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My First Gaming PC Comes in This Week - What Do I Play?

D

Deadly Cyclone

Pride of Iowa State
So, thanks to a nice SlickDeal I ordered this:

HP ENVY Phoenix 810-430qe
4th Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790K processor quad-core [4.0GHz, 8MB Shared Cache]
4GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 [DVI-I, HDMI, DP, DP. DP]
8GB DDR3-1600MHz [1 DIMM ]
2TB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
HP WLAN 802.11 ac 2x2 DB MCard BT WIDI
Windows 8.1 64

I know I'll need to grab an SSD and up the RAM to 16GB, but I'll get to that.

I have a decent, albeit small, Steam library. What should I get to test the power of my first rig? I saw the X-Com mod looked pretty good, was thinking about grabbing that to play for a bit.

Also it's going to be interesting deciding where to buy games now, PC, PS4, or XBO. I'll likely grab Witcher 3 on PC now for sure.
 
T

Tenebrous

Member
Pillars of Eternity.

To test the power of your rig... Crysis 3 can be found for under a tenner, and Witcher 2 goes on sale often. GTA5 tonight/tomorrow.
 
A

arcoN

Neo Member
Right now?

Dragon Age Inquisition if you like rpgs.
Battlefield 4 (or maybe hardline) if you like shooter.

And in general tonight GTAV and Witcher 3 in a Month.

//BTW Welcome to the Masterrace ;)
 
D

Deadly Cyclone

Pride of Iowa State
Thanks for the suggestions. I may grab GTA (for the third time...).

Do most games these days support gamepads? I assume the XBO controller has drivers?
 
T

Tenebrous

Member
Deadly Cyclone said:
Thanks for the suggestions. I may grab GTA (for the third time...).

Do most games these days support gamepads? I assume the XBO controller has drivers?
Click to expand...

Pad support is great. Almost every game that's suited to a controller will be plug-and-play with an X360 pad, just as if you were on a console. I've not tried an X1 pad, though I'm sure someone else here will help you out.
 
C

Corpekata

Banned
Deadly Cyclone said:
Thanks for the suggestions. I may grab GTA (for the third time...).

Do most games these days support gamepads? I assume the XBO controller has drivers?
Click to expand...

90 percent of games do. The other 10 percent tend to be games that are PC exclusive and don't make sense for it (like an RTS).

Xbox one controller has drivers, but needs to be played wired right now. Most games will see it as a 360 pad but a few will show up with One inputs.
 
P

patapuf

Member
Try Dota 2... just a little bit.

A bit more seriously, if it's the horsepower you want to test something like crysis 3, BF4, AC unity, Rise or the upcoming witcher 3 all look great.

If it's good games i'd try stuff you don't find on consoles.

Total War, CS, Dota, Civilisations, one of the recent crpgs like divinity or pillars of eternity, modding a bethestha game etc.
 
B

BiggNife

Member
Deadly Cyclone said:
Thanks for the suggestions. I may grab GTA (for the third time...).

Do most games these days support gamepads? I assume the XBO controller has drivers?
Click to expand...
Almost every PC game release in the past ten years supports the xbox 360 wired controller out of the box. MS did recently release drivers for the XBO controller, which I believe works with any 360 controller game. So basically everything.

As for what to get, unless you really want something RIGHT NOW, I would wait and see what Steam has on sale for the next few weeks and see if anything catches your eye. This is basically how I built my Steam library - I think I only bought a couple games at full price in the past year.
 
D

digitalrelic

Banned
Ryse is a fantastic graphical showcase. It's probably my favorite go-to game from a purely graphical standpoint. Assassin's Creed Unity is amazing looking as well. FarCry 4 & Crysis 3 are also mighty impressive. I actually have practically the same rig as you. I7 4790k, GTX 980, 16GB of RAM.
 
A

AJLma

Member
Without knowing how much console gaming you've done:

Metro: Last Light is one of my favorite FPS of the past few years, great looking game too.
Cities: Skylines
Dark Souls 2: SOTFS
Dead Rising 3 should run well on your 980
Ziggurat (!!!)
MGS: Ground Zeroes
Shadow Warrior
Middle Earth: Shadow of Morder
 
D

Deadly Cyclone

Pride of Iowa State
digitalrelic said:
Ryse is a fantastic graphical showcase. It's probably my favorite go-to game from a purely graphical standpoint. Assassin's Creed Unity is amazing looking as well. FarCry 4 & Crysis 3 are mighty impressive as well. I actually have practically the same rig as you. I7 4790k, GTX 980, 16GB of RAM.
Click to expand...

