With Sony being more open to porting their major PlayStation 4 club bangers on PC via Steam and the Epic Game Store, Microsoft’s Game Pass also bringing some decent titles to PC of which I also assumed would be console exclusive, and third-party developers and publishers who’ve apparently realized that PCs can do more than just Excel spreadsheets, social media, and, the hub, I’ve been thinking about what my tolerances and incentives are for buying the same game twice or more, and I’m curious as to how this community feels about it.

Before I begin to reminisce about my various escapades and misadventures during my pilgrimage towards Mordor with the Eye of Sauron being replaced by Nvidia’s glowing green logo, because this is my first attempt at writing a blog in over eleven years, I feel the need to get these disclaimers out of the way first:

• This is not a rant against remasters, remakes and eventual ports. I’m glad that they’re happening overall, even if my wallet is less enthused. If anything, I'm choosing this as an outlet for expressing and organizing my thoughts on the matter.
• This is not a rant against Sony. Just because I’ve voiced my disappointment with buying a PS4 Pro in 2019 in other threads, that doesn’t mean that I have any bile and vitriol for the company.
• And, this is not a masturbatory piece on how great PC gaming is. I’ll still stand by that troubleshooting isn’t as necessary as it was in the 90’s and 2000’s, but I get that some people don’t want their play space to resemble their work space, or spend four digits on something that will only play games when the consoles do the job well enough.

Also, for those who are like me and would rather someone just get to the point, chapter selection:

1. “The Dippening Part 1: Just the Dip”
2. “The Dippening Part 2: Nacho Gaben Cheese”
3. “Dipping Remorse & Waiting to Dip Again”
4. “Fellowship of the Dippening”

And with that out of the way, let’s get into it.

Chapter 1 - The Dippening Part 1: Just the Dip

Before I lost my face and was just a random young adult (as if anyone that I interact with these days is going to get that esoteric reference), my ventures into modern/HD gaming started with the Xbox 360 during the winter of 2007. Halo 3 and Gears of War were my introductory pieces of bread and butter to gaming in the 7th generation of consoles, while my HP Pavilion laptop with some sort of Intel dual-core CPU and 3GBs of RAM was a high school graduation gift for the eventual writing assignments for college and my many misadventures on GameTrailers. It was a simpler time where I was pretty much focused on the 360. Jay’s two cents and Linus’ tech tips weren’t around to teach me how to build or upgrade a PC. And the PS3 was in the price range between “Nope” and “Not happening“ according to, not only my parents, but also to myself since the idea of spending $600 on a thing to just play games on seemed really ludicrous at the time. As much as I lamented Metal Gear Solid 4 and next gen Ratchet & Clank being outside of my price range, fortunately I was able to play (the original) Devil May Cry 4 due to that losing PlayStation exclusivity during its development, and the decision making of me shopping for games was basically the same that it was for when I just had a PlayStation 2: just getting the games for my one console. …which lasted for about three years until having a PS3 become feasible via the Slim models where my stories of buying games more than once begins.

As much as I liked the 360, the PS3 was the console that I truly wanted. I enjoyed Borderlands on 360, even going as far to co-op with people when I got my 360 online with a 50’ Ethernet cable from Radio Shack (feel old yet?). I ended up buying the eventual Game of the Year release on PlayStation and co-op’d with my Sony bros. The original Mass Effect was a pretty important title in my gaming history and was one of my favorite Xbox exclusives (remember folks, PC didn’t exist for me yet). But, I ended up buying the trilogy release for PS3. The game to rival the hype and financial success of the first Iron Man movie, Grand Theft Auto IV: The overindulgence on the Euphoria ragdoll physics annoyed me on both console platforms. And according to PSNProfiles, since my mental checklist of every game I’ve played is starting to fade, I also double dipped on Far Cry 2. …I like Far Cry 2, in either a 21 Grams or a Requiem for a Dream kind of way.

