The Video Game Thread

[shamizy]

I feel you. It's really hard to carve out that time, and even when you do it's easy to fall back to the comfortable things--for me that's XCOM, Skyrim, and MGSV. It's important to not exert too much pressure on yourself, though, as that's how you grow to resent the demands of your hobbies, artistic or otherwise.

On the other hand, I know I wouldn't practice music or go on a run without some sort of structure, so there's clearly something to be said for forcing yourself to eat a balanced diet, metaphorically speaking. The question I always ask myself is why I feel a need to do this particular thing. Is it because I'm looking for comfort? Am I bored? Or am I actively excited to find out what happens? There's nothing wrong with pursuing a hobby simply because it helps pass the time pleasantly (wasting time interestingly is no waste of time), but it's important to notice the difference in your motivational state. So I want to ask you this: why do you feel a need to play those games? I suspect that when you answer that question fully you'll find out whether or not you actually want to play them or if you're feeling something else entirely. And remember, they are there for you, not the other way around.

I mean, it's mostly because I do still really enjoy playing them when I finally get around to it. Playing through a game like Shadow of the Colossus or making my way through a brand new area in a Souls game is very immersive and the gameplay feels rewarding. It's just that time constraints are the issue. I'm one of those people who when they get started on something need to see it through to its completion. However, it's just more and more difficult to carve out that time when there are so many other things competing with my free time.

The bigger thing might be that so many of my hobbies/alternate forms of entertainment just eat up chunks of time. Any larger woodworking project I get to is a time commitment of like 10-12 hours on a given weekend + miscellaneous follow-up during the week. I've got a small backlog of projects I've wanted to tackle, but haven't yet gotten to. The NBA is starting up again so keeping up with my team or tuning in for a big match-up is a good 2 1/2 hours right there. I've been back on that gym grind the last month with Delta leveled off in my area and back up to 3-4 times a week for about 2 hours after getting off work in the evening or stopping by on the weekend. Throw in the occasional FNM or meet up with friends to do other stuff and all of a sudden there's really not as much time as expected when the weekend rolls around. Hell, last weekend I just ended up binging Squid Game over two days and reorganizing Magic stuff.

I guess my big issue nowadays is that there's so many things that I want to do but just don't have enough time to get to them all and video games just end up being pretty low on that totem pole. Still love playing them when I can, but it's so daunting to start a game that isn't a small session ala Smash or Mario Kart or other party games.

 

[sigh]

I guess my big issue nowadays is that there's so many things that I want to do but just don't have enough time to get to them all and video games just end up being pretty low on that totem pole.

In the immortal words of Elvis

How I wish that there were more, than 24 hours in the day
But even if there were 40 more, I wouldn't sleep a minute away

 

[Onderzeeboot]

I'm one of those people who when they get started on something need to see it through to its completion.

I turned 40 this year, and had the same struggle. Playing computer games is very fun, but there's a certain point where I want to spend time on to other hobbies, and I found it's hard to return to games you put down for too long. Two things that helped me were a) looking at it from a pure financial point of view and b) learning to value having fun in the moment over the arbitrary completion of goals. As for point a, I decided/guesstimated (somewhat intuitively) how much hours of gameplay I want to get out of a game per euro spent. Once you know how much time you are able to spend on a game on average, you know how much money you're okay on spending on games. Being able to complete a game is fun, so shorter games get a 'silent' bonus in my book, which is why I gravitate to shorter indie games nowadays, though I will definitely pick up Baldur's Gate 3 and Diablo IV once they're done As for point b, it's (or was for me at least) a matter of realizing that having fun in your free time is more important than finishing a game. Once a game becomes a chore instead of a fun way to relax, you're at the point you should put the game away. If you had fun up until that point, great! It was money well spent, because it helped you unwind from the stress of everyday life.

 

[Velrun]

You guys looking forward to Elden Ring?

 

[shamizy]

You guys looking forward to Elden Ring?

Yes absolutely. I've already put in my preorder and am planning on taking two days off from work to make an extended weekend out of it.

Beyond hyped after seeing the footage from the network test. I was also somehow able to snag a PS5 off a Sony Direct invite earlier this week so I'm absolutely looking forward to this come February. In the meantime I've got Demon's Souls to keep me occupied when I have some time to kill.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

I was also somehow able to snag a PS5 off a Sony Direct invite earlier this week so I'm absolutely looking forward to this come February. In the meantime I've got Demon's Souls to keep me occupied when I have some time to kill.

