I pick up about ten free games a week. The backlog is still growing uncontrollably, but at least it’s not costing anything anymore!
I have over 1300 games across various libraries (digital and physical)
If I have cash to spend and it fits into all of the following categories I basically always buy:
-80% off or more, or under $5, or its part of a “complete your collection” bundle that compounds its discount with an existing one.
-Its 8.5/10 or better (or is part of a series of games that I want to play through that has a 8.5+/10 within it.)
-in a genre/series I really really personally like.
But this actually eliminates a lot of temptations.
The only other alternative situation is if I want to play the game immediately but that never happens because I’m always playing through a series of games already it seems like. Right now I’m playing through my Tom Clancy collection. Its the last bit of Ubisoft games I intend to play before uninstalling uplay/ubi-connect (probably forever).
I made a point to play every game in my library a few years ago. Every game got 2 hours at a minimum (unless they didn’t work). Played some real gems like Torment: Tides of Numenera, Tyranny, and World of Goo.
Steam deck has opened new possibilities that just didn’t feel right on PC, even with a controller.
Yeah looking at my backlog of games I haven’t played yet, I now ignore all sales and only buy the games I plan to play immediately and not someday. And I get the free game of the week from Epic but I don’t mind never playing any of those
I feel like I do gaming right:
- Find a single blockbuster game from last year that looks good, download it
- Play it for 3-4 days straight over a long weekend without sleep, using a trainer to skip the grindey parts
- Finish it, get sick of gaming, sleep
- Don’t feel the need to touch another game for at least another 9 months
Early adopters of humble bundle crying in never being able to buy a game.
My Steam backlog is the only thing my kids will inherit. Sins of the father
Just don’t tell Gabe. (Seriously look up the statement steam put out about a father dying, wanting to give his steam library to his kid)
Fuck all rich people.
Steam sales seem great until you realize before steam we owned Physical copies that also went on sale sometimes and didn’t do the roller coaster of 5 year old game still $50 but on sale is $10, the price it should actually be given how old it is.
Fucking physical is a lost love.
I don’t ever recall new copies of physical games being widely available for a tiny fraction of their RRP. Sure you could get more second hand games, but they’re nowhere near as readily available.
Rereleased cheaper games were a thing but adjusted for inflation they’d still be very expensive compared to now. I remember buying them for ~£10 which is about £18.50 now. These days they’re generally much cheaper and don’t need manual patching or media. I never got my copy of GTA 2 back!
There are definitely trade offs. No one can take your physical copy. Old MMO games could continue with new branches when the official servers died. Physical games are givable others when you don’t want it anymore. Digital are nice for online play keeping everyone on the same builds and don’t take up any space.
But I’ve had plenty of games I “owned” disappear from my steam library because they were not longer supported or whatever.
I guess I just don’t really relate to the notion of games being taken away. If it stops being available just pirate it - you already paid for it, after all. I don’t recall losing any games in the nearly twenty years I’ve had a Steam account, although I know it can happen.
In general I’m mostly glad they don’t take up any physical space because otherwise I’d be drowning in outdated polycarbonate coasters!
Oh shit, I literly just bought some on sale games lol this is so true hahaha
Why buy games when Star Wars Galaxies Restoration exists and you can be a bounty hunter droid engineer or a heckin politician?
I’ve started rooting through my steam library looking for unplayed games that have steam trading cards and achievements. I’ll install the game and give it a try to see if it’s entertaining. If it’s not, I’ll leave it on the main menu for a few hours to get the trading cards so it doesn’t come up again in my search.
If the steam achievements look easy, I’ll try to break open the game with cheat engine by myself as a sort of game of its own. No doubt I could find some cheat engine trainer that makes the game a single button click but where’s the fun in that.
If you’re even the slightest bit technically inclined and never heard of cheat engine, I highly recommend it. It lets you memory edit running applications like games. Once you figure out what you’re doing you can change in game variables on the fly. The game isn’t the game anymore, figuring out how to break the game is the game. When you install cheat engine you can actually run it on itself, and it is basically a self contained tutorial. Check up in the help menu to get started, the tutorial is AMAZING.
I remember editing memory with an Action Replay on a pokémon cartridge back in the day, possibly my first ever experience of computer programming!
You can just use SAM to edit client side achievements, and also save power running the game through it for cards.
That sounds neat and enjoyable to tinker with. Is there a possibility that using a tool like that will get you flagged and/or banned from Steam? Or do they not care when it’s a single player game?
Yes definitely. If you search Google for ‘VAC enabled games’ you’ll get an easy link to the steam website filtered to just games with valve anti cheat. There’s a search bar on that page you can use to check if a game is on that list. If it’s not there, have at it.
Pretty typically just online games use it. Cheat engine wouldn’t be able to do much anyway, as most multi-player games will keep track of the fun variables serverside instead of on your computer. It’s a jerk move anyway to ruin other people’s fun by cheating in multiplayer.
Edit: Google isn’t showing that link anymore for me. I think this is it, it looks right:
https://store.steampowered.com/search/?sort_by=Released_DESC&category2=8&ndl=1
Time to find a new teacher.
How do you actually stop procrastinating on your steam games because I barely play them?
Just pick one, even if it’s a random choice, install it, and give it an hour of play before you allow yourself to move on
Do games i got for free count?
I have played at least 100 minutes of every game i bought. At least 50 hours if not including the last game i got
This is my gaming workflow.
Find game on steam I want to play
Check pricing history
Pirate game to see if it’s worth the current price
If it isn’t, I put it on my wishlist and continue playing until it goes on sale.
If the game turns out to be very good, then I buy it when it goes on sale.
Lots of games can come in bundles, if you buy a bundle because it has 1 game you want in it, I don’t know if it really matters if you don’t play the other 8 in the bundle. Especially when the entire bundle is cheaper than the game you wanted.
