I'm looking to find a new time waster. Preferably not a FPS. I've been playing oblivion but it's boring now. I play TF2 frequently but its still not the time waster I am looking for... suggestions?
Good PC games?
If you'd like a true freeform RPG, consider Geneforge.
Outdated graphics, phenomenal gameplay, and you'll get your hours out of it, trust me.
I'll just run through a list of all the awesome PC games I can think of off the top of my head:
Newer games:
Galactic Civilizations 2
Sins of a Solar Empire
The Witcher
Penumbra (played from 1st person perspective, but more of an adventure game than an FPS)
Neverwinter Nights 2
Older Games:
Planescape: Torment
Fallout & Fallout 2
Baldur's Gate and sequels
Icewind Dale, ID2
Oni
Deus Ex
System Shock 2
Betrayal at Krondor
Betrayal in Antara
Sanitarium
Independent Games
Aquaria
Absolutely anything by Spiderweb Software
Gravitron (And this one's free, too!)
Noitu Love and the Army of Grinning Darns (Also free)
La-Mulana (free again. Also completely and utterly badass beyond all reason)
Starscape
Uplink
Darwinia
Something You Should Really Play If You Can Manage To Get Ahold Of It:
Pathways Into Darkness (It's an old Mac game. It's awesome. Easily playable via emulation if you can find a copy)
I tried the witcher and liked it, but my computer didn't run it so well. The constant loads didn't help. I'll look into the above mentioned.
Amaster42 mentioned Geneforge, a game by Spiderweb Software, which I'll second. Spiderweb Software is one of my favorite indie developers, and if you love old-school PC RPGs, they make some of the best out there. I prefer the Exile and Avernum games to Geneforge, but every game they make is wonderful and oozing with quality out of every orifice.
DarkDragoonX wrote: Absolutely anything by Spiderweb Software
Like Geneforge 😃
La Mulana's also a hell of a lot of fun
EDIT: Yeah, DarkDragoonX beat me to the reply.
Well, too add my two cents, Avernum is more of an on-going 4-character party D&D style adventure where you can go all over the place entering different dungeons for different objectives, taking on quests, just adventuring.
Geneforge is a bit more of a story-oriented game, slightly more linear, although still very open-ended with a great plotline.
anymore suggestions along the oblivion line of play?
Well, apart from the other games in the Elder Scrolls series, namely Morrowind and Daggerfall...
Definitely Betrayal at Krondor. The graphics are fairly primitive, and it's slightly more story driven, but it's a great game with tons of open-ended exploration. In fact, years ago Sierra reclassified the game as freeware in order to hype up the release of it's shitty sequel, so you don't even have to pay for it any more. Just google the game to find a download, set it up in DOSbox, and have at it. However, MAKE SURE YOU INSTALL THE 1.02 PATCH, OR DOWNLOAD A PREPATCHED VERSION, TO AVOID A HORRIBLE SOUL-CRUSHING BUG.
Betrayal in Antara is the spiritual successor to Betrayal at Krondor. It's not freeware, so you'll have to check eBay or Amazon for it, but it's nearly as fun as Krondor, and looks much more modern.
As much as I hate to admit it, I am looking for fairly pleasing graphics. Not OMG ITS REAL but fairly new I guess.
If you like RTS games, Command & Conquer 3 is pretty fun to play. Also, not an FPS, Gears of War is a great PC game.
pay to play = no go
If you're looking for an oblivion-like, you might want to try Two Worlds. It got shat on because the demo was buggy as shit, as was the initial release, but it's been patched up to be quite nice and as long as you don't go into it with oblivion-style expectations and play it more like diablo, trying to get better and better loot, you'll be fine.
Other suggestions along the same lines are Titan Quest Gold and Gothic 3.
Gothic 3 was pretty buggy when i played it, but good. Titan quest I've often wondered about. Never heard of two worlds.
Also, Guild Wars: Nightfall and the Eye of the North Expansion are both decent games. MMO-style but with instanced everything, no monthly fee, and cool PvP.
There's also the Factions and Prophecies campaign if you end up liking PvP and want more skills.
Guild Wars gets bonus points for including scythes as a weapon type. I like scythes and you rarely ever see them represented in games.