(Part 2) Best products from r/Games

Cross platform is really rare but it does happen. FFXI had cross-platform gameplay between PC, PS2, and XBox 360. Portal 2 also had cross platform multiplayer with PC and PS3.

FPS games are another story. Microsoft reportedly played around with the idea years ago and it didn't turn out well. PC players obliterated console players every time.

Shadowrun had integrated multiplayer and tried to make it work by handicapping PC players with artificial lag and a less reliable crosshair. Console players also got aim assist. As you can probably guess, this wasn't well-received by PC customers, but PC players still dominated even with all the handicaps. You just can't argue against the superiority of the K+M. A mouse is always going to be far more intuitive for aiming than a joystick or thumbpad.

But let's say they solved it somehow by having three kinds of servers: Mixed, PC only, and console only. Pretty easy, right? The community is much more cohesive, more friends can play with one another (regardless of what platform they're on), and you can choose to play wherever you want. Everyone wins.

Well, Valve was planning on making Counter-Strike: Global Offensive a cross-platform title but canned the idea because they couldn't release updates for console copies as fast as they could for PCs.

Patches for PC games are very easy to implement and free. I've never owned an XBox but I believe XBLA patches require a lot more QA and negotiation with Microsoft to get release approval, all of which comes at a price. I've heard it costs a shitload of money to get a patch out on a console, whereas it's essentially free for PCs.

I honestly think it's more politics than anything else. Manufacturers could easily produce peripherals that mimic a K+M combo for consoles like a Nostromo. If console manufacturers pushed developers to balance console FPS titles around K+M again, people will buy those peripherals, too. They're already throwing down $400 bucks for a console. What's another $50 bucks for a guy that's already that invested in gaming? It's not much more expensive than a joypad.

But getting Microsoft and Sony to play nice with PCs is already hard. Getting Microsoft and Sony to play nice with one another is way, way harder. There's no practical difference between playing FPS on a PlayStation or an XBox. Setting up the infrastructure to have integrated cross console play isn't difficult either, but console manufacturers want more exclusivity, not less.

A few good places to look for information:

1. SRK is a good place to go to see all the latest news; there are forums there and one is called the Newbie Saikyo Dojo made specifically for new players to learn stuff about the genre. SRK also has a lot of resources on finding people near you to play games with. Online play is a good way to practice, but there's nothing like playing against someone in person when it comes to getting better.
   
   
2. As another person suggested, the David Sirlin tutorials for Super Turbo focus on fundamentals that you can apply in most any fighting game.
   
   
3. Eventhubs also has a lot of good information as well.
   
   
4. If you're looking to buy a stick, but don't know if you want to make a heavy initial investment, look for the WWE All-Stars Brawl Stick. It's cheaper than buying a TE, and easily moddable if you want to upgrade the parts in it. Once you're ready for a bigger investment (especially if you decide to get into tournaments), the MadCatz TEs are really good, but I would suggest (especially if you don't have a modder in your area) getting a Qanba or an Eightarc stick, because they work on both 360 and PS3 and are quality products.
   
   As for a game, Super Street Fighter IV AE would probably be your best bet. Find a character (I usually recommend Ryu to new players because you can learn all the basics like footsies, zoning, anti-airing, spacing, and so on and so forth) and play around a little bit. If you decide to step into the online arena, you're going to lose. A lot. Stick with it.
   
   If you want to try out UMvC3, go for it. It is easy to learn, yet hard to master, and not as hard as it looks. To beginners, the game looks and seems extremely fast, but the game slows down as you get used to it.

I wouldn't recommend any traditional gaming headsets, you would do better to get a good pair of headphones and a separate mic. Gaming headsets have good mics, but the speakers are almost always lacking compared to similarly priced headphones.

I've used many headsets from Logitech, Steelseries, Razer, Turtle Beach, and a few other companies, and anything from Sennheiser, Audio Technica, Beyerdynamic, Denon, AKG, or the multitude of quality audiophile manufacturers, will give you far better audio.


Sennheiser makes the only really good headsets in my opinion, the PC350 and PC360, but they are expensive at around $200, and don't sound as good as the HD598's for about the same price.

Steelseries makes okay headsets, but are over priced for the audio quality. The 5Hv2 and 7H are incredibly comfortable, and the Siberia v2 are quite comfy as well (not if you have a large head though, I have 7 7/8 hat size and was fatigued in an hour). Also their build quality is very good. They produce very accurate locational noise, but be warned as Steelseries headsets have no bass at all at the cost of having very clear footstep identification.

