DEAD END< Burnt Out

[xham6690]

I could use some help / suggestions of games to consider buying. On a budget, I mostly buy games on sale. My threshold / rule for purchases is around twenty dollars. I don't think I'd ever regard any game as being worth, for example, sixty dollars, unless it were totally bug free and met all of my requirements listed below.

I play on a desktop PC, windows 10, 8192 MB of RAM, Intel i5-9400F CPU at 2.90 GHz. Windows 10.

My style of shopping just isn't working for me, and I'm tired of getting burned. I seach roughly by this method:

1. Price comes first. If I can't afford it, I can't play it;
2. Type of game, such as FPS or Turn Based Strategy;
3. Setting, such as science fiction or world war 2;
4. I may then look at screen shots or trailers;
5. Then I read NEGATIVE reviews, to find out if any of my "deal breakers" are in th game. A good example is Wasteland 3. The price too high and full of bugs;
This process isn't turning up anything worth playing / buying lately. If I do decide to buy, I generally first test it using Can You Run It diagnostic website, with inconsistent results.


My real life is filled with disappointment, frustration, lonely isolation and crushing boredom, so when I come to a game, I come to escape negative feelings, not to get more of them. If a game turns out to be bad, that's not just a loss of money, it's a loss of something you can never get more of, time, and I don't have much left. I'm a 59 year old alcoholic and I have Borderline Personality Disorder. I'm not a fan of change for the sake of novelty. I like to be able to rely on muscle memory; I want fresh games, but familiar interface mechanics. As you can see below, I've owned a lot of games. The thing that most often "breaks" a game for me is a bad interface.

I tend to enjoy turn based strategy, a little bit of first person shooter.
Themes I like are zombie, SF, post apocalypse, WW2, mech games, dogfight flying games. Survival horror, sometimes. I don't like "muppet baby" style of graphics....think mario brothers/cartoon-y. Not a big fan of fantasy medievel stuff.
Graphics quality is not the most important thing to me, but I certainly have limits in that regard.
I'm not a fan of fast zombies or zombie variants. I hate games that rely on real life reflexes / coordination / "parcour".

I despise most "figure out the mystery" story games, whatever that genre is called, typified by the game Myst.
I despise "free to play" games that require you to buy things to actually have a chance;
I despise "microtransactions"
I despise "pre order" marketing
I despise predatory DLC
I despise the idea of trying to play anything with real people, due to griefers;
I despise "button mash quick reflex" games for the most part.
I despise games that strain the eyesight and bludgeon the ears.
I don't like "scrolling" games, such as This War of Mine.
I despise games that throw you into the beginning with a hopeless situation.
I hate the fact that some games can only be played on one brand of console;
I hate "head bob" in games that can't be turned off;

Things I would like to see in any game I buy in the future;

Finished game; no bugs, or at least full and perpetual patching by the developer;
Was thoroughly playtested on a large spectrum of gamers with varied skill and experience;
Is not a programming fail, meaning it will not overheat the CPU
Not just a scam to sell DLC;
No microtransactions;
Has a great many difficulty levels, to accomodate total novices and veterans alike;
Does not have any "steep learning curve", every aspect is carefully explained, ideally in a long interactive tutorial;
Solitare game, not multiplayer;
If team based, player's AI allies are not useless;
No social or political message in the game world or story being rammed down the player's throat;
Not a bad port from console to PC;
Frustration free, adheres to common sense logic;
Not a test of eyesight;
Not just an errand boy fetch quest game like that turd Greedfall;
Genuine free choice, the story is not on rails;
Accomodates more than one play style to solve in-game challenges;
No maze like map areas with blind doors/exits;
AI enemy is well written and not set up to cheat;
Interface is very intuitive;
Controls are not janky, and menus are not annoying to use;
Controls are completely customizable by the player
Player can save at any time, no checkpiont system
Player can skip cutscenes;
Player can adjust ALL audio/video. The game Star Wars Battlefront made me Ragequit because it is literally impossible to adjust/remove the obnoxious music that plays during combat;
On launch, player is not forced to watch the game yell / brag about the studio name, or a brand of comuputer hardware, all that crud is skippable;
Does not require the player to have the reflexes of a twelve year old boy high on Crystal Meth;
Ideally, turn based combat;
Interactive tutorial to introduce player to controls and game mechanics;

