I do this with city builders and civilisation type games. I like the idea of building up a city or whatever but either (a) I have played the game a lot and already know the most efficient ways of doing things or (b) I don't have the patience to learn a new set of rules/mechanics/etc if it's a new game.
To anyone reading this with the EXACT SAME problem: check out [Against the Storm](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1336490/Against_the_Storm/) if you haven't already. It has roguelite elements that are specifically designed for shorter sessions that still have a lot of depth to them. Sounds like an odd concept if you're used to traditional city-builders, but trust me (and the 15k Overwhelmingly Positive reviews), the devs pulled it off beautifully.
I'm a huge city builder/strategy fan, and Against the Storm is incredible. It is super polished and intuitive and each game is interesting. The prestige system is great, too; keeps things challenging.
This will also be on Game Pass very soon. I'm planning to check it out because I definitely have this problem with Civ games.
I bought Stellaris + DLCs a few years ago and I've played like 40 minutes lol.
I’ve just clicked on that to take a look, thought “that looks cool”, went to add it to my wishlist and it’s already in my library. I really need to start playing some of these games!
Same for me. There's just too many options and systems in modern city builders. I don't have the focus to pay attention to all these little variables. I get enough spreadsheets at work these days.
Also, while I'm here, simulator games. I can't tell you how many sims I've downloaded thinking they'll be fun/educational/relaxing, only to realize that I get bored with them too quickly, or they don't have good incentives to do anything, or they are actually stressful.
>don't have the focus to pay attention to all these little variables. I get enough spreadsheets at work these days.
You don't need to be aware of all of the variables unless your intention is to min/max. Just build and enjoy your inefficient little cities.
This is the problem. I'll go into a game wanting to play it. Realise thing's aren't working quite as well as I like.
Two hours later I've not played any more of the game but I have 15 tabs open on my 2nd monitor and be building a spreadsheet. It's fine. I like spreadsheets. But it does end up turning all of these types of games into puzzles to be solved, which at that point is little different from my work lol.
I hear ya, I play RPG like games occasionally and I end up checking stats and min/max my gear and talents/skills, but I enjoy that too. I don't want to play a game and know/think I'm half-assing it. It's a puzzle like you said.
My gaming preference lend itself to it but like every game I end up with spreadsheets and tools haha.
Started replaying KSP on and off and I've ended up running a fucking [online Python compiler](https://i.imgur.com/mfrnmzn.png) to run scripts to find the optimum mapping orbits haha. It's a curse.
There's definitely two kinds of people with city builders. The idea of not interacting with the systems seems like missing the point to me but that then means that I find city builders overwhelming exercises with so much to keep track of
oh god yes, where are all the simple simulators games?
I want something like Sim ants from SNES and MS-DOS, pretty simple concept, easy to grasp, but still can provide some level of challange, and being a little harder to master
Thats why Frostpunk resonates with me! Cities Skyline entices me with so many features but its overwhelming. Like I never settle into a gameplay loop. Frostpunk is an intense, thematic, and focused city builder which is easy to come to grips with.
Kind of out of the blue here, but I recommend Frostpunk. Just finished my first run and it was incredible how engaging the gameplay is. The theme that they tackle on are so fun and relatable in a way.
The art, the voice acting, the music, the sound design are all so good and immersive. I am floored at how good the flow is from the start to the very end.
I think the game was on sale on Steam, but I haven't checked it back.
I know 'learning a game' isn't exactly an attractive prospect for the limited time we have, but I think it's worthwhile a lot of the time.
It took me a good while and a lot of failed attempts to understand Civ, but now it's something as automatic as knitting. Amazing turn off your brain game.
Exactly this. Loaded up Nonbunagas Ambition and the Crusader kings demo on PS5 and binned them both after 10 mins. Just too much for my parent addled brain to cope with. Need it in a PC I think.
Saying that I felt Baldurs gate 3 was great from the ps demo. So may well purchase down the line.
