system limitations (lagged so bad I gave up). But the game dynamics were interesting from what I saw (build up your evil fortress, set traps, etc).

I'd recommend the demo for Pacific Storm, but then there's the whole Starforce thing. If you can get past that, it's loads of fun.

Freedom Force vs. The Third Reich. Freaking awesome game. I love it, love it to death.

Freedom Fighters is great. It's a crying shame that we'll probably never see a sequel.

It doesnt say hot mods, but I would recommend Deathball (www.deathball.net). Very nice first person sports game. Too bad it has a very weird community and is hardly in development any more (1 person atm), but it's a great game.

It's a UT2004 mod.

Swat wrote:

I'm kind of curious about the Gothic series but I wonder how well it's aged. I know there's some die-hard fans.

G2's graphics are still rather nice. A little less polygons than we're used to by now, but the area design is really spectacular, the character and monster design is above average, and the spell effects are for the most time competitive. In terms of gameplay, it's still one of the best action-oriented RPGs around.

Podunk wrote:

Freedom Fighters is great. It's a crying shame that we'll probably never see a sequel.

Last I heard IO has a sequel in development. It sold well enough to warrant one.

Sinatar wrote:
Podunk wrote:

Freedom Fighters is great. It's a crying shame that we'll probably never see a sequel.

Last I heard IO has a sequel in development. It sold well enough to warrant one.

That would be great. I loved me some Freedom Fighters, though I played it on the Xbox and not the PC.

I've recently been on a PC game kick as well, it must be the lack of quality new Xbox releases combined with a real time strategy withdrawl.

I'll second the nominations for the Freedom Force series and No One Lives forever. Gothic 1 and 2 are outstanding and have aged well in my opinion. If you like the Elder Scrolls games Gothic is a no-brainer. I think I might reinstall Gothic 2 now...

For a tactical, hyper realistic FPS Red Orchestra is great but its a niche audience and there are only about 10 active severs going at any give time on steam.

As for Guild Wars, I agree that its hard to get into. I've been playing it like a single player game by hiring henchmen instad of finding pick up groups. I think it would be great fun if played with guildmates.

I will go to my grave defending Unreal Tournament 2004 Onslaught, particularly with the many insanely great community-developed maps out there. Still very very active.

Oh, and there's this little RPG that came out... what's it called? Oh yeah...

Oblivion.

This thread has gotten me interested in Freedom Fighters, which I rarely heard of and definitely never played. I read a review here and I'm going to go see if I can find this game cheap (or better yet, downloable off of Direct 2 Drive or a similiar service).

Minase wrote:

Mount & Blade (www.taleworlds.com) has been sucking up all of my time lately. It's a bit primitive (it's still in beta), but I've a lot of fun with it and the great mods available. Give the demo a shot, but the true glory of the game lies in the mounted combat, which can be a bit tough to get to at the low demo level cap.

Quoted for absolute f*cking truth! This game is excellent. The combat is glorious and there is a mod that allows for huge battles. This the best first-person medieval combat simulator ever. The quests are derivative and the map is butt-ugly, but once you begin chasing down opponents and smiting them from on high, you will be happy.

You can get CoD and CoD:UO for like 30 bucks for the pack. Great sp story and MP is the best. Still hundreds of servers playing these games. I play every night still.

Sinatar wrote:

Last I heard IO has a sequel in development. It sold well enough to warrant one.

Man, I hope that's the case.

rabbit wrote:

I will go to my grave defending Unreal Tournament 2004 Onslaught, particularly with the many insanely great community-developed maps out there. Still very very active.

QFT. And with the UT2k4 Editor's Choice Edition available for $10-12 nowadays, you've got an absolutely insane amount of value packed in there. Hell, it was an insane value at $40. If you're a fan of multiplayer FPS games at all, you owe it to yourself to pick that one up.

If you liked Bridge Builder or Pontifex then Armadillo Run is worth a look.

I'll add my voice to those in favor of M&B. I got it soon after Bill Harris's first post about it, and it's been the best $11 (price is higher now but still a bargain )I've ever spent on a game. The replay value is immense. I've picked it up, played it for a couple weeks and then went on to other games about a half dozen times now. Each time I return I'm captivated by the mounted combat. There's something EXTREMELY satisfying about charging an enemy knight war axe in hand and then sinking it deep into his skull, followed by watching his mount drag his bloody corpse away.

Another recent pickup which has greatly expanded my pc gaming abilities is the Xbox 360 controller. It's been said here before but it's freaking perfect. Whereas before I've shied away from console ports, with the controller I'm enjoying rather then be frustrated with sports games, the Psychonauts demo and even the new Tomb Raider demo. Highly recommended.

Al wrote:

If you liked Bridge Builder or Pontifex then Armadillo Run is worth a look.

I'll second Armadillo Run. Everybody needs to at least check out that demo.

I played Battlefield 2 for the PC for the first time at Best Buy, and wow, I definitely have to look for a demo. I usually shy away from the realisitc FPS games (I prefer the Unreal and Quake universes), but I had a blast playing it. The vehicles are loads of fun!

Wow. I've been looking for another game similar to Bridge-It/Pontifex/BCS, and Armadillo fits the bill perfectly. Just purchased it after trying the demo. Thanks Al and Danjo!!

Al wrote:

If you liked Bridge Builder or Pontifex then Armadillo Run is worth a look.

You get tremendous props from me for even mentioning Pontifex

Also, I've seen some votes for the old NOFL series - if that's your thing, I honestly can't recommend the first one enough. I may be my favorite FPS game ever made, for whatever that is worth. The second one was great as well, but I liked number one more - felt more classy to me, if that makes sense.

I have been enjoying Spellforce 2 for a while now. Recently I am playing Titan quest demo again, and Glory of Roman Empire is shaping up to be a fun game. Too bad it is only released in Europe right now

Whoever liked Giants: Citizen Kabuto and wants more of it should by all means get their hands on Armed & Dangerous. It has a very similar feel to it and it also has, in my humble opinion, the most hilarious cut sequences in any game, ever. You will laugh your lungs out. "Death to the salad eaters!" Hehe...

NOLF 2, another vote.
Call of Duty, also.

Uberstein wrote:

Wow. I've been looking for another game similar to Bridge-It/Pontifex/BCS, and Armadillo fits the bill perfectly. Just purchased it after trying the demo. Thanks Al and Danjo!!

We might need a thread to share solutions. I've just beaten the 50 core missions and would be interested to see what novel alternatives the GWJ crew is capable of. On a lot of missions it definitely felt like I broke the level to get the Armadillo home but I can't for the life of me discern what the intentional soltution would even look like.

If you're going to try Sacrifice and Giants (both great), you also need to try the Wheel of Time (1999). Uses the Unreal engine but with better textures. Action, role-playing and strategy all in one.

NOLF2 is also a must, as is Freedom Fighters. However, I found Armed & Dangerous a complete bore. Sure, the cut-scenes were funny, but the levels inbetween were barren, empty and just sucked. I don't care how cool the shark gun was. The levels were still barren and reptative.