Picking up any hobby from scratch is going to have a learning curve. If you can deal with the teething issues then gaming is one of the easier hobbies to get into. If you can follow guides then it’s pretty easy to get set up, and as a bonus if you aren’t an asshole about things and follow instructions reasonably well then finding someone to help you with getting specific issues resolved is pretty easy.

Like with any hobby you can really get into the weeds as far as what’s “easiest” because everyone is just going to recommend the setup that works for them and that may not work for you out of the box. You are going to need to put some legwork into figuring out the hardware no matter what you buy. PC gaming is by far the cheapest and most flexible, full stop. You don’t need a new PC to play games either, there is this odd misconception that you need high end hardware for anything and… No… Just no. You can play anything up to the Xbox One/PS4 generation of games (including PC) on computers that were midrange in 2018.

Grab an old PC collecting dust in the corner somewhere, install Fedora or Mint on it, and just use steam to launch anything you want to play. Explore the built in software repositories, those games are completely free, run on anything, and are surprisingly good in a lot of cases. If you end up wanting to play more and feel held back by the computer then look into something better. If you feel like you aren’t enjoying it and want to upgrade the hardware just to see if that’s what will make it click then it probably won’t.

If you are really sold on the idea of consoles then don’t discount modding an older system like an Xbox 360 or PS3, once they are set up you can just pick a game and go.

At the end of the day just find a system that you already have or that you can get for an amount you wouldn’t care about losing. You don’t want to drop a grand on a computer or a console with a bunch of games and never use it. Try playing some of the good free stuff and see if it’s worth investing into first.

Yeah, not exactly cheap per se. But compare it to a computer and its still a good value

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A budget midrange PC with good performance would still cost about $1,500. That might be expensive compared to a $700 console but put it this way - I built a flagship in Feb 2017 for about $3,000. When the Xbox Series and PS5 consoles came out in Nov 2020 they were raving about this measurement of power called Teraflops. My flagship had more power than these consoles and in most cases ran games better. As you may know those consoles haven’t been replaced by a new generation yet, so that build is still med-high quality.

In terms of raw performance a good PC is always the best choice. Choose a motherboard with built in wireless and you can use Xbox One >, PlayStation 3 > or any third party controller via Bluetooth. Buy a USB adapter and you can use Xbox 360 > controllers via RF.

Steam has a ‘big picture mode’ that can be set to turn on at startup - if you wanted you can simplify everything to booting the machine and powering up a synced controller - sofa friendly UI.

Multiplayer gaming is free. Heavily discounted games are more common. Pirated copies, as long as you choose the right sources (start with FitGirl), are top tier. Community-made mods that improve or fix games. GOG for DRM free copies. More control over data collection and updates. Offline/sandboxed games that think collecting your IP, age, device hardware and playtime is necessary for a solo campaign. Heroic Launcher for GOG and adapting DRM games bought on Epic/Amazon/Steam, Freesm Launcher for Minecraft.

Recently, AAA publishers have been so toxic that their employees suffer greatly and their released games have alpha-level bugs. They’ve become lazy, forcing always-online components and relying on post-release updates to actually finish the product or add more monetisation. These issues have started to appear on console releases too.

I’d highly recommend Linux (Mint with Cinnamon or Gnome) for a host of reasons, but it’s up to you - just know that Linux is often just as plug-&-play as Windows 10.

Regarding games with anticheat, most are designed for Windows so if you do go Linux, the games will be sandboxed pretty much and even if anticheat is unavoidable it can’t install to the primary OS. Regarding pirated games in the event you get malware from a bad source, I don’t know how bad it’d get so I’d recommend just buying the games again (GOG or Steam really is inexpensive, just wait for seasonal sales and wishlist everything you want).

Finally, the last good time to buy components was September last year. RAM is absolutely required to run a PC and its market price is thoroughly raped by generative AI server farms. You could build with whatever motherboard last supported DDR4 and save some money there, but GPUs are still 50% higher (relative to performance) than they were before crypto farms, SSDs are 100% higher than they should be, CPUs have spiked by 10% and rumour has it the corporations are going to suck up HDDs next, destroying possibly the cheapest component in computing. If you value value, keep this in mind.

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.

1. I haven’t had a virus in recent years, and I’m pretty sure that the ones I had many moons ago were just the virus scanners being scared of a keygen exe. Just go with your gut and you will pretty much be fine. Use a sandbox if you want to be extra safe, but a separate computer is completely and utterly overkill.
2. Yeah true. But that’s only a select few games. Most indie titles forgo DRM altogether, and most titles that use for example denuvo remove it after a while (mostly after enough sales) for the free performance boost.

Building a PC isn’t that difficult, but it costs a lot right now. Maybe just wait for the Steam Machine to be released and consider that.