Ideally I would want to throw out my TV at some point in a near future, it is big and I hardly ever use it, so I don't feel like investing in a new console.
Plus, PC still has a lot more games to offer than any other system (by a huge margin) :P

A used PS2 does by the way seem to go for about 600sek, or about $91. I could probably find one for less, but probably not by all that much, unless I were to start to really dig around.

PC, to me, is really only useful anymore for playing either old games or MMOs. I refuse to support PC gaming that relies on Steam/Origin/etc or otherwise, IMO, customer hostile business methods.

For me, consoles, anymore, are the way to go. No fiddling with settings, drivers, etc. Put the disc in and it generally works. A PS2 has a pretty big back library of games and since it is backwards compatible with the PS1, you can get all those games as well.

Well if you don't want a console you could still do pretty well with buying a handheld. Probably fairly cheap to get a DS or PSP now that the 3DS and Vita are out, and they aren't region locked if you want to import from other regions. Might not find the DS to be worthwhile since the main attraction in terms of SRPGs (not counting Advance Wars series) are the two Devil Survivor games and some of them are vanilla and some are just bad.

PSP you'd have a better selection what with the FFT port, the Tactics Ogre remake, Growlanser 4, NIS' games (the Disgaea series and Phantom Brave), the Dept. Heaven series (Yggdra Union, Gungnir), Wild Arms XF, Jeanne D'arc, Neverland series (Generations of Chaos and Aedis Eclipse, Spectral Souls and Blazing Souls, Neverland Card Battles), etc.. Also upcoming Ragnarok Tactics I guess, haven't really looked into it.

And if you rather not, if you already have an Android smartphone there's the possibility of Generations of Chaos, Spectral Souls, and Blazing Souls.

The only problem is those three are Idea Factory games so they are naturally low budget/amateurish/poorly designed/user unfriendly/confusing/buggy/etc. At least they probably perform better and have significantly less loading times than the PSP versions (where it's a major problem) if the trailers/gameplay demonstration are any indication.

I think Battle of Wesnoth is what you are looking for. And the best part, it´s free!

[url=]http://wesnoth.org/[/url]

Sorry! I need to learn to read the OP more careful next time...

More medival than fantasy & not quite turnbased but I assume big enough on the other requirements to give it a look: http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/robin_hood

Fine, unless you are looking for 4X titles. Or modding support. Or many indie titles.
Anyway, many things about consoles (region lock?) seem rather hostile towards customers (and small developers) as well. Fiddling with drivers etc. is probably a matter of taste - with consoles, you press the button and everything works (and remains unchanged for years), with a PC you have more control, can update stuff etc (which inevitably requires fiddling at some points).

Unless you have something against tweaking and emulators there's always PCSX2. It had an official release lately as 1.0 and a lot of games work now on it, even the more demanding ones (although those require even more tweaking and a stronger computer). :)

The only games that I've ever cared about mod support is Fallout 3 and Oblivion. Everything else has been fine as-is. Indie games, I don't really give two shits about for the most part. There's always XBLA and their Indie platform if I really want to spend the time.

As for region lock, I can always resell the games when I'm done with them. Most PC games anymore are rendered valueless once they are taken out of the box. I can accept GOG because my games are not beholden to anyone or any server once I download them. While I may not be able to resell them, they can't take them away from me either, unlike anything that requires online activation and/or tying the game to an account that requires the publisher's ok.

Consoles have a set design spec. The devs can get the most out of them and know what they are designing for, rather than having to take into account the many variations of hardware that exist on the PC. I'm also not a fan of the PC upgrade treadmill and enforced obsolecence (sic). While I am fully capable (and have done so) of building my own systems and maintaining them, I simply don't have the wherewithal anymore to waste time doing so. The time spent fiddling I would rather spend playing.

Looks like GOG was stalking you... ;p

There are still more games being released for PC that don't force such things upon you than there are games released for consoles each year. And any digital distribution platform operating through consoles is going to be facing a large problem in the upcoming years. A new console generation is on its way, and what will happen to all the games you bought through Xbox live, Wii virtual console or Playstation network? They won't be keeping the servers up for those for all eternity, and once they have stopped supporting their older consoles, your purchases will be gone.
Of course if Steam was to go away we would all lose our steam purchases, but that seem to at least be a far far more distant problem.

The second problem with consoles is the price of games. Games just tend to be a lot cheaper on PC.

And the third reason why I stick with PC is because my two favourite genres are strategy & CRPGs. You won't a game like Europa Universalis or StarCraft on consoles, nor will you see the next Geneforge or Frayed Knights. CRPGs lower on stats tends to be found on consoles as well, but the really stat heavy ones are a lot rarer.

Plus of course modding. Once you've experienced the joy of modding your games, it is hard to go back.

Mainly my computer that stops me from using that. It can't handle PS2 emulators, at least judging by the information I could find online.

That game is roughly like Commandos, is it not? That is sadly not the kind of game that I feel like playing right now (plus I really suck at commandos)

Yep :P Sadly, I have a copy of the game standing in my shelf :( It is quite nice, though I found Etherlords 2 to be better.

