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Mosh said:
I’m not gonna wade into the pc vs console debate (spoiler: pcs are better) but I’m a console guy. A lot of it is mental: I enjoy having a device whose sole purpose is for gaming, while my computer is for other tasks. It helps me compartmentalize.

Also, while I know I can play most of these games on a computer emulator, my favorite games are Nintendo games and those aren’t available on PC. The Switch is also probably the best console I’ve ever had. If only it had GameCube and N64 support...
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If it wasn't for Nintendo, I wouldn't be playing one of the most amazing games ever! The psychological addiction I have to it is insane! When I'm not playing, it's always on my mind, kind of in a "good" stressful way and the only way to cure that is to play it of course!
 
Zare said:
I spent less than $200 on a used Pentium 166 MMX from Bulgaria, a month ago.
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Can you play new games at top specs? Or are you content with minimum requirements?

What I've noticed in my casual walk with PC gamers is that what they really care about is frame rate. the 60fps v. the 30fps of consoles. Their next concern is the costumization and precision of keyboard/mouse input v. console controller and lastly, graphics. I played all my computer games at or around minimum reqs and it was fine. Not gonna lie, I've been playing A LOT of Diablo recently and now that I doubled my RAM I LOVE how quickly the levels loads. Literally takes a second.

Travis The Dragon said:
If it wasn't for Nintendo, I wouldn't be playing one of the most amazing games ever! The psychological addiction I have to it is insane! When I'm not playing, it's always on my mind, kind of in a "good" stressful way and the only way to cure that is to play it of course!
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Happens to me often with me with anything that gets my attention, games, books, shows lol. But reminds me of the 3 days i LIVED Fallout 3 hahaha. I can say I "played" it on this second playthrough, but the first.... holy crap, ate, slept, dreamt and lived it.
 
Can anyone help me with Harmony of Dissonance? I posted on /r/castlevania but the people there seem to care more about memes and anime.

Last major item I got is the block breaker whip upgrade. So I got through some barriers and got some additional powerups but no progression ahead.

https://imgur.com/a/FaaRokT
 
Have never played a single Castlevania to completion. I usually look up youtube walkthroughs when I get stuck.
 
Figured it out. I missed Maxim impersonator fight in Castle B, so I missed Maxim appearing and getting the bracelet for opening doors.

I'm already 6+ hours in so I can't say I don't like the game, it is a bit iffy in narrative and I had to resort for help even more than in Circle of the moon. As I always grind for hearts just after the boss battle so I can be full at the next, and I just use MP on the creeps, the boss battles, including Death's two incarnations, were at least 100 times more easier than actually traversing the game itself.

From the GBA trio this one is definitely the most Zelda-alike. I also like my Castlevania character with a whip.

Classic Castlevania tho...I hated the creeps on the levels, especially the sinewave pattern enemies. The medusa heads in classic games can go fuck themselves. They are easier to manage in "metroidvania" Castlevania's cause you manage health differently and powerups. But what I simply don't like is the side-arm system present in many of the both types...it is too easy to lose your sidearm especially when running through corridors in late game. I'm dashing and killing everything with magic and then I notice the cross is gone and I now carry a knife. Fuck that too.
 
Currently on a roll with getting kid friendly games for the nephew. He asked me a while back if I had Minecraft and I told him, no. I never understood the appeal. the graphics are neither good or retro, just pixelated crap. Don't really know what the goal is aside from building whatever. At any rate, thought I'd look into it. The original vanilla version is still 375 pesos.... WAY to much for my budget. Xbox Gold answered my prayers with a game called Portal Knights. It is a Minecraft clone with missions and a creative mode if all you want to do is build. You can choose between a warrior, an archer or a mage to start. You can buy DLC with other classes. We've been playing together and we built a really nice house with a basement and an attic as well as beating our first Big Boss. NOW i get the appeal. It's really relaxing just surveying the land and saying, "I'm going to buld a castle right there, with four towers and a dongeon," then getting to it. Probably still won't get Minecraft, but at least I get it now.

