Hello everyone

I recently upgraded my PC and I’m excited to explore new games that can take advantage of my improved hardware. Previously, my old PC was limited, and I had to be selective about the games I played. I also have a Steam Deck, but I’m looking for offline single-player experiences on my PC.

I’m looking for games that offer an unforgettable experience and high replay value. I enjoy open-world games that give me the freedom to explore, similar to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I know it’s not a PC game, but it gives you an idea of my playstyle.

Here are some games I’ve enjoyed in the past:

• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - My favorite game, I love the freedom to explore without being bound to quests.

• Far Cry 3 - Great open-world experience that didn’t get boring.

• NieR: Automata - Engaging story, but it got a bit repetitive.

• Scarlet Nexus - Great story, high replay value, and a beautiful world, although it can be repetitive.

• ULTRAKILL - Challenging and high replay value.

• Portal 2 - High replay value.

• Portal 1 - Enjoyed it, but didn’t love it.

• Subnautica - Absolutely loved it.

• The Witcher 3 - Didn’t enjoy it, but I’m giving it another try soon.

• Doom Eternal - Liked it.

• Horizon Zero Dawn - It’s an average game, with a mid-story and a beautiful world.

For me, a good story is often the top priority, but I also enjoy games like Breath of the Wild where I can relax and play without thinking too hard.

If you’re curious about my specs, here they are:

New PC:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D 16-Core

• GPU: AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX

• RAM: 64GB DDR5 Memory

Old PC: • GPU: AMD Radeon RX 480 4GB

• CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K @ 3.50GHz

• RAM: 4GB DDR3 Memory

I’d appreciate any game recommendations that fit my preferences.

Edit: Thanks already for the recommendations, I might also add, that I love the Halo games. Except the newer ones.

  • companero [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    0·
    14 days ago

    • Prey (2017). Good FPS gameplay with RPG mechanics, incredibly detailed semi-open world, emphasizes exploration and player freedom.

    • Watch Dogs 2. Above average for an Ubisoft game. Great open world that emphasizes player freedom.

    Honorable mentions that you’ve probably already considered: Cyberpunk 2077, Control, Alan Wake 2

    • Decency8401@discuss.tchncs.deOP
      0·
      14 days ago

      Prey looks great, and I think I will like it very much. Judging from the Steam review’s it’s very versatile which I like.

      Watch Dogs 2 Also looks very cool. The story peek from the Trailers looks like it matches with my overall interests. The trailer really hooked me, but I’m still looking through other suggestions, thanks.

      I have bought Cyberpunk right after Release, but then after watching some reviews, it just waited in my Drawer (physical copy). Because of that mishap from CD Projekt Red, I’m a little hesitant on that. I know that the patch is out, but I somehow not ready to play it yet.

      Control seems promising, but I feel like the story is Whack. Guessing by the name, it seems like I can control everything, so that has some appeal.

      Alan Wake 2 seems interesting, but not as compelling as Prey or Watch Dogs 2.

  • Björn Tantau@swg-empire.de
    0·
    14 days ago

    Red Dead Redemption 2 will probably hit all the nerves. Open beautiful world that still hasn’t been matched by another game.

    The Spider-Man games are also great and Spider-Man 2 is just around the corner.

    And Path of Exile 2 is currently all the rage even though it’s still in early access.

    And when you still have time you can play Baldur’s Gate 3, first game to win Game of the Year in all contests.

    • Decency8401@discuss.tchncs.deOP
      0·
      14 days ago

      Thanks for the recommendations.

      Spiderman does look interesting, but I don’t know. I guess I’m searching for another Zelda:BotW. Which isn’t Tears of the Kingdom. I really like that game, since it’s the only one where I am free, not bound to some quests or something. I can go anywhere I would like in every order I want to and so on. I just think that the Spiderman Games aren’t as freeing.

      Path of Exile 2 looks fascinating, since I haven’t really played a good Dungeon Crawler in a long time.

      Baldur’s Gate 3 is definitely on my list, but I think to understand it properly I need lots of time, so I will put that aside for now.

      • TheRealKuni@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        14 days ago

        I guess I’m searching for another Zelda:BotW. Which isn’t Tears of the Kingdom.

        I’m confused by this. TotK is very much just BotW but with more. The construction mechanism is really fun, the three overlapping maps are cool, it’s a good time. You get to see how the world of BotW has changed in the intervening time, and being able to make hover cycles to fly around the world is awesome.

        • Decency8401@discuss.tchncs.deOP
          0·
          13 days ago

          TotK isn’t as freeing. At my first blind playthrough, I casually went for the wind temple just to find out that you need a quest to go there and have a bird NPC character to always follow you that is just in your way, but you need it to complete the game and advance. In BotW. I could just head for Vah Medoh, complete it and then head to the gerudo village.

          Edit: The underground is just really empty, and the sky has a few islands, which is kind of disappointing since I’ve waited at least 5 years for the sequel.

    • Decency8401@discuss.tchncs.deOP
      0·
      14 days ago

      Isn’t the remastered edition the version who all hate because of the launch with the huge bugs and other errors? Also, since it is from EA, does it like have unnecessarily Micro transactions built in? Apart from that it looks really promising, thanks for the suggestion.

