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Author Topic: So many choices...  (Read 4551 times)

ackblom12

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So many choices...
« on: 04 Apr 2013, 08:02 »

So, I have gotten some birthday money for my 30th and I'm trying to decide what to do with it. I've got a few options in mind and was wondering if folks could weigh in. I've got about $200 to work with.

I could get a 3DS XL. It has several games that I'd love to play, though I'm not really the target market for a mobile console nowdays. It also has access to the e-shop which has quite a few titles I'd like to go back and play/re-play, as well as some original games and SD cards are incredibly cheap for memory expansion. Also I could potentially get emulators on there to make it a decent retro console as well. It also has the benefit of being a console that is likely to have very little overlap with the PC or PS3 releases, because in cases where there is overlap, PC almost always wins. Not to mention, it's got DS backwards compatibility.

I considered a Vita for a couple of minutes before remembering it would cost me $300+ by the time I got myself a memory card for it, not to mention I would already be going over just getting the Vita itself.

There are several board games I have my eyes on, but I can almost guarantee I won't get to play them anytime soon. I don't really get to play the ones I already have as it is, so that feels like a no.

There are a couple of video games I might want, but I am trying to get out of the habit of paying the full $60 price for most games, and that's pretty much all of the ones I really want to gnab right now.

Suggestions? Anything that's not mentioned you might suggest instead?
« Last Edit: 04 Apr 2013, 08:15 by ackblom12 »
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snalin

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Re: So many choices...
« Reply #1 on: 04 Apr 2013, 08:39 »

I'm not really into the handheld or console market, so I cannot give you any ideas there. Games-wise for pc, cheaply, there's:

Age Of Empires 2 HD! Coming out shortly. AOE2 was really great. Pricerange 10-15 Euro, so probably 15 USD.

Antichamber! If you haven't already picked it up, it's a super fun puzzler, and goes for 19 Euros.

Zeno Clash 2 is coming out the 30th of April! ZC 1 was gorgeous, interesting and fun, and this one is supposed to have an even better engine! Going to ship at 14 euros, so I'd save up 20 USD if you want to wait for reviews.

Baldurs Gate EE added some pretty cool characters, and some new areas, so if it's been a while since you played that, I'd pick it up (from Beamdog, there was some issues with the Steam version) for the 20USD it's at.

If you don't already have it - I just replayed Fallout 2 with the restoration project mod. That added a lot of interesting quests and places. If you have the game, you can play with the mod for free! If not, it's just 10 USD on gog!

To the moon (available on GOG), is just 10 USD, and is a fucking gorgeous interactive story experience.

On the 3DS; if you are mainly going to be using it for retro gaming, I'd get an emulator for your smartphone instead (if you have one), since that'd save you a bunch of money. If you can survive a bit worse controls.
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ackblom12

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Re: So many choices...
« Reply #2 on: 04 Apr 2013, 09:08 »

Not mainly for retro, just one of the uses I'd have for it since I'm not going to have the budget to get a game for it immediately. I've used emulators on my phone and I just can't get over how irritating it is to have my fingers covering part of the screen the entire time. Useful and a good option, but not one I'm super fond of.

Thanks for the game suggestions! Only catch is most of this money is in Amazon credit, so if I opted for the games, I'd much prefer if it includes a Steam key, which I know a lot of Amazon digital downloads do.
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Masterpiece

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Re: So many choices...
« Reply #3 on: 04 Apr 2013, 16:17 »

What kind of games do you play? Right off the hat I'd suggest my favourites: The Bastion, Brutal Legend, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, any GTA, the Half Life series, LA Noire, Left 4 Dead 2 (add me on Steam if you're gonna play!), Max Payne series, Portal and Portal 2, and Tomb Raider.

I'm really not sure if I'd buy a 3DS, I'm not sure if Nintendo is as big as it used to be.

ackblom12

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Re: So many choices...
« Reply #4 on: 07 Apr 2013, 07:39 »

Oh shit I completely this thread existed.

Games! I own most of what you listed and I've got quite a backlog of games to eventually buy and/or play. Tomb Raider is on my list of wants, but as I mentioned I'm trying to get into the habit of not paying full AAA price. I'm really tempted to get Deadly Premonition: The Director's Cut later this month, but I'm not entirely sure yet.

I've basically decided the 3DS is out, not because I don't want it, but because it's basically just another device that I'll spend money on beyond it's purchase. Putting some thoughts into getting a wireless keyboard and mouse, possibly a video card but my Radeon 5770 is going to be plenty for at least another year or two, by which time I'll be building a new PC from scratch. The main reason I'm considering it is some component in my PC is on it's way out and I have no idea which it is. It's either the Video card, CPU or Motherboard and I'm having problems determining which. It's not causing me major problems, which are much less common since I replaced a bad HD, but I get the occasional crash and it's worrying and the error logs seem to skip back and forth between the 3 components.

