I’m stuck at home with nothing but Netflix and my PC for the next 6 weeks. I have almost no knowledge of PC (desktop) based games, but would like some recommendations for something I can play by myself (not multi-player). Prefer something cerebral and maybe turn-based, rather than depending on reactions and speed. I have no controllers or stick, just keyboard and a mouse.
I remember an old game from years ago called Riven. Is there a legitimate way to buy this online and play it (on a PC)? The only download I’ve found on Google play appears to be for phones. I limit this to downloads since I cannot drive for a month or two, so picking up a box at BestBuy isn’t an option.
Thanks in advance for any recommendations, I’m getting bored out of my skull with Netflix shows.
On PC, by far the most popular game store is Steam. You can get Riven on sale there right now for $3. Riven: The Sequel to MYST on Steam
Other app stores include the Epic Game Store, the Microsoft store (not recommended), and various resellers.
You’re lucky. 2020 might suck, but we’re arguably in the golden age of PC gaming, with hundreds of high quality AAA and indie titles aplenty, along with many Netflix-like subscription services that let you try many games at once.
Once you’re done with Riven, browse the Humble Bundle, Xbox Game Pass for PC, EA Play, Uplay+, and Steam’s reviews and most popular lists. There’s loads of good stuff for any taste and budget.
If you describe what you like and don’t like in games in more detail, we can make some suggestions. There is also the subreddit https://www.reddit.com/r/gamingsuggestions if you want a community dedicated to that.
There are many games that can run on any computer, are cheap, and don’t require special controllers. Have fun!
If you like puzzle games in particular, I’d check out The Turing Test, Myst Online (possibly defunct), the Portal series, and possibly the old Prince of Persia and Tomb Raider series if you don’t mind some combat mixed in.
Does steam require a monthly subscription? Or is it just single purchases?
I’ll look for the other games you mentioned, I already found Riven on something called “gog”. It seemed legit, based on a few searches and rummaging around Reddit so I bought it. It took a little playing around with properties to get it working on a more modern OS, but it’s running fine now. I look forward to trying the other suggestions.
GOG is very legit. Other good sites include Fanatical, GreenManGaming, Humble Bundle, and DLGamer. They mostly just resell Steam keys, but with their own great sales. You can use isthereanydeal.com as a meta-store price search engine.
Steam is like Google Play Store or the Apple App Store. It’s just a super convenient way to buy, download, and install/update games, but doesn’t have a subscription cost of its own.
The bundle sites above often have great packages where you get like 10 games for $15 (good games, often). HumbleBundle started that trend but others have copied it.
Importantly, Steam has the advantage of having by far the largest player base, which only matters when you want to be able to matchmake in multiplayer games. The Epic Game Store and Microsoft Store variants of the same game sometimes have fewer players, so it’s hard to find partners/opponents. If you just do solo gaming it doesn’t really matter.
How exactly does Steam work? I bought the wonderful game Blade Warrior (really it’s a lot of fun) on disk at a physical store years ago. Now, I can’t get it to run even in DosBox. A search revealed Steam is selling Blade Warrior for around $5. Do I need to be online to play games I buy on Steam? Can I copy games I buy on Steam to DVD or flash drive? IIRC Steam wanted me to download a program to my computer just to use the site. What’s the deal with that?
The PC games market has almost completely moved to the digital delivery model, and Steam is probably 90% of deliveries (pulled that number outta my digital ass).
You can play games offline if you turn on offline mode. I think you just have to be online once every 30 days or something like that, not sure? You can back up Steam games to physical media, but you can’t play them without restoring back to Steam and logging back in to your account. It’s not like the old days where you can just copy .EXEs around and run those.
BUT the tradeoffs are VERY worth it for most people. Steam gives you super fast downloads, automatic updates for all your games, maintains your game library associated with your account so you can redownload any time you want, includes family sharing if more than one person wants to play your game, lets you stream coop games to friends who don’t have a copy so you can still play together, has built in community aspects (friends list, voice chat, reviews, etc.). And it often has sales that are up to like 90% off.
So we lost the physical market and used games sales along with it, but IMHO Steam has more than made up for it all with the incredible convenience and much, much cheaper games. Normally if you wait 2-3 months, new releases will be significantly more affordable.
Edit: It basically took the Apple App Engine model and applied it to PC gaming. You don’t “buy” a game anymore so much as a perpetual license for it. You don’t own any physical media, but it’s tied to your account forever and you can play it as often as you want, on any or all the devices that you own, without having to juggle around a bunch of DVDs.
I buy from Steam and GOG and Humble Bundle and once in awhile from Epic (although Epic is great for free games–they sometimes have some real doozies).
If you’re looking for cerebral, turn-based games, my favorite in a really long time is XCom 2. It’s gorgeous and tactically interesting, with a strategic overlay which is pretty fun, too.
If you want something like Riven, with some humor, the Sam and Max games are pretty great and often available really cheap.
GOG stands for Good Old Games. They acquire the rights to older games, make changes to ensure they will run on current operating systems, and sell them – and this is important – in DRM free versions. You can install on multiple computers, have more than one instance running, be offline, whatever. I definitely recommend getting the GOG version if they have the game you want.
Steam is OK. It’s is a lot more restrictive in what you can do, but has lots of games, and the latest games. I use it to get new games.
The same is true of Portal. I really enjoyed the first one, but couldn’t finish it. It starts off as all about solving puzzles, but as you advance, the puzzles don’t just get harder, you also have to have precise timing and placement for things like jumping into tiny moving platforms. I eventually reached a point where I knew what to do, but couldn’t execute it. It was a bummer.
To the OP: I’ll think about suggestions. I have an interest in similar games.
Depends on the game. Most likely not but there are a few games which require a persistent online connection, even in single-player.
Sort of. You can tell Steam to install games to an external drive to make them portable; I’ve done that so I can play games on my desktop or on my tablet without having to stream from the desktop. Simply have Steam installed on both computers, disconnect the external drive from the desktop and connect it to the tablet via the tablet’s dock.
I wanted to add that some games on steam (I’M GLARING AT YOU EA YOU BLEEEEEEEEEP), will have some third party requirements. The one behind my censored profanity, is a lot of EA games which were . . . . less successful on EAs own platform, will require you to create an online account with them, which must be active to use your steam game. It is (2-3 paragraphs of swearing deleted) . . . less than ideal. I’ve purchased a humble bundle or two myself and had no complaints.
I will say that buying older games on any platform can be hit or miss, unless it’s one that’s specifically remastered to work seemlessly on modern OS. Especially if they used to have an online verification/store/etc which has since been discontinued. Most times, a bit of TLC found from the internet can get it working. Which is the one reason I use steam more than the others - they have extensive user forums, and if I have a glitch, I can almost always found others who have, as well as fixes.
In terms of recommendations, other that what people have already mentioned, maybe a turn based building or strategy game if you want something a bit different. The modern Civilization games give you a choice of micromanaging or directive based play, or Galactic Civilizations if you want something in the same vein but sci-fi. I mention these because your goal is to burn 6 weeks. Games of this style will eat your time very, very easily.
