I just got a new rig and am chomping at the bit to play new games. What should I play first? (Already played Skyrim, FNV, and Bioshock: Infinite)

The Witcher 2 should give it a good workout.

The Witcher 2 & Metro: Last Light are definitely worth getting

The Wolf Among Us and Transistor. Not exactly graphical tours de force but still amazing games.

Just some games from my own list that stand out, I tried to limit it to PC exclusives or at least those that are far superior on PC compared to console. Please try to wait for Steam sales or Humble Bundle deals if you can! Sadly you just missed the Steam Summer Sale, but the holiday sale will be here soon enough. Also check out some Free To Play games like Hearthstone, Planetside 2, Dota 2/League of Legends, Warframe, World of Tanks, War Thunder, Team Fortress 2.

This list could be a lot longer. It may help if you listed some of your favorite games or genres.

• Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls (Free starter edition of Diablo 3 is available for you to try now)
• Torchlight 2
• Amnesia: Dark Descent
• Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs
• ArmA 3 (Sort of hard core, but absolutely nothing like this is available on any console)
• Crysis 2
• Red Orchestra 2
• Rome II: Total War
• Far Cry 3 & Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon, even if you played them on consoles
• Wargame: European Escalation
• Europa Universalis 4
• CS: GO
• Metro: Last Light
• Octodad: Dadliest Catch
• Witcher 2
• Civilization 5
• StarCraft 2
• Kentucky Route Zero

metal gear rising

L4D2 with Raptor's Mod

Batman Arkham City with all the Physics turned up, the cape and debris look amazing.

I was replaying Deus EX Human Revolution Director's cut some slight graphic bumps looks sharper then it's previous version.

Most games have been mentioned so I'll try to mention ones that weren't.

Spec Ops the Line

Dead Space 2

Far Cry 3 (and Blood dragon- they are separate games with the same engine)

Dark Souls

Dark Souls 2

Portal 2

Batman Arkham City

LA Noir

That's all I can think of right now.

You should play dota

The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series. The first one came out in 2007, but the last one is only a little over 4 years old. It's one of my favorite series of all time and there's nothing else quite like it.

Really test that graphical capability with a game of Football Manager 2014! Ahem, yeah, Dark Souls is kind of ok, maybe give that a shot.

• Hard Reset
• Shadow Warrior (2013)
• Outlast
• Amnesia: The Dark Descent
• Legend of Grimrock
• Gone Home
• Antichamber
• Tomb Raider (2013)
• Portal 2

But, really, just play Binding of Isaac...

Miasmata, easily the best game of the past few years. Weather and lighting are also incredible, doubly so when you consider the fact it was made by two people.

if you play Witcher 2, you should start by Witcher 1, as it will greatly improve the experience.

Also if you haven't tried it before, you should play Alan Wake.

It's weird how uncommon it is on this site for people to mention Planetside 2. It is f2p yes, but it is way better and bigger than BF3/4 in almost every way. A much more open way to improve your character - get xp, choose how to spend it. Continents, not maps. Massive 200vs200vs200 battles can erupt any day. Join an outfit (guild) and tactically pwn your enemies and earn xp even faster.

You can purchase weapons with real-world money, but nothing else (except for cosmetic stuff of course). All the class/vehicle upgrades are still based on gaining xp. Most of the weapons are just sidegrades of one another anyway, it is in no way a p2w game.

The only thing BF4 does better in my opinion, is the whole "levolution" thing and weather effects. But that's just eye candy.

@iodine: No MOBAs, I have other things to do in life that would be hard if I were addicted to LoL

FTL.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

FEZ.

If I pared this list down to games solely for graphical prowess (but also a good game, not interested in BF4-type game), what should I look at?

Mount and Blade Warband came out like 4 years ago.

Shit, I'm old. :(

The graphics are real bad, the mechanics are clunky, yet once I get into it, I can't stop. I've read/heard it was made by a husband and wife duo.

Sleeping Dogs. When it's on sale on Steam, it's dirt cheap and quite enjoyable.

Chivalry! It looks good and it's hilarious.

Witcher 2, Metro: Last Light, Tomb Raider, Far Cry 3 & Blood Dragon, Sleeping Dogs.

Sleeping dogs, Far Cry 3, and Metro Last Light are good examples of games that are made better on PC because they look fucking amazing on PC. Saints row 4 is another good one, it doesn't look phenomenally better on PC, but it sure as hell runs better and plays 100 times better as a result, you get the true super hero feeling when you play that game at 60 fps. So if you didn't play any of those on console already they would be worth checking out probably.

