this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2023
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Patient Gamers

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A gaming community free from the hype and oversaturation of current releases, catering to gamers who wait at least 12 months after release to play a game. Whether it's price, waiting for bugs/issues to be patched, DLC to be released, don't meet the system requirements, or just haven't had the time to keep up with the latest releases.

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I tried a couple of times to make https://www.reddit.com/r/cuttingedgegaming/ happen, but never reached many people. This community seems to mostly folks playing 1-2 year old games, I wonder if there are more of us who are playing older (but not "retro") games, particularly PC games?

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[–] lowleveldata@programming.dev 23 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

My lag time depends on how soon the games are put on sale

[–] OmegaMouse@feddit.uk 7 points 1 year ago

This is the way.

[–] franglais@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

I have a 20€ limit on any game I buy, it has to be something I really want at that price too, mostly I won't pay more than 10€ per game. My one exception will be Baldur's gate 3, I will wait for the first sale, and get it at however that much that ends up being.

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[–] LazerFX@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 year ago

This is an intruiging subject. I was part of reddit's /r/patientgamers subreddit (lurking, mostly) because it was a good place to get insight into valuable gems that I missed first time through because I didn't have time or didn't want to spend £60 or £70 on a brand new game, and would rather wait for a sale.

Nowadays, I generally wait for Game Pass, Ubi+, PS+ or similar to get the game. Sure, I spend on subscriptions, but the games I play if I count out the costs it's a lot cheaper.

I do also play retro games - 'retro' being an ambivalent term for me, as it somehow is used pejoratively throughout the modern gaming community, which I disagree with: They're good games, just not on modern hardware or systems - quite often. So - yeah, sometimes I lag, sometimes I'm up-to-date, oftentimes I'm on my Steam Deck so I get to play slightly older games at a high fidelity on a handheld device, which is awesome.

[–] McNasty@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm playing No Man's Sky for the first time. I consider myself fortunate to have missed the launch debacle.

[–] ikapoz@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 year ago

The way most AAA launches go these days it’s the only way worth playing.

[–] Murdoc@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago

I got it a couple of years ago, but I still feel the same. The game is great!

[–] CjkOvPDwQW 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Currentlt playing Red Dead Redemption 1 so yes I am at the +10years behind

[–] burndown@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ugh I wish I could go back and play that for the first time again

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[–] Sami@lemmy.zip 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I found out the cake was a lie circa 2020. Also with the GPU price trends the last few years, I suspect more people have become patient gamers but not by choice.

[–] MrTulip@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 year ago

That's the boat I'm in. My system can't run a lot of new games, and I can't afford to upgrade right now.

[–] sparr@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

A wine bug deprived me of GladOS' voice when I played through Portal, so I didn't get the cake lines until much later, from pop culture.

[–] M_Djallo@feddit.it 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

In this year I got a PS3, an Xbox 360 and a Wii. Now I'm playing all the good games on these platforms, that I've never owned when they were current. It's great!

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[–] nanoUFO@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Just finished system shock 1 so like 20+ year old lag, I don't really have a strong urge to play modern AAA games. I mostly just gawk at what's popular and just play indie and old games. I also have a problem of not being able to pick up games in the middle of a series. I need to play a series from the start no matter how mad the earlier iterations are.

[–] god@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

recommend me some 10+ year old game series uwu

[–] nanoUFO@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (9 children)

Depends on what you like my brother.

Immersive sims like thief, system shock, deus ex are very good. System shock 1 is the least playable for normal people but the enhanced edition isn't that bad (you can even play the remake) but the rest are very playable.

Prototype holds up pretty well though you might need pcgaming wiki to get it to run properly if you are unlucky.

Stronghold series, universe at war (not on steam), knights and merchants (with the remake patch), aoe 2 (you can get the 2013 version) though de is good and technically the same game, company of heroes are all good rts games.

Rayman 2, Rayman 3 and Tasmania Tiger if you like collectathon platformers.

