I have had playstation for a while, but aside from Petz, Rollercoaster tycoon, and the sims <4 I never had a pc that could handle games.
I was gifted a used custom gaming PC cuz the owner was getting a new one! I have an $80 steam gift card I’d love to spend on multiple pop culture classic games I’ve missed out on and can only enjoy on PC/Xbox… my favorite are 3rd person rpg with exploration as an important element in learning about the lore/story. Some sort of reward for exploring thar isn’t loot.
Games I loved Control Horizon zero dawn Persona 5/royal Those three are S tier life changing, think about forever types
Bishop trilogy (2 is best @me bro) P5 strikers Persona 4 golden Final fantasy, 7, 9, 10, 13, 15 Catherine Full Body Alan Wake Ni no Kuni2 The forgotten city Until dawn A plague tale 1 innocence TLOU1 Uncharted 1-3 Portal 1 & 2
Meh life is strange 1 TLOU2 Nier automata (ikr, wtf? )
Did not finish/Gave up Mass effect 1 (and thus none of the sequels) Little nightmares Fallout 4 Cyberpunk 2077 and not for glitch reasons Ghostwire
So far the only game I’m sure of is the fable series but I dont even know what version to get? It often gets confusing for older games for a newbie
Baldurs gate 3
Incredible game AND - this is very very important ! - it doesn’t need fixing with mods, patches, retexturing etc…
Morrowind, Fallout : New Vegas, Oblivion
All need, fixing, rebalancing, graphics enhancements etc…
Don’t know the specs or if you’ve played it on console already, but given you played and liked Control and Alan Wake I think Alan Wake 2 is a must-play. It is a very demanding game, though. But would otherwise tick all your boxes.
Dragon Age: Origins is an old 3rd person RPG classic, and I would argue it is best on PC since you can install a couple of mods that fix bugs and restore cut content. And the UI and gameplay is better on PC I’d say. But given you gave up on Mass Effect I’m slightly hesitant.
The Witcher 3 has already been mentioned but it too would be a good shout.
Steam has lots of sales so be patient. steamdb.info Is a useful website to track sales and see if they’re historic lows, also lots of other ways to sort through what’s available on Steam.
Everyone is recommending games, but you haven’t told us a thing about this gifted PC. It’s important to know that prior to recommending anything, as a “custom gaming PC” could be an i7-4790k system from a decade ago.
What are the specs?
I would love to tell you but my last pc was win7 and the newest windows is not intuitive for me. I can’t explain it except that things that should and have been simple for me aren’t anymore. I couldn’t even guess where to go in settings to get that info. I really really hate this os I’d love to figure out how to dual boot Linux and just not deal with windows except for gaming. Sorry old person drunk rant about tech…
No problem. It’s easy enough:
- Press Win+Pause/Break, or open the Start menu and type “About” to bring up About PC. This will tell you the processor and RAM, the latter of which should be an absolute minimum of 16 GB.
- Open the Start menu and run Device Manager to check the graphics processing unit (GPU). Whatcha got?
Anyway, for exploration-driven story, Subnautica is the king of the mountain, by a ridiculously wide margin.
For slight further clarification on part 2, when checking for the GPU in device manager, it will be listed under “Display adapters”.
Don’t diss i7-4790k, you’d be surprised how well it can run some modern titles!
I’m aware, I built such a system in 2015. Unfortunately my ex got it in the divorce.
That still doesn’t tell us anything about OP’s system.
Unfortunately my ex got it in the divorce.
Oh, okay, then it sucks. You’re missing out on nothin’!
It’s fine, I built a 5800X3D/7900XTX system as a gift to myself after the fact 😅
I know, I’m just failing to be cheeky.
The Witcher 3? That is probably the high water mark here.
Also see the new Stalker if you want open world vibes (fps tho).
Maybe Elex?
Not an RPG but has a lot of lore and a form of exploration: Talos Principle 1 & 2.
Hands down the best puzzle games I’ve ever played.
Outer wilds. Dark souls. Remnant? Those are my top 3 (if you can count the dark soul series as one).
I’ve played Outer Wilds for about four hours now and while it’s decent I haven’t understood the hype yet.
It is worth sticking it out or is it not for me?
It’s a slow burn game. There is a plot, and the plot is really good, but it only becomes clear really late into the game. Instead of the plot, the primary driver of gameplay is learning. I see a lot of people approach the game as though the writings are just flavor text, or just a way to portray a clue to a puzzle. It’s really not. You’re supposed to seek out the writing because the writing itself scratches the itch of learning. The developers put an incredible amount of attention to the entire game, and paying close attention and thinking through the implications of the text will reveal the plot points and lore. Basically, you play for the knowledge, and then only later does it become clear that everything that you’ve been doing was actually advancing the plot. And you’d want to remember what you learned so that the plot makes sense
All this to say, there is a wrong way to play the game, and that is to treat the game like nothing more than something to be completed. If you’re feeling a bit lost, yeah, that’s kind of the point. You decide which thread is most interesting to you. All I will say is that any thread that you pull will eventually converge onto the plot, so feel free to pursue another thread if you get stuck or if you get bored of the current thread that you’re pursuing.
Also, remember that in space, there’s no friction, so however long it takes for you to speed up, that’s how long it takes for you to slow down.
If you gave it a genuine shot and it really just doesn’t click with you, then perhaps just watch a Let’s Play. I think it does eventually click with most people, but I acknowledge that some people just don’t like the weight of making truly unguided decisions like the game is expecting you to make
It really depends on how fun do you find exploration and deduction to be. If you prefer games with more… curated direction, shall we say, then it might end up being more frustrating or boring rather than entertaining.
If you like to figure things out for yourself and take pleasure in exploring the world and themes of what you play then there’s a good chance OW will click with you.There’s a lot of interesting stuff in this game but it’s certainly not for everyone. You’ll need patience, curiosity and some out of the box thinking to get the most out of it.
my favorite are 3rd person rpg with exploration as an important element in learning about the lore/story
Not PC exclusive, but if you haven’t played Baldur’s Gate 3 yet, it might be something you would enjoy. It’s literally Dungeons & Dragons, and it’s not going to guide you through every little piece of content. You can miss something on one playthrough and discover it completely by chance on your next one.
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice was life-changing for me. There’s quite a bit of exploration that will let you experience various bits of deeper lore, including an entire hidden story that links up with the backstory of one of the minibosses. Not sure if that’s what you’re looking for, but I really enjoyed this one.
There are entire genres that only work with mouse/keyboard, and thus only really exist on PC. Notably 4X, RTS, base-building, and simulation games. They are where I would start:
- 4X: Civilization VI and Stellaris
- RTS: (Someone else will have to recommend some, they aren’t my jam, but they are absolutely worth checking out now that you have a PC)
- Base Building: Oxygen Not Included, Factorio, and Surviving Mars
- Simulation: Kerbal Space Program and DCS (You will want a joystick for DCS)
- Other: FTL and Hearts of Iron IV
Also, make sure to check out Is There Any Deal to give you historical (and current) best prices on games. PC games go on deep discounts on the regular. You do not need to buy PC games at full price if they were released more than 6 months ago.
FWIW Civ VI is actually not PC exclusive; it was at launch but now there are ports for every major platform. Civ VII also had a simultaneous launch on pretty much everything under the sun.
Satisfactory is another good base builder/exploration type game which is currently PC exclusive, though I know console releases are planned someday.
