Dipping a toe back into gaming...

[KGIII]

I haven't done any serious gaming (playing cribbage on my phone while using the bathroom is not gaming) in a long time. I stopped gaming when Fallout Tactics ruined the experience for me. That's too bad, because the original and Fallout II were fantastic games.

I'm currently exploring professionally built racing sims. I go driving pretty much every day, but I'm not getting any track time. So, a sim seems like a good idea - except I worry about how much time I'll spend in it. When I gamed before, I'd procrastinate sometimes. I suppose I have more leeway to do so now, but I do like to manage my time.

I headed over to GOG where I'd previously added a free game or two that I never downloaded or played. I browsed around and picked a couple.

I picked Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Pillars of Eternity. I also grabbed one of the Baldur's Gate games and one of the Witcher games, both the expanded type of packages. All of which came to less than $30.

I haven't actually installed anything - and downloading the content is quite a chore on my inferior network. Still, I grabbed much of it last night.

Again, I haven't installed any of it. It'd be very characteristic if I don't spend any time playing. We'll have to wait and see.

 

[f33dm3bits]

So you are using going to be using Steam or Lutris to play?

 

[KGIII]

So you are using going to be using Steam or Lutris to play?

Unlikely, unless there's a game I want to play that requires that. GOG is likely good enough for me.

But, who knows? I guess it depends on what I end up doing with this gaming exercise. I didn't invest a whole lot of money, so I can bail on the idea and not feel bad about wasting money.

I'm watching the documentary that came with my copy of Pillars of Eternity. I managed to download all the assets (other than the stuff I don't care about, like the soundtrack). I suspect my cell phone company is a bit annoyed that they sold me an 'unlimited' plan.

Witcher is going on 20 GB for just the game itself. Oops!

I might do the 'right thing' and take a laptop with me and download the game when I'm somewhere with lots of bandwidth.

 

[KGIII]

I'm watching the documentary that came with my copy of Pillars of Eternity.

Actually, I decided to check Google. I could have watched this without downloading it. So can you!

It looks like a solid old-school RPG, which is what I was looking for. I did like the early Final Fantasy games, and another one called Breath of Fire.

 

[f33dm3bits]

How to Play GOG Games on Linux

Want to access and play GOG games on Linux? Here's how to do that.

itsfoss.com

 

[galiban]

I always play pirate. Performance running games from Windows.

I am using Lutris. I played RE3 Make last time, it was great.

 

[KGIII]

How to Play GOG Games on Linux

Want to access and play GOG games on Linux? Here's how to do that.

itsfoss.com

They provide .sh files for everthing I've seen so far.

I haven't actually installed one, but I've downloaded them. I'm not sure that I need a client to help with that? It looks like I can just make them executable and run the file and it'll install it?

I'll know in a short while. I'm going to start with a smaller game, specifically the Baldur's Gate II. I have that downloading now and I'm picking that one because it's smaller and I'm vaguely familiar with the first one.

Not having much bandwidth is a bit of a kicker. Alas, I'm still mad at my DSL provider. I'm going on two years of using a crappy cellular connection. I dislike the DSL provider that much.

I always play pirate.

I don't mind paying. While it's okay that you mention it, we don't allow things like specifically sharing information about how to pirate stuff. We don't want that kind of trouble/attention. I figure I'll make you aware of that now, just to be safe.

And, it's a trivial amount of money in my situation. I'm more than content forking over a few bucks.

 

[Deleted member 147986]

Most of my GOG library runs great using Heroic Games Launcher. Makes it easy to run the latest GE versions of wine and proton as well as the regular versions to have good compatibility.

 

[KGIII]

Makes it easy to run the latest GE versions of wine and proton as well as the regular versions to have good compatibility.

For better or worse, I will be (likely) playing zero games that require Windows - other than what comes with a racing sim. I'm at a bit of a crossroads with the racing sim, as you can get one that the pros use or you can get one (at a much better price) that just has a couple of what I'll call regular video games. The professional sim is much, much more expensive.

The one with the regular games might come in at $5k USD, maybe $7.5 depending on your needs. You could invest more, but there's not much reason to do so. The professional sims come in at more than 10x that amount, so it'd be a big investment. Fortunately, I'm happily retired, so I could justify the expense if I spend enough time enjoying it.

So, that'll likely run Windows. I'm okay with that, but the devices would only ever be used as sim devices.

But, for now at least, I'm not interested in Windows compatibility. There appear to be more than enough games to play on Linux. I also haven't got a clue how much time I'll spend doing this. I do miss a good RPG, however.

Oh, wait, I just remembered another game - Legend of Mana. That was a pretty fun game back in the day.

 

[galiban]

I don't mind paying. While it's okay that you mention it, we don't allow things like specifically sharing information about how to pirate stuff. We don't want that kind of trouble/attention. I figure I'll make you aware of that now, just to be safe.

And, it's a trivial amount of money in my situation. I'm more than content forking over a few bucks.

