Video Games Randomness - Prioritize specific game threads!

[hitbyambulance]

I'm updating my Is There Any Deal lists right now, and wanted to get some feedback on the available tracked stores. Other than those I already have checked, can anyone vouch for any of the other shops on this list as having legitimate game keys (I'm not interested in pirated/stolen keys/keys bought with stolen cards/etc.)

can personally speak to Newegg, chrono.gg and Direct2Drive as being fine. i would assume Microsoft Store and Square Enix are also legit...

[jztemple2]

I'm updating my Is There Any Deal lists right now, and wanted to get some feedback on the available tracked stores. Other than those I already have checked, can anyone vouch for any of the other shops on this list as having legitimate game keys (I'm not interested in pirated/stolen keys/keys bought with stolen cards/etc.)

can personally speak to Newegg, chrono.gg and Direct2Drive as being fine. i would assume Microsoft Store and Square Enix are also legit...

I can vouch for GreenManGaming, I've used them for years, never had an issues.

[Blackhawk]

I don't remember why I didn't check Newegg. I've done a fair amount of business with them in the past. Microsoft I left unchecked because I'd really just prefer not to have games locked to their service. The others I will add.

Green Man I already have checked.

[Sudy]

I've used Voidu once or twice and my browsing history confirms I researched them and they looked OK. (Listed on r/GameDeals etc.)

Direct2Drive I'm personally wary of since they've changed hands in the past, but that doesn't mean they're not stable now, and hitbyambulance seems to have had a good experience.

Does IsThereAnyDeal even allow grey market sellers on their site though?

[Blackhawk]

I've used Voidu once or twice and my browsing history confirms I researched them and they looked OK. (Listed on r/GameDeals etc.)

Direct2Drive I'm personally wary of since they've changed hands in the past, but that doesn't mean they're not stable now, and hitbyambulance seems to have had a good experience.

Does IsThereAnyDeal even allow grey market sellers on their site though?

There was... something with D2D years and years ago that made me leery of them. Something to do with the process when they went from FilePlanet to IGN, I think. Whatever it was, it left a 'avoid' flag in my mind.

I don't know how ITAD vets their sites. I don't see any sites on their list that I know to be grey market, but there are a lot I don't personally recognize. I'm pretty cautious about such things, though, and only checked those that I knew or did research on.

[Hrothgar]

I don't remember why I didn't check Newegg. I've done a fair amount of business with them in the past. Microsoft I left unchecked because I'd really just prefer not to have games locked to their service. The others I will add.

Green Man I already have checked.

Newegg has a marketplace where some of the sellers are questionable. I'd guess that's why. Newegg itself is great.

[Blackhawk]

For those that don't know about it, Is There Any Deal is a wishlist site that tracks the best price on multiple stores, shows historical low prices, and lets you put a game on a list to be notified when it drops below a certain price on any of those stores. It's completely replaced the Steam wishlist for me, and is superior to it in pretty much every way. These are the people responsible for Enhanced Steam. I highly recommend it.

Even if you don't use it for your wishlist, it's worth checking before you buy a game to see where it is cheapest.

Just a convenient example. I was wanting IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad last week. It was $55 everywhere. I added it to the ITAD wish list. Today I got this email:



Picked it up for the lowest price they've ever recorded for that title. ITAD is worth the effort.

Spoiler:

[Kasey Chang]

Trying to get into Battlefield 1, still working my way through the first campaign with the Black Bess. I'm at the part where I need to get into the town and find the spark plugs. I found the sniper rifle AND the silenced 45, but I got bushwhacked by a flamethrower. Should have gone UNDER the bridge. I also couldn't get the binocs to come up. Apparently, it's LONG holding on Q, not tap. :-/

[Daehawk]

uh oh
I forgot I signed up for the Battlefield 2042 technical playtest...they sent me a download link to get ready......dont think thats gonna happen on my gtx260 now

[Sudy]

Damn it, I still keep seeing "2142".

