Video Games: Wallets Getting Steamed

[AndrewBaelish]

So I'm have a bit of a quandry.

I just got a job at the local Wal-Mart. They worked me 6 days in a row. 9 hour shifts. And I get paid a decent amount an hour.

My question.

Should I save up, and get my friends to help me make a gaming pc? Or get another 360, or a PS3, Or pre-order the PS4 this Friday?

[TheEvilKing]

Should I save up, and get my friends to help me make a gaming pc? Or get another 360, or a PS3, Or pre-order the PS4 this Friday?

What do your friends play? If they play PS3 or PC a lot get one of them.

If not, in order of preference (and with rather big gaps between each one):

PC > PS3 > PS4 > "another" 360, I'm assuming by that you mean you already have one, so why get another?

[AndrewBaelish]

My friends play 360 and PC. I'm thinking about getting a PC honestly. Steam is calling to me.

And I didn't want to, but I had to get rid of it to keep from being homeless there for a couple of weeks. Now I just don't see the point of going back to it with all the PS3 games I've missed (LAST OF US) and Steam available to me.

[Merentha]

Thanks Wert. Sounds like the sort of game I'll probably pass on. I'll admit it, I'm kind of a coward when it comes to overly atmospheric games. I'm fine with games being horribly hard, I just don't like things jumping at me from the dark.

There is a fantastic level in the first Metro game where you're walking through an abandoned, semi-destroyed library with giant ape-like monsters. Thing is, they'll probably kick your ass if you fight them, or at least destroy your ammo reserves to the point where you'll die from lack of ammo. But...you can stare them down if you want, because they're very reticent to attack you head-on (unless you've attacked them). So now you're walking through a level, staring at a fixed point, trying to manage your distance with it so it doesn't feel threatened, when all you really, really want to do is look where you're going or for that loud roaring sound, but you can't or the Librarian will hunt you down.

Its one of the most fun levels I've ever played in an FPS.

[Fez]

Don't know why I was scared off from Kingdoms of Amalur for so long, its really rather great. Its basically Skyrim with better combat, worse graphics, a worse camera (which completely hides the fact that if you stop and look around its actually a very beautiful world), and a more restrictive, less varied (so far at least) world. Skyrim is the more impressive game, but KoA does a better job of changing NPC dialog so that you feel like your completed quests are making a difference. And that's actually very important to me, I like at least the illusion of a dynamic world. Also, the game's freaking huge; I'm nine hours in and still haven't completed the second main quest yet and have only been to 4 of the 39 map areas (and maybe 6 of who knows how many dungeons).

It really is a shame that the studio went belly up (although at least there's been some entertainment from the rather dramatic way that it did. Watching the state of Rhode Island try to figure out what to do with a video game IP has been fun from a policy-nerd perspective), since I think it would've made a heck of a series.

[Lord Tyrion]

How expensive console gaming has become...might buy myself a PC and just play games on there.

I don't try and buy that many games on release anymore for consoles.

[TheEvilKing]

My friends play 360 and PC. I'm thinking about getting a PC honestly. Steam is calling to me.

And I didn't want to, but I had to get rid of it to keep from being homeless there for a couple of weeks. Now I just don't see the point of going back to it with all the PS3 games I've missed (LAST OF US) and Steam available to me.

At the moment, probably best to go with a PC. PS3 will be outdated soon and buying new consoles on release is a mug's game.

[Jabronius Maximus]

So I'm have a bit of a quandry.

I just got a job at the local Wal-Mart. They worked me 6 days in a row. 9 hour shifts. And I get paid a decent amount an hour.

My question.

Should I save up, and get my friends to help me make a gaming pc? Or get another 360, or a PS3, Or pre-order the PS4 this Friday?

You're gonna hate this answer, but just wait. The reason I say that is to wait and see how the ps4 turns out. Or to see what's on the horizon for the 360 in its last year.

But if you don't want to wait, pre-order a ps4. Even a solid gaming PC will cost you 600+, and the ps4 is somewhere between mid and high level PC gaming. A PC with equivalent specs will cost a lot more than 400, which is why I think you should go with the console. Right now it looks like a pretty good deal.

I'm speaking for personal experience. I spent 1200 on a gaming PC. It is now collecting dust in my home theater, but it is occasionally used to stream movies and TV shows. The biggest reason is most of my friends have a ps3, so I ended up playing that more.

[Weak With The Dawn]

Don't know why I was scared off from Kingdoms of Amalur for so long, its really rather great....

I liked the game at first, but after a few hours the combat got repetitive (also like Skyrim) and for whatever reason I just couldn't get into the story. They did a number of really cool things with the game, and it certainly was an awesome art style, but I know a lot of people just never felt as immersed as they wanted to.

There is a fantastic level in the first Metro game...

That sounds really intriguing. Might have to go check out the Metro series.

[Dragonmag170]

Lets see.... I keep checking the bloody steam sale.

I bought Sins of A Solar Empire: Rebellion, and I have been having a blast with that.

