Game Recommendations
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These are my current, modern recommendations. There are many other games I've greatly enjoyed, which I would not recommend right now, either because they're too outdated (e.g. Etherlords 2), or because the online community that made them great no longer exists (e.g. WoW).
Even if you prefer MacOS or Linux for general use, you should use a dedicated Windows system for games. Many games don't exist on other platforms, or take years to release a port, usually with compatibility issues and poor performance. Many games have essential mods only available on Windows. Windows also allows a much better selection of hardware.
Always, always check PC Gaming Wiki for essential tweaks and mods for any given game. For many games, it's also worth using mods from Nexus Mods, but beware of spoilers.
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Hades
Masterpiece roguelike. Excellent game design and implementation, writing and voicing, music, sounds, UI, and more. Gamepad recommended, with macros. Read my tips & tricks!
Slay the Spire
Strategic roguelike deck building dungeon crawler. Incredibly well designed and implemented. One run ≈ 2-3 hours.
FTL: Faster Than Light
One of the greatest roguelikes. Highly influential, and highly enjoyable. Start on Easy difficulty. One run ≈ 2-3 hours.
Beneath Oresa
Strategic roguelike deck building dungeon crawler in beautiful 3D, set in distant future. One run ≈ 2-3 hours.
Subnautica
Exploring, surviving, crafting, and building in an amazingly beautiful alien ocean. Doesn't hand-hold, tell you where to go, or what to do. Highly recommended!
Subnautica: Below Zero
Subnautica's expansion that became its own game. Slightly different environment and toys, but basically more of the same. Smaller than the original.
Astroneer
Planetary exploration, survival, resource gathering, building, terraforming. Watch my video guides!
Undertale
Touching, uplifting story. Highly recommended. Don't let yourself be deterred by pixel art.
Talos Principle
Well-designed puzzle game with amazingly deep and thought-provoking writing. Excellent relaxing music. Take your time, play it slow, and think. (DLC too!)
Steins Gate
One of the greatest time travel stories. Gripping, coherent, based on well-researched science, brimming with otaku references, a true geek party! Also watch the anime: Steins Gate, then Steins Gate 0. Use essential community patch.
Darkest Dungeon
Turn-based, party-based dungeon crawler inspired by Lovecraftian horror stories, with fairly unique mechanics and a colorful overarching narration for everything, especially your blunders.
Divinity Original Sin 2
Marvelous RPG with deep mechanics, amazing writing, characters, voices, dialogues, story, music, and more. Check my tips & tricks!
Horizon Zero Dawn
True masterpiece of an RPG, set in a post-apocalyptic world where advanced robots roam the wilds. Excellent game design, story, characters, dialogues, music, graphics, UI, marred only by atrocious mouse handling.
Mass Effect Trilogy (Legendary Edition)
One of the greatest sci-fi RPG experiences ever made. Huge influence on other games and on many people's lives. Mechanics and graphics are outdated by modern standards, but the setting, characters, dialogues, story, music and more are timeless.
Mass Effect: Andromeda
Worthy successor to previous ME titles. Excellent sci-fi RPG in its own right. Requires unfucking. Read my recommendations.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Marvelous RPG set in near future, exploring themes of human cyborg augmentation, secret societies, and more. Worthy successor to the original Deus Ex. I wrote a review that's closer to a love letter!
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Excellent sequel to DEHR. More of the same, with massively improved graphics and lowered stakes. Great writing, dialogues, characters, music, atmosphere, gameplay. Highly satisfying to a Deus Ex fan.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
Badass melee slasher with cyborgs, vibroblades, giant robots, metal music, and some surprisingly thoughtful dialogues. Requires a gamepad.
Nier Automata
Post-apocalyptic story of androids and alien machine lifeforms. Thought-provoking and touching. Brought me to tears. Avoid spoilers! Go for "true ending"! Use original Japanese voiceovers. Requires external tools, check PCGW. Requires a gamepad.