Unfortunately, a few dollars is a lot of money because we live in Turkey.
That's why we adopted piracy. We are poor. Pirated software is normal in our country.

I'm sorry to say that there is nothing here, and it may be unconstitutional, of course, I'm sorry.

 

[Deleted member 147986]

I can understand pirating a 60 dollar game if you can't afford it, but GOG has games as low as 40 cents. At some point piracy is costing you more time and security headaches than is worth it.

Just wait for a sale, picked up many games at 5 or below.

 

[galiban]

I can understand pirating a 60 dollar game if you can't afford it, but GOG has games as low as 40 cents. At some point piracy is costing you more time and security headaches than is worth it.

Just wait for a sale, picked up many games at 5 or below.

Too much money unfortunately. We can't even drink coke in front of the computer.

It may seem small, but our rental prices are very high. We can't squander money.

 

[Deleted member 147986]

If spending 2 dollars on a video game is too much, maybe your time is better spent elsewhere.

 

[galiban]

If spending 2 dollars on a video game is too much, maybe your time is better spent elsewhere.

Our monthly rent is equivalent to $30 in your unit. We earn 80 dollars per month with your unit. That's why $2 is so valuable.

 

[KGIII]

Unfortunately, a few dollars is a lot of money because we live in Turkey.

Oh, you're all good. You can mention it, but (as I mentioned) explaining how you do so, giving hints to do so, or directing others to do so would be frowned upon. (Also note that politics is not on-topic in any thread, just in case. You're not violating any rules. It's all good.)

At some point piracy is costing you more time and security headaches than is worth it.

Yup. To touch on the above, the bit about clients for my games...

I did the whole chmod +x ./<file_name_using_tab> and then just ./<file_name_using_tab> and it launched an installer, installed the game, and then put an icon in the menu. It would have also made a desktop icon, but I don't generally see my desktop and I declined that option.

So, this isn't all that complicated - so far.

The only other game I've downloaded has a whole lot of patches. I'm not sure if they're required, as the highest patch seems to match the current version of the game. So, it may be pre-patched. If not, I'll have to do some cutting and pasting, but the Baldur's Gate II installed in just a minute or two.

Also, out of curiosity I pay for an app that monitors bandwidth on the phone I use for my internet. In the past 24 hours, I've downloaded about 22.5 GB. LOL Man, they must hate me.

 

[Deleted member 147986]

GOG tends to include patches in their games, especially older ones. Sometimes community patches. Takes a bit of reading to figure out which version you actually have in front of you.

Generally having the game run at all on modern hardware is already pretty great. Not always a fan of community patches which change the original game but if it's the only way it runs....

22,5GB seems bad. I worried for a moment when I exceeded 1.4TB for a month but never heard anything so all good I guess (on regular internet, not mobile).

 

[KGIII]

I worried for a moment when I exceeded 1.4TB for a month but never heard anything so all good I guess (on regular internet, not mobile).

On DSL I'd regularly hit totals in that area. Cell phones, at least here in the US, are quite different. Finding a truly unlimited plan is difficult and expensive. I've had my service contract for a long time and refused to change to a new contract. So, I pay full value for phones - they're not subsidized or anything. That'd require a new contract. Mine has unlimited internet from when they offered it more than a decade ago - before people even could download this much in a month.

Ha! Suckers!

Sometimes community patches.

As near as I can tell, the patches for Pillars of Eternity are all from the developer. It looks like they legitimately did a good job of providing support. I watched the documentary (I'll likely never do that again) and even noticed they were beta-testing it on Linux boxes. So, it must have had Linux support out of the box.

It appears to be a great game. I haven't even installed it yet. I'll get to it, but I think I'll do Baldur's Gate first to see if I can get into gaming at all. I bought a number of games and spent under $30 USD. That's amazing. Sometime in the past I had created an account and grabbed a couple of games they were giving away free, and I'd forgotten that. In some cases, I even bought the expanded pack with all the goodies. They were dirt cheap.

 

[Deleted member 147986]

Haven't played Pillars of Eternity yet, but as a spiritual successor to the Baldur's Gate series you might want to play the originals first as going back afterwards might be a bit rough.

 

[KGIII]

Haven't played Pillars of Eternity yet, but as a spiritual successor to the Baldur's Gate series you might want to play the originals first as going back afterwards might be a bit rough.

I'm pretty sure I played Baldur's Gate - the original one. It came out in the late 90s and was D&D based.

I don't really remember it, but I'm 99.9% sure I've played it before.

The one I have installed is #2 and some stuff with it.

I was pretty big into AD&D 2 Advanced Edition. This was before they sold to WotC, but they'd sold to WotC as I was running out of time to fit it into my schedule.

 

[Deleted member 147986]

Baldur's Gate was great in the 90's. 5 discs which took ages to install. Another 50 hours to play the game. Then you might want another playthrough to see how the companions reacted differently to your choices.

It's rare to see a rpg of this quality. Another one I really like is Wizardy 8. Both games have a lot of party interplay which make them a lot of fun.