Here's to 1 year of Steamgifts! 🍻 [Whitelist Recruitment]

Happy Cakeday once again! This means a slice of cake for everyone coming 🍰 (this must be expensive, it ain't my job getting the cakes)!

For sure, but it only happens once a year. 😂

Favourite gaming experience? Playing CS:GO for close to 6 years with 1600h combined spread across 2 accounts, and still being one of the lowest ranks in the game. Just not enough space to experience more AAA games (https://i.imgur.com/Ibb4dv5.png). Would love to play Gears 5 though since it's on Game Pass.

Online games can rob you of quality with quality games. You'll never get that time back so you best spend it doing what you love. ❤

Btw, you're whitelisted already. 😎

Happy Cakeday, and thank you for keeping the forum alive!

I'm happy to hear you're enjoying the content I sometimes share. You're awesome!

I don't have any cool stories, so I'll just tell about my experience with a certain trilogy. Back when The Longest Journey was released (it happen in 1999, but I got my pirated CD in 2000), I was a naive and romantic (albeit also a rather depressive) 15-year-old girl. And I absolutely fell in love with April Ryan the way a straight girl can fall in love with a fictional girl. Her story which was entirely fantastic somehow felt very close to home. Over the next few years I replayed the game so often that literally got to learn it by heart. I didn't need a sequel, I was perfectly content with the story told - but I was absolutely ecstatic when several years later the development of Dreamfall began. Still, can's say I was happy with the sequel. The story was awesome, but April got a really small part in it, and other two protagonists just didn't click with me (not to mention ridiculous action sequences that were both clumsy and out of place). And let's not speak about the ending. I'm generally fine with cliffhangers, but Dreamfall just left every storyline with an insanely intense cliffhanger. And that would have been fine if they'd started working on a sequel immediately, but that was not a case at all.

Oh I remember playing this game, but never finishing it. I can't remember the state of the game though, but I did enjoy it. It's a puzzle adventure game, if I remember well, am I correct?

I think the 2000's were some amazing years for gamers. I can remember having a lot of pleasant experiences back then.

Still, so many years later, in 2017, the final chapter in the story was released. I both loved and hated it. Ragnar Tørnquist remained a brilliant storyteller, but now April was completely out of the picture (well, she was still present in the story, but not in the form you'd expect). Nonetheless, the whole experience was extremely emotional for me. There's a certain mysterious episode in the very first game, and Chapters ends up at the very same scene, but in the new light. And that's perfect. I'm not a teenager anymore, I'm a grown woman, but I did cry during that scene, it was really cathartic.

I'd like so much to feel like that with some old games that I once loved. Revisiting them in a new remake or remaster light it so heartwarming. I'm really happy you got to experience that.

PS: There's not much I can do besides saying that you've been on my whitelist for a while now. 😄

Happy cakeday Vasha! Hope you have many, many more ahead of you!

Thank you very much and I apologize for getting back to you two weeks later. 🙏🏻

(I didn't know you had a YT! o: Lemme just help you out there! Don't judge my empty channel since I don't use my YT yet, when I do it will mostly be to archive VODs when my decent mic arrives. :'D)

Thank you very much for your support. 🙏🏻 My partner and I really appreciate it. We have a lot to work on, but we enjoy it and we just hit our 500 mark on Subscribers.

I've played... Waaaayyy too many games to have just one favourite experience and all, but recently this happened: https://www.tiktok.com/@mishygo/video/7111856380847361285

I don't think I've ever hear or played that game. Is it available on Steam?\

PS: You got yourself a whitelist. ❤

I wish I got my hands on that game. I've heard that although not the best game, it has some really fun and creative stuff. I'd love to play it on Steam. 😥

Whitelisted already. 😆

I've got to play and finish that game too. Love GTA franchise very much and throughout all my experience with it there's always something to like from that game that you can't find anywhere else.

Whitelisted. 🍻

Happy Cake Day.
It's my real cake day today xD

I'm sorry for my late reply. Happy Belated Birthday! 🍰

My favourite moment in video game was when I learnt how to fly in Skyrim.
Oh yeah, there i was standing in a lush green field, and a Giant comes an hits me and sends me to low orbit of space and all that singing of R Kelly "I believe i can fly" actually came true.

Those scenes never get old. 🤣 Funny how that giant waited patiently to smack him out of Skyrim. 😆

Thank you! It's very kind of you!

I try to, because I think it's overall important that we have a balanced mindset about how all things are. We can easily slip into a negative state with what we see and hear in this world. Stay safe out there!

What's your overall opinion on the game? Is it getting better?

I think taking a game really serious as a war game it's pretty damn cool. Whitelisted. 🍻

Hats off to you gentleman. That game isn't easy and really time consuming because it gets progressively harder.

