What NEW game should I buy?

The Game Room
1

I have a new computer, and I might be able to buy a new game or two by Christmas.
Specs


Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64-bit
CPU
AMD E2-7110 Mullins 28nm Technology
RAM
8.00GB Single-Channel DDR3 @ 798MHz (11-11-12-28)
Motherboard
HP 8245 (P0)
Graphics
HP ALL-in-One (1600x900@60Hz)
256MB ATI AMD Radeon R2 Graphics (HP)
Storage
931GB Western Digital WDC WD10EZEX-60WN4A0 (SATA)
Optical Drives
hp PLDS DVDRW DU8AESH
Audio
Realtek High Definition Audio
I have been playing Civ3 & Alpha Centauri obsessively for 17years.
I’m thinking about a new Civ game, but which one?

Here are two I’m thinking about:

Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: The Complete Edition $30 this seems like a good deal.

Civilization: Beyond Earth – The Collection $60, but doesn’t include Sid Meier’s Starships

Both very appealing, but there is also this:

SimCity™: Complete Edition $30

If I give up on some Egg Nog:eek: this year, I might be able to get both SimCity & Civ4, but that’s pushing it.

Your thoughts, opinions, and suggestions?

Thank You.

2

Forget SimCity, they took their customers for granted and messed up. The best city management game now is Cities: Skylines.
Since you seem to prefer management games, you may also enjoy Prison Architect, Stardew Valley, Slime Rancher and the Anno series.

Stardew Valley can get you into that zen mind space similar to sand mandalas or gardening. Slime Rancher is similar in mind space but more immediate and cutesy. The Anno series is heavily about production chains and logistics. Prison Architect is like crossing a doll house, an ant farm and the Oz TV series.
If you like large scale conquest, you may like the Total War series, including the one based on Warhammer. You can play them at the strategic level only if you don’t want to manually fight the battles.
You can put them all on your Steam wishlist and grab them during a sale, your money will go further that way.

3

I played Beyond Earth through a few campaigns then uninstalled it. It just felt shallow to me. The problem, I think, is that it’s not about developing a civilization as much as exploring an alien planet and developing a philosophy to populate it (do you work with hostile animal/plants or eliminate them, etc.). You’re not developing culture, learning to sail, turning from using sticks to machine guns, etc. The premise was awesome, the gameplay was not. I felt like I did “everything” quickly.

I’m playing Civ VI and it has everything from the older games and more. It’s very involved and engaging even though the concept isn’t any different than before. From my personal experience I recommend it.

Haven’t played any new SimCity games for years so I have no opinion there.

4

I forgot to mention, Halloween candy is in the stores now.

5

I know. I saw some earlier in the week and just about had a fit.

Foggy do you have a Steam account? Because I have a copy of Civ 5 that I can give you, albeit it has to be on Steam.

6

That would be fantastic and yes I do. My name over there is “psychofogqueen”
What do you need to know?
What do I need to do?

Thanks!:slight_smile:

7

At this point I don’t know what else is needed. I have never gifted a game before. I’ll try to do it and let you know.

8

Okay. I tried to search for the name psychofogqueen and Steam said it could not find a user with that name. So, what about your email address? There is a way to send it by email, it still needs to be installed on Steam. If you want you can send me a PM with it.

ETA: Are you a member of the Straight Dope group by any chance?

9

Civilization IV Complete is $5.29 at Gamersgate right now.
Beyond Earth + Starship is $15 from Gamersgate as well.

Best price on Cities: Skylines right now is $24 but it’s been down as low as $7.50 if you don’t mind waiting. Agreed that Cities: Skylines is the name in city simulators today and SimCity is essentially dead.

All of those links provide retail Steam keys you activate and then download/play on Steam as usual.

Make use of Is There Any Deal when shopping for PC games. Never just buy off Steam directly without checking unless you have gift credit there or something. Sometimes they are the cheapest price but many times they are not.

10

You can actually buy Beyond Earth + Starships, the Rising Tide DLC and the Exoplanets pack from Gamersgate for $27.09 right now, getting you all the “Complete Collection” content plus Starships for half the $60 price on Steam.

11

You might also like Tropico, one of my favorite game series – you get to build the country and be dictator. Many people consider Tropico 4 to be the best so far but all are very enjoyable games. Tropico 5 is a little easier than previous games and Tropico 6 has been announced for next year.

12

Important question: do you want/are you hoping the new game will replace these two games for you? Or are you just looking for something new to play when you’re not playing Civ3/AC?

A lot of the games mentioned in this thread are good or even great, but they probably won’t last you another 17 years.

13

Let me recommend Crusader Kings 2. It’s a strategic roleplaying game. You’re the monarch of a medieval country. You have to manage your heirs and vassals to try to keep your family on the throne. And deal with neighboring countries, through marriages, alliances, and wars.

It has easily kept my attention for years. The replay value is immense. Try a different countries. Start out as a vassal. Try a different approach to playing (for example, expand only through marriages, or fight a war every spring). There’s a bunch of optional rules when you start a game. (Use defaults to begin with, but experiment after a few games.)

