Free Games: making spreadsheets about money saved on games you will never play

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Free Games: making spreadsheets about money saved on games you will never play

webmeister: Jan 31, 2007; The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.

I think they fixed it up at one point to stop you getting stuck when it required you to click a button that had been patched out, but yeah YouTube tutorials are probably the best option.

The usual advice is to pick a petty kingdom in southern Ireland in the 1066 start date, since you can basically fart around for ages learning the ropes before anyone will bother you.

# ¿ Oct 18, 2019 07:05

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 06:15

webmeister: Jan 31, 2007; The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.

It's gunna be Planet of the Apes: The Musical: The Game

# ¿ Dec 22, 2019 23:37

webmeister: Jan 31, 2007; The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.

Timely reminder that AC3 is comfortably the worst one. Honestly I'd skip even the remastered version unless you have a real hankerin' to Forrest Gump your way through the American Revolution.

# ¿ Mar 19, 2020 07:18

webmeister: Jan 31, 2007; The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.

SolidSnakesBandana posted:

lmao the mental gymnastics on this one. "Well if they know your passwords you might as well not have it at all!!!" like yeah, no poo poo. Keeping in mind that the context here is that someone is... attempting to hijack your account to get a free game added to it?

Not really, the context is that someone is hijacking your account to sell it for real money. There's marketplaces where you can buy and sell Epic accounts. Obviously if you've just got the free exclusive shovelware titles it's not worth anything, but if there's a bunch of AAA titles and exclusive Fortnite skins or whatever on your account then it's definitely worth something and thus valuable for hackers.

# ¿ May 1, 2020 02:20

webmeister: Jan 31, 2007; The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.

Look Sir Droids posted:

I might have to cave on EGS for a freebie GTA5. I�ve never played it but it would be fun to crime and roam around the map. Is the single player good?

Yeah it's fantastic, up there with San Andreas and Vice City.

Honestly I wouldn't bother getting it for multiplayer, that's pretty grindy and aimed at selling in-game currency.

Side note, how the gently caress is GTAV seven years old :psyduck:

# ¿ May 14, 2020 03:00

webmeister: Jan 31, 2007; The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.

Geemer posted:

Thanks, this link seems to have worked.

# ¿ Jul 13, 2020 10:58

webmeister: Jan 31, 2007; The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.

John Lee posted:

Gonna get sidetracked here:

"Lefty loosey, righty-tighty" made no sense to me as a child, and to a lesser extent today, and I got in several shouting matches with my mother because of it.

No part of this is going inherently "right!" Like, east, east-northeast, and east-southeast are all going primarily down, and the southerly bits are going left, and it's a full fuckin' rotation, there's no reason to say it's going one direction over another. I guess some weirdos look at the top-left of the faucet or wheel or whatever like they're reading a fuckin' book, and when looking at that small bit they're like "Look like it's going right to me!"

lmao I had a big argument with my wife once about this exact point

the once per decade time she was using a screwdriver she couldn't undo a screw, and I kept saying that "lefty-loosey righty-tighty" thing. She got furious because it wasn't working, and we worked out later that she was looking at the bottom of the screw (6'o'clock on your image), instead of the top.

to keep the peace we settled on clockwise tighten, counter-clockwise loosen :v:

# ¿ Aug 7, 2020 10:40

webmeister: Jan 31, 2007; The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.

Worked fine for me, it's downloading now :shrug:

# ¿ Aug 13, 2020 14:17

webmeister: Jan 31, 2007; The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.

Waffleman_ posted:

My shameful confession is I've never played the original Doom.

My shameful confession is that I haven't played an FPS game since the original Doom.

FPS games usually give me violent motion sickness (splitting headaches and gut-wrenching nausea within about five minutes), so it was probably the last FPS game I've played for more than a few minutes. Never played Half-Life, Quake, Unreal Tournament, Counter-Strike, etc. Doing the exact same stuff in third-person, like say in GTA games, is completely fine, weirdly, and I can play those for hours on end.

# ¿ Aug 18, 2020 02:58

webmeister: Jan 31, 2007; The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.