Picked up Age of Empires 2 for $5.

Picked up Galactic Civilizations II as well. Playing it tonight when I'm home, I think.

Got Kingdoms of Amalur on 360: Great game. I love it so far.

And I am going to end up building my own gaming PC. I kinda want a computer that is, well, good.

[Fiddler]

Don't know why I was scared off from Kingdoms of Amalur for so long, its really rather great. Its basically Skyrim with better combat, worse graphics, a worse camera (which completely hides the fact that if you stop and look around its actually a very beautiful world), and a more restrictive, less varied (so far at least) world. Skyrim is the more impressive game, but KoA does a better job of changing NPC dialog so that you feel like your completed quests are making a difference. And that's actually very important to me, I like at least the illusion of a dynamic world. Also, the game's freaking huge; I'm nine hours in and still haven't completed the second main quest yet and have only been to 4 of the 39 map areas (and maybe 6 of who knows how many dungeons).

It really is a shame that the studio went belly up (although at least there's been some entertainment from the rather dramatic way that it did. Watching the state of Rhode Island try to figure out what to do with a video game IP has been fun from a policy-nerd perspective), since I think it would've made a heck of a series.

I enjoyed the game quite a bit.

I liked the combat, the questing(I really enjoyed a few of the quest lines) and the world itself. It felt like a more alive Skyrim, to be honest. While I think Skyrim was a better game overall, I did enjoy Kingdoms.

My one issue was the level cap. I can't stand games that you can hit a level cap before your nearing the end. I didn't "grind" for xp at all. I just did the side quests and I maxed out my level before leaving the main continent. Whatever reason, that ruins the game at that point for me.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

Don't know why I was scared off from Kingdoms of Amalur for so long, its really rather great. Its basically Skyrim with better combat, worse graphics, a worse camera (which completely hides the fact that if you stop and look around its actually a very beautiful world), and a more restrictive, less varied (so far at least) world. Skyrim is the more impressive game, but KoA does a better job of changing NPC dialog so that you feel like your completed quests are making a difference. And that's actually very important to me, I like at least the illusion of a dynamic world. Also, the game's freaking huge; I'm nine hours in and still haven't completed the second main quest yet and have only been to 4 of the 39 map areas (and maybe 6 of who knows how many dungeons).

It really is a shame that the studio went belly up (although at least there's been some entertainment from the rather dramatic way that it did. Watching the state of Rhode Island try to figure out what to do with a video game IP has been fun from a policy-nerd perspective), since I think it would've made a heck of a series.

I love Amalur, it seemed like Fable to me--the way it was originally promised to be. A huge world, dynamic questing, interesting factions and a bit of whimsy thrown in for fun.

The only thing I don't like is how easy it is. I played on hard and stopped after about 30 hours because it was getting too easy, but I had a blast hunting for treasure, doing quests, etc. The Dead Kell dlc was great, I actually completed it unlike Skyrim's.

[Derfel Cadarn]

Got arcanum, complwte nwn and nwn 2 (neverwinter nights) , Demon stone and ultima 7 thru GoG.

Been playing icewind dale (heart if winter) alongside planescape torment. Icewind dale might be mostly combat but its scenery and music is awesome.

[Fiddler]

Got arcanum...

Is that the game with steampunk and magic? Something like of steamworks and magika in the title?

If so, I loved that game. I played that for months when I first bought it. I played a dwarf who used pistols and picked stuff out of the trash to build better traps. It was great.

[Sad King Billy]

Picked up Galactic Civilisations II in the Steam sale. Have no idea what I'm doing. Won first scenario anyway. Hmm.

Let's see now. How was it like....

(spoilered in case you don't actually want hints or tips)

Early game: colonisation. You want to snag up as many high-quality planets as you can. To do so, only build 1 or 2 "scout" ships, everything else should be colonisers. Planets can be categorised according to the amount of tiles you can use. A rough guideline:

1-6/7. Poor planet, snag 'em up later when you have the time or if there are no better alternatives.

8-12/13 medium planet: pretty good, useful for manufacturing centres or science. May function as finance later on.

13+ great planet. Have it be a financial planet to fund the manufacturing/science planets. If you already have more than enough money planets, turn it into the most insane manufacturer/researcher planet imaginable (there are certain buildings that provide a planet-wide bonus that can only be built once. Build them here).

18+ planet. Whatever you do, get this sucker. It's a goldmine. (rules for 13+ apply, seriously consider turning it towards cash.

Mind you, this will depend on how many habitable planets exist in your match. If there is a total of 10 colonisable planets then that's a whole different game from when there are 200.

Money in galciv == population & taxes. The more people your planets have, the more they pay in taxes. BUT!! The more people on a planet, the more unhappy they are and rebellion risk increases. Any planet with more than 20 billion people is impossible to keep happy. A planet with 16 bill people will have a hard time being kept happy. 12 billion is more than manageable.