The one I still don't get is Fortnite. I also downloaded it as it is one of several free to play online battle royale games like Apex Legends. He LOVES it, but I just stare at it like, "what's the point of this?" That's when I realized, I'm no longer young, hip and cool LOL.

I bought Doom and Doom II on sale and they're ok. I can see how they were groundbreaking back in the day and there is plenty to do and discover. I'm liking them more than I thought.
 
My procrastination in restarting Red Dead Redemption II knows no bounds — I went back and finished up the trophies on Tharsis (a pretty cool single-player space survival game with cannibalism, set up like a board game with dice), I got about halfway through The Exorcist: Legion VR (VR is really perfect for horror), spent some more time in FFXV: Monster Of The Deep, tried out the free PS+ game Fall Guys (dumb massively multiplayer obstacle course fun), and in my ultimate act of RDR2 rebellion I bought Lonely Mountains: Downhill at full price.

Lonely Mountains is a physics-based downhill biking game that has deceptively simple controls, but a ton of depth and finesse when it comes to mastering the trails and minimizing your times, or just trying to get a crashless run. It’s just you and the mountains, and the reload time is almost instant after a crash, so it really encourages you to go balls-out for some crazy line to get a faster time. It captures the spirit of the Trials games, though the mechanics are different, and the game is just fun to ride around and fool around in.

Maybe I’ll come back to RDR2 on Labor Day week. Or, maybe not...
 
I found yet another clue to why my New Vegas download was in Spanish. I was looking through my bank statement and all my game purchases show up as "Microsoft Purchase," except for one.... New Vegas. It shows up as "ADEYMX*Microsoft" Still looking into what exactly that means, why it's different and if I can "fix it."


Anyway, my bitterness aside, I was very happy to get the full game of Life is Strange for like 2 bucks. I really enjoyed this game. I can see why people may be upset over the ending, it is similar to Fallout 3 in that all your decisions were for naught. BUT, unlike Fallout 3, it is blatantly obvious where the game is going to go. The whole thing is the game version of that Ashton Kutcher movie, "The Butterfly Effect." EVERYTHING, the time travel through "rewinds" and through jumping through pictures. I even told myself outloud at some point, "You're gonna have to let her go," and I was right. Don't know if it was the cheap price, how immersed I got into it, or both, but I found it a very satisfying experience even with its many, MANY flaws.

I finished my own campaign in Portal Knights, what a fun little game, and now I'm just mining resources and building myself a keep. It originally was going to be a Castle, but when I realized the amount of resources needed I decided to scale it back.

Still working my way through Doom, I'm two levels away from finishing the third chapter. I'm really liking it, This might sound odd, but I find it relaxing. Sure there are secret levels and items, but I don't feel the pressure to find or collect them the way I do with modern games. I just run and gun it, which clearly is the original intent of the game since it promotes speed runs of under 3 minutes per level. So, that's exactly what I'm doing, just shooting space demons and getting to the next area.

Was also able to get Rise of the Tomb Raider DLC, got Blood Ties and Lara's Nightmare. Blood Ties is nothing more than Gone Home a lá Tomb Raider, but since I really like the game, learning more about the Crofts was really cool. Lara's Nightmare is exactly that, a fucking nightmare of a gauntlet in which you have to beat certain challanges. Got frustrated and quit lol. I'll go back to it eventually.

Started playing WarHammer 40,000 Inquisition at the recommendation of a friend. It's basically Diablo III in space. Some of the gameplay mechanics, like how you move for cover in battle, are interesting. I'm liking it so far, more than I can say for the pile of crap Diablo III was.
 
We already had a discussion of genres, how about discussion of age?

On Reddit once in a while someone asks "what's your favourite old game", thread goes very popular and there are always modern games in the top answers. "Mass Effect triology". "Team Fortress 2". Etc.

I may be older than visitors of that thread, but if you put a 2007 game in the retro bucket something is wrong, because you have 80s games in that bucket too.

Therefore, if you're ~20 years old, and have played an contemporary game in elementary school, that game is not old, no matter how much the time difference feels to you. That's the human aspect of it. The technological aspect is quite simple. If the game runs natively on a modern computer it is modern. A game made in mid 2000s uses same the same technology as the game programmed today, while that's not the case for games before year 2000.

