Good PC games?

VG31

I am looking for some new PC games to play. Ideally as a download (Steam, preferably). The price should be under €30.

Kind of games I like:

Indie games like Papers Please.
Simulation games (e.g. FSX, TS2014, OMSI)
WWII shooters (e,g. Medal of Honor, old Call of Duty games etc.)
GTA type games.
Strategy games (e.g. Company of Heroes, Total War etc.)
Tycoon type games (e.g. Game Dev Tycoon, Theme Hospital)
Sims games (The Sims 3, Sim City)
I like MMO games like World of Tanks, but not multiplayer only FPS games (I prefere campaigns)

I would like to know in particular, if there is any other games like Papers Please.

Thanks in advance. (I think this is the right section )

Spear

Dead Space is free on Origin currently, so get that for a start at least.

Robert ninja

Spear wrote: »

Dead Space is free on Origin currently, so get that for a start at least.

Um, no. Dead Space is a gimped console port with horrible mouse aiming controls that made me sick and QTEs that are ridiculously hard to execute at 60fps or higher. Not even worth the space on your HDD for free.

That said, SE are doing a sale and have the Hitman games heavily discounted so I suggest you pick them all up. Contracts isn't listed on steam, though... don't know why though and it's one of my favorites. http://store.steampowered.com/sub/26687/?snr=1_614_615_squareenixweekend2014_616_4

Patser

X Com: Enemy Unknown + add on Enemy within for strategy

Spec Ops : The line for FPS

War Thunder for simulation

You'll have no time for a life after that let alone other games but if you do:

Civ 5

Taylor365

VG31 wrote: »

Sims games (The Sims 3, Sim City)

Prison Architect is a good Tycoon/Sim game. I haven't gone back to it in awhile (about 10 updates) but it was good fun back then.

Build Prison. Try keep inmates happy/alive/in prison. Try keep books balanced.

Good fun

VG31

Taylor365 wrote: »

Prison Architect is a good Tycoon/Sim game. I haven't gone back to it in awhile (about 10 updates) but it was good fun back then.

Build Prison. Try keep inmates happy/alive/in prison. Try keep books balanced.

Good fun

Yes I thought Prison Architect looked good. I think it said it's still in alpha, so is it playable enough (not to many bugs)?

Peanut Butter Jelly

Just Cause 2 - €3.74 and the Just Cause 2 DLC Bundle - €1.49

Prison Architect (Building and running a prison - €25.99 - €43.99

Democracy 3 - €22.99 + €4.99 DLC

Hawke

If your looking for a WW2 shooter with a community that's still active check out Rising Storm.

Branoic

Prison architect is remarkably bug free for an alpha, it's just not feature complete. Still very very playable though.

Spunge

Spear wrote: »

Dead Space is free on Origin currently, so get that for a start at least.

Thats like the worst PC game recc ever. Its a good game but holy jesus with a mouse its ****ed

Spear

Spunge wrote: »

Thats like the worst PC game recc ever. Its a good game but holy jesus with a mouse its ****ed

It's more a recommendation of the free aspect for someone on a limited budget, and not the game itself.

Fnz

As you appreciate Papers Please, Cart Life is another game in the 'empathy' genre.

Spunge

Crusader Kings 2, if you can get past the damn learning curve. Still dont know whats going on but everyone loves the game.

nesf

Really barebones one-man indie project: http://store.steampowered.com/app/204530/

I'm enjoying it quite a lot, he's patching it very regularly so it's developing into a nice time waster. :P (might be better to put on your wishlist hoping for a sale though)

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

any serious pc gamer should have a decent gamepad anyway so dead space mouse control issues aren't a thing except for casuals.

nesf

Oh and since you like RTS games: http://store.steampowered.com/app/251060/

That's the latest installment that's coming out (it's in open-beta for anyone who pre-purchases it at this stage as well as 25% off for people who own the previous game). It's a lot more simulation-like than CoH or the Total War series, you need to care about things like fuel, ammo, morale etc as well as there being no base building. Fun, but a rather steep learning curve and having a niche audience makes the multiplayer quite harsh. :P

5uspect

Spunge wrote: »

Thats like the worst PC game recc ever. Its a good game but holy jesus with a mouse its ****ed

Found it was fine with a mouse once you disable vsync.

