GWJ Conference Call Episode 666

Streets of Rogue, XCOM 2: War of the Chosen, Hitman 2, Torchlight, Budget Gaming, Your Emails and More!

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This week Cory, Amanda and Sean are joined by GWJ community member Jason (ThatGuy42) to talk about gaming on a budget!

To contact us, email [email protected]! Send us your thoughts on the show, pressing issues you want to talk about or whatever else is on your mind.

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Comments

Apologies in advance for the lack of 666 content and voice coms delay!
Really quick = not really quick at all.

Some of the links I'd mentioned:
Help me build my PC 2017
10 Ways to Overcome Fear of Missing Out
The Official Trading Post
Video Game Deals Catch-All

00:01:33 Streets of Rogue
00:07:51 XCOM 2: War of the Chosen
00:11:12 Hitman 2
00:13:32 Torchlight
00:15:50 Marvel's Spider-Man
00:18:25 Into the Breach
00:20:10 Amanda's New Rig
00:27:20 Griftlands
00:35:05 Budget Gaming
01:01:16 Your Emails

Amoebic wrote:

Apologies in advance for the lack of 666 content

The most devilish ruse: saving all the evil stuff for 667.

Just listened to my first episode today, and promptly made an account.
Great content and insights thank you very much.

New guy was awesome! I could totally relate to the topic, especially the experience of going from buying all the games and never playing them, then squeezing every drop from the few games that you do buy. Great ep, lots of energy!

legopirate27 wrote:
Amoebic wrote:

Apologies in advance for the lack of 666 content

The most devilish ruse: saving all the evil stuff for 667.

Maybe they’re saving it for episode 999, like in End of Days.

Was I the only one who heard the name "Streets of Rogue" and pictured a side-scrolling beat-em-up Rogue-like?

Hey all! Thanks again for having me on, it was an absolute treat. Just a note that I realized I never answered the question about Mic setups, despite Amanda calling it out. Here's the Mic setup I was using, a MAONO AU-A04TC.

Cheers!

Spider-Man suffers from its namesake and all the things it implies.

I hope that everyone who still has not played it yet and has access to a PS4 manages to let go of everything they think they know about this game and actually just play it.

If you own a PS4 and have not played Spider-Man, you're doing yourself a great disservice.

It's also in my top 10 games I've played in my life and deservedly so. It's the only game I've ever ''platinumed''

i7 4790k represent!

interstate78 wrote:

Spider-Man suffers from its namesake and all the things it implies.

I hope that everyone who still has not played it yet and has access to a PS4 manages to let go of everything they think they know about this game and actually just play it.

If you own a PS4 and have not played Spider-Man, you're doing yourself a great disservice.

It's also in my top 10 games I've played in my life and deservedly so. It's the only game I've ever ''platinumed''

I found that the more I played it the less I liked it. I traded it in without finishing it.

Part of it is that I’ve never liked Spider-Man as a character. I know he resonates with every-freaking-human on the planet for some reason, but to me he’s always been grating and uninteresting.

Regarding gaming on a budget:

When my kids were still in diapers our income suffered a massive setback when I was laid off, so our entertainment budget dropped considerably. My solution was to set a rule that I could not buy a new game until I had finished playing my current one. (This was before I acquired a Steam Cellar and was gaming on a console exclusively)

That worked pretty well, and it kept me on the straight and narrow until I got a gaming PC and had access to a lot more games. Right now I maintain a budget where I give myself a weekly allowance with which I can buy whatever I like. Keeping track of that keeps keeps me from overspending because 1) it’s not enough to buy AAA or AA titles on release day, so I have to save and plan for big purchases like those and 2) I don’t like to see that number go down, so I don’t buy a lot of little things with it.

Yeah one of the things I really meant to talk about in the call was the reality of AAA $60 release day purchases. 2 $60 games per month x 12 months = $1440 a year. That's 24 new games per year, but a huge chunk of money for a lot of people. Now if you take that same $1440 and buy only $20 or less games that's 72 games per year instead! Your gaming dollar can go a lot farther by making the decision to not be on the bleeding edge of current releases, but instead enjoying those same releases later when they're on sale or after a price drop, or buy buying those smaller games that release at the $20 price point. Heck Assassin's Creed: Odyssey is now only $20. Just by waiting a few months for that release, you can experience all the glory of that huge game, without having the $60 price tag.

Great episode this week

I don't usually have intense FOMO feelings, but FF14: Shadowbringers is pushing my buttons right now... Unfortunately I don't want another subscription.

Also, ThatGuy42's quote (paraphrasing) "I wasn't happy so I bought games, but I was unhappy because I wasn't playing games" needs to flash before every checkout

Nice job Jason! And welcome to the site, Eights.

Steam is having a Space Exploration Sale this weekend.

Offworld Trading Company is free to play!

Amoebic wrote:

Steam is having a Space Exploration Sale this weekend.

Offworld Trading Company is free to play!

Everspace is $6

Prey is $6

Aliens: Colonial Marines is $6

Spoiler:

There’s your mark of the beast for this week’s episode.

Also, No Man’s Sky is still $35 freaking dollars.

Oh damn, this was 666! Totally spaced. I would have worn the Slayer shirt I normally reserve for jury duty.

Thank you for listening to The Devil's Talk Radio, y'all.

As long as you don't have to be playing the newest shiny, being a budget gamer has been rather easy the past several years. For starters, there are so many opportunities to pick up free games, ranging from no-name indies to AAA blockbusters, from places like Epic, GOG, Fanatical, Uplay, IndieGala, and even Steam. And if you already have Amazon Prime anyway, you get 4 to 5 games each month through Twitch. My library grows approximately 5-10 games every month for free.

Then, of course, there are always bundles where you can purchase several games for a low price, usually between one and fifteen dollars. Among all the various platforms, I suspect I have over 800 games, less than a quarter for which I actually paid any money. And out of those, if you average my total spending, I would be surprised if it comes to more than $2 a game.

interstate78 wrote:

Spider-Man suffers from its namesake and all the things it implies.

I hope that everyone who still has not played it yet and has access to a PS4 manages to let go of everything they think they know about this game and actually just play it.

If you own a PS4 and have not played Spider-Man, you're doing yourself a great disservice.

It's also in my top 10 games I've played in my life and deservedly so. It's the only game I've ever ''platinumed''

I’m definitely going to play it. I’ve been wanting to play a spider-man game for a long time and this is definitely the one to go for.

Following the theme of the podcast though I can’t bring myself to buy it while there are other games between me and my chance to actually play the game. I feel compelled to buy things for the cheapest price I reasonably can and buying it at full prices just to have it sit around for a few months while the price of the game drops in real and digital stores feels needlessly wasteful.

Really liked ThatGuy42‘s personality and presence, and he took notes! Bring him back!

To be fair, I only took notes because I was super nervous. I likely wouldn't do that if I were to appear again.

I am going to go on record here...so you can make a note in your calendars and hold me accountable...and say, that Hunt:Showdown and Tetris Effect that I bought yesterday, those were the last games that I bought for the next year, so until the next August. I have PC GamePass and Discord Nitro and Twitch Prime running....I should cancel those too, right? Because Epic throws free games at us anyway, so it's not that I won't have anything new to play....I mean, besides all those games I already have on every launcher.