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Haven't gamed on a PC for ten years. Built a gaming rig. What games do I install?
I've been out of PC gaming for at least 10 years. Although I have a PS4 and I loved playing God of War 4 and Witcher 3.
Through what might only be described as a mishap, I've ended up building a computer with a kickass GPU. 3700X, RX 5700XT, 2TB Gigabyte Aorus NVMe. The works.
Build's half done, I plan on dual booting hackintosh & windows 10 -- the latter I haven't used in many years as well, I'm a UNIX guy.
What should I even install on this thing? I've been very disconnected from the gaming industry and I've no idea what games are new or good or cool to show off what my hardware can do
A lot of people are talking games, so I'll take a minute to talk platforms, since that's probably the first decision you'll have to make: Where do I buy my games? You might already know all of this so feel free to skip this over if it's not needed, but I figured I'd put it out there because it can be a bit intimidating to newcomers. Also, to other people in the know, if I missed anything or messed anything up, feel free to comment and I'll edit this post with the new/right info! Happy gaming, all!
Stores/Launchers
Steam: owned by Valve and the longest running digital PC storefront, to the point that it's essentially the "default" for PC gaming
GOG: a smaller store run by CDPR -- the people that make The Witcher games; has less selection than Steam, but some older games get first-class treatment, as GOG patches them to run on modern systems; all games are DRM-free which is a huge plus
Epic Game Store: the controversial new kid on the block; Epic uses their Fortnite money to subsidize free games, platform/timed exclusives, and deep discounts
Microsoft Store: Windows/Xbox's store
Origin: EA's store (primarily EA games)
Uplay: Ubisoft's store (primarily Ubisoft games)
itch.io: an indie self-publishing storefront; lots of experimental games and prototypes; launcher is open source and games are DRM-free!
Kartridge: Kongregate's store and launcher; primarily has web-y, Flash-y games
Holy moly, you're probably saying to yourself. So many choices! And you're right. No one store has everything, so most PC gamers juggle their gaming libraries across multiple storefronts and launchers. It seems like a hassle, but you get used to it.
Luckily, there are some tools to help you!
Universal Launchers
GOG Galaxy: GOG's launcher allows you to import games from other libraries so that you can get all of your games from various platforms under one roof
Playnite: an open-source launcher that also supports importing your libraries from different sources
If for whatever reason you decide to hop on Linux, there are also GameHub and Lutris for this.
Subscriptions
Rather than buying games a-la carte, some stores offer subscriptions. This might be a good way to start, as they have a low buy-in and give you access to a lot of different games to try out.
Xbox Game Pass: probably the most popular PC subscription; lots of great games available at any given time, with games being cycled in and out regularly
Origin Access: EA's subscription service for, of course, primarily EA games
Uplay+: Ubisoft's subscription service for Ubisoft games
Humble Choice: this one is slightly different since Humble doesn't have their own launcher; you instead get access to the "Humble Trove" which is a set of DRM-free games you can download and play, and the higher tiers let you buy a certain number of games to add to your Steam account each month (and keep forever) from a selection of 12 titles
Sales
PC gaming is notorious and beloved for its frequent sales, deals, and bundles. They are always happening. Always. Some people like me get addicted to them. Don't be like me! Use them strategically instead!
Many storefronts will allow you to buy games from another provider and activate them on their service. For example, the Humble Store lets you buy Steam games in the form of "keys" which are activation codes you enter into Steam in order to gain access to the game and lock it to your account.
There are even more sites offering game sales than there are launchers, so finding the best deal for a given game you want can be ultra intimidating.
Luckily, you can use IsThereAnyDeal to check for the best deal on any given game at any given time! This is a great way to find out if you can get the game more cheaply. You can also see things like price and bundle history if you care about things like that (which you probably shouldn't -- remember, don't be like me.)
/r/gamedeals is also a great resource for finding solid deals.
