Considering pretty much all the legally obtained digital download games I have on PC come from Steam, I think it’s safe to assume I’ll just get the game I want from Steam.
I’ve got to say, Steam’s native Wine/Proton implementation works decently well, and really entices me to buy games without native Linux support on Steam.
I’m lucky to have a friend group who all get together semi-frequently on Discord to try out any new games we’ve found and enjoy. We all have pretty similar tastes in games, sometimes a few of us will be playing something others might not enjoy and vice versa, but in those instances we’ll still hang out and chat but just play our separate games instead.
I would agree that one roadblock is that we all have less time now as adults with careers (and other responsibilities) than we did when we were students, but we do our best to make time all the same.
In terms of public multiplayer with randoms - not for me, tbh.
I just prefer single player games in general, so I don’t play many multiplayer games anymore. I can play at my own pace and I don’t have to worry about things like cheaters, lag, battle passes, etc. I do play FFXIV with some friends pretty often, and I sometimes play Halo and Rocket League, but those I usually play solo.
the pace of multiplayer games is something i hardly even consider, but it’s a good point. After a time it becomes exhausting if you’re trying to keep up with a “meta”.
It kind of doesn’t. Me and my brothers will play some Rocket League on a Monday night (assuming our kids are in bed) but aside from that my gaming is exclusively single-player.
Never been a big online gamer, but since having kids that’s basically become a non-starter.
it has very simple rules, but can get really crazy creative if you know your way around it.
player base is big enough so even if you are top 1% it’s still easy to find games.
there is no balance change or new character the throws you off and relearn your game plan
it’s average 7 minutes match for replay/kick off count down and queuing time.
you can totally drop it and then come back again after finish a single player game and it’s still going to be there.
it’s free to play but I did throw Psyonix about 60~100 per year to support their operation cost. Good pack/cosmetic didn’t come up often so I usually have at least 4000 credits sitting in my account.
I’m in the UK, so some of this might be UK centric:
Podcasts
Digital Foundry Weekly, Weekly podcast discussing gaming news/hardware etc (If you know DF you know what this is)
The Crate and Crowbar, PCGamerUK used to have a podcast and these guys move to this. Few friends talking about games and it’s decent (not overly technical or in depth, more just mates chatting).
IGN UK Podcast, absolutely love the personalities on this, it seems more like some mates chatting with a bit of structure (less like the IGN ethos of pushing as much out as possible).
VGC, Again a few mates chatting about games, good production values and I value their opinions.
RSS feeds
Eurogamer.net features, similar to DF, but they cover decent articles about games.
Uppercut - Features, doesn’t post often but has well thought out articles about games and they’re a joy to read.
Polygon - Feature, interesting articles about films/games. I don’t read them all just ones interesting or relevant to me.
Rock Paper Shotgun features, PC Gaming articles that explores interesting questions about newer/popular games.
IGN Feed, All the feeds above are features where it’s not just regurgitated news that spams your feed, they’re well thought out. Well IGN isn’t features, it’s just gaming news. I hardly read the artcles, just scroll the titles.
A bit related but do you like using RSS? I've never used it before because it never seemed like it was worth setting up. Do you recommend it/ is it worth it?
Pick all your favourite news/content/podcasts/youtube and set them up in an RSS app.
Then it’s all in one place, no visiting multiple apps/websites. It’s just there ready to go. You can then easily keep track of what you’ve read, haven’t read and saved.
first off, beautiful formatting! Jeff Grubb of current Giant Bomb has Andy Robinson from VGC on his morning show pretty frequently, I enjoy him. I do catch DF content and pods time to time as well.
I’ve never set up an RSS feed but might look into it, something to scroll on the can/ when i have a few mins of downtime would be nice. google’s served articles arent cutting it. Left the thing that previously filled this gap behind a few months ago.
Man 10/10s for quake 2 of all things is crazy to see. We didn’t even think that back in the day, and it was quickly overshadowed by just the hype for half life.
It’s far from the best quake game, especially a few episodes in. But maybe it just being so old school is attracting some of these number, just from being refreshing.
But then there are so many modern boomer shooters that are quake2-era like, that are probably worth more of your time.
All that being said, I do have a lot of fond memories with the game
It might not be the best Quake game but it did a few things right. The fast and furious multiplayer is signature and is what probably cemented the style of multiplayer that Quake is known for today. The weapon roster is more balanced and who could forget the iconic railgun. The mod scene was incredibly vibrant and tons of fun. Truly a granddaddy of FPS.
Oh I don’t know about that, Quake 2 Multiplayer was… played, a bit. mostly in mods. And when I think of the big mods really they found their footing when they switched over to being HL1 mods. Quake World and Quake 3 multiplayer are really what dialled in that multiplayer feel for the series.
What boomer shooters would you recommend? I have recently been going through Half Life and the more modern Wolfenstein games. I started quake 1 today after finishing Blue Shift and am hungry for more in the genre.
depends on your platform, but cross platform happy games I had a great time with Doom 64 (by the same guys as the quake 2 remaster here) and Project Warlock; which has an art style that takes a minute to get over. but it’s got great level design and a really great power creep. had a lot of fun
on pc there’s a lot more, there’s the remasters like Blood, Shadow Warrior, you can get Duke 3D going with EDuke (or buy the fucked sound quality version on steam…), for modern there’s Nightmare Reaper that brings in a rougelike quality, Dusk which is the best Quake engine game ever not made on the Quake engine, Amid Evil, Headon, Project Warlock 2
It’s so ripe for a Brutal Doom style makeover, especially now the game engine has been modernised.
The enemies and variety are great, but the AI could be more interesting to fight.
The shooting feels great but the lack of locational damage (like headshots) and ADS or alt fire modes makes it feel simplistic in terms of strategy.
Otherwise the maps are fantastic, the atmosphere and music is incredible, the Strogg are a cool enemy to fight, it could really shine with a few modern touches.
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