Example, Freespace 2, a very advanced game released in year 1999. Just like Unreal Tournament from the same year. Its program is native to Windows NT which is the base architecture of Windows 10. It uses DirectX. This is a modern game. You can install it on modern Windows and click to play. You cannot do that with 95% of the games released before 2000 and you can do it for 0 released before 1997. As far as modern computers and OSs are concerned, these games aren't old, because old architectures are obsoleted.

So, these are made from the same sauce as RDR2, today you can even unpack gigabytes of HD textures that have been made meanwhile, run it in 4K, or whatever.

What I also find interesting is that distinction is more recognized by console players, at least judging by the same Reddit thread. SNES, PS, and so on...I haven't seen anyone mentioning PS3 titles for instance.

My opinion is that Y2K line can be used as a hint where the game belongs but the game's actual guts are the answer. UT99 is by no means an old game while Shantae (2002) is. Because UT was written using initial versions of the current techonology, while Shantae was written using last, mature versions of a technology soon to be obsoleted. Maybe even more simple rule of thumb for PC : If the original engine is Direct3D/OpenGL, it ain't old.

On the topic, I've restarted The Messenger, managed to beat the Witch that stopped me the first time round, and overall had a great fucking run to the top of the mountain in a hour:something. Then I reached the top, and I realized the game actually begins right there, I have been stuck on first 3/4/5 rooms, I threw the controller to the floor in rage, I punched the table and the keyboard. This is some actual kaizo shit. And I thought this game isn't as hard as Ninja Gaiden.
 
Onhell said:
Started playing WarHammer 40,000 Inquisition at the recommendation of a friend. It's basically Diablo III in space. Some of the gameplay mechanics, like how you move for cover in battle, are interesting. I'm liking it so far, more than I can say for the pile of crap Diablo III was.
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Would you recommend for casual play? I don't know much about the Warhammer, but I heard that company running is as shitty as EA.
 
Onhell said:
I was very happy to get the full game of Life is Strange for like 2 bucks. I really enjoyed this game.
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The Before The Storm prequel game was also surprisingly good if you can get it on deep discount. No time mechanics, but they built some new mechanics around Chloe’s verbal sparring, which was funny. I’m waiting for Life Is Strange 2 to go super cheap and then I’ll pick it up.

Lonely Mountains: Downhill is great for what it is, well worth the $20 to me. I’m finishing up the tougher challenges on it now, some of which are going to be pretty brutal. I love the almost instant restart when you crash, which makes playing these sorts of trial-and-error time challenges a lot less painful.
 
I haven't gotten Life is Strange 2 yet because I found the first one was incredible until the very underwhelming ending.
 
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Zare said:
Would you recommend for casual play? I don't know much about the Warhammer, but I heard that company running is as shitty as EA.
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I can point you to a couple of youtube vids that go deeper into how GamesWorkshop has handled their licensing from the 90s to now when it comes to video games if interested, BUT the game holds up for casual play. getting used to the limited top-down POV, but I like my character. So... dramatic and WAY too serious lol, the unintentional humor is great with lines like, "I will cleanse your taint!" LOL. I got it for free with GOLD, don't know how much it goes for.

LooseCannon said:
I haven't gotten Life is Strange 2 yet because I found the first one was incredible until the very underwhelming ending.
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I don't care to get it, because how can you follow such a personal, self-contained story? I think it's fallen into the trap of every moderately successful game mandating a sequel and in this case, prequel. Like @Jer mentioned, if both become super dirt cheap I'll think about it. I'll do a little more research first. I've seen this guy online that does "Game Sins," and it's pretty funny. I saw his "Everything wrong with" Life is Strange and Before the Storm. I was cracking up, especially since he pointed out things I noticed, but decided to overlook. They're definitely games you have to turn your brain off, you start questioning the time mechanics for 2 seconds and it all falls apart.
 
I was checking the free with Gold games yesterday and decided to look at the deals as well. Turns out Ubisoft is having crazy discounts and I was able to get the AC Black Flag DLC Freedom Call for 50 pesos! (2.50USD) I know what I'm wasting my last weekend of freedom before work on.

