I blame the chippy at the top of Dale Road, Oakdale for having that space invaders machine back in the day. Anyway my top three PC games of all time.
IL2 Sturmovik - Russian made WW2 flight sim that I first started in 2001. Now in VR. The Russians really excel when it comes to PC gaming and graphics. Still shooting down 109's to this date.
Call of Duty - speaks for itself. Back in the day was ranked in the top 200 world wide before I burnt out, got old.
Medieval Total war 2 - just lost myself in it plus Rome TW.
VR. Remember Half Life Alyx ?, now without doubt the most complete and visually impacting VR game to date . I've so much stuff in my steam library I'll never finish it all. Currently dipping into Anno 1800 and started Days Gone tonight plus a bit of MSFS2020 in VR.
I've been building PC's since 2000 and have been chasing frame rates ever since. That said I don't go nuts, prices have gone daft although I wished I'd invested in NVIDIA who sadly are keeping things artificially high.
Lst build was an RX 6900 XT Extreme Formula 16GB chucking out 300 W (next upgrade 4090)
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
32gb DDR5
Meta Quest 3 headset.
Top 200 globally? Thats insane mate. Given level of popularity, how seriously many take it.
I enjoy COD, for what it is.
I didnt get into online gaming until COD World At War - late 2000's. 'Keeping on fighting until German victory is assured!!!!!'
Played it solidly for another 2 or 3 versions... then just got totally bored of it and couldnt face it anymore.
When I got back into gaming few years ago, mate persauded me to try that awful Battlefied release (think they started refunding people due to state it was in). Before I was aware of what a disaster it was, I played it for 45 mins before stopping. Just didnt like massive maps, or much at all - just didnt feel right.
It whet my appetite for a decent FPS, so immediately installed Vanguard and felt like I'd never been away from the series. Felt easy. natural getting back into it, like I'd never been away... 10 years or so since I last played it.
Problem I have with online games, is get drawn in more and more, competative side comes out as I get somewhat decent. Good 'buzz' compared to single player, but can 'waste' hours and hours and doesnt feel like I've gotten anywhere, compared to single player games.... in some ways. And as get more drawn in competative, serious etc, can feel a bit more stressful, get frustrated sometimes. So much prefer single player games again now. Plus online games usually have too much of grind/dangle carrot mechanisms, to keep you hooked it, and on treadmill, so can get drawn in/spend time to keep up with power curve... ultimate team on fifa being prime example imo. EA are so cynical, way they purposely structure online modes... you either have to put the time in regularly or spend money to get most better/in demand players that people want.
I visited some EA forums/Reddit and amount of people that give impression they can barely stand the game, but 'addicted' for years and can't give up the non stop grind/treadmill and frustrations of dealing with mechanisms EA employ to keep people locked in and not interested in playing anything else.
Re Alyx. Read thats phenemenol. PSVR2 players, hoping that will come to ps5 eventually.
Was tempted couple of years back to upgrade my pc graphics card, and buy decent vr for that. This was before vr2 was announced for gt7. And I was starting to get into sim ('simcade' as some like to call gt7...) racing. PC leads way for that with several super realistic sims, such as iRacing, Assetto Corsa/Competezione and others. iRacing considered number 1 for serious racers still, despite dated graphics/engine. Incredible how seriously people take it. Has human 'stewards' that review races, and dish out bans, ammend final positions if someone deemed to have broken rules in anyway.
Played assetto corsa competezione on ps5 for a while... firmly in full car sim category. Focused on GT3 (and 4) racing series IRL (which btw, is vastly more entertaining than F1 now, if you're bored of the sterile circus F1 may be far to often in this era... basically highly tuned homoglobated cars: BMW M4, Lambo Huracan, Ferrari 296, Porsche GT3 etc etc... touring car series...)
BTW, BMW GT and M cars lights are f*****g mean aren't they. Viper (or as my daughter says on mine 'crocodile eyes'. Just the right side of menacing/sinister, without.. in good way, imo. Obviously purposefully designed like that by BMW... so people know to get the f out of our way when 'making progress' in outside lanes on the road. Love them
You can do all the usual tuning ie suspension, lsd etc. But also heat tyres to suit track, strategy. Tyre heat changes as race progresses, effecting grip, along with wear. Can also choose PSI/Bar or tyre pressure.
Force Feedback is unreal... puts GT7 to shame tbh. I've lifted weights for 25+ years, so grip, strength is certainly there for playing a game/driving. But I ramp it up, and can feel tension, fatigue building as race goes on, as you battle with car, feel all the undulations in road, curbs... very good indeed. But cant play it anymore, as not in VR (on ps5).
Main reason I didnt take plunge, was it being in that covid period where it was very difficult to source 30xx cards, and even proper established retailers were marking them up massively. If they'd been just a little cheaper and easier to source, I'd have likely taken the plunge tbh... but then gt7 vr2 arrived, and I very happy to stick with that. Only issue is, I can't bring myself to play any racing games not in vr now, as just feels flat (pun...) and not where near as immersive as vr. Like I said in OP, driving in vr with wheel, brings it so much closer to real thing. So, so good its unreal mate. More like using genuine driving skills (or lack of...) and senses. Lapping/racing Nordschleiffe is epic, so good.
Tried gt7 online and really liked it at first. Issue with racing games is that cpu 'stewarding' can be exploited, or people sometimes work out driving like a dick and incurring 3 second penalty or whatever is worth taking the hit on, rather than driving cleanly. So you're relying on other players good will, rather than win at all costs mentality. Less idiots in races when you achieve high ranking, but still goes on too much imo. At least in FPS (usually pc, as cant cheat/hack consoles afaik - most the time), the odd cheater/idiot doesn't have too much impact. But after spending time qaulifying, then getting smashed off course early on or any point in race, preventing any realistic chance of wunning, totally spoils things and makes feel like waste of 20-30 mins. Before starting again for next race.
Always liked looks of Anno actually mate, looks right up my street and total war series. Love Roman history/era in particular. Used to play all flavour of strategy games in 90s. Civilization, Sim City, Settlers, Age of Empires and more... with less time on hands now, I tend to stick with Football Manager as my poison for strategy games. Barely have time to play that really, never mind getting into Civ/Anno... they're not 20 min games here and there are they.