Gaming

olb81

Going by what my nephews play , gaming has changed a lot since i was their age.

We used to have limited time, levels, aims to the games.

Now they just appear to wonder around and endless world with no actual specific purpose.

Does anyone here still play games

How do you do it on the cheap?

Buy an old console and stock up at c.e.x?

Buy a new console and a retro pack, is that possible?

Or do you play new games, are there actually any that have purpose and fun?

MattMattMattUK

Buy a used PS4 and get PS Plus, the back catalogue included in that has more games than you could play in a lifetime, including almost all of the good stuff from the last decade and a half.

When did you last game? Most games now have a much shallower learning curve and many more tutorials, so if you played in the PS2 or earlier generations you will find things easy enough, PS3 not much has changed.

flaneurs_lobster

Not sure about 'purpose' but this is fun

https://thankgoodness.game/

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6672932/gaming

Open World games are only one class of game, there are many more.

Dont know how old you are buy in my day you still had things like SimCity where the idea was just to build as big a city as you could with no way to ultimately "win" no end game, you could never truly lose either… think SpaceWar from 1963 was the first, you could lose but never win as the game went on endlessly

Plenty of modern games still have levels, lives, objectives etc, many arent as linear / more 3 dimensional as say Mario was but thats because the hardware can copy with it

I'm not a big gamer, personally mostly just play games on the phone or tablet. You can buy older tech as a budget option but make sure you have a screen you can use it on, PS2 didnt have a digital out as that was introduced with the PS3 and many TVs dont have analogue inputs these days. Additionally the graphics on your 48" TV won't be like you remember Mortal Kombat being on your 12" bedroom TV as a kid, like watching old TV on the big screen it can be painful.

If you are Playstation orientated then you can buy Digital versions of "Classic" games to run on later hardware, but they are hardly cheap compared to what the disc versions go for

Ergates

Depending how old you are will determine how much gaming will have changed - but yes, it has changed a lot.

However, whilst the types of games available has massively diversified there are still plenty of them being produced that you'd still recognise from your youth (no matter when that was - retro is a big thing).

How you "do it" on the cheap will depend very much on what kind of "gaming" you're after. I still play regularly (since 1982) but I find the games I enjoy now are quite different from the ones I used to play.

If you have a relatively recent PC or laptop you may find it can already cope with some relatively recent games with the setting turned down a bit. How powerful a PC/Laptop you "need" depends on the type of thing you're interested in. Playing the latest high-action blockbuster wtih bleeding edge graphics needs something quite beefy. Playing simple puzzle games, not so much. Minecraft will run on pretty much anything but the oldest and weakest machines (plus on tablets, phones etc)

There are quite a lot of free to play games out there - they make their money from selling "cosmetics" and early access to new content etc - but you can happily play them for nothing.

A 2nd hand console with a bundle of games is an option - which to go for depends, again, on what type of games you think you'd like. If you have some ideas, fire them in here and people can make suggestions.

LightFlare

I’ve been gaming since the ZX81 in the 80s

It’s changed massively, but you need to figure what you enjoy.

PC gaming used to be very different to co sole gaming, it so much nowadays, but the difference is still there (depending on what floats your boat)