Good game and whitelisted. 🍰🍻

Here is a cool story with a very ancient game, Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis

This game I wasn't aware until you told me about. I've checked it on YT. That's such an amazing concept that I wish it would return to modern FPS.

Campaign, Operation Flashpoint was a very interesting shooter. It was realistic, if you got shot, you couldn't just hide and heal. You were dead. People don't just shrug a bullet.

I was with a squad of ten soldiers soldiers that had to attack a city. We didn't have any recon, but we knew the enemy probably were more than us. I was the last one of the squad. We moved to attack, and we defeated a few ones. I saw a enemy squad taking positions, and I rushed to kill them, surprising them. But I got separated from my squad, and I was too busy shooting to survive to notice. Suddenly I heard the third in command taking charge of the operation, meaning the sarge and the second in command was dead. I acknowledged, same as three other people. Six of us were dead, and I was separated from my squad. I heard a shot, and again, another of us took charge, and only two us us acknowledged. Then another shot. The one above me took charge, and I was the only one that acknowledged it.

A final shot, and nobody of my squad answered. I was alone, in the middle of the city, with an unknown number of hostiles. And I noticed for the first time how loud was the silence.

I crouched, and for an hour, I moved very, very carefully, checking each corner, looking for the enemy, afraid of receiving a bullet any time I moved, fearing each shadow. Finally I saw the enemy that had killed so many of my squadmates, as I rounded a corner: A single enemy soldier left, also crouching, also looking for me.

We saw each other, and we both shot each other. I was just one second faster.

Woah! That's such a cool story and concept. I would have loved it so much. I understood that nowadays the Operation Flashpoint is no longer as trilling as it used to be?

Thank you for sharing this great story. Did you win or the game carried on after?

Btw, whitelisted.

Thanks Cole! 😃

I didn't wanted to share it because that wasn't my personal intention to promote it, but thank you very much for that. Do you have an experience in gaming that you'll never forget?

Thank you Karm! ❤

Pretty much any Bethesda open-world game has somewhat of a feeling of comfort for me too. although Skyrim, does a better job than others.

What's your favorite type of mods?

PS: Whitelisted.

I remember hanging out with my friend in similar fashion and playing strategy games. I was watching and coordonating the building and stuff, while he was manning the army. It's such a fun time that honestly would love to get it back again.

Do you guys play games together? What's your favorite co-op game?

PS: Whitelisted for bringing back some warm memories. 🥰

Monster Hunter World always left me hungry with those beautiful scenes. Hands down they got the best looking food in any video games. I don't know if MH Rise has the same quality.

I read once that even a vegan person drooled over the esthetics of the food. 🤣

PS: Whitelisted.

Thank you so very much! 🍻

One fond memory that comes to mind, is when I got my favorite Animal Crossing villager, as I was readying for the doctor. I was bored as hell waiting for the doctor to call me back from the dressing area, while I played some Animal Crossing. I checked out the campsite not hoping for much of anything, and there he was! PUNCHY! I'd been looking for him for ages. I was so happy that I let out a little whoop, and it shocked several of the nurses. One of them knocked on the wall to check on me. lol

Hahaha! That's awesome! I got some of my favorite villagers off of Nookazon. I loved that website and I've not used it for 2 years now.

He's been my favorite since the first game. I've always gone out of my way to get him, since he was my buddy that always said hi and sent me the best letters. Rocco and Tipper were always the rudest, and I really hadn't grown too attached to anyone else. Closest second was Mitzi, and we weren't best friends. Not like Punchy and me. Punchy was the very first to wish me a happy birthday during an especially bad day, and he always sent me back a nice letter every time I wrote him one.

That made it one of the best days, in spite of the fact that I hate that medical procedure.

Animal Crossing is an excellent game. I should revisit it, but I'm currently conquering my backlog which is my priority. I know there's not many updates happening in the game, but hey, I still think it's fun.

Whitelisted. 😃

Best moment I've had in video game happened a long time ago, back when I was a freshman in college. My family was just below average in terms of income back then so our only computer is a second-handed one too weak to play anything released after 2000 (there're some great games in there, I know, I just thought they're so old to be good at that point in time). A fellow student introduced me to visual novels, being a weeb and all, and I was foolish enough to try it.

This is the point where some of you will say "not a video game", but if Telltales games are games then so are visual novel, CYOA adaptations, walking simulators, at least for me okay?

I'll be honest. I've never dis-considered visual novels as non-video games. You're somewhat having an interaction in it, and well, although it's reading, it's still a form of entertainment and plays in a way that your role matters in some way. Unless the whole game you pretty much read through and well, you can't interact at all, but just click and skip to the next. Still, I'd still consider it as a light and digestible video game.

