Ideas on what game I should buy?

I use steam as well. Love it.

 

You made me spend 5.99 on Good old Games for Master of Orion (1 and 2). : ) Went in the shed and got out my manual for it and I am ready to play.

 

hehe... the old stuff was the best....

 

Since you prefer not to play online, my vote (as both an online and non-online player) would be for Silent Hunter III, typically shortened to "SH3".
It's the third iteration of five of a World War II U-boat simulation, but has by far the greatest fan following, with literally tens of thousands of players around the world. There are hundreds of free downloadable upgrades and mods for the game to make gameplay more realistic regarding things like actual hydraulics physics, weather effects on gun and torpedo performance, visibility from the bridge or through either of the periscopes, ballistics, damage models, and the like. Some players have added enormous new single missions and dynamic campaign models. Some of the other folks have worked on accelerated damage to your boat's engines from extended running at flank speed, or the option of allowing for sabotage by either spies while in port for refits, or by jaded crewmen attempting to keep from putting out to sea. The games setup options let you choose between English and German for both the text callouts from the crew as well as the audio of their voices. They can be separate if you like.
The entire sim came out a couple of years after the movie "Das Boot" was released. Anyone who saw the movie will recognize the Type VII-B boat's interior and exterior features if that's the type boat they choose for their career.
One large team of guys, the Grey Wolves (mostly from the EU, hence that spelling of "grey") put together a huge add-on that's so comprehensive and faithful to historical accuracy that the .PDF manual for the add-on is ~700 pages long. The manual for the stock program that comes with the CD is 42 pages. Many of the players and forum users are active or ex-submariners. One fellow is a Brit on a nuclear fast attack boat, one of 10 crewmen who like to play in their off-time through a LAN that the Engineering section set up for them. Apparently their skipper loves it that he's got guys aboard who practice their craft the way their forebears had to do it 70 years ago.
All the add-ons are free. The support forum is free. The guy who "owns" the forum lives in Texas.
Originally, when I bought the program in a Fry's Electronics in northern California, the program was about $30. There's a link on the support forum that takes interested buyers to Amazon.com, and the program there is $9.95, bundled with an earlier version, SH2 (also on CD). If people buy through that link, the forum gets about $1 for the link.
I've had the program since 2006, a year after it came out, and have over a thousand hours on it. It'll run on my laptop if I turn down a couple of the graphics options in the add-ons to the midrange settings. On my desktop machine with an almost-top-of-the-line graphics card, the only thing missing is the pitch of the boat in a crash dive and the smell of Helmut vomiting in the next compartment.
Here's a link to the part of the forum specifically related to Silent Hunter III: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/forumdisplay.php?f=182

The "parent" forum covers many more games related to naval warfare, TV shows, movies, and genuine news about related events in the news.
That one is http://www.subsim.com/index.php but it'll take a little searching through the buttons on the left to drill down to the link posted above about SH3.

So, that's just one guy's opinion. The sim is, at the risk of sounding like an overused term, and a pun in this case, immersive.

Aside from playing live music in front of an appreciative audience, it's just about the most fun I know how to have with my clothes on.

Drive safe,
Handlebar

 

For some of the old school gamers Google Panzer General Forever. Free download and updated to run on win 7.

 

If you like RPG's they have modernized an old one http://www.baldursgate.com/. It comes out Nov. 30th. They are also working on the other games with the same game engine. I'll pretty eager to play the new version. I can't believe anyone would bet an Alienware comp lol, I have something similiar (Digital Storm) and no way I'd bet it!

 

I can't believe that not a single trucker recommended the greatest game of all time: "Big Rigs over the road Racing." Some say it's not only the greatest game of all time, it's the greatest artistic achievement in the entire history of mankind.

 

You want to see beauty, play FarCry 2, if your system can handle it with the graphics cranked up.

sent from my EVO4gLTE
OCed and MEAN

 

the Battlefield series of games; BF1942 (WW2) and free on line now,BF Vietnam, BF2 (the AIX mod is what I play),BF3 is the new one. I can't play it you need WINDOWS 7 . I'm still running XP.
these are first person shooters.

or go online to POGO.com. this is good for laptop in truck. they have card games, board games. casino type. against real people or solo.