So as a treat to myself after paying off mine and my wife's debts, I went and built a high-end game PC and hooked it into my home theater setup. I spent Friday and Saturday playing a few $10 games on Steam, and am looking for recommendations. With as much shit out there on the cheap, I'd prefer to crank through some smaller (read: cheaper) games before getting on into the big daddies. Also I've bought like a million games in the last six months and everything on Steam goes on sale like every other day, so I'm trying to be relatively responsible. I have a 360 controller hooked up, and I'm playing from the couch (6-8 feet away) with a bluetooth mouse and keyboard, so small-text-heavy games are not a great idea (unless there's an option to resize).

Here's what I've got right now:

Plants vs. Zombies
Portal
Dust Force
Jamestown
Sid Meier's Railroads!
Children of the Nile
New Star Soccer 5 (http://www.newstarsoccer.com, this game is fucking awesome)
Team Fortress 2

I also have Civ 4 and COD4 on discs somewhere in the apartment. To give you some perspective about how long it's been, I paid money for Team Fortress 2 and had to download about two hours of updates before I could even launch it. I think the last PC I built was in 2005. Upgraded/bonus weapons are almost completely unknown to me, except for the two tiers that were in the initial release.

It should also be noted that I've played most of the major console releases of the last several years, so PC ports are typically not really something I'm interested in - unless it's something like Assassin's Creed Brotherhood that has awesome multiplayer and an actual community on PC.

I'm kind of over First Person Shooters for a while, and I'll probably hit Saint's Row 3 and very likely Skyrim at some point, as well as God Damn Star Wars because I have friends playing.

So whaddya got? What do I need to catch up on? I can run any current game on max settings with 960-something GB of drive space available, so I'm only limited by how much I want to spend - and with $1000 a month in debt service gone, I can spend a lot.

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Orcs Must Die
The Binding of Issac
Bastion
Dungeon Defenders
Terraria

That is my top five cheap s fuck but will give you ten times the dollar amount of value on Steam games list.

Orcs Must Die is a tower defense game except not boring as fuck. The Binding of Issac is roguelike game with random room generation that plays like NES The Legend of Zelda. Bastion is just amazing all around. Dungeon Defenders is a 4 player co op tower defense game. Squink, Baha and I used to play this a lot. Terraria is a 2D minecraft digging/building game.

These often go on sale on Steam at random. And usually always during a big holiday sale.

Big home theater puter? Cough up a bit more cash and get Skyrim.

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Larreth Wolfsong (long retired)
Lanys T'vyl, Everquest

Zinky, Lvl 60 Warlock
Thunderhorn, WoW

Here's some favorites of mine, and more than a few come up cheap on Steam quite a bit (if not already):

Small:

Back to the Future - Not bad at all if you like adventure games. Drops off towards the last episodes.

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light - I personally liked it, but not everyone did. Great pick up and go game.

Portal/Portal 2 - If you don't have these, get them immediately. Can be played in small bites.

Titan Quest - Sweet.

And I second Orcs Must Die and Bastion.

Biggies:

Batman Arkham Asylum and Batman Arkham City - Hands down the best games I've played in awhile.

Ghostbusters the Game - You can get it pretty cheap now, and it actually was quite fun, if plodding at moments. The overall nostalgia makes up for tiresome gameplay tho imo. But, YMMV.

GTA IV - I don't give a shit if you played it on a console. Get it cheap as fuck on Steam and mod it with the hi-res textures and shit. It's a totally new game with mods.

Total War Shogun 2 - This will piss your life away if you enjoy the genre. And likely if you don't know if you do yet.

I have 120 hours on a 360 save already, not ready to jump down that rabbit hole again. I have both Batmans, Bastion and Orcs Must Die on consoles already.

Binding of Isaac looks like a good call, I'll probably get that this week. Terarria might take a little more convincing, just because I don't have much of that itch-to-build-shit syndrome which is why I played Minecraft for a weekend a year ago and left it forever.

What is Titan Quest like? The name reminds me of League of Legends or some other DOTA-like.

The Total War games to me always seem like fun until I get to a real-time battle. I like the macro-management and World Map Risk stuff, but I wish I could play those games like the nomad (barbarian?) faction, where I'm only attacking, never having to worry about being attacked. In fact, I think there could be a nice semi-puzzle game there with the big scale battles, where the dudes you're attacking are dug in and ready and you have to find ways to break their defense. In my experience, the battles always end up with me charging my strongest horse guys in and then diving into whatever tree cover is closest after an attack. I have Rome and Empire on my Steam account, maybe I'll fire it up and see if I can get back into them.

BTTF could be fun, I haven't played a point-and-click in YEARS.

