Recommend Snake some decent Steam PC games

[Solid Snake]

Leaving for a weeklong 'vacation' with the family and I'm only bringing my PC with me. I'm looking to purchase a new PC game to make the experience slightly more bearable. I am wondering if you all have any decent recommendations.

* I will not have consistent internet access at the home we're staying in, so I'd prefer not to purchase a game that's multiplayer or that requires internet access to run.

* I own a high-end 2008 laptop (with a video card that was considered solid then) that can reasonably run strategy games, RPGs, and older games, but it certainly wouldn't successfully run a game like Crysis 2, and generally speaking games primarily developed for consoles and games with high graphic requirements send this computer on the fritz. Even Empire: Total War runs like **** (but Medieval II and Rome are fine.) The original Mass Effect plays fine, but Mass Effect 2 is borderline.

* I prefer strategy games, adventure games, and RPGs. "Games I enjoy most" on my PC include Civ 4 (which I prefer over Civ 5), KOTOR, Company of Heroes, Deus Ex, old-school Might and Magic games, and anything Total War.

Any recommendations for solid Steam purchases?

[Melfice]

How about Mount and Blade?
Warband is currently still best, though With Fire and Sword add some very neat features. As well, it's getting new features (mostly features from Warband) via patches, so with a few patches it should be better than Warband.

Unless you don't like the setting. In which case, go with Warband, which is more or less fantasy.

[Kim]

Recettear is a great, fun little game that breaks up your play time between adventuring, visiting locales in the town, and running a store. It's cutesy as hell, but that doesn't make it bad, and there's some decent humor to be had.

I've heard good things about Syberia, Syberia 2, and The Longest Journey, though I've yet to play any of them. Anyone here play them and have an opinion to offer on them?

I've also heard good things about the Warhammer games, but have also not played those.

[Aerozord]

I'd second Recettear, and as a fan of adventure and RPGs you will appreciate the idea of being one of those money grubbing shop keepers that are charging you for supplies when you are TRYING TO SAVE THE WORLD.

[Eltargrim]

Recettear is awesome.

Snake, have you played Dragon Age: Origins yet? There's the main game and all DLC on Steam for $30.

[Mr.Bookworm]

Frozen Synapse is awesome. A friend keeps pestering me about Revenge of the Titans, so I've heard good things about that. Also heard good things about Vertex Dispenser. You might want to check out Hearts of Iron, which is a fun strategy game, though admittedly not for everyone (you'll probably love it if you're a history nerd, though). Europa Universalis 3 is literally less than 4 bucks right now, and is supposed to be pretty good. The new Total War game is supposed to be good.

And I'm going to make generous assumptions about your intelligence and assume that you already have Portal 2.

[Specterbane]

Swords and Soldiers HD (http://store.steampowered.com/app/63500/?snr=1_4_4__13)

Hydrophobia (http://store.steampowered.com/app/92000/)is on sale for a day and looked neat, but I haven't played it.

VVVVVV (http://store.steampowered.com/app/70300/?snr=1_5_9__13)

World of Goo (http://store.steampowered.com/app/22000/?snr=1_5_9__13)

Mini Ninjas (http://store.steampowered.com/app/35000/?snr=1_5_9__13)

If you like Point and Click Adventures (like Monkey Island) you might enjoy Jolly Rover (http://store.steampowered.com/app/58200/?snr=1_5_9__13). Even if it is pretty much Monkey Island with dogs.

You should also be able to run all the Half Life 2 games.

Eufloria (http://store.steampowered.com/app/41210/?snr=1_5_9__13)is neat too.

And I enjoyed A.R.E.S. (http://store.steampowered.com/app/92300/?snr=1_5_9__13)

That's what I've got after looking over my Steam Library. Check to see if there are multi-game packs or for sales before you leave too. Anyway, have fun while you're gone.

[Jagos]

Recettear is awesome.

Snake, have you played Dragon Age: Origins yet? There's the main game and all DLC on Steam for $30.

It's about friggin time!

[Donomni]

Team Fortress 2, mostly because it won't cost anything to try it anymore.

Not much like you prefer, but it does have some RPG-like things: lots of weapons and tools to collect, crafting, and there's enough variety in the classes that you may like playing at least one of them(From the sound of it, an Engineer would be suited for you).

It's a free download, so you might as well try it.

Of course, you could also try Spiral Knights. It's also free, although much more of a "Man it sure would help if I paid actual money for this" kind of game. But it's basically a Zelda-ish MMORPG, so maybe that'll float your theoretical boat.

