2mo ago

Longtime buddy of mine just got a gaming PC. What games would make up a good "welcome to PC" care package?

The issue is that I think there are Steam bundles that can’t be gifted, such as the Valve pack and that kind of thing. That also makes something like Civ 6 less likely, just because of the DLC bundles. I can also use Fanatical or Humble but frankly the region thing might be an issue.

This guy has played every console-available game under the sun before around 2020. So I’m focusing more on what he’s not likely to have played. He’s more of a soulslike/fighting game guy and I’m more of a simulation and eurojank enjoyer, so the recommendations don’t always carry across.

That said, I’ve been thinking newer games like Animal Well that are sure to be received well, but it’d suck if he already played it on something else. Would be a funny inclusion as well, a 35 megabyte 2D platformer for his new gaming desktop.

Any suggestions?

79 comments

Man, for a console gamer coming over this thread has a bunch of pretty terrible recommendations. I can't imagine a better way to send somebody back to console gaming than immediately dumping a bunch of fiddly mods and janky old stuff on them so they can play their OS for a while before having any fun.
I mean, if they're into competitive, hardcore console stuff they probably will want to decide if they want to go down the rabbit hole of competitive PC gaming. Checking out a couple MOBAs or fast mouse and keyboard shooters is probably a good way to start (for Steam ease of use I suppose DOTA2 and CS2 are the obvious choices). That's the fighting game equivalent stuff they're unlikely to have played already. I'd say if they aren't feeling it, it's fine to step away, though.
Depending on how beefy their gaming PC is, it may be fun to go for crazy console-crushing visuals. Path traced games like Indiana Jones or Cyberpunk may be fun to check out even if they've played the console versions, if they have a current-gen expensive GPU in there.
There are a couple of genres that are also cross-over but play best on PC, like survival sims and the like. I'm a PC controller player, but I'll switch to mouse and keyboard for, say, Satisfactory, although that's less action-packed and timing-based.
And of course there's upcoming stuff. VF 5 REVO is coming out in January, and that seems like a good chance to jump into a new thing on a gaming PC instead.
- I agree. People keep suggesting Factorio, which leads me to believe that they have not actually read the post since his friend is into souls-likes and heavy combat games. Factorio is the antithesis of that! I don't personally play those games (Factorio is one of my most played games), so I can't make suggestions aside from Monster Hunter.
  
  They didn’t specifically say it needed to be a souls-like. In fact, if you had read the whole thing, they’re considering including a 2d platformer.
  They want new experiences for their friend. They probably don't want a game that their friend has already played on console.
  
  Yeah, that's why Satisfactory is probably a better choice (I mean, it's mostly "what if Factorio didn't look like a 1999 Flash game").
  Honestly in 2025 (hey, happy new year!) things are platform-agnostic enough that the biggest thing to do when you switch to PC gaming is go check how all the games you know play when you run them at 200 fps or whatever. But even if you're an action game guy I do think it's work taking a few minutes to decide if you're going to be a sweaty mouse and keyboard guy and it's time to start browsing online stores for mice with ten grams shaved off the mouse wheel or whatever.

Deep Rock Galactic
He can get used to mouse and keyboad, while you cover him.
As mentioned before, gift cards are good way to go.
- DRG is a fantastic place to start with moving from a controller to mouse/keyboard.
  I would personally T-up some classics like portal and Half-life 2 for solo "history lessons" after that. Only then would I make some harder recomendations like long RPGs, MOBAs, 4X, and would shy away from MMOs unless you have an organized group to introduce them to.
  
  Portal 2 has coop 👍
- Rock and stone!
- Helldivers 2 for similar reasons.

Honestly, we all can't be much more useful than any of the "Top 10 games of 2024" YouTube videos because we don't really know your friend or his tastes.
A Steam gift card seems like a good idea? Let him pick his own games?

