4 ms·

I like this article, and niche hackery on OSS is a lot of fun—I’m partial to running this sort of thing on old//limited hardware It does seem funny, tho, that

I like this article, and niche hackery on OSS is a lot of fun—I’m partial to running this sort of thing on old//limited hardware It does seem funny, tho, that this kind of article spends so much time on ‘planning to play games’. And this sentence seemed goofy: > I do not play games a lot, but when I do I make sure that they are the right and best ones.

bch 6y ago
> And this sentence seemed goofy [...] It sounds like it’s riffing on The Worlds Most Interesting Man [0] [0] https://youtu.be/IxgiTeXKOOc https://youtu.be/IxgiTeXKOOc
- vermaden 6y ago
  Yes, that was the idea :)
p1necone 6y ago
I feel like focusing on the classic games of the past so heavily like this means missing out on so many great newer games. Sometimes it pays to take off the nostalgia goggles and try out some newer offerings too.
- ianai 6y ago
  From my more up to date gamers at work, new games sound full of dark patterns.
  - p1necone 6y ago
    There's a handful of big game publishers (EA and Activision mostly) that put out big AAA games full of microtransaction nonsense. But after you subtract those the market of quality games without those dark patterns is still massively bigger than it ever has been in the past. (I am talking solely of the PC market of course. Mobile games have way more widespread crap, and all the app stores have discoverability issues that result in all the good games basically being impossible to find unless you find out about them from somewhere else (yes there are actually good, non microtransaction based mobile games too)).
  - tomc1985 6y ago
    Many are, and many aren't. Sadly, you can't just pick something up and expect not to be exploited for it
    - ianai 6y ago
      Is there a good website or somebody who logs this stuff?
      - p1necone 6y ago
        https://www.lorenzostanco.com/lab/steam/store/ https://www.lorenzostanco.com/lab/steam/store/ I linked this steam search tool in another reply - I like to specify a minimum number of user reviews and sort by user review score after adding some genre tags I'm interested in. I find the steam community doesn't look particularly favourably on microtransaction/loot box gambling heavy games (at least ones where the microtransactions make you more powerful, as opposed to just being extra single player content a la expansion packs or whatever.) So generally you end up with some good recommendations. Setting the minimum user review score higher or lower tends to filter out/let in lower budget/more niche indie titles depending on your preferences. Also just avoiding the major AAA publishers is a good strategy - EA and Activision are by far the worst. I don't really want to say to stay away from Ubisoft because they put out some great games (check out the Anno series) and almost always don't employ the same tactics as EA and Activision, just be aware that some of the most recent Assassins Creed games do have some weird microtransaction stuff, although you can completely ignore it and still see all the content.
- vermaden 6y ago
  Depends. I have tried some of newer games but often were very disappointed. I have tried to play what Bethesda made as 'Fallout 3' but I really do not like it. Its just not Fallout and they should have chosen different name. I really like Fallout 1 and 2. I always disliked Fallout Tactics for what they have done to battle mechanics in 'turn based' mode (they broken it generally) but recently I even got to finish it and even started to like it a little, but not to the point to play it again. I have similar thoughts with Heroes of Might and Magic III (especially with new Horn of the Abyss addon). I have tried Heroes IV and Heroes V but VERY disliked them. I still like Heroes IV music a lot but the mechanics of play are terrible. From more modern games I really enjoyed playing Shadowrun Returns series. I also plan to play these some day (in no particular order): - Art of Rally (as Colin McRae Rally 2.0 replacement) - Mewnbase - Wasteland 2 - Wasteland 3 - Dreamscaper - Pillars of Eternity (all of them I and II) - Expeditions: Viking - Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Disco Elysium - Into the Breach - Xenonauts - Opus Magnum - Metro Exodus - Invisible Inc. Regards.
  - p1necone 6y ago
    Pillars of Eternity is fantastic - I'd also recommend Divinity Original Sin in a similar "spiritual successor to Baldurs Gate" tone (the same developers are actually working on Baldurs Gate 3, although I would say Pillars felt more like a pseudo sequel than Divinity does). I haven't played Wasteland 2/3 but according to others they are worthy successors to Fallout 1/2 (and the same guy wrote the soundtrack!) You should check out Dirt Rally 1 and 2 (not Dirt 1 and 2, they're different) if you liked the older Colin McCrae Rally games but hated the transformation into Monster Energy sponsored arcade racers when they dropped the Colin McCrae branding - they're a return back to the semi realistic simcade style and are actually really good. I also highly recommend everything made by Zachtronics games (the dev of Opus Magnum) - also try Shenzhen IO if you want to go further into the "it's just programming with more concrete goals" style of puzzle game, or Infinifactory if you want something that still has the same design optimization feel but feels a bit less like your day job. I don't know if you ever played the Age of Wonders series back in the day, but I recommend those as something along the lines of HOMM, for the more recent titles Age of Wonders 3 seems to be well received, but the sci fi spinoff Planetfall has less positive reception. I also don't know if you were ever in to business sim games, but Cities Skylines, Planet Zoo and Planet Coaster are all worthy successors to Sim City, Zoo Tycoon and Rollercoaster Tycoon respectively. Transport Fever is also a good Railroad Tycoon esque game, although if you were heavily into the latter I don't know if it will quite feel the same. I find this third party steam search tool very useful for finding games: https://www.lorenzostanco.com/lab/steam/store/ https://www.lorenzostanco.com/lab/steam/store/ - type in a mix of genre tags you're interested in, specify > about 50 user reviews, sort by user rating. If the results look a bit too low budget to you bump the minimum user rating. EDIT: Oh and I forgot Factorio. Although maybe stay away from that one if you value your free time... it might suck you in hard.
toast0 6y ago
I mean, part of the fun of classic computer gaming is getting the game to run. Sometimes that's more fun than the game, at least for me.

