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Gaming Without Steam: What Are the Advantages?

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If you’re also never willing to ditch Steam when you want to run your favorite games, you will probably reconsider your decision after reading this article. We are not here to say that the Steam platform is useless, however, but we just want to pinpoint a few possible advantages.

Running a game like Counter-Strike 2 isn’t possible without having Steam installed on your computer, so if you’re a fan of the game, we’re clearly not saying that you should get rid of it and your Steam app from your PC! However, let’s check out a few potential benefits of running video games without Steam:

Privacy and data control

Running games without Steam may offer you greater privacy and control over your personal data. It’s understandable why you may be willing to prefer avoiding digital platforms that require account registration or collecting too much user data, as it doesn’t necessarily mean that you are a conspiracy theorist.

If, instead, you choose to buy games from alternative platforms or even purchase physical copies, you can have greater control over your gaming experience and personal information. Too bad it becomes harder and harder to find games for PC on DVDs nowadays!

Offline play and ownership

Steam is known for offering features such as remote installation and cloud saves. On the other hand, playing games without having Steam installed and running can assure you a more traditional approach to both game ownership and offline play. Some players prefer physical copies of games or digital copies free of DRM that can be installed without having to rely on an internet connection or third-party platform.

For instance, a game such as Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 is very beloved among Dragon Ball fans, and you can play it without having to install Steam or other third-party app. You don’t even have to wait for any updates, as the game is 17 years old.

No more annoying updates

Running games without Steam, especially some very old ones, will get you rid of those very frustrating moments when you first need to wait for a bulky update to install before the game itself launches. Such updates can even take half an hour, and they will most likely also take away your desire to play the game anymore.

A lot of modern games nowadays are frequently updated by their developers, which is why you will have to frequently run into big updates that take forever to install.

More diversity regarding platforms and online stores

If you finally make the big step of ditching your Steam app from your laptop/desktop PC, you need to know that you will thus have the freedom to explore a wider variety of platforms and even digital distribution stores. In other words, you will have the chance to explore Epic Games Store, Origin, GOG, Uplay, and more. Each of these platforms may have its own list of unique features that can help you out.

Competition and pricing

Competition among digital distribution platforms can cause competitive pricing and better deals in the case of consumers. Gaming without Steam can allow you to take advantage of discounts and promotions offered by various stores. And who on Earth doesn’t like to save some dough, right?

There’s much greater flexibility when it comes to gaming without Steam, not to mention the fact that, thus, a gamer can have control over his gaming experience. He can even explore alternative platforms.

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How Video Games Can Benefit Your Mental Health

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

A lot of parents out there are worried that video games can make their children violent, aggressive, or prone to neglecting their homework. And you know what? That’s somewhat true as long as the child spends too much time playing video games and if he doesn’t receive a strong education at home. Otherwise, gaming can be beneficial for people of all ages, and we’ll immediately explain why.

Gaming is a form of entertainment, and no developer or publisher created a game in order to make someone become violent or aggressive. Most of the time, video games display aggressive behavior in order to show that those who don’t behave well in society will face their downfall sooner or later. As for the other video games, the developers and publishers simply don’t care, but that doesn’t mean that they encourage any kind of antisocial behavior.

Video games can actually benefit the player’s mental health, and here’s how:

Stimulating ambition and reflexes

Many times in video games, such as shooters like Counter-Strike, Call of Duty, or Sniper Ghost Warrior, the player needs to be extremely careful to shoot his opponents at the right moment. If he delays even a second, that can be enough for him to miss the mark and become the next target in the game. In a game like those from the FIFA series, on the other hand, you constantly need to be aware of your opponent’s moves and tactics, while at the same time, you need to apply yours at the right time. In other words, there’s a lot of strategic thinking needed to win a match in a FIFA game, which is another confirmation that video games stimulate your mind a lot.

The more you progress through an RPG game, for instance, the harder the game itself will become. If the current level isn’t enough for you and you need the game to become harder, don’t worry, as most video games offer you the option to increase difficulty. In other words, video games seriously stimulate the players’ ambition.

Reducing stress

A lot of those who like to play video games say that such a task induces them a state of relaxation, which will automatically reduce their stress. It’s a fact that stress is one of the biggest problems in our society, and it can occur because of countless factors: politicians, our jobs, our bosses, not getting paid enough, not getting the chance to succeed at the job, and many more.

Prolonged and chronic stress can also significantly impact both our physical and mental health, and that could potentially contribute to the development of various diseases. If you want a list of health conditions that have been associated with chronic stress, you can consider depression, anxiety, hypertension, immune system suppression, gastroesophageal Reflux Disease, and type 2 diabetes.

Guess what conditions such as depression or type 2 diabetes can do to you if you don’t treat it? Both of these two conditions can have serious consequences for a person’s health, such as contributing to severe complications that could even be potentially life-threatening.

