I used to be a PC player, until I got a 360 and didn't want to deal with the hassle of the poor ports and honestly garbage PC support back then anymore. So, from 2006 to this very year, I've been gaming on 360. When they announced the next gen consoles, and they looked like a mid-range PCs, I was very bummed out. Thus, instead of buying a new console, I am building a beefy-ass PC.

Which brings up the question, what did I miss during the time I was away from PC gaming? I played almost every retail game that came out for 360, but didn't dwell much with XBLA releases. I am open to any type of game, any genre, any anything.

Thanks in advance!

@daiphyer: Get Hotline Miami 2, ASAP.

Also Hotline Miami 1.

@teaoverlord: Finished 1 on my Vita. Getting 2 as soon as I can.

Dragon age? Witcher 2, Civ, Crusader kings 2, League, Elite Dangerous, CSGO, Planetside 2, ARMA 3, A million MMOs, Outlast, total war games, Warhammer 40k dawn of war games to name a few

This question is interesting to me, because you have enough posts to make me believe that you are a fairly frequent visitor to the site. If you've kept up with the gaming world are there really any notable games that you straight up haven't heard of? I assumed this would be about PC hardware, not games.

Cities: Skylines, Elite: Dangerous, Total War: Atilla, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, Europa Universalis IV.

Five of the games that have been taking up all my time recently.

Dawn of War II and it's expansions

Check out steam if you haven't already (which you most likely have). Also sites like humble bundle and gog have great sales on pc games. Maybe also try out Diablo 3 if you haven't already, its pretty darn fun.

Since 2006? Only the greatest indie game revolution of all time, and the superior version of every cross platform AAA game released nowadays. A better question is probably what kind of games do you like to play? Then we can actually start getting somewhere! LOL

Transistor if you didn't play it on console as that game is awesome.

This guy knows

Modding PC games is incredibly fun. Modded Fallout 3 is possibly my favorite game of all time. There's also modded New Vegas and Skyrim. For me the modding experience is one of those things that really makes me appreciate PC gaming. Ooooh also, Cities: Skylines is very fun. And get Besieged. It's the best $6.99 I've ever spent.

Dwarf Fortress

Prison Architect

Counter Stike

@rcath: dwarf fortress broke my mind

@skullpanda1: Steep learning curve but after the first couple hours it sinks in.

There's a lot of good indie stuff if you didn't play it on xbox already. Dust: An Elysian Tail, Dragon age 1 (haven't played the others) if even just for the isometric camera; it really does make that much of a difference. More recently perhaps Ori, although I haven't played that myself. Oh and Gang Beasts if you've got friends! (hence why it's not in my library haha)

Gta V when it comes out. I'm going to get it solely for the inevitable 'GTA IV Driving Physics mod'.

Starcraft 2 has an expertly designed campaign. The story is awful and makes me pretend Brood War was the end of the series, but the campaign is fun and challenging and incredibly varied (both Wings of Liberty and the Heart of the Swarm expansion).

Jesus Christ you guys, if he's been out of PC Gaming since 2006 then don't just recommend decent games from the last few months. He's got an entire world to explore.

Put these games in your Steam Wishlist: Skyrim, Civ V, CSGO, Fallout 3 and New Vegas, Killing Floor. Most of these games are fairly cheap by now but they go on sale every several months so you can get a steal. Even if you've played these games before it's worth it to buy again for the PC for the mods.

Smaller indie games: Binding of Isaac rebirth, FTL, Besiege, Transistor, Magicka, Braid

And then there's the big world of PC Exclusive games, filled with MMOs and RTSs and grand strategy games. They're very complex and require a lot of investment so I won't get into those now.

Best of luck!

@daiphyer:

I don't know where to begin, there's just so much, I mean PC gaming has absolutely exploded since 2006. There were 3300+ new games on Steam last year alone.

Can you give us any parameters to narrow it down for you?

FTL for sure. I might even start there.

And I sure like Wasteland 2 a lot

Honestly if you've kept up with games on a console since 2006 you haven't missed much beyond better versions of games you already know.

Just a few recs off the top of my head:

Chivalry

To The Moon

Gunpoint

@brendan: I played almost every release on the 360, so I guess what I am looking for are the PC-only gems that I somehow missed. Here's the list I've conjured so far.

Blackguards

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing

Gunpoint

Ori and the Blind Forest

Shoot Many Robots

Splunky

Krater

Chivalry

@anywhereilay: GTA V for PC has already been leaked where I live, it's pretty good!

@slag: I really only looking for those PC-ass PC games that never made it to consoles.

Shit, I mean if you're going from more or less exclusively retail games on a 360 to the entirety of PC games since 2006, you've got a LOT of amazing stuff out there but if you've been following the site closely in those years you should already know about a good bunch. Basically most everything that mattered on XBLA or PSN made its way to PC and you saying you didn't keep up with the digital stuff as much means you're going to have to know because that's a big part of PC gaming now.

