Keatah Posted September 25, 2021 Share Posted September 25, 2021 On 9/23/2021 at 8:28 AM, Rick Dangerous said: The first gen of the console is simply too physically large to fit anywhere in my home entertainment stand, and i'm past the age where i care enough to watch re-stocks for the privilege of buying a videogame console. It's this weird shape that doesn't really fit any of my decor - minimalistically modern or modern rustic. I game exclusively on SFF PC. One of the reasons being they can be either integrated in any decor scheme or simply hidden. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted September 25, 2021 Share Posted September 25, 2021 On 4/20/2021 at 2:04 PM, Rick Dangerous said: I think the bottom line is, to get the most out of a modern console, you have to pay for 1 or 2 subsciption services (online gaming/games) and that just doesn't sit well with me. Just going to keep sitting on the ole' fence; but the way i see it, all the things that made consoles attractive to me, have diminished to nothing, and now they actually have some noticeable disadvantages over the PC equivalent; so i just feel like i'm sort of naturally being pushed in that direction as a matter of thrift and common sense. But a really good Uncharted game might make me pick one up anyway because i'm a sucker.. Vintage consoles (generally pre-PS1) were interesting and had good replay value as well as creativity because the art of television gaming was still rather new. And many of the 1970's and 1980's programmers got into it for the sake of exploring a new art form. Not exploiting people's wallets. On 5/25/2021 at 4:03 AM, juansolo said: I have a feeling this is going to be a long rant even before I start... So I bailed on gaming sometime in the middle of the PS3/Xbox360 generation and sold all my machines except the GameCube and Dreamcast, that went into the loft. I was just getting so disenchanted with the way things are going. You and thousands upon thousands of other gamers. I generally lost interest gradually as more and more "online requirements & pesky DRM" started tarnishing the industry. On 5/25/2021 at 4:03 AM, juansolo said: I really don't like the PS4 and XBone. I don't like what they've allowed the games industry to become. Shipping broken/unfinished/empty products as full price games then monetising them like F2P casinos even if they're single player. Abandoning them if they don't make cash. The industry has all become about ultimate team and not about creating good games. What I mean by that is I mean they're leaning on behavioural bullshit to keep you 'engaged' (spending), rather than making good games. I'm more than happy to ignore those types of games. Thankyouverymuch! And I'm just as quick to abandon them as they are in abandoning what they make. I mean I might play a friend's modern game from time to time. But I sure as hell ain't investing my hard-earned money in any franchise or ecosphere. It's not likely to be there tomorrow anyways. On 5/25/2021 at 4:03 AM, juansolo said: Then there's just the mechanics of the consoles themselves. The number of times I've fired one up to play a game for it to need an update of some form, so you have to wait an hour and go do something else instead. Yeh. No. I ain't doing that stuff. I've observed it happen far too many times. Go to start something and updates are required. Both for the console and the game. That can and does take more than a half-hour. I don't see why they can't get it right. Actually I can, but that's for a protracted discussion about mentalities and faults of society and practices being taught in business school. In addition to simple shortsightedness and a stupor-like general malaise and speed-perception disconnects caused by social media. Not everything has to be online nor should it. Not everything has to happen before yesterday. On 5/25/2021 at 4:03 AM, juansolo said: There's DRM that has the potential to brick consoles in the future even if you own the physical games. Not that the games are on the discs, because they're just glorified keys as the games on them are usually just broken messes without their day one patches. Games you bought digitally, well you're just rolling the dice on those really as long term accessability becomes a question more and more people are starting to realise might be a problem. That's too much gambling for me. On 5/25/2021 at 4:03 AM, juansolo said: Then you've got the companies attitude towards these consoles that they have power over because of the tech. Sony's new CEO coming out saying there's no value in old games and was about to shut the PS3/Vita stores, just because. Touchè on him. Because new games will become old games. And then they will have no value. So why bother? On 5/25/2021 at 4:03 AM, juansolo said: I think that's given everyone a moment to consider the preservation side of things, if the companies don't give a shit (because it doesn't make them money). I've never been impressed with the industry's attitude toward nostalgia and catering to the memories of yesteryear. On 5/25/2021 at 4:03 AM, juansolo said: That all seems a little doom and gloom I'll admit, but the current climate is that of the corporate machines burning