I wouldn't even consider Razer products as their build quality is sub-optimal.

Check out: reddit.com/r/audiophile and reddit.com/r/headphones for all the info you want on good headphones.

Also www.head-fi.org/a/headphone-buying-guide is a good place to start.

For gaming I use Audio Technica ATH-AD700 and Zalman Zm-Mic1. The AD700's don't have a large bass presence, so bass thumps don't interfere with footsteps and important locational noise (which they produce very accurately). These are by far the most comfortable headphones I have ever had on. The ModMic is also a very good mic option for any headphone.


Do a little research on the audio sub-reddits and you will find the perfect solution for your needs.

It would help avoid misunderstandings if that was the case, but genre names often come from different sources than their descriptions.

For example Adventure games are about puzzles and story, like Monkey Island, Deponia and some of Telltale's games. Often they have nothing to do with actual adventures. The name comes from the first game of the genre which was called simply "adventure" (actually the title was called Collosal Cave Adventure, but more often than not was called just adventure because of the program's filename :-P).

Similarly, the name of the RPG genre comes from the Pen and Paper RPG games as started with Dungeons and Dragons. Some of the early games were literally called just "RPG" (or "DND") and they were trying to mimic the mechanic aspect of playing AD&D and other similar games (indeed many of these games had zero in-game story) with the program taking the role of the Dungeon Master. Those games actually were only just inspired by RPG games (in reality they played very differently) which is why most people who were into both PnP RPGs and computer RPGs called the latter CRPG (from Computer - using C for Classic is something that became popular only the last 10 years or so).

BTW there is a great book on the history of CRPGs, starting from the genre's roots in wargaming and pen&paper called "Dungeons and Desktops" written by Matt Barton. If you are interested in gaming history, i recommend it :-)

Sorry, but we got to remove this as it breaks rule #13. Threads like these are better suited for subreddits like /r/headphones, /r/audiophile and /r/gamingsuggestions.

Just a quick tip from an audiophile though. The ATH-M50's are amazing (there's no doubt about that), however they aren't the best for gaming. If you're mainly going to use a pair of headphones for gaming (or just at your computer), then I recommend you check out headphones like:

• Beyerdynamics 770 Pro 80 ohm (you can also check out the DT880 Premium and the DT990 Premium/Pro)
  
• Sennheiser HD 598
  
• AKG-K701 (you can also go with the K702 or Q701
  
• Philips Fidelio X1
  
  I own the Beyerdynamic 770 Pro 32 Ohm Limited Edition and Philips Fidelio X1 and I can highly recommend both. I'd recommend Philips Fidelio X1 far more though, but it all comes down to personal taste and how much money you're willing to spend.
  
  The M50's aren't a terrible choice for gaming though, so if you pick them you'll still be satisfied. In the end AKG, ATH, Sennheiser and Beyerdynamics tends to be safe and good choices.
  
  Also the Antlion Mod Mic's are great, I can personally highly recommend them.

This post got a bit longwinded because I'm a bit passionate on this subject, sorry. The PC gamepad space was a nightmare before Valve singlehandedly fixed it all. It used to be "Buy an Xbox pad or get out." Or as you said, "no other controller compares with it."

So Valve made the other controllers compare with it. Arguably, it's actually become the weakest and most feature-deprived controller these days now that other controllers are allowed to compete with native support across the board, because the only real advantage it had was that every game natively supported it. It has no gyro, no touchpad, and the least amount of usable buttons out of all the major controllers. I'd make an Epic Store comparison, but I have better things to talk about:

Beyond just adding support for every controller under the sun, the amount of control Steam Input gives you is incredible. Anything you could think of, and dozens of things you never thought of and never knew you needed. You can make it so that buttons behave differently based on whatever else is being pressed. A common thing to do is to bind the Back button with various other buttons for things like volume, playlist control, alt tabbing, etc.

If you have a PS4 pad or a Steam Controller (or any future controller that adds touchpads) you can add Touch Menus to them. These are fully customizable:

Example One

Example Two

Example Three

If you don't have a touchpad, you can use Radial Menus instead, which work similarly but with a stick instead of a touchpad.

My personal favorite use is for a Steam Controller which I configured to use the gyro for precise aiming, but have it only enabled while my thumb on the right touchpad so it only moves when I want it to move, and the sensitivity drops if I half-pull my trigger for lining up the shot. It makes using a controller in an FPS actually bearable, even enjoyable at times.

