A number of these I know more by reputation than personal experience.
- Legacy Of Kain series - third-person action-adventure (terrible genre descriptor but not much else fits it) known for strong storytelling.
- Quest For Glory series - Sierra point and click adventure gaming meets RPG-style adventure.
- Something in the {{4X}} strategy category, either turn-based (Civilization, X-Com) or RTS (Starcraft/Warcraft, Age of Empires...)
- Half-Life 2, since you've done 1.
- The original Bioshock.
- Something from Peter Molyneux's better years like Black And White or Dungeon Keeper.
- Any of the classic Lucas Arts adventure games.
edited 20th Jul '15 11:40:06 PM by Elle
Reading tropes such as You Know What You Did
I can point you to a few, if you have a good enough or old enough PC to run them, depending.
Bloodrayne: Currently playing through the second one, but the first two are pretty tight.
Knights of the Old Republic: I cannot think of a better game for Game of the Year 2003, especially if you had not been spoiled on the big twist revelation. A game that sorely needs a remake.
Rainbow Six: You may have played this on console. Well get the Urban Ops expansion and go hog wild with the numerous mods, if you're a fan of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics then you may see a couple of nods to the games. But that may be just me.
Video Game/Swat3: This is similar to the Rainbow Six series in the impressive level of detail in recreating the tactical shooter experience and in my view shows the likes of Call of Duty how it's done.
Janes USAF: Pretty certain there is not a trope page for the series...I picked this up dirt cheap and found it to be an awesome flight sim, maybe not up there with the likes of Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War but you can argue that is not actually a sim...whatever, if you like that sort of thing then you will like this.
Wing Commander: Speaking of flight sim games, this is one of the series that put PC tech, gaming tech like FMV on the map, and it's not just the gameplay. The story, the characters, are right up there with what we may see today.
The Sims: I'll point towards the second game and it's expansions as the strongest of the series. You may be familiar with the WWE Games and how if you can think of a character then odds are there are several versions of them. Well the mod was strong with this one, the strongest in my view, the fact people have made Sims versions of their favorite media is testament to that, then you get all manner of sandbox and modifications that leave even Mind Craft in the dust.
Dead Island: Yeah odds are you have seen the trailer, you may have even played the game on console. Well put the darkness you may have felt seeing it out of your mind for a moment, this is worth a go either in single player or with three mates.
Grand Theft Auto: V and Online would be the big ones, no doubt, but IV, wow, San Andreas, wow, III and Vice City, wow, even the very first game and seeing where it all began is worth a look. Just do yourself a favor and check out Jeruselum's Let's Play of SA.
Star Wars Dark Forces Saga: Me, personally, I love this. Getting mods for Academy and playing as a ''Jennifer Hale voiced Bastila, or Aayla, or getting all my fave characters for duels and multiplayer, good times.
Unreal Tournament: This, if Counter-Strike was yesteryear's Call of Duty, then this is yesteryear's Modern Warfare. The mod support alone is telling.
Command & Conquer: Now this, this is cool. Even the first game holds up, but just wait until you get to Red Alert 2, or the Zero Hour mods. The mods are really fresh new games all themselves, fans had really left their mark on the Generals games.
Jade Empire: Feudal Mass Effect. What more needs to be said?
Currently reading up My Rule Fu Is Stronger than Yours
I don't see many adventure games on your list. Let me suggest the following:
(To the best of my knowledge, most of the following) are available at GOG, and I've included the relevant links.)
First of all, Quest for Glory (GOG link
) has been mentioned already, but I very much second that recommendation.
Gabriel Knight—A series of supernatural mystery adventure games. Note that all three (I think) include at least some potentially unpleasant imagery, depending of course on what might bother you.
The first uses old-fashioned pixel-art graphics and centres around Voodoo, and around the mystery of the protagonist's heritage.
(GOG link; there's also a "20th Anniversary" remake, although I don't know whether it's any good, offhand.)
The second is arguably one of the few good FMV adventure games, and—in my own opinion, although I gather that it's not an uncommon one amongst fans—the best of the series. Here the mystery involves werewolves. It also makes interesting (to me, at least) use of historical events in its story. (GOG link)
The third uses an interesting—if admittedly imperfect and now quite dated—3D engine, and deals with vampires, the "sacred bloodline" idea, and Rennes le Chateau. (GOG link, via TinyURL)
The Longest Journey (GOG link) and Dreamfall (GOG link)—A pair of point-and-click adventures set in two worlds: Stark, the world of technology (which seems to be ostensibly our own world) and Arcadia, the world of magic. Both have some beautiful graphics and strong storylines, I feel.