John Murdoch posted:

Dunno if you've ever bothered to experiment over the years at all (I can definitely understand why you wouldn't; I get the same kind of nightmarish motion sickness on occasion ), but nowadays there's a lot of known strategies and settings to reduce motion sickness in games. Unfortunately there's still no universal settings for it, but in a lot of games if you can generally turn off stuff like the horribleness that is weapon bob (very relevant for Doom) and mess with the FOV and that can make all the difference.

Also due to not being true 3D spaces, older shooters like Doom or its contemporaries generally made the motion sickness even worse. (To say nothing if your machine couldn't even run them at a nice silky framerate.) So more modern stuff might not be as instantly gut-churning as those could be.

Yeah I�ve tried a few of those like changing FOV and weapon bob, but nothing has really worked unfortunately. I tried several times but never even made it through the cart ride scene in Half-Life. Weirdly enough I managed to struggle through Portal okay, but that�s been basically it.

Back in the golden era of FPS games it kinda sucked but I�m at peace with it these days. I don�t really feel like I�ve missed out on that much - endless COD retreads, Far Cry and Overwatch seems like about it

# ¿ Aug 18, 2020 10:52

webmeister: Jan 31, 2007; The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.

Peaceful Anarchy posted:

I don't know what you've played, but as someone who gets motion sickness only on some games, Half Life is one of the worst and has poo poo for meaningful options to alleviate it. Portal is almost as bad and only worked because it's a puzzle game so I can play it in short bits and can choose to look away. There are a lot of other games I've had no issue with, though. I never had an issue with Thief or Dishonored or Far Cry or playing Skyrim in first person, for example. On the flipside, Rime is the only 3rd person game to give me motion sickness and I still don't know how that's possible.

To be honest, Portal was probably the last first-person game I played. I made an extra effort for that since everyone raved about it so much, but I basically just peaced out of the genre after deciding the side-effects weren't worth it. There's enough other genres out there that interest me. Does Skyrim lock you into first person during the opening cart ride cutscene? It's been ages since I played and can't really remember, but I seem to recall that being a thing - I couldn't switch to third-person until after the cutscene so I spent most of it looking out my window :v:

Dark_Swordmaster posted:

One completely left field notion is that I saw a video of some girl who couldn't play VR without getting violently ill within five minutes. Turns out a CAT or MRI or something finally revealed that her sinuses in her head had been formed abnormally and it caused the issue, not just inner ear/etc. Yes it was a presumably expensive surgery to fix and I would bet that surgery money that you don't have anything similar, but I found it a fascinating cause.

Interesting! I've never actually tried anything VR related, though I've got a feeling it'll affect me as well. Weirdly, I don't get any other sort of motion sickness at all - no problems on sea, in cars, on planes etc. Who knows!

# ¿ Aug 19, 2020 01:50

webmeister: Jan 31, 2007; The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.

hambeet posted:

just generally curious, do racing car games have the same affect?

Not at all, weirdly enough. I used to play a lot of Gran Turismo way back in the day, and in the previous console gen I played a lot of Forza, Test Drive Unlimited, Burnout, Project Gotham etc. Never had an issue, and I always use first person camera for those (cockpit or bonnet cam).

# ¿ Aug 19, 2020 04:21

webmeister: Jan 31, 2007; The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.

Guy Forget posted:

I've never played a hidden object game before and have no idea which to pick. Can anyone offer some guidance?

I�d tell you which of the hidden games in the pile were worth picking up, but that would defeat the purpose :v:

# ¿ Oct 15, 2020 14:55

webmeister: Jan 31, 2007; The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.

FanaticalMilk posted:

Next week's game is gonna be Wargame: Red Dragon.

Did this actually happen and I completely miss it? Or did it get replaced by something else?

# ¿ Nov 12, 2020 04:09

webmeister: Jan 31, 2007; The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.

Skwirl posted:

I thought that was the Rockstar Games app?

Nah it was definitely via the Epic store, but you need the Rockstar Launcher to actually launch the game iirc. Same deal as when Epic gave away Assassin's Creed Syndicate for free as well.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2020 03:46

webmeister: Jan 31, 2007; The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.