And again: Valve developed all of this as part of the software suite for their own controller, and then just natively supported all other controllers for all features that they're reasonably capable of. The PS4 and Switch Pro controllers can use Gyro, PS4 can use Touchpad, etc. They went out of their way to improve the competition for their own product because it was better for their customers. The end result was that they wanted controllers to be better, they didn't care how we got there.

Hell, at the beginning of this year they randomly added support for PowerA's Gamecube-style Switch Pro controller. It blew my mind, I did not expect them to add official support shortly after release for this obscure third party controller, but they did.

That's why I don't like Epic. Epic would never do any of this. That's why they're not interested in being better, they're not interested in actually competing. They're interested in giving you no other options. You don't have to be better if you're the only choice. That's why I don't value their "competition" at all. We don't need them. We were doing fine until they came along and started screwing everything up.

I have a Switch and I have to say the console itself is fine, but it's clear a massive miscalculation was made with the original design of the joycon. The Gamepad Pro so far seem much more durable(I've used the same since 2017 and it's only just finally beginning to experiences slightly less precises controls in one of the joysticks and that was mostly fixed with just a bit of calibration). However that might be because it actually uses what's likely a very different component model than the one that troubles joy-cons the most.

As it turn out, the faulty component(the joystick) is not even one Nintendo had designed themselves but is instead purchased from mass supplier. It's literally a "standard" third party model that was made for a variety of uses...

... and was likely never made by that supplier for durability due to the resistor pad inside the joystick box being made from graphite that metal component will literally dent and scratch over time.

Considering the tiny size of the joystick, I assume it was selected(though I have no ideas if Nintendo were originally aware of the weak nature of the internals of the joysticks boxes) primarily due to it's small size as to allow room for the much more advanced HD rumble(more advanced than even the Gamepad Pro's) in the pair and IR camera found in one ontop of the NFC sensor found in the other joycon.

All this said, it does mean that if you can find any third party model that use a different stick design though, they might be more durable than Nintendo's joycons and perhaps even cheaper than Nintendo's offering... since most third parties will have removed the more costly components/features of the controllers which is to say the forementioned HD Rumble/IR camera/NFC sensor.

Personally I've started the search myself even though my current joycons have yet to experience drift so I can preemptively make sure I have a more durable backup before I even get there. Though the tough part for me is to specifically find a pair that could support being used in handheld play which is my primary use for joycons.

My Gamepad Pro is still fine though, but I might still pick a new third party controller for a similar role though albeit different
reasons.
My dad's actually begun to play some games himself but while he's finally just starting to get the hang of 3D cameras, he still struggle to remember once in a while which button do what. But recently I fell upon a third party controller that's basically a modernized Gamecube controller updated with four shoulder buttons, motion control and a proper joystick instead of a C-stick, but otherwise retained the same controls layout.... including the extremely clear button identification layout with that massive green A button, that instantly noticeable red B and the X and Y butons to either sides of the top of the green A. It even got updated to have the screenshot/home buttons of Switch controllers too: https://www.amazon.ca/PowerA-Wireless-Controller-Nintendo-Switch-GameCube/dp/B07GXLBCC3?th=1

You didn't give a budget so I'll send you one.

Logitech G502 - https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Spectrum-Shifting-Personalized-Programmable/dp/B019OB663A/ is RGB but reliable and one of the best mice out there.

Logitech G203 - https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Prodigy-Wired-Gaming-Mouse/dp/B01M26YUKO/

Logitech G300 - https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-G300s-Optical-Ambidextrous-Gaming/dp/B00RH6R7C4

I think Logi makes the best mice and they have plenty of options at many price points. They love their RGB though.

​

Ducky Secret - Bulky, overpriced, no bells or whistles mouse. I love it.

Honestly I think the anger at paying for PS+/XBL Gold is overblown. Compared to the other bills I pay, less than $4/month (or $4.17 for PS+) is practically nothing. If somebody can afford a $300-500 entertainment device, they can afford to pay 1% of that cost once a month.
Sure, it's a cash-grabbing move on the part of MS/Sony, but I want the gaming industry to be profitable for them because I want them to stay in it. I want their investors to look favorably upon Playstation/Xbox and prioritize them. I can afford it, I receive good service in return for my money, and we get new features like "free" games and dedicated cloud servers to keep the paid premium enticing.

It's not just the key issue. These companies believe that the games are only purchasable, and that anyone who plays the game is either a pirate or a legit owner. Because of this they do their best to make people by the game and the best way to do that is to offer deep discounts and incentives so that they will buy.