You got the idea: playing video games can help you get rid of stress, while stress can lead to even worse conditions if you don’t take good care of it.

Ultimately, we must all be well aware that video games are useful only as long as you use them in the right way. Excessively playing video games would certainly not be a good idea in most cases. But excess, in general, is not good, regardless of what domain you apply it to.

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Top High-Graphics PC Games That You Can Play With Only 2GB of RAM

Credit: Steam

The standards that people have nowadays when it comes to gaming are usually very high, as it’s hard to find a game that doesn’t have mind-blowing graphics. While these games will also usually take a toll on your PC’s hardware, there are still plenty of titles out there that impress the world with their amazing graphics and can be played without having some high-tech gear at your disposal.

High-graphics PC games that you can play even though you have only 2GB of RAM on your computer truly exist, and we’re not saying that you can find them in some parallel universe. They exist in our own physical reality, and we’re delighted to have the chance to mention some of them:

Sniper Elite V2

Sniper Elite V2 was launched in 2012, and it represents the beginning of some of the most amazing elements that make Sniper Elite a top-end series. This game was the bee’s knees at its time, and it qualifies as a tactical stealth shooter set in the German battlefields of the Second World War. You play as Karl Fairburne, an American sniper who needs to apply every dirty trick in the book to get his hands on the V2 rockets mission plan that the Nazis were ‘cooking.’

The Sniper Elite series is mostly known for introducing the so-called kill-cam, meaning that when your character fires a bullet with his sniper, you will see that bullet as it flies in slow motion and pierces the organs of your opponents. Sniper Elite V2 harnesses the kill cam very well. As you’ve already guessed, this game is not for the faint of heart.

Sniper Elite V2 can be played if you have at least 2GB of RAM and 256MB of VRAM on your GPU.

Sniper Elite 3

Launched in 2014, Sniper Elite 3 is the sequel to Sniper Elite V2, and it brings even better graphics than its predecessor. This time, Karl Fairburne will go to the dangerous fields of Africa, where he will encounter pretty much anything you can imagine in a large-scale war: lots of soldiers equipped with terrifying weapons (such as snipers and rocket launchers), mines, and even tanks. Besides his weapons, Karl also has some dirty tricks that he can use to lure his enemies directly into traps. Compared to its predecessor, Sniper Elite 3 is more focused on a stealth approach, as it is indeed feasible to make your way through the enemy’s territory without alerting anyone. However, it’s VERY difficult!

Sniper Elite 3 even takes the kill cam to a new level, adding more detail to the graphics that display a lot of gore and blood. That’s just the harsh reality of war, folks, so please don’t blame the guys from Rebellion for creating such an amazing game series!

Similarly to its predecessor, Sniper Elite 3 demands only 2GB of RAM and 256MB of VRAM for your graphics card.

GTA 4

GTA 4 represented a huge improvement over the predecessor GTA 3. Rockstar released their new game in 2008, where the main protagonist is Niko Bellic, a war veteran who came to Liberty City (a parody of New York) from Europe to hopefully live a better life. Along with his cousin Roman, Niko will get into all sorts of trouble in Liberty City, as he has a taste for adventure and danger.

GTA 4 offers a massive open-world, and it will work even on PCs that have 1.5GB of RAM. The graphics might not be as spectacular as other titles from this list, but they still represent a huge improvement compared to GTA 3.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (aka CS:GO)

CS: GO came out in 2012, being the successor of the legendary CS 1.6. The new game of the series was built on pretty much the same concept as its predecessor: you get to be part of either one of two groups: terrorists or counter-terrorists. You and your team need to kill all opponents of the other team. The first team that loses all of its members loses the round as well. Alternatively, if the terrorists plant the bomb and it explodes, they win. Counter-terrorists can also win the round if they find the time to defuse the bomb that was just planted.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive brings much better graphics than what we’ve seen in Counter-Strike 1.6 or in any other game of the famous shooter series. The 2012 game also brought new weapons and new maps, and it’s pretty hard to complain about anything this game has to offer. It is still played by millions today despite being a game that’s over a decade old.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive needs at least 2 gigs of RAM and 256 gigs of VRAM to run on a computer.

Mafia II

We may be subjective on this, but Mafia 2 takes the cake, as it’s most probably the best game on this list. Set in the mobster world of the ’40s and ’50s, the world of this game had amazing attention to detail from the devs. The guys from 2K Czech did a fantastic job for those times, as this game came out in 2010. That was 13 years ago, and even so, Mafia 2 had fantastic graphics and audio effects. Even the facial expressions of the characters look in accordance with what they speak in the cut scenes, while the shooting sounds extremely realistic and piercing.

