I’m not a gamer, but I just ordered “gaming PC” with decent graphics (i7, GTX 970) because it seemed to have decent cost/performance for 3D modeling work.
But now that I have a “gaminc PC”, what games can I buy that would allow me to marvel at modern advances in computer graphics, without all the shooting and killing?
Portal/Portal 2? The only thing that gets killed is you IIRC (at least by you).
The Sims 3 or 4.
Well it’s definitely true that most AAA games (those are the ones that are going to be ‘marvel-worthy’) are going to be violent.
Here is metacritic’s list of the top games thus far in 2015.
Just glancing through, I see the following non-violent games.
Kerbal Space Program
Cities: Skylines
Grim Fandango
FIFA 16
Anno 2205
There’s also the question of where you draw the line at “shooting and killing.” Do you demand no representation of death whatsoever? I ask because there are some great strategy games out there like Civilization 5.
Civilization 5 if you’re into strategy games. It is pretty demanding, but gets very purday when you give in to the demands :). Same goes for Anno 2070.
Both technically have “violence” in that your little pixel mens sometimes get ordered to thump on other little pixel mens, but not in a gory FPS brains exploding all over the place kind of way, you know ?
I’d give Civilization:Beyond Earth a pass though. At this point it’s just not as good or deep as Civ V is (with both expansions).
If you’re into getting scared, you can’t top Alien:Isolation. It’s a first person game based on the very first Alien movie. You’re not playing as the alien. Do the math :).
For adventure/stories, most of the Telltale games are pretty good - at least I really liked their Walking Dead series, and I’ve heard good things about their Game of Thrones and The Wolf Among Us as well. Best part is that each is one game/story sold in 5 separate installments, so you can buy just one “episode” for cheap to try it out, buy the rest if you’re hooked.
Then you’ve got great games like Pillars of Eternity or *Elite : Dangerous *or Fallout New Vegas or Skyrim, but at this point we’re edging much closer to the “killing” bit - it’s not like those absolutely focus on the violence, but it’s also hard to avoid it altogether over the course of normal gameplay.
But there’s Dishonored which, while you *can *play it successfully in a mass murdery style, is really meant more as a “get in, do your thing, get out, all without ever getting seen or getting into any conflict” kind of game. The same could be said for Deus Ex:Human Revolution : in that game you can accomplish your objectives by barging in and shooting everything that moves until they stop doing that ; it’s probably easier that way too… or you can sneak everywhere all the time, find alternate ways to do things or secret paths and feel all slick secret agent-y about it.
I didn’t realize how difficult it was to pick out non-violent games until I try. I guess racing games are one of the few common genres that aren’t particularly violent but that also have a lot of effort put into graphical fidelity. To that end, Project CARS is a very pretty game and a good demonstrator. I haven’t played it yet, but given Codemasters’ history of looking good, I bet Dirt: Rally is very good at that. Dirt 2/3 are also pretty great looking even if they’re aged some now.
There are games you could play in a non-violent way if you were so inclined but you wouldn’t be getting the full experience. But you could just run around in that game world and enjoy it. GTA 5 and Just Cause 2 (soon Just Cause 3) come to mind in that case.
What are the limitations on violence for you? Can it be cartoony violence? Abstract violence like with strategy games? You have games like Trine 2 which are suitable for kids because you’re bashing skeletons apart and such in a cartoony way, or strategy games that may be violent in some way but it’s your unit defeating their unit, not you ripping out their entrails.
Recent LEGO games if you don’t mind cartoony violence. LEGO Worlds looks nice on my older box, I imagine it would be spectacular on something up to date.
“Spectacular” for LEGO, anyway. 
I’d go with Kerbal…it’s only violent if you design poorly and your poor little Kerbal’s crash their space craft… :eek:
Spintires is good for showing off the concept of a deformable world. The trucks leave big ruts in the muddy roads and the game gets harder as you go along because of them.
Kerbal is a fine game, and a good non-violent game, but the guy talked about wanting to put his video card through his paces and be technically impressed. Kerbal is very graphically basic.
How about 3DMark benchmarking software? Awesome graphics and numbers to see how good the video card really is.
City Skylines.
[quote=“Dave_Hartwick, post:13, topic:736459”]
City Skylines.
[/QUOTE]This is the one I was going to suggest. I get gorgeous when ran on high settings.
And lots and lots of turrets (although they don’t blame you).
How do you feel about fishing?
GTA V.
I mean, you don’t have to steal cars and kill people… you can just walk around seeing the sights, or go for a nice drive in your own car and obey all the traffic signals.
Yeah, good point. My less than stellar or state of the art PC easily handles it.
Ark: Survival evolved has some nice scenery.
The youtube shows plenty of player v. player stuff, but you can play the game in single player mode, and only need to worry about the carnivores.
Might as well get Euro Truck Simulator 2 instead or wait for American Truck Simulator.