Need a game for beginner computer gamer.

Alright so I just bought my first Laptop(actually second but I only had my first one for about a month until my uncle stole it so I don't count that one) . I've never really played a computer game besides emulators and flash games, so can someone recommend me a game to get me started with please, I'm open to pretty much any genre of game except RTS games. And is there anything that I should know/need?

 

Well we'll need to know what the specs of your laptop are, and what your interests are.

If you've got a fairly modern laptop, you could try Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, which is really popular right now. Or you could check out a classic, Half Life 2 and Counter Strike Source. If you are into RPGs, Dragon Age Origins is supposed to be amazing. It's a bit of a shame you don't like RTS games, I would probably say along with FPS and RPG games, RTS is one of the strongest genres on PC.

 

One of my all time favorites is Counter-Strike:Source. Its an excellent First Person Shooter. You can also get games like Crysis which is along the same lines also! If you like FPS games, then also look into the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare2. Both are top notch games right now and about as realistic as it gets!

 

I have an ASUS G72GX With a GTX 260M, 2.53ghz and 6gb of ram. And I'm looking for a game that isn't to expensive something cheap to get me started. Is that all you need to know?

 

Ok so your laptop is in pretty good shape, should be able to handle any game that anyone mentions. The only other thing I guess is do you like to play multiplayer, like online with other people? Or do you prefer solo games?

I would definitely recommend downloading Steam right now and checking out the holiday deals they have. You can get it here, the download link is a little green box on the right.
You can see all the sales they have here. There's a lot of good games you can get for cheap. Personally, I grabbed the World in Conflict package for 9.99. It was a pretty well received RTS, but it doesn't have any resource management like a traditional RTS.
You can also get Assassin's Creed for 9.99, another very well received Action RPG game, which I will probably also get.

 

Use Steam.

Go here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=445010
(go to the last page)

Today is the last day of deals. They have good games for $2.

You can always get any game and play it on its easiest difficulty until you get some practice.

 

Perhaps try out Diablo 2 or Roller Coaster Tycoon?

 

Some of these are not PC exclusives, but still great games.
Also these sale prices end today, I linked these to Steam; worth checking out if you are going to game on pc.

Fallout 3 $37.49 <Strike>$49.99</strike>
Bioshock $4.99 <strike>$19.99</strike>
Crysis: Maximum Edition $40
Plants vs Zombies $7.49 <strike>$9.99</strike>
Torchlight $4.99 <strike>$19.99</strike>

 

^^^ What he said

Defense Grid is a great Tower defense game that is easy to get used to playing, but challenging.

Plus The Orange Box. You can't miss Half-Life 2, the episodes, and Portal.

Also consider Riddick Dark Athena, but play Butcher Bay that comes with it, because it is an awesome game. Butcher Bay is re-released with the new game engine, but the game otherwise is left mainly unchanged, which is a great thing because it is a great game.

 

Ok so i will be downloading steam then will probably buy Bioshock and The Orange Box. What is the ideal FPS that someone can play a game without problems? and what programs are useless? They were already installed http://i857.photobucket.com/albums/ab134/ICantFeelMyFace01/AsusDesktopShortcuts.png

 

If you install steam use the following link to get portal first slice, HL2 deathmatch and HL2 lost coast for free. http://www.steampowered.com/nvidia/

 

Asus Utility and Bloatware guide.

And drop on by the Asus board in general. There are plenty of ways to squeeze every last bit out of your new laptop.

I strongly suggest Left 4 Dead 2

 

take a look at the eidos collectors pack on steam you get a massive amount of games for only $50 there is something for everyone's tastes in that pack

you could also get stalker right now for $2 after that get a mod for it called stalker complete from here http://artistpavel.blogspot.com/2009/04/stalker-complete-2009.html

that mod improves the game in almost every way from graphics to even AI.

zombie driver is also another good one that actually utilizes physx too.

cant forget the left for dead either of those are very fun to play and they also support splitscreen play with a few easy commands.

killing floor is a very fun multiplayer game.

i bought a game called cogs which is a very addicting puzzle game.

if you buy the orange box make sure to look at the mods found on steam as there are some very fun ones like zombie master for example. best of all any mods you get for it are free.

the ideal fps in my personal opinion would be something at least above 24 fps which the gpu on your laptop will easily be able to pull off on any of those games at max details except for crysis and gta 4 but those games usually run like junk on most computers anyway.

there is alot of games to choose from right now on steam. the best thing about getting games from steam is that you dont have to worry about carrying any discs with you which is a massive bonus to a laptop user

some games i can think of that are superb but are not sold on steam is gears of war and halo 2.

dunno if lost planet colonies edition is sold on steam but that game is great too.

i also really liked ninja blade but lots of people didnt.

if i can think of any other ill let yah know.