But all was still right with the world as both platforms more or less got an equal amount of attention. The first 600 hours that I’ve ever spent in Skyrim was on the Xbox 360, which was balanced by me opting to get Dragon’s Dogma on PS3. My choice for where to play Burnout Paradise was on the 360, while Criterion’s Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit was on PS3. Bayonetta for team green. Lollipop Chainsaw for team blue. Saturdays were for Halo. Sundays were for Killzone... I think you get the idea.

The times were still simple. Both of my plastic boxes wrapped in circuitry and wires were equal favorites as far as Amazon and Game Stop were concerned. And my laptop was capable of running the CS4 versions of Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign well enough.

…until...

Chapter 2 - The Dippening Part 2: Nacho Gaben Cheese

As implied by my eccentricity, this is the point in the story, early 2015, when another platform change was beginning to happen both for fun and as a necessity. The Lenovo T410 laptop that I upgraded to left a lot of thermal performance to be desired when a video project would come to mind, and my Xbox 360 along with that portion of my games collection was placed on the chopping block in order to afford my first self-built desktop PC for around $500. 4GBs of RAM, a Celeron G1840 and a GTX 750 Ti were far from the most impressive parts on Newegg, but it really opened the floodgates for me transferring my games library to Steam and have them all be mostly playable with a 720p TV as a monitor. This years-long process of re-buying games during various Steam sales and PC upgrades includes but is most likely not limited to (cue the list music):

Bayonetta
Burnout Paradise
Borderlands
Castle Crashers
Crysis
Dark Souls
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Devil May Cry 4
Dissidia Final Fantasy NT
Dragon’s Dogma
Dungeon Defenders
Skyrim
Fallout 3
Far Cry 2
Far Cry 3
Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy XII
Final Fantasy XIII
Gears of War
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Grand Theft Auto IV
Grand Theft Auto V
Horizon: Zero Dawn
The Orange Box
Hitman: Absolution
The Mass Effect Trilogy
Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (2010)
Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2012)
Persona 4
Resident Evil 4
Resident Evil 5
The Saboteur
Saints Row 2
Saints Row: The Third
Saints Row IV
Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus
Shank
Star Wars: Battlefront 2 (2005)
Star Wars: Episode 1 Racer
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

I question whether of not this list considered long or short knowing that there are people out there that are crazier than I am. But (approximately) 42 is kind of a lot of games that I’ve re-bought due to my motivation of having most of my games in one place and the various iterations of my desktop being equally capable for work and play; granted that my work involves the Adobe suite and Clip Studio Paint where my work is the farthest thing from being in an office cubicle. Yay me for being one of the kids that made it.

As for the more salient moments from that wave of double, triple, and even quadruple dipping: The PC versions of Fallout 3 and Skyrim led me to Nexus Mods which really showed me how far I can experiment and possibly craft a game to suit nearly exactly what I’m looking for, even though it’s mainly the Bethesda titles where I look for the most useful quality-of-life adjustments and lore friendly additions, while I usually just install ReShade for most other games for my preferred color profile and to add in film grain and sharpening. The various first and third-person shooters showed me the mouse and keyboard controls are way more intuitive than a controller, which makes me hope that I can at some point add the Killzone series to my list of re-purchases. My PC can run Crysis, so, meme fulfilled. The Metal Gear Solid V games releasing on Steam was a very welcomed surprise which allowed me to put off buying a PlayStation 4 for a long as I did because The Phantom Pain was my most anticipated release of the eighth generation of systems. The Senran Kagura series also releasing on Steam was also very surprising due to me not believing that Shinovi Versus would get ported until the Steam page went live and lead to Estival Versus and Peach Beach Splash getting ports as well. And Saints Row 2 showed me that some games can be really weird if not completely broken on modern PCs for one reason or another; granted that my list of busted PC versions based on first-hand experience is very short and every game that I have between Steam, Uplay, Origin and Epic will successfully launch and run.