[Flarecobra]

I second Spiral Knights.

And the Warhammer games are quite good. Especally Dark Crusade (Has the best campaign), or Soulstorm (Has the most factions avalable), and you don't need the main game to play either.

[Jagos]

Just a small thought...

What is with the need for Windows Live? Just... why?

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

If Star Ruler is cheap still you might want to look into that. 4x space stategy game with customisable ship designer and no scale, either on size of galaxy or size of ships. You can literally build Death Star style super weapons that can hold entire fleets of battleships.

Think of it as a budget Sins of a Solar Empire.

[Revising Ocelot]

There's Terraria. When you get your online times you can go on the NPF server, and all your equipment & items carry over from single player to any server (and back) if you use the same character. Good little game to spend time on. Should get back into it myself after recent updates.

Regarding your example of Mass Effect 1 & 2, I find it odd you say 1 works fine and 2 is borderline. I found 2 to work much better on my home hardware than 1, which had an annoyingly low framerate and jaggy textures throughout even at max settings.

[Aerozord]

For system requirements I suggest this site (http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri/). It will scan your hardware, compare it to min and recommended specs for the game and tell you where you stand

[mauve]

As a heads-up, if you're new to Steam, be aware that you need to access the internet in order to get to your games. It synks up all your game saves and playtimes across its network or something, so you have to at least be able to get to the internet in order to play even single-player games. Otherwise you can't even log on.


That said:

Half-Life 2-- The whole series. I recommend this to everybody because I am a horrible little Half-Life fangirl, but I'll say it again anyway on the off chance that you haven't played them.

Portal-- The original, since I assume the sequel might be too graphics-heavy for the laptop. They're both brilliant, though.

Spiral Knights-- It's free, it's a very small download, and it's pretty fun.

[Revising Ocelot]

As a heads-up, if you're new to Steam, be aware that you need to access the internet in order to get to your games. It synks up all your game saves and playtimes across its network or something, so you have to at least be able to get to the internet in order to play even single-player games. Otherwise you can't even log on.




Nah. There's an offline mode. You can choose to run in offline mode if you're not connected when you try to sign in, or from the Steam menu if you're already online and signed in.

I think you can go in offline mode for a week before you have to go online once for verification. Could be a longer time, could be less, I'm unsure.

[akaSM]

OK, first of all, I'll post stuff I have and that I can run on my lappy (intel core 2 p8600, ati radeon mobility 3670). It's a high-endish laptop from a couple years ago so, yours might be similar. Still, use th site Aeroz posted.

If you won't have internet in your trip, Spiral Knights won't work. So, you can get it once you're back.

Get Beat Hazard and Rhythm zone, one's a seizury shooter and the other one is one of those "push the colored buttons" rhythm games. Both games use YOUR music.

If you haven't played Bioshock, get it

The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom is a nice cheap game where you mess with time and stuff. It's similar to Braid but, different too :P

The Half Life games are cool

Plants vs Zombies is a nice game too

[Solid Snake]

Gonna try out The Longest Journey and Dreamfall.

[Locke cole]

I can definitely reccomend The Longest Journy a- Dreamfall is on Steam!? I must get it!

[Donomni]

So, uh, I just noticed this:

* I will not have consistent internet access at the home we're staying in, so I'd prefer not to purchase a game that's multiplayer or that requires internet access to run.

Man I am terrible at reading comprehension.

With that, I second recommendations on Portal, Reccatear and Terraria. Those three are definitely worth your money.

[akaSM]

Beat Hazard (http://store.steampowered.com/sub/8500/) got a big discount Snake.

Get.it.now

Unless you're prone to seizures >_>

Also, Shatter (http://store.steampowered.com/app/20820/) is an nice "break bricks with a ball" game, and it's got an awesome soundtrack

[Solid Snake]

With that, I second recommendations on Portal, Reccatear and Terraria. Those three are definitely worth your money.

I own Portal and Terraria already, actually.

As for the item-shop RPG, it was a tempting option, but while I'll have plenty of free time this weekend, I'm really not as interested in starting a new lengthy RPG experience as I thought I might be.

[Kim]

The first part of the game, the main story, is fairly short, and I think it's on a discount. There's post-game stuff, and that stuff has its own story stuff, but I think you'd take that at a slower pace, so it could hurt to try.