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[–] ShadowAether@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago

I'm a big fan of Endless Ocean 2 which came out in 2009 but you need to use Dolphin to run it on PC (also torrent the disc files unless you can find a disc copy)

[–] loudWaterEnjoyer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 year ago (4 children)
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[–] FediFuckerFantastico@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm about to play the Bioshock trilogy for the first time in over a decade. Never played 2 and 3, only got about halfway through 1 when it came out. I'm also about 75% through Super Metroid, which I never beat as a kid. I know that's outside of the 1-2 year window, but I love older games. Scored the Bioshock trilogy for like 15 bucks too, can't beat that.

[–] chepox@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 year ago

Oh you are in for a treat mafren... Those are some awesome games. I played through 2 on Steam and then switched to PlayStation for Infinite. I had the hardest time adapting back to controller and joystick evn though I played 1 on a controller.

[–] caut_R@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

I‘m playing pretty old games all the time that have been sitting in my library. I hardly even buy new ones these days cause… why? I‘m sitting on a ton already lol

Big upside: They run smooth as butter on my modern PC up to 4K even.

[–] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Have there been many cake is a lie moments recently? The only current game I quote frequently is Deep Rock Galactic, and that one is cheap enough and potato-friendly enough even for us PGs.

Oh yeah, DRG is the real deal. Not Alien: Fire Team Elite and not Back 4 Blood (of the 4-player short-mission co-op shooters out there inspired by Left 4 Dead)

Rock and Stone

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I take DRG is a good game to play with complete randos? The only game I had fun doing that thus far was EDF5, because blowing up everything "by accident" is a great way to build rapport

[–] reeen@aussie.zone 2 points 1 year ago

Obviously DRG is at its best with a few friends, but playing with randoms has been pretty fun and friendly in my limited amount of random games. Communication is mostly just markers and gestures, but I assume some people use VOIP

Not intentionally. But I didn't really have a gaming system, so my work laptop was used and of course could only run old stuff.

But now I got a Steam Deck, and a lot of what I'm playing now is still old anyways (just not as old), because I didn't have a chance to play them at the time.

[–] habanhero@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

I just started playing Max Payne 3, which released in 2013. The game aged well, still looks great and a ton of fun.

On a related note, the Steam Deck is the perfect platform for Patient Gamers. It runs these older titles really well, and the portability + ability to suspend / resume games at any time is a game-changer (pun intended).

[–] LuckyLatte@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I'm right there with you. Between work and health issues that directly interfere with physical ability to play games when they flare up, I'm often too mentally exhausted to embark on a new game, so very often end up replaying something familiar or putting time into an MMO like Elder Scrolls Online. The comfy PJs of gaming.

I'm a big fan of RPGs in particular so I want to feel fresh and ready to get immersed in a new world... But I so rarely have that level of mental and physical energy aligning at the same time now, so my backlog is ridiculous. I still need to play Mass Effect Andromeda, Persona 5 Royal (I made it decently far through the original but lost steam/enthusiasm when I kept having like every aspect of the game spoiled for me by shit like algorithmic YouTube thumbnails or comments on an entirely different game's OST etc) Dragon Age 3 and all the Tales Of games from Tales of Xillia 2 on, and those are some of my favorite game franchises...

[–] kelvinjps@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Me, Mainly because I was/am poor. Most old games and consoles are already cracked, or easy to do so. For example, my Dad gifted me Xbox 360 hacked. Which allowed me to purchase game copies whenever it was possible, I didn't have internet while growing up. So my Xbox was a godsend for me.

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[–] Runfour@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago

I have tons of titles sitting in my steam, epic, gog, origin and game pass accounts. They are waiting for me to spend great time with them. So why to have a hype addiction.

Modern games have become too focused on providing a clean, balanced and no-real-obstacles experience. Sometimes I want to play a game that is a cohesive experience without being laser focused on some big idea about how I should play it. As an example, I've recently replayed arx fatalis. It's really fun how you can do everything in that game that you'd want an npc for in any other. It's also fun how each playstyle requires its own big chunk of knowledge about how the game works. Modern games try too hard to be minimalistic and fail to see the fun in a truly open experience. Even when you have options, they have all the fun pre-balanced and pre-optimized out of them. They give you too much info. No sense of discovery

[–] DjMeas@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

I just started the Trails RPG games. It's great to be this behind and know there's this giant story waiting for me.