In Mafia 2, the player puts himself in the shoes of Vito Scaletta, a war veteran from Europe who came to Empire Bay (New York), where he meets his good friend and partner in crime, Joe. Vito will rapidly start to climb the ranks of the criminal world, although such a path won’t bring him any peace and joy.

Mafia 2 needs only 1.5GB of RAM to be played on the PC.

Which one of the games mentioned here is your favorite and why? Feel free to tell us in the comments!

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Games

Top Games That Had Amazing Graphics for Their Time

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While gaming in 2023 is indeed at an unprecedented level when it comes to graphics, as it’s pretty difficult to find a game that doesn’t have an environment that looks as realistic as the world we interact with every day, the situation wasn’t always like this. During its first stages, gaming looked absolutely horrible compared to the most popular titles of today, as you could literally count the pixels on the screen.

Gaming evolved gradually into how we mostly know it today, although we don’t have to forget that there are a lot of retro games out there nowadays that feature ‘ancient’ graphics. That’s precisely why people like them anyway, as not everybody is up for highly realistic games such as Red Dead Redemption 2 or EA SPORTS FC 24, for instance.

Some of the video games that are the subject of this article were released at a time when the graphics of video games, in general, looked very poor and obsolete compared to what exists today. GTA San Andreas, for instance, is a fabulous game if we consider the gameplay itself, but the graphics looked absolutely horrible compared to the industry’s current standards. Let’s cut to the chase:

Crysis (2007)

The mind-blowing graphics of Crysis cannot be stressed enough. This is the first game in its series, and it’s basically a multiplayer shooter game where the player steps in the shoes of a guy who’s stranded in the jungle. Who knows what great dangers might lurk at every corner? That’s why playing this game never gets old, and you could compare it to the Egyptian Pyramids in some way. While it’s still uncertain today how it was possible for someone to build those pyramids thousands of years ago, making such a highly realistic game, such as Crysis in 2007, is also puzzling. Maybe aliens built the Egyptian Pyramids and also gave Crysis to us as a bonus, who can tell for sure?

GTA Vice City (2002)

Launched more than two decades ago, in 2002, GTA Vice City is one of the most popular and highly influential video games, and it still holds the flag high even today. This game represents a big open-world environment and some very nice graphics for its time. Back in 2002, when GTA Vice City broke out, it rapidly became a hit.

GTA Vice City follows the adventures of Tommy Vercetti, who’s not exactly the kind of guy you would like to play Call of Duty with. He likes to play Call of Duty in the ‘real’ world of GTA Vice City, actually.

Counter-Strike 1.6 (2003)

You probably know the drill when it comes to Counter-Strike games, as the legendary 1.6 is no exception: you are part of a team of terrorists or counter-terrorists, and you need to defeat the other enemy along with your partners. The first team that loses all of its members loses. On the other hand, if you plant the bomb as a terrorist and it explodes, you win. If you deactivate the bomb planted by your terrorist opponents, you win. If the others do these actions against you, you lose.

Counter-Strike 1.6 was launched in 2003, and it became one of the most played video games worldwide. While the graphics weren’t too impressive for their time, the sound effects were fabulous for their time and even for today’s gaming standards.

GTA 4 (2008)

At its release back in 2008, GTA 4 represented a huge upgrade compared to its predecessor, GTA 3, in every possible way. While the gameplay is extremely interesting and dark, along with the similar dialogues, the graphics in GTA 4 were simply amazing and probably even unprecedented for their time. Rockstar created a very addictive open world where Niko Bellic, a Bosnian war veteran, was the main protagonist, and he had to visit his cousin Roman in Liberty City (a parody of New York City).

Once arrived in Liberty City, Niko gets into all sorts of trouble along with his cousin, and they have no choice but to kill or be killed. GTA 4 was extremely well received by the fans of Grand Theft Auto games, and some believe up to this day that this 2008 game is even better than its successor, GTA 5.

Mafia 2 (2010)

Easily one of the best gangster games of all time, Mafia 2, which came out 13 years ago, easily takes the cake in our view. This game is an absolute classic, and there’s no wonder why some people say that it’s the best game ever made. The attention to detail that the developers had for this game is amazing, and the graphics were out of this world for the period when Mafia 2 was released. Even the facial expressions of the characters were extremely well done. The windows break very realistically if the protagonists shoot at them. Those are just two of the best examples that come to mind to explain the amazing graphics of this game.

In Mafia 2, the player will be in the shoes of Vito Schaletta, an Italian soldier who participated in WWII in Europe. Visiting his buddy Joe in the Empire Bay (parody of New York) of the ’40s, Joe will have to face challenges that are at least as difficult as the war. The world of mobsters where he became trapped doesn’t have any mercy on anyone, and Vito rapidly figured out the hard way that he has no choice but to play by its dirty rules.

How about your own favorite games that feature amazing graphics for their time? Feel free to leave your thoughts and opinions in a comment below!

 

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