it's way through developers to create adictive, grindy, money draining experiences that are just there to keep you spending like a zombie. I look back on the games from the PS2/Xbox/Gamecube/Dreamcast era and before and I see something that I can still just put in and play when I want, and enjoy as they were designed to be enjoyed. Honestly, part of me hopes the industry dies as it's the only way I can see change happening. Absolutely. Modern present-day games are rather noncreative compared to when the industry was in its infancy. A lot of this "online" stuff is about cost-cutting and material reduction. And increasing the efficiency of how they tap into your bank account. I also wish for an industry crash and complete restart. But that's not likely to ever happen because there's just too much of it. The absolute best we'd see is a platform or ecosphere going away. Only to be replaced by something else. Bagghh!! Give me the simple innocence of the cartridge days. The times when stuff just worked. On 5/25/2021 at 4:03 AM, juansolo said: So no, I'm not really interested in the PS5 or Xbox Series. I've actually got an 9 year old PC, and buy indie games on GOG more often than not now as they're the closest thing to actually buying a game that you own and will be playable in the future. I don't touch Steam, EGS or MS's stores because they're all reliant on them existing and being connected. Same. This incessant paranoic need for consoles to be "connected" degrades the experience way way more than any enhancement it provides. And it encourages sloppy development as well as other undesirable traits. I'm totally alright with buying things online as long as I have access to them now and in the future. Saving the program and documentation on a local storage device that can be backed up is really a great way to go. And the PC excels here. On 5/25/2021 at 4:03 AM, juansolo said: Sorry about being an old man shouting at the clouds for a bit there... But occasionally I need to vent. Not at all. Because even youngsters will come around to see things this way. Sooner or later. After they've blown enough money for nothing. On 5/24/2021 at 4:26 AM, TheGameCollector said: PCs on the other hand are the most backward compatible to an extent. There's probably a way to achieve 100% compatibility if you learn how to figure out what limitations need to be set when setting up virtual machines. [and emulators] Very true. Emulation and virtualization are improving all the time. And for those oddball corner cases, you can always build up a period correct machine for $500 or so. In many scenarios the virtualizer's or emulator's job is to reinstate depricated features. Shit like the A20 line, or certain BIOS calls, or lower resolutions, or vintage soundcard functionality. Even stuff like running older OS'es to provide for outmoded APIs and libraries. Like Glide or DirectX stuffage. Not so much the CPU instruction set however, X86 is X86! In many ways running old software on new contemporary hardware is a better experience. This is highly applicable to old consoles and computers of the halcyon days. Areas like access speeds and storage capacity really really shine today. You can store the entire libraries of 8/16 bit classic machines on a single Flash memory chip. A few more will cover the thousands upon thousands of magazine and doc scans. And access it as fast as you can type in a search. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juansolo Posted September 25, 2021 Share Posted September 25, 2021 Couple of updates. Firmware 9.0 on the PS4 has finally cured the CMOS bomb which means now that games installed on there will continue to work even if the battery fails in the future. Essentially finally stopping it bricking itself. Now all we need is for Microsoft to dial back it's DRM on the Xbone that requires every game, physical or not to verify online when installed, or if you replace a hard drive (as I did then had to re-run all 200+ games installed on the system to get them to re-verify with MS so they can run without an internet connection). That bullshit will brick those in the future so we're still waiting for them to do the right thing there. The backwards compatibility thing on PCs is a bit more awkward. For example I've a pentium/3DfX PC that will run just about everything from the 1996-2000 period where that particular setup was dominant. Beyond that there are a lot of titles that struggle. Same goes for some DOS games. In the end I've got four PCs covering various eras and with those I can run pretty much everything. The good news is that 486 era aside, they're all super cheap to put together and take up very little space. GOG definitely helps, they've got a lot of old games fettled to run in DosBox and emulating 3DfX and what have you. But there are still plenty of things we have trouble running. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IntelliMission Posted September 25, 2021 Share Posted September 25, 2021 (edited) (My message in the previous page expressing my feelings about modern gaming in a totally respectful way received 3 "Confused" reactions.... Not bad! Let's see if I can beat that). Even if someone gave me a PS5 for free and the console had absolutely no DRM or casino style loot boxes, I would not play it. The reasons are the same why I'm not interested in modern gaming since 2006, when I played my last "current gen" title, GTA: Vice City Stories: - 1 player games focus much more in the feelings, the story, the characters... than the gameplay. - 3rd person 3D controls with an analog stick are much, much, much more imprecise than 2D controls or even tank controls. For this reason, platformer sections are too easy and combat often consists of Z Targetting your way around an enemy, which I find boring and repetitive even if it can be visually spectacular. - Ultra-realism has made polygons invisible in 3D enviroments, reducing the interactivity in platform sections (compare the first Tomb Raider stage design with the latest reboot). - Overall creativity is at its lowest and they're basically selling you the same game over and over and over. - I don't understand online multiplayer, I need the people I play with to be in the same room. - In 1997, I bought the PS1 because it was the only way to play cheap games in my own house, that didn't even have a computer or console except for the Game Boy. In my case, the need to buy a console has radically changed in the last 25 years almost to the point of disappearing (I probably wouldn't even have bought the PS1 if I didn't need to visit my other parent's house to play a 486/Pentium). I believe many of the people buying new consoles and games have emotional connections with characters like Mario, Zelda, Solid Snake, Kratos or Ellie from TLoU, sometimes dating from their childhood. As games like Death Stranding or Shadow of the Colossus proved, I see a potential in realistic 3D environments to recreate deep experiences when you are alone and need to explore or make a journey. Until games like this exist, with no repetitive combat or silly stories and a huge, inmersive environment to explore, I will avoid buying a new console, especially at this price (and especially because I don't even have an HD TV). Edited September 25, 2021 by IntelliMission 2 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+GoldLeader Posted September 25, 2021 Share Posted September 25, 2021 ^ $10 says We're not really confused by your post but thought we'd play along. (Good Job roots!) 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted September 25, 2021 Share Posted September 25, 2021 (edited) Thing with hyper-realistic graphics is they're not accompanied by hyper-realistic actions & behavior. Whereas with vintage fantasy graphics, anything goes. Anything is appropriate. No disconnects, no expectations. Additionally back in the day, the artform was advertised to and understood by the general public as a form of escapism. Escape into an otherworldly experience populated by unique shapes born of a chemically enhanced mind. It was worth the trip. Today it's about recreating the world in which we already live. Booorrreeennnnggg! Edited September 25, 2021 by Keatah 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cimerians Posted September 25, 2021 Share Posted September 25, 2021 6 hours ago, IntelliMission said: As games like Death Stranding Probably the most boring game ever made Actually realized this during the PS4\XboxOne era while I was playing the slogfest which is Witcher 3, the whole pretty graphics are fine to look at but was I actually having fun? Not really. God of War? Looked awesome but I'd rather play the arcade-like PS2 versions. Horizon Zero Dawn was a copy/paste of Assassins Creed and Far Cry Primal.....but worse IMO. There are modern games that I do like, Mass Effect the first and maybe second Batman game. The first Dishonored game and Doom 2016 was ok. But like I said sometime during the PS4 Xbox One era is when I realized pretty much all of them play exactly the same with variances. I found myself playing more arcade games like Rocket League, indie games like Hotline Miami and then when I had an injury to my hand and I couldn't use a controller I switched to PC and never looked back to consoles. I saved a ton of money doing that (well sort of, I spent it on an AMD machine instead but that will last me 10 years I hope like my last Intel one). One thing is for sure, I will never ever pay to play online again (ie Xbox Live and PsPlus). I'm not gonna rant against consoles a lot 'cause I liked them for what they were to me at one time and people enjoy them but just had to have my piece here. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youxia Posted September 25, 2021 Share Posted September 25, 2021 5 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGameCollector Posted September 27, 2021 Share Posted September 27, 2021 (edited) On 9/24/2021 at 10:02 PM, Keatah said: And for those oddball corner cases, you can always build up a period correct machine for $500 or so. You know what I found out that's interesting? It looks to me like in Sept 2005 when Sonic Adventure DX for PC released, a period correct machine would actually struggle to run it at minimum settings unless you had a very high end PC for that year. Windows Vista didn't even come out as RTM until 2006 and most sites recommend Windows 7 or above. The minimum specs according to Google are: Operational System: Windows XP. Processor: Intel Pentium 4 3.00GHz / AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Video Card: GeForce 7300 / Radeon X1600. RAM Free: 2 GB RAM. Disk Space (HD): 1.8 Gb Free. Directx Version: DirectX 9. Pentium 4s are common for the time period, but 3.4GHz was the top of the line in Feb 2004 with the 3.6 to 3.8GHz Prescott Extreme editions surpassing it in November 2005. These faster CPUs weren't included in the average desktop computers of the time. My dual core P4 in my Dell Dimension 3000 from 2004 is only 2.80 + 2.79 GHz. I could learn to overclock or maybe upgrade the CPU... 2GB RAM is the maximum it will take, which is what the game calls for. But if I wanted to add a video card, someone says "Best is the PCI slot 6200 card." because "You have a PCI slot not PCI-Express nor AGP." So this PC that was out just a year earlier than the game can't even be equipped with the minimum specs for it. "Summary. NVIDIA started GeForce 7300 GT sales 15 May 2006 at a recommended price of $149.99." Here it's asking for a GeForce video card that didn't come out until 8 months later... ?!?!?! So it's actually much less of a headache just saving games that required top of the line machines back then for a next gen PC. I guess upon release maybe getting max settings out of this game wasn't even possible? I guess I was lucky I could just get it for Gamecube and a year earlier. If you look back at what happened here in the past with struggling to run a game that came out on a console a year earlier, I guess you can understand why plenty of gamers do want a simple console over making incremental upgrades to PCs. I personally want to save for a new gaming PC because I haven't bought a new computer since a low end one 2014, and a used 2014 laptop bought in 2018 is my most powerful. Nothing I've ever had was branded as a "gaming PC" in any era but I still played games on all of them. Just ones that were at least a few years old. It would cost a lot less to just buy a PS5 and Xbox One even at scalped pricing than to buy the best PC now because the graphics cards are so expensive. And who knows if this year's best Windows 10 computer can even run next year or the year after's brand new *Windows 11 required* games. Edited September 27, 2021 by TheGameCollector Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzip Posted September 27, 2021 Share Posted September 27, 2021 On 9/25/2021 at 1:02 AM, Keatah said: Yeh. No. I ain't doing that stuff. I've observed it happen far too many times. Go to start something and updates are required. Both for the console and the game. That can and does take more than a half-hour. PS4 and PS5 have streamlined this so that both system and game updates will download while the console is in rest mode. When you turn it on, it spends a few seconds updating, but waiting a half-hour or more is rare.. I still encounter that for Steam updates On 9/25/2021 at 1:02 AM, Keatah said: I don't see why they can't get it right. Actually I can, but that's for a protracted discussion about mentalities and faults of society and practices being taught in business school. In addition to simple shortsightedness and a stupor-like general malaise and speed-perception disconnects caused by social media. Updates aren't just for bug fixes, they frequently bring new content to a game. Especially for multiplayer games that start shedding players over time, they bring new content to help keep players engaged and extend the life of the game. Something like Minecraft that launched in 2010 would probably be dead by now if they didn't keep expanding it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzip Posted September 27, 2021 Share Posted September 27, 2021 On 9/25/2021 at 3:17 AM, juansolo said: The backwards compatibility thing on PCs is a bit more awkward. For example I've a pentium/3DfX PC that will run just about everything from the 1996-2000 period where that particular setup was dominant. Beyond that there are a lot of titles that struggle. Same goes for some DOS games. In the end I've got four PCs covering various eras and with those I can run pretty much everything. The good news is that 486 era aside, they're all super cheap to put together and take up very little space. The PC Fanboys like to tout PC's "amazing" backwards compatibility- but it's largely a myth. I find there's a lot of things that don't work without something like Dosbox or something that runs a pre-XP version of Windows. On 9/25/2021 at 2:26 PM, cimerians said: I switched to PC and never looked back to consoles. I saved a ton of money doing that (well sort of, I spent it on an AMD machine instead but that will last me 10 years I hope like my last Intel one). One I have both PC and console, I don't see how PC saves money. A decent GPU alone costs as much or more than a console. The amount of games they give you for signing up for the online service more than pays for itself many times over. Sony gives you 20 AAA games in the PS+ Collection just for buying a PS5. I rarely buy full-priced games at launch because I know they will get deep discounts after a few months and/or end up as a free game of the month eventually. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lostdragon Posted September 27, 2021 Share Posted September 27, 2021 On 9/25/2021 at 7:26 PM, cimerians said: Probably the most boring game ever made Actually realized this during the PS4\XboxOne era while I was playing the slogfest which is Witcher 3, the whole pretty graphics are fine to look at but was I actually having fun? Not really. God of War? Looked awesome but I'd rather play the arcade-like PS2 versions. Horizon Zero Dawn was a copy/paste of Assassins Creed and Far Cry Primal.....but worse IMO. There are modern games that I do like, Mass Effect the first and maybe second Batman game. The first Dishonored game and Doom 2016 was ok. But like I said sometime during the PS4 Xbox One era is when I realized pretty much all of them play exactly the same with variances. I found myself playing more arcade games like Rocket League, indie games like Hotline Miami and then when I had an injury to my hand and I couldn't use a controller I switched to PC and never looked back to consoles. I saved a ton of money doing that (well sort of, I spent it on an AMD machine instead but that will last me 10 years I hope like my last Intel one). One thing is for sure, I will never ever pay to play online again (ie Xbox Live and PsPlus). I'm not gonna rant against consoles a lot 'cause I liked them for what they were to me at one time and people enjoy them but just had to have my piece here. Just finished main story quest on Witcher 3 this afternoon. First Witcher game i have ever played and for the first 2/3 of the game, I was loving it, then the slogfest hit and hit hard. An awful lot of trekking back and forth to meet characters who needed X, Y and Z doing before they were ready to help, cutscene after cutscene, padding apon padding to story. The Wild Hunt boss fights were a cake walk, yet here I was getting overcome by packs of wild boar in the expansion pack locations. I've left the game with numerous side quests unfinished on the 2 expansion packs as the mini-boss fights were a chore. It gave me a solid few days play, sure, but was I enjoying it towards the end? No, hence rushing to finish main story today. Bas#tard crashed on me 5 times, wouldn't let me fast travel at signposts 4 times, one merchant stopped selling me items and game had me stuck on scensry or locations i couldn't get out of.. forcing me to reload older save, more times than i care to remember. These openworld games, loot boxes, free locations from enemy forces, it doesn't matter the game setting, they've become far too over familiar for my tastes now. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted September 27, 2021 Share Posted September 27, 2021 (edited) -- Edited September 27, 2021 by Keatah 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted September 27, 2021 Share Posted September 27, 2021 (edited) 4 hours ago, zzip said: The PC Fanboys like to tout PC's "amazing" backwards compatibility- but it's largely a myth. I find there's a lot of things that don't work without something like Dosbox or something that runs a pre-XP version of Windows. The PC really does have trickster-like abilities for backward compatibility. But yes it takes some effort. eed to get period-correct hardware. Or spend time to learn the in's and out's of something like DosBox. VirtualBox and DosBox are extensions of the OS in a sort of way. At the very minimum They're required accessories. Edited September 27, 2021 by Keatah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzip Posted September 27, 2021 Share Posted September 27, 2021 2 minutes ago, Keatah said: Oh sure. But I claim the PC really does have trickster-like abilities for backward compatibility. Yes it can take some effort on the user's part. Need to get period-correct hardware. Or spend time to learn the in's and out's of something like DosBox. Or hope that the current OS can run the previous OS'es stuff natively. VirtualBox and DosBox are extensions of the OS in a sort of way. At the very minimum they're required accessories. Dosbox is an emulator like any other. To me it's the same as me running Stella for 2600 games, Vice for C64 programs, etc. It does make the PC the ultimate retrogaming device since it can emulate almost everything, but it doesn't have the 100% native compatibility all the way back to 1981 like some people like the claim. The architecture and OSes have changed too much Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted September 27, 2021 Share Posted September 27, 2021 Sure. I'm a little surprised that DosBox doesn't call on native x86 instructions. I mean just about everything from the 8088/6 is still present. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cimerians Posted September 30, 2021 Share Posted September 30, 2021 On 9/27/2021 at 10:16 AM, Lostdragon said: No, hence rushing to finish main story today. Ha, sounds like me when I was playing it. Same thing happened with Horizon, about halfway I started skipping stuff just to finish it. That's happened a lot on modern games. Witcher 3 was fun initially but like you said, its a broken record. Basic quest routine: takes a job, uses Witcher senses, kills monster, gets paid, repeat. Maybe throw a decision in there now and then and the trekking between sign posts (fast travel points) was grueling sometimes. You know it. Witcher 3 is really hard to review because it's good enough to play without quitting up to a certain point but then you've invested so much you just want to finish it off. I don't know maybe games are too long these days in terms of the type of things your doing again and again. The problem is if you skip sidequests like Arkham City the main story is so short you don't really get anything out of it. ? I try to follow a rule now not to play a game if I don't really like it much, time on earth isn't infinite and I have well over a thousand games on Steam. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cimerians Posted September 30, 2021 Share Posted September 30, 2021 On 9/27/2021 at 9:28 AM, zzip said: The PC Fanboys like to tout PC's "amazing" backwards compatibility- but it's largely a myth. I find there's a lot of things that don't work without something like Dosbox or something that runs a pre-XP version of Windows. I have both PC and console, I don't see how PC saves money. A decent GPU alone costs as much or more than a console. The amount of games they give you for signing up for the online service more than pays for itself many times over. Sony gives you 20 AAA games in the PS+ Collection just for buying a PS5. I rarely buy full-priced games at launch because I know they will get deep discounts after a few months and/or end up as a free game of the month eventually. Your speaking in general terms and I can't speak for your financial situation, I can only comment on my own budget (hence my post referenced me and one or two things I didn't care for, I didn't say it saves you money). If it works out for you to play with consoles, have at it. Not gonna argue that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzip Posted September 30, 2021 Share Posted September 30, 2021 On 9/27/2021 at 2:48 PM, Keatah said: I'm a little surprised that DosBox doesn't call on native x86 instructions. I mean just about everything from the 8088/6 is still present. That would put it into the "virtual machine" class. I've noticed that virtual machines application have tended to not support old OS's like DOS or Win 9x very well, so I only use them for XP or later. The emulation in DOSBox is fast enough to run DOS and Win 98 at a reasonable speed for the era. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cynicaster Posted October 1, 2021 Share Posted October 1, 2021 I'm definitely a "get off my lawn" type when it comes to modern games, but even if that weren't the case, I cannot get past the reality of the situation for me: it just seems impossible to fit these games into my adult life. Just for fun, I spent a few minutes throwing together a quick spreadsheet to see if I could reasonably quantify my point here. What I did was list a range of things that take up my time, how much time those things take in a given day, and how many days per week they apply. For example, I have an entry for sleep/eat/self-care which is about 10 hours for 7 days per week. Work and commute - 9 hours for 5 days per week general house chores and menial tasks - half hour per day, 7 days per week errands - 1 hour, 2 days per week socialize with human beings - 4 hours per week There are 7x24=168 hours in a week, and above I've accounted for 125 already. Now, in the real world, things don't move snap-bang from one thing to another - there is an inefficiency factor here. For example, I don't warp from my car seat to the dinner table. I may stand in the driveway and stare up at the moon for a few minutes. Or sit in the car and day dream about the hamburger I ate yesterday. The point is - there is easily a 15% bloat factor to the previous total, bringing it up to 143 of 168 hours accounted for. This is 85% of all hours in a week, leaving 25 on the table. HOWEVER, you can't say that there are 25 hours available up for grabs for gaming time, because not just any sliver of free time makes sense for this. With the way modern games play, there is no point in even turning the console on unless you have a block of at least 60 contiguous minutes available. So this probably squeezes the "net available hours" to about 5 or 6 per week. This is all before factoring in other essential things - i.e., spending time with kids and meeting their needs, spending time with significant other (if applicable), other hobbies, exercise, etc. Some weeks (with holidays, etc.) will be more, others will be less due to non-repeating factors, but on average through a given year I might have 1-2 hours per week available. If a big modern game takes 120 hours (for example) to finish, that means I realistically need a full year to complete a single game, if I am not to disrupt my life to play it. A single game! Why pay all that money for a console only to play 1 game per year? I genuinely do not understand how people fit this stuff in. My solution: retro games. Yes, cold hard math dictates that retro is the only way for me. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leeroy ST Posted October 1, 2021 Share Posted October 1, 2021 On 9/27/2021 at 2:43 PM, zzip said: Dosbox is an emulator like any other. To me it's the same as me running Stella for 2600 games, Vice for C64 programs, etc. It does make the PC the ultimate retrogaming device since it can emulate almost everything, but it doesn't have the 100% native compatibility all the way back to 1981 like some people like the claim. The architecture and OSes have changed too much Try running games from Win 2000 downward on a win20 pc. Pain in the azz. Don't even try pre 95 and post dos. I have all these FMV adventure games from decades ago I can barely play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parker77 Posted October 5, 2021 Share Posted October 5, 2021 *shrugs* loving mine. Mostly as just a faster, (much) quieter PS4 admittedly, though I'm currently playing Dirt 5 - superb arcade racer that can be dipped in and out of at will) with Returnal, Hades and Demon's in the queue. Yes, I do find games like Demon's a time-sink, but over two/three months I'll manage. I usually manage to have one Arcade Archives/Retro game, one racer, and one 'big' game on the go, though I'm forgoing the bigger games at the moment to mop up my backlog. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glazball Posted October 5, 2021 Share Posted October 5, 2021 (edited) Agreed, loving mine too! We had a blast with Dirt 5 and lately have been playing a silly game called Wreckfest. Some racing but also lots of over-the-top demolition derby events, sometimes on riding lawnmowers or "sofa cars". It's hilarious, dumb fun. About a week ago, I finished AC Valhalla after about 120 hours. I see my friend online also playing it on his PS4, and it pains me to think how slooooow those loading times must be. Ugh! Last night I finished Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition and holy shit... what an amazing game! I started a new game+ with Virgil and it's just so damn fun. The eyecandy is incredible too. Next up, Resident Evil Village. 2022 should be a great year for more AAA titles too. Edited October 5, 2021 by glazball Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parker77 Posted October 6, 2021 Share Posted October 6, 2021 On 9/25/2021 at 11:38 AM, IntelliMission said: (My message in the previous page expressing my feelings about modern gaming in a totally respectful way received 3 "Confused" reactions.... Not bad! Let's see if I can beat that). Even if someone gave me a PS5 for free and the console had absolutely no DRM or casino style loot boxes, I would not play it. The reasons are the same why I'm not interested in modern gaming since 2006, when I played my last "current gen" title, GTA: Vice City Stories: - 1 player games focus much more in the feelings, the story, the characters... than the gameplay. - 3rd person 3D controls with an analog stick are much, much, much more imprecise than 2D controls or even tank controls. For this reason, platformer sections are too easy and combat often consists of Z Targetting your way around an enemy, which I find boring and repetitive even if it can be visually spectacular. - Ultra-realism has made polygons invisible in 3D enviroments, reducing the interactivity in platform sections (compare the first Tomb Raider stage design with the latest reboot). - Overall creativity is at its lowest and they're basically selling you the same game over and over and over. - I don't understand online multiplayer, I need the people I play with to be in the same room. - In 1997, I bought the PS1 because it was the only way to play cheap games in my own house, that didn't even have a computer or console except for the Game Boy. In my case, the need to buy a console has radically changed in the last 25 years almost to the point of disappearing (I probably wouldn't even have bought the PS1 if I didn't need to visit my other parent's house to play a 486/Pentium). I believe many of the people buying new consoles and games have emotional connections with characters like Mario, Zelda, Solid Snake, Kratos or Ellie from TLoU, sometimes dating from their childhood. As games like Death Stranding or Shadow of the Colossus proved, I see a potential in realistic 3D environments to recreate deep experiences when you are alone and need to explore or make a journey. Until games like this exist, with no repetitive combat or silly stories and a huge, inmersive environment to explore, I will avoid buying a new console, especially at this price (and especially because I don't even have an HD TV). There's so much generalisation there I'm not even sure where to start. I feel genuinely sorry for anyone that thinks video games haven't evolved or offered anything new in the last 15 years. Particularly as they've missed out on Spelunky. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roots.genoa Posted October 6, 2021 Share Posted October 6, 2021 I don't like Spelunky but I can name hundreds of games Intellimission has probably missed as well... Including a lot of games with couch coop that don't correspond to everything he listed (focus on other things than gameplay, 3D gameplay, realism, online multiplayer, etc.). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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