Games

Gift him a Starsector code or share your own if already have one.

Gift any super moddable games he likes. If he enjoys Bethesda games on consoles, he will definitely love PC only mods. Also explain to him what Big Picture Mode on Steam is. I wish I knew it existed when I started. Get the same console experience and seamless controller integration even if the game doesn't officially support it.

Edit: Also any super pretty games would probably be a nice gift. Cyberpunk 2077 was one of the first I installed. Really nice realizing how much better looking games can be with a powerful computer.

Games with lots of mods for sure. It may be a generic recommendation but Minecraft with mod packs and gorgeous shaders is an amazing experience for someone who never got around to trying them.

Also if he's a souls-like fan, I highly recommend Elden Ring's convergence mod and Dark Souls 3's convergence mod (they're by the same team). It adds like a hundred new spells, new weapons and equipment, overhaul of some mechanics like having actual classes with game-changing effects, completely overhauls areas with new geometry, adds new enemies and bosses, etc. It's a very fun time.

• Nioh 2
• Witchfire
• Devil Slayer Raksasi
• Curse of the Dead Gods
• Metal Mutation
• Cavity Busters
• Waves (free, but still)
• BlazBlue Entropy Effect
• 30XX
• Nova Drift
• Quantum Protocol
• Deep Rock Galactic
• Hellsinker
• Twin Ruin
• Devader
• Arboria
• Bloody Spell
• Aura of Worlds

Also, if he's a bit of a tinkerer, he might be interested in trying shooters using gyro+flick-stick, which he probably didn't have access to before. Witchfire, Deep Rock Galactic, and Deadlink can readily play that way once set up in Steam Input. Some games you only need to set up the gyro-to-mouse and flick-stick, whereas others (eg Vermintide 2) you have to map the entire controller manually.

For PC I would go for the avan-garde stuff

e.g. Cold line

Most popular indie titles are already on console as studios will port stuff to increase the sales.

I would go to look for stuff that can't be sold. Dream like avan-garde surrealism or under 2h experiences on itch.io and newgrounds.com

also RTS require mouse so it could be a fun stuff to get into.

Try Rise of the Triad, One Must Fall 2097, and Goat Simulator

Surroundead for single player zombie survival

Project zonboid for multiplayer zombie survival

Kingdom come deliverance for visuals and epic story

Hell let loose for FPS shooter

Deadlock for moba/fps

Risk of rain 2 for multiplayer roguelite

The raft for multiplayer survival on water

The forest for multiplayer survival on land

SCUM for pvp survival

That's all I can think of for now...the fun part of PC is gaming with friends without having to pay a shitty subscription fee.

I thought the old homeworld games were great. Kind of RTS in space ships. They're old now but still good.

Dead Cells

CARRION

Left 4 Dead 2

Hades

SuperHot

The DOOMs

Game bundles like from Fanatical are a good start. You can't return them if you have issues, but they're great if you haven't played any of the offerings given.

A similar thing would be Xbox Game Pass, but that very much locks you into their ecosystem, and they're clearly done investing into worthwhile games.

Tormented Souls was really good

Might consider getting something that only plays well on keyboard/mouse. Factorio comes up off the top of my head. Shooters also generally translate poorly to controllers, so perhaps that?

Total war: Warhammer 3? Baldurs Gate 3? Maybe those are available on console as well..