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Skyrim.
(wait 150 hours)
Portal 1 and 2.
(wait 9 hours - they're awesome, but short)
You already got Plants vs. Zombies, this week the GOTY edition is $2 (so worth it)
I bought Terraria and I'm not convinced that was a mistake yet.

EDIT: If you missed out on Minecraft, it probably wasn't because of a weak machine (the game's requirements are bullshit) -- but if you totally spaced that title, go buy it. It's worth experiencing even if you don't stick around.

I've been playing Kingdoms of Amalur the past week. Worth picking up.

Amalur is MUCH better on a console, just fyi.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

I got a 360 controller, but I"m not paying $60 for Amalur just yet, I'll wait until there's a significant sale or price drop.

I did get Minecraft a little over a year ago, and it was fun for a weekend but that's it.

Last night I watched videos for and subsequently bought Frozen Synapse, which is fucking awesome.

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Really? Why is that btw?

The control scheme just doesn't work for PC (at least not for me) -- playing with a 360 controller alleviates the problem,, but if I'm going to use a controller why not just play it sitting on my couch? (unlike binkster, my pc isn't attached to my tv )

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

How is the story for the game? If it's good I might check it out soon

Surprisingly decent, and yet at the same time it can get pretty predictable.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

The story is kind of weak, to me. Standard fare - certainly not what I expected from an RA Salvatore-written game. I like the gameplay more than anything. It's fun playing a more action-friendly RPG.

"Corridors map design" and not being able to jump down small cliffs blocked by an invisible wall unless there's a jump icon on the mini map really bothers me to the point of not really caring about the rest of the game... I tought it would be open like Skyrim.

Some good cheap steam games are Torchlight and Dungeons of Dredmore, although they won't exactly tax a new system. If you want to show the machine off, go with Battlefield 3.

Pretty much all my PC gaming time now goes to the Dota 2 beta. Still a crappy community (even though I didn't play the original WC3 mod) but it's highly addictive. Got about 12 hours into Skyrim before I dropped it cold turkey for this. If you go sign up they're still giving away keys in periodic batches, and rumor is an open beta may only be a month or so away.

Also, Diablo 3 beta

I own a wireless 360 controller receiver that plugs into a USB port, so I can play the PC platform and get better performance, while still using the console controls.

I looked around and if there's a way to buy just the adapter, that way isn't obvious to me. But you can buy a controller that comes with the adapter here.

(But really, I bought that so I could play Secret of Mana with my fiancee.)

The last time I checked, a play and charge cable turned a wireless controller into a usb one, at least it did when I could still find my damn play and charge cable.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

Oh almost forgot, you gotta get the Witcher 2. It looks amazing on a super-up PC.

Yeah that's on the list for when I decide to pass the $30 game threshold.

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Witcher 2 is a definite must-have, but it's not something you want to play for a quick fix heh.

World of Tanks is very fun and occupy a lot of my free time.

Space Pirates and Zombies I had fun with, mostly because it's been forever since a game like Star Control has come out

Atom Zombie Smasher is frustrating and fun at the same time

Evil Genius, old game kinda like a Bond Villain version of Dungeon Keeper

Sins of a Solar Empire is on Steam for ~$20, and I think an expansion is due soon so it may go on sale. It's a great looking game on big screens.

You bought a PS Vita and a new PC along with new games in one swoop, and you're worried about the dreadful $30 game threshold? =p

So?

Steam games:

Shogun 2 Total War
Bastion
Dust
Orcs Must Die
Portal 2

Edit:

Try Anno 2070 with your new computer, it's amazing, but I lag too much.

Binkee. I sent you some free Half Life 2 via Steam.

So I originally came in here to give game advice, but yeah... if anyone else passed over Frozen Synapse originally, take another look. This actually changes the market.

Except for that whole "ubisoft DRM fucking sucks dick" I agree with you.

Just remember that you can only install even the steam version 3 times.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

You only buy platforms once, you buy games many times.

Also Darksiders is fucking beautiful and a lot of fun.

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Check out Minecraft again if it's been a year. There have been some massive updates, I hardly even recognize it when my son plays it.

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Marauder Harabakc Goat

So I played Portal again and Portal 2 and a little bit of Deus Ex HR (which kind of surprisingly isn't very good) but I've been playing Starcraft 2 basically nonstop for a month.

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I enjoy Starcraft II, but I can only play so much of it. haha

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"Creating Havoc and Pie Since 2001!"
My Website: http://www.anthonyhays.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cakvala

I still play SC2 regularly as well.

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Kuwen Furyblades
Hunter of Memento Reejeryn
Champion of Faydark

If any of you are bad you should add me MyCougarMom#411

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