Also: pop growth is very tied to happiness. Lower taxes -> more happiness. It can be a good strategy in specific circomstances to lower your taxes until people are 100% happy, in order to get a population boon that'll improve your economy long-term. You Need to be careful that you don't get into a financial bottomless pit though ...

Because tax rates are uniform, try to have 2 levels of population on your planets, a low level for your industry and science planets, a higher level for commerce planets. eg 8 & 12, or 12 & 16. Farms increase pop cap for a planet.

It's been a while, I hope this wasn't too disjointed and useless. Oh, and by the way: the campaign is terrible. The dread lords' campaign is, at least: poorly written (with spelling errors and poor grammar) and corny as hell. I don't know about the expansions' quality, I was just in it for the random maps...

[GallowKnight]

Is that the game with steampunk and magic? Something like of steamworks and magika in the title?

If so, I loved that game. I played that for months when I first bought it. I played a dwarf who used pistols and picked stuff out of the trash to build better traps. It was great.

Arcanum of Steamwork and Magic Obscura. Probably the best game title ever.

[Fiddler]

Arcanum of Steamwork and Magic Obscura. Probably the best game title ever.

That is it! Its the reason I picked up the game at the time.

I played so much of that game. It was also the first game I actually downloaded a mod for. I think it raised the level cap or some such.

[The Anti-Targ]

This is great. There's a mod (fan-made version) for the strategy game CRUSADER KINGS II which allows you to play in Westeros rather than medieval Europe. PC GAMER magazine is running a diary of someone playing as Ned Stark and trying to do a better job than in the books. Unfortunately, it all goes a bit wrong from the very start when he is forced to execute Howland Reed and then asked to help put down a rebellion in the Riverlands which might make an enemy of Cat.

Even if you have no interest in gaming, this is quite entertaining:

Part 1.

Part 2.

Part 3.

I still need to finish Witcher 1. It's on my to-do list after completing the Dragon Age series.

How much grunt do you need in a PC to play Crusader Kings II? I have a relatively new PC, but the graphics card is at the lower end of the performance scale. It's a 1GB card, but it's not much chop in terms of the performance specs.

So you're still working your way through Dragon Age? A few of your posts describing your experience made me think you'd be casting it aside.

I'm working at getting a platinum trophy for Mass Effect. They really set up the trophies to be rather a tedious and contrived affair. Having to get X kills from all of the weapons is somewhat of a pain if you don't like playing as a soldier. But also being forced to play as specific classes to get the biotic and tech powers uses trophies is rather tiresome. I'm also kinda miffed that you can't jump straight to insanity difficulty after the first playthrough. I forces you to play through the entire game 3 timesto get all the difficulty setting trophies, Grrrr. In fact why lock out the harder difficulties for one's first play through? If you are a BAMF at these sorts of games being forced to play through on the easy modes must be damn annoying; not that I'm a BAMF, I like to do first plays on hard or normal mode, only opting for the unltra difficult mode for the 2nd play through. And arse to the lvl 60 trophy if I have to start a 3rd play through with the same character to get that one, but I don't know if I have 150,000 XP worth of gameplay left in my 2nd play through. It's almost like if I do everything necessary to get the platinum trophy I might end up hating Mass Effect, which would be a pity.

[The Anti-Targ]

Don't know why I was scared off from Kingdoms of Amalur for so long, its really rather great. Its basically Skyrim with better combat, worse graphics, a worse camera (which completely hides the fact that if you stop and look around its actually a very beautiful world), and a more restrictive, less varied (so far at least) world. Skyrim is the more impressive game, but KoA does a better job of changing NPC dialog so that you feel like your completed quests are making a difference. And that's actually very important to me, I like at least the illusion of a dynamic world. Also, the game's freaking huge; I'm nine hours in and still haven't completed the second main quest yet and have only been to 4 of the 39 map areas (and maybe 6 of who knows how many dungeons).

It really is a shame that the studio went belly up (although at least there's been some entertainment from the rather dramatic way that it did. Watching the state of Rhode Island try to figure out what to do with a video game IP has been fun from a policy-nerd perspective), since I think it would've made a heck of a series.

I was thinking about getting KoA, but when I saw this (bolded) it's rather put me off. Someone's going to have to convince me that it really isn't like Skyrim at all if I'm going to give it a try.

[emberling]

I enjoyed KoAR at least twice as much as Skyrim, possibly as much as four times. The narrative is a lot more structured - basically the world is divided into zones and each zone presents a semilinear story, or sometimes a few intertwined; in Skyrim, it's a lot looser and more random. Skyrim has a sort of tension where the more you try to do all the things, the less your character resembles anything that an actual reasonable character (story-wise or RP-wise or whatever) would do. KoAR, by being more structured / less extreme in its nonlinearity, is a lot better with that. That's a big deal to me, though, I gather, not to very many other people.

And the combat is actually fun. Is that even allowed in an RPG? (I say this as someone who plays almost exclusively RPGs.)

Finally: Skyrim lets giants play baseball with you. KoAR lets you play baseball with gnomes.