The left one looks great. Usually we don't think of computer peripherals as gaining a patina, but it kind of works here. Good call on buying a spare, though!
That's a really good point. Sometimes the fun you can have with the game's "multi player" community isn't in the game itself.
Baldur's Gate 3 is probably the best example I can think of. (And I don't have it, and it is really tempting for the reason you just gave.) I actually overheard two people talking about it at a coffee shop today, and three people talking about it on the train a couple weeks ago. I can't think of any other game that has been like this.
This also highlights a huge advantage that popular fighting games have: the constant arrival of new players. You don't want to be the only person who picked up the game that week.
Thankfully, there are multiple really popular fighting games out right now (at least, really popular compared to how the genre was doing a few years ago), which is great.
For me, the only reason to jump on a game early is if it's necessary for there to be a thriving multiplayer community to enjoy the game. That's something you would miss out on by waiting for a sale. That early stage, where everyone is still figuring out how the game works and finding new strategies, can be fun. But I rarely play multiplayer games now, so I just skip that and I don't mind.
If it's a singleplayer game, there's no reason to jump on it early -- and certainly not to enjoy it as a technical spectacle. It'll look just as good five years from now.
I remember replaying the original Half-Life in 2008 for its ten year anniversary, and thinking, "This is still fun, but the graphics are almost distractingly outdated." But when I replayed the original Mass Effect from 2007 just a couple years ago -- which was more than ten years old then -- I thought it looked just fine.
I liked the music from Morrowind so much, I found the audio files in the game's install folder, burned them to a CD, and printed out my own cover art to make a soundtrack album. I was 11 years old; I probably still have it in a box somewhere, haha.
I never played the classic "Quest" games that Sierra made, but they published a bunch of really good ones from other developers, too.
I remember their logo coming up before each of the Half-Life, SWAT, Tribes, and F.E.A.R. games. I was always like, "dang, someone there knows how to pick 'em."
I always thought it would have been cool if Pokemon were only found in environments that were "realistic" to that type. Like, if you had to go to a river to find water Pokemon, or if Geodude was only in the mountains. Seems like they didn't do that, though.
I think I'll still have to check out Bombrush Cyberfunk -- most other people seem to have liked it. And it's not like anything else is filling that niche right now.
Hadn't heard of Cyber Knights Flashpoint, that one looks fun.
I wasn't sure what kind of gameplay style they would give him, considering that he and Homelander are both going to be in the game, and both of them are basically "when you want to have a Superman in your story but definitely can't get permission."
Hopefully the dodge turns out to be significant when playing as him. It looks like a lot of guy-throwing-punches otherwise. :S
Great choices there! the Unreal Tournament and Morrowind soundtracks have been stuck in my head for a long time now. UT in particular -- I listen to the full album about once a week while I'm working.
I never played Deus Ex when it came out, so I don't have the nostalgic attachment for that one, but I just discovered this a few days ago: https://alexanderbrandon.bandcamp.com/album/conspiravision-deus-ex-remixed. I bought it and am giving it a full listen today. Highly recommended; probably that much better if you're a fan of the game.
Not sure what Half Life 2 is doing on there, pretty sure Valve is fully in control of that one on PC at least. Didn't EA publish the PS3 version of the Orange Box? I'm guessing that's for a console port.
Also, Biomutant? That only just came out like two years ago. Not sure what the online features are for that game though, I thought it was singleplayer.
This is all just another reason why I don't buy games where online multiplayer is the main selling point of the game. I might not even get around to playing it much before that feature is removed.
Old PC games with dedicated servers are still (and always will be) playable online, while games from a couple years ago have their centrally-managed servers taken offline. People are still playing Doom, Quake, and Unreal Tournament while games from this console generation are already unplayable.
Portal (1 and 2) and The Talos Principle are the only puzzle games I've played that not only had a story, but also managed to make the puzzle gameplay actually make sense within the story. Like, there is an in-universe explanation for why you are solving puzzles. I'm sure there are other games that do it, but those are the only ones I've played and they were fantastic. That's a hard thing to pull off -- how do you make a compelling narrative, complete with characters, around "moving some boxes?"
Looking forward to playing the sequel. Also, the original is $3 on Steam right now!