Hobojim posted:

walking up or down slight inclines had a thirty percent chance to shatter your ankles

Nice to meet u, mr president

# ¿ Dec 19, 2020 23:27

webmeister: Jan 31, 2007; The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.

The best Tropico game is the one you played first, because none of the others are much different. I like the idea of a political and economic city builder, but after spending 20-30 hours in (I think) Tropico 4, nothing about 5 or 6 remotely appeals. Even during the free weekend for 6 I was bored within an hour.

Just play Anno instead.

# ¿ Dec 24, 2020 06:21

webmeister: Jan 31, 2007; The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.

Quill posted:

Yeah, not feeling it. Then again, I also fully expect D4 to have some type of MTX right at launch. No high hopes for that project.

It's Activision, so yeah it's going to be designed around MTX from the ground up. They stripped D3 back to just a handful of staff members once they realised it couldn't easily be reworked into a consistent cash cow like Hearthstone or WoW

# ¿ Dec 30, 2020 00:32

webmeister: Jan 31, 2007; The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.

RPATDO_LAMD posted:

At Battlefront 2's release, you had to unlock each of the individual hero units like vader/yoda/etc. Either by grinding for credits in game (apparently taking 40 hours to earn enough credits for the most expensive ones like Vader), or by buying real-money lootboxes.

At some point they must've patched the game to rework the lovely unlock system.

The official EA response defending the lootbox grind system is still the all-time most downvoted comment on Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsBattlefront/comments/7cff0b/seriously_i_paid_80_to_have_vader_locked/dppum98/?context=3

# ¿ Jan 9, 2021 01:46

webmeister: Jan 31, 2007; The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.

"Build a civilization to stand the test of time"
Now where have I heard that before :thunk:

# ¿ Jan 22, 2021 06:11

webmeister: Jan 31, 2007; The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.

I've heard of getting high on the HOG but this is ridiculous

# ¿ Feb 3, 2021 23:35

webmeister: Jan 31, 2007; The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.

A good poster posted:

I opened up the Uplay client to check if I'd gotten this for free before, and not only was it there, but Assassin's Creed 2 got in there at some point along with 3, Black Flag, and Unity. I remember getting 3 for free and thinking I could tell people that the worst game was my introduction to the series, and I also remember they gave away Unity when Notre Dame caught fire. I'm a little hazy on when they gave away Black Flag, but seeing 2 in there was a complete surprise to me.

Syndicate was also a free giveaway on Epic at some point, back in early 2020 if I remember right

# ¿ Feb 11, 2021 13:06

webmeister: Jan 31, 2007; The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.

Zushio posted:

As a follow-up, 3 sucks mostly. I have played every AC game to date except Valhalla and 3 the only one I can't stand.

It has some decent moments, and I like a few characters, but overall the weakest game for sure.

Yeah, AC3 is the worst by some distance. Unity was pretty panned when it released too, but they ended up fixing most of the bugs and it's a pretty respectable entry these days. The "Ubisoft map filled with pointless collectibles" is probably at the nadir in Unity, but Forrest Gumping through the French Revolution is really funny (and the time travel sequences are quite cool).

# ¿ Feb 11, 2021 23:09

webmeister: Jan 31, 2007; The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.

Also worth noting that GamePass just added the Bethesda catalogue too, so there�s a bunch of Doom, Elder Scrolls, Fallout and more games that have just been added.

Obviously not free, but it�s a crazy good deal imho

# ¿ Mar 20, 2021 00:49

webmeister: Jan 31, 2007; The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.

Pushing the limits of what counts as "free" games: I recently discovered you can get free access to Xbox GamePass for PC by using Microsoft Rewards points. Basically, Microsoft has a loyalty points system where you earn points by doing Bing searches, clicking on a few quizzes and activities each day, and eventually claiming a reward. You can get other stuff too (including Skype credit, GamePass Ultimate etc), but it's pretty easy to build up enough points for a free month of GamePass for PC. There's a huge number of great games on there, including the entire Bethesda catalogue, and you get access to the full EA Play library too.

Fair warning: it takes about three weeks of daily searches and clicks to earn enough points for a free month. However, a handy little extension for Google Chrome called ABS (Automatic Bing Searches) can run through your daily searches and quizzes in a separate tab, saving you a bunch of time. It'll even spoof browser IDs so you get extra points for "using" Microsoft Edge desktop and mobile versions.