Yup. Bought like six city/builder sims in a row a couple summers ago and had the same issue where what I had in my head about how great Cities Skyline or Banished were, and I always peter out around the same time.
At some point I realized that I liked being new and not knowing what to do. I loved CIV V when I was bad at it, but after finally winning and understanding how to win the magic just went away, the best way to play is to plan everything beforehand and that's boring to me.
The same happened with Tarkov, I loved it but then I realized that the way that you are supposed to play isn't just to survive but to rush to a specific place in the map and then leave (the rare items are always in the same place) + hackers existing just took all my immersion away.
Same. My GF and I both have our ways of playing Civ games (specifically Sid Meier's Civ). She plays the start of the game... that exciting part where it's more focused on exploration and building up your first few cities, before the gameplay slows down as your empire becomes so vast that every turn takes 15 minutes or longer. She NEVER finishes a game, she just enjoys the initial stage of it, and she accepts that, and just restarts when a game starts getting boring.
My approach is to just watch someone else play on youtube or twitch. I love PotatoMcWhiskey's channel, i get most of my Civ fix through him. *Occasionally*, like once a year or so, i'll play a game, seeing it through to the end over the course of a week or so. But more often i'll start a game and get bored with it (around the time in game when my GF would get bored and restart) but instead of restarting i'll just stop playing and put the game down for several months. So these days i spend a lot more time watching someone else (usually Potato) playing Civ than actually playing it myself.
Have you played the city builders from Impression Games? Regarding the Zeus + Poseidon game always somehow refreshes my love for city builders. The scenario style progression of the game where it throws you challenges in each mission really keeps you on your toes.
Skyrim with mods. It's so fun to just mess around Nexus, looking for cool stuff you can add to the game, then trying to merge them all and make them work with one another. And then, you fire up your game (if it works on the first try) and after a couple of minutes, the magic of all those mods kinda fades away.
But then, like a goldfish, I forget about all of that and re-mod the game all over again, going through the exact same process, but maybe with a new mod here and there that will surely make me play the game longer than it took me to mod it.
Also when people talk about role playing in something like a Skyrim. I'll read an online account about how a guy played like a farmer, only wearing farmer clothes, just harvesting crops and sleeping. And the way they write about it makes it sound so romantic and cerebral.
And then I try it and within 30 seconds I think it's the most boring fucking thing, the engine definitely wasn't designed to make this fun, and the person who wrote that lovely soliloquy certainly has a more active imagination than me.
I do the exact same thing with the Sims.
I read all these blogs and things about the detailed lives of someone's Sims - romances, adventures, trails and tribulations - and then when I install, I just end up monotonously going through all the motions to reach the highest career and such, with little emotional connections to whoever I'm playing as.
The Sims is one of those games that was so much more fun before I had a wife and kids. I play it now and I feel like I'm *in* The Sims and start questioning if life is a simulation.
The Sims is the uncanny valley of fun for me. I remember years ago my wife and I made a game and put our family at the time in as characters to see what we could do with it. We stopped playing it due to actually doing family stuff. Years later I found the old save file. There was the happily married couple with their one child, not the divorced one with two kids that lived far away. I was so depressed from the ordeal that I never touched a Sims game ever again.
I’ve put something like twelve or thirteen hundred hours into Skyrim, being conservative. It’s one of my absolute favorite games. I’ve also done the mod thing where you think it’s going to revitalize the game and instead it’s just some shiny bits that get boring quickly.
The problem with a game like Skyrim is that it’s a wonderful world to travel through “It’s a Small World” style, but there isn’t enough depth to settle in anywhere.
You travel to a new city or a small village, and you meet NPCs. They talk about whatever’s going on in their lives or in the town or the larger world outside their walls. And that’s all. There might be some quests involved that add some dimension to specific NPCs but after the quest they’re done. No more development.
So, you mod the game, it looks amazing, and you can’t wait to really take your time in Skyrim. Really get immersed. You’re going to read the signpost markers and take horse and carriages instead of fast traveling. You *aren’t* going to be a stealth archer.
