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Hello everyone. I've been playing alot of first person shooters lately and am getting a little tired of that sort of thing. I'm looking for a change of pace, preferable something that is 3 years old or less. I was thinking of picking up a 3rd person game of some sort. I used to like all the Dawn of War games (and beat them all) so something like that would probably interest me. I was thinking about something more strategy based rather than "kill everyone," maybe Civilization V, but after reading some reviews/comments it seems as though the gameplay isn't very good.

Any suggestions?

DPete27 wrote:

I was thinking about something more strategy based rather than "kill everyone," maybe Civilization V, but after reading some reviews/comments it seems as though the gameplay isn't very good.

You shouldn't rely on anyone's subjective opinions (for the record, I found Civ V to be quite enjoyable, even though it IS pretty different compared to previous versions) and should always try yourself and make your own opinion. B.t.w, I believe there's a free demo of Civ V available on Steam...
As for other similar games... Maybe try SC2? You can get a lot of entertainment time out of it if you won't be afraid to play the online portion of this game...

After they patched Civ V quite a bit in the months after release, the game became a LOT stabler in late game. So yes, the game is GOOD. It just had month-one release fatal flaws that were very obvious and very exploitable.

Just out of curiosity, where did you read that Civ 5 wasn't very good? I'm pretty sure it got near universal acclaim.

My favourite non-FPS' of 2010-2011:

- Alice: Madness Returns (very controversial pick to some)
- Space Pirates & Zombies - AWESOME AWESOME game. Cost me $4 on steam and have spent ~42 hrs playing it and haven't finished yet (but close to)
- Bastion (pretty, button mashing, kill fest with nice colours and sountrack / voice etc.) worth about 8-10 hrs playthrough.
- Shank (nice side scrolling beat em up / combo driven game)
- Terraria (could spend ~10-15 hrs easily on this and not be done)
- Trine (have not tried Trine 2, but assume just as good)
- The Witcher 2 (GOTY)
- Batman: Arkham City (Amazing, everyone has to play this game, 20-30 hrs easily here of content)
- Deus Ex: Human Revolution (waaaay better than the hype, unexpectedly so)

What I'm playing now:
- SPAZ
- Jagged Alliance 2 v 1.13
- LA Noire Complete Edition

My suggestion would be Anno 2070. I was facing the same dilemma and that game hit the spot.

bashar11 wrote:

My suggestion would be Anno 2070. I was facing the same dilemma and that game hit the spot.

Yeah but that is a Ubisoft game. So I will never ever ever get the chance to play that game. Oh well, luckily they are not making Half Life 3.

Dead space 1?
Splinter cell series?
Assassin's creed?
ES 4 Obvlivion?

Although it is first person, Amnesia: dark descent was an amazing change of pace from the typical fps game. One of my favorites for sure!

Thanks for the suggestions, keep them coming!! The Civ V negative review was online somewhere (probably amazon) from someone that has played all of the installments. Seemed like they were having more trouble adjusting the the different game style compared to Civ IV. It only has 2.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon. All the hype about that game seems to be in its visual candy (hence why many benchmarks use it) and not necessarily the quality of the gameplay itself.

I did forget to mention that I am looking for PC games.

Alot of good suggestions like I said before. Shank, and Deus Ex sounded very interesting to me and I had forgotten all about them.

Anno 2070: Watched a couple trailers, it looks pretty good! Interesting that I'd never heard of it. Looks like a tie between that and Civ V at the moment. (though I will still be checking out Shank and Deus Ex, I just need a break from constant violence at the moment) Any opinions to swing me either way?

DPete27 wrote:

Thanks for the suggestions, keep them coming!! The Civ V negative review was online somewhere (probably amazon) from someone that has played all of the installments. Seemed like they were having more trouble adjusting the the different game style compared to Civ IV. It only has 2.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon. All the hype about that game seems to be in its visual candy (hence why many benchmarks use it) and not necessarily the quality of the gameplay itself.

I never, ever look at the ratings on public sites. Too much potential for competitors/crap hounds to just simply drive down scores.

I've played since Civ II and I find Civ V to be the best yet, while still holding true to its heritage.

