May i add a weird take?

Atari flew under the radar with the re release of its VCS…it is basically a gaming laptop you plug into your tv or a monitor. Its highly customizable and can run windows or Linux, and has its own atari os built in for atari games. I love mine and im mostly using it as my media center pc and light gaming machine, and its a steal at $130 for a used ebay one.

Many people put an emulation linux os on them too.

It will run ps1 and ps2 games easy, likely also Xbox og. Runs a lot of my steam games too.

However, a game like last of us and gtav are going to take a hell of lot more power than the vcs. If you can leave those games off the table, the vcs can do a lot.

What you’re not really detailing to us is what exactly do you even want from a game? And if there’s an answer to that, in what way would you prefer to have played that game on?

I think, despite the current hardware price gutting for PCs right now, we’re still in the best of times for PC games. You will not find as many great deals or sales for games on consoles as you would for PC, comparatively speaking. There is a wide range of variability in PC unmatched. Consoles have had their heyday when PC gaming was still figuring itself out in the 80s, 90s and a tiny bit of the 2000s. But, it’s almost no contest anymore.

Obligatory steamdeck comment. Probably the easiest way to play PC games and pretty cheap too compared to buying a new PC. You don’t have to deal with windows. Just start it up and play a game.

What year is this?

Not as complicated as it was back in the day when you had to manage Extended RAM vs. Expanded RAM.

https://youtu.be/zqjHEBFnNY0

GoG.com is a fine place to get offline-installable games.
Although, you will have to do a minimum amount of research to make sure it actually works properly offline.

As you didn’t play games you can go and play banger titles from previous years that you can grab for pennies when they go on frequent sales. There is dedicated community of !patientgamers@sh.itjust.works.

kernel-level anti-cheat is vary good headline clickbait for media to write on. Most games don’t have them. Some competitive multiplayer games have them but you can check it case by case basis.

If you REALLY want to have separate device for gaming, as you don’t really need that, there are few options to choose from. Playstation, Xbox, and Switch are the mainstream consoles right now. The have a fair share of anti-consumer practices and they offset the cost of hardware by making games more expensive, but you buy convenience and simplicity. The lemmy bubble will tell you to buy Steam Deck and it is really fine choice to make. (Steam is releasing new hardware this year so you might take a look)

Steam has 2 hours of playtime return policy, so you can return the game if you don’t like it. Their hardware pitch is to sell console-like experience (Playsation etc.) on PC. They succeeded in that regard.

I think the first question you should answer is which games do you want to play, the answer will be vastly different if you say Astro Bot or Factorio. So for this I will try to base it on my own gaming preferences, which is mostly single-player games. Answering your points:

1. You don’t really need a separate PC, there’s no reason to be that paranoid.
2. Most games don’t have kernel level anti-cheat, only competitive multiplayer games, and those you can’t pirate, so they’re irrelevant to your other solution.
3. Yeah, long gone are the days of popping a disc and playing.

Ok, so, this is my personal opinion, but as long as you don’t care about competitive multiplayer games it should be a valid option for you as well.

Get a Steam Deck. Pros:

• It’s plug-and-play for most stuff, so while you will need to download the content it should just work without fiddling.
• Pricewise is very good, you might be able to build a desktop for cheaper, but that would require a lot more effort than going to steam and clicking buy.
• It’s a separate device, also it’s portable, and while that might not be important currently, it’s nice to be able to pack a gaming rig in your backpack when you have to travel for some reason.
• With some minimal setup can run emulation of anything up to ps2 era very comfortably. It’s a very simple setup with just running one script to set things up.
• It can (if you’re willing to jump through hoops to set it up) run and even download pirates content, although with the ease of access of games on Steam I hardly think it’s worth it.

Cons:

• It’s Linux, so it can’t run games that actively try to prevent you from running Linux, e.g. some online competitive games, in short anything that would require kernel-level anti-cheat.
• It’s a lot more expensive than running games on whatever laptop/desktop you have with you.
• It’s not that powerful, because it’s portable it’s very low power, so while it can run Cyberpunk, it won’t look good or flow nicely. If this is your only deal breaker, you might want to wait a bit because very shortly Steam will launch Steam Machines which are the same thing except trading portability for power.

