So, since Fallout 3 won't work on my computer, Steam issued me a $19.99 store credit. However I have no idea what game to get. I usually buy games based on people's recommendations or if I've played it before at a friends place, but recently I haven't been getting out much, and I don't want to end up making a random choice and wasting the store credit on something lame.
I love open world type games where you can just wander around and not worry about the main quest, without getting bored.
I've already got (hardly any I know):
Fallout: New Vegas
S.T.A.L.K.E.R SoC and CoP
TES: Oblivion.
Age of Empires 3.
Rollercoaster Tycoon.

Hoarding stuff is also a bonus, I enjoy games where I can steal my enemy's shoes If anyone can just recommend me to some good games that have many hours of gameplay and is close to what I've mentioned (but preferably a different series, i.e not Morrowind or Fallout 1), that would be much appreciated.

Mount&Blade: Warband maybe. No real main story at all, just some missions here and there, getting money, leveling up, gathering up an army, forging alliances and fighting enemies, preferably from horseback, sieging and defending castles...

The combat is a bit like in the Total War games, but with smaller armies and you control your character directly.

It also has a very active modding community.

How much is Portal 2 on Steam? If it's cheap get it, if not get the Orange Box

sega mega drive ultimate collection.

40 classics for the price of 1

Warband is fun but the real heart and soul of the game is in the combat mechanics. For me, Warband is the quintessential multi player experience without which I found the game to be rather lacking, especially since the bots are very predictable in combat.

Morrowind and Oblivion are both on Steam, and I guarantee Morrowind will run.

Surprised Fallout 3 won't work, but New Vegas will though. :confused:

What about Garry'smod? You can do essentially anything in that game. Its only like 10 bucks, but you need another Valve game that uses the Source engine to play it (Half-Life 2, Left 4 Dead, Counterstrike Source, etc). They sell G-mod and another Source game in bundles that cost like 20 bucks I believe.

I say go with Morrowind. The low price of that game should bring you many, many hours of rpg goodness. I can't recommend that game enough. Not to mention all of the great graphical mods released as of late that really modernizes the game.

Mass Effect? They were just on sale recently, you may want to wait till the new sale today, sometimes with big sales they redo the most popular sales.

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines is an excellent game. While not as "open" as TES or STALKER, there's still a decent amount of freedom. Much of the game orients around city hub areas, which you can wander as you wish looking for side quests or progress with the main game at your leisure. Collection is minimal.

The Hitman series has less, but still some, freedom. The games are structured into missions that you can't revisit (though you can redo), but there's only sometimes a time constraint, and it's often beneficial to take your time and explore for goodies and ways to cleverly complete your mission. They are not RPG's, in case you only wanted that. I would classify them as 50/50 stealth/puzzle games, since half the fun and challenge is in figuring out HOW to complete your mission, not just doing it. Collection is pretty good, as there are often rare/unique guns to find and take back in a mission, or earned as rewards for excellent performance.

If you like them, there are also Diablo-style games like Torchlight, Sacred, and Titan Quest. While they don't generally have a great deal of open exploration, maps are larger than just linear tunnels (especially in Sacred), and there's no pressure to move forward before exploring as much as you want. Those games are generally excellent for hoarding.

If you're into horror games, try Amnesia the Dark Descent. Not really too long, but an excellent game imo. One of the creepiest I've ever played. For open world games, I've heard some people here claim that Risen was good. Not sure how much that's worth on steam but it could be worth checking out.,

I agree with these. Sacred 2 is really freaking huge, as well.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/70300

You might want to look into purchasing Just Cause 2.

I love how whenever someone makes a thread asking for recommendations for a specific type of game (e.g. open world), half the replies are for games that are the exact opposite. Or, if the OP has already played a game, there will be replies recommending that game to him (Oblivion). We are a... helpful community.

Anyway, I would second Just Cause 2, that game seems to be the epitome of "wandering around doing ridiculous stuff without caring about the main quest." It's too bad you can't get Fallout 3 to run though. If you can run New Vegas, what's the problem with running Fallout 3?

Well personally, FNV runs TONS better than FO3.

Like.... FO3 is so jittery, even on all low settings, it's ridiculous.

On the other hand, FNV runs with no jitters on medium-high settings. But, that's just me and my rig.

Oh wow I wasn't expecting this many recommendations! Thanks to everyone who's suggested stuff, I'll definitely have a look on Steam later on and see which of these games have the coolest pictures



Haha, It's the thought that counts!

"Wandering around doing ridiculous stuff without caring about the main quest" sounds great to me (I'm studying, it's nice to not have to think for a while)

And that's what I couldn't figure out. I searched the internet for about 3 days straight looking for fixes and tried most of what I found that wasn't too complex. I'm on Windows 7, I just guess it didn't like playing nice on my laptop, for some reason the game was just freezing on me non stop. After a few seconds it'd just freeze, the music would keep playing but no other sound effects would. Sometimes I could play for up to five minutes and once I got about 20 minutes, but it just wasn't worth keeping the game when most of the time I couldn't play for more than a few seconds without having to ctrl alt del. It svcks though cause Fallout 3 is my all-time favourite game

I second this. Warband :wub:

Battlefield Bad Company 2 is on sale today, only 6.99.

As for open world. Hmm.... I should really read the full OP before posting from now on...

OH and I third Warband.

Great game. Excellent game. So much to do. And that's just SP. Most of my time is spent playing online.