January 2025 General Game Discussion

[Pifanjr]

I'm sure most of you guys do it, but i started to keep a spreadsheet as to how much i spend on games.

I don't spend enough on games to warrant a spreadsheet. Maybe if I also tracked what my wife spent, but I don't really see a reason to do that.

I did recently open GOG Galaxy and sorted all of the new games into must-play, might-play and won't-play, which is much more important than tracking how much I spent.

Christ i feel old. Its happen... it feels like they were released recently and yet nearly 2 decades have passed. Resident evil 2 was 1998 and the remake is at least 3 years old...

All of these feel perfectly reasonable to me, but I'm one of the youngest people here.

 

[ZedClampet]

CRAP! I tried to use that Steam record feature on a video of me being chased by a bear and running circles around Guido while he shot the bear over and over, but I did it wrong and now the video section I needed is gone...

 

[ZedClampet]

I really wanted to post a video, so here's a very short clip from Darktide where I die and then ghost Guido who comes to the rescue. If you ever wanted to know what my co-op gaming life is like, this video pretty much nails it

View: https://youtu.be/p1xzMtwpN0o

 

[January's Ghost]

I'm sure most of you guys do it, but i started to keep a spreadsheet as to how much i spend on games.

Nope, really couldn't care less on how much I spend on games. I buy what I want and play what I can and I buy a lot for friends and family too. But, a quick look I spent $276 through Steam in December and that's not the only place I bought games from last month.

 

[DXCHASE]

Well, this is how my family and i started off the year:

So, just got covid, but no flu. Kicked my butt at first. First time sitting at the pc in a couple days. Not sure where i got it other than work but i was the first to get sick. Were vaccinated so were all just kinda going through the motions, no hospitals, not even any puking or anything, just tiredness, headaches, fever, nothing that cold medicine, sleep and re-runs of star trek cant fix.

So thats a big bang to the new year for us. Hope yall started off...better lol

 

[ZedClampet]

I sort of track it. I put a couple hundred dollars into my Steam account each month. Sometimes I do more if there's a AAA I want (rarely). But if that runs out and there's something I really want, then I go ahead and buy it. I'm not really concerned about how much I spend on games. I just put the money in my account hoping it will make me more discerning on what I buy.

 

[ZedClampet]

@Colif @Frindis @Johnway @DXCHASE

Didn't want to distract from the main Path of Exile 2 thread, but if any of you really like the combat in PoE2, I just wanted to let you know that it's exactly the same as the combat in V-Rising, so you may want to try that out at some point.

V-Rising gets called a survival-crafting open world game, and it is, but the "survival" only involves needing blood every now and then, which is easy to get since you are fighting all the time and you can take anyone's blood. You also have to avoid direct sunlight, but that's easy enough to do in most places.

The other non-ARPG activity is the base-building, but it has one of the best systems for that that I've found. You don't have to worry about being a good builder or particularly creative. You can just put some walls down (the game adds the roof) and it will be fine.

Character progression won't be nearly as deep as in PoE2, and mostly involves unlocking and crafting new armor and unlocking new abilities.

 

[isleepinabed]

I'm sure most of you guys do it, but i started to keep a spreadsheet as to how much i spend on games.

So... what was the damage for 2024?

I should do this for 2025. Maybe I'll start one once my kids go back to school so I can better keep track and maybe I'll do one for all of 2024 to see what was what.

I only did spreadsheets in my first year working, as money was tightest and the need to save imperative.
Come year's end and looking at purchases made, as a hobby, surely I spent way more than I feel I should have., without going into numbers. On the other hand, I feel I must have spent 3 times as much on books... So it's all relative, isn't it?..
If not actually playing less and sitting less in front of the computer, I would look forward to spending less in 2025.

But how to control oneself? Set a strict monthly budget? Stop checking deals and sales? Replay or delve further into the ones I already have ?

 

[Pifanjr]

But how to control oneself? Set a strict monthly budget? Stop checking deals and sales? Replay or delve further into the ones I already have ?

Personally I just did the third option. I've only bought a couple of games this year that were on sale for 10 bucks or less and which I wanted to play immediately. I don't buy games any more that I think I'll play "some day", because I've bought too many games like that that I haven't played years later.

