Splinter Cell Blacklist is quite good and easily the pinnacle of the series. I recommend it.
I don’t know of it matches your political agenda, or whatever, but steam user reviews are rated “very positive” and meta critic sez 82.
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I own it. I quit after 50 mins of playtime. I found the controls muddy and frustrating.
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You have peculiar tastes in games. I can also recommend Mark of the Ninja, it is only 2d but exceptional stealth, and I kinda hate 2d platformers. Even Mario.
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Sounds like my experience with Dark Souls. I really wanted to like it but the controls were so unnecessarily clunky I just couldn’t get it into it.
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Ah, see Dark Souls worked like a charm for me. I felt solidly connected to the world, so long as I didn’t have to jump.
But, yeah, controls need to feel right for the individual or it breaks immersion.
I bought it the moment it came out and played it a few hours but my computer at the time was not into it at all (it was a pretty behind-computer). From what I played of it, I agree with @funruly. If you liked Bastion (and I did), you’ll probably like Transistor.
It’s darker and has a noir feel to it. The mechanic, as I recall, is pretty different. Unlike Bastion where you’re part of the last surviving sentient group, you’ve got a world full of people with motives and not very many friends. Honestly the atmosphere is way more stressful for me.
Both are funner with a game controller than with a keyboard so I’m not sure how that would translate to iOS.
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I know people love their controllers, and I wouldn’t argue about Bastion for that reason, but in transistor a significant part of the battle system is entering commands while the action is frozen, so I doubt a controller adds too much to the experience.
More generally Bastion was shorter than I would have liked (but I’m awful in this regard, I usually want 100+ hours of gameplay from everything), but it was a fantastic story. Transistor seems equally good but I only got about halfway through it. I’ll finish it one day, but it is a game that you really want to have the sound on for, which makes it harder to find time to play with small children about.
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But when they get older you can play co-op with them!
I have to say, I feel very strange that my daughter got me to promise to teach her the rules to Magic: the Gathering while I was watching it on Twitch one day. I started playing in 1995, and it is hard to imagine that 1995 me would have predicted one day playing it with my own children (but not for a few years, it is not a game for four-year-olds).
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You can always start her out with Pokemon cards… though 4 is still a bit young but that was big fun for both my kid starting at around 6? for a few years. He isn’t so much into it any more but I really like the vibe for the club and competitive play they have. They try to keep it mostly about having fun with your friends.
Definitely. Bastion kind of needs sound but if you’re just about playing it you probably won’t miss out totally. For Transistor, way too much of the plot is happening in voice overs.
Although if I’m not mistaken both have an option for subtitles so for anyone who has hearing troubles, don’t worry (for me … I can’t filter sound out like most people … which means words spoken in a noisy environment have to rely on my limited lip reading abilities).
For the keyboard vs controller thing, I just find it comparatively relaxing. I wouldn’t try to play WOW with one but I would like to play Mass Effect with one.
Games with fewer buttons I often feel are better with controllers if for no other reason than you don’t have an entire keyboard to accidentally hit the wrong key on. Anything where you’re precisely controlling movement vs looking I definitely like better with a controller. (Except for FPSes which I prefer not to play at all, input method be damned. 
)
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Anyone have a recommendation for a Game controller that’s Mac compatible, preferably super cheap/easily found used? I’m getting around to playing Bioshock (yeah, I’m way behind the times) but on a Macbook I get the feeling it might be too difficult with just a trackpad/keyboard.
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I don’t know if this meets all your criteria for cheap / completely mac compatible, but I have always liked Microsoft’s hardware (keyboards, mice, and xbox 360 controllers). There are mac guides out there, but I can’t personally vouch for them.
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@stinkinbadgers I can’t test at this exact moment (on my mac but in the middle of a project), but I agree with @funruly (xbox 360 controllers are awesome) but suggest this link instead.
I’m also seeing some indications that name brand PS3 wireless controllers can connect with bluetooth to a Mac pretty consistently.
One of the big caveats is that many game developers for Windows games know their audience will try to use an xbox controller. I’m not sure game on Mac are making the same assumption. I don’t really have that many games on my Mac to give you that clear an idea once I try.
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Does anyone have a recommendation for good PC laptop that will work effectively as a everyday general computer and be an effective gaming computer simultaneously? I am looking for something 1,500 and I have already heard Sager name dropped as a good PC maker to look at. Also any general “first time switching from Mac to PC” advice would be welcome… or just general new computer advice/purchasing advice.
Didn’t take quite as long to hit a breaking point in my project as I had anticipated. Using the driver I linked, my handiest xbox 360 controller worked beautifully. Did require a reboot, alas. But after that everything went swimmingly.
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I’m probably exactly the wrong person to ask since I switched (sort of) the other direction.
I don’t know much about Sager but the laptops in your price range all look pretty great. Only particular advice I have for buying new laptops (beyond dedicated video cards and SSDs for your primary drive) is probably pretty subjective:
If you can get an external monitor, getting a 15 inch laptop or smaller is for the best. I really started to resent lugging my last 17 inch around long before it became too out of date to use.
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I am getting really fed up of waiting for Overland to arrive.
Not sure why, but it just really interests me.
Haven’t bought any new games for a while. Noodling around with Invisible, Inc again, and trying out the update to Bedlam (the changes make it different, but not necessarily better).
Guess I’m just all about the permadeath turn based stuff right now. Easier to grab a few minutes when the munchkin gives me the opportunity, I guess.
I should probably buy DotT, too.
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I have either had business class dells or lenovos for work and if they come with a dedicated graphics chip they work quite well (heck the kid plays Borderlands, 2, pre-sequel not maxed out but good looking on an i5 with a nvidia chip on an old latitude) and my gaming box is a dell inspirion cause I get a work discount mostly.
The casing is where you pay for things and well with Sager probably paying for no shovelware as well. My only warning is if you go for the 17" screen (which you probably are not for $1500) they weigh a lot (ask me how I know). It end up more a easily portable desktop than a machine you want to tote around everywhere.
So unless you wanna play the latest greatest stuff at max settings you should do fine.
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