But anyway, here's two lists, the first being stuff that wasn't on 360 and the second being non-retail stuff that technically was but I'll put in case you missed it and should play it on PC. The order is pretty slapdash so I wouldn't read too much into it.

• Civilization V
• Sam & Max: Season 1, Season 2, and The Devil's Playhouse
• Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition and Monkey Island 2: Special Edition
• Machinarium
• Nelson Tether: Puzzle Agent and Puzzle Agent II
• Cook, Serve, Delicious!
• Dungeons of Dredmor
• Diablo III
• Starcraft II
• Amnesia: The Dark Descent
• Broken Age
• Tiny and Big: Grandpa's Leftovers
• Legend of Grimrock and Legend of Grimrock II
• Counter-Strike: GO
• VVVVVV
• The Witcher and The Witcher 2
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat
• Cryostasis
• Trine and Trine 2
• Darwinia
• Audiosurf
• Transistor
• The Room
• Osmos
• Shatter
• Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II
• Team Fortress 2
• Endless Space
• World in Conflict
• World of Goo
• And Yet It Moves
• Icarus Proudbottom Teaches Typing and Icarus Proudbottom's World of Typing Weekly
• Divekick
• Surgeon Simulator 2013
• Super House of Dead Ninjas
• Antichamber
• Risk of Rain
• Don't Starve
• Nidhogg
• Sportsfriends
• Samurai Gunn
• Luftrausers
• Octodad: Dadliest Catch
• The Binding of Isaac
• The Stanley Parable
• Roundabout
• Lethal League
• Hotline Miami
• Gunpoint
• The Swapper
• Crusader Kings II
• Papers, Please
• Velvet Sundown
• Proteus
• FTL
• Guacamelee!
• Rogue Legacy
• Gone Home
• Fract: OSC
• Neverending Nightmares
• Heavy Bullets
• The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
• Fotonica

• Braid
• Super Meat Boy
• Spelunky
• Iron Brigade
• Costume Quest and Costume Quest 2
• Stacking
• Zeno Clash and Zeno Clash II
• Bejeweld 3
• Orcs Must Die! and Orcs Must Die! 2
• Terraria
• Bastion
• Plants vs. Zombies
• Torchlight
• Mark of the Ninja
• Renegade Ops
• Limbo
• Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet
• Skulls of the Shogun
• Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine
• Valiant Hearts: The Great War
• Mount Your Friends
• Call of Juarez: Gunslinger

This pretty much.

Also, even with the flux of shitty ports, that was shitty to a PC standard, so were still by far the best version of the game 9 times out of 10. Take GTAIV, really shitty port, but still by far the best version.

MOBA, card games are a thing again and you are just in time for the VR hype, really nothing much.

Hold the phone - please explain more?

@bollard: The PC version has been leaked for a week now, and since Iran (where I live) doesn't have any copyright rules, stores are selling GTA V PC like hot cakes.

@daiphyer: Isn't it a bit early for stores to have copies in? Seeing as it isn't out till like April 14th (nearly a month from now).

@bollard: IRAN DON'T CARE

Stay away from Cities Skylines. It's a great game and everything, but it can lead down a dark hole that ends with looking up PDFs of urban planning textbooks to find some way of getting rid of ALL THIS GODDAMN TRAFFIC.

WITCHER 1 (Esp before W3 comes out)

This is a very strong list. FTL, Civ V, and modded Skyrim were the first three that came to mind for me. Could definitely add a few others such as StarCraft II, Spelunky, Gunpoint, and so on to that list. That said, if you've been keeping up with this site you'll probably have heard about most of them.

The key takeaway is probably not to write off games you might already have played - some are well worth checking out for the mod support alone (such as Skyrim). If you toyed around with modding in the past you'll be impressed with just how simple and accessible it has become in recent years thanks to things like Steam Workshop. Also on the modscene you should definitely play some Minecraft and look into one of the big modpacks like the Technic Pack or Feed the Beast.

Additionally, you should play a MOBA. Either Dota 2 or League is fine, I'd probably recommend the former but maybe try both and see. There's every chance you'll bounce off it, but you should give one a shot because it's an important genre. Same with Hearthstone - it's free, go play it and you'll likely either love it or hate it.

Finally, go download New Retro Arcade. It's not PC gaming but it's wonderful.

Haha, fair enough!

@daiphyer:

Aha ok! That helps a lot!

In that case you will definitely want to check out some MOBAs (League of Legends and DOTA 2). They may or not be your thing, but they are perhaps the most unique thing to arrive on PC in that time frame. The other MOBAs, other than Smite possibly, are also rans in every sense.

As for the rest everybody else has given you great suggestions.

I'd say Starcraft II, Civilization V, Crusader Kings II, Chivalry: Medieval Warfare, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Elite: Dangerous, Counterstrike: Go and Dragon Age: Origins are games I'd consider the high points.

• Civilization V
• Bastion
• Transistor
• Orcs Must Die 1&2