Look at Spec Ops: The Line. It has been off less then one week and it is already on sale for 50% off. We have also recently seen "pay what you want" on indie bundles and the like. How is it fair that someone can buy a bundle for $.01 and then after playing a game trade it away. NO deal he makes will be worth $.01, so technically he will be making a profit and there is no chance the publishers can match it.

http://www.amazon.com/Spec-Ops-The-Line-Download/dp/B0085NTITS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1341349243&sr=8-2&keywords=spec+ops+the+line

In theory, being able to trade/sell used games sounds great, but there are so many issues that the system would either break some of the best benefits we have received from the untradeable system or the system to handle used games would have to be so bogged down that it is not even worth it because you'll still be forking out cash to jump onto multiplayer servers and other road blocks they can find.

Travel is a strong motivator to bring some kinda of travel gaming device and I can see a case to be made for the Switch on the go. However, allow me to suggest an alternative...

For 75ish$ you can get a complete Raspberry Pi kit and you could put Retro Pie (/r/RetroPie) on it and play your favorite old games with a bit of DIY?

I carry mine with me and hook it up to hotel TVs all the time. Carry a controller or your favorite fightstick and you are good to roll.

If you want to get crazy with it, you can put a screen on the Pi itself and play on the go with a bit of work.

It's not the most elegant solution, but play a ton of retro games on the go and waiting to see what Nintendo does seems like the better option in my eyes.

If you are decent shooting with a mouse, then consider getting one of the follow for FPS:

Razer Nostromo (56.99 US)

[Logitech G13 (55.99 US)] (http://amzn.com/B001NEK2GE)

Either one will take a brief period to get used to (your thumb will cramp until you find an ideal hand position), but they improving gaming immensely for me. Movement is controlled via a D-Pad, just like an X-box controller, and the better accuracy with the mouse. I only use the Xbox controller for driving games, like GTA/burnout and a few console specific ports.

A couple things that I think you're missing are that games do get cheaper with age even on the consoles, so they're not always way up there at $60. I can buy a copy of Mass Effect 3 on the console for under $20 right now. I can buy Halo 4, a Triple-A console exclusive from 6 months ago for under $30.

As far as discounts from Steam and other sites, most of those are joint ventures with the publishers that could exist in the console space as well. Valve has come out and said that the Steam Sales are great for profits, and shares that data with publishers to get them on board for more. Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo don't control the prices of games, the publishers do, and there's no reason to think that they wouldn't organize sales for their digital distribution platforms as well after seeing it's great for revenue. Sales like that aren't feasible in the brick-and-mortar world of game sales because of the prohibitive nature of organization and promotion. It's nothing comparable to loading up the online store and seeing "25%-75% off Ubisoft Titles this week only!"

Most SRPGs take place on some sort of isometric grid, whereas Valkyria Chronicles is almost more like a 3rd person cover based shooter.
As a result, the action feels more real-timey (even though it's still technically turn-based).

Also all of the characters have unique personalities. You can even recruit a gay Bender (Same voice actor). The classes are also well realized. The story is cool too, although I can't remember it well enough right now to try and describe it. I'd also like to reiterate that the art is amazing(Spoilers here). And I love the music. And did I mention you get a tank? Also, it's by the same director as Skies of Arcadia. Plus, it's pretty cheap.

I've got both a 360 and a PS3 Madcatz stick, and both work fine on my PC's. They're standard USB connections that windows recognises straight away. Hell, my Raspberry Pi recognised my PS3 stick straight away!

The reason why you're no longer seeing cheap SE sticks is because they are no longer manufactured, making them rare items.

Cheap SE sticks that can still be found for cheap (unless people have caught on) are the WWE Brawl sticks. Same as the Street Fighter SE sticks, but with WWE branding.

There is a difference between TE and SE sticks. SE sticks do not come with Sanwa parts by default - you will have to swap them out (easy to do, thank god!). TE sticks are bigger, heavier and come with the quality Sanwa parts. Saying that, it took a year for my SE stick buttons to die - your mileage may vary as I racked up about 300 hours on SF4 by then.

Qanba also do great sticks.

Also, whenever there is a big tournament happening, there will usually be a discount code advertised on the streams for cheaper sticks.

Here's the PS3 Brawl stick I have (I'm assuming you're american - I'm british):

http://www.amazon.com/PlayStation-WWE-Stars-Brawl-Stick-3/dp/B004M25NNQ

Notice the PS3 one is cheaper - if you're only playing on PC, get the PS3 version.
Also do a google on the WWE Brawl stick, and see what the folks on youtube and shoryuken.com are saying about it. (ignore the folk who don't know that it's a better SF4 SE Stick).

