Messages

1

General / Re: List your favorite game from your collection for each letter of the alphabet!

« on: October 01, 2024, 02:12:21 pm »

#: 1nsane (no other option)
A: Afrika Korps vs. Desert Rats
B: Bioshock
C: Carmageddon
D: Dragon Age: Origins (Divinity: Original Sin 2 if I include my digital games libraries)
E: Empire Earth (ELEX if I include my digital games libraries)
F: Fallout 2
G: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
H: Half-Life 2
I: International Rally Championship
J: Joint Task Force
K: Killzone 2 (the only game with starting with K in my collection) (Kingdom Come: Deliverance if I include my digital games libraries)
L: L.A. Noire (Left 4 Dead 2 if I include my digital games libraries)
M: Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
N: Need For Speed: High Stakes
O: N/A (Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition if I include my digital games libraries)
P: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Q: Quake 4
R: Red Dead Redemption
S: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
T: The Witcher
U: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
V:  (the only game with starting with V in my collection) (Vanquish if I include my digital games libraries)
W: Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (Wasteland 2 if I include my digital games collections)
X: XIII (no other option)
Y: N/A
Z: N/A

2

Off Topic / Re: What Was The Last Movie/Anime You Watched?

« on: September 15, 2024, 03:59:22 am »

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior yesterday afternoon. Still the best in the franchise.

3

General / Re: Do y'all have your digital games added to your collection list on this site?

« on: August 23, 2024, 03:56:10 pm »

No, and I never will. This site for me is for my game collection, not my game libraries. I could make a case for adding the items from my GoG library and the DRM-fee stuff from my Steam library, since those I actually own, but I decided it' will only be for my physical games.

4

General / Re: What 10 games would you show to someone who had never played video games before?

« on: August 23, 2024, 12:48:18 pm »

Depends on the person. It's difficult to make a general list.

• Someone who's completely new to games probably don't have the type of fine motor skills necessary to play most games so there would definitely be some games that don't need too accurate timing and fine reflexes. I've tried making my father play racing games and he couldn't keep the car on the track.
• I'd also take into consideration the individual's interests in other entertainment media.
• It's also good if the mage has a fast learning curve to give a good amount of positive reinforcement.
• And then there are the language skills. I'm not a native English speaker myself so I know that something that is heavy on story/lore is a hard sell if the game isn't localized. Back when I was a kid localized games were rare so RPGs were just impossible to play. I vividly remember how lost I was in Baldur's Gate II at age 11, only a couple of months after I started learning English in elementary school

Games that have a good chance to be in the 10:

• Portal/Portal 2; Superliminal; The Talos Principle
  Easy to get into without knowing English, and shows the "good" side of gaming to someone who might think it's all violence and no brain work. They can also be a good gateway to FPS games
• Hob; Orin and the Blind Forest; Trine
  More action focused and artistic in presentation. I also think they are good gateway to platformers.
• Dragon Age: Origins; Mass Effect; The Witcher
  All got full localization if necessary and I think they are decent entries for the two main type of western RPGs.
• The Sims 2
  It's a doll house. I think it can be good for women. Fully localized.
• Codename Panzers; Command & Conquer 3
  Fully localized introductions to real time strategy and real time tactics games.
• Killer Instinct
  You can play as a cyborg raptor wearing cheerleader outfit. If that doesn't convinces someone then nothing will.

5

General / Re: Where do you buy your retro games from these days?

« on: August 14, 2024, 12:14:32 pm »

1.) Trading sites from my own country.
2.) There is a retro/vintage market every month. Not specifically vintage electronics and games, but you can always find something.
3.) Local brick and mortar stores.
4.) Ebay from within the EU.
5.) Ebay from outside the EU.

6

General / Re: Which Generation Of Console Or PC Games You Think Contain The Best Graphics

« on: May 22, 2024, 12:55:45 pm »

For me best does not mean the most technically advanced. The most technically advanced games generally aged poorly while games with more stylized visuals hold up years or even decades later. Prince of Persia (2008) or Okami could release today and it could still be beautiful.

So I think it's about the mid-to-late 2000s/7th gen consoles where tech got advanced enough that certain types graphics became truly timeless.

7

Hardware and Tech / Re: What Was Your Longest Lasting PC Computer

« on: May 14, 2024, 01:30:30 pm »

It's a Pentium 3 PC from around 2002 and it was my sister's. It has an Abit VH6-T board and originally a Celeron 600, 256MB RAM and Geforce MX200, a few years later it was upgraded with a Pentium 933 and a Radeon 8500LE. Later our dad got it who wasn't that tech savvy, but wanted to learn how to use a computer because of work. That was around the later-mid-2000s, around 2007 or so. Then went to the bottom of a wardrobe for the next couple of years. When I moved out I took it and still have it with unchanged specs and the same Windows XP install I did for my father back in the day, though the optical drive is faulty.

The second longest was my previous daily driver I bought in February 2009. A Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H board with Athlon X2 5050e, 4GB RAM and Radeon HD4670. It was upgraded to a Phenom II X3 720 and HD5770 around 2012 and a Phenom T X6 1055T and HD7850 around 2014-2015, and at some point around the Phenom X3 upgrade another 4GB RAM was added. I used this PC until September 2019 and sold it in December the same year. That's a little over 10 years. I kept the case and the 3.5" memory card reader though which I still use for my XP nostalgia PC. Sometimes I regret selling it. I didn't get that much for a PC that old and it would also make a great XP nostalgia PC. It's probably in a landfill by now.