      • teawrecks@sopuli.xyz
        0·
        13 days ago

        Outer Wilds is an unforgettable experience, but has very low replayability. Everything is knowledge based, and playing the game means figuring everything out for the first time (so be sure not to look anything up).

        But it’s all exploration, it has an excellent story, and I would recommend it to anyone.

  • The_Ferry@lemmy.world
    0·
    14 days ago

    Honestly psychonauts 1 and 2 are both absolutely amazing, and the art style means that they don’t end up looking ancient despite still looking old. The story is also very enjoyable and influential on the level design

  • DigitalDilemma@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    14 days ago

    Enjoying Factory Town at the mo, a little chill automation game with a surprising level of complexity.

    Factorio 2 is also fantastic if this is a genre you enjoy.

  • WillBalls@lemmy.world
    0·
    14 days ago

    Judging from your tastes, I think you would enjoy dragons dogma 2. Be aware that the engine is rather… unoptimized, so there are performance slowdowns in towns and densely populated areas, but I’ve never dipped below 40fps on my rig which has slightly worse specs than yours. It can be a bit finicky to get working on Linux, depending on your distro. I’m on nixos and was experience graphics driver crashes pretty regularly until I swapped to amdvlk and swapping to the latest proton GE. Once you get the game working though, it’s a lot of fun and definitely worth the hassle! I’d describe it as baldur’s gate 3, but an action RPG instead of turn based, and therefore it feels much more free and open to me. You should also be aware that the game is pretty punishing. No save slots and rolling back is hard if you mess something up, and minor enemies can really ruin your day if you’re not paying attention. It’s probably one of the most “realistic” fantasy games I’ve ever played in that regard.

  • secret300@lemmy.sdf.org
    0·
    13 days ago

    Risk of rain 2 is amazing if you like rogue like games.

    Beyond 2 souls is good but the PC version is wack. They ruined the game by locking the movement when playing as the spirit Aiden. They turned it into a point and click which is so dumb because you miss so much from it. It’s literally not the same experience. Grab the PS3 version and emulate it. My personal favorite story focused game

  • secret300@lemmy.sdf.org
    0·
    13 days ago

    Sorry didn’t even finish reading yet. You thought nier was repetitive?! Like maybe if you playing through it again to get the other endings but damn that first playthrough is a fresh experience. As you progress it feels like a different genre. Shit was great.

    • Corr@lemm.ee
      0·
      13 days ago

      I found the combat to be quite annoying personally, so I can see where this is coming from. And having to replay for other endings was also annoying. I ended up just looking up the endings

    • ProfessorOwl_PhD [any]@hexbear.net
      0·
      12 days ago

      Sounds like somebody didn’t see all the endings. Seriously though, Yoko Taro loves bullying gamers and there is a lot of painful grinding involved in some of the endings - the scrapyard, flower, and fishing side quests particularly come to mind. Oh, and the one side quest where the item is right outside the door to the final bosses, so you have to go through the final dungeon, backtrack through the dungeon to turn in the quest, then go through the final dungeon again to get to the final fights.

  • frankspurplewings@lemmy.world
    0·
    14 days ago

    These are some suggestions for those little moments when you want a little break between games 😄

    Tiny Glade - little diorama building game. I like playing this one when I don’t have enough time for a full mission or quest in whatever game I’m playing, or I’m waiting for my buddies to get online.

    Potion Craft: Alchemy Simulator - another cute little game. The NPCs make this one fun. You get visitors from other games coming to your shop to stock up on potions. Devs just did a big 2.0 update, and added more challenges and content. I played on super easy explorer mode and 100%ed the achievements in 52 in game days. I highly recommend this game! Another great one to play during in-between and waiting times, but also very easy to get sucked into 🧪

  • CuddlyCassowary@lemmy.world
    0·
    14 days ago

    You might want to check out Red Dead Redemption 2 in story mode. The graphics and physics are pretty incredible. It’s a little old now, but I think it still holds up well, especially if you like the “old west cowboy” aesthetic.

    • Decency8401@discuss.tchncs.deOP
      0·
      14 days ago

      Thanks for the suggestion. Might be a hot take, but what I dislike about Red Dead Redemption 2 and also Horizon Zero Dawn is that it is like a movie. Just a cutscene after another and I feel like that you aren’t really free in RDR2. But I didn’t play it so it might be better than expected!

  • teawrecks@sopuli.xyz
    0·
    13 days ago

    I’m not seeing Elden Ring anywhere in the top voted posts, but if you’re looking for something like BotW, you should consider it. Always somewhere new to explore and very non-linear. The lore of the world is insanely rich, but there basically is no story.

    Tunic is awesome. Lots of exploration and lots of secrets to find. Don’t look anything up, it’s a very unique experience.

    Hollow Knight is the first metroidvania I liked. Great exploration, but it’s not exactly going to test the limits of your rig. Similar to the Souls games, lots of lore, little story.

    Rimworld is so non-linear it’s literally a story simulator. It creates unforgettable experiences and has infinite replayability. You can save and quit at any moment, so it’s good if you only have an hour or two (but you could easily put hundreds of hours into it).

    And I want to echo others who said Outer Wilds, RDR2, BG3, and CP2077.