If your friend is new to PC gaming then they might not be aware of how much they can get for free. I just wrote a post (stickied in !freegames@feddit.uk) summarising all the places you can regularly get freebies, could be a good way for them to try out a lot of different things.
- Just in the past few years I got maybe 100-200 free games. I follow a few discord bots, and several free groups here on lemmy and Slickdeals website. Lots of resources. Amazon prime gives free games, epic free games, lots of free games on steam, itch.io, gog often has free games, other key websites often have free games too.
  Can check steam sale prices on steamDB website.
  
  It's crazy how many full games you can play for free nowadays, I claim them way faster than I can play them!

straight up cash and a note saying "for games"
not a gift card, not steam credit, just real actual paper cash.
- I agree.
  Don't try to push your idea of "all PC gamers must have played this" it's cringe.

In my personal opinion, the steam starter pack should be:
Portal 1+2
Terraria
Gary's Mod
Tabletop Sim
Fallout New Vegas
Stardew Valley
- Perfect for showing off that £2000 gaming PC.
  
  Valid lol. I was more trying to come up with a list of games you could get for probably a combined like 30 bucks during sales
- Add factorio to this and it's perfect
  
  Agreed in my case, but I don't think Factorio is for everyone realistically
  Plus, all those games regularly go on sale for super cheap and factorio has and will never go on sale

Get them a month (or 3) of PC Gamepass so they can play everything and find out what they like.
- This is probably the best way to go. You won't be able to beat the flexibility for the price.

It's not as elegant, but you might be able to give them some Steam Gift Cards and recommend some games.
https://store.steampowered.com/digitalgiftcards/selectgiftcard

Shower With Your Dad Simulator
- Came here to post this! Every new Steam account gets a copy, it's the law.
  
  It was the first game I was gifted! My second recommendation is “I Love You Colonel Sanders!: A Finger Lickin’ Good Dating Simulator”. Who needs more satisfaction than that?
- That sounds disturbing

So, most of my recommendations are going to be FPS or first person. For Valve related stuff:
Half-Life 2 is pretty much a must have along with Episodes 1 and 2.
Black Mesa is a remake of the original.
Entropy : Zero 2 is a fantastic fan made mod that's a good follow up after finishing Half-Life 2 and the episodes.
The original Entropy : Zero is pretty good, but the default difficulty is hard as hell.
Portal 1 and 2 are also a must have
Portal: Revolution is an independent mod that's a good follow up after 2.
As for non-Valve games and related:
Crab Champions - fast paced, third-person, rogue-like shooter.
Talos Principle 1 and 2 - first-person puzzles with a serious philosophical scifi story. It actually gets a bit heavy when it discusses mortality and death. 1 is being remade into a "definitive edition".
Untitled Goose Game - Honk!
Gnorp Apologue - fun little game
Pineapple on pizza - it's free. I would describe it as games-as-art.
Any of the Serious Sam games. They were made for PC.
Fallen Aces is still in early access, but a good story driven retro FPS with sprites and multiple ways of navigating each level.
Trepang2 - a bit of an odd FPS with bullet time.
Roboquest - rogue like FPS
Exit 8 - horror walking simulator. Kinda short once you figure it out.
APE OUT - Ape smash! Top down "shooter".
Hotline Miami 1 and 2 - top down shooters with fast deaths and excellent soundtracks
The Binding of Isaac - has always been popular if a little dated
Gunpoint - stealth puzzle third person. Came out a decade ago, but a good game.
Party Hard - little indie murder-everyone-and-don't-get-caught.
The Stanley Parable - walking simulator with some interesting dialog and interactions. 9-to-5 office people can relate.
Dusk - awesome boomer shooter
Antichamber - came out a decade ago, but it's mind bending first-person puzzles.
Hades and Hades 2 which is in early access. Third person isometric rogue-like.
The Invincible - Story driven walking simulator based off the book of the same name. Good story.
Firewatch - story driven walking simulator
Deep Rock Galactic - wasn't my pint of beer, but a lot of people like it.
- ROCK AND STONE!!!!

