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[Sappho]

I have an Xbox 360 controller (several, actually), so all set there.

[Flying Dice]

Yeah, DS1 is probably your best bet. I'd guess it has the fewest players compared to 2 and 3, so you're less likely to get ganked while playing through.

However if you do get invaded....chances are they're going to be a professional asshole.

I do not know what that means, but the first game seems the logical place to start anyway, and it's also the cheapest. Also, Google seems to agree with the recommendation (though I trust you guys here more than Uncle Google). I'll think it over a day or two then grab it - if anyone thinks I'm making a huge mistake, let me know. Thanks!

All of the Soulsborne games have a mechanic by which other players can enter your single-player world as helpful or malevolent spirits. White summons and Sunbros will lay down white or gold summon signs which in their world that appear other players' worlds and can be activated to summon that player to help fight the AI enemies (particularly common at the start points of areas and around boss doors), or to fend off invaders. Invaders are red spirits, players who activate a special item that allows them to enter the world of another player in the same area of the world with the intent of killing them. There are other types of spirits in the various games, some that are automatically summoned to defend you from invaders, some that are automatically summoned to kill players in defense of specific world areas, some to be complete assholes that kill everyone at the worst possible time (goddamn purples).

Because that's all based on having an active playerbase and DaS1 is quite old and not played nearly as much now, especially after the release of DaS3, it's unlikely that you'll encounter many spirits of any sort. That's both good and bad: you're not going to be invaded much, but you won't find much help if you want a spirit to aid in progressing through a difficult area, and anyone who is still invading in DaS1 is, as nenjin suggested, probably an asshole with a ton of experience specifically getting off on killing latecomers to the series.

Meanwhile in DaS3 you can usually find a helpful summon just about anywhere you might need one (though, uh, their actual helpfulness may vary), but running around embered in any high-traffic area is pretty much guaranteed to start a steady flow of invaders. Of course, since DaS3 is newer, a lot of those are going to be chumps that you can kill without too much trouble, especially once you get good at countering brainless R1 spammers.

Though I'd disagree with Teneb, 3 is definitely playable with mouse and keyboard; I got through NG pretty easily without a controller. But yeah, if you get 1, the M&K controls are totally fucked and a controller is mandatory.

[Persus13]

Humble bundle has a free racing game again, this time its GRID.

[acidia]

My wish list:
Fallout 4 Season Pass (-40%, $30)
Rimworld (-0%, $30)
FreeHolder (-15%, $8.50)
State of Decay: Year-One (-50%, $15)
XCOM 2 (-50%, $30)
Bunch of EUIV DLCs (-66%, $5 each)

Doesn't look like my $40 is going very far 
Suggestions?

[Twinwolf]

First up, Rimworld is not on sale going by your list, so not that. You should take advantage of the sales rather than buy something at the same price you could normally, in my opinion.

I can't speak on Fallout 4 or State of Decay, having never finished either and having no intention too. I have not played FreeHolder.

XCOM 2 I can highly recommend, especially for only $30, so maybe get that and two EUIV DLCs?

[umiman]

My wish list:
Fallout 4 Season Pass (-40%, $30)
Rimworld (-0%, $30)
FreeHolder (-15%, $8.50)
State of Decay: Year-One (-50%, $15)
XCOM 2 (-50%, $30)
Bunch of EUIV DLCs (-66%, $5 each)

Doesn't look like my $40 is going very far 
Suggestions?

as someone playing fallout 4 right now. Only far harbor is worth it. Maybe nuka world.

[BurnedToast]

However, and this is important for all 3 dark souls: you absolutely need a controller. It is possible to play with Keyboard and Mouse, but the experience will be horrible. Even after three games, From still can't do decent PC controls.

I strongly disagree, using DSmousefix I finished DS1 without any trouble (well, any trouble caused by the controls anyway) using KB/M.

I even made it up to

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

bell golems

without DSmousefix, though at that point the target switching nonsense in the default controls was too much so I had to install it.