Sand

A shooter on the PC that doesn't have decent mouse support isn't worth the bother of downloading and installing. If the makers of Dead Space cant be bothered implementing a decent game, there are plenty of alternatives that do. I second the "Even free its a waste of drive space" vote on Dead Space.

Given the type of games the OP mentions, Crusader Kings 2/Europa Universalis IV could be good. Alternatively, try a sim like the Silent Hunter series (with mods) or even Arma 3. For something a bit more odd you could try Project Zomboid or Planet Explorers, both of which are still in Early Access on Steam.

Canis Lupus

Spunge wrote: »

Thats like the worst PC game recc ever. Its a good game but holy jesus with a mouse its ****ed

I thought that as well. Turns out there's a vsync bug that ****s up the mouse input. Switch it off and everything is well with the world. (assuming that's your gripe, I found it perfectly playable with mouse once I discovered that issue).

EDit: Sorry didn't see the post above mentioning the same fix.

EDIT2: My recommendations are World of Tanks and totally different and not without issues but I've put some crazy man hours into Mount and Blade Warband. Such a cracking game.

5uspect

World in Conflict is a great little RTS.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

5uspect wrote: »

World in Conflict is a great little RTS.

imo the best storytelling game too. maybe not the best story but i can't think of another game that told its story as well as WiC.

SamAK

The original Deus Ex.

14 years old now but still a very very good cyberpunk RPG/Action game....bit of a classic at this stage. Very good reviews all round. I've played and completed it countless times. Mad atmosphere.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/6910/

Edit - There's also a graphics mod for it that updates all textures etc....well worth having.

http://www.moddb.com/mods/new-vision

5uspect

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

imo the best storytelling game too. maybe not the best story but i can't think of another game that told its story as well as WiC.

I've very fond memories of it.

ShadowHearth

5uspect wrote: »

Found it was fine with a mouse once you disable vsync.

I finished it on pc, I remember there was a very easy fix for it... So people are bit over reacting and did not even bothered googling to fix an issue.
All in all dead space 1 is a fantastic game.

Op:

Try tropico 4, one of the most fun sim games and can be gotten for pennies.

Spunge

Nigga i googled the **** out of it v-sync removed was still fcking weird

farna_boy

Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army is worth a go as well, if you can pick it up cheap. I managed to pick the first and second one for ~€3 each. Best game I have played in a while.

Colonial

Tropico series
Prison architect
Rust
Endless space

chewythefirst

have you tried "DayZ Standalone" it is a great game.

Then there is "Infestation Survivor Stories" was called "WarZ" it is kind of like DayZ just more arcady.

Have a look on this site as well, it has good prices for games.
Dayz is sold out on there at the mo but Infestation is only €4.54 on there

https://www.g2a.com/r/chewythefirst

And there is a great website to always keep an eye on for great deals, and the money you spend goes to charity's of your choosing. company's give them games to sell and as far as i know it all goes to the charity's.

https://www.humblebundle.com/weekly

5uspect

chewythefirst wrote: »

have you tried "DayZ Standalone" it is a great game.

Then there is "Infestation Survivor Stories" was called "WarZ" it is kind of like DayZ just more arcady.

Have a look on this site as well, it has good prices for games.
Dayz is sold out on there at the mo but Infestation is only €4.54 on there

https://www.g2a.com/r/chewythefirst

WarZ? Wasn't that the worst game ever?

chewythefirst

5uspect wrote: »

WarZ? Wasn't that the worst game ever?

No i wouldnt say that, i quite enjoy it.

Retr0gamer

ShadowHearth wrote: »

I finished it on pc, I remember there was a very easy fix for it... So people are bit over reacting and did not even bothered googling to fix an issue.
All in all dead space 1 is a fantastic game.

The games mouse controls are absolutely screwed. It's to do with how it was programmed on consoles. Controls were tied to the performance of the machine. Basically the crappier your rig and the closer it was to the console performance the better the controls. The controls get worse on a high spec machine where the cursor is molasses slow.