bch 6y ago

> And this sentence seemed goofy [...] It sounds like it’s riffing on The Worlds Most Interesting Man [0] [0] https://youtu.be/IxgiTeXKOOc https://youtu.be/IxgiTeXKOOc

vermaden 6y ago
Yes, that was the idea :)

p1necone 6y ago

I feel like focusing on the classic games of the past so heavily like this means missing out on so many great newer games. Sometimes it pays to take off the nostalgia goggles and try out some newer offerings too.

ianai 6y ago
From my more up to date gamers at work, new games sound full of dark patterns.
- p1necone 6y ago
  There's a handful of big game publishers (EA and Activision mostly) that put out big AAA games full of microtransaction nonsense. But after you subtract those the market of quality games without those dark patterns is still massively bigger than it ever has been in the past. (I am talking solely of the PC market of course. Mobile games have way more widespread crap, and all the app stores have discoverability issues that result in all the good games basically being impossible to find unless you find out about them from somewhere else (yes there are actually good, non microtransaction based mobile games too)).
- tomc1985 6y ago
  Many are, and many aren't. Sadly, you can't just pick something up and expect not to be exploited for it
  - ianai 6y ago
    Is there a good website or somebody who logs this stuff?
    - p1necone 6y ago
      https://www.lorenzostanco.com/lab/steam/store/ https://www.lorenzostanco.com/lab/steam/store/ I linked this steam search tool in another reply - I like to specify a minimum number of user reviews and sort by user review score after adding some genre tags I'm interested in. I find the steam community doesn't look particularly favourably on microtransaction/loot box gambling heavy games (at least ones where the microtransactions make you more powerful, as opposed to just being extra single player content a la expansion packs or whatever.) So generally you end up with some good recommendations. Setting the minimum user review score higher or lower tends to filter out/let in lower budget/more niche indie titles depending on your preferences. Also just avoiding the major AAA publishers is a good strategy - EA and Activision are by far the worst. I don't really want to say to stay away from Ubisoft because they put out some great games (check out the Anno series) and almost always don't employ the same tactics as EA and Activision, just be aware that some of the most recent Assassins Creed games do have some weird microtransaction stuff, although you can completely ignore it and still see all the content.
vermaden 6y ago
Depends. I have tried some of newer games but often were very disappointed. I have tried to play what Bethesda made as 'Fallout 3' but I really do not like it. Its just not Fallout and they should have chosen different name. I really like Fallout 1 and 2. I always disliked Fallout Tactics for what they have done to battle mechanics in 'turn based' mode (they broken it generally) but recently I even got to finish it and even started to like it a little, but not to the point to play it again. I have similar thoughts with Heroes of Might and Magic III (especially with new Horn of the Abyss addon). I have tried Heroes IV and Heroes V but VERY disliked them. I still like Heroes IV music a lot but the mechanics of play are terrible. From more modern games I really enjoyed playing Shadowrun Returns series. I also plan to play these some day (in no particular order): - Art of Rally (as Colin McRae Rally 2.0 replacement) - Mewnbase - Wasteland 2 - Wasteland 3 - Dreamscaper - Pillars of Eternity (all of them I and II) - Expeditions: Viking - Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Disco Elysium - Into the Breach - Xenonauts - Opus Magnum - Metro Exodus - Invisible Inc. Regards.
- p1necone 6y ago
  Pillars of Eternity is fantastic - I'd also recommend Divinity Original Sin in a similar "spiritual successor to Baldurs Gate" tone (the same developers are actually working on Baldurs Gate 3, although I would say Pillars felt more like a pseudo sequel than Divinity does). I haven't played Wasteland 2/3 but according to others they are worthy successors to Fallout 1/2 (and the same guy wrote the soundtrack!) You should check out Dirt Rally 1 and 2 (not Dirt 1 and 2, they're different) if you liked the older Colin McCrae Rally games but hated the transformation into Monster Energy sponsored arcade racers when they dropped the Colin McCrae branding - they're a return back to the semi realistic simcade style and are actually really good. I also highly recommend everything made by Zachtronics games (the dev of Opus Magnum) - also try Shenzhen IO if you want to go further into the "it's just programming with more concrete goals" style of puzzle game, or Infinifactory if you want something that still has the same design optimization feel but feels a bit less like your day job. I don't know if you ever played the Age of Wonders series back in the day, but I recommend those as something along the lines of HOMM, for the more recent titles Age of Wonders 3 seems to be well received, but the sci fi spinoff Planetfall has less positive reception. I also don't know if you were ever in to business sim games, but Cities Skylines, Planet Zoo and Planet Coaster are all worthy successors to Sim City, Zoo Tycoon and Rollercoaster Tycoon respectively. Transport Fever is also a good Railroad Tycoon esque game, although if you were heavily into the latter I don't know if it will quite feel the same. I find this third party steam search tool very useful for finding games: https://www.lorenzostanco.com/lab/steam/store/ https://www.lorenzostanco.com/lab/steam/store/ - type in a mix of genre tags you're interested in, specify > about 50 user reviews, sort by user rating. If the results look a bit too low budget to you bump the minimum user rating. EDIT: Oh and I forgot Factorio. Although maybe stay away from that one if you value your free time... it might suck you in hard.

toast0 6y ago

I mean, part of the fun of classic computer gaming is getting the game to run. Sometimes that's more fun than the game, at least for me.