There is an active mod community. I use the CK2 Plus mod, which improves many aspects of gameplay. There’s also a Game of Thrones mod. I’ve never tried it, but it’s highly rated.

Put it on your Steam wishlist and wait for the next sale (they come regularly). The base game is all you need, but a lot of the expansions can be picked up very cheap if you’re willing to wait. Expansions expand your play choices. Want to play as a Pagan, or Muslim? Then get that expansion.

The studio regularly updates the base game, often while they release an expansion. You get the base-game improvements even if you don’t buy the expansion. Some people don’t like their business model, but they do improve the base game regularly for no additional cost.

14

If your heart is set on that sort of game then I think the others suggestions will work. If you want to try something different, I’d recommend either Total Warhammer I or the upcoming Warhammer II game. I’ve had a blast with the game, and if you get it on Steam then the first game at least is on Steam Workshop…which means the mods for the game are very easy to look at and put on. And the mods make the game so much better. If you decide to go this route let me know in the thread and I can give you a list of some kick ass mods for either single player or multiplayer co-op. I have to say that, of the games I’ve bought in the last few years I’ve definitely gotten my money’s worth out of this one and have already pre-ordered the next one.

15

I’d like the list, please.

16

Likewise! I have the game but it’s a little bland and I haven’t put much time into it.

17

Sure. :slight_smile: These are the ones I’m playing with now (I don’t have the steam links here, but you should be able to look them up in the workshop):

Radious Total War Mod (these two are definitely ones you want if nothing else)
Radious Total Units Mod
10 Building Slots - All Province Capitals
Regiments of Renown!
Seasons of War
T4 Minor Cities - Radious Submod
Legendary Lords Remastered
Legendary Heroes [2.2]
Krell Unstable Fix (only need this if you play the vampire counts and want Krell…they have sort of fixed this in the latest update)
Krell - Legendary Hero (same as above)
Followers & Items Overhaul
COMPATIBILITY VERSION — The Dragon Collection (this one is super cool, as it gives all races dragons, though I haven’t figured out how to get the Dwarves a dragon yet)
Better Camera Mod
All Tabletop Lords
GCCM Main
GCCM: Bretonian Settlements
GCCM: Dwarf Settlements
GCCM: Empire Settlements
GCCM: Greenskin Settlements
GCCM: Norsca Settlements
GCCM: Optional Tweaks
GCCM: Rivers
GCCM: Vampire Counts Settlements
There are tons more mods, but these were in my last play set for playing with friends in multiplayer campaign. I’m not sure all these still work with the last big patch yesterday…I haven’t had time to get on and probably won’t before the weekend. But the Radious mod particularly is key, IMHO, though there are others that equally change, rebalance and add units out there that some like better.

18

More strategy suggestions:

Stellaris - Take some Civ, Take some MAster sof Orion, and a dash of Crusader Kings, and you get this game by Paradox. A lot of fun in exploration and role-playing as anything from an interstellar human empire, to cutesy alien butterflies that are masters of science and statecraft, to machine cyborgs intent on assimilating the galaxy. The systems and mechanics are all geared towards letting you fine tune your empire and to role-play their journey through the stars.

Endless Legend - Another 4X like civ, but fantasy based with a great art style, interesting lore and factions, and some interesting new mechanics.

Form the same guys: Endless Space 2. Pretty straight forward 4X in space, but with tons of style and some fun, polished mechanics.

X-Com 2. a new expansion is coming out at the end of August, so maybe wait until then, as there’s a lot of stuff changing for the better.

I’ll also second Total War Games. Warhammer is fantastic, but the historical titles are great too. My faves are Shogun 2 and Rome 2. Not sure how these will tun on your laptop though.

I don’t know if are into RTS games but Star Craft I is being remastered, and SCII featured a pretty fun campaign.

Finally, may I recommend some great PC RGP’s?

Pillars of Eternity is like a modern Baldur’s Gate, deep, immersive, challenging. Divinity Original Sin features incredibly reactive, turn based combat and a very lighthearted and comedic writing style. Shadowrun: Dragon Fall and Shadowrun: Hong Kong are shorter, but they make up for it in the quality fo the writing and the level of narrative agency.

19

PM sent. Not a member of any group.

While I really like those games, I was basically stuck with them. However I would love a sequel to SMAC.

I don’t like/care for First Person Shooters or games focus on War.

I also have played The Sims2, Minecraft, SimCity 4, Galactic Civilizations, Caesar3, and Pharaoh Gold.

The links to isthereanydeal and GamerGate are great, Thanks, Jophiel.

Thank You all!

20

Gamersgate.

One is an online gaming store, the other was some hubbub nonsense from a couple years back regarding feminism, “gaming journalism”, angry neckbeards, etc. Don’t feel bad – the CEO of Gamersgate had to put out a statement at one point that his store had nothing to do with the Gamergate thing. Still, in case you try to Google the store some day, I figured you should know that the “s” is important :wink:

Glad to help with the links though. Why pick between three games when you can buy all of them?