Also @Zare They have a huge discount on Warhammer 40K Inquisitor "complete edition," Don't know if the deal extends to the Steam version.
 
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Steam no discount at the moment, and I'm not really keen to download and use Ubi store.
Also I'm curious if anyone knows will Axiom Verge 2 be released for PC this year.
 
Finished up every last bit of Lonely Mountains: Downhill, looks like I logged 24 hours of gameplay for $20, and I’ll probably come back to it from time to time because it’s just fundamentally fun to play. Money well spent.

Was considering diving into RDR2 again, but then I saw the games on discount on PSN and I couldn’t help myself.

Picked up One Night Stand for $3.24. Interesting point-and-click narrative about waking up with a nasty hangover in a strange woman’s bed not remembering what happened the night before. Short but interesting, with 12 or so different endings. Totally worth what I paid for it, though I blew through it in a session or two.

Picked up 88 Heroes for $3. This is an intentionally stupid action platformer where instead of getting multiple lives, you get 88 characters, each with 1 life. When one dies, a random new one comes in with a half-assed description of what their controls do, and then you’re off, often to grisly results because you have no clue what you’re doing with the new character. Each one has unique powers and 0-2 different attacks. Some fly, some don’t. Some can reverse gravity. Some have projectiles, and some can’t attack at all. There are parodies of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in there, and one of them has no attack, but if you hit the attack button he eats a piece of pizza and gets 88 points each time. There’s a Flappy Bird character, a Rambo type, a hamster in a wheel, a character that controls like the ship from Asteroids, etc., etc. The goal is to get through 88 rooms in no more than 88 seconds each and without losing all 88 of your heroes. So far I’ve only managed to get through 20 levels or so, but it’s good stupid fun.

Picked up Expand for $2.39. This is a short but sweet abstract traversal/puzzle game set in a polar coordinate maze. The entire game can be finished in a couple of hours, but it’s a strong couple of hours. Totally worth it for the discount price.

Also picked up Phantom Doctrine for $8, which is 80% off. This is an espionage-themed game in the modern X-Com mold. Looked interesting and got mostly positive reviews, so I’m looking forward to giving it a try.

I also almost picked up Distrust for $5, which is an arctic survival roguelike inspired by The Thing. It also looked pretty cool, and I might still get it before the sale ends, but I felt like I needed to draw the line somewhere for now. I still have RDR2 and Nioh staring back at me...
 
Finished AC Black Flag: Freedom Call. Overall it was dissapointing. I knew it was a small campaign (4 hours), but didn't expect it to be so.... limited. These types of games are relatively short to work through if you just focus on the main campaign, what really kills time are all the side quests and collectibles. Freedom Call has next to none. You find a couple of weapon upgrades, but that's really it. I don't know why they left stuff in like hunting and fishing if there were no missions or upgrades tied to having animal skins/bones. Only one sunken ship activity and I think a total of like 7 locations with only 1 chest/item to collect. The main focus is to free slaves, but that gets repetitive.

I did enjoy freeing plantations during the day the most. Sneaking around killing overseers while listening to the slaves sing was pretty cool, but overall, don't recommend it. Glad I finally got it at a discount, because it is definitely not worth the full price.
 
I was able to purchase another game on my wishlist at 50% off a couple of days ago. Don't Knock Twice. Very short game I got through in one sitting. The best way I can describe it is, what Gone Home should have been. Not that Gone Home was bad, I enjoyed it, but I saw the early trailers and it was going to be more of a horror game rather than a walking simulator in which you find out why your sister ran away.

Don't Knock Twice is also in a first person POV and you have to explore your giant old-timey house searching for your estranged daughter whose been taken by the Baba Yaga. Doors open on their own, birds crash against windows, lamps fall of their own accord and at least one very memorable jump scare. Great atmosphere, I really liked it. Glad I got it on discount as it was a VERY short game and I MIGHT play it again just to get some collectibles and the like.

The controls are a tad awkard with "grabing/droping" being the right trigger and actually using items is the right bumper... I dropped items all the time, because I kept forgetting. Aside from that, a really fun ride.
 
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