Chapter 3 - Dipping Remorse & Waiting to Dip Again

As I’ve said earlier in this thought salad, as much as I like the idea of PlayStation’s flagship titles making their way to PC, I think it’s accurate to say that I’m burning out on the notion of being presented with upgrade options since I’ve done that roughly 42 times during previous generations and I’m more reluctant to make repeat purchases of the same games again. To look at it proactively, I’m sitting relatively pretty (as of the release date of this blog) with 32GBs of RAM, an i9 9900K, a 2080 Ti, and a 3440 x 1440 100hz IPS monitor, so I’m sure that I’ll be able to play modern games at the high levels of performance that I desire, give or take ray-tracing, and that games that involve shooting such as The Last of Us Part 1 will be more comfortable for me to play due to how many bindings I can apply to my mouse, which is the Roccat Leadr, as opposed to fumbling with analog sticks. But because I’m trying to put more consideration into my purchasing decisions since, believe it or not, I also have hobbies outside of games that cost money, I feel the need to really contemplate on whether upgrading from the PS4 games I have to their PC’s versions is really worth the investment; particularly in regards to frame rate and frame pacing because of how spoiled I’ve become with a minimum of 60 over the past seven years.

To better illustrate my thought process by using these games as examples: Playing Ratchet & Clank (2016) and the Switch version of God Eater 3 have reminded me that 30 frames with consistent frame pacing does the job well enough. God of War, aka Dad of Boy, will run exceptionally well on my PC and that 21:9 will only add to the overall excellent art and presentation of the game, so grabbing the Steam version would be a significant enhancement over the console version for me. Horizon: Zero Dawn looks fantastic on PC. Shout out to Ashly Burch. Persona 5 Royal on the PS4 looked and ran fine from a technical perspective. I doubt that the Steam and Game Pass versions will support 21:9 and turn based JRPGs don’t really need all of the frames. Dissidia NT was as enjoyable as Dissidia NT can be on both platforms. And, as much as I like the Kingdom Hearts games due to the games coming out when I was old enough to be nostalgic for Disney but young enough to be hooked into a long running shonen anime series like the first few seasons of Naruto and One Piece, I really don’t need a third or fourth version of some of those games since the PS4 versions are good enough, though playing around with mods is very tempting. So, the only other formerly PlayStation exclusives that I see value in upgrading, again, for my intents and purposes, are Final Fantasy VII Remake (preferably on Steam), maybe Spider-Man if 21:9 becomes a thing, The Last of Us, and I’m hoping that the Killzone series and Bloodborne will make the jump to PC. Also, other people’s opinions be damned; I’ll take Halo 5 out of curiosity.

With all of that said, I think it’s safe to say that buying newer/alternate versions of games that I already have gives me mixed feelings. On one hand, the upgrades feel really worth-while, especially for older titles where newer tech can apply fresher coats of paint and can make use of the relatively unique features on PC. But, which may be weird to say since my overall collection of games is probably in the 500 to 600 range, I feel as though it takes away from the opportunity of looking at more low-key indie titles and I’ve certainly overlooked due to playing it safe by sticking only to what I know. I wouldn’t necessarily say that I regret something like having bought and played almost every version of Mass Effect 1, but I’m pretty convinced that I don’t need a PlayStation 5 any time soon (if ever at all), that taking the PC and Switch route works best for me, and that it's worth taking a chance on more niche titles instead of only sticking with what's familiar.

Chapter 4 - Fellowship of the Dippening

This is the part where I ask the community to either confess their sins as preparation for intervention, or do you just own it and brag about how many copies of a single game you’ve bought for multiple platforms? Can you relate to my story of moving from one platform to another, or was your solution to just own everything while still tippin' on four 84’s wrapped in four Vogues? And as for what’s on the horizon for Sony exclusives making their way to PC, what did you buy again, what are you going to buy again, and what would you buy again? Or, is it just simply about altruism where you’re just glad that more people can play more games?

Thanks for reading, and praise the sun.

The PSP has always been an interesting handheld device since it's debut in 2005 with the original 1000 model. In addition to it being a gaming platform, it could be used to watch movies, listen to music, surf the web at an available Wi-Fi access point, and other things that Nintendo hasn't added to the DS. Like the DS over the past five years or so, The PSP has also made some hardware changes and upgrades since the original model. The 2000 was a bit slimmer, and the current 3000 has a screen that helps playing games a bit more manageable in sunny situations. Those two models essentially stuck to the formula of the original PSP: a gaming device of which has a multimedia functions. As for the alternative model, the PSPGo, I feel as though it was created based on the formula of a multimedia device that can also play games.
 
