In the words of the Violent Femmes, You won’t fool the children of the revolution.

So, I talk about PC gaming occasionally on this website. I do this in an attempt to demystify it. There is a bit of mystique on spending a minimum of $1000 on a computer just for computer games. I’ve known cars that cost that much (mind you, the computer will last longer with less maintenance than a $1000 car). Personally, I’ve always justified my computer over a console for several reasons ( a computer can do more functionally than a console, storage space is fairly easy to expand, it’s a mostly centralised place for all my games). Not to shame anyone who prefers and uses a console, there’s merit in the simplicity of the console (no-one has had to configure the display on a console, or edit the ini files or such on a console). However, this paragraph of parentheticals is distracting from the initial point I was trying to make.

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The words are fuck and you. Seriously, where the hell do you get off?

I feel like this requires some context. So, for those who are unaware. Electronic Arts, EA for short, is a games publishing company. They are such a shitbag of a company that they have repeatedly been named one of the worst companies in America by a poll conducted on a consumer affairs website. Anyway, EA is the money behind Battlefield, Battlefront, Titanfall, Dead Space, Mirror’s Edge, NBA 2K, the FIFA series of games, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Simcity, and most importantly for this discussion The Sims. They’re also the idiots behind game distribution platform Origin. So why do they suck?

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I have never played a Dark Souls. I don’t plan to. The series doesn’t grip me, but I want to make something clear. The reason the series hasn’t gripped me is not an issue of difficulty. Lots of people tend to think of the Souls series as a series that has difficulty as one of its core tenants. There are some people in the gaming community who unabashedly think that people just need to ‘git gud’. There are a couple of things that have dissuaded me from ever picking up a Souls game. First, is that the series wasn’t on my radar until late last year when everyone was extolling the virtues of Bloodborne, a game which completely passed me by because I no longer own a PS4. Then lots of people were talking up Dark Souls 3 this year. Before then it hadn’t been on my radar.

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With Christmas coming up I wanted to write something festive. I talked about this with my brother and together we sort of came to this idea. I received my first gaming console on Christmas 2002. I knew that my Mum had been discussing the present with my uncle, who had suggested it. The present was codenamed ‘Zebra’, and we had no idea what it was. There were three consoles on sale that Christmas. We had never had a console before this point and it seemed that fate was to coalesce to provide us with a console that had also recently burst onto the scene. You may have already guessed from the header image but the console we were gifted was the original Xbox. A bulky, black box with slightly more in common with a PC than a console (guess the Xbone is more a return to form than anything). The original Xbox was ultimately winner of second place in that generation, losing out to the best-selling console of all time, the PlayStation 2. My brothers and I didn’t care. The original Xbox is remembered fondly amongst us and I’m sure we aren’t the only ones.

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So, with the Foundation Update coming out for No Man’s Sky I figured now was a good time to talk about the game. Now I don’t hate No Man’s Sky but I have some very specific gripes that mean I might never return to the game. For those unfamiliar, No Man’s Sky is a space simulation game where you begin crashed on a randomly generated planet. After fixing your ship you begin to explore the galaxy, hoping from planet to planet. There are allegedly 18 quintillion worlds to explore as you make your way to the centre of the galaxy. Thus, begins a lonely journey as you mine resources, encounter abandoned settlements, meet alien traders, upgrade your ship, and scan new creatures. My personal favourite aspect of the core gameplay was encountering monoliths and slowly uncovering the languages of the three other species you encounter in the world. No Man’s Sky was also the perfect game to listen to podcasts while playing. There are quite a few instances where getting from point A to B might take a minute or two at most so while you wait you listen to your podcast. Now, from what you’ve heard No Man’s Sky sounds like a great game. Well, now to get into the bugbears.

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What is Overwatch?

Overwatch is an online multiplayer first-person shooter. It’s one of the biggest releases of 2016 and two months before its release I had no idea it existed. Overwatch was developed by Blizzard, a company whom my only previous experience with was playing Diablo II on a relative’s computer. Most people know of Blizzard through World of Warcraft but apparently, they’ve been quite busy since the days of Diablo and WoW. Overwatch represents their first new IP in 17 years.

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[Authors Note: All information provided is, to my knowledge, factual as of time of writing]

So I play most of my games on the PC these days. I used to predominantly play consoles before this current generation of hardware. I do have some current Nintendo consoles but just because they complement my PC, which gets most major releases. Anyway, my time on the PC has been spent finding whatever I can and grabbing it at a cheap price point.

Now my Steam library has a collection of 441 games (accurate at the time of writing). Recently, I’ve helped some people build their first beefy PC. Some I’ve given advice on parts to build your PC from (the best ever advice I got on building a PC came from PC Gamer’s budget build guide and their mid-range PC build guide).

There’s a lot of fearmongering about PC gaming. Some PC gamers have given us all the reputation of snootiness. The idea that building a $1000 box for gaming makes us superior to people who play on console. If you set up your PC up it can emulate rather well the Pick Up and Play nature of consoles past.

My list has been split into two sections, with an honourable mentions section at the end. The two sections are Can Be Played on Most Any PC and You’ll Need At Least a Decent Graphics Card. They’re pretty self-explanatory but just for clarity, Most Any PC means there’s no need for the game to render high-end graphics. These games are more likely Indie games with a pixel graphic or visually drawn style that don’t require anything but basic graphics and a rig that was built in the last 10 years. Can even be played on an older laptop.

At Least a Decent Graphics Card games are games that require at least some graphical power to run. None of them are too intensive and can be run on low settings with the lower end of graphics cards. I run a Nvidia GTX 750 Ti and that serves me well for pretty much everything on this list.

One last thing, you can always put these games on your wishlist and wait for them to go on sale if you’re strapped for cash. If the game is older than six months, it’s likely to go on sale in the next Steam sale. Steam sales periodically appear around the holidays. Maybe get someone to get you a Steam gift card for Christmas.

Now, on with the list!

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