Maximum PC

As of late, I have spent the majority of my time gaming on Valve titles such as Team Fortress 2, Half-Life 2, and Portal. I've also played some online COD 4 as well. But as of late I have been wanting to find a single-player game that could really get me interested and addicted for quite some time, and I have continuously failed in my attempts. Several years ago, I tried out some games on my older computer such Morrowind, Diablo 2, and Guild Wars. I loved Guild Wars until I beat the game once and was totally bored afterwards. Diablo 2 was just too old and too much for me to quickly comprehend. Lastly, I couldn't stand Morrowind's graphics or the user interface, and the world itself seemed confusing. I immediately lost interest in Morrowind and Diablo 2 slowly got dull and repetitive for me.

So in these past few months, on top of my consistent online multiplayer gaming, I tried out well-reviewed titles such as Torchlight and Titan Quest, both of which were fun at first, but like most hack n slash games, I am losing my interest, and they don't have the solid online gaming experience I desired. (Torchlight doesn't even have online servers or LAN). So I want to know what games you all have enjoyed and would recommend to me. I have become so attached to the Orange Box titles that I feel as if no other games can really peak my interest. The only game I really play now is Team Fortress 2 in my free time, and I would love to get back into some single-player action. I have been recommended to try titles such as Oblivion, Fallout 3 and Mass Effect 2. I have even thought about just waiting until Starcraft 2 is released before I try anything else out . However, I am unsure of how much better Oblivion and fallout are compared to morrowind since I have never played any of those titles, and Mass Effect 2 seems to me like it has too much story and less RPG attributes. Any advice or opinions would be very helpful!

I was more or less in the same predicament. I love valve titles, but I was ready to move on to other things. I started off with the Mass Effect series; the first one has a greater amount of rpg elements than the 2nd one, but the second game was overall better than the first. The story and possible outcomes of the ending for each game are amazing, and I would definitely suggest them. I then moved onto another bioware game called Dragon Age Origins; if you want rpg elements, it's certainly a game to shoot for.

Finally, I know it's not a single player game, but I just started playing a small-time game called Heroes of Newerth. If you've ever played custom games in Warcraft III, you'd be familiar with DOTA; well, HON is an evolution of this game, which is essentially 5 heroes going on against 5 other heroes in an all-out battle. I may not be giving it justice, but it's a cheap, fun game if you're looking for a bit of a change of pace.

For old games I would recommend Deus X, great story and a fun romp through the intrigue world. This is a fps title.

Another old game is Baldur's Gate. A great rpg and the story is just super.

Neverwinters Night, you can play the whole series. It has good rpg and a good story line.

I also had fun with Spellforce 2, it has rpg and strategy elements to the game play , plus a story to boot!

Oblivion was fun but repetitive in some places.

You might enjoy The Witcher. Good story and a different type of game play than you would be accustomed to in games today. They have a free game enhancement pack you can download. Tweaked the graphics and game play. I can't wait for Witcher 2 which is in the works!

Nasty

Oblivion is really atmospheric and just plain-old exploration-tastic, as well as FUN. Fallout 3 is like Oblivion... with guns... and more of an actual "RPG" feel to it, since in Oblivion, you just have a few skills/stats that level up, while in F3 you have that, but you also have abilities that you acquire. But... Oblivion had horseback riding, which really made it feel like you were a knight out on an adventure to kick ass.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. are good like that too, but Bioshock is more linear with some goofy combat, while S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has more of a Counter-Strike-ish duck/hide/shoot system.

You should check out X3: Terran Conflict. Be sure to install a ton of mods and scripts beforehand. If you've not played any others in the series, the difficulty curve will be like kayaking up a waterfall, but you'll get the hang of it soon enough, and no time at all you'll command destroyers, carriers, frigates and other behemoths.

Sorry I wouldnt reccomend Oblivion. I guess you might like it. From my perspective of having gotten completely involved in Morrowind, Oblivion is not like that. Too many of the areas are repetitive like they just added a skin to the same area.

I second the recommendation of Deus Ex. That was one of my favorite all time games.

I hear borderlands is a ton of fun.

I got way too bored of Dragon Age as I didnt like the combat. Then again, I am to WoW like you are to Valve games.

Someone in another post was talking about dead space, have you tried that?

dead space looks to be a great game - it scared me really bad about 5 minutes in, and i stopped playing then and there. I scare easily, but Dead Space is said to be a fantastic game. My cousin says the asteroid portion of the game is really tough.

If you like insane amounts of Loot and a lot of grinding for set items and good loot, could try Torchlight - game is only like 750MB, and the patch+editor update allows you to create/share custom content with other users.

although kinda like Wolfenstein, Singularity i enjoyed. a sci-fi shooter with a time traveling theme, you can change aspects of time to get around certain puzzles (blow up walls in the past to create new path in the present kinda things), but for the cliche storyline, it does have 3 endings, which are easily obtained by reloading the last auto- save game and choosing a different ending.

I picked up Bioshlock 2 on STEAM a couple weeks ago for ~$15.00. Picked up Mess Effect 2 a couple weeks before that for ~$23.00.

STEAM has some great sales on games quite often.