Oh nice. How does that setup run? :p

As for console gaming, I've played most everything. May re-buy a few games to play again though. I have some (like Mirror's Edge, XCom, etc) in my Steam library to play as well. Also have Massive Chalice I've been wanting to play, and Cities Skylines.
 
S

Steverulez

Member
Get Banished, get a town of 1000~ citizens, then you will know you've joined PC gaming*

*May or may not be true, but still get Banished.
 
B

bede-x

Member
Deadly Cyclone said:
Also it's going to be interesting deciding where to buy games now, PC, PS4, or XBO. I'll likely grab Witcher 3 on PC now for sure.
Click to expand...

That'll quickly become very easy, especially with your rig. PC version is typically cheaper, will run better, supports many different controllers, online is free and in all likelihood it'll run on the next PC you buy as well.

As for something to test the power of your system, Ryse is technically very accomplished. An unremarkable game, but it looks lovely.
 
G

Genio88

Member
You don't need 16GB of RAM at all, 8GB are more than enough for gaming, save those money for a huge SSD instead, that will do the difference. To test that rig the best games are always the same Crysis 3, Battlefield 4, Tomb Raider 2013 maxed out.
You didn't write which monitor/tv are you going to use though, 1080p? 1440p? 4k? 3D?
 
D

digitalrelic

Banned
Deadly Cyclone said:
Oh nice. How does that setup run? :p
Click to expand...

Locked 60fps @1080P literally 99% of the time. A couple levels in Ryse caused a few drops but other than that I haven't had a single game dip below 60fps w/ all settings maxed (minus some ridiculously superfluous AA & super sampling options, of course). My setup is pretty aggressively overclocked though. You will love your rig :).
 
T

TheLetdown

Member
Deadly Cyclone said:
Oh nice. How does that setup run? :p

As for console gaming, I've played most everything. May re-buy a few games to play again though. I have some (like Mirror's Edge, XCom, etc) in my Steam library to play as well. Also have Massive Chalice I've been wanting to play, and Cities Skylines.
Click to expand...

I know your initial question was on the lines of what games to try out, but most of these suggestions have been solid ones. Take a game out that you can blow the lid off of, like Ryse, and just watch it.

So, my suggestion would be on the technical side: consider picking up an SSD for your system (Windows or whatever you plan on), Steam, and maybe a game or two. I went to an SSD after thinking I didn't need it and it was the single most impactful upgrade I've ever done. Boot times, load times... a complete breeze.

With the rest of your rig being ace, the SSD would really shine.
 
R

Rival

Gold Member
I just built my first one this weekend! 4790k, Asus Maximus hero vii, 16gb ram, 250gb ssd, 2tb wd black, gtx 970 which I will sli soon and corsair k70 keyboard! I can't wait to get the second card and a 1440p g sync monitor!
 
D

Deadly Cyclone

Pride of Iowa State
digitalrelic said:
Locked 60fps @1080P literally 99% of the time. A couple levels in Ryse caused a few drops but other than that I haven't had a single game dip below 60fps w/ all settings maxed (minus some ridiculously superfluous AA & super sampling options, of course). My setup is pretty aggressively overclocked though. You will love your rig :).
Click to expand...

Great to hear. A friend has an i5 and the graphics card a step lower than mine and loves his, so I assumed mine would be solid as well. Glad that slickdeal came up when it did!
 
G

Grief.exe

Member
You picked a crazy time to jump into PC gaming, I've been playing GOTY candidates nonstop since the start of the year.

From March alone, we had Pillars of Eternity and Cities Skylines. Two games you could easily spend hundreds of hours in.

Then coming up right around the corner, we have GTAV, Killing Floor 2, and the Witcher 3.

Also, check out some recent indie releases like Ori and the Blind Forest, Hotline Miami 2, Titan Souls, and hopefully we get Below one of these days.

For multiplayer, the staples are Counter-Strike, TF2, and DOTA2. If you want to check out some multiplayer survival games there is DayZ, H1Z1, or Reign of Kings, keep in mind all of these titles are in Early Access and are constantly improving, but are on shaky ground at the moment. Also, since PC has a more community-oriented aspect, you can still find games in many multiplayer titles released in the last ten years, or even further back in some cases.

arcoN said:
Right now?

Dragon Age Inquisition if you like rpgs.
Battlefield 4 (or maybe hardline) if you like shooter.
Click to expand...

