Fun software for my new laptop

--got any recommendations?

I'm thinking about getting a couple of games, even though I'm not a big game or competition person--there's just so much cool stuff out there. But I'm looking for "fun" -- not productivity.

fine then. I'll just go with World of Warcraft, shall I?

The game business is switching to a model where you download them and a service running on your computer verifies that the game is legal.

If it's serious games you're looking for, Steam:

http://store.steampowered.com/

If it's more casual games you're looking for, Big Fish is the king:

http://bigfishgames.com/

How about Indie games, Impulse:

http://www.impulsedriven.com/

I have switched to using Steam whenever possible, because if you have multiple computers, like if you use a laptop half the time and a desktop half the time, Steam will allow you to run your purchased games on both of them, without additional licenses and without having to carry around CDs.

(There are still some major game manufacturers that don't do business with Steam because they feel they are bigger and more powerful and don't have to. EA is one of them. Fuckers.)

Mr. Clod loooooves Steam. Plays almost all his games that way nowadays.

I play Day of Defeat on Steam. It's a WWII cover to Half-Life. I like it because it will work well on my underpowered computer and the graphics are still ok. It's really a lot of fun on-line.

Ooh this is very interesting, we (I) just got a new PC and now I can play decent games. I downloaded 'Rome: Total War' from gamespot and am playing it obsessively.

Pirates is a lot of fun, worth $10 to download, needs an external keybord to work on a laptop.

Civilization IV is my game of choice right now, along with Fallout 3.

Thanks for the suggestions. I've looked at Civ IV and might buy that.

uh . . . what is Steam again, exactly?

See my msg #3

Popcap makes good time wasters, and they're on Steam.

I have a moderately severe Peggle addiction, and Steam has a free edition of it to try out.

Civ4:Colonization is my current strategy player, Dyson (thanx to the Dwellar who pointed it out) and Peggle when my brain is less focused.

World of Warcraft!
Oh how I miss you...*wipes tear*

I'm building a rig w/ quad core on an SLI mobo with (2) teamed vid cards...any free games y'all know of I can test out the graphics with?