 

[Johnway]

I only did spreadsheets in my first year working, as money was tightest and the need to save imperative.
Come year's end and looking at purchases made, as a hobby, surely I spent way more than I feel I should have., without going into numbers. On the other hand, I feel I must have spent 3 times as much on books... So it's all relative, isn't it?..
If not actually playing less and sitting less in front of the computer, I would look forward to spending less in 2025.

But how to control oneself? Set a strict monthly budget? Stop checking deals and sales? Replay or delve further into the ones I already have ?

For the most part. Will power. i generally don't do hype and succumb to FOMO and multiplayer games i generally don't get sucked into playing so i can escape them for the most part.

The other thing is probably experience and personal preferences. personally, i use to buy games when they were in the £20 range as acceptable. But over time i realized by the time i got round to playing the game i bought, i could have waited and got it at an even cheaper price. The old days where stocks were limited are a thing of the past. No need to preorder or camping out to get a game etc no, online stores will have copies and online shopping will widens the area for games.

Don't get me wrong, there are times where i've buckled and game came out cheaper or i should have waited. Websites like gg.deals/deals/historical-lows/ or isthereanydeals.com are great at looking at historical data and checking it out. But as a rule of thumb, most games will drop to 50%. Eventually. I push it further by either 75%/80% and its for GOTY edition etc. I did have my eyes on like a dragon for less then 8 but i keep flip flopping about the DLC side. Probably not needed, but i'm not ready to play it so i will be looking into it in a few years time or later in the year.


The spreadsheet? just house keeping. I was interested at how much i was spending. As we know hobbies are expensive and we sink large amounts of cash into it. Plus its a way to put things perspective on my spending. Its good to know that i made some good deals and saved a lot of money. But at the same time it puts things into perspective. Dare i fork out 1 tenner for a game? That's like 10% of last years expenditure right there...

@Colif @Frindis @Johnway @DXCHASE

Didn't want to distract from the main Path of Exile 2 thread, but if any of you really like the combat in PoE2, I just wanted to let you know that it's exactly the same as the combat in V-Rising, so you may want to try that out at some point.

V-Rising gets called a survival-crafting open world game, and it is, but the "survival" only involves needing blood every now and then, which is easy to get since you are fighting all the time and you can take anyone's blood. You also have to avoid direct sunlight, but that's easy enough to do in most places.

The other non-ARPG activity is the base-building, but it has one of the best systems for that that I've found. You don't have to worry about being a good builder or particularly creative. You can just put some walls down (the game adds the roof) and it will be fine.

Character progression won't be nearly as deep as in PoE2, and mostly involves unlocking and crafting new armor and unlocking new abilities.

i do have v rising. its on the backlog for the time being whilst i play other games.

 

[isleepinabed]

For the most part. Will power.

I remembered another thing. Sometimes I feel beholden to support a game because I deem the developer (because a previous game of theirs was a favourite) or the game itself is worth of merit. I believe I have done this quite often over the years. True, most of them don't cost "full" price. But it adds up.
From an economic standpoint, if I didn't spend it on an indie developer what would I realistically spend that money on? It's "good will" money, I guess it has the added benefit of making me feel better about myself - when often times games themselves (not necessarily the same ones!) have the precise opposite (and infuriating) effect

 

[ZedClampet]

Ugh, I thought I bought State of Decay 2 for $2.99 during the sale. i just realized that all I did was put it in my cart. Now it's back to $29.99. Guess that's a "no" then.

 

[January's Ghost]

Ugh, I thought I bought State of Decay 2 for $2.99 during the sale. i just realized that all I did was put it in my cart. Now it's back to $29.99. Guess that's a "no" then.

Not to laugh at your pain, but I find comfort knowing that I'm not the only on that did something like that. I had a 20% coupon for a digital storefront that I wanted to use before it expired. The damn coupon expired while I was still shopping having about 6 different games in my cart.

 

[Johnway]

Ugh, I thought I bought State of Decay 2 for $2.99 during the sale. i just realized that all I did was put it in my cart. Now it's back to $29.99. Guess that's a "no" then.

if its any consolation, the price will probably roll back around. it kind sucks to miss it now, but you'll forget about it and get something else. Who knows? might even end up on a pass or a bundle eventually.