One word of warning: there is what is called a "grey market" for keys where you can pay very little money to very sketchy sites for likely stolen or fraudulently acquired games. Do not do this. Many devs would rather you pirate their game than get them on "key sites". Plus, the likelihood of getting burned (when your fraudulent key gets revoked and your lose your game) is very high. It's not worth the discount.
I only mention this so that you can be aware of it, but it's not really something you need to worry about. IsThereAnyDeal and /r/gamedeals block these grey market key sites, so you don't have to worry about accidentally getting anything from a sketchy source if you stick to those places. Everything they support is aboveboard, and you can use them to get some legitimately great deals on legitimately great games!
I honestly had no idea Itch had a launcher. Is it any good? Or rather, is there any particular reason why I would try it out (especially given that there aren't a ton of games I've purchased on Itch)?
I would describe the launcher as "clunky but usable". It's mostly just a wrapper for the website with some library and download management features. I do appreciate that it's open-source and cross-platform. It runs on Linux! I can't say that about most other launchers!
Ultimately though, I don't use it very much because I don't do much of my gaming on itch.io. It's a platform that I'm very glad exists given how much it empowers solo and indie devs, but the nature of that means the platform carries a flood of prototypes, game jam titles, and general slush that can be hard to sift through. There are definitely some gems, and sometimes it can be fun to dive in and explore what's out there, but more often than not it simply doesn't get opened for me, as my eggs are mostly in Steam's basket.
As a dev, I found the itch launcher to be a joy to work with. It's so easy to automatically release games and publish new versions.
GOG Galaxy seems to be just what I'm looking for.
Honestly I'll start off pirating everything and when I find something I really like I'll buy it.
Just check the Epic store every so often. They have about 1 free game a week. This week it's Civ VI, last week it was GTA. Right now if you buy a game you get a $10 coupon towards anything over $14.99, which makes a lot of 3-5 yo games $4.99. To me, that's less hassle than pirating (and I have my share of Linux ISOs, let me tell you).
On the other hand, I'd recommend staying far, far away from their launcher. It's a bad product from a bad company.
One thing to note, is that a Windows 10 install isn't nearly as mandatory as it used to be especially if you're mostly after single player titles. Valve has done tremendous work getting many games working on Linux...Most of my list below work very well on Linux, either native or through a compatibility layer. https://www.protondb.com/ can provide a good idea if you can play well on Linux.
Lutris can fill in the gaps there as well, especially for non-Steam games.
Most of my list below likely won't tax your system at all, but I'd regret if I hadn't played any of these, and most of them hold up fairly well.
These, if you haven't played, I would consider nearly mandatory:
Here's the rest:
Here are my favorite niche games. They're very, very niche, but if you're in the target audience they're very, very good.
I have not, they all look great. Thank you for the suggestions, extremely helpful!
FTL is an extraordinary game, considering it was kickstarted and they released a massive DLC for free years later. I think I've sunk several hundred hours into it. It's hard; I think the devs designed it so you only win 1-in-10 times at the beginning, and the perma-death means no do-overs. It's really replay-able, because each ship layout gives you such a different strategy and the random element of it well balanced... and some players spend a ton of time with just the first design (the Kestrel is one of the best, so that's not surprising).
Overall, I would highly suggest getting Xbox Game Pass for PC for at least a month. There's almost always some kind of deal that lets you get the first month (or more) for $1, and you'll have access to a lot of great games of all different types of genres. Other than the bandwidth for downloading the games, this will be a great way to try out a lot of good PC games for practically free.
It's hard to give specific recommendations without knowing more about what types of games you like, but for "major" ones that have fairly impressive graphics, maybe Red Dead Redemption 2, Control, or Monster Hunter World? Gears 5 and Metro Exodus are both available on Game Pass and are probably good possibilities too. Edit: Forza Horizon 4 is on there too, and is great if you like driving games at all.
Yeah, I think Xbox Game Pass for PC, Humble Trove, and/or Origin Access are probably the best way start things off... that way @runtime can try a whole bunch of games of various genres without having to spend a fortune doing so.
Honestly it's been so long I don't even know what I like anymore. I'll start by dipping my toes in a lot of genres to see what I respond best to.