Prey
True successor to System Shock. Stealth gameplay on an abandoned space station infested by truly alien outsiders. Love the environments, gameplay, music. Thoughtful. See PCGW for tweaks and tools.
Control
Shooter / magic hybrid in a setting where all the paranormal sci-fi tropes are real. If you've read "Понедельник начинается в субботу", this may feel familiar.
Doom (2016)
Excellent shootfest against demonic monsters. Competent sequel to the classic Doom games. Doesn't outstay its welcome. Read my impressions and tips & tricks!
Doom Eternal
Competent sequel to Doom (2016). More of the same, with refined mechanics, improved UI, excellent new environments, and various retcons in the plot.
Singularity
Well-wrought time travel story and a competent first-person shooter. Set on an abandoned Soviet research island. Very atmospheric. Bilingual bonus for Russian speakers.
Borderlands
Stylish, atmospheric shooter / looter with unique enemy and environment designs, and loot mechanics similar to Diablo.
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
More of the same, with its own unique environments and mechanics. Does a great job bridging the story between BL1 and BL2.
Borderlands 2
The ultimate Borderlands game. Culmination of the story, with highly memorable characters and environments, and with lots of excellent DLCs. Should be played after BL:TPS.
Tales from the Borderlands
Pure story / adventure set on Pandora after Borderlands 2, featuring new protagonists. If you loved previous Borderlands games, this is worth a playthrough.
Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
RPG following after the events of the original Witcher books. Excellent writing, characters, dialogues, music. Requires unfucking, check my recommendations.
Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Legendary RPG beloved by all. Excellent writing, characters, dialogues, music, combat mechanics, and more, and it is HUGE. Requires unfucking, read my recommendations.
Star Wars: Jedi: Fallen Order
Apprentice Jedi exploring various planets, fighting stormtroopers and monsters. Mechanically similar to Dark Souls. Somewhat simplistic but well-delivered. Graphics require unfucking via ReShade (link; tweak ingame for best results).
Portal
Highly influential and acclaimed puzzle game. Excellent in its minimalism. For added context, I recommend playing Half-Life 2 first; Portal takes place in the same world, at the same time.
Portal 2
Sequel to Portal, with more mechanics and a longer campaign. Well-made, well-rounded, even if not particularly revolutionary.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Classic SW RPG with excellent writing and dialogues. Uses simplified D&D mechanics. Dated but well worth it. Avoid spoilers!
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: the Sith Lords
Thoughtful sequel exploring the fallout of your "heroic deeds" in the previous game. Excellent writing and dialogues. Requires community patches, see PCGW.
Neverwinter Nights
Classic RPG using D&D 3.5 rules in pseudo real time. Don't be deterred by the boring OG campaign; expansions get better, and there's fun in the mechanics. Use console commands to un-slog.
Bastion
Charming top-down adventure game in a unique post-apocalyptic setting. Touching story, mood, music, narration. Originally for mobile devices, simplistic but worth a playthrough for its charm.
Darksiders
Zelda-style adventure in post-apocalyptic environments populated by demons and angels. Badass characters, competent delivery. Mechanics are somewhat simplistic but ambitiously varied.
Darksiders 2
Competent sequel with its own stylish environments, great music, mood, and much improved combat mechanics. Worth a playthrough if you liked Darksiders 1.
Darksiders 3
A Darksiders game closer to DMC in terms of combat, with minor Dark Souls influences. Questionable writing, atrocious ending sequence. Otherwise well made.
Half-Life 2
Influential first-person shooter with fluid on-the-fly story narration. Somewhat primitive by modern standards, but still recommended, especially if you plan to play Portal.
Half-Life 2: Episode One
Continues the story of Half-Life 2, followed by Episode Two.
Half-Life 2: Episode Two
Continues the story of Half-Life 2: Episode One. The story is left unfinished.
No Man's Sky
Exploring an open-world galaxy where everything is procedurally generated. Lots of features. Use a save editor to minimize grinding.
Warframe
Third person shooter / melee hybrid with deep mechanics and a bewildering bevy of features and toys. Read stupid headcanon authored by me and friends (spoilers!).