Install Steam, install game, click play, play.

This is an oversimplification, but the gist of how it works. This also assumes you know how to use a PC generally.

There’s WAY too many good games to be worried about playing the latest most expensive cutting edge slop. A cheap gaming PC from the marketplace of your choosing and a new SSD is all you need.

Piracy is also generally very safe, if you find a certain reputable russian steam forum, they have a very strict vetting policy. If you’re that cautious about that sort of thing, you can always download the clean Steam files and apply the crack (drag and drop) yourself.

It’s the closest you can get to the source without being in the scene.

New consoles are expected after the RAM crisis, whenever that ends, but I believe you’re right about the futureproofing aspect. The consoles of today are capable of a LOT, the only thing that will get devs to stop releasing games for them is if Sony/Nintendo take a page from graphics card companies and stop selling them.

Edit: Re-read your question, you are talking about games in general. A Switch might be a good buy, straightforward and you can usually find people willing to play in person or online for the more popular games. The games are rarely on sale though. Highly recommend a pro controller if you go this route.

For PC, there’s basically never kernel level anti-cheat, only a few frankly not great games go that route.

As far as expensive goes, there’s a ton of great PC games you can get for less than $5 during steam sale. The initial buy-in is more for a maybe $1500 PC, but you will make that up after a few dozen games. If you know a PC gaming enthusiast, imply you would play with them if you had a PC and they might sell you an old rig for dirt cheap. I’ve sold a few that way for like $100.

Set-up is easy as steam is the only program you need and controllers are plug-and-play. If you are willing to risk a little work, I found Linux Mint as an OS really easy to install and use, and then it will be future-proof (unlike windows) as well as free. You may have to troubleshoot something weird, but their forums are super helpful.

Ehh… I’ve yet to get a virus from pirating games. Only virus I’ve ever gotten was on my childhood PC when my uncle was watching some sketchy adult content. I was just playing neopets at the time, so I doubt it was me

Kernel level anticheat is mostly in MMORPGs, which is my preferred genre, though there are some games without it. Notably Final Fantasy XIV, and Guild Wars 2 have no anticheat in the client at all. It also depends on the anticheat how much I’m willing to put up with it. XIGNCode is a hard no from me, but nprotect, and easyanticheat are both whatever IMO. Pick your threat model though.

The most complicated game is Wurm Online, and that’s because there’s something going on with my desktop where it just. Crashes. Constantly. I can usually get it to stay on indefinitely after 8 restarts, but it’s annoying.

Consoles are only future proof if you consider that eventually games will stop being released for them, and parts will stop being made. Sure you’ll be able to play the games you already own on them forever, but… Also your PC will be able to run any game on them forever, at least until the hardware degrades, but that also goes for consoles.

If you want to go fully no DRM, GOG is your best bet for most games. Itch.io is also there, but it’s mostly indie games, which isn’t everyone’s scene.

Overall I don’t think of it as complicated, but I’ve been PC gaming consistently for… 25 ish years? I’m largely used to it.

Why would you need a separate device?

I am wondering if Factorio is a good or absolutely terrible suggestion… I mean the basic controls are pretty simple, but there is also the risk you may never see sunlight again. But there is a free demo and it should run on fairly low spec PCs so wouldn’t need any special extra hardware.

No one says you gotta play games coming out today.

If you only want to play single player, want it to be cheap, and have a great library of games to play… .Pick up a used PS2 or Gamecube. PS2 lets you play both PS2 and PS1 games, gamecube…if you can find a gameboy adapter for it for cheap, also opens up gameboy/gameboycolor/gameboy advance games. real versatile.

Should be able to find one used online/garage sale/classified for cheap. games are abundant, cheap, and amazing.

anything older is starting to get expensive, and anything newer will typically be always online/online drm checks/etc.

Especially true with how AI is absolutely ruining hardware prices atm, with ram costing as much as goddamn video cards.

Course, thats assuming you want to play on the actual hardware, setting up a retropi for SNES/NES/Genesis/ETC is also viable, bit more fraut trying to find the roms nowadays, though. is the best, most affordable option if you want to play PS1 or older, though.