Only fix I know of is to use a gamepad.

ShadowHearth

Retr0gamer wrote: »

The games mouse controls are absolutely screwed. It's to do with how it was programmed on consoles. Controls were tied to the performance of the machine. Basically the crappier your rig and the closer it was to the console performance the better the controls. The controls get worse on a high spec machine where the cursor is molasses slow.

Only fix I know of is to use a gamepad.

Well, I finished game with no Issues after doing some fix I found by googling. I cant remember what fix was it, but it worked like a charm and I had no more issues with DS1.
Yes, it has this issue, but there is an easy fix and it is perfectly playable.

Sand

ShadowHearth wrote: »

I finished it on pc, I remember there was a very easy fix for it... So people are bit over reacting and did not even bothered googling to fix an issue.

Having to google to fix a PC game in 2008 or whenever it was ported over? Seriously?

The idea that PC games are in some way routinely unreliable or require you to open up the hood to get working is a myth from back in the 1990s or even earlier. Well designed games work. Badly designed games don't. Dead Space on PC was a lazy, badly implemented game (it seems the designers couldn't be arsed googling the solution) and there are plenty of better alternatives for survival horror.

ShadowHearth

Sand wrote: »

Having to google to fix a PC game in 2008 or whenever it was ported over? Seriously?

The idea that PC games are in some way routinely unreliable or require you to open up the hood to get working is a myth from back in the 1990s or even earlier. Well designed games work. Badly designed games don't. Dead Space on PC was a lazy, badly implemented game (it seems the designers couldn't be arsed googling the solution) and there are plenty of better alternatives for survival horror.

What?

chewythefirst

Sand wrote: »

Having to google to fix a PC game in 2008 or whenever it was ported over? Seriously?

The idea that PC games are in some way routinely unreliable or require you to open up the hood to get working is a myth from back in the 1990s or even earlier. Well designed games work. Badly designed games don't. Dead Space on PC was a lazy, badly implemented game (it seems the designers couldn't be arsed googling the solution) and there are plenty of better alternatives for survival horror.

So what your are trying to say is that all them FEATURES that are in the game to tweak with the controls to make them work best for you are the problem???

I dont know any game i own that i haven't opened the setting and tweaked with something to get it to the way i felt worked best for me.

End of the day it just seems you hate the game, and that is ok. you are allowed to.

If you really like a game you will do what ever it takes to play it and if that means fixing some settings that should have been done already or just tweaking ones you dont like it is not the end of the world.

Sand

chewythefirst wrote: »

So what your are trying to say is that all them FEATURES that are in the game to tweak with the controls to make them work best for you are the problem???

Broken controls are not a feature. They are broken.

@Shadowhearth

What?

Yeah, that's what I said. Googling to fix a broken game made by supposed professionals. Christ almighty.

Spunge

I had a similar problem although the reverse, with skyrim, played it for 50 hours then a new patch ****ed it again. Basically after you disable v-sync the y-axis speed of the mouse becomes tied to your current fps. Drove mef ucking bananas and had to quit. God damn ports.

chewythefirst

Sand wrote: »

Broken controls are not a feature. They are broken.

Well i am guessing that the guy never went into the code of the game to fix it, only the settings. now i might be wrong but if it can be tweaked with and work then again it isn't the end of the world.

Sand

chewythefirst wrote: »

Well i am guessing that the guy never went into the code of the game to fix it, only the settings. now i might be wrong but if it can be tweaked with and work then again it isn't the end of the world.

But there is better games, made by better devs (even amateurs) that don't require people to fix games they already spent money on. What you're basically saying is something simple and easy to fix went right through their quality control without any fix. I agree, but you seem to think that's acceptable in when I think its just lazy and a sign of poor quality. I allow for errors and bugs with alphas, early releases and mods - not for full price games. State of Decay on PC was released early without mouse support (still worked for everything bar the radio), but the devs were up front and offered the game cheap. Dead Space was sold full price as a quality product.