How can this be sadly?
I wouldn't be sad if i had one on my shelf! ;p

btw, did you found any interesting game to play? (this genre is a little hard, and rare to find on PC)

Because I won't be able to experience it for the first time again :P I noticed that you replied in the main release thread for the game, but for those interesting: http://www.gog.com/en/forum/general/release_etherlords/post20
All in all, an interesting & fun game. Not the best game of all time, but for fans of the genre or for people looking for something a bit different, it is a game well worth playing.

Has anyone suggested Battle of Wesnoth yet? It's free.

And many PC releases are also multiplatform releases, showing up on consoles. Typically crappy ports of games that were designed for the console first. Again, I could give a shit about indie games or stuff like Angry Birds/Minecraft/etc.

You...don't really know how XBLA and stuff works, do you? You buy the item and download it to your console. It doesn't exist as a cloud-type game. It resides on your console, much like a GOG game does on your harddrive. So long as that console is functioning, you can play the game. You also do not need to be connected to the internet to play them.

The rub does come on games with multiplayer functionality and game companies *cough*EA*cough* that like to shut down mp servers. The single player portion is still playable, but not the MP. Games also come down quite quickly in price for console ones. They tend to only be at the $60 price point for a few months post-release. And I've noticed that PC ones are now seeming to hit that $60 initial point more and more often. Take a look at some of the Japanese-origin RPGs available on both the PS2 and the PS3 (all the Final Fantasy games barring 11 & 14, Disgaea series, Persona series, Dragon Quest series). You might be surprised, especially if you think stat-heavy games are rare on consoles. I will concede that on the 360, they are somewhat rarer, but things exist like FF13, Blue Dragon, Record of Agarest War/RoAW Zero, Fallout 3 & New Vegas, Oblivion, Skyrim, and Nier. The Wii even has a few like Last Story and Xenoblade Chronicles.

Then you have your titles like Catherine that simply aren't going to be on a PC. That game alone is one of the best, most quirky, hilarious, and story-driven that I've seen in a long time.

I'm sorry, but you sound exactly like a PC-elitist who hasn't really taken the time to ever see what's actually available on a console. Fiddly bits, again.

Check the first post :P

Why bring up Angry Birds? It was a game that made its fame on smartphones, and then later made its way to PC AND Xbox.
Yes, there are many ports of console games on PC (and there are many bad ports), but there are also far more games that are not ports of console games. And I care about indie. There are plenty of indie games that hold a quality comparable to that of AAA games. And please don't slot all indies into the casual, small, simplistic and/or artsy slot. That is just not a valid thing to do (as you are just cutting yourself of from some amazing games by doing so)

I know that you download them to your console. But what happens with the games that you had to remove from your console for one reason or another (lack of space, for an example)? Once the servers goes down, you can't re-download them.

Quickly but not as quickly, and not to the same low price point. I have a Wii console. Wii games are usually the cheapest ones, both on release, and post release (I've compared, because I have at times pondered if it is worth buying another console), and Wii games are still usually more expensive than PC games of a similar age.


I dislike most JRPGs (there are exceptions). It is not a genre that is new to me though, I have planed a fare amount of games from it, and they just don't pull me in the same way.
Also, I have experience with both the Final Fantasy & Dragon Quest/warrior series, they don't really compare to games like say Wizardry, Might & Magic or Frayed Knights.
Xenoblade by the way was a big disappointment. Xenogears was a game that I liked, and Xenoblade was promising enough at the start, but it just failed to keep a good story pace, and the second half of the game just dragged. This is a common problem with a lot of JRPGs (though again, there are exceptions).
Fallout 3 & Oblivion are sub-par games out of the box. I would never consider playing them without mods (Oblivion more so than Fallout 3). New Vegas was pretty good, but after having played it modded, I won't go back to playing it unmodded. Why play a good game when you can play a great game? Same with Skyrim, good out of the box, miles better with mods. And none of these really count as stat-heavy.
And was not Nier considered to be pretty bad?

*edit* And for the record, I know of the Japanese Wizardry games
Catherine is one of the games that I would be interested in playing, that never made it to PC. There are a few others, though not enough to justify the added expense of buying a console.


I have, and as I said above, there are several console games that I would be interested in playing (of the top of my head: Metal Gear Solid-series (played up to 2), Catherine, the DS-Castlevanias, Little Big Planet, Fire Emblem for DS, Scribblenauts, Heavy Rain, Tales of Symphonia for Wii (too expensive though), that 2d side scrolling RPG-like game that was made by the same people who made made Muramasa the Daemon blade (forgot its name), the Disgaea series, Killer 7, the Persona series and plenty more that I can't remember right now. The problem is that I just can't justify the added cost of buying these games, and many of them are pretty darn expensive to buy even if you already have the console.

And totally worth it. Why play a good game when you, with 10-30min of extra work, can play a great game? (Depending on game and how ambitious you want to be with modding)