Cheap Games, the original Deus Ex, and other Miscellany. (Gaming)
by cheapLEY 
, Saturday, December 24, 2016, 15:14 (2895 days ago)
So Steam's Winter sale is here! Rejoice! Or lock up your wallets and do your best to ignore it!
House of the Dying Sun is $12.99. There was some discussion here about this game when it launched earlier this year, so here's a good opportunity to pick it up and save a few bones.
Stardew Valley is down to $9.99. It's also recently released on PS4 and Xbox One (although at full price) if that's more your speed. I love this game, and played it a decent amount on Steam and am currently re-addicted to it on PS4. Just a lovely little game.
Deus Ex, the original, Cody Miller's favorite game, is $1.74. Now's the chance to figure out what the hell he's even on about all the damn time, if you haven't before.
Dark Souls III is $29.99. I haven't looked, but you could probably pick up a disc version for either console for about this price, or maybe a touch more, but if you like your AAA games on PC, this is a great deal. It's the best Soulsborne game yet, so go play it!
There are tons of other great deals out there, I'm sure, if you hunt them out.
Over on PS4,
Watch Dogs 2 is $35.99. I haven't played it, but it's been well reviewed and seems like a fun game.
Dishonored 2 is down to $40.19. A great price for a great game. It's more Dishonored--there's not much else to say about it, and nothing really to complain about in that regard. Dishonored was great, more of it is even better.
Hitman is still on sale at $35.99. This game is excellent, and I'm excited for Season 2!
Bloodborne is only $9.99. Definitely worth a play (even if I never did finish it).
I saw that Titanfall 2 and Infinite Warfare are still cheap. One day I'll pick those up just for the campaigns.
Again, there's lots of great deals there if you pick through them.
I'm thinking about a year-in-reveiw/Top Ten games thread, just because I love seeing what others played and loved this year, and love finding the hidden gems I forgot about throughout the year, but that'll have to wait.
I hope you all have a great holiday!
Cheap Games, the original Deus Ex, and other Miscellany.
by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Saturday, December 24, 2016, 18:18 (2895 days ago) @ cheapLEY
Deus Ex, the original, Cody Miller's favorite game, is $1.74. Now's the chance to figure out what the hell he's even on about all the damn time, if you haven't before.
I bear everyone to keep in mind that this game is 16 years old, and technically not all aspects hold up (many didn't even on release). I'd urge everyone to just explore and experiment, and I promise that will be very rewarding. You will be very surprised at the things you find and story you uncover and ways you can play if you apply yourself.
Cheap Games, the original Deus Ex, and other Miscellany.
by cheapLEY , Saturday, December 24, 2016, 22:21 (2895 days ago) @ Cody Miller
I bear everyone to keep in mind that this game is 16 years old, and technically not all aspects hold up (many didn't even on release). I'd urge everyone to just explore and experiment, and I promise that will be very rewarding. You will be very surprised at the things you find and story you uncover and ways you can play if you apply yourself.
What makes a game hold up beyond nostalgia? I've been thinking about this some lately, as I dabbled in playing through some of Morrowind again. And Halo is also 15 years old now, but I think that game totally holds up. While it does show it's age graphically, and is quite a bit slower than modern shooters, it still feels like a modern game. But how much of that is nostalgia coloring my perception?
Cheap Games, the original Deus Ex, and other Miscellany.
by Korny , Dalton, Ga. US. Earth, Sol System, Saturday, December 24, 2016, 23:04 (2895 days ago) @ cheapLEY
I bear everyone to keep in mind that this game is 16 years old, and technically not all aspects hold up (many didn't even on release). I'd urge everyone to just explore and experiment, and I promise that will be very rewarding. You will be very surprised at the things you find and story you uncover and ways you can play if you apply yourself.
What makes a game hold up beyond nostalgia? I've been thinking about this some lately, as I dabbled in playing through some of Morrowind again. And Halo is also 15 years old now, but I think that game totally holds up. While it does show it's age graphically, and is quite a bit slower than modern shooters, it still feels like a modern game. But how much of that is nostalgia coloring my perception?
Halo 1 has aged wonderfully. The limitations of its time are half the fun (you can't simply sprint to cover, or rely on mid-ranged precision weapons to cut down enemies before they can touch you). It's still a great game to play. Halo 2 has easily aged the worst of any Halo, and feels as "half-baked and overlooked" as ever. Nostalgia can take you a long way, but sometimes a game is just really dang good, and can stand on its own years down the line. I replayed System Shock 2 shortly before my computer incident, and the graphics were laughable, but the gameplay was terrifying, and in many ways better than many games that I've played through now.
I've been playing through Borderlands 2 again with Sammy and my brother (his first time playing it), and we're having a lot of fun. It's funny that Destiny's gameplay has made Borderlands far less enjoyable (the gameplay is rather stiff in comparison), but the story holds up enough to get us through, and we haven't even gotten to the better-than-campaign DLCs.
DOOM doc extended interviews
by cheapLEY , Sunday, December 25, 2016, 22:23 (2894 days ago) @ cheapLEY
Danny has uploaded two of the extended interviews from the DOOM doc. A third is up for patreon supporters, so will probably be publicly available this week sometime.
The one with Hugo Martin is a real joy to listen to. I could listen to that guy talk forever. More than Uncharted, more than Journey, more than Inside or Limbo or Firewatch or The Witness or Braid, name your game, this interview with Hugo (and DOOM itself, obviously) is the strongest argument for "games are art" that I've ever seen/heard. The way everything meshes together in DOOM is perhaps better than in any game I've ever played. Gameplay is king, and everything else supports it, but everything matches the quality of the gameplay and culminates to make the product much more than a sum of its parts.
DOOM doc extended interviews
by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Sunday, December 25, 2016, 23:52 (2894 days ago) @ cheapLEY
Gameplay is king, and everything else supports it
A gross misunderstanding of video games. Everything else doesn't support it, everything else is it. There is no such thing as 'gameplay'. Only the game.
DOOM doc extended interviews
by cheapLEY , Monday, December 26, 2016, 00:34 (2894 days ago) @ Cody Miller
. . . everything else is it. There is no such thing as 'gameplay'. Only the game.
When judging the final product, sure, I can get behind that. But the interview, the thing I was referencing, is talking specifically about the process of making a game. You do not just make a complete product--you have to start somewhere and focus on something. Hugo Martin said basically exactly what I did. They focused on the gameplay, and if something didn't support that well, it isn't in the game.