Despite everything you might read from gaming journos about corporate greed destroying the gaming industry I still think it's an amazing time to be into video games. I'm absolutely spoiled for choice with games to play and I think it's just down to not caring about online multiplayer or getting caught up in marketing hype.
You don't have to pay through the nose to buy a fancy machine to play half-finished blockbusters, there are decades of classics that you can still play. Borrow a friend's old console and play some old games-of-the-year, find some random classics on Humble Bundle or GOG, see what random freebies I've posted in [email protected], stick an emulator on your phone or find one that runs in a web browser.
Example: I played Metroid Prime after seeing a Lemmy post talking about. I could either:
- Dig out a GameCube or buy a Wii on eBay for £5 and find a copy of the game at CEX if I fancy the retro experience
- Buy the remastered Switch version if I fancied splashing out
- Just pirate a ROM if I feel rebellious
- Dump my own ROM and play it on PrimeHack if I feel like tinkering
This is just one example of a great game that passed me by, there are thousands of others out there. We have a crazy amount of choice not only of what to play but how we choose to play it. The bittersweet part is that this could all change so enjoy it while you can!
The flip side is that it's easier than ever to release rubbish, but as long as you can find the good stuff then you've got more than you could ever want!
The low barrier to entry naturally runs both ways, yeah. Thankfully the crap is pretty easy to spot :)
My number one rule is to avoid anything with microtransactions.