[jztemple2]

Anyone playing Patron (Steam link)? I tried the demo and thought it had some possibilities, but between City of Gangsters and Car Mechanic Simulator 2021 I've been too busy to investigate further.

Steam page blurb:

Patron is a survival city builder with a unique social dynamics system. Gather and produce resources, build your fledgling village into a prosperous city and navigate the intricate social tensions before they reach boiling point.

[Kasey Chang]

Hah, I'm just playing through Battlefield 1. I don't play to go online, as I mainly bought it for single player. And yes, I do have some cheats activated through weMod. Just got through campaign 2 of 5 in SP. Will probably move onto TitanFall 2 once I complete this. Then work on my backlog a bit.

[Daehawk]

Really loved Titanfall 2. Theres one really damn hard section in it as I recall. That or I just sucked at that area.

[Kasey Chang]

Just finished BF1 in SP, not really interested in going online. Not really even interested in picking up all the bits of collectibles, really. Will move onto Titanfall 2 and uninstall BF1.

Overall impressions: picking the more obscure bits of WW1 was great. And graphically it's great as well. Though having fancy weapons lying all around the battlefield is a bit of... Huh...

[Max Peck]

Though having fancy weapons lying all around the battlefield is a bit of... Huh...

Sounds legit.

[Blackhawk]

Battlefield does have a habit of mainstreaming weapons and technologies that were rarely ever seen, or never left the prototype phase. It tends to make their historical games feel a little... silly. Not Rainbow Six Siege silly, but just a little off.

[Kasey Chang]

Battlefield does have a habit of mainstreaming weapons and technologies that were rarely ever seen, or never left the prototype phase. It tends to make their historical games feel a little... silly. Not Rainbow Six Siege silly, but just a little off.

Exactly. Luger Artillery (regular lugar with a drum mag AND a stock extension), the Italian "dual pistol" SMG, the German MP18 "trench" with mini-drum magazine, the C96 carbine with a scope and suppressor (?!), and a ton of other guns that have primitive red-dot scope, or sniper scope, and so on. I mean, these are not even on Forgotten Weapons!

[Rumpy]

I'm still annoyed that they took Rainbow Six and made a competitive shooter out of it. I wish they'd spin it back off into the slow methodical tactical game series that it once was. I understand why they did at the time, but if they could make a classic Rainbow 6 with some of the features of the current one like destroyable walls, I'd be happy.

[Blackhawk]

I'm still annoyed that they took Rainbow Six and made a competitive shooter out of it. I wish they'd spin it back off into the slow methodical tactical game series that it once was. I understand why they did at the time, but if they could make a classic Rainbow 6 with some of the features of the current one like destroyable walls, I'd be happy.

I have been looking at that lately. In essence, 'Tactical FPS' is now a multiplayer genre. Squad, Escape from Tarkov, etc. It's so much a multiplayer genre that the games that are out there don't even bother to mention that they're multiplayer. It's just assumed. The genre was never quite mainstream, and that was while PC gaming was still a hobbyist activity. Now that PC gaming is (more) mainstream, people want mainstream gameplay. You sell to the casual player, or you don't make money. And big studios don't green light a game if it isn't like to be the equivalent of a blockbuster. Call of Duty and Battlefield were the ones that defined that, and massive online shooters (huge maps, scores of players, battle royale) is where the money is at. It pushed actual tactical shooters and MilSims firmly into a niche.

If you want that sort of gameplay in single player, you have to crank back the clock ten years or more. ARMA III still has lots of single player mods that are apparently pretty good. There are some coop games that fit the genre, but they're all indie or small studio titles now (see: Insurgency and Insurgency: Sandstorm.) There are some upcoming titles that have the potential - Ground Branch may scratch the Ghost Recon itch, for instance.