Ability to switch views. First person to third person, for example, in a shooter, in a strategy game, maps infinately zoomable, and minimap can be called up or removed from the main view at any time;

Would be nice to finally discover a space based combat game that was not just dogfighting; Would be nice to finally find a World War 3 game that is worth playing;

I like resource management, customizable charachters and equipment, meaningful quests, allies that are not just nagging burdens, nice graphics as long as they don't overheat my machine. Interesting enemies that are not just the AI spamming units.
Survival horror is great, so long as it isn't all eyestrain.

I'm not a fan of hyperrealistic simulation that traps you in the cockpit of a plane.
I don't like games that use Anime style....the sort of game that makes the sword fifteen feet long in the hands of a midget.

Games I liked On Playstation One:
Dino Crisis 1 and 2
Resident Evil 2 and 3
Parasite Eve
Crimson Skies

The following PC games are far from perfect, but I did find
some aspects of them enjoyable:

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri / Civilization 4 and 5;
Sid Meier's Pirates;
Bioshock number 1;
Fallout 3, 4, and New Vegas;
Company of Heroes, various incarnations;
Alien: Isolation;
The OLD mechwarrior game series;
Battletech (with many caveats);
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Lockdown;
Prey;
Far Cry;
Freedom Force vs Third Reich;
Icy: Frostbite edition, but zero replay value;
Metro Exodus;
Star Wars Empire At War but no replay value;
Blitzkreig series
Dead State, though the ending ruins it;
Warhammer soulstorm, chaos rising, mechanicus
Wasteland 2
Xcom 2
Tom clancy ghost recon series
Call to Power 2
Black & White, 1 and 2
Secret Weapons Over Normandy
Warhammer Dawn of War Gold Edition
Paraworld, but no replay value;
Rise of Nations;
Rise of Legends;
Shattered Union, but no replay value;
Codename: Panzers
Medal of Honor, though some aspects sucked


Games I DESPISE and feel raped for buying:

The Evil Within
Iron Harvest
Soma
Greedfall
Batman Arkham Asylum
Battlefield Gothic Armada 2
Warhammer Gladius;
Hearts of Iron 2;
Dead Space;
Mass Effect;
Mad Max;
Final Theory;
Generation Zero;
Half Life 2;
Left 4 Dead 2
Rage;
OGRE by steve jackson;
Panzer Strategy;
Payday: The Heist
Second Sight
Titanfall 2
Toy Soldiers
Unity of Command
The Walking Dead
Blade Runner
Evil Genius
Tropico
Sim City
Vampire Masquerade Bloodlines
Resident evil 4



Games I mostly hated:

Frost Punk;
Bioshock 2, Bioshock Infinite;
Age of Wonders: Planetfall;
Aliens: Colonial Marines;
Battle Academy;
Dead Island;
Breach and Clear;
Left 4 Dead number one;
Late Shift, zero replayability;
Men of War;
Sid Meier's starships
Space Trader Merchant Marine
Space Empires 4
The Bureau
Wargame Red Dragon (insanely hard to even begin to learn)
Warhammer regicide, space marine
The Last of Us (becase the movement controls sucked so intensely)
Supreme Commander;
Dungeon Keeper 2

Games I just couldn't ever get into, often due to hating the interface or boredom

Demigod;
Fallout 1 and 2
Far Cry 2
Front Mission Evolved
Hard West
Mosby's Confederacy;
Project Aura;
Remember Me;
Rush for Berlin;
Shadowrun;
Sid Meier's Beyond Earth
Silent Storm gold edition;
Space Empires 4
Empire Earth
State of Decay Year One
Warfare
Call of Duty modern warfare 2
Lock On
Silent Hunter 3
Far Cry 2
Deus Ex

[nullable]

What you're asking is for people to read your giant wall of text, digest it and and really weigh the pros and cons, and how a game measures up to all your requirements before making their suggestions, before you invariably shoot most of them down.

Good luck to the saint who wants to deal with all that.