No idea how good the other ones are with KB/M, I've only played DS1.

My wish list:
Fallout 4 Season Pass (-40%, $30)
Rimworld (-0%, $30)
FreeHolder (-15%, $8.50)
State of Decay: Year-One (-50%, $15)
XCOM 2 (-50%, $30)
Bunch of EUIV DLCs (-66%, $5 each)

Doesn't look like my $40 is going very far 
Suggestions?

State of decay was really, really overrated IMO and I didn't care for it at all. I had the "regular" edition not YOSE but from what I understand it's 99% the same anyway.

The game was basically just constantly babysitting people who were both utterly and completely incompetent, and constantly bitching/whining/fighting each other for no reason, and most of the "gameplay" consisted of running over hordes of zombies with cars, getting out for 2 minutes to grab some supplies or whatever, then running over even more zombies on the way back.

That's really it - it was so much more effective to just plow through hordes with zero risk that the only time you'd ever fight zombies were the very rare missions that you couldn't squeeze a car into.

Never played any of the others on your list - rimworld looks really good, but that 0% discount :/

[USEC_OFFICER]

Because that's all based on having an active playerbase and DaS1 is quite old and not played nearly as much now, especially after the release of DaS3, it's unlikely that you'll encounter many spirits of any sort. That's both good and bad: you're not going to be invaded much, but you won't find much help if you want a spirit to aid in progressing through a difficult area, and anyone who is still invading in DaS1 is, as nenjin suggested, probably an asshole with a ton of experience specifically getting off on killing latecomers to the series.

I'd like to point out that DS1's matchmaking was more or less gutted when they removed the Games for Windows from it (or whatever it was called). As such you're extremely unlikely to encounter another player in the game, friendly or otherwise. In my first play-through I think I got invaded once and saw one or two summoning signs, from starting in Undead Asylum up to rekindling the flame. If you want to do multiplayer in DS1, you pretty much have to load up a separate program which quickly autoconnects you with other players. The game by itself just doesn't do matchmaking very well.

Mind you, DS2's multiplayer is still chugging along quite fine. Co-op is alive and well, though I believe most PvP is limited to duelling and the couple of locations tied to it.

Anyways. Speaking of Dark Souls, DS3 is on sale for half price but that's still 33 dollars (more if you want the season pass) and more than I usually spend on a _single game. As someone who loved DS1, liked DS2 and has a good enough computer to run it, do you guys think it's worth grabbing? I also have my eye on a bunch of other games and aren't sure if it's worth getting it now or waiting until later.

[My Name is Immaterial]

My wish list:
Fallout 4 Season Pass (-40%, $30)
Rimworld (-0%, $30)
FreeHolder (-15%, $8.50)
State of Decay: Year-One (-50%, $15)
XCOM 2 (-50%, $30)
Bunch of EUIV DLCs (-66%, $5 each)

Doesn't look like my $40 is going very far 
Suggestions?

Rimworld's never been on sale, according to Isthereanydeal.com, and it probably wont go on sale until its full release. That said, it's a fully featured game, when you include mods. It's really good. Maybe not worth $30 right now, but if you play the shit out of it, you'll probably have a great time.

[SeriousConcentrate]

Having played and beaten all 5 Soulsborne games multiple times, I can't honestly recommend DS3. It just wasn't fun. The first time through the game was kind of interesting, to be fair, but for me the best part of those games was replaying it with a different build. Other than going for a different one of the four endings, there isn't any reason to slog through DS3 after you do it once.

[Sensei]

If you use the mod for Dark Souls 1 called DSCM, Dark Souls Connectivity Mod, there is still a small active player base. You can invade people, get invaded, and most importantly get people to destroy bosses with lightning spears while you watch help fight bosses. It also has the semi-cheaty ability to allow you to guarantee that you will connect to specific individuals also using the mod, so you could purposefully summon someone you know instead of a stranger.

