About Nick Expertise I can answer questions on pretty much any action game released, including how good a game is, cheats, hints, Worldcraft editing and stuff like best prices and general questions on games.
Question Just bought a home computer 2100 amd with high end graphics card 8x. I dont have a clue about computer games from hardware to softwhare. Love to get in arcade and play. Like driving games, flight simulaters,shooting,and I dont know about the rest as I have not had access to a computer. Played my friends nintendo. That is as close to a computer as I have got.Any help would be greatly appreciated. If you can recomend some sites to explore or magazines for newbies this would help. I know that I have asked for the moon Thanks Ron Edwards
Answer Hi Ron,
Well you certainly have a fantastic machine to start running top quality games on!
Ok, there are no magazines really for newbies (in the UK at least) but PC GAMER is a great publication for PC users. As well as covering some technical problems and explanations they also offer many game reviews and previews in each edition. There is an American version if you live in the US as well. This magazine explores PC gaming with wit and humour and theres no better place to start. The magazine also comes with 2 game demo filled CD's or a game demo DVD. Their web site is http://www.pcgamer.co.uk
Ok, down to games. I will cover the game genres you specified; driving, flight sims and shooting (fps's First Person Shooters). You can find all these games home pages by just typing their name and then home page into Google or any other search engine.
Driving Games
Grand Prix 4 - Very realistic F1 sim, for the serious driving game enthusiast, not really a newbies game but you never know.
Midtown Madness 1 or 2 - Arcade type driving game with races or just cruise modes round realistically modelled cities (e.g. Chicago and London) Best option for newbies! Easy to change difficulty setting and tutorials.
Rally Championship - Just that, rallying like in an arcade but with realism.
Flight Sims
IL-2 Sturmovik - Eastern front in WW2, very good combat flight simulator
B17: Flying Fortress 2 - Incredible WW2 bomber simulation
MS Flight Simulator 2002 - The most realistic flight sim but involves no combat, just flying. Plan then fly routes all over the world, has good support and many add on packs.
First Person Shooters
Half-Life - The ultimate FPS, this has everything, fantastic tutorials and is the best FPS ever made. So many free or professional add-ons such as Counter-Strike (net play) that it'll keep you playing for ages (5 years for me and millions of others!). Also has fantastic net play.
Medal of Honour - Allied Assault - This is another fantastic game set in WW2 and features the Omaha beach landings. Amazing game. Also has great net play.
Serious Sam: The First Encounter - Old skool blast-em up, very easy to learn and play and features hundreds of things to shoot on screen at once.
Other Games
Max Payne - An FPS at heart but viewed in the third person and the story is told using storyboards and commentary. Features slowing time down matrix style for large gun battles. The best looking and most film like game made so far. Great!
Unreal Tournament 2003 - Multiplayer only but features offline practice with computer controlled 'bots'. Team based or all on all FPS with many mission modes to keep you occupied. Once you have mastered this game playing and beating a real person is the best thing ever!
Quake 3 - Deathmatch (all on all) based online game with offline practice modes. very popular and easy to learn but hard to master.
Fifa 2002 - Great soccer/football simulation. The best there is.
Dark Age of Camelot - Third Person Adventure online only. Talk and live another life online in camelot.
Counter Strike - Add on for Half-Life but also available seperately. The best and most popular online game. Terrorists vs Counter Terrorists in team based action.
There are many other genres of game and many games in each genre. Start with PC Gamer and try demos out to see what you like. Borrow games from people just till you know what you enjoy then go and buy games of that genre. Good luck and welcome to our world ;)
Regards
Nick
