I’ve been a Steam only buyer for a long time. There are so many cool features and extra stuff, most games work out of the box, and they’ve been putting in a lot of effort on the linux scene with proton and the deck. But even despite all that, I’m starting to move to GOG. The sad truth is that you don’t own any of your games on Steam. I’ve been having more and more games be removed from my library, and games that either just don’t work or are “updated” into something worse. Not Steam’s fault really, but GOG is much more consumer friendly and I actually get files I can use and keep forever, no required updates or DRM. I really like Steam, and am having a hard time leaving it, but GOG is just the better choice from a long term and consumer ethics perspective.

Very interesting, thanks for the context

Zoom was always fishy to me. When covid hit, everyone required virtual meetings and boom, out of nowhere zoom became a thing. Not even google meet or microsoft teams, it was some random company

A lot of pre-1990 games are pretty clunky, so you kinda have to see them either as someone from the era would or try to appreciate them for what they are today. That being said, a lot of them are still fun with this in mind.

The Gauntlet series is probably my favorite early game. It’s better played with 2-4 people, but can be played alone. It’s essentially a dungeon crawler, but the levels and enemies are interesting and fun to navigate.

Some other good ones are Dig Dug (pacman but more fun and underground), Galaga or Galaxian (arcade space shooters), Adventure for the Atari 2600 (first rpg and first easter egg in video game history), Rampage (be a giant monster and destroy buildings), 1943 (airplane shmup (shoot em up) with cool powerups and pixel art) and toobin (also a shmup where you’re on an inertube and navigate perilous waters. Sounds boring but it has really cool level progression and game mechanics later in the game).

The Halo 4 theme was so good that I would let it play out before starting a game most of the time. Definitely my favorite title theme.

Some other good ones are Skyrim, LOZ Ocarina of Time, and Star Wars Republic Commando

I use an Xbox series controller on Linux, and it works great. I like the ergonomics and stick feel personally. 8bitdo also makes excellent third party controllers

Like others have said, this is an age old question. Plato’s Cave is my favorite rendition of the question.

The simple solution would be reason. Unless we live in a dystopia in full effect, like in 1984 or Fahrenheit 451, there will usually be multiple sources and perspectives on an issue or event, AI or not. Get info from all sides, and make a well informed personal decision with the info available. Never believe something initially and only do so if it is confirmed by multiple sources. Use logic, science, reason, ethos, or even faith as tools to seek and verify truth

I feel like stories have never been my go to. I always find myself playing games with excellent gameplay, rather than story (Mindustry, Balatro, Galaga, etc). I love a good story don’t get me wrong, but gameplay is my main attraction to games, and I feel thats where games started. If you look at retro games like Dig Dug or Adventure, or even modern indie titles like Balatro the attraction is basically 90% gameplay

I agree, AAA games are long dead. However there was a time where AAA games were amazing, maybe around the PS2/Gamecube/Xbox era. Back when devs were allowed creative freetom to make the games they actually wanted and try new things. I think a lot of people with these complaints miss that level of catered quality from back then

Games with amazing OSTs:
TES Skyrim
TES Oblivion
TES Morrowind
LOZ Minish Cap
LOZ A Link to the Past
LOZ Ocarina of Time
Sonic and the Secret Rings
Minecraft
Halo 1-4 & Reach
Bonus: Music by Ola Gjeilo (not a soundtrack but falls closely in line with Skyrim’s explore music, might even be better)

Favorite tracks from said games:
Skyrim: Far Horizons (London Symphony Orchestra Version)
Oblivion: The Wings of Kynareth
Morrowind: Over the Next Hill
Minish Cap: Mt. Crennel (Orchestral Remake)
Link to the Past: Lost Woods
Ocarina of Time: Gerudo Valley
Sonic & the Secret Rings: The Place that was Found (Evil Foundry)
Minecraft: Wet Hands
Halo 1-4 & Reach: main title themes
Ola Gjeilo: The Rose II

Me reading the Epic of Gilgamesh 4000 years later

I find them really boring, especially in RPG contexts. The difference is night and day when you walk into a handcrafted dungeon that has situational storytelling, creative direction, and ambiance that conveys a specific feeling. Bethesda games do this exceptionally well, for example.

Handcrafting a world also gives meaning to exploration; when I explore a procedurally generated world I feel like I’m just walking around aimlessly, looking for just another treasure chest or enemy to fight. But in a hand-crafted world, there are specific things to look for, situational stories to be told, or even secrets to find that the creator hid. That’s a lot more fun to explore than walking around in a glorified geometric algorithm

I hate that they tried to blame the developers here. I feel like they are just as exploited as the consumers. Many times have I tried to be passionate about my own work only to have it crushed and expunged by greedy upper management. I’d hate to be them working years on a passion project only to have it degraded by corporate grifters sending it into microtransaction hell

Microsoft is quickly becoming the worst company in gaming, which is saying something when you have the likes of Nintendo and EA. They bought up a bunch of quality companies making good games just to fire everyone and shut them down so their crappy flagship titles have no competition. Companies want to kill and destroy all games old, new, and even hypothetical so that their glorified slot machines get the spotlight. This is the beginning of the end for mainstream gaming. (Indie gaming is going strong though).

Found the type of lemming I was referencing. Here I was simply posting an ambiguous critical commment and they go defensive mode for no reason. Hypercritical, overpolitical, and wrote paragraphs about a game to prove a point rather than to express passion for said games.

The comments of this thread give off major Reddit energy. Sure the post is a little fedora-lordish but why not add meaningful input by discussing the value of games and their stories like the post suggests, rather than bashing a stranger for no reason other than hypercriticalism?

It’s not a crime to enjoy something. Just because someone has a differing view does not make it a wrong view. And honestly if I get downvoted, it kinda proves that lemmings just critisize others and hate when someone is critical of them. Hypocrisy at its finest.

I too have chosen to spend a good chunk of my money on games, and came to, you know the “games” lemmy instance, to talk about them. That’s not hyper-consumerism, its me finding happiness in a world where there’s not much to be happy about. Like op said, it’s a way to escape, explore, and lose yourself.

Bro really wanted his chicken well done at 400°F

It’s a reference to this post. A lot of people found it funny but a lot of lemmings also thought it was insulting and spam

Things you should never get caught liking on Lemmy:
Nintendo
Windows
Auth-right, lib-right, or lib-left politics
A can of beans
Police
Man vs bear hypothetical
CalyxOS
Etc.

(Edit: formatting)

All of my favorite Star Wars games are on sale. When star wars games were good; “before the dark times, before EA.”

Knights of the Old Republic I & II
Dark forces
Empire at War
Jedi Academy
Jedi Outcast
Republic Commando
Battlefront I & II (Lucasarts ones not EA)
Shadows of the Empire
Bounty Hunter

All great games worth playing imo