playing games on a PC, misc. chatter, Steam names, etc...

probably won't do anything about this for quite a while, but i'm thinking about doing a HTPC thing for pushing media/playing games on a TV

long-time mac user, but mac minis seem underpowered for the task, and they're still lagging on the games front (though that seems to be changing rapidly).

is it possible to get/build something reasonably powerful for not that much money? i'm sure there are billions of articles/tutorials on this sort of thing, but i figured i'd ask ilx first

currently just stringing an HDMI cable from my imac over to my (borrowed) flatscreen. this is fine for watching movies and stuff, but it seems a little janky, and my new place will probably place my computer well away from wherever the tv ends up

or should i just dual-boot windows, play games on my imac, and get something more economical for movies/streams on the tv?

A cheap roku box should be fine for streaming. Most flatscreens have USB ports that you can just plug in for movies or file watching.

yeah I was thinking that playing Civ 5 on my tv would be badass but I don't know what the setup ought to be, or there's some good reason not to do it. it's just more comfortable & sociable to game on the tv; then the fam or wife or whoever can watch instead of me isolating myself

"YAY, DADDY IS PLAYING CIV 5"

you have no idea

they loved watching me play pocket planes, wtf

you played PP on your TV?

Wondering whether to buy my Dad Railworks Train Simulator 2013 for Father's Day or whether it's cruel to lead a loved one to the top of a downward spiral of spending £20 a time on endless DLC packs, some of which then get rereleased with minor cosmetic improvements and bugfixes as "version 2" for you to spend £20 on again

(or maybe he just wouldn't be that interested at all, as even the steam train packs drive you past modern scenery and through modern concrete slabs of stations rather than the late steam era he'd probably prefer)

I don't thnk that's quite the case, you can choose to run old trains on contemporary lines, but old lines exist too, some of the journeys in there are on tracks which don't even exist any more and the trackside stuff/stations etc are all as they would've been at the time. Might just be a question of matching your engine dlc with your journey dlc.

Either way, yeah, got it for my dad a couple of years ago and it was a big hit.

oh ok, that's good to know (both posts!) - I found a DLC pack for approximately the area he grew up in which had a steam train option but looked like all-modern tracks, but I'll hunt around for some old lines in different areas. thanks!

I've been here in Paris, TX, since thursday, and started playing Portal 2 again, since it works pretty well on the laptop. Finally beat it yesterday, and damn, what a game.

Dudes! Deadly Premonition is on Steam Greenlight! Vote for this shit!

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=160687506

looks bizarre. I voted.

yup

It made it! Along with BROFORCE and Divekick, nice. (Kind of shocked they even had to go through Greenlight)

whoah BROFORCE looks ridic

i forget which thread we talked about it in but you can play the alpha in browser
http://www.freelives.net/BROFORCE/BROFORCE_WEB.html

awesome thank you

Gave FTL another try (honestly more for the Steam cards which I promptly put up on the market). I don't fully know why this game straight up angers me compared to say, Binding of Isaac or Spelunky. Ah well, at least I'll get a ~$0.75 microrebate out of it.

somebody please explain "steam cards" to me so i don't have to google it?

You get Steam Trading Cards for a given game by playing (or idling) aka drops. These cards can be

a) "crafted" together which destroys the cards and gives you a "badge" for your profile, custom emoticons and backgrounds for your Steam profile and raises your "Steam XP" > "Steam level"
b) sold on the Steam marketplace for $0.xx cents. you can also sell the emoticons, etc.

once you get all your drops you're eligible for a random Booster Pack in your inventory, which has 3 cards. the higher your Steam level the greater your booster chances

each microtransaction here gives Valve and the developer a cut, so it's a almost a weird form of DLC, except you can get small amounts of money back from it / cover the cost of buying games. in beta, some people were buying indie games just for the card support and breaking even or profiting

"foil" cards are rare and allow you to craft Foil badges. these cards usually go for triple the regular card rates or more, some go for several dollars. i've seen some emoticons go for high prices. yes emoticons, i shit you not. this is all a big extension basically of the TF2/DOTA2 marketplace that was already there

to be clear, these badges don't really do anything. Valve are a bunch of sick geniuses. but, it does give me a decent reason to attack the backlog and give extra support to certain developers without actually paying for worthless DLC

shadowrun: returns looks cool, like it's going to get a lot of community mod support

has anyone played monaco yet?