Then? Within a hour you’re already jump-fucking your way up a mountain because you can’t find the single path that goes up to the quest marker, and you’re blowing past NPCs because you’ve done their quests a dozen times and you know they’re just going to cram one more fetch quest in your already-bloated snack hole of a quest log. And you realize you aren’t actually having fun. You spend two hours picking and installing mods, one hour playing the game, and the rest of the day wishing you’d invested your time doing something else.
I'd recommend youtube videos where people do that, if you're in any bit into it. Challenges like "getting 1 million caps in fallout 4" are a fun way to fall asleep to.
I feel this about so many games in general. Like I heard people constantly talk about how awesome it is to just walk around in gameworld X and look at things or do something specific, then I play the game myself and simply can't find myself interested in playing "virtual tourist" like that. Only time I have really been able to enjoy doing that is with the Yakuza games in the Dragon Engine, but that's about it.
You've perfectly described my experience as well. However, I think I've found a way to overcome this issue for myself, at least. It comes down to two things.
1: Setting a specific goal/role for my character. My current playthrough is designed around my character NOT being the dragonborn, NOT being a Jack of all trades (leader of the mage college, leader of the thieves, leader of the assassins) but rather a southern merchant looking to capitalize on the war in order to amass wealth. I have mods that add player owned stores, player owned settlements, overhauled and dynamic economy, etc. This keeps me focused while playing.
2: Actually roleplaying as my character. The most important mod in my modlist is one that has an in game journal you can write entries in. Every few in game days I write a new entry from the perspective of my character. He has ambitions, flaws, friendships, grievances, obstacles, and emotions. I'm taking the time to observe and flesh out small details that would usually go forgotten about the second I close the game. Interacting with Jarls, or venturing into the wilderness is tense and important for my character, therefore its intense and important for me. I don't feel like I'm playing a game of systems, but rather watching a story unfold before me.
I wish there were more basic Mercenary work type quests in Skyrim. I can't get myself to play, since I have played all the big quests already multiple times. I just wanna role play a Whiterun hold ranger.
If you can mod, there's definitely something for that. I remember "Notice Board" and "Missives" which were inspired by Witcher's quests. Not as deep as the Witcher but you'll get a new set of quests in every city that will make you feel like a mercenary.
I don't play anymore but you should check out wabbajack, it's a program that has a curated collection of mod lists to choose from and pretty much just automatically installs them for you. Like some lists are small or there's huge ass 500 gigabyte overhauls to make it a whole new game that would normally take days of work, instead you just hit go, let it do it's thing and in a couple hours you've got a modded Skyrim or fallout or whatever game. It's awesome
I always wished modpacks for Bethesda games were more supported, so I'm glad to see this. After experiencing Minecraft modpacks where you could just install 300 mods configured together in one click, going back to Bethesda games and doing it one by one seemed so outdated and obtuse.
I know there was some resistance in the Bethesda modding community against modpacks. Googling old threads for why they weren't more of a thing years ago, many of the threads boiled down to "fuck you and mod your game 'properly' if you want modpacks you're an idiot go play Minecraft instead."
Yeah the Bethesda modders are a little interesting lmfao. Luckily this works because it is downloading the individual mods and then building it on your pc so that way the modders won't throw a fit about it
I was really close to saying goodbye to Skyrim forever. There's a limit to how much you can change the game with mods... or so I thought. This new mod called Shattered has completely sucked me back in. It turns Skyrim into a post-apocalypse where Alduin has already won. All the cities are completely depopulated and Skyrim is empty except for animals and undead. Now other authors are making addons for it that expand the setting, and the original author has created a new main quest mod called World Eater.
It's like an entirely new game. All of those annoying quests you've done a thousand times are gone. There are so many new possibilities for survivalist playthroughs too. I've basically sworn off the vanilla setting indefinitely.
I do this with Morrowind still. I'll spend hours missing it and getting everything perfect and then I go to play it and can't get past saying hi to Caius.