Nice! Congrats! I'm biding my time, eventually it will be available for the regular price again here in the Netherlands. I'm not paying €785 for it when I know it's supposed to cost €499! Especially because I'm always doubting if I really need a new PlayStation. I've hardly used my old PS3 for ages! These days we're just using it as a DVD player :')

 

[shamizy]

Nice! Congrats! I'm biding my time, eventually it will be available for the regular price again here in the Netherlands. I'm not paying €785 for it when I know it's supposed to cost €499! Especially because I'm always doubting if I really need a new PlayStation. I've hardly used my old PS3 for ages! These days we're just using it as a DVD player :')

Yeah, that was my plan as well with third party sales being ridiculously scalped right now. It's absolutely insane given the scarcity of quality Sony exclusive titles this early into the generation. I signed up for this Sony Direct waitlist a little under two months ago and just completely forgot about it until I got an email a week ago and that was definitely a pleasant surprise. I don't necessarily think there's a major jump yet in terms of games and quality versus something like the PS4, but there is a noticeable difference in the power of this one. It's a real workhorse and the controller is very futuristic. I'm definitely impressed so far.

As far as gaming goes, I pretty much play the hell out of one or two releases every few years. We were pretty broke growing up so I had never been much of a console gamer. The only thing that made me want to pick this up was in prep for Elden Ring in February. It's more likely to be used 9/10 times as a multi-faceted media console for Netflix/Hulu/HBO/YouTube than for gaming.

 

[Jason Waddell]

The new Halo is incredible. In my books it's in the running for second-best Halo every, because no game could dethrone my nostalgia fueled adoration for the original. Currently trying to solo-queue to Onyx rank like I did in Halo 5.

 

[sigh]

So apparently they fixed the bug where the game couldn't even be started?

 

[James Stevenson]

The new Halo is incredible. In my books it's in the running for second-best Halo every, because no game could dethrone my nostalgia fueled adoration for the original. Currently trying to solo-queue to Onyx rank like I did in Halo 5.

Could you stream? I want to know what goes through people's heads when they play shooters well. I just charge around guns blazing, whiffing constantly and dying.

 

[Jason Waddell]

Has anyone played Death's Door?

Could you stream? I want to know what goes through people's heads when they play shooters well. I just charge around guns blazing, whiffing constantly and dying.

Probably not good enough to play and stream at the same time. I did make it to Onyx though!

It's always weird at these levels, there's so much skill gap. Some games I feel invincible and some games I can barely get anything going.

 

[LadyMapi]

On the Halo front... a friend and I recently started up a playthrough of Halo 1 on my youtube channel. Let's say that my friend (who's the one actually playing)... doesn't cover herself in glory.

Editing in the death counter takes so long, you guys.

If that sounds like the kind of bullshit that you're into, the playlist is HERE, with new videos going up every Monday.

I'm also just finishing up another series that goes up on Thursdays, but it's just me playing Shining Soul II. Which is a Diablo clone for the GBA that looks like (and has a plot like) a crappy JRPG. Because that's a thing that had to exist, you see.

 

[Jason Waddell]

Grappling Hooks are my favorite things in video games.

 

[shamizy]

So I finally found time to sit down and jam out to some Demon's Souls in the last week. Game is incredible, I'm constantly amazed by the insane details and all of the updates they've made to the original. The gameplay is familiar as when I first played through the game 6 years ago but so much prettier. The only issue I'm having is that I'm still defaulting to Sekiro reflexes from completing that game around mid-2021 where I want to insta-parry and go hard with rapid combat but that's absolutely not the way to play this game. It's led to so many stupid deaths.

I like playing with lighter characters in most Souls game with a lot of dodge-rolling, two handing a long-sword, and rarely with a shield except when necessary. It's not exactly a learning curve here since I've mostly played Souls games, but it is taking a bit longer than expected to get re-acclimated to the playstyle. I just need to get this one completed before Elden Ring in 6 weeks!

Aside from that, I dove into this little retro gaming rabbit hole after I was viewing some mods on older Game Boys and GBAs. Stumbled upon this neat piece of tech called the Analogue Pocket that just released a few weeks ago that I think I might pick up down the line. Not an emulator, just the best replica GB/GBC/GBA that I've ever seen.:

Unfortunately supply issues have pushed fulfillment till 2023 so I might just have to revisit around Black Friday or something. It just looks super sleek and is a much-needed 2021 update to the classic. That screen and resolution is kind of mindblowing to me. A GBC variant capable of playing all the various cartridges, a great screen, and with knick-knacks to enhance the experience? Got my attention. In the meantime, I've become pretty interested in picking up a modded GBA with backlighting + a USB C battery replacement. Just look at this beauty:

There's just something very nostalgic about handheld gaming to me, cartridges and all, that I just can't replicate with hosted emulation most of the time. I think it's just that the whole form factor of the device with the convenience was just such a big part of the experience for me growing up. I've been scouring online for some of the older GBA games that I no longer have access to, either originals or reproductions, so I can give it a go again sometime soon. Should be fun!