It's apparent that the PSPGo does not appeal to many if not most gamers. Sony decided to make the Go a more portable system by eliminating the UMD slot. This made certain games that are in the PSP's UMD library unaccessible to Go owners simply because they're not available for download on PSN. The is the biggest set-back for the system, because the predicted majority of the PSP user base own a considerable amount of UMDs and aren't willing to exchange them for digital downloads. I myself am a part of the minority of which have never owned a big collection of PSP games, and have for some time owned the main model of the system, so the lack of a UMD slot was somewhat irrelevant. But after my 1000 broke down a few months ago, that component become relevant because I couldn't play some of the games that I wanted to play, including Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep.
 
As a posed to the PSPGo being competition to the Nintendo DS, I've always felt as the the Go was made to compete with the iPod Touch. There are videos on YouTube of it being compared to the iPod Touch, and the typical synopsis of the comparisons is that the iPod touch is good for general portable entertainment (music, videos, and casual games), while the Go has a bigger emphasis on gaming. Since the Go is scoffed by the PSP use base, it being frequently called a "niche" on EpicBattleAxe's podcasts last year, I think it's fair to say the PSP Go wasn't truly meant to appeal to the main user base. In fact, I remember that being said by Sony at their press conference at 2009's E3.
 
Again, I am a part of the minority of PSP owners that either have never owned a lot UMDs. I used my PSP 1000 more for music than games, but that has had it's problems because of it's size. The PSPGo on the other hand is why less bulkier, making it less of a chore to have it in my pocket. It's bluetooth functionality is pretty useful, and I eventually bought a bluetooth headset for $40 on Amazon.com, which actually saves me money because my wired earbuds would go def in one ear after two or three months and I have had to spend 15-to-20 dollars for a new pair. And the ability to pause the game, do something else with the system (mainly turning it completely off to save battery life), and being able to go back exactly where I left off is very useful when I feel like playing Chains of Olympus before class starts and I'm not close to any save points yet. Those three features are great for how I use a PSP, which are the reasons why I justify owning one. But I am aware that those three aspects of the Go are overshadowed by the fact that it's a gaming device, and that it disappoints on that front due to a lack of support from Sony  Go not being able to play UMDs, thus not having everything available to the system.

With all things to consider, PSPGo is a niche product the appeals to those who want a multimedia device that can also play games. Sony experimented with the PSP and got mixed results out of it; some like myself enjoy it while most don't care for it. Compared to the majority, many people seem to agree that the system is a flop of which not many people have interest in, myself included as the con outweighs the pros to some extent. Hopefully Sony remembers to put the gaming aspects of a potential gaming device first while developing the PSP2.

It's The Book of Genesis, on the Sega Genesis, and the song that plays is Genesis!

 Since I'm bored and don't really feel like playing games or complain about the GameTrailers.com community, I figure that I just might as well talk about  my experience with Need for Speed.

While I was trying to get rid of the various trojans that infected my computer after trying to install custom themes (me being a Vista user still), I decided to play a little bit of NFS Underground Rivals while my anit-virus software was doing it's thing for hours. It's been one of those launch titles for the PSP that I've been wanting since it came out, and I was pretty satisfied with it first plying it months ago. I like it more than one of the WipeOut PSP games, which felt too floaty for my liking. It really feel like a Need for Speed Underground game because of the look and style that the console Underground games have, though it helps that the soundtrack is pretty much copied and pasted from Underground 2 with bands like My Chemical Romance and No Warning thrown in. In short, it's a fun game of which is something that I can just pick up and play from where ever I left off months ago.
 