I liked this take on the trading cards thing and the endowed progress effect - http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-07-17-the-psychology-behind-steam-trading-cards

thanks, i didn't know any of that. interesting gambit by steam; it's working huh?

yup. though this is kind of sad and funny:

http://www.gamesradar.com/toll-steam-trading-cards-take-indies/

i understand it's disheartening to make more money off the cards than the game, but welcome to 2013 and the world of all self-publishing fields (music, comics etc.) Also the investment to do that art - hell, i've heard several games are already getting it for free from their fans! - is pretty minimal compared to the return. they get paid on the game, they get paid on the cards/emoticons/wallpaper AND they get more word of mouth as the games show on player profiles and activity lists

Unrelated, but is anyone else in the Skullgirls PC beta?

Playing a good amount of Rogue Legacy, as it's kinda soothing to play cycles thru for a bit with a controller, up some stats, then set it down and wander off for a while.

that seems like a game i'd really enjoy playing. i can't wait for the mac version to be released

very tempted for shadowrun. anyone confirm if its any good?

waiting for ios

Oh man I've totally got sucked into this trading card thing. I'm just farming and selling, pretty quickly realised that collecting and badge-making is mostly pointless. But it's free money, I just leave 4 or 5 minimised games in the background as I work and by the end of the day I've got another bunch of cards to flip on the marketplace. It's hardly going to make me rich but I'm up to just under £7 profit now, which goes a long way in a steam sale. Plus I already paid for a copy of Portal 2 (one of the levelling drops gave me a 90% off voucher, which brought the price down to £1.50).

So I'm profiting, Steam profit, the devs profit - who's losing out here, where's this magic money coming from? it can only be the bozos who are spending real cash on emoticons and wallpapers, right?

Anyway I've got a bunch of money off vouchers which I'm not going to use, guess it might be worth starting a separate thread for this kind of thing if anyone else wants to get into it but for now let me know if anyone wants 75% off Droid Assault, 50% off Triple Town, 90% off Serious Sam 2, 50% off Sniper Elite Nazi Zombie Army, 75% off Faerie Solitaire, 50% off Duke Nukem 3D Megaton Edition, or 10% of Toki Tori 2+.

So I'm profiting, Steam profit, the devs profit - who's losing out here, where's this magic money coming from? it can only be the bozos who are spending real cash on emoticons and wallpapers, right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sq9r50EYJh0

Shadowrun is worth it. Primary campaign is okay, more stuff is coming.

rogue legacy is a bit of fun.

both sound good, will probably get them in the xmas sale

http://www.gonehomegame.com/

This game looks pretty neat.

i was just thinking about getting that

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-08-15-xbox-coms-pc-marketplace-is-shutting-down

Microsoft will be removing the option to purchase PC games over Xbox.com on 22nd August, when an Xbox 360 update will remove the much derided Microsoft Points in lieu of using various local currencies.

sigh

Can someone recommend a basic freeware golf game for PC? I've spent like hours trying to find one.

http://www.kongregate.com/games/dampgnat/wonderputt

?

I'm having nostalgia for some offline 18-hole simulation I was addicted to in the mid '90s and can't seem to find anything like it. I'm liking Wonderputt though, thanks.

http://www.myabandonware.com/browse/theme/golf-q/

ty!

That browser EA Tiger Woods game was pretty good iirc

We encourage you to spend your Microsoft Points balance prior to this change

does this only apply to games for windows stuff? or am i supposed to spend all my xbox microsoft points too

is this a good thread to talk about Papers, Please?