[Donomni]

Yeah, it's on sale for 5 bucks right now.

That said, goddammit Steam I can't afford your glorious summer sale right now.

[Solid Snake]

Typing this from my iPhone with 3g.
What is wrong with my steam
I try to start it, get the "cannot detect Internet connection" message, then select the option to start offline mode.
And then I get an error message. LOL "could not connect to steam network." why is it trying to?

[EVILNess]

You have to go into offline mode while you are on the internet.

Weird i know, but I have to do the same thing.

[Solid Snake]

You have to go into offline mode while you are on the internet.

Weird i know, but I have to do the same thing.

WHY WAS I NOT INFORMED. :(

[akaSM]

Try restarting your laptop before trying to go offline, that worked once for me.

[mauve]

WHY WAS I NOT INFORMED. :(

.....I mentioned this like two days ago. You need to at least be able to get online long enough to log onto Steam before you can access any of your games.

[PyrosNine]

If you can tether your iphone, or find a Wifi spot, you can just obtain a short connection, then play your gamez.

[Solid Snake]

Do I have to go online and Enter offline mode just once, or every time after restarting my computer?

[Fifthfiend]

Congratulations to thread for successfully selling me on Recettear.

[Krylo]

Congratulations to thread for successfully selling me on Recettear.

No, no.

Congratulations to you for getting it.

[Magus]

If you had gone to GOG.com instead of using Steam this would have never happened to you Snake. Sure they don't have the same selection but who needs selection when you can play The Witcher for only $9.99 without all this having to log-on to stuff crap.

DRM-free all the way, bitches.

[akaSM]

That's exactly why not all my games are on Steam and, I'll get the DRM free version over the Steam one any day (unless the Steam version is on a huge sale).

This goes the other way too as, Steam replaces some games' DRM (securom and others) with the DRM that comes with Steam.

[Karrrrrrrrrrrresche]

Gotta say I can't even really think of Steam as DRM since I'd be running the bloody thing even if I didn't have to. The friends list and screenshot sharing systemare Fuckin' A+.

[akaSM]

Yeah, Steam better is than most DRM methods, the only issue I see in it as DRM is what just happened to Snake (which also happened once to me). Also, the inability to have more than one instance of a game running so, you cannot have LAN parties. Other than that, I don't really mind steam.

[Fifthfiend]

okay so wait hold the fuck on a second here

I'm playing recettear, and i go adventuring, and I get all this sweet loot, and then I get back to my shop and... I don't have any of it, I have none of the fucking loot I collected, what the fuck is going on here.

[Melfice]

okay so wait hold the fuck on a second here

I'm playing recettear, and i go adventuring, and I get all this sweet loot, and then I get back to my shop and... I don't have any of it, I have none of the fucking loot I collected, what the fuck is going on here.

Not entirely sure what is going on.
I may be wrong, but I think you have two inventories? One for adventuring and one for the store.
You need to transfer those between if you want to sell the loot.

It's been a while since I last played, though, so I could be entirely wrong.
But if the above doesn't "fix" it, I'm entirely stumped myself.

[MuMu]

okay so wait hold the fuck on a second here

I'm playing recettear, and i go adventuring, and I get all this sweet loot, and then I get back to my shop and... I don't have any of it, I have none of the fucking loot I collected, what the fuck is going on here.

If by "get back to my shop" you mean "kill Louis horribly" then that might be the answer. You only get the loot if you exit through a door every 5 levels. If not then vOv

e: I don't remember if using the GoHo works though

[Magus]

Steam is okay and all but it's the only choice, and so it's kind of annoying if you don't have a constant internet connection. If GOG continues to update with newer games (The Witcher 2 is their first really new release, all their other games are at least a couple of years old) it may well be much better if you don't care about all the frills of Steam simply because there is zero DRM involved.

[Revising Ocelot]

Well, GOG is called Good Old Games for a reason... the only reason The Witcher 2 is on there is because it's made by the same company (CD Projekt) that actually runs GOG.

[Solid Snake]

Do I have to go online and Enter offline mode just once, or every time after restarting my computer?

(I await an answer to this although I'll probably learn the answer for myself tonight. Gonna try leaving the computer technically on but in hibernation mode and see what happens after I leave free Wifi coffeeshop.)

[akaSM]

From my experience, you only have to connect once. I think you have to go online at least once a month but, I haven't been offline that long to see what happens after a month of being offline though.