I remembered another thing. Sometimes I feel beholden to support a game because I deem the developer (because a previous game of theirs was a favourite) or the game itself is worth of merit. I believe I have done this quite often over the years. True, most of them don't cost "full" price. But it adds up.
From an economic standpoint, if I didn't spend it on an indie developer what would I realistically spend that money on? It's "good will" money, I guess it has the added benefit of making me feel better about myself - when often times games themselves (not necessarily the same ones!) have the precise opposite (and infuriating) effect

An interesting dilemma for sure. I'm not so charitable and the devs are businesses and need to provide a game worth buying. its probably my cynicism at play here. I respect devs for their previous work, but if there new game is garbage or doesn't hold up i'm not going to buy it. But we won't know that until it gets released...

its a bit of gamble to get a game on EA. i rarely do it without looking over the goods and any youtube reviews. if i like the look and i see positive reviews and i really, really want it, i'll consider it. Normally games that gets released will discount eventually. If it doesn't?.. well, nevermind. Doesn't happen enough to get painful.

Some games never discount in which case you have to accept the higher price. For example Sekiro's lowest price has been 24.99 and its not really dropped in price since. And since it doesn't drop in price i can put it on the back burner.

 

[ZedClampet]

I've decided to try to cheese Center Station. Since you have to make all the products you sell, it takes forever to get the store ready to open. The most purchased item is a bottle of water for $2 and that is followed by candy at $10. Prices run from $2 to $40 except for 2 things. The two big computer cards. One sells for about $400,, and the other one sells for $800. I've built enough parking spaces that there is a very steady stream of customers coming through. If you don't have want they want, they just walk straight out. But why am I wasting so much time ringing up all these $2 waters, etc? If I only stock the 2 big computer cards, even though they are rarely purchased, I will get to those sales much faster if most of the customers just walk out without buying anything.

 

[Johnway]

So i've finally unlocked the Infinite combat knife in RE2 remake. The good news is that the raccoons you've found and shot are automatically saved. it seemed to be separate from your main saves. So if you shoot it and load your game again the target is already destroyed. handy to save ammo or time. Since then, i've just been making light work of the zombies; knee cap and then stab them to death. The only draw back is that if you use if for defense and forget to retrieve it, you've lost it forever. So probably keep it safe during boss fights.

RAMP 2024 and i've finished 2 more map sets. martian bunker and the infernal court. Nothing special to note, they were stock beginner maps or don't have thing particularly memorable. The next stop black rock castle station! thing the first few maps of scythe 2 for asthetics (or medieval castles complete with dark stone, wood and banners etc)

 

[Pifanjr]

I decided to bite the bullet and buy Balatro. So far I'm really enjoying it.

My first run I got a joker that got a higher multiplier for every pack that I skipped, so I ended up not using any tarot or planet cards. It was a decent way to get used to the game, but not a great strategy to win.

My second run ended on the first blind because I really wanted to get a royal flush, just for the sake of it, but failed.

My third run however I managed to get a joker that gives 30 chips for every face card scored, one with +4 multiplier for every face card scored and one that makes every card count as a face card.

I also had a joker for a bit that gave me 50% chance to get $2 for every face card scored, so I eventually sat around $100 for the last half of the run. Which was great for the other joker I picked up which multiplied my multiplier by an extra 0.25 for every card that I sold. Which also eventually got polychrome which adds another 1.5 multiplier on top of it.

The last joker I got let me make straights by skipping a rank in between (so for example 4, 6, 8, 9, 10) and I got my straights to level 8.

I just finished the 8th ante, so I'm going to see how far I can get with this.

EDIT: not that much further...

 

[Frindis]

Still rocking Path of Exile 2. I am considering another supporter package because GGG deserves it and I deserve it, mostly because I deserve it . I'm playing on my main ranger and having a total blast doing the endgame maps. Tons of delicious loot, monsters, gold, crafting, trading, bricking items (making them worthless) and dying from standing in the nasty stuff.

 

[Zloth]

X4 terraforming continues on. I got over the ice phase, where you build up the planet's oceans by transporting crazy levels of ice down to the surface - which also helps cool the place down. You also need to deal with the radiation, toxins, build a lot of housing, get the ocean currents going again, and get plant life started up again. The latter requires insane tonnages of plankton. You can't build housing until the toxins and radiation are under control, but otherwise you can do them in any order.

