could somebody recommend a good darkside game for a "starter" preferably not an online game. All thegames I see are online and this is for a chrismas present for a teenage boy whose just starting and I would prefer not to break the bank at the beginning. thanks

I would go for the Orange Box: this includes Half Life 2 (a stunning game) and Portal (also a brilliant game, although not totally "dark side") - very good value, and also has an online module Team Fortress if he wants to venture into that later.

It also has the advantage of being for age 15, so nothing too unsuitable!

The Witcher 1 is available at GOG for $9.99 and would be a good start. It's an RPG with lots of monstors and combat. It's only available as a download at GOG. Amazon has the boxed version for about $13 and you can get both Witcher 1 and 2 for about $40.

Although it's an older game, another good one would be Prey. That's a Sci-Fi type shooter with aliens and tons of really cool weapons. Amazon has it for PC $4.29...

Bioshock is another great shooter set in a failed under-sea world. Amazon has it for PC for about $12. Get Bioshock 1 and Bioshock 2 and Crysis 2 for less than $35.

Do be sure the young man has a computer capable of playing these games - most dark side games have much heftier computer hardware requirement than other games.

Good suggestions. I would probably add Morrowind to it as that is the first RPG I really got involved in and have been hooked ever since.

There's also KOTOR 1 & 2 that are really fun to learn and play and, of course the more recent Skyrim. If you're in to blood and gore, another is Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines.

Almost all can be found on either GOG or Steam.

I think a teenage boy wouldn't enjoy games like Skyrim with a lot of "chores" to do, The Witcher maybe, but I would go more for something like The Orange Box or if he has PS3 any of the Uncharted or even any FPS and I wouldn't worry at all that he is starting, at that age he will be playing like a pro in less than a week.

As I understand one pays to play online when playing on a XBOX, one of the selling lines for PS3 is you do not pay to play online, I am not sure about PC but at least for most games you don't pay.

Can't go wrong with the Orange Box.

I totally agree on the Orange Box. Haven't played it myself, but my 13 year-old grandson has.

Thankyou for the suggestions, very helpful. I only play adventure games so I was at a loss. Thanks boomers. Ill buy one of these and get my "cool grandma" points up. thanks again.

Do heed my suggestion that you make sure your grandson has a computer with the hardware that will play these more demanding games. Unless he a gaming console like an XBox or a PS, he will need a pretty good video card, processor and RAM for some of these games. Look at the computer requirements for them first.

Draclvr, even if HalfLife 2 is not for you, you should borrow the Orange Box from your grandson to try Portal, which is a unique puzzle game. Alternatively, I think that there is a downloadable demo.

I totally agree with your advice about checking minimum hardware specifications before buying any recent game.

I've read good stuff about Portal, though I haven't tried it.