Just for the sake of argument let's just assume acquiring games/bandwidth is a non-issue.
This looks reallly cool!
Oh this really brings me back, thanks for reminding me racing games exist.
My recommendations are not necessarily PC-centric, but they're still damn good games. And I like more the Japanese school of video games (whatever that means... I just find that I generally like them). You will certainly need to plug your PS4 gamepad to your gaming ring.
Don't forget the indies !
Here are some whose support span throughout most of the 2010s, and hence are rich with content.
I unironically agree; it's prone to the Tetris effect where you a) play way too much and b) easily start dreaming about it or, hallucinating the sounds of the conveyor belts at night.
That said, I'm >750 hours in and it's still fun, definitely recommend it if you want something that lasts long.
Also, check out Control if you have RTX cards; even if the gameplay isn't your jam, the real-time raytracing bit is pretty cool to see. Game's got some very nice level design and graphics as well. Recommended for the visuals alone.
Putting on music or an old TV show and playing Factorio is downright dangerous. Time simply warps and the rest of the world ceases to exist. I love it, it is so pleasant and relaxing, while also being a constant puzzle-solving challenge.
I've set it to windowed display so I can still see the clock on the taskbar.
That said, I clocked over 140 hours of playtime in the past 2 weeks.
I'll second any vote for Nier: Automata. I heard the prequel is going to be remastered, and a PC port is maybe going to come out as well. Play that one second because it will absolutely crush your soul.
I'm not going to lie; I've had Ace Combat 7 in my wishlist for a long time because an air combat arcade game wrapped around a melodrama is super appealing to me. I honestly don't know what's holding me back.
It's Metal Gear Solid 2 in the sky, but you can ignore/skip the plot. Oh and the soundtrack is phenomenal !
Everything here sounds so cool, thanks so much for the recs!
I have a certain anti-affinity for BR games, I guess just because I've never played one? I may give it a shot, we'll see.
I love shooters but fucking hate BRs. They stress me out, and piss me off to no end. At least in traditional competitive shooters you generally start out on equal footing to every other player, and you respawn relatively quickly if/when you die... but with BRs you generally start with nothing, there is so much luck involved with regards to loot that it can really make things imbalanced/unfair, and it can also be incredibly tedious to get geared up. Then, to top if off, dying means you have to wait for another new round before you can join again, starting all over again with nothing and having to loot to gear up again. No thanks, not for me. :P
I just suggested OP that I could play some CSGO as introduction if he wanted. Maybe a Tildes CSGO night? Like just accept shitty-ping (since we're pretty spread out).
Also, for anybody who generally dislikes BR games, Valve put a lot of effort into their rendition in CS:GO, and it's one of the more refined ones I've played.
http://counter-strike.net/dangerzone
It cuts out a lot of the waiting, like <2 min from queue popping to on the ground. There's mechanics in place to even out bad loot luck. Part of cutting out all the waiting is that matches are much shorter. The vast majority of matches are over in 10 min.
I haven't played CS since the 1.6 days so I would probably suck balls at it. I do play Battlefield 1 & 5 on occasion these days but they're not quite the same thing, and TBH I generally try to spend most of my time in vehicles when I can. :P
Regardless, you should maybe make a post on ~games to see if there is enough interest in a CSGO night though, IMO.
Will do tomorrow (its late here AND my husband just woke up saying he had a nightmare because he heard me typing on my keyboard and looked at the clock seeing it was 02:45 and thought "thats odd why he still up?" and then he noticed I was sleeping next to him - so he woke up and I may have to get to bed soon just to cut down on typing noises (damn you mechanical keyboard!)).
I really think it could be fun tho! I mean focus on chatting and having fun of course.
EDIT: I'm "Ohyrans" on steam btw
I'm so glad that I'm not the only one who noticed that modern multiplayer games are increasingly unfair. It started somewhere with COD where players started getting experience points which awarded better weaponry which means that inexperienced players would be at an even more unfair disadvantage. Fortnite in particular seems to actually set traps for players - if you don't jump off the bus immediately as soon as it's an option, you become an open target since you're forced to start slowing down before hitting the ground. The only alternative is to land somewhere in the middle of nowhere where you will have a difficult time finding the equipment you will need.