An introduction: nukige is a type of visual novel created with the purpose of bringing tears to the audience, and it worked beautifully. This game is one such. When I was asked to befriend a sickly girl in this type of game and accepted, I should have immediately known that she would have something terminal. I didn't. I befriended that girl, went on some dates and generally had fun until the disease was apparent, then it was just a painful ride from there. My character wasn't dumb but he was powerless, so the only thing he could do was to stay with her till the end and watch as she becoming more and more lifeless day by day, pretending that everything is normal and stay cheerful as best as both of them can. I'm not sure if it was the real me I would have that courage to do that. Honestly.

That's really sad, only from what you've described. I believe you may have done it out of attachment to the person.

I just trudged along, hoping for a miracle bestowed by the game creator, all the while feeling more and more terrible at each (game-time) dawn. At the point where she apparently died, I had to stop for that day. Think that was the only time I've cried because of a video game, even till now, because it is so sad. Just a few drops of tears mind you, but still, not those "manly" drops like the kind action heroes have. Laugh all you want.

I see no problem in that. I'd probably look for visual novels to trigger an emotion like that because usually interactive video games kinda kill that emotion. I've never cried in a video game, but I'd like to experience it. I don't play many visual novels because I've never taken the time to find the ones I'd be interested. It's never because I think I wouldn't like them. 😃

I have to ask you if you've happen to come across it on Steam and if so, can you link the game? The good about Visual Novels is that they can stand the tests of time even after 10-20 years.

PS: Whitelisted.

You have to tell me some examples. I've got a weird sense of humor and well, I can play along. 😄

Hey, Happy cake day :) Glad to see you are active here and I personally have enjoyed all the discussions you have started. And even here - pretty cool how you make people reminiscence.

Gaming for me is something special and looking back at games we loved is something I could speak for hours on end. I honestly appreciate this community and I'd not participate in it if it didn't feel so welcoming and friendly. You guys are amazing!

As for stories about games - My favorite games I enjoy in peace and quite. But the best memories comes from not the best - but the ones I play with friends. I remember I managed to play around 1000 hours in CoD4 when I was in school. Met some really cool guys from around the country and we got together often to play and chat. Made some good friendships along the way. Although with years going switched more to playing games with closer friends and after finishing Uni everyone managed to move to different cities. So every game we decide to play (really doesn't matter which one) is really wholesome and exciting.

The older I get the more I realized that at time to time, I need an experience with some of your best mates that you can unwind and laugh. I've experienced that kind of similar excitement as a teen and I can truly say that they were the best moments of my life. Unfortunately, my taste in multiplayer games isn't as aligned as it used to be with my old internet friends, but I can say that I've had some good times in some games. One that comes to mind is from Gang Beasts. I've played it for the first time a few years back and we've laughed historically for 20 minutes straight. I need to revisit this game and play it once more.

But I suppose the best memory is when we got together all of our close friends who are not into gaming and did a gaming night - Friend of mine played Outlast and everyone else was skootched around the PC and joking, making suggestions and having great time. This evolved into bigger parties for us and now the friend who plays horror games most has a playstation. So now we gift him any new release and visit him and sit around TV having great time while he plays.

I miss that. All my childhood friends, who were all gamers remain back home. I miss hanging out and bringing our PC's and laptops to do a gaming night or sleep over.

PS: You're whitelisted already. Not much I can do. 😃

Thank you very much! 🍻🤝🏻

One thing that came to mind, it's a bit of a long story. Back when I was like 11, I had a friend in an MMORPG called MapleStory (Europe).

Oh I remember MapleStory. I wanted to get into it, but somewhat didn't play it. As I was searching now I found out that MapleStory 2 shut down by end of March 2020. 😥 This reminded me that Tera Online also shut down recently.

We became friends because our characters looked exactly the same and we'd spend all our time together. Then one day she stopped logging in without a word, and after a while I also quit. Then fast forward maybe a year, I'm playing the Dutch Habbo Hotel, and I see her name in one of the 10 winners of some screenshot event on the homepage.

Woah! 😮 That's an amazing coincidence.

I immediately add her as a friend and the next day she shows up in one of my ingame rooms and we reconnect, and make sure to exchange contact details. Turns out the reason she disappeared is because she simply lost internet for a while, and then when she came back to the game, I was gone. In the end, we met up in real life a couple times to go to the cinema or to concerts and such. PS. The first time we met went through our parents so nothing sketchy. 😅

That's awesome! I'm so happy you've managed to reconnect. Friendships like that are awesome. Thanks for sharing that story with me. Whitelisted for making me feel really happy and fuzzy inside. 😄