Need for Speed Most Wanted was another fun Need for Speed game that I played on two different consoles. I first played it around the original release of the last generation of consoles, the PS2 in my case. Coming from Underground 2, it thought it was awesome mainly because the cop chases were new to me (not knowing about Hot Pursuit 2 at the time). But thee were two things that have always bummed me out about it: no cars from Nissan (the Skyline and 350Z being my favorites from the underground games), and a lowered emphasis on customization. But I got over that, and after trading in the PS2 version years ago, I bought the 360 version early this year. At this point I vaguely remember how the PS2 version looked (aside from it being in 4:3), but the 360 version looks great and I was amazed all over again from not only the graphical update, but also from the nostalgia from playing the PS2 version to completion. I've yet to complete the 360 version, but I feel a little compelled to right now.
 
Another Need for Speed title that I feel like repurchasing for my 360 and playing is Need for Speed Carbon. I remember playing it as if it was a mixture of Underground 2 and Most Wanted. The look from Underground 2 was back and looked great to me. I have a love for that type of scenery. I always liked just driving around at night on the highway and downtown. The police from Most Wanted were back, though that's about it. I remember this really long encounter with them in in Carbon, but there were a lot more of them in Most Wanted, and they were more epic as well. The territory aspect of the game was an interesting edition, though thinking back on it i wish it was more frantic in the sense that my conquered territories were being attacked more often, as if I was playing Risk I guess. I remember the canyon races to be more frustrating than fun for the typical skill based reasons. I was frustrating when I would fail at a critical moment in a race by not turning or braking well enough, but it was fun when I won after retrying the course four of five times. It wasn't my favorite part about Carbon, but it's something that I'd like the experience again after years of not playing it. In conclusion, Carbon was good if not just an okay Need for Speed game, but I'd like to have an updated experience with it.
 
Sometime after that game, I stopped following the Need for Speed games. I was looking at the PS3, the Xbox 360, and the Wii at the time, being 2007 I guess. I noticed Pro Street and was kinda interested because of my love for the series. But after a few reviews said that it sucked I lost interest. And a year later, Undercover was announced. I was hoping that it was going to be better than Pro Street according to reviews, but it turned out to suck even harder apparently. By that time, I joined the NFS is dead bandwagon and was apprehensive about Shift when that was announced. I was thinking that it was going to suck compared to Forza 3, but then I saw the footage and was amazed. First person driving wasn't new to me since it was in Far Cry 2, my not knowing about the other games that did it, but the cockpit in Shift looked stunning seeing it in videos online. I was impressed, I wanted to play it, and I finally got a hold of the demo around Easter this year and got to experience it first hand. And my opinion of Shift changed again. It looked as well at it played; it was great and I would like to play more of it sometime.
 
Now a days I'm looking forward to getting a PS3 (for a number of reasons), so I've held off on buying Carbon and Shift for the 360. And now that Criterion's game Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is coming out in November, that will be another game to add to my wish list in addition to the other games that are coming out over the next four months or so. So hopefully I'll have a PS3 as a Christmas gift (I'd buy it right now if I had a job), and I'll sort out what games to get for what system. In the meanwhile, I'll play some Most Wanted and Underground Rivals when the mood strikes me, to pass the time until getting the new console.

I'm just tired of people going back and fourth about how the new Xbox 360 damages discs. Ever since Destructoi's video recording the incident people have been going at it non stop; either pointing the finger at Microsoft or saying that it's common scene that you shouldn't more a console while a disc is playing. I stand with the common scene crowd because moving you console from a horizontal position to vertical while a disc is playing is not recommended with any console.

Out of all of the threads where people have been discussing it, only on this site have someone mentioned angular momentum. I'll admit that physics isn't my strong suit, but it just makes sense that if a disc that is moving at a high speed at a 180-degree angle, that moving it to 90 degrees disturbs it’s rotation and thus getting scratched by something inside the console. And I’ve read posts by people blaming Microsoft, saying that it’s the disc tray is faulty, or that the system is really sensitive, and other things that imply the Microsoft cut corners. Again, I don’t trust my knowledge of physics at 100%, so I’m sure that someone can explain what I’m trying to convey more clearly.

