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PC Gaming Suggestions for Console-like Fun?
jayminer writes "We are a relatively newly married young couple who enjoy spending our spare time at home. We don't own a console but have a gaming laptop with DVI output to play games on our TV. My wife is also a CS major so she's computer literate enough. She does not like strategy games, MMORG or any other role-playing game. Apart from "Find the Sausage" jokes, we need quality gaming advice, preferably games which we can play with a single laptop connected to a single large screen, with two gamepads, a console-like experience. What are your suggestions?"
Get a couple of USB dance pads and try out Stepmania, a free DDR clone.
Or get a Wii. Tons of simple flash games through the browser. Fun and simple.
The load it with Emulators. Most of my friends aren't the huge gaming type. When we get together to hang out we don't want to sit through a tutorial on how to play SuperHappyBallComando4. We want the games we grew up with (and some from before then).
Super Mario Bros 3, Pong, Frogger, PacMan. Plus they make excellent drinking games (One shot for every fruit you didn't get on a PacMan level.) The best thing is an xBox can store ALL of these games and more.
Or you could even get some classic looking controllers and play these on the laptop.
I figured I would log on to an Ask Slashdot and sure enough everyone would be suggesting consoles. This is the last thing we need, when it comes to gaming.
I feel that World of Warcraft is good for two people to play and seeing the game is a lot more fun when you play with people you know in real life that is a great suggestion.
I also recommend getting the Half Life 2 Orange Box, and yes I know that you can get it on a console too but IMO FPSs will never compare to a PC experience. Portal alone is enough to send you both into tears from laughing.
Crysis has a great storyline combined with some of the best game play I have seen in a while.
Just whatever you do, don't get a console. All you will get is re-branded sports games, FPSes with shitty controls and maybe one actually good game every now and then.
Even a good SNES emulator i.e ZSNES is a whole lot more then current console offerings. You can play Chrono Trigger, FF6 and a lot of other classic games you can not play on any current platform other then PC via emulation.
This is a dated reference, but try to find some copies of the different versions of You Don't Know Jack. This is great for a young couple and really keeps the conversation and interaction going while you are playing... And the innuendo doesn't hurt either.
My wife and I play pyKaraoke. We think its fun. We can go to parties and do the same thing. In fact sometimes I take my linux laptop around with a microphone and some external (amplified) pc speakers to parties and we do group Karaoke.
I play it with my 5 year old, he skips all the damn coins... drives me nuts. We're somewhere like 60% but the kids scratched it so there's 2 levels we can't play at all. Just got to the lego city, that was a disapointment... They've bought all the characters, most of the good power ups, only the 2x multiplier though... They keep spending the money on stuff they won't use. I think my favorite setup is the ewok with the explosive catapult and invincibility... Just walk up and kill everything. My son drives me crazy playing explosive robots. It's funny though, he gets mad at his 3 year old brother for slowing HIM down.
We just bought defender used. It's ok. The kids can't handle the mission instructions (get the people, bring them somewhere safe, if an alien gets them get them back) but it doesn't matter because they love to just fly around and shoot at stuff, even if it's each other.
Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
My boyfriend and I have had a lot of fun with Cortex Command. It's a really entertainingly adolescent wargame that supports splitscreen play and joystick controllers.
It's not actually finished but its active mod community makes it not matter - if one of you skims the forums now and then, you'll find all kinds of giggle-inducingly overpowered toys to play with. It's ultraviolent but it's on the border between 'obscene' and 'slapstick'...
egypt urnash minimal art.
Perhaps his particular brand of morality says it's wrong to break laws - even though the laws themselves may be wrong.
Sure, that might seem obvious if your idea of ethics is doing what you're told. I suppose that if you were told that you were supposed to pay for oxygen, you'd consider breathing unethical.
Most of us though have our own consciences and prefer to use them. The simple act of copying a file in the privacy of my own home harms no one. Therefore, it cannot possibly be wrong.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
you can technically do it without breaking the law, it's just expensive and requires a high level of expertise to construct the ripping mechanism.
at that point it'd be easier just picking up some old hardware too. Obviously by ripping your NES carts you'd miss out on the enthralling experience of blowing on the connector to get the damn thing to boot.
Collector's Edition
I am sitting at home. I press a button to copy a file. Not pressing that button would not have generated any revenue for the copyright holder of the file, therefore pressing the button has not cost them any revenue.
The "lost revenue" argument is a joke. It may (and probably does) apply to people who produce illegal copies for distribution, but has zero weight with regards to individuals making copies for themselves.