If you do go for the stick, I would recommend swapping out the buttons for Sanwa parts.

Apparently some older PC's/Laptops might need motioninjoy for ps3 sticks to work. If you're using windows xp, and you get the 360 version, you will need to download the xbox 360 controller drivers. Windows Vista and up, you're fine.

Just finished this book, fun, interesting read for a fan of id's games.

I'd also highly recommend the same authors book about Rockstar Games and GTA called Jacked:

http://www.amazon.com/Jacked-Outlaw-Story-Grand-Theft/dp/0470936371/ref=la_B001IXU58U_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1409767795&sr=1-3

For me the GTA book was even more interesting, but it may be because I have such a huge love for their games even today, where as id hasn't been a top developer for me for a while now.

If anyone's thinking about getting, it, Amazon has it on sale for $25, and it activates/downloads through Steam.

I wouldn't imagine it would be on sale for any more than that if/when there's a Steam sale.

Most people have probably already seen it, but there's a lot of games on sale on Amazon, NFS: Hot Pursuit definitely being worth $5 IMO. :)

http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/vvktk/amazons_summer_sale_is_online_with_prices_up_to/

http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/vvg1g/amazon_summer_sales_for_digital_games_starting_up/

If you're using an emulated wiimote, you need nothing.

If you are using a real, physical wiimote, you will need a sensor bar and a bluetooth dongle.

Most of us recommend the Mayflash Dolphinbar as it combines both into one device.

http://www.amazon.com/Mayflash-W010-Wireless-Sensor-DolphinBar/dp/B00HZWEB74

Update that to the latest firmware to alleviate a burn out problem.

We also support official GC controller adapters (From nintendo) and can emulate those for the most accurate GC controller input (surprisingly enough, we get better analog stick input).

http://www.amazon.com/Mayflash-GameCube-Controller-Adapter-Port/dp/B00RSXRLUE/

This is also effectively the same as the official GC adapter.

We also support pretty much any GC -> USB adapter as long as it gives some sort of controller interface, but for obvious reasons we try to recommend one or two.

r/retroPie

I just bought this off of amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01C6Q2GSY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014QP2H1E/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

There are cheaper controllers, but that one comes very highly rated.

That contains everything you need. Just look on the sidebar of the subreddit I linked and it will have step by step instructions on how to load RetroPie on your Raspberry Pi. You will just need to find the Roms, which shouldn't be to difficult if you know where to look.


AAARRR MATEYS ;)


Edit: Something to note, you can save ~10$ if you want to buy the pieces that come in that kit individually and you dont need something like the HDMI cable, or the micro SD to USB adapter.

> Valkeria Chronicles on PS3

You mean like under $20 new? Maybe they don't have digital distribution for it, but it definitely is easily available for a reasonable price.

http://www.amazon.com/Valkyria-Chronicles-Playstation-3/dp/B0016C3260

Are you sure? Because I was just able to open up Big Picture and start up voice chat through Steam in about 5 seconds (go to "Friends" in the bottom right corner, then pick a friend who's signed in and choose "Start Voice Chat").

Want to know the last time I installed a driver? So would I, I can't remember. I think it was in November. Things like that are automatic these days.

Still, I'd say your stipulation of never using a keyboard or mouse is a little unreasonable. Controllers are pretty crappy for a lot of types of input. Your time and effort would be better spent finding a better keyboard and mouse that doesn't suck to use on a couch. When I'm on the couch using my computer with the TV, I use this for desktop stuff. It's cheap and works well. Roughly equivalent to using a laptop on your lap at that point.

Almost forgot, your tag is "Idiot, can't read". I'm not 100% sure where it came from, but you've confirmed the second part of it for me twice now.

> I'd LOVE for someone to write a book about all the dirt from inside that place.

It's your lucky day!

I read it a couple years ago so I don't remember the exact details, but it was a good read.

That really isn't a sound argument for not buying a HTPC (home theater personal computer). I build one for my girlfriend as a direct substitute of a console since she always wanted to play games on our big TV, and I wouldn't let her subscribe to solely Microsoft or Sony for that experience. I spent about $500 to build a computer with an i7, SSD, 500gb media drive, 8gigs of ram, and a 560ti; I also was able to aford a sleek brushed aluminum micro computer case. Throw all that together with a Logitech Wireless all in one keyboard, and you have an HTPC that's several times faster than any console out there, and has unlimited capabilities to stream movies/internet, and play any game you want. It's not that hard to have one computer for gaming/entertainment and another for work, just like having a bowl for your dog's water and a bowl for you cereal you keep them separate.

