this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2025
45 points (95.9% liked)

Games

40352 readers
1917 users here now

Welcome to the largest gaming community on Lemmy! Discussion for all kinds of games. Video games, tabletop games, card games etc.

Rules

1. Submissions have to be related to games

Video games, tabletop, or otherwise. Posts not related to games will be deleted.

This community is focused on games, of all kinds. Any news item or discussion should be related to gaming in some way.

2. No bigotry or harassment, be civil

No bigotry, hardline stance. Try not to get too heated when entering into a discussion or debate.

We are here to talk and discuss about one of our passions, not fight or be exposed to hate. Posts or responses that are hateful will be deleted to keep the atmosphere good. If repeatedly violated, not only will the comment be deleted but a ban will be handed out as well. We judge each case individually.

3. No excessive self-promotion

Try to keep it to 10% self-promotion / 90% other stuff in your post history.

This is to prevent people from posting for the sole purpose of promoting their own website or social media account.

4. Stay on-topic; no memes, funny videos, giveaways, reposts, or low-effort posts

This community is mostly for discussion and news. Remember to search for the thing you're submitting before posting to see if it's already been posted.

We want to keep the quality of posts high. Therefore, memes, funny videos, low-effort posts and reposts are not allowed. We prohibit giveaways because we cannot be sure that the person holding the giveaway will actually do what they promise.

5. Mark Spoilers and NSFW

Make sure to mark your stuff or it may be removed.

No one wants to be spoiled. Therefore, always mark spoilers. Similarly mark NSFW, in case anyone is browsing in a public space or at work.

6. No linking to piracy

Don't share it here, there are other places to find it. Discussion of piracy is fine.

We don't want us moderators or the admins of lemmy.world to get in trouble for linking to piracy. Therefore, any link to piracy will be removed. Discussion of it is of course allowed.

Authorized Regular Threads

Related communities

PM a mod to add your own

Video games

Generic

Help and suggestions

By platform

By type

By games

Language specific

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I sold my PC yesterday because of financial struggles and as far as I'm aware, I would probably be unable to buy a PC or console ever again. That said, I still want to somehow experience the games I would otherwise want to play on PC. I'm thinking of watching let's plays but of course, that's not the same as actually playing them. For those in the same boat, what do you do? Do you just let go? Or maybe watch playthroughs? I'm curious.

all 18 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 3 points 15 hours ago

Do you ever hunt around Facebook Marketplace? When electronics drop in value enough, often times, people will just give them away. I have. It's (sometimes) less hassle than trying to haggle with people over a few dollars for severely outdated hardware, and my goal at that point is to get it into someone's hands who will use it rather than have the stuff go to a landfill. Even a very outdated PC will still play tons and tons of great games for cheap or free. They frequently won't be the latest and greatest, but there's less and less correlation these days with high game quality and high system requirements.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 day ago

and as far as I’m aware, I would probably be unable to buy a PC or console ever again.

I don't have any suggestions but I am so, so sorry and I really hope things turn around for you for the better.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago

Due to Long Covid I can only lay in bed and most games are too intense for me. So I actually do watch let's plays.

I really like Welonz. She has a really nice mix of indies and big titles, regularly tries out a great variety of games. She is very thorough and while she might not find all the secrets she will go out of her way to show alternate endings and stuff. And she has an interesting voice, so rumor has it that she is actually a ten year old boy.

[–] reseller_pledge609 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If emulation is an option you could play some classics on your phone if it helps.

Sorry for your situation. Hope the future looks better.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago

To elaborate on this.... phone emulation isn't just for retro classics. Many phones will have enough power to emulate modern Switch games, and semi-modern games up to Wii/3DS or so. Many modern games are also portrd to phones (Dead Cells, Hollow Knight, Wild Rift, Fortnite, etc).

Sorry to hear OP is having such a hard time, but SBC gaming is another option if there's enough of a budget for that. Retroid Pocket 4 Pro (£120 on eBay, upto Wii/3DS/manySwitch), or Retroid Pocket 5 (£190 on eBay, up to PS3 and all of Switch).

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago

I would probably be unable to buy a PC or console ever again.

Shit dude, that's rough
If I may ask, what happened?

Otherwise, no nearby gaming cafés? They're usually reasonably priced

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

If it's only for one game, you could probably try cloud gaming. I gave a friend of mine who wanted to play Death Stranding 2 but has no PS5 access to remote play, and it seems to be working OK. Some of the services work on phones or TVs.

Also, my condolences on selling your pc. I hope it helped your situation a bit.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

You could try to get a used Steam Deck. That will let you play most current AAA games and plenty of indie or older titles for not a lot of money. Apart from that, I wish you all the best and I hope things get better for you.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Reading, enjoying vacation, ...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

Other hobbies lke hiking, biking, etc. but if your only concern is cost, why not get an old computer for super cheap, put Linux on it, and play games thay don't need high end specs?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

I'm sitting in a restaurant waiting for my food

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

You could get monthly subscriptions for services like Geforce Now or Xbox Cloud Gaming. With a decent internet connection and a controller, pretty much any device that can display video becomes a gaming device. Obviously this may work out to be more expensive in the long run and these services have some weird terms of service so a decent research before subscribing is required but if you need to game for a month with minimal upfront investment they are pretty good.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Let's plays can be okay for new games, but I'd look into emulating something on your phone. If you crave the pc experience (which I totally get), you can probably get an old laptop for very cheap, slap linux on it and have fun.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Used market is great, and I prefer true console hardware anyway when emulators are not optimized.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

I'm sorry to hear that. Obviously we don't know your situation but I just want to say that gaming doesn't have to be expensive so hopefully you're back to it sooner rather than later.