I'm going to make the argument here that you should play Portal. I don't even know who you are or what your interests are, but if there's a better representation of everything good about video games out there than Portal, I don't know of it. But first, let me define a few things.
I guess I'm a poor gamer.
That doesn't mean I pirate everything. It just means I don't buy things unless they're on sale, and I tend to prefer older games because holy cow is $60 a lot to pay for a game. So maybe just "frugal gamer?" In any case, I just barely bought all the classic Valve first-person shooter titles (aside from Counter Strike), and I've been working my way through them. And let me tell you, if you catch one of these bundles on sale, you will drown in the good value of your purchase.
My sale of choice this year was the Steam Winter Sale. I ended up with every version and expansion of Half-Life ever made, as well as both Portal games and the original Team Fortress. I already owned Left 4 Dead 2 as a part of a previous sale, and I've been playing Team Fortress 2 for years considering it works well on old hardware and hey! Free. Can't beat that value proposition.
Now I realize that for all my gamer friends the fact that I'm only just barely playing these games is incomprehensible. But also over the holidays I finally got a dedicated gaming computer, so I'm not constantly fighting over hard drive space for games anymore. I've spent a lot of time playing old games because they were small and ran well in emulators or on low-graphics computers. And maybe I'll talk about some of those later. But right now I want to tell everyone, not just gamers, why Portal and Half-life are worth your money and your time.
Some people hear the term "first-person shooter" and all they can think of is violence and destruction, and they don't like that stuff. If you do like that stuff, seriously check out Half-Life. The graphics are super old and the training level is hilariously bad, but the game itself had a really unusual combination of story and gameplay for the time, and it's defined several aspects of the genre ever since. It'll feel very familiar to anyone who's ever played an FPS before, even when other games its age really don't.
But what if you are the type of person who doesn't like the shooting? Well, play Portal. It might very well be the best first-person game ever. But I wouldn't call it a shooter. You get one "gun," but it doesn't shoot bullets, and there's only one "fight" in the entire game. Mostly, it's a physics puzzle game, like Angry Birds but oh so very much different and better. Better being the most key word ever used. It's attractive, the gameplay is engaging and inviting, as well as forgiving for novice players. It isn't expensive anymore, it runs on about any even sort of modern computer (within the past five years you'll be golden), and it's a good, low-stakes introduction to a 3D shooter game. Beyond that the story is cool. Even if you know what's going to happen, the way it happens is great fun.
It's amazing. Play it. Even if you don't wait for a sale, $10 is not too much for this game. Or get it in a bundle with its equally awesome sequel and save a few extra bucks.
As for the rest of the Valve games, Left 4 Dead 2 is the best zombie game I've ever played, and its co-op gameplay is the best of its kind I've experienced. Team Fortress 2 is just fun. I die constantly, and yet I still enjoy it. It's probably the best time I've had in an online game. Also free. Again, it's hard to beat that.
Valve as a company has done a lot of good things for PC gaming. All of their games are available on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. You buy them once on Steam and you can play them on as many computers as you want. And the games themselves are some of the best in their genres, even if they're all pretty old. Is this a good place to start if you want to maybe get into gaming as a hobby?
Well, you can start with Team Fortress 2 for free or Portal for pocket change on whatever computer you're using right now. So yes.
It's the best place to start that I can think of.
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