So, I started building lots of plankton factory modules along with quite a bit of storage. The plan was to do the other parts while the plankton built up. Did the toxins, no problem. Did the radiation - oh, those drone parts aren't as easy to come buy as I thought. Oh well, just buy some from factories around the universe and it's taken care of. Did some housing. Did the... wait, starting the ocean currents requires 80 thousand drone parts!? My biggest trade ship can only haul a little over 2000 and that thing moves like a slug!

Needless to say, the wonderful plankton factory setup I planned finished building days ago. Plus a few of my own drone part factory modules. There's also now a universal shortage on drone parts as I buy every part made within a few minutes. I don't know what effect it's having on the overall economy. Bigger trade ships need drones to do their trading and construction ships need drones to build new stations (like drone part factories).

 

[isleepinabed]

I have tried Steam Link for the first time today, from my dekstop to an iPad.
I was surprised how well it worked. Using just touch controls it's relatively passable - turn-based games that don't require analog sticks seem to be fine.
I had wondered about getting a laptop just to be able to enjoy computing other than at my desk and I'm quite glad I found this very agreeable solution.
I was put in mind to try Anydesk or Teamviewer, which I haven't used since working from home during the pandemic - for GOG, or things other than games.

 

[Johnway]

Still rocking Path of Exile 2. I am considering another supporter package because GGG deserves it and I deserve it, mostly because I deserve it . I'm playing on my main ranger and having a total blast doing the endgame maps. Tons of delicious loot, monsters, gold, crafting, trading, bricking items (making them worthless) and dying from standing in the nasty stuff.

If you haven't done it yet, get the first blood pack. get a free stash tab, 200 credits and a blood effect for your weapons. I would then use the credit to buy stash tabs. Currently there is a stash tab sale and i would recommend getting the currency tab and an additional tab. I would recommend the Map tab, but i would hold fire on that one. It only seems to be compatible with POE1. Everyone has been asking when the POE2 one arrives and more importantly, if i bought it earlier (for POE1) will it transfer over to POE2? it says coming soon, but i would wait and see...


Completed Resident evil 2 remake with Claire's Side of story A. Just finished it just shy of 4.5 hours. But alas the A rank is under 4 hours. To be expected, i wasn't familar where everything was located and to make things worse, i didn't open some of the doors and i didn't cheat with some of the codes (Hindsight, should have got the codes written down, loaded the game and punched in the codes.) I could probably avoid a few other bits etc to shave time off. Will play Story b now.

 

[Colif]

So as what seems to be tradition now, my pc stopped working two days ago. I said tradition as for the last few years now I have either upgraded or replaced something about this time.
One year I replaced chassis fans and had fun trying to identify a rattle for a few weeks after.
Next year I replaced my gpu and psu.
Next year I replaced my AIO as first one had died after I upgraded my CPU.
Almost up to current year. Late last year I had issues with the fans on the new AIO so I swapped them for a different brand after reading others had done the same.
Now I think the swap has caused the AIO to kill itself.
Four years in a row.
So anyway, my water experiment has come to an end. Back onto air cooler as I know they work.

https://www.deepcool.com/products/Cooling/cpuaircoolers/Assassin-IV-Premium-CPU-Air-Cooler-1851-1700-AM5/2024/17129.shtml

Glad that they aren't banned here like they are in USA. Best thing about this one is i don't need to replace my ram as it doesn't have a front fan.

I will be back in a few days

 

[ZedClampet]

I'm back to using the shotgun on my Ogryn in Darktide. When the game first launched, everyone hated it (except for me), but it seems like it was significantly buffed some time between then and now. It now does significant damage to every enemy except for one.

 

[Frindis]

@Johnway Thank you for the tips

 

[Johnway]

@Johnway Thank you for the tips

no problem. if you miss the weekend stash tab sale this weekend, don't panic. That sale happens pretty much every month. So save your credits etc until then. i'm still flip flopping, but man, i've come close to buckling and getting those tabs for POE1 but again, POE2 needs to confirm that map tab is coming. Everyone sales it will (there is a coming soon/unavailable tab of sorts) but i'll believe it when i see it. GGG aren't known for rug pulls, but its slightly worrying that there is no mention or news from GGG themselves on the matter. Plus the POE2 end game mapping is different from POE1.