Okay, so I'm looking at a couple of them on Amazon. This one in particular looks to cover all the basics, but I'm questioning if I should buy the parts all separately. I for sure want the black case. Don't necessarily need the HDMI cable. Everything else looks to be essential. This bundle also looks similar, except with a Samsung MicroSD (which I would think is better).

I'm hoping 32GB would be enough, but again, not entirely sure and I can't speak to the quality of that specific microSD in the bundle. My main concern is not having enough space for N64/PS1 games. I'd use my PS3 controller to start off and eventually buy the Buffalo SNES controller.

If you can find the official Gamecube adapter and don't decide to flip it on ebay for 5x the MSRP, there's that. It needs a special driver but that's not a big deal.

A better choice might be the recently re-released Mayflash GC adapter. This is it here. There are other models but this is the newest and best third-party one.

Yes, you're correct. Originally it was Nintendo / Sony for the Play Station. That one's very well documented, as Nintendo wound up going with Phillips later on. However, the hardware in question for that one wasn't what would become the Playstation (one word, not two).

Sony was going to go with Sega a few years after the Nintendo snubbing, but Sega's Japanese officials decided that they wanted to go a different way (Thomas Kalinske, the CEO of Sega of America, wanted to partner with Sony as he really liked their hardware).. so after Sega of Japan snubbed Sony, Sony went into business for themselves. The hardware they released as the Playstation (one word) is the same hardware that that they would've teamed up with Sega for. So! Had SoJ (Sega of Japan) not been idiots, Sega could've lead the 32-bit market and not released the Saturn, and the entire gaming market today really might be completely different than what we know of it now.. The war between Nintendo and Sony (and later Microsoft, who joined in with the original Xbox later on) would've been Nintendo vs Sony/Sega. Sega had been beating Nintendo pretty badly in sales prior to SoJ's meddling towards the end of the 16-bit era (when Nintendo launched Donkey Kong Country / the Super FX chip and took back a large part of what they lost to Sega), so Sega/Sony very well might have taken Nintendo out of the gaming market entirely..

(highly recommend reading The Console Wars book, it goes into detail about Sega during those days as it's written from Kalinske's point of view)

Check out what this user found:

>Heh, you can, actually. Just doing a quick look at Amazon gives all three games for $39.80[1][2][3].

>I'm not sure re the DLC cost, going by this site, Bring Down the Sky was free for PC, Pinnacle Station is $5, Cerebus Network is free (now), Zaeed / Firewalker Pack / Cerebus Assault / Arc Projector / Crash site were free with it, and you'd get the "online pass" thing with purchase so that's free. So total cost is $44.80 for what they're going to sell for $60. That's pretty ballsy.

If that's not ripping buyers off, I'm not sure what is.

Heh, you can, actually. Just doing a quick look at Amazon gives all three games for $39.80[1][2][3].

I'm not sure re the DLC cost, going by this site, Bring Down the Sky was free for PC, Pinnacle Station is $5, Cerebus Network is free (now), Zaeed / Firewalker Pack / Cerebus Assault / Arc Projector / Crash site were free with it, and you'd get the "online pass" thing with purchase so that's free. So total cost is $44.80 for what they're going to sell for $60. That's pretty ballsy.

SNES USB Adapter

Buy one of those and a used ORIGINAL SNES controller (very important, don't use 3rd party crap) in good condition. Costs probably $25 total and there is simply no better controller for pre-N64 consoles than the original SNES.

I play keyboard but I've spent years playing on emulators so maybe not :p

A healthy portion of the community uses Gamecube Controllers but since the supports most controllers and the game is available for Xbone, I wouldn't be shocked if most people just used an Xbox controller.

#keyboardmasterrace

Not to derail from this particular discussion, but if you're at all interested in Spec Ops: The Line, check out "Killing is Harmless" by Brendan Keogh. You can find some great excerpts from Google.

https://www.amazon.com/Killing-Harmless-Critical-Reading-Spec-ebook/dp/B00B9P2WP6

Xbox Live Gold One Year Subscription Right Now;

• Microsoft: $59.99
  
• Amazon: $46.98
  
  Source
  
  Playstation Plus One Year Subscription Right Now:
  
  
• Sony: $49.99
  
• Amazon: $49.99
  
  Source
  
  Both Amazon sources show a picture of the actual card when the price is in the top right as directed by the respective company.
  