[Flying Dice]

DaS3 was fun, and I'd say it's worth ~$30 even if you drop it after finishing NG. It's got some issues that mostly affect PvP balance that are slowly being resolved, though. At launch, as far as people have been able to determine, poise was entirely disabled (though there are hyperarmor frames on some heavy weapons), so PvP was almost exclusively a mix of R1 spam (fuckin' Estoc and Dark Sword) and Hornet Ring parry-baiting, gimmick builds aside. There are only maybe three or four spots in the game to find reliable PvP and the wolfbro covenant area isn't one of them.

Speed-wise it's slower paced combat than Bloodborne but definitely the fastest Souls game. They leaned heavily on the nostalgia factor and a certain amount of the enjoyment of the game comes from those moments of surprised recognition. There was a fairly high number of good or great boss fights, but also a couple really lame gimmick ones (and also a non-boss encounter which was legitimately more difficult than a lot of the bosses if you didn't know exactly how to cheese it).

Summoning and invading is a mixed bag. On the one hand it's a total chugfest unless everyone is honorable, but on the other that allows fight clubs to run much more reliably. A lot of it is overrun with shitty gank squads and a lot of hosts are little bitches who continually run away to resummon because anything less than three friendly summons against an invader is too hard for them, but in the most active PvP area that just means that they're going to get swarmed by Watchdogs in addition to red and purple invaders. If you're going to invade you need to be lucky, good, or running a gankspanking build.

Oh, and they fucked up estus. The chug is so fast and movement during it slowed so little that someone can backroll twice, chug, and be ready to parry by the time you've closed the gap, so a big chunk of PvP against shitters is learning to roll-chase really well (or oneshotting with Hornet Ring parries).

Basically it's fun the first time through, depends on personal preference for NG+ onward, and PvP is kinda fucky. But yeah, definitely worth it, there are some really fun boss fights.

[SeriousConcentrate]

You're not going to mention how casters are also more or less completely screwed? :p I don't prefer a magic play style, but in DS1 and 2 it was at least fun for variety. In DS3 you have to devote some of your estus to restoring your FP exclusively, and even with a build and gear totally dedicated to magic you're not going to be as good as a melee character.

[Flying Dice]

Well yeah, but IMO it's more that casters are fucked in a different way. The core of it is the same as always, magic is a crutch in PvE for people who haven't got gud and absolutely useless in PvP against anyone remotely competent, except for a scant handful of applications (mostly trolling, one-shot sniping builds, utility spells, and the few offensive spells that have decent chances of hitting even with dodgeroll spam and playing unlocked). It's also way more sustainable since you can carry so many ashen estus flasks, they randomly replenish when you kill magic-using enemies, and you can use FP-regen items. Compare that to DaS1 where you have X number of casts and then you're through, period, until you hit a bonfire. Want more? Guess you'll have to get a second copy, double-slot it, and lose out on something else.

Of course if you just want to play organically and do whatever without planning a build you can get away with it if you have the skill. Skill-cap's still high enough that you can beat the game naked with a broken sword, so a poorly optimized character can do it just fine. But don't expect to go into PvP in any Soulsborne game and do well with pure magic unless you're really good and/or laddersniping people with CSS. Same as with bows, except bows are possible even more niche insofar as that in PvP you only use them to knock people off edges and in PvE you only use them to cheese things you don't want to fight and can get stuck on terrain.

[SeriousConcentrate]

I disagree. In DS 1 and 2 magic was easy mode, yes, but in 3 you have to go up to 60 Int and use only gear that buffs magic damage (Dusk Crown, both rings, offhand candlestick, etc) and then, you might be able to cast one or two Crystal Soul Spears that do maybe 20 more damage than smacking someone with a straight sword and take twice as long to cast those as it does to swing a weapon. It's just kind of annoying to see a particular play style nerfed so hard.

To be fair, I uninstalled before the DLC came out so maybe it's a little better now.