As an aside, the same applies to VR. It is a natural fit for tactical shooters, but the only ones out there are coop or multiplayer focused (Pavlov and Onward.)

[Blackhawk]

One warning, though: As I mentioned in the antisemitism thread, the tactical shooter community is absolutely crawling with militia nutjobs (or, more likely, lazy people who wish they were militia nutjobs.)

[Daehawk]

I'm still annoyed that they took Rainbow Six and made a competitive shooter out of it. I wish they'd spin it back off into the slow methodical tactical game series that it once was. I understand why they did at the time, but if they could make a classic Rainbow 6 with some of the features of the current one like destroyable walls, I'd be happy.

Same. I remember seeing the name and was all happy then saw what it was and meh. I think the last great tacshoot I played was SWAT 4. But I can still remember the maps from the first RBS game. Ones like road, airport, hacienda and such. Had GREAT fun back in those days.

[Isgrimnur]

There's Doorkickers and Breach & Clear. Not FPS, but definitely tactical.

[jztemple2]

There's Doorkickers and Breach & Clear. Not FPS, but definitely tactical.

And Doorkickers 2 which in spite of being in Early Access is very playable. It must be since I have almost seventy hours in it

[Blackhawk]

I'm still annoyed that they took Rainbow Six and made a competitive shooter out of it. I wish they'd spin it back off into the slow methodical tactical game series that it once was. I understand why they did at the time, but if they could make a classic Rainbow 6 with some of the features of the current one like destroyable walls, I'd be happy.

Same. I remember seeing the name and was all happy then saw what it was and meh. I think the last great tacshoot I played was SWAT 4. But I can still remember the maps from the first RBS game. Ones like road, airport, hacienda and such. Had GREAT fun back in those days.

Although to be fair, Rainbow Six gave up its roots clear back in 2006 with Lockdown. Lockdown, Vegas, and Vegas 2 were just action games. To be honest, Siege was closer to its roots than the previous three games at release (until they started releasing silly items - like holographic decoys, Batman grapples, etc.)

[Rumpy]

I'm still annoyed that they took Rainbow Six and made a competitive shooter out of it. I wish they'd spin it back off into the slow methodical tactical game series that it once was. I understand why they did at the time, but if they could make a classic Rainbow 6 with some of the features of the current one like destroyable walls, I'd be happy.

Same. I remember seeing the name and was all happy then saw what it was and meh. I think the last great tacshoot I played was SWAT 4. But I can still remember the maps from the first RBS game. Ones like road, airport, hacienda and such. Had GREAT fun back in those days.

Those were great maps. Loved the quiet tension of inching across a map not knowing what was around the corner. Complete contrast to the competitive shooter R6.

One warning, though: As I mentioned in the antisemitism thread, the tactical shooter community is absolutely crawling with militia nutjobs (or, more likely, lazy people who wish they were militia nutjobs.)

Sure, that's always a danger. There are always going to be the nutjobs that take it too far. But we played with a small group of friends, so that was never a problem.

Although to be fair, Rainbow Six gave up its roots clear back in 2006 with Lockdown. Lockdown, Vegas, and Vegas 2 were just action games. To be honest, Siege was closer to its roots than the previous three games at release (until they started releasing silly items - like holographic decoys, Batman grapples, etc.)

See, I never played those, and for exactly those reasons. By that time, the series had changed direction. It was clear by then that they no longer wanted to be that type of game.

[Blackhawk]

To be fair, the first Vegas was actually a pretty fun military themed action game. It wasn't Rainbow Six, but it was a fun game.

(As an aside, I just started rereading the novel they're all based on a couple of weeks ago.)

[Daehawk]

Was looking at the prices for Bethesda's Battlespire from 1997 on Ebay. Damn thing is nearly $500 from all sellers. I dont want it but I find it surprising. I can remember being in Electronics Boutique in 97 looking at Battlespire and Redguard trying to decide which to get. I finally decided on Battlespire and my wife paid for it. I wasn't impressed with it. Yes it was the better of those two games but I just didn't care for it. I returned it and either got the money back or got something else to try. If I was trying to decide between those two games I must have been bored and between real games.