 

I'm with Forge, definetly consider Left 4 Dead 2. Orange box is a wise move, endless possibilities with Mods. For military shooters i'm a big fan of Call of Duty 4: MW.

Got COD:MW2 as a Christmas gift, single player is short but fun, haven't delved too much into Multiplayer yet.

 

I want MW2 lol But $60 bucks? "Get outta here" ... Im gonna get myself Bioshock and Elders Scrolls (the double pack on BB)

 

steams the way to go for getting games. personally, I'd suggest Team Fortress 2 (or the whole orange box), as its fun and simple, altho there is a learning curve to it. A pretty simple game that most people like and is very popular right now is Left 4 Dead 2. Modern Warfare 2 is great and popular too, those are probably the two most popular PC games right now. Both are $60 though. IMO, worth it =D

 

I downloaded the free games on steam and on the portal game it says download starting but it has said that for about an hour and last time i checked it was 94% complete. what can i do to make it 100% complete?

 

PC exclusive:

RPG:
Witcher - Enhanced Edition (fantasy horror from Steam or Direct2Drive)

Turn-Based Strategy:
Civilization 4 (historical from Steam or D2D)
Galactic Civilizations 2 (sci-fi from Impulse)
Heroes of Might and Magic 5 (fantasy from Steam or D2D)
King's Bounty series (fanstasy from Steam or D2D)

Real-Time Strategy:
Dawn of War 2 (sci-fi/fantasy from Steam)
Sins of a Solar Empire (sci-fi from Impulse)
Age of Empires 3 (historical)
Total War: Empire or Medieval 2 or Rome (historical from Steam or D2D)

Classic:
X-Com (sci-fi, turn-based from Steam, D2D or gog.com)
Heroes of Might and Magic 3 (fantasy, turn-based from gog.com)
Fallout series (sci-fi, RPG from gog.com, Steam and D2D)

More recent, non-exclusive games worth playing:

Borderlands
Batman: Arkham Asylum

 

tetris is great for beginners. my 3 year old brother loves it

 

Do you think my laptop can handle it?lol

 

the problem with rts and turn based strategy is when you buy from steam you get no directions 99% of the time. I got red alert and DoW 2 but i havent played them yet due to complexity.

might be easier to stick with fps. then all you gotto worry about is switching weapons

 

To be honest, there is no good beginner game. Just play any game that interests you and everyone goes from beginner to better. My 1st game was Halo: Combat Evolved.

 

First, as in first game, ever?

Anyway, whoever said Rollercoaster Tycoon had an awesome suggestion. Classic game that you can play forever. I remember getting the second one free in a cereal box a long time ago, but we paid full price for the original, with the full retail box and long, detailed user manual. Good times....

 

Well basically yes my first computer game ever of course not including mine sweeper, solitaire, etc.

 

Icantfeelmyface, you should list what would you like in a game besides the genre. Would steer us in the right direction in helping ya

 

Well for FPS I would like it to have a good single player and a big multiplayer community, It doesn't need to have both, and I will probably get MW2 once I get the hang of FPS on my laptop. For RPG's I would like for it to basically have a good story. And would like to have some little time waster games like the games they have on the xbox arcade and psn store.

Off Topic: Can someone recommend me a Mouse? and Mouse Pad? I didn't want to start a new thread just to ask for a mouse recommendation.

 

I recommend playing a game called 3dmark.

It's fun in single player and has a huge multiplayer community, just what you're after

 

Pansy. I went straight to 3dMark06.

 

I've been here long enough to know that's not a game.lol.

 

Well TECHNICALLY, it is. The CPU part of the benchmark is actually a playable game if you buy the pro version.

Btw, if your looking for a good singleplayer FPS, get the Orange Box, and play through HL2, ep1-ep2 etc, and/or get Bioshock, Crysis, CoD4, or pretty much any of the awesome STALKER games.

For Multiplayer, it would have to be L4D2,TF2, CoD4, CoDWaW, BF2142 or CS:S, but being new to PC gaming, you'd probably have to get used to the server browsers, and using server filters to find the perfect servers that fit what you like.

 

Like what the others said, MW2 is a good start; single player has changable difficulty levels and offer a seemingly understandable tutorial, and the multiplayer can start after you got the hang of the singleplayer ALTHOUGH! The story of singleplayer continues on from MW1 so you might be lost at some point.

Half-Life 2 + Expansions offer a good singleplayer experience and a good story as well, also a good start. Most FPS have similar controls...so it shouldn't be long before you start getting hooked on games .