Like I said, I realise it's pushing the boundaries of "free games", but for pretty minimal effort you can get free access to a pretty good library of games - not just indie shovelware.

# ¿ May 11, 2021 12:08

webmeister: Jan 31, 2007; The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.

Wiltsghost posted:

I have over 100,000 points so far. And game pass has over 200 games so I think it's worth it. It really is no effort but I get not wanting to do it.

Yeah it's this, basically. I was super happy with game pass even when I was paying $10 a month for it (and getting way more value from it versus paying the same amount for Netflix). Without the Chrome extension I really wouldn't bother about the reward points.

But like you say - with the extension it's pretty close to zero effort, though I know why people can't be bothered.

# ¿ May 12, 2021 00:06

webmeister: Jan 31, 2007; The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.

Xander77 posted:

Ah.

There are also two copies of Blood Dragon one screen down.

The real crime here is zero copies of the best Anno game

# ¿ Aug 5, 2021 12:47

webmeister: Jan 31, 2007; The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.

SnakesRevenge posted:

LIGMA?

It's a newer type of power supply, using Transitory Actuating Ionic Node Transfer. So if you're struggling with power issues on your rig, LIGMA-TAINT is probably your best solution.

# ¿ Oct 8, 2021 04:23

webmeister: Jan 31, 2007; The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.

Cojawfee posted:

You never have to mess with the windows store at all aside from when the xbox app wants to update. You just open the xbox app, find a game you like, and click install and then it adds it to the list of the left.

Yeah this. I know some people have no end of problems with it, but the Xbox app/Gamepass experience has been perfect for me for the past 12 months. Still seems insane that I can get day 1 releases like Total War: Warhammer 3, Humankind, or Crusader Kings 3 for just a regular old subscription price.

# ¿ Nov 10, 2021 08:10

webmeister: Jan 31, 2007; The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.

I haven't played Shadow Tactics, but I played and loved the dev's next game, Desperados III (available free with GamePass), which is apparently fairly similar to this but with different theming.

It's really more of a puzzle game presented like an X-Com game, so if you approach things X-Com style then yeah you're going to have a bad time. For me, the best aspect was that the levels/puzzles are extremely open with a wide variety of solutions - you don't have to figure out precisely what the devs were thinking in order to finish the level. It was a great feeling to spend a few hours puzzling out a particular level, then go on YouTube and see the different ways other people had solved the same problems.

So if this game is similar, I'm actually pretty keen to check it out!

# ¿ Dec 14, 2021 01:01

webmeister: Jan 31, 2007; The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.

Cook Serve Delicious 3 is great and everyone should play it regardless of how free it was

# ¿ Jan 1, 2022 09:57

webmeister: Jan 31, 2007; The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.

repiv posted:

Cook Serve Delicious 3 next week

OK this one is legit great, don't sleep on it

# ¿ Aug 4, 2022 23:31

webmeister: Jan 31, 2007; The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.

Flair posted:

The fineprint does that say, but I am not looking to double my winnings. I am only looking to increase my chances.

# ¿ Dec 4, 2022 00:39

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 06:15

webmeister: Jan 31, 2007; The answer is, mate, because I want to do you slowly. There has to be a bit of sport in this for all of us. In the psychological battle stakes, we are stripped down and ready to go. I want to see those ashen-faced performances; I want more of them. I want to be encouraged. I want to see you squirm.

Unity is fine at this point if you like the old AC formula. The bugs are fixed and it's an okay experience. It's not a great game, and is in the lower half of AC tiers, but if you like the French Revolution you'll enjoy Forrest Gump-ing your way through it.

Syndicate is better, though aside from the two protagonists thing it's not a lot different. It's the last of the old formula (before they rebooted it to copy Witcher 3), but they were kinda out of ideas at that point and it shows.

Personally I prefer the later style (Origins/Odyssey) anyway, and had a lot of fun with those.

# ¿ Nov 29, 2023 03:27

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Free Games: making spreadsheets about money saved on games you will never play