How powerful is the PC? Is the question more about games optimised for mouse+keyboard, or is it about demanding recent games that allows his new machine to flex its muscles?
Since you say he likes Souls-likes Black Myth Wukong probably checks both boxes - I never ended up playing it (my backlog is too long) but it looked great with stunning visuals and I heard good things about the gameplay.
Cyberpunk with full path tracing is still one of the prettiest games out there and a pretty damn good game too after the patches and expansions.
Finally, something like Fallout: London could be an interesting suggestion as mods of that nature are out of reach of the console crowd. Could give him a whiff of what he's been missing out on.

You could add them to your steam family to give them access to your library?
Otherwise, seeing as he's played a lot of console games, maybe an RTS would be a good option? Something where kB+m is a better controller layout.

Outer Wilds is one of my favorite games. If he likes the explorey/other worldly feel of souls games, he might like it, but it certainly doesn't have any combat.
As for fighting, I've recently started replaying Returnal, and I really enjoy that. It's a well known console game, but I think it came out after 2020. It's a roguelike format so slightly different from souls, but I love it.
- Unfortunately he’s never been able to get into Outer Wilds despite it being one of my favorite games that I always shill. I’ll still push for him to play it.

Orange box?
- My first purchase on Steam
- Half-Life 2 is pretty much a must have. Black Mesa is a good remake of the original.

Anything with mods so he can accurately reflect his IRL penis length in-game

Big shout out to Beyond All Reason. It's an RTS game that's free and open source that I've been playing with my friends for a few weeks now. Not even a fan of RTS games, but it's a lot of fun to play co-op matches against AI.
https://www.beyondallreason.info

Hunt Showdown & Doom Eternal
- Warms my heart to see Hunt on here.

Teardown is good chill fun

Untitled Goose Game

Limiting to PC only games makes things tricky. Most games on PC are available on console as well. Especially soulslike and fighting games.
But my recommendation is Ultrakill. It’s a fast paced FPS with a Devil May Cry style system. It really showcases the benefit of having a mouse and keyboard for shooters.
Edit: another is Black Mesa.
- I went with Ultrakill! I might get it myself. I think older style graphics boomer shooters are a core part of the current wave of PC games.

Gift him a Starsector code or share your own if already have one.
Gift any super moddable games he likes. If he enjoys Bethesda games on consoles, he will definitely love PC only mods. Also explain to him what Big Picture Mode on Steam is. I wish I knew it existed when I started. Get the same console experience and seamless controller integration even if the game doesn't officially support it.
Edit: Also any super pretty games would probably be a nice gift. Cyberpunk 2077 was one of the first I installed. Really nice realizing how much better looking games can be with a powerful computer.

I recently started playing Hyper Light Drifter, really like it, lots of fighting, shooting. Oldschool pixel graphics.

Skyrim for the mods.
- I'd also add a lifetime subscription to Nexus, that alone can add so much life to so many games. Hell, if I'm checking out a game, I see what kind of mod support it has first.
  Or do they not offer that anymore?
  I think I got it way back when for $50 or so.

I usually gift Wallpaper engine. Not a game but it's a fantastic tool for personalization.
- One of the first things I add to any PC. I just bought a copy for someone a few days ago.

The strength of pc gaming imo comes in the form of modding.
So
modded multiplayer rimworld
seamless co op randomizer Elden ring
Minecraft pokemon or vault hunters
Slay the spire downfall
Probably forgetting a lot

Portal
Minecraft
Something shooty: TF2. Overwatch.
RTS game like Age of Empires 2

Space Marines 2

The best game ever made is Baldur's Gate 3, so that's what I'd give if he hasn't played it. IDC what kind of games he usually plays, that's what I'd give.

Instead just buy something he wants to play so you can play it together. Or at least talk about it.
- Sit down with them on their new gaming machine and sign them up for Steam or GOG. While they are doing that, slyly buy Steam or GOG credits on your phone and gift them to your buddy. Have your buddy go through the automated recommendations and gently inform your buddy whether a game is worth their time or not. And then watch as they add games to their wishlist thinking that they are going to pay a bunch for it.
  I mean, they will eventually. No one in the MPCR escapes spending a fortune on their wishlist.