There's also a metric ton of great indie stuff that is on PC like the stanley parable, gone home, octodad, fract OSC, brothers, FTL, Gunpoint, antichamber, rogue legacy, proteus, transistor, 1001 spikes, papers please, the swapper, VVVVVV, tiny and big, thomas was alone, monaco, samurai gunn, hotline miami, risk of rain, speedrunners, crimsonland, super hexagon, broforce, audiosurf 1 and 2, capsized, lone survivor, orcs must die 2, luftrausers, the binding of issac, next car game, shovel knight, and Jazzpunk

I would also try your hand at mods for various source engine games, skyrim, just cause 2 mp, etc and check out different genres of games and experiences that were completely nonexistent on consoles. I just built my first PC 6 months ago and I can say that it is one of the 10 best things I have ever done in my life in terms of the net profit of pure fun it has afforded me so far.

This is a good point. I still think that some games are worth revisiting on PC even if one has previously played the console versions. Playing something at 1080p/60+ compared to 720p/30 (most console games last generation, and even some this gen) drastically improves the experience, at least in my book. Without even considering all of the improved lighting, effects, and post-processing, we're talking about 500% more pixels being pushed out. Games I originally played on console and that I thought were fun and looked good can sometimes blow me away when I see them on PC, even years later. Which brings me to another advantage of having a high end gaming PC...being able to force additional AA, AF, downsampling, running multiple monitors, and more.

Hard Reset.

Binary Domain

DmC: Devil May Cry (highly recommended, I love this game)

Dust: An Elysian Tail

Hard Reset

Mark of the Ninja

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

Rage

Shadow Warrior

CS:GO & Octodad

Never look back.

see you on the other side of 200+ steam library which you'll never play in its entirety :)

I would add wolfenstein to the list, but agree with mostly everything on here. Definitely play sleeping dogs and The witcher (1 and 2 IMO) as well.

Sleeping Dogs is v. pretty

Played a lot of the previous games, will mention a few I haven't seen here.
Battlefield 3 or 4
Skyrim w/ mods
Bioshock Infinite
Metro 2033
Dragon Age
Mass Effect

That's all I've got at the moment.

Assassins Creed IV Black Flag, its gorgeous and fun. Also it's not that optimized for PC so you pretty much need a high end system to play it at a decent quality and frame rate.

Also, if you just want to marvel at your new hardware, its not a great game but Crysis 3 is damned pretty and will push your shit to the limit. Max Payne 3 if you haven't played it yet also isn't a bad option.

Spelunky

Rogue Legacy

Witcher 2

Check out the Humble Bundle 2k sale

Even as a person who doesn't have much of an appreciation for old school shooters like Serious Sam, I loved Shadow Warrior. Great mix of guns and sword combat all mixed in with cheesy dialogue and story (in a good way!). It will also stress test the shit out of your system.

Mount and blade: Warband is sooooo good. Rock Paper shotgun described it as the PC'ist of PC games. Its got a billion mods, and weird/unique mechanics and was made by a small team in turkey or something.

Its so much fun!

Antichamber is an absolute MUST.

These are just a few games I thought were really interesting or unique in their mechanics. Not sure if these are the type you are looking for as you would be able to play most of them on a lower class rig.

• Vessel
• Reus
• Reciever
• Hotline Miami
• Limbo
• Magicka
• Trine (series)
• Warp
• Greed Corp
• Gemini Rue
• Eldritch
• Thirty Flights of Loving
• Gone Home

Just a small list of small games that I liked over the years. The last two are very short adventure games. Besides Limbo and Hotline, these have kind of been my list of hidden indie gem games.

Looks like my first post got lost to the void after I clicked edit then saw no way to get rid of the edit so I refreshed.

Here is a list of indie games I've enjoyed over the years and noted them for the unique mechanics/Environments.

• Vessel
• Reus
• Receiver
• Hotline Miami
• Eldritch
• Gemini Rue
• Limbo
• Greed Corp
• Magicka
• WARP
• Trine (series)

Most of these you probably played because they are semi-popular and can run on lower end rigs.