[Azisien]

My understanding was you have to go in offline mode while online and authenticate every single game you have installed, and then it should work offline indefinitely. It's a bit of a hassle, but that's what you get for not having an internet connection you inbred swine!

Of course I'd be surprised if every game worked exactly the same way.

[Magus]

Well, GOG is called Good Old Games for a reason... the only reason The Witcher 2 is on there is because it's made by the same company (CD Projekt) that actually runs GOG.

I figured at some point once they made more money they would start to only be a year or so behind and would eventually start selling new games despite their current moniker. But yeah The Witcher 2 may just be a coincidence as you said.

It was a pretty nice coincidence, though!

[Krylo]

I figured at some point once they made more money they would start to only be a year or so behind and would eventually start selling new games despite their current moniker.
If they did that they wouldn't be able to sell them DRM free.

If companies were willing to sell new games DRM free, they would. The only reason Steam is able to replace their DRM with Steam is because Steam is still a kind of DRM that works very well and it's a popular enough platform to be able to leverage that fact with companies.

A retailer trying to ask companies to let them release their new AAA game without DRM would be no more moving than you or I writing them a strongly worded letter about how DRM is horrible: They're just going to say no, fuck you, your first customer is just going to put it up on pirate bay/burn it to CDs and pass it around.

[Magus]

lol they do that anyway but yes I see your point. I figured maybe a few smaller companies that happen to be anti-DRM would start using GOG but probably not, it is hard enough to get an indie game popular on a widespread format like Steam.

[greed]

King's Bounty: Crossworlds and King's Bounty The Legend are pretty ace as well if unforgiving in that eastern European way (Armored Princess is good too, but Crossworlds is like the updated version of it).

Oh also the Serious Sam games are pretty great if you haven't played them.

Also recommending Recettear.

[EVILNess]

Steam is okay and all but it's the only choice, and so it's kind of annoying if you don't have a constant internet connection.

It isn't the only choice you know, besides GoG there is also Direct2Drive, Games for Windows, Amazon has a computer DL service, and Gamersgate.

While Steam isn't the only choice, it's the only good choice. Why? It isn't just a platform to buy games. It's a community that allows you to make and interconnect with people and form groups and play with people you like.

GoG doesn't offer any of that. Steam may be a form of DRM, but it has evolved into a service, not just for game devs, but for the players as well. One that's benefits far outweigh the downsides of having DRM.

[Azisien]

So yeah DRM DRM DRM yadda yadda since the Steam sale is on why not continue in that vein.

The Mount and Blade franchise is on sale today, and holy SHIT, Mount and Blade Warband is definitely my personal Best Game I've Never Heard Of.

Do you like first/third person medieval combat? Melee, ranged, mounted? Warband has you. Do you like starting with a humble band of 20-30 warriors and building up to near a thousand, conquering and managing cities and kingdoms? Lead a kingdom to glory! Or start your own! Shit is nuts!

But even better, though the game can feel a bit dated, it has excellent mod support, and modding it up requires as much technical knowledge as copy and paste buttons.

Edit: That's also a pretty good deal for New Vegas.

[Sky Warrior Bob]

Recettear is a great, fun little game that breaks up your play time between adventuring, visiting locales in the town, and running a store. It's cutesy as hell, but that doesn't make it bad, and there's some decent humor to be had.

I've heard good things about Syberia, Syberia 2, and The Longest Journey, though I've yet to play any of them. Anyone here play them and have an opinion to offer on them?

I've also heard good things about the Warhammer games, but have also not played those.

Longest Journey is the best example of old school adventure gaming. Didn't care for Syberia 1 or 2. The story feels hamstrung by a limited budget & the puzzles are either too hard, or too simple. And for me the Syberia story makes no sense.

I didn't think much of Dreamfall, it has a clunky 3d interface that makes for bad puzzles. Story is there, but the game ends on an unsatisfactory ending, with a cliffhanger & no sequel in sight. Stick with TLJ, & maybe check out DF if a sequel ever comes around.

Myself? I've only the 2 Monkey Island remakes & a free game of Portal (which I suck at, since I generally pretty awful with 1st person). Since you're looking at adventure games, I think some of the old Lucasarts stuff is there. Fate of Atlantis is pretty good.

Also, in general http://www.adventuregamers.com/ is a good place to go for Adventure game reviews. Also, they have their own online store that has a few decent titles that can be downloaded.

(Note: Yes, I have the CDs for all these games, instead of getting them via Steam.)