Don't get me wrong, I totally get it, and the appeal. After spending all that time looting it makes the tension that much higher, since you risk losing all your progress and having to completely start over whenever you finally engage in combat. But for some reason that triggers my sense of revulsion (at myself, and the game) similar to what I experience with gambling (which is why I don't gamble). It makes me really uncomfortable and anxious in a way that traditional competitive shooters don't. :P
Are you looking for eye candy, or are you looking for good games?
I could spit out a list of popular and fairly graphically demanding AAA titles, like Doom Eternal (2020), Red Dead Redemption II (2019), Assassin's Creed: Odyssey (2018), Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018), and many, many others, all of which will put your machine to the test on ultra settings, I'm sure, especially if you're on 144hz. But I have not played a single one of these games, so I don't know if they're actually well-designed or more importantly fun. Other than perhaps Doom Eternal (if you're okay with Denuvo), whose gameplay I would cautiously vouch for given the lovely and visceral experience I had with its predecessor, I also do not intend to play any of them. Generally speaking, AAA titles are a literal waste of time. They're designed to contain grindy filler content, and the recent trend toward making absolutely everything into an open-world RPG has only exacerbated this problem. I've lately become somewhat more inclined toward shorter games (often from indie developers), as the amount that you get out of them intellectually/fun-wise is usually a better ratio than for something absolutely massive. I like much of the content in The Witcher 3, but it's got a lot of junk too.
Some fairly recent games that I have played that I can actually recommend are The Talos Principle (2014, good puzzles, design, and story), Ori and the Blind Forest (2015, and you may want to check out 2020's Ori and the Will of the Wisps too, although I haven't gotten to it yet), The Witness (2016, somewhat minimalist puzzles and certainly ethical, if slow, game design), Limbo (2011) and its sequel INSIDE (2016), and others are all a lot of fun, and on the shorter side. Something like Metal Gear Solid V (2015) might be worth your time if you like open-world stuff; it has plenty of problems (mostly UI), but the mechanics are notably more open-ended than typical AAA titles. And I almost forgot about this, but Minecraft (2009) is one of the greatest video games ever created.
Several people have recently recommended Disco Elysium (2019) to me, although I haven't bought it yet. I've also heard good things about Celeste (2018), Hollow Knight (2017), and Cuphead (2017), if you're into platformers, although again I have no personal experience with these titles.
Worth noting that they're actually patching that back out soon.
Man these anti-cheat apps have gone nuts. I'm not installing that in ring 0.
I may end up getting the game after they release that update though.
I'd say I honestly have no idea what I like anymore because I've changed so much since I've gamed as a teenager. I'll want to give every category of game a shot as much as possible.
Those are some amazing suggestions, I'l definitely check out The Talos Principle -- the summary on steam got me hooked.
I have a 4K 60Hz monitor. How important is this? I wasn't even aware they made monitors with that high of a refresh rate. Can anyone honestly tell the difference between 60fps and 100fps?
In the context of virtual reality, there's definitely a different in comfort. In a of general gaming, this shouldn't change how you enjoy the game except if you play competitively.
How about VRR/FreeSync?
I wish I had devices that supported that !
But I think that for the vast majority of games, a good game is a good game, regardless of the framerate (as long as it is stable).
It can be very important. Most people seem to be able to tell the difference up to 120fps pretty easily, and from there the returns diminish. 144Hz is the standard for high refresh rate displays these days, but 240Hz ones are readily available too.
I personally cannot go back to 60Hz screens for games after experiencing how smooth high refresh rates are, especially for fast-paced action games. Even Counter-Strike pros, who doggedly keep with a 1024x768 resolution, have switched over to high refresh rate screens as a baseline. They're necessary for competitive games, yes, but there's no reason they'd only be optional for casual single player titles when they offer such smooth display performance (assuming your computer is pushing out frames to match).
