Discounting Steam because otherwise I’d be here typing for an hour listing all the cheap games I enjoyed from there.
Lufia 2 for the SNES, which was great because it was a prequel to Lufia 1, though it took me a couple years to finally track down a copy in the pre-internet days. I was pleasantly surprised to find out it was a prequel, and there are actually massive spoilers for the 2nd game in the intro for the 1st one, so I unintentionally played them in the right order!
Fallout and Fallout 2. Two disk set at Walmart for $10 in the late 90s. Kept me busy through college, and I was so happy to see Bethesda bring it back from the dead and create some of my favorite games of all time!
Morrowind promised and delivered complete freedom to roam where I wanted and I found it in the big box of videogames at Superstore… That was after trying it for 15 minutes, thinking the animations were jank as hell even back then, and then not touching it again until a month later when I thankfully gave it another chance because I was bored
I played that game entirely to young and somehow finished the main quest line, eventually.
But man, I spent so many hours just murder hobo-ing it because I didn’t really understand the quest based game loop yet. I’d just pick a direction and look for something cool. When I found someone that looked like they’d have cool stuff I’d just kill them and take their stuff. The only time I’d reload is when I got the prophecy warning; I broke like every quest except the main one.
This was compounded by the fact that 1) I was really enjoying just exploring and 2) that game was not particularly hard to destroy the balance on. Even a kid with poor mechanical skills could get wildly OP pretty easily.
Morrowind was the first game I started “Do a quick save so that I can go on a murder spree, and then reload when I’m done” xD Also learning how to insult people wearing glass armour enough so they’d attack me first, and now it wasnt illegal for me to kill them and loot the glass armour off of them
I think if you played multiplayer you kept a copy of their character, so you could get another account to join? Maybe get someone to make your characters for you
Same, found that game while I was way too young to understand any strategy, which is kinda important in a Real Time Strategy to have. The units were cool enough to occupy little me’s mind, so I had a good time.
The original Creatures I found in the going out of business sale at KB Toys when I was a kid for like $2. IIRC, it was also the first game I ever bought on my own.
To this day, it’s still be the best virtual pet game I’ve ever played. The whole system of genetics was cool as hell, and the fact it was made by scientists studying the human genome and uses real science behind the genetic modeling was super fucking cool.
I loved that game even though I never figured it out. I couldn’t find anything else like it. It’s one of the reasons Spore disappointed me so much. Spore had customizable appearances but all the creatures acted the same. In Creatures, it almost felt like they were alive.
The memory I have ingrained most from the game is that once I hatched a norn that for whatever reason, could not walk. It just stayed where it hatched unless another creature moved them. I feared it would starve to death, but the other norns took care of her. They brought her food and liquid, they played with her, they taught her language, they even protected her from the Grendel. This wasn’t necessarily pre-programmed behavior; this never happened at any other time for me. They usually didn’t teach each other much, and they certainly never brought each other food or gifts. Just for the one that was unable to take care of itself.
Majesty the fantasy kingdom sim. Got it at Ross the clothing store with the expansion and it’s genuinely the most fun management games I’ve ever played. Available on steam very cheap now.
A few years back, dusting off the GameStop bargain bin with old gen games, I found a sealed copy of Zone of the Enders and a used copy of Metal Gear Rising.
I had never heard of the first, and I was only mildly aware of the second one (it was before people started memeing it into mainstream status).
Great buy! Congrats. One concern form me is always ports and battery life. Of course when playing you’ll be plugged in but for mobility I’m always worried about it.
Yesterday I forgot to turn on the switch and played on battery without knowing for 30 minutes. Went from 100-60. The game was old enough so there weren’t any performance difference so didn’t notice
bin.pol.social
Gorące