A good RPG would be Dragon Age; amazing story, amazing voice acting, and amazing graphics and gameplay BUT it can get really hard at times...but you mentioned you didn't like RTS; Dragon Age sometimes is played from the RTS perspective, well strategic part that is.

Multiplayer community? Well you could invest in some Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOs) if you have some money to spare every month, or go for Steam and look for the games that others have mentioned in here . A lot of games on Steam are multiplayer based and are pretty good!

As for the mouse, what's your budget and features on it, like do you want buttons on the side or just a simple one, do you want it to look amazing, do you want it to glow in colours, slow response or fast response?

 

Must have games: The Orange Box and Counter-Strike: Source.
Also get Left 4 Dead 2 if you like multiplayer coop.

 

I won't restate a lot of what has been said here. There are many good recommendations.

As for the mouse I would head over to Best Buy and place some of them in your hands and see what's good for you.

It has been my experience that different hand types makes one mouse preferable over another. Orientation is another factor (right versus left) that determines what you enjoy. Also, dpi is yet another issue you need to address. The higher the dpi the more precise the mouse. Look for a good variation in numbers, most newer mice allow this to be changed on the fly via a button on the mouse itself.

 

I really like the Steelseries gaming mouse, not to fancy with bright lights. xD

 

Psyconauts...Period

 

If you're into shooter definitely check out Team Fortress 2 from Orange Box, and also Modern Warfare 2 as others have suggested.

 

be sure to set you internet speed and the server closest to you in STEAM options iirc. Vital for downloads speeds/

 

CS:S is a no. Being dead 15 sec into a match isnt fun for a beginner. rinse and repeat. Take my word for it.

I agee with the rest though.

 

Age of Empires 1, Age of Empires 2.
Halo
Counterstrike / Half life series
--> I think those are the must have played games.
If your computer can take it (I'm sure it will) Rome total war: very incredible.

Edit: The battlefield and call of duty series are also an importent part of pc gaming.

 

For mouse, I'm personally partial to the Logitech G9. However, I'd suggest you go to BB and get hands on with the demo mice to see which feel most comfortable to you.

Also, I'd throw in that you should get Impulse. It's the underdog digital distrobution platform, but if you buy from them, you are supporting a dev/pub (Stardock) that doesn't believe in DRM. I use both Steam and Impulse, but try to buy from Impulse if a game is on both services.

As to games, definitely the Half-Lifes (Half-Lives? How do you pluralize a proper noun like that...), and I'm a big fan of Sid Meyer's Railroads and Pirates, as well as the classics like the Diablos.

 

Regular CS:S matches are much harder for beginners.
Forgot that. xD

Maybe Garry's Mod could be something?
Its Half-Life 2, only with sandbox gameplay.
And since you control everything that happens it should be pretty easy to pick up.

 

Apparently the OP doesn't like the RTS genre

 

1. steam is a must for laptop games and it abstracts you from a lot of the pain of installing games, managing the discs, and keeping current with the latest patches.

2. use steam

3. america's army is a free FPS (found on steam)

4. trackmania nations is a free puzzle-racing game on steam

5. when you are ready to move on from those, get modern warfare 2 and/or left 4 dead 2, if you like first person shooters.

 

Wow the gaming mice are expensive, My budget is about $20-$30 and I would like it to have a button on the side, and don't really care if it glows or not and I want it to have a fast response.

 

I've seen a videos of CS:S online and that looks crazy its like as soon as they see you you're dead.lol. I will work my way up to that game.

Thanks, I will download americas army and trackmania nation

 

Basically any game. i mean i started with Star Wars Galaxies wich was an advanced game at the time i played it and im a better gamer because of it.

Play what intrests you. Challenge yourself.

 

One of the reasons I recommend Left 4 Dead is because the "base" experience is cooperative. In player-against-player games, especially something like Counter-Strike, a lot of smack gets talked, and if you're a new player it can put you off. At the very least it won't make the learning experience very fun.

In Left 4 Dead your teammates have to work with you. If you fail, the entire team fails. If they don't teach you how to play, they're shooting themselves in the foot. If you get fingered by a Charger, head-humped by a Jockey, tongued (yes, "tongued") by a Smoker, pounced by Hunter, or PWNED by a Witch, you can rely on your team to help you even if they reason for the PWN is your inexperience.

And if you do graduate to the "I can take/talk smack" stage, there's the Versus aspect of the game, too.

 

Fingered? Head-Humped? Tongued?

Seriously?

 

You're slipping, Pear-Man.

You forgot pounced.

 

I never slip, Mr Forge.

My mind is as sharp as the day I discovered this forum...

Plus, I thought pounced wasn't as ridiculous as the other three.