I've been enjoying going back and replaying older titles with high refresh rates quite a lot. Even 2D games feel a lot nicer with high framerates.
It's a night-and-day difference between 60hz and 144hz for me, even when just browsing the web, although I'm a bit of a nut about it. I spend a lot of time looking at a screen every day, so I'm completely serious when I say that the smoothness of the cursor is something that actually matters to me. I personally feel that it's very important in video games as well; there's nothing wrong with playing at 60hz, and it can easily be a very good experience. However, once I switched to 144hz, I realized that there was no way I could ever go back.
There are diminishing returns as you go higher. The highest refresh rate I know about is 240hz, and though I'm also certain that you could tell the difference between 144fps and 240fps if you were paying attention (LinusTechTips did a video on this once), I personally don't think that it justifies the higher price tag. I don't know if there are any 4k 144hz monitors on the market right now, but if there are they're probably very expensive.
The thing to remember is that this is your decision, not mine or anyone else's on this website. If you value a higher screen resolution more than you value a higher refresh rate, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. The nice thing about PCs is that you can customize your experience to exactly what you want, and nobody can stop you.
Absolutely incredible game, especially if you love the metroidvania genre .
That depends on what you like.
I mean for me (heyo, also a Unix dude / Linux-only person) its two games: Minecraft and CSGO.
CSGO is an AMAZING game, but its a hard one. Its one of those games that have a lot of several really really high thresholds for entry, and its incredibly hard to play as the core of the game, the 5-v-5 competitive mode is the focus and its against other players.
Every week, me my brother, a childhood friend and a random friend (and an invited fifth)- play two nights, three games a night. We focus on tactics, set-ups, how to deal with different situations etc etc. And we're not high up (around MGE and DMG for those who know and I am starting to doubt my own position in that rank in comparison with the others). This game is sooo damn hard, constant and exact focus is needed at all times, communication is key and cooperation is hard when things are chaotic and panicky.
As for how hard it is on hardware, I rack it down to almost nothing (low settings for everything and then 1280x800 stretched for those in the know) to get an edge in FPS.
Minecraft - its the best for creativity. I can sit days and nights and just work work work on the same build in survival.
Edit: if you want an introduction to CSGO, holler - I can play wingman (more or less unranked even if it isn't 2v2) with you if you want.
So really wanna hammer this home, lets find a weekend. CSGO is free to play and there is a 10v10 shitty game format that we can set up - we can be drunk or high or not (depending on preference) and just talk about how it works and what is needed to play (how to counter-strafe and learn timings). And just talk crap for a few hours.
I can be your friendly CSGO buddy!
To be quite honest CSGO is not my thing. Minecraft I've seen around for a long time, but it doesn't tempt my personal tastes either.
Its a-ok no judgement (I'm lying, I'm kinda judging, its my favourite game ;) )
Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal are both games that are available on consoles, but provide a totally different experience on PC with a mouse and keyboard.
I don't see a monitor mentioned on your specs. At some point, I would highly recommend getting something that supports VRR/FreeSync. The technology has become very affordable (though make sure you read reviews and check the minimum and maximum supported refresh rates). This has had the biggest impact on gameplay experience of any new display technology since VGA gave us color.
Is it really that much of a difference? I have a regular samsung 32" 4K 60Hz monitor.
It's very nice for keeping things smooth through frame dips, wouldn't say it's the best thing since color. For a 60hz monitor, it makes dips into the high 40s pretty much unnoticeable. The real use case though is high refresh rate monitors, since the framerate you can maintain above 60 will tend to vary wildly, which makes it nice to be able to keep it synced. Check your monitor spec sheets, a lot of monitors from the last few years have it, even if it isn't advertised.
Looks like it doesn't support it, just for the 27" model. I have the 32". I'll have to live without it.
As long as you keep your settings at a place where you can hold 60fps with vsync, you literally won't notice a difference. Freesync is really for two things, high refresh rates and marginal hardware, and you don't really have either. I recently upgraded to a 75hz freesync monitor, and it isn't super noticeable.