  
  Conclusion: Microsoft's Xbox Live is more expensive than Playstation Plus when buying directly from the company, but is less expensive when buying from Amazon and waiting for a sale.
  

Oh wow, it's written by the same guy who authored Console Wars!

I HIGHLY recommend everyone check out this book if you want to read more:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00B9P2WP6?ie=UTF8&redirectFromSS=1&pc_redir=T1&noEncodingTag=1&fp=1

A quick google search links to Amazon. Shows up as $47.19 for me. Free shipping, too. If you want the instant online code instead of a shipped card, it's $49.79. It's not hard to find them for less than $60.

Have you read the e-book "Killing is Harmless"? It is a "critical reading" of the game that I thoroughly enjoyed. The Line, as a thinking experience around games and what they can be is just a magnificent thing. This book made it better.

Link to the book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Killing-Harmless-Critical-Reading-Spec-ebook/dp/B00B9P2WP6

If you're looking for a reliable, cheap fightstick check out this stick on Amazon. It's $45 if you've got Prime. A decent stick for a good price, and you can change the faceplate.

This is the one I have.

And emulators are on everything now. If you want portable, you can have portable. A RetroPie setup is a good example. I have mine in a tiny NES replicable case. Or I can put them on the tablet I travel with if I want to.

Get yourself this kit

and put Retropie on it

I had plans to buy the Mini NES for my dad's birthday but when i showed him the list he was bummed at how many games we used to own that wasn't on there so it made me look for an alternative, this is probably one of the best decisions i've ever made, this thing kicks ass the only thing it fails to run well that i've tested so far is N64 where there are stuttering issues and awful fps drops but for anything pre-N64 it works like a charm

Scroll at the bottom to see a list of supported systems

I think of this when I see the words gamepad. Clarify if you want a gamepad or a game controller.

I think you're talking about a controller, probably for FPS? Note that if you're using a controller for FPS, you're going to get slaughtered, if you try to use a controller for MMO, RTS...you can't. You have to play with keyboard and mice if you want to be able to keep up in multiplayer games.

This is a pretty shitty deal then. PS3 owners are really the only ones getting anything out of this and if you already own Mass Effect 2 and 3 you can buy Mass Effect 1 as a digital download on the PSN.

Amazon actually has Mass Effect 3 on sale for $20 right now on any platform. Origin was selling it for $16 just last month.

If you can wait until a holiday sale you can probably get Mass Effect 1 and 2 for $10-15 total. Amazon had each on sale for $5 last February.

I'm kind of split. I do feel that the community generally does a better job of evaluating games than rushed professional critics who have to crank out review after review, and aggregators like Metacritic in particular do a poor job of capturing nuance, there are occasional instances where mob mentality takes over and one or two displeasing aspects of an otherwise decent game end up resulting in hundreds of one-star reviews (example: Mass Effect 3, which is mostly a good game with a poorly executed ending). I could see the Metascore acting as a hedge against these mobs.

Or you could buy it for $60 on Amazon? There are also sure to be better deals in other online stores.

Brick and mortar stores are nearly always more expensive than online, and Steam is also a rip-off for any launch title (only their sales are good).

In Europe, you'll pay €50-60 at launch on Steam/Origin. You can pick up the game on Amazon.co.uk/Play.com/etc. for (usually) €35 max. Even if the game was on Steam, it would be the same price as Origin. That's no justification to pirate it.

Just to be clear, the "Less than $5" per month is most likely taking into account buying a full-years subscription at ~$50, instead of paying month-to-month.

You can get an Xbox Live subscription for exactly $5 per month if you buy a 12-month pass for $60. You can get it cheaper in other places too, like here for under $4/month

it's like $18 on amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002IXZ5DE/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Just keep in mind that it only works with SNS 002 controllers and not SNS 005. I tried a few of them to no avail.

Works beautifully. I wouldn't change a thing about it.

You can easily find them for cheaper.

I just use a USB adapter. I think this is the one I got (it was years ago). It works really well, I use it for emulation all the time.

https://www.amazon.com/SNES-Controller-Adapter-USB-Super-NES/dp/B002IXZ5DE

You could always get an adapter and use an original snes controller :D

Looking at how much time and money they put into building their cities throughout the years (this book covers it in detail, but trust me it's a lot) I doubt they'd do it for a $20 expansion.