You realize Pillars of Eternity is out, right?

i3jKDUlcwgHWU.png



Deadly Cyclone said:
Also it's going to be interesting deciding where to buy games now, PC, PS4, or XBO. I'll likely grab Witcher 3 on PC now for sure.
Click to expand...

Probably won't be buying many console games now that you have a 980.
 
T

Tenebrous

Member
Genio88 said:
I'd rather buy it on Xbox One, same graphics, but achievements, faster booting(instant on mode) and wireless gamepad
Click to expand...

PC version has achievements, higher resolution & support for better AA, achievements, and wireless gamepads. Faster booting? Marginal.
 
UnrealEck

UnrealEck

Member
Genio88 said:
I'd rather buy it on Xbox One, same graphics, but achievements, faster booting(instant on mode) and wireless gamepad
Click to expand...

Cool.
What does that have to do with reccomending games to the guy who opened the topic though?
btw, PC has instant on mode too. It's called hybernate.
 
B

bennywhatever

Member
You don't need 16gb of RAM for gaming. Like someone suggested, save that money and use it for a better SSD (which is great for gaming).

Get Dolphin and emulate F Zero GX at 8x native resolution.
 
G

Grief.exe

Member
Genio88 said:
I'd rather buy it on Xbox One, same graphics, but achievements, faster booting(instant on mode) and wireless gamepad
Click to expand...

unreal eck makes a good point as this has nothing to do with the topic at hand, but beyond that your arguments are dubious at best.
 
G

Genio88

Member
UnrealEck said:
Cool.
What does that have to do with reccomending games to the guy who opened the topic though?
Click to expand...

Just to say that i wouldn't reccomend that game, but instead something more demanding like Crysis 3, Tomb Raider, AC Unity etc given that his question is "What should I get to test the power of my first rig?"
 
O

OldAsUrSock

Banned
For the more popular games:
-Skyrim with proper mods is a completely different game from the console versions.

-Divinity: Original Sin is one of the best turn based RPGs in recent years, but can be difficult if you are used to map markers guiding your path towards a quest.

-Civ V, like Divinity, is not on console, but like Skyrim mods will greatly enhance the game; if you plan one hour with Civ then make sure you have 4hrs to spare.

-DOTA 2 is the best game of all time that rewards time spent learning t
he game, but some people quit to easier Action RTS before they get any good.

-Chivalry is the most fun first person Midieval game imo. Mount and blad
e is great, but FOR AGATHA!

-Super Mario Galaxy looks even better on PC while still keeping its amazing gameplay

Lesser games:
-NaissanceE is a relaxing and fairly easy puzzler. It took me 3hrs to finish and a nice break from more enthusiast gaming titles, .
-Splice, to me, is a unique puzzler with one of the best soundtracks in all media.
-Dreamfall Chapters is a continuation of the Dreamfall series Kickstarted a year ago I believe. Don't worry about starting from the first game as it does a good job summarizing the story up to the beginning of the end.
 
UnrealEck

UnrealEck

Member
Genio88 said:
Just to say that i wouldn't reccomend that game, but instead something more demanding like Crysis 3, Tomb Raider, AC Unity etc given that his question is "What should I get to test the power of my first rig?"
Click to expand...

Strange then that you went into specifics on almost everything but graphics.
 
T

Tenebrous

Member
Oh, how about Vanishing of Ethan Carter? I've not played it myself, but I heard it's quite the graphical showpiece. Might be good for the OP.
 
I

InfiniteNine

Rolling Girl
You could download Skyrim and do silly stuff like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6yHoSvrTss

Then again you'd be playing Skyrim so I'd go with DreadOut which is a PC exclusive Indonesian horror game that resembles Fatal Frame.
1455AC6BE701E3EE3A7D3FE9A3A4B1CCF444EB34
Click to expand...

If you want to push your PC get The Evil Within which I personally enjoy quite a bit and since It runs on iDtech 5 it's guaranteed to be unnecessarily taxing. You can tell me if it makes your graphics card go into overdrive like it does for me.
 
F

FLAguy954

Junior Member
- Crysis 2 with Maldo textures*
- Crysis 3
- Ryse*
- Far Cry 4
- Wolfenstein TNO
- Pillars of Eternity*
- Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor
- Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon*
- Battlefield 4
- COD Advanced Warfare*
- NBA 2K15*
- Metro 2033 Redux + Metro Last Light Redux

Emulate as many old games as you can. Running them at higher resolutions and with better anti-aliasing is awesome.

*Try to run these in 4K, they look amazing (especially the ones with a campaign).
 
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