Since I've seen requests for recommendations come up a few times, besides, Crysis, Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, Defense Grid and World in Conflict, a few more cheap games that either kept up well with the times or the gameplay will make you care less for visuals. There aren't many PC "exclusives" outside the RTS genre and indies yet some games I think are worth playing again on PC:
FEAR (the first with expansions) IMO, still the best AI even 10 years later. They will try and flank you, they will kick stuff to create cover for them, the last guy may panic and run away if you kill the rest of his squad. Also their conversations are hilarious. Example: You throw a nade at them. NPC1: Grenade! NPC2: Get to cover! NPC1: I can't! NPC2: Fuck!
Sins of a Solar Empire (I recommend the Rebellion) It's a 4X (basically a RTS in space) There is also a Star Trek Armada mod for it if you like Star Trek and want to take on Borg. If you are into the genre, Homeworld with the Sacrifice of Angels mod, Sacrifice of Angels 2 mod is for SOSAR too.
Deus Ex: HR. The game can be modded a little but doesn't win awards for it's looks. For me it has one of the best soundtracks ever and it's a good game indeed. The director's cut has dev commentary worth listening to IMO.
Banished: It's made by one guy but you wouldn't know it. It's not the easiest game and there is little to do once you master it but if nothing else, I would look at reviews before dismissing it.
If somehow you guys skipped Witcher series, I would definitely give that a shot. It's a cheap game, you can both enhanced editions super cheap. The uber mode will bring even the best rigs to their knees but even without supersampling, it's a good looking GOTY.
Company of Heroes and expansions (these are expansions before they became DLC's). I'm not quite soure how I feel about COH2 but the 1st one is a good game indeed.
If you can't get enough of WW2 RTS, give Men of War/Faces of War a look. I cannot tell you how many hours I spent playing mods for it. They have some newer ones too, one is in beta but I feel like they changed the game for the worse.
If you guys built a new rig and are also open to various genres, older titles and don't mind playing non AAA titles or games you already played on consoles, here is a few more games I would look into:
-Kerbal Space Program
-Gunpoint
-Stalker
-Limbo
-Max Payne
-Super Hexagon
-Terraria
-Tropico 4
-Torchlight 2
-Trine
-FTL
-Dungeons of Dredmor
-UnEpic
-Thief 1 & 2
There is of course more, I can't think of them right now, some of these are from my backlog. All of these games should be very cheap and I tried to avoid recommending titles that everyone got through on consoles.
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