The other option is spend it all on non gaming stuff, but at that point I'm completely lost as to what to spend it on. I'm not much of a clothes shopper, I've already got good combat boots, don't need any shaving stuff right now, not at my goal size for ear jewelry, etc etc.

This is basically the very definition of First World Problems.
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Pilchard123

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Re: So many choices...
« Reply #5 on: 07 Apr 2013, 10:07 »

If all three seem to be playing up, could it be the power supply? The changing logs might just be reporting the component that was low-powered.
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ackblom12

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Re: So many choices...
« Reply #6 on: 07 Apr 2013, 10:22 »

Possibly. It's a good quality power supply with plenty of overhead, but it is definitely possible.
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GarandMarine

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Re: So many choices...
« Reply #7 on: 07 Apr 2013, 23:58 »

Hmmm diagnostics on issues like that are hard. Well sounds like you've figured out that an emergency parts fund is the way to go, hopefully you get it sorted out though, the steam summer sale is coming!
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I built the walls that make my life a prison, I built them all and cannot be forgiven... ...Sold my soul to carry your vendetta, So let me go before you can regret it, You've made your choice and now it's come to this, But that's price you pay when you're a monster with no name.

ackblom12

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Re: So many choices...
« Reply #8 on: 08 Apr 2013, 12:30 »

On the other hand, Ni-No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is on sale for $40 at Amazon. Just can't decide if I want to invest in a JRPG.
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mtmerrick

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Re: So many choices...
« Reply #9 on: 08 Apr 2013, 14:30 »

I've never played it but i've heard great things.
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ackblom12

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Re: So many choices...
« Reply #10 on: 08 Apr 2013, 14:34 »

Same, the main thing there is that JRPGs are a thing I have a hard time enjoying as much as I used to. I've been replaying and loving a few JRPGs from the 90's and early 2000's, I love Persona, want to love Disgaea, but I still like them in spite of the JRPG game mechanics which I see as a total drag. The demo for Ni No Kuni did absolutely nothing to make up my mind either.
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GarandMarine

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Re: So many choices...
« Reply #11 on: 08 Apr 2013, 17:43 »

I usually love JRPGs in spite of themselves, Tales of Symphonia and Skies of Arcadia Legends being the only two that really come to mind. It's just not a game type I can really get into... unless the characters and world are rich enough to really get me wanting to take a swan dive into it. Or let me be an airship pirate.
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I built the walls that make my life a prison, I built them all and cannot be forgiven... ...Sold my soul to carry your vendetta, So let me go before you can regret it, You've made your choice and now it's come to this, But that's price you pay when you're a monster with no name.

de_la_Nae

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Re: So many choices...
« Reply #12 on: 10 Apr 2013, 14:25 »

Or let me be an airship pirate.

This is really a selling point that has a difficult time being overstated.

ackblom12

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Re: So many choices...
« Reply #13 on: 10 Apr 2013, 14:36 »

Seriously. The one thing I hated about Skies was the ridiculously high rate of random encounters. The GC release cut that down a lot and it was still noticeably higher than other JRPGs.
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ackblom12

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Re: So many choices...
« Reply #14 on: 10 Apr 2013, 15:52 »

So, is there anything anyone can suggest that would help me determine what component is actually sitting the bed? It  crashed and killed my Windows partition a couple nights ago. I'm pretty certain it's the MB our CPU, but I'm not willing to bet money on either and I can only afford to replace one of them because half of that birthday money is going towards rent and food now. It's like this fresh install to be the last one if possible.
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GarandMarine

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Re: So many choices...
« Reply #15 on: 10 Apr 2013, 18:35 »

Or let me be an airship pirate.

This is really a selling point that has a difficult time being overstated.

Hell it's half the reason I'm interested in Bioshock Infinite. Airships? Steampunk? Gunplay? Gimme! Now if they'd give me an actual open world airship piracy game... I'd have to take a month off work, order in some MREs, cause I wouldn't be coming out for awhile.

Seriously. The one thing I hated about Skies was the ridiculously high rate of random encounters. The GC release cut that down a lot and it was still noticeably higher than other JRPGs.

This is very true... drove me up the wall at a lot of points. The ship battles made it worth it though.
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I built the walls that make my life a prison, I built them all and cannot be forgiven... ...Sold my soul to carry your vendetta, So let me go before you can regret it, You've made your choice and now it's come to this, But that's price you pay when you're a monster with no name.
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