DPete27 wrote:

It only has 2.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon.

Amazon is worthless for software/game reviews. For example, half of the reviewers there go mad if they discover some evil "DRM" in something or if the game is made by evil EA or Ubisoft. Just download teh demo from Steam and play some, it's free.

bashar11 wrote:

My suggestion would be Anno 2070. I was facing the same dilemma and that game hit the spot.

DPete27 wrote:

Anno 2070: Watched a couple trailers, it looks pretty good! Interesting that I'd never heard of it.

Yeah! I've been a long time fan of their entire series (they stole it from the original C=64/Atari/Apple game, Sid Meier's Pirates!) and took it further.

But nonetheless, how is the futuristic 2070?

Civ V is solid and replayable. Most of the negative reviews are from set-in-their-ways roleplaying IV-junkies.

If you're up to jumping into the deep end of strategy gaming, Crusader Kings II is out today. It's a very intricate, involved grand strategy. Europa Universalis III is a similarly-granular game you can get lost in, also from Paradox Interactive, the modern masters of the complex grand TBS. It's been expanded and polished into a real gem.

If you want an RTS game (technically Real Time Tactics) I'd suggest World in Conflict. Men of War: Assault Squad is even more granular and has been patched and refined quite a bit into a very nice SP and MP experience (you can get a good taste of it from this Watch the Devs vid). It's easily worth the full $40 for the GOTY edition which came out just last week.

You might look to see if there's a Relic 40k RTT you haven't played yet — there are many expansions and they're all good.

If you don't mind intense multiplayer asshattery you might try a DOTA thingy — League of Legends, DOTA 2, Heroes of Newerth, etc. All free to play.

I'll second yogibbear's recommendation of SPAZ — a very pretty and well-made space trader. If you want a 4X/space trader you can seek out Sins of a Solar Empire or Sword of The Stars 1 or 2. The X series is popular and there are recent titles in that franchise.

Total War Shogun II: TBS and RTT. a bit wonky, as all Creative Assembly games are, but fun and lovely
Starcraft II: the tightest (i.e. most cohesive and polished) RTT yet made
Oil Rush: a new naval RTT/tower defense mashup (haven't played yet, but looks spiffy and novel)
AI Wars: a very solid indie space strategy which can be a real challenge

Excellent 3rd person games.
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Batman: Arkham City

FPS that's a little different from the usual shooter.
Bioshock 1 and Bioshock 2

Thoroughly enjoyed all of these, and I'm a Call of Duty kinda guy.

Ok.. I've been living in the 3 year old game territory for some time. I've played cheesy to excellent games in that age bracket, most of which can be had for around or under 10 bucks

Indie Games (These are those cheapo but damn fun games)

Altitude - 2d, multiplayer or bots plane flying, shooting game. Includes Capture the flag and a "soccer" like game modes, very fun to burn the time or to play at a lan with friends.

Beat Hazzard - Had 2 player mode, never used it. Similar idea to audio surf, much more fun. Your music changes the enemies that spawn, and your weapon. So faster music makes it easier in a way, and slower gets harder. Very cool game, addictive.

Braid - This game will hurt your brain at times, total strategy/puzzle, VERY unique and different. There is a demo on steam, try it first. But if you like games that screw with your mind, this is it.

Others:
Borederlands - Yea its got guns, but its fun none the less.

Fallout - This easily falls into the 3 year old game, but serious its one of the best games i've played. Bethesda studios makes it, same guys who made Skyrim. Its first/third person shooter/melee, but don't let that fool you, its an RPG. The V.A.T.S in game "targeting system" basically lets you turn it into a turn based "roll of the dice" kind of game. So if you dont feel like shooting at someone, you don't have to. If you do feel like it, you can. This would be my first suggestion to you in case you haven't gotten it. I've only played in on PS3 unfortunately, but of course you can get 1000's of mods for the PC version and better graphics

Assassin's Creed - Was mentioned by someone above, good game. I got it for the PC after playing it on my brothers XboX a few times, can be had for under 5.00 on Steam sales. I think I picked up on it for something like 3 bucks. Recommend hooking up a XboX controller to your PC if you get it, makes the game that much more enjoyable.