[–] imperator@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yup. Started the Witcher 3 end of last year. Finished Kingdom Come Deliverance. Also play a lot of total war Time 2 and Attila.

[–] Omnimater@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Witcher 3 is phenomenal, one of my absolute favorite games. Blood and Wine I think is my favorite DLC expansion I've ever played.

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[–] celeste@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What's fun with indie games and playing on a delay is that when I want to play a new game and grab something in my price range off my wishlist, I often have no idea what the game is or why past me thought I'd want to play it. Time wipes out any spoilers I got reading about it or watching someone play it years ago.

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[–] CriticalMiss@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

I still play the multiplayer modification of the original Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

For more information visit https://sa-mp.com

[–] briongloid@aussie.zone 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)
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[–] authorinthedark@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 1 year ago

I didn't play a ton of video games growing up so I've got a weird mix of modern games and old games that I'm playing for the first time. Last year I binged through the entire Master Chief Collection for the first time

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I'm going to start this lag anytime now with PS2 games. I didn't have one when it was new and decided to have the real deal instead of emulating it. It's all set with a 500GB HD and loads of games. Now, I only need time...

I also have an extensive collection of classics on my GOG account. Yet to start playing the majority.

[–] smeg@feddit.uk 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Did they do a HDD for the PS2? I thought it was on good-old 16MB memory cards full of "blocks"!

[–] Shizrak@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you get the "network adapter" accessory, you can install an HDD in the fat PS2. Then after setting up the bootloader and apps, you can play your games directly from the HDD.

[–] smeg@feddit.uk 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nice, I never knew that! Was this an official thing at the time or has someone reverse engineered it later?

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 4 points 1 year ago

It was an official thing, and the only way to play Final Fantasy XI, since the game had to receive updates. The HDD has to be a 3.5" SATA drive to slot in properly. I looked around for one adapter 3.5 to SD adapter, but finding a used 500gb drive was cheaper.

[–] Shizrak@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago

If you get the "network adapter" accessory, you can install an HDD in the fat PS2. Then after setting up the bootloader and apps, you can play your games directly from the HDD.

[–] GlennMagusHarvey@mander.xyz 3 points 1 year ago

I'm usually playing older games of some sort. There's retro games, like those from the 32-bit era and before, but I also play...old-ish games, ones that were released within the last decade or two. Just last year I began playing Tokyo Xanadu eX+, which was released in 2017 (albeit as the definitive version of a 2015 game).

I think a number of the indie games I play are generally newer. Though, given my tastes, many of them tend to be games designed to evoke some sort of similarity to those older styles of games. So I guess it's an interesting question whether they count as "retro" or not.

That said, given that I pretty much only use store-bought laptops (and not of the "gaming" variety), my hardware means that I'm much better off playing older games anyway. "Newer old" games can probably still run, depending on the game, but some may be choppy and I can probably wait on those.

[–] tables@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

I typically only buy games on discount some years after they've launched. I'll sometimes make an exception for indie games that come out which seem like exactly my kind of game. And I made an exception for Battlebit as well - I bought it immediately after I saw the first person playing it because it seemed like ultra fun, and I've probably already played more of it than all Battlefield games combined over the years.

Generally I’m on a 3-5 year delay, unless it’s a franchise I like. Then, I buy it when the price drops on Steam. Currently waiting for Horizon Forbidden West to come to PC, but until then it’s Powerwash Simulator and Satisfactory.

[–] howrar@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I just played through the first Fallout game earlier this year. I guess that puts me on a 25 year lag. I've been playing a bit of Atari 2600 games too, but that's more for work related reasons than for entertainment.

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[–] Sentinian@lemmy.one 2 points 1 year ago

Definitely on a 5-6 year lag. Currently the only games I've been playing are Titanfall 2, Persona 5, and Stardew Valley.

Basically covers everything I need, a long jrpg, a multiplayer fps (using the Northstar mod), and an endless chill game

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