Nioh 2
Witchfire
Devil Slayer Raksasi
Curse of the Dead Gods
Metal Mutation
Cavity Busters
Waves (free, but still)
BlazBlue Entropy Effect
30XX
Nova Drift
Quantum Protocol
Deep Rock Galactic
Hellsinker
Twin Ruin
Devader
Arboria
Bloody Spell
Aura of Worlds
Also, if he's a bit of a tinkerer, he might be interested in trying shooters using gyro+flick-stick, which he probably didn't have access to before. Witchfire, Deep Rock Galactic, and Deadlink can readily play that way once set up in Steam Input. Some games you only need to set up the gyro-to-mouse and flick-stick, whereas others (eg Vermintide 2) you have to map the entire controller manually.

XCOM 2
- I watched the Ahoy video for XCOM and decided I wanna try it. Then I saw that I already own a copy on epic, but I bought it for steam anyway.

Try Rise of the Triad, One Must Fall 2097, and Goat Simulator

For PC I would go for the avan-garde stuff
e.g. Cold line
Most popular indie titles are already on console as studios will port stuff to increase the sales.
I would go to look for stuff that can't be sold. Dream like avan-garde surrealism or under 2h experiences on itch.io and newgrounds.com
also RTS require mouse so it could be a fun stuff to get into.
- Avant-garde is my jam, it’s just hard to convince people who aren’t into that kind of game to play. I love the Cosmo D games, for example, but I know most of my friends wouldn’t enjoy them if I recommended them.

Surroundead for single player zombie survival
Project zonboid for multiplayer zombie survival
Kingdom come deliverance for visuals and epic story
Hell let loose for FPS shooter
Deadlock for moba/fps
Risk of rain 2 for multiplayer roguelite
The raft for multiplayer survival on water
The forest for multiplayer survival on land
SCUM for pvp survival
That's all I can think of for now...the fun part of PC is gaming with friends without having to pay a shitty subscription fee.
- Project zomboid is so stress inducing! Great with friends though.
  
  It's amazing with friends... especially when one of them decides to be the cook, and burns down the base because they forgot to turn off the stove while we're all out scavenging for supplies...

Games with lots of mods for sure. It may be a generic recommendation but Minecraft with mod packs and gorgeous shaders is an amazing experience for someone who never got around to trying them.
Also if he's a souls-like fan, I highly recommend Elden Ring's convergence mod and Dark Souls 3's convergence mod (they're by the same team). It adds like a hundred new spells, new weapons and equipment, overhaul of some mechanics like having actual classes with game-changing effects, completely overhauls areas with new geometry, adds new enemies and bosses, etc. It's a very fun time.
- The souls games weren’t on sale, but I’ve passed the message along about the mods. I think he’s taking a break after pushing those games to the absolute limit but I’m glad something like that exists.

Game bundles like from Fanatical are a good start. You can't return them if you have issues, but they're great if you haven't played any of the offerings given.
A similar thing would be Xbox Game Pass, but that very much locks you into their ecosystem, and they're clearly done investing into worthwhile games.
- Or I guess a Humble Bundle subscription.

I thought the old homeworld games were great. Kind of RTS in space ships. They're old now but still good.

Might consider getting something that only plays well on keyboard/mouse. Factorio comes up off the top of my head. Shooters also generally translate poorly to controllers, so perhaps that?

Tormented Souls was really good

SuperHot
The DOOMs

Dead Cells
CARRION
Left 4 Dead 2
Hades

The Sonic Racing games are the best counterpart to Mario Kart available on PC. Sonic Racing Transformed is the best of the 3 games (and bundles the very first game) but sometimes gets confused when switching up controllers, so you must delete the config file, so maybe because of that not the best introduction to PC. Team Sonic Racing is a bit less good but that input bug is gone.

Total war: Warhammer 3? Baldurs Gate 3? Maybe those are available on console as well..

79 comments