Now I wish Id kept it. I doubt Id sell it but dang $500 is nuts for that game. I wonder what makes it so damn wanted?

[Isgrimnur]

(As an aside, I just started rereading the novel they're all based on a couple of weeks ago.)

Enjoy your trip to the 2000

Spoiler:

Summer Olympics

[Max Peck]

Oddly enough, Battlespire is one of the very few large-format game boxes that I kept. It's a little dusty but is otherwise in near perfect condition over on the bookshelf in my living room.

[Blackhawk]

I read it the first time when it was brand new. I'm chuckling at some of the dated references now. Those high tech counter terrorists with their Macintosh PowerBooks!

He did a surprisingly good job of describing how VR would work for 1998, though. Rainbow was using it for training. The only thing he was off on was how body tracking would work.

[Fardaza]

Was looking at the prices for Bethesda's Battlespire from 1997 on Ebay. Damn thing is nearly $500 from all sellers. I dont want it but I find it surprising. I can remember being in Electronics Boutique in 97 looking at Battlespire and Redguard trying to decide which to get. I finally decided on Battlespire and my wife paid for it. I wasn't impressed with it. Yes it was the better of those two games but I just didn't care for it. I returned it and either got the money back or got something else to try. If I was trying to decide between those two games I must have been bored and between real games.

Now I wish Id kept it. I doubt Id sell it but dang $500 is nuts for that game. I wonder what makes it so damn wanted?

Just because someone is asking that much for it, doesn't mean anyone actually wants it or will pay that for it.

[jztemple2]

Anyone been playing Insurmountable? I've been looking at it occasionally since release but I'm not sure it's something I'd like. However, it's on sale for 20% off for the next week so I might pull the trigger. Some screenies:

[Sudy]

Thirty years ago, on August 23rd, 1991, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System launched in North America.

In other news, you're very, very old.

[coopasonic]

Anyone been playing Insurmountable? I've been looking at it occasionally since release but I'm not sure it's something I'd like. However, it's on sale for 20% off for the next week so I might pull the trigger. Some screenies:

I watched some streamer play it some back when it was released and it didn't really speak to me.

[jztemple2]

Thirty years ago, on August 23rd, 1991, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System launched in North America.

In other news, you're very, very old.

And in other, other news, several decades before the SNES was launched, my wife was launched on this day by her parents

[Daehawk]

Thirty years ago, on August 23rd, 1991, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System launched in North America.

In other news, you're very, very old.

Wife got me a Genesis and SNES Xmas 92. Fun holiday that year.

[Jaddison]

For anyone still playing DOW II and have Windows 10. I have had this installed for forever and play every now and again except last week went to start it and it crashed.

I have:
Uninstalled/reinstalled
Tried a DirectrX fix I found steam forum
Tried to disable movies
Updated recommended files for starting movies

No joy. Anyone have this working on Win10 and did you have to do something special recently to get it to work?
Space Marine is the same exact thing.
Interesting DOW 1 is fine

[Skinypupy]

Nothing else was grabbing me, so I snagged Torchlight 3 off PC Gamepass. I know it's been savaged in reviews, but I thought it was kinda fun...in the typical completely brainless Torchlight fashion.

There's nothing particularly interesting, inspired, or unique about it, which puts it in the exact same category as Torchlight 1 and 2. However, there also hasn't been anything (through the first few hours) that's been particularly negative either. It's just a bog-standard, mindless dopamine treadmill.

[Sudy]

I played the first several hours and then promptly forgot about it. I could see myself going back to it, but the gameplay is fairly generic.

[Kasey Chang]

The only innovation I recall from Torchlight is you can send the pet back with your loot and sell loot at the merchant while you continue to whack things in the dungeon.