 

[Jason Waddell]

Shoutout to my opponents for doing whatever they were doing.

 

[Terry7P1]

I really want to play Dying Light 2. It came out recently. I've been waiting for it for a long time.

 

[Erik Twice]

Grappling Hooks are my favorite things in video games.

Have you played Umihara Kawase? If you haven't, you should.

 

[Jason Waddell]

Have you played Umihara Kawase? If you haven't, you should.

Looks fun!

 

[shamizy]

I just spent most of the last 3 days playing Elden Ring. I had it delivered on Friday but didn't get around to it until about 10PM since I wanted to finish up the very last bit of Demon's Souls beforehand since I knew I wouldn't get back to it in the near future. Booted it up and planned to play an hour or two, but I ended up staying up until 7AM with it. Two days in a row. Lucky for me I had scheduled Monday off a while back since I really wanted to play the hell out of this and it surpassed my wildest expectations. This might be my favorite game of all time; I've already clocked in 32 hours and I feel like I've just barely touched the surface of it. And as I've mentioned before in this thread, I'm not much of a gamer or anything and really don't boot up new games all that often. However, this brought back so many memories from my childhood. It just feels like one of those amazing games that comes around every once in a while and just reignites any passion or love you had for the hobby.

I can't believe how deep and immersive the world is with all the characters, setting and potential lore. It's all so brand new only a few days after launch and the sense of exploration and discovery is exhilarating. No guides, no wikis, nothing solved yet as far as the game goes. There is a main storyline and ways to progress the game, but you get so caught up in side quests and just wanting to check out different unexplored areas that you can really just lose yourself in it. I didn't even fight the first real storyline boss until I was about 9 hours in. Being able to fast travel wherever, having a mount to cover large distances, and being able to bring verticality and new styles of play to combat just make this a slam dunk. This game is everything a Soulsborne fan could ever dream up, and with a really interesting story partly crafted by George RR Martin to boot!

What's amazing to me is how they were able to translate that Souls formula to an open world setting. Run into a wall with a boss? You can just go and do other stuff and progress you character in other ways until you feel ready. Not feeling the dungeon you're stuck on? Go ahead and explore that area of the map that looks a little barren because you're sure to find something there. I can't count the number of times I was just wandering around and just found cool stuff and locations all over the place that I revisited later. That hill in the distance? Might be something there. The top of this mountainside or the bottom of that valley? There has to be something. And most of the time there is! The sheer scale of this entire thing is just mindblowing to me. In those first 12 hours or so I just saw my map expanding further and further out and I really can't fathom how large this entire map will end up being by the end. And so much of it feels unique and not regurgitated. Atmosphere and environments are just so engrossing.

The world is just so dense and rich; I really can't praise this game any higher. Highly recommended, I think this game will be talked about for years to come moving forward. It's like they somehow combined the mystique and wonder of Shadow of the Colossus, the best of every Fromsoft Soulsborne game, and pulled key elements from Breath of the Wild to flesh this masterpiece out. This is one of the best gaming experience I've ever had!

 

[Jason Waddell]

 

[Onderzeeboot]

But... Why did you have to get up to 500 armor? Couldn't you have won with much less?

 

[Jason Waddell]

But... Why did you have to get up to 500 armor? Couldn't you have won with much less?

I was going to grind to 999 but I had a meeting. Honestly it was hard for me to guess how much block the deck needed. It was super bad at generating block and was very card spammy, which isn't great against the heart.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

I was going to grind to 999 but I had a meeting. Honestly it was hard for me to guess how much block the deck needed. It was super bad at generating block and was very card spammy, which isn't great against the heart.

Yep. I definitely died at the Heart with card spammy decks XD

 

[James Stevenson]

I was going to grind to 999 but I had a meeting.

 

[Mown]

Maybe I just don't play enough action games to have a bar to make comparisons with, but the new Kirby game has a couple of incredibly cinematic boss fights that are just way too sick for how endearingly cute the rest of the game is. I expected the inevitable dark and creepy, but I was not prepared for it getting so metal.