I'm not even going to bother mentioning what I'm playing, because it kinda seems pointless to do so.

Maybe you're burnt out because living by all those rules and stipulations seems exhausting. I would tell you to lighten up, but that's easier said than done.

[Bee🐝]

That's a very long wall of text and we tend to recommend things on the fly.

I've checked your "lists" and it's very difficult to recommend you anything. You have games that share the same genre, setting, and similar game mechanics in all four of your lists. Heck, you have games that are in the same series on different lists.

Anyway, this is the thread you're looking for - maybe cut down your post to a few concise lines before asking: Game Recommendation Megathread:
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/7/3140616601477990051/

Edit: Fully agree with Snakub Plissken.

[rawWwRrr]

xham6690 eredeti hozzászólása:

I could use some help / suggestions of games to consider buying.

Considering what you've written, it doesn't sound like video games are really your thing. There is so much variety in the market that limiting yourself to such a narrow set of criteria will make finding any game to enjoy extremely difficult. Maybe you can find a handful that you truly enjoy to play on a regular basis, but I would say you should probably invest in a different hobby that provides you with more consistency.

xham6690 eredeti hozzászólása:

My style of shopping just isn't working for me, and I'm tired of getting burned.

Maybe look for the games that have playable demos. Steam has been promoting events during the year to encourage developers to place demos on their store pages. A lot of them are taken down after the event so it's good to be on the lookout for the next event. And not everyone participate. It's mostly indie devs.

Maybe watch some gameplay footage on YouTube or Twitch to see if it has the things you're looking for.

Edit: Looks like the next Next Fest is right around the corner, June 13-20.
https://store.steampowered.com/sale/nextfest

[Muppet among Puppets]

Resident evil 1 remake is good. You can get it for 4 $ often.

As you liked re2.

While you play it, you should not hate games. If you start them with such an amount of "hate" and bad expectation, you forget that games are meant to "challenge" you a bit.
Also multiplayer is not that much full of griefers.

The things not to like is what makes it unplayable. Not setable buttons can be one of them. In the sense of WASD only, while you play with arrows. But that is rare. Controllers remove this problem. As its just tiny things that change for you, which you can adapt to.

Apart from fast action shooters many games can be played with a controller, and its better then.
Example: Watch_dogs 1 is kind of an action game which is also very relaxing because actually nothing can happen, but you forget that while you play. Its around 7 $ often.


With the right cooling and airflow, computers do not overheat.
You didnt mention your grafic card, but the cpu should be fine for nearly all games atm.


Here you can put games on a waitlist for the expected price, to get then notified.
https://isthereanydeal.com/

[Toxicq_]

raśist tórtle

[cinedine]

Look at games you like and use the "more like this" section or the actual working variant https://steampeek.hu

All I see in this massive text dumb is "I despise everything and look for reasons to dislike stuff."

[Haruspex]

No game exists that meets your criteria.

[Aachen]

Far too much focus on what games didn’t work for you relative to the .... four? Playstation One titles that apparently constitute the extent of tolerable gaming.

About the only thing I can even throw out is Banished—it might not offend you too much.

[HikariLight]

Games are not made to cater to one person. If you don't know if you will like it find videos of it, or find out if it has a demo version you can play. If you have such strict criteria for games your not gonna have a lot of fun. Nothing wrong with having a favorite genre but sometimes you should branch out, you never know what you might find.

[Schrobes]

Gaming is Dead. Realistically, you've most likely exhausted all available titles you'd be interested in. Most certainly nothing being made today fits your criteria. Doesn't for me as well. Give Red Dead Redemption 2 a go when it's 30 or less. It's a laid back experience. Far Cry 5 was alright in my book, i enjoyed the chaotic nature of the world. It was neat to me that i could traverse the world on foot and run into random skirmishes. They made it seem like there was always something going on, which combined well with character progression. The Story was fine.

Also. Check out 'Worth a Buy' on youtube. He reviews not so known titles that i've seen are similar to the ones in your "enjoyed" list.

Hope you find something. I know in this vast sea of swindle, there is bound to be at least one!

-Kenshi
-Rimworld
-Arma 3