It completely eliminates screen tearing and stuttering when your game's frame rate does not match your monitor's refresh rate, without adding input latency like v-sync does.
It's one of those things that isn't really a huge deal until after you've experienced the difference first hand. So if your current monitor is good, don't feel like you need to throw it out right away.
Whatever you do, do NOT go buy Elite:Dangerous and their expansion pack Horizons and a HOTAS.
If you just look at the reviews, you'll see that there is nothing to do in the game. You'll find that most players effectively finished the game and get totally bored with it after just 3000-4000 hours. They still play it, but mostly to complain that there isn't anything to do. People who bought it at launch, four years ago, are barely in it for 10-20 hours a week these days and it's completely, totally not worth the $18 price (when it goes on sale) for both base and expansion pack combined. Totally. Not. Worth. It.
(if you get it, though, you have to try it in VR. HFS - it's mindblowing the scale, and combat is wild if a bit vertigo inducing at times)
I agree on the HOTAS...it gets expensive and unless you're big into flight sims it's not worth the investment.
But I disagree about $18 not being worth it for 10-20 hours a week for years. I've bought $60 games that I barely touched after a few dozen hours. $18 is well worth for even a few dozen hours of quality space trucking.
Missing /s
It is sometimes hard to read that, yes.
But I've seen geniune negative reviews that read like that. 'this game sucks, do not recommend'...10000 hours played
Sounds like "that one small group of players that plays faster than the devs can add stuff".
"just" 3000 hours???? That's my hours in a single game and that took a decade to achieve. Don't think a half of the playerbase would even ever get there in a decade.
Hollow Knight and The Messenger.
Two awesome games if you like Metroid and Castlevania.
I'd be interested in knowing what kind of mishap makes you build a machine like this.
Honestly, without knowing your tastes, it's hard to give you any recommendations. I've been playing The Turing Test, which is a visually beautiful but fairly minimalist game. That being said, not everyone enjoys first person puzzle games against a backdrop of sci-fi existentialism.
It's not a recent title, but I really enjoyed playing Far Cry 5. If you're looking for a modern-style action game with an open world, it's hard to beat.
Rise of the Tomb Raider is probably a good option, too, and it's also a very common gaming benchmark since it uses some very modern technologies. I'm not a huge fan of the gameplay, personally.
Team-based arena shooters and battle royale games that are largely free-to-play are really popular right now and they are surprisingly graphically taxing.
A friend had a spare B450 mobo, I wanted to upgrade my ESXi host and got a CPU & SSD. Turns out B450 won't boot without GPU -- I need that PCIE for an LSI SAS card. At that point I was like, screw it, I'm building a gaming rig!
I got a node 304 case that I'm stacking above my other node 304 box.
Far Cry 5 looks great! Same for RotTR. Thank you very much for the suggestions!
I was thinking something along these lines when I saw the grandparent post, but I didn't want to put words in your mouth...
The specs you listed said to me "I'm going to host VMs and compile" and that the GPU was effectively an addon that lets you game as a side benefit.
Check out VFIO if you haven't. It'll let you pass the 5700X to a VM so you don't ever have to reboot out of your hypervisor. My goal for my next big PC purchase is an 8+ core system with 3 GPU in it so that my entire family can game using a single server.
Also props for supporting AMD GPUs. Lots of people skip over them because NVIDIA is often more powerful at the same price point, but AMD has been going all-in on providing quality open source drivers and with that they've bought my loyalty for a good long while.
I wanted to go that route, but eventually decided against it since I can just spin up some k8s worker nodes with VMWare Workstation just as well.
I got what seemed to me like a good deal for the 5700XT. Also I wanted full hackintosh compatibility and only AMD seems to have that now. I've had a Macbook Pro for 8 years; I can't stand Windows and I'm not going back to linux on the desktop since I'm too deep in the Apple walled garden by now.
Just the kinda thing I'm looking for. Thanks!