Recommending a lazy, badly made game to someone is a bad recommendation.

riffmongous

But the problem is easily fixed, it's available for free and the game itself is great.. sounds like a pretty good recommendation to me, which I would gladly second

chewythefirst

Sand wrote: »

But there is better games, made by better devs (even amateurs) that don't require people to fix games they already spent money on. What you're basically saying is something simple and easy to fix went right through their quality control without any fix. I agree, but you seem to think that's acceptable in when I think its just lazy and a sign of poor quality. I allow for errors and bugs with alphas, early releases and mods - not for full price games. State of Decay on PC was released early without mouse support (still worked for everything bar the radio), but the devs were up front and offered the game cheap. Dead Space was sold full price as a quality product.

Recommending a lazy, badly made game to someone is a bad recommendation.

riffmongous wrote: »

But the problem is easily fixed, it's available for free and the game itself is great.. sounds like a pretty good recommendation to me, which I would gladly second

And having played it using a xbox controller and know how good it is i also would recommend it.

WanderingElk

Cant go wrong with skyrim or old school age of empires

mewso

Sand wrote: »

But there is better games, made by better devs (even amateurs) that don't require people to fix games they already spent money on. What you're basically saying is something simple and easy to fix went right through their quality control without any fix. I agree, but you seem to think that's acceptable in when I think its just lazy and a sign of poor quality. I allow for errors and bugs with alphas, early releases and mods - not for full price games. State of Decay on PC was released early without mouse support (still worked for everything bar the radio), but the devs were up front and offered the game cheap. Dead Space was sold full price as a quality product.

Recommending a lazy, badly made game to someone is a bad recommendation.

Irrelevant excuse for moaning. You buy a game. Something is wrong with it. You find a relatively straight-forward fix for it online. Serious problem now presents itself - apply fix and play the game or sit there and hate the developers for not doing a proper job on it? Hmm a toughie. I've lost count of the amount of times I've googled fixes for various game issues. Part of the life of a PC gamer rightly or wrongly. I'm not saying criticism for the state of the game is unwarranted but given this scenario where something I can do will allow me to play the game then I will do so.

nesf

mewso wrote: »

Irrelevant excuse for moaning. You buy a game. Something is wrong with it. You find a relatively straight-forward fix for it online. Serious problem now presents itself - apply fix and play the game or sit there and hate the developers for not doing a proper job on it? Hmm a toughie. I've lost count of the amount of times I've googled fixes for various game issues. Part of the life of a PC gamer rightly or wrongly. I'm not saying criticism for the state of the game is unwarranted but given this scenario where something I can do will allow me to play the game then I will do so.

There's a legitimate argument in that larger publishers shouldn't be releasing ports that are broken. Fan fixes are great, but really they should be for getting older games to work on new OSs not fixing something in a new enough game that the developer should have handled themselves. Skyrim's memory issues on release were a good example of this kind of nonsense.

mewso

nesf wrote: »

There's a legitimate argument in that larger publishers shouldn't be releasing ports that are broken. Fan fixes are great, but really they should be for getting older games to work on new OSs not fixing something in a new enough game that the developer should have handled themselves. Skyrim's memory issues on release were a good example of this kind of nonsense.

Like I said nesf I'm not saying all is sweetness and light when these things happen but if you have the game and there is a simple fix you're going to get on with it. When it comes to Dead Space I have never played it but just got it free from Origin so I suppose I'll be googling for a fix myself when I get around to playing it. Then again I don't have a controller, only a mouse so as Sir Digby says I'm not a real gamer.

nesf

mewso wrote: »

Like I said nesf I'm not saying all is sweetness and light when these things happen but if you have the game and there is a simple fix you're going to get on with it. When it comes to Dead Space I have never played it but just got it free from Origin so I suppose I'll be googling for a fix myself when I get around to playing it. Then again I don't have a controller, only a mouse so as Sir Digby says I'm not a real gamer.

Nah, my point is more that it shouldn't be "It was broke, but it's ok there's a fix" but "There's a fix but it isn't ok that it's broke." I'm happy to have fixes come out, some games only really come to shine with user modding but there should be a clarfication that this kind of thing isn't ok, people shouldn't have to rely on user fixes for recent games to run properly (as opposed to better, e.g. I don't think the high res mods for Skyrim speak badly of Bethesda).

I would get a controller though, it makes like easier and they aren't that expensive. :P

Fnz

I thought the mouse control felt off in Dead Space, despite toggling the v-sync option (as per internet suggestion).

I did not enjoy the dismemberment mechanic in-practise either, despite appreciating that the developer was trying something novel. These issues may have, each, exasperated the other.

Robert ninja

There is currently no proper fix for the Dead Space 1 PC controls. There's a few ways to reduce the bad effect but nothing can get rid of it completely. I even tried the gamepad technique and it was honestly no better in my opinion. Don't forget the FPS problem I mentioned earlier. If you're playing at 60fps (or god forbid any higher) the QTEs require double the amount of inputs because the tick-rate of them is tied to the original console fps, 30. Not only are QTEs a bad gaming mechanic, they're worse on PC because who honestly wants to mash their keyboard keys? Try doing that at 120fps which is what I played it at, I'd have to mash the keys 4 times faster than you would on the console.

The game is borked, no exception. It's an absolute waste of your time, internet bandwidth and HDD space to play it on PC. I picked it up for 5 quid in a bargain bin for ps3. It's a good game, EA just dun goofed as usual. And now the series is a mess. If you're desperate for horror there's lots of good alternatives that work perfect on PC out there. Penumbra series, Amnesia series, System Shock series, Outlast, F.E.A.R 1.

Silent Hill games on PC take a bit of tweaking to get right. I've got the unofficial patch running for SH2 to get it to 1080 and use only one CPU core (without needing to set affinity every time it boots) and SH3 luckily has config files you can edit to get to 1080 or more as well. Then I use a mix of a xinput wrapper for my DS3 gamepad and Xpadder to get the controls as close to the original PS2 controls as possible. (will share the profiles if anyone wants) Sh4 takes too much effort to get to run in a higher res with proper FOV in my opinion, but the game itself performs ok. Sh3 with a decent sound card and headphones is f'ing scary when you get it all set up perfectly.

gaynorvader

Surprised no one's mentioned FTL. Buy FTL.
Rogue Legacy is also good fun if you're into sidescrolling platforming kind of games.

Spunge

Robert ninja wrote: »

There is currently no proper fix for the Dead Space 1 PC controls. There's a few ways to reduce the bad effect but nothing can get rid of it completely. I even tried the gamepad technique and it was honestly no better in my opinion. Don't forget the FPS problem I mentioned earlier. If you're playing at 60fps (or god forbid any higher) the QTEs require double the amount of inputs because the tick-rate of them is tied to the original console fps, 30. Not only are QTEs a bad gaming mechanic, they're worse on PC because who honestly wants to mash their keyboard keys? Try doing that at 120fps which is what I played it at, I'd have to mash the keys 4 times faster than you would on the console.

The game is borked, no exception. It's an absolute waste of your time, internet bandwidth and HDD space to play it on PC. I picked it up for 5 quid in a bargain bin for ps3. It's a good game, EA just dun goofed as usual. And now the series is a mess. If you're desperate for horror there's lots of good alternatives that work perfect on PC out there. Penumbra series, Amnesia series, System Shock series, Outlast, F.E.A.R 1.

Silent Hill games on PC take a bit of tweaking to get right. I've got the unofficial patch running for SH2 to get it to 1080 and use only one CPU core (without needing to set affinity every time it boots) and SH3 luckily has config files you can edit to get to 1080 or more as well. Then I use a mix of a xinput wrapper for my DS3 gamepad and Xpadder to get the controls as close to the original PS2 controls as possible. (will share the profiles if anyone wants) Sh4 takes too much effort to get to run in a higher res with proper FOV in my opinion, but the game itself performs ok. Sh3 with a decent sound card and headphones is f'ing scary when you get it all set up perfectly.

FOV, v-sync , aspect ratio, mouse speed. ****ing ports man.

Vicxas

gaynorvader wrote: »

Surprised no one's mentioned FTL. Buy FTL.
Rogue Legacy is also good fun if you're into sidescrolling platforming kind of games.

This,

These games are cheap, cheerful and a really good example of the Indy gaming surge.