Dragon Age Origins was meant to be played on the PC. You can get the GOTY edition with all the DLC super cheap if you're patient. Right now I am into Divinity Original Sin and it's a lot of fun if also rather slow moving. The game play is great, but unforgiving especially early on. After you finish the tutorial, expect to be running around the city for many hours until you've gained enough levels and gear to venture forth. I'm showing 14 hours in on Steam (I think more overall) and I've only just begun to get the hang of the basics. Still, I'm having a blast unlike any other in a while.

Another good one is Diablo 3/Reaper of Souls. It's been fixed and it's much more enjoyable for fast paced, never-a-dull-moment action.

Finally, while I haven't played as much as I would like, I did have some fun with Call of Juarez: Gunslinger. It's an arcade FPS, but the way it plays with the story is entertaining. Graphics look pretty decent, too.

Get the 2K humble bundle.

@hone_mcbone: ah ah

And Alan Wake. It's a wonder of storytelling, drama, comedy, atmosphere, with great use of licensed music. Looks great too.

Some of the new indie games like The Banner Saga and Brothers: Tale of two sons... a relay good creativity and story

@walreese55: Crysis 3 is probably the strongest game in terms of pure technical prowess - it simply looks stunning. The artstyle, however, leaves a lot to be desired. Watch Dogs is also a very pretty game despite the downgrade controversy and will surely test your PC to the limits as it isn't very well optimized.

If you, however, really want to test your machine and push it to its limits, try modding GTA IV with the iCEnhancer mod. I won't lie, modding GTA IV is a pain in the butt but it will be worth it.

DARK SOULS

Also SC2, Farcry 3, Civilization 5, Diablo 3, XCOM Enemy Unknown, and Hotline Miami.

Rise of the Triad and E.Y.E. Divine Cybermancy.

Try out Battlefield 3 if you're into that kind of games. I got a couple hours of multiplayer gameplay, it's pretty neat.

The Witcher 2, Dark Souls 2, Bastion and Borderlands 2 all look great and are a ton of fun. There are also so many amazing indie games that look amazing, but don't require a beefy computer to run.

@walreese55: To push graphics cards here is a pretty definitive list:

Crysis 1-3 (The first game is CPU bound and only single threaded so regardless of how good your GPU is or how many cores you have on your CPU, you still likely won't be able to max it out. If for some reason you have a current gen Core i7 Extreme then turn multi-threading off and overclock it as far as it will go and you'll experience the magic. If you have an AMD CPU then you are out of luck sadly)

The Witcher 2 (Play the first one first if you actually care about the story and unless your PC cost at least $1750 turn off Uber-sampling. It just isn't worth it)

Far Cry 3 and Blood Dragon (Experience how the game was meant to be played)

Metro 2033 and Last Light (There are some remastered editions coming out soon so I would wait for those)

Sleeping Dogs (If you want to push your rig then turn on super sampling and watch your framerate plummet)

Tomb Raider (If you have an Nvidia GPU consider turning off TressFX and be sure you have the absolutely latest drivers)

Arkham City and Origins (Only if you have an Nvidia GPU. Turn on the Nvidia exclusive PhysX effects to again see magic being made)

GRID 2/Autosport (If you have a 360 controller or racing wheel handy only. Great looking racing games that perform well on a wide variety of systems. Actual fun factor may vary depending on your tastes)

Hard Reset and Shadow Warrior (Oldschool shooters by Flying Wild Hog. Great action and beautiful worlds)

Outlast (Best looking horror game on the market)

Gone Home (If you don't think you can make a great looking game in Unity talk to the makers of this game. Note there is very little gameplay. Think of it like the portions of Bioshock Infinite without combat)

I know you specifically said nothing like Battlefield 4, but I would suggest trying Planetside 2. It's free so you don't have to spend anything on it. Try it out. At the very least you'll see some of the most impressive visuals out there and you can uninstall it and move on.

That pretty much covers it. If you enjoy action games I might also suggest playing DMC and Darksiders 2 on PC as they really come into their own at 60 fps.

EDIT:

Forgot the Total War games. Anything from Empire forward is mighty impressive and will push your system to the brink.

I would go for Fibrillation and Palm Kingdoms 2.

Most memorable games I've played recently would have to include:

- Far Cry 3 (havent tried blood dragon)

- Borderlands 2

- Diablo 3 (havent tried ROS)

- Bastion

- Torchlight

- LA Noire (highly recommended!)

- Bioshock Infinite (havent tried any DLCs)

- Dead Space 1 - 3 (the first one is best in terms of scary atmosphere but all enjoyable)

- the Witcher 1 and 2