I'm surprised nobody mentioned the book, Jacked. It's by the same guy who wrote Master's of Doom. It's a great book and mainly covers the development of GTA up to GTA 4, but also gives a glimpse into the rise of Rockstar. I highly recommend reading it.

Edit: Grammar. I suck.

This has been the price on Amazon for quite some time.

It was up for $25 on Amazon.

edit: Still is. This will work on steam too.

Not sure where you are getting the $15/mo price from

The MSRP is $60 for a 12 month membership and even if you buy in 1 month intervals (which who does....) it's $10.

I agree that PS+ atm will provide more features in terms of gaming, but it's not cheaper.

I recomend reading this aswell, after playing it: Killing is Harmless: A Critical Reading of Spec Ops: The Line

You do realise that the xbox live gold is on a sale and that it's normal retail price is $59.99.

The PS+ however is $10 chaper, providing similar features plus the "Exclusive discounts of 10% - 75% on the PlayStation®Store", "12 Hit games for the PlayStation®3 system and 6 for the PS Vita system" and "New games added to your collection every month". I belive this makes the PS+ more affordable.

Source #1 Source #2

[$47.19 on amazon] (http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-LIVE-Month-Gold-Membership-360/dp/B0029LJIFG) right now. And it hasn't retailed at $60 [since January 23rd] (http://camelcamelcamel.com/Xbox-LIVE-Month-Gold-Membership-360/product/B0029LJIFG).

You can find a lot of cool things on the internet.

Jacked: The Outlaw Story of GTA

I remember a redditor telling me about it, talks a lot about the media reaction to the game.

$60 here
http://www.amazon.ca/Electronic-Arts-19583-Mass-Effect/dp/B004FYKWZU/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1331052077&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-LIVE-Month-Gold-Membership-360/dp/B0029LJIFG

Notice the MSRP is 60 dollars; not 50.

This is my set up, full time. I game with a 360 controller or with Nostromo N52 (not razer), Logitech G500, and Logitech K400 keyboard/trackpad on an approx 2'x3' wood board on my recliner.

Or get it for $25 now from Amazon.

Usually says so in the system requirements. If you go to Spec Ops: The Line's product page, for instance, you'll see that it requires Steam activation -- final line of the system requirements. You're basically purchasing a Steam retail code in that case.

Yeah but look at that compared to this.

The last time it was $39.99 was almost 2 years ago. Where as the average of live on amazon is about $46 after 4 years of being tracked. It also shows that live has gone lower than $39.99 many times.

$40 for Kingdoms of Amalur and $50 for Mass Effect 3 don't really seem like much of a deal.

edit Added in links.

Their physical editions are much cheaper.

Distributors. This does not make any fucking sense.

Sorry, dude. You got ripped off. Last week they were on sale for $35. Also about the hardware, no one knows the real world difference, yet, and to be honest if hardware was that important to you, why would you get a console? I just finished building a beast of a PC rig and it puts your specs to shame. PC Master Race signing out.

http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-LIVE-Month-Gold-Membership-360/dp/B0029LJIFG/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1376941320&sr=1-1&keywords=live+gold+12+month

EDIT: Grammar

Why are any of you worried about it? Honestly? Go to amazon.com, order a raspberry pi kit for 65$, install retro pie on it, put every video game ever created up until the PS2 was released and enjoy. I have a 64 meg SD card in mine and I have all systems from atari to PlayStation. Nintendo forces us to pirate their games, its not our fault the CFO didnt take any economic classes in college, but it is what it is. https://www.amazon.com/CanaKit-Raspberry-Complete-Starter-Kit/dp/B01C6Q2GSY/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1503497197&sr=1-2-spons&keywords=raspberry+pi+3&psc=1 <--- This is how you retro game. Fuck Nintendo.

Kit

Instructions

I am a stupid fucking moron when it comes to tech and and I break nearly everything I touch, and even I was able to get it all set up in an hour's time. You can definitely do it.

Inconsequential, XBL can be easily found cheaper than $60 USD.

Realistically though you just need to hold out till the end of the month, maybe just pick up a 3 month card instead until most of the juicy E3 details are laid out between Sony & MSFT in June.

Besides the "will it blend?", "can it play games?" questions, the main point of query will be exactly the type of question you asked (trying to justify paying).

Only speculative guesstimates at the moment, but MSFT will likely continue with the subscription model into the next generation (at worst they'll convert MS Points & cancelled subs into Windows Store money for purchase on something else).