[Rob]

OK, avoiding the really modern stuff for the moment, and thus allowing you to get into it gradually for lesser expense, I'd suggest the original Call of Duty as a shooter. That's set in World War II and on single player mode there is a a series of level you work your way along. If you get the United Offensive add on pack, there are still many online servers that you can join for multiplayer gaming.

Driving thing games tend to perform better with consoles rather than computers. It's a controller thing that the gamepads are more suited. For the shooting things type games the keyboard and mouse are often thought to be the better controller.