Dreamfall ends with a cliffhanger, which I presume is being addressed in the recent "Dreamfall Chapters" episodes, but I haven't yet played those (although I'm eager to do so!), and so don't know what they address, or how well.
Myst—Something quite different this time: aseries of games centred around first-person, node-based exploration and puzzle-solving in lovely, near-empty worlds, discovering the stories around Atrus and his family, and the lost D'ni civilisation. While there is some interaction with characters, especially in the later games, but it remains very limited, and the focus remains on puzzle-solving.
There are three versions of the first game, two of which allow (optional, I think) free-movement instead of the usual node-based movement. GOG has those three versions (see here, here and here, and has the second game, Riven, and the fifth game, Myst V: End of Ages. Alas, it seems that it lacks the others.)
~
(By the way, I'm not sure that I agree with the assertion that the old games were overall better than modern games; nevertheless, the list of "classic" games does include some excellent works, I do believe.)
edited 21st Jul '15 8:02:59 AM by ArsThaumaturgis
My Games & Writing
Well, there's Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines. Definitely an RPG worth checking out by any means.
Then there's Freelancer, which is a cool space sim.
The Total War series is something I can recommend to anyone.
I adored Sid Meiers Pirates.
Neverwinter Nights is a good RPG, though you really need the expansions if you want to play the single player campaign at it's best.
And finally, one of my favourite games when I just need a bout of satisfying fun; Recettear.
edited 21st Jul '15 7:52:15 AM by Kayeka
use political terms to describe, not insult
Anything by Paradox Interactive.
1 2 We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. -KV
A lot of my first thoughts are already in your backlog (or completed), but let me second Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. Gameplay is sort of like Deus Ex, to give a general idea, but that's not really that accurate. The writing and story are pretty good, and while it's clear the game's final sections could use some work, it's worth pushing through. Plus, if you play as Nosferatu or Malkavian you get a lot of unique dialogue. (You'll need an unofficial patch, though — in all likelihood, these days without it the game probably won't run.)
Also by Troika is Arcanum, though I've yet to complete it so can't really judge it properly.
edited 21st Jul '15 8:26:26 AM by Lavaeolus
Terraria would be worth trying out if you liked Minecraft. Big difference is that it's 2D and something of a Metroidvania with a heavier emphasis on combat. Furthermore the community is still pretty active, and while the latest patch was the last big one in it's lifespan, the game still has tons of replayability.
On this day, nothing was regretted.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Seconding the Terraria notion, it is very hard to get bored in that game unless you are grinding or close to the end of the game.
edited 22nd Jul '15 10:00:35 PM by The_Mattias
Famous last words of many a kerbal: MOAR BOOSTERS!!!
How about Command & Conquer or the first Starcraft? If you've already done those or don't care for them, perhaps Company of Heroes or Total Annihilation would be more of your thing?
BTW there's a really big modding community for all three of those - don't be afraid of checking them out, moddb.com would be the best resource for that.
My travels on the Internet have left me to a conclusion: there is a shit ton of games I must at least try. After everything I hear, I find I am seriously lacking in perspective in games. So I have decided to go back and play some of the good games I missed. If you have a recommendation for me to try, please post it below. I am only accepting PC games because I am by and large a PC gamer. Also, I prefer for older games/old style games to be recommended because I am interested in seeing why the older guard of gamers find them so good. Plus, I tend to hear that they are better than modern games, a sentiment I tend to agree with. Also, I tend to prefer shooters/RP Gs and single player games and I like mods. So if you think there's a mod that enhances the vanilla experience, run it by me!
Here is my list of games on my backlog and the games I tried before this project. I also have shared my sentiments on them.
Games on my backlog (will be updated as I get recommendations):
Games I have already tried beforehand:
Don't feel too pressured to give me recommendations. I have access to "smart gamer" sites that will give me leads on good games. Also I have GOG. Also, feel free to general comment. I will update this first post as I see fit.
edited 4th Sep '15 4:28:53 PM by KingFeraligatr
Hail to the King of Feraligatrs! Shameless advertising