My current daily driver is No.4 on the list with 5 years of service life barely a year behind the PC I used in my high school years, but I will upgrade it with a Ryzen 7 5700, another 16GB RAM and an RX7600 and continue using it for a few more years. I can easily see it taking the No.2 spot.

8

General / Re: Games you must play before you die.

« on: April 26, 2024, 10:27:45 am »

Nice list but personally, i'd swap ME3 (bad writing, not just the ending and some meh level designs) with ME1, just way better writing all around, driving the car was annoying but nothing is perfect.

ME1 is a pre-2010 game so that's why I left off my list. For example The Witcher 1 is absent for the same reason. If I'd make a full list about games of all time, I would have included both, but it was just meant as an update for a list about pre-2010 games.

9

General / Re: Games you must play before you die.

« on: March 21, 2024, 12:41:26 pm »

You mean updating/expanding the list with games came out since 2010?

Fallout: New Vegas
Red Dead Redemption
Dark Souls
Portal 2
Mass Effect 2&3
Alice: Madness Returns
Dishonored
The Witcher 2&3
Grand Theft Auto 5 (single player)
Metro: Last Light
Wolfenstein: The New Order & The Old Blood
Divinity: Original Sin 2
Ori and the Blind Forest
Doom 2016
Dirt Rally
NieR:Automata
Cuphead
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
Wasteland 2
Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Resident Evil Village
Elden Ring

10

General / Re: Games/Series you love, but also don't...

« on: March 09, 2024, 03:43:02 pm »

That would be most of the games that got rebooted or got a sequel after 10+ years recently.

Tomb Raider? I abhor everything starting from the 2013 reboot. Though I probably would like the recently released remaster of the originals.

Mortal Kombat? I liked everything up to and including the 2009 reboot, then just lost interest.

Far Cry? I have absolutely no interest in anything that came after Blood Dragon.

Fallout? 4 was bad, 76 was abysmal, and I have no trust in Bethesda that they will ever make a good game again. At least not as long as they have Tod Howard.

Saint's Row? I like it up to 4.

Mass Effect? I love the first especially... then there is Andromeda.

Wolfenstein? Absolutely love it up to Old Blood. Anything after... eh... and then there is Young Blood.

Prince of Persia? The last good one was the 2008 reboot (why is Classic region locked on X360 btw? the store will go down in a couple of months and I can't get it). Forgotten Sands is best left forgotten, the new side scroller is said to be good, but not Prince of Persia.

11

Modern Video Games / Re: Where do you draw the line? New Game Prices

« on: February 29, 2024, 01:07:50 am »

But I follow a strict guideline. $1 an hour is what I would pay.

Hours carry value but they themselves are not value. The value of a game hour and the quantity of hours are usually in an inverse relationship. The more hours there are, the less value each individual hour has. If I recall my best, most vivid gaming experiences, the overwhelming majority are from games shorter than 30hrs. Even if I consider RPGs alone, it's still just around 60. For the games I've played hundreds of hours, most of it just a haze with some standout moments here and there.

12

Modern Video Games / Re: Where do you draw the line? New Game Prices

« on: February 28, 2024, 12:59:51 pm »

At 40€. I see no reason for game prices to rise above what offline playable physical games were. You get less ownership rights due to online DRM and forced updates, you can be kicked off the platform which hosts your games, the distribution costs went down compared to physical media, while the market grew more than 10x over the past 20 years which offsets the increase in development costs.

13

Modern Video Games / Re: What are your thoughts on Simulator Games?

« on: February 22, 2024, 06:50:11 am »

I don't even have any interest in commercial/civilian flight sims and MS Flight Sim was a huge hit. These other budget minimum wage job sims are outright beyond my comprehension why someone would pay to play them. They look/sound relentlessly boring.

But there is the sub-genre of meme games like Goat Simulator, I am bread, Surgeon Simulator and Viscera Cleanup Detail: Santa's Rampage. I think these can be fun short term, but they are mainly made for streamers/gaming youtubers who in turn make them go viral.

14

Modern Video Games / Re: What are your plans when everything goes digital only?

« on: January 22, 2024, 12:59:32 pm »

I already refuse to pay full price for something I have much less ownership rights over what I had with offline DRM physical games. Not more than 20€. Imho for a good 10 years the majority of physical copies are already made pointless because of online DRM. You get a dust collector with the same ownership right you have for the digital release.

When digital only mutates into subscription service only, and that will happen, don't hold onto any illusions about it, I'll quit playing modern games.

15

General / Re: 2024 Gaming/Collecting Goals

« on: January 21, 2024, 02:12:12 am »

Collecting goals:

There are a handful of games I'd really want to add to my collection.

Gaming goals.

Beat 12 games over the year. For me a 52 games challenge is impossible. I usually play longer games that takes around a month to beat. Usually more.
My backlog is 43/103 (games I started at some point but didn't beat/games I never started). So basically 146. I'd like to work some of it off.