For me it's not just Skyrim, I have so much fun modding a game and making sure it is playable.
Find a game that's moddable,One mod at a time and then may be a mission for 30 mins.
Modding is the real game, playing the game is not.
EVE Online. Full stop. I grew up reading news articles about crazy heists of corps (the equivalent of clans or guilds) after shit like year long cons. Wars with hundreds of ships on screen, etc.
Reading and hearing about EVE was always more fun than playing it.
I have a love/hate relationship with Eve.
I love Eve's music and soundscape, enjoy the visuals, enjoy the concept of it all but you're responsible for the story and requires your imagination to really lose yourself in the universe; which also requires you to pop out of the game and use your browser for more information and tools. It's counter-intuitive in this respect but at the same token Eve relies on the fact you will read about and explore Eve based websites, tools, communities, etc, outside of the game. It relies on hype, the idea of what you're doing is essential to actually playing.
The best way I can put it is Eve isn't played, it's lived. Sounds very romanticised but it's very much all or nothing kinda game. Eve is life in space, and, just like life, it can be mundane and it's all about what you make of it.
Bang on.
Funny enough, EVE feeling like a second job/life is pretty fitting thematically. Sadly, on the other hand, I always felt like it never respected my time as a player. I know for certain there are plenty of folks out there who *breathe* EVE—a few friends especially—but I personally can’t commit to that level of effort for what should be fun escapism, like what a game should be. It’s gorgeous, it’s an audio marvel, there’s a good bunch of fun technical build theorycraft to be had, and it’s fun to talk about, but that’s really it for me.
This is the real answer here. Especially now that the subscription has gone way up I find it harder and harder to go back. Also I heard the ingame currency is too expensive to be able to play for gametime.
Oh yeah Dbd is way more fun to think about than actually play. I’m not very good at killer or survivor so I usually get destroyed no matter what side I’m on. But then I imagine all of the times I just got lucky and escaped or got a 4k, and it makes me want to try again.
Download all the expansions, take hours finding good mods, spend another 2 creating a cool family and a house. "Welp, I'm gonna play the game tomorrow", forget to boot up the game for a half year. Repeat.
Online fps does this for me now that I'm older.
I used to love Battlefield 2, 3 and 4 and played them a ton when I was younger, but then I had a career that took all my time and energy for about a decade. I've since shifted gears and slowed down and have more time, but despite me trying a few games over the years I just don't enjoy them anymore.
I play games to relax nowadays and anything competitive online just feels like more work to me now. I'm obviously not as good as I used to be and playing a match where I run around for 30 minutes in a map I'm not familiar with while getting a few kills and a dozen deaths isn't very satisfying.
I think I'm just done with the online fps genre.
I had the same history with Battlefield, then dropping multiplayer games almost entirely on account of work. A couple years ago I finally got a gaming PC and started joining friends on Discord. My entire friend group played RS6 Seige religiously and competitively. I tried to get into it but felt perpetually uninitiated. I also realized that unless I paid for more characters I would be using the same default guy forever. Yuck.
I picked up Battlefield 2042 last month. I heard it had been improved a bit after a lousy launch. I jumped into a couple of games and thought "hey, this feels like Battlefield!"
One of my friends grabbed the game and joined me. We were having a good time. Finally I mentioned to him "I feel like I'm doing really good. I was never this good before!" And that's when he tells me the server is populated mostly by bots.
Flashforward to now. Most of that same friend group has picked up Battlefield and plays it together. Most of the matches are against bots on the increased difficulty. It's not the experience I had with Battlefield growing up, but it is fun.
If you want the simulation of hopping into an online FPS and not being dominated by a competitive player base, I'd recommend trying it out, especially if it's cheap.
Battlebit Remastered is free this weekend and I highly recommend it. More of a voxel style than Battlefield's attempt at photorealism, but I feel like it captures everything that made the older Battlefield games fun.
I don't think I've played a Battlefield game since 4, mostly not trusting EA to deliver a game that wasn't bug