And just to state the obvious: It’s a gaming console that is designed to be stationary, not a laptop or a portable DVD player that are both designed to be moved around. I’m sure that Microsoft didn’t design the Xbox 360 for mobile use, and the same can be said for Sony and the PlayStation 3. But since most people don’t flip their consoles around while playing games, they don’t need to have the extra parts needed to keep the disc stable if the console were to be moved.

So with all of that said, I hope that people realize all of what is going on by the guy from Destructoid moving the console from a horizontal stance to a semi-vertical stance. It’s not because of faulty hardware; it’s because of carelessness. So, hopefully more people will realize that and just move on.

 Thread of inspiration: Destructoid's quality "journalism" shines through again.

Another day, another account banned by TheSoviet. Not that I'm surprised, but bored at this point. This game of cat and mouse has been going on for three days straight, so I guess I'll call it quits for now and play some more when I'm in the mood.
 
His goal is to get rid of me completely; either by instantly banning every account that he sees me posting with, or by making me so bored that I don't want to go back to GameTrailers. If boring me out of GT is his plan, it's working, because I am losing my insensitive to go to GT. Well, not necessarily because of Soviet, it's because I've been bored with GT for some time now.
 
I've pretty much done everything on that site; some constructive things like writing blogs, and more annoying things like spamming and trolling. I'd make a more complete list if I felt like rambling, so long story short: There's nothing else for me to do in the site; not even talk to people, because the community has gotten boring over the years.
 
Most people generally know how people are online: Immature, to say the least. Every thread has someone posting an overused meme, trolls, racism... Not that I'm offended, but a break from the repetition, a group of people who aren't always rude, is always nice. From my point of view, GT was pleasant in 07, fun in 08, but went down hill in 09.
 
...Which is why I find myself coming here more often, not just for the videos, but for the forums as well. I like the community so far, though I'm still relitivly new here. I can see myself being an active member on this site for as long as I've been active on GT.

It's been a while since I've written a blog; three months and four days in GameTrailers to be exact. "Why such a log delay?", or, "Why the long break from writing?" some may ask. Well to answer their questions plainly and simply, I was permanently just hours after posting it. It's a coincidence though. I've abided by the rules on GT for months after the first permanent ban almost a year ago. But apparently TheSoviet disregards my time of good behavior and decides to ban me on the fatuous technicalities, such as legally coming back after a permanent ban. He's hated for what he did to me and others on the site and for good reason, but the higher-ups don't seem to take notice or action and myself and others remain banned, but rebellious. I'm still on GT though other alias that take him a while to track down. At this point I'm bragging about my record of 15 bans as TrueRandomness, ILuvDeepThroat, TheSilentTruth, TrueRandomnessGT, SilentRandomness, and TR as I spend close to three years on the site. To may list of titles on the site: spammer, troll, and  white knight just to name a few, I can now add ban evader to the list as I continue to create accounts to post in private factions, me being the founder of two of them.
 
So, what consists of my online persona of many names?
 
My blogging started on 2008 as TrueRandomness. I don't think that I've written anything significant, considering that it was just a pass time and that there were others getting more attention than me. There isn't much to talk about 2008, other than me taking an interest in graphic design and making really amateurish signatures and PSP wallpapers in Paint.NET. 2009 was more eventful as I gained friends, became a leader of my first faction, created my first AMV, and built upon my designing talents bit by bit. This was also the year when I've made a foolish mistake a TrueRandomness (circumventing a ban as ILuvDeepThroat) and became TheSilentTruth (though I didn't stick with that name until New Years). That time was very similar to my time a TrueRandomness; more followers, more blogs, another faction, and making things in Photoshop CS4. As for the other three accounts, they were used to be incognito as I roamed private factions (and continue to roam with unbanned accounts).
 
And so I came here looking for a safe haven from the moderator, though it's not the "new beginning" as it was back on July 1st 07 was TrueRandomness on GT. I see this as a continuation of myself on gaming sites as I take on signature requests and run at least one of my two factions.
 
Well, I guess I might as well end this blog with some of what I do in PS: