Pretend I was an old withered man, wandering in from the desert after 7 years roaming. I come to your bedoiun tent looking for a gaming feast. I’m not starving, but my meals have been whatever XBox food I could scrounge up for 7 years. In you invite me, to get some food and water and see all the new PC gaming dishes that gaming chefs have invented over the last 7 years. What are the best morsels to sink my gaming teeth into from the last 7 years? Also, is there a literary term for 7 years?
In other news, I just recoverd my Steam account. Yay!
If you enjoyed playing Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis III, Hearts of Iron III, Empire: Total War, Combat Mission: Shock Force, Anno 1404, Dawn of War 2 or Arma 2 before you went into the desert, then boy do I have good news for you!
I would offer you a first course of Prison Architect, and once you’ve gotten used to that, a second course of Rimworld. We are at the beginning of a renaissance of 2D strategy games.
RimWorld is Dwarf Fortress but a lot easier to grok. So of course I’ll recommend it.
I think 7 years puts us past Mount and Blade: Warband as well. That’s one of my top games of all time.
Crusader Kings 2 was a masterpiece, but I have no idea how it’s held up over a bunch more patches (I last played probably 1.5 years ago).
All of those games I have 200+ hours in.
Witcher 3 if you didn’t play on console. Now.
Starbound and/or Terraria. A bunch of fun.
Kerbal Space Program. Be NASA.
Satellite Reign - if you want to play a cyberpunk tactics game sort of like Syndicate.
Opus Magnum - Puzzle through mechanics.
FTL - Simple accessible roguelike-y thing.
Creeper World 3. You’ll just have to trust me, because it doesn’t look like much.
I don’t know if Team Fortress 2 has held up. I’m guessing it’s been eclipsed by Overwatch anyways, but I stopped playing those types of shooters recently.
Editing to add: Magicka, The Talos Principle, Offworld Trading Company, Towerfall Ascension, Infested Planet.
Assume you completed Mass Effect series and Wastelands 2, XCOM 2 and Fallout 4 on the Xbox, if not…play those now! :) Those are my must play recommendations!
If you like Action RPGs, I highly recommend Grim Dawn. It is the best ARPG yet.
If you like rally racing games, you have to play DiRT Rally. It is sublime. It’s also available on consoles, but I don’t think it sold well on consoles, so you mostly likely didn’t buy it there.
Did you enjoy the Might & Magic games back in the early to mid-90s? The turn-based ones? Well, if you did, I recommend checking out M&M X: Legacy, a sequel that no one expected. It’s a love letter, and I thought it was wonderful. I eventually did get stuck in a hard area, but I’ll get back to it someday.
For 100% full disclosure, you should mention that someone is currently developing the greatest space game of all time. So all others will be obsoleted. I read all about it on the Internet.
It would probably be the most helpful to know what you are in the mood for right now. 7 years is a LOT of great PC gaming, and we need to narrow this down to one or two suggestions you can dive into and enjoy. Some of the stuff being suggested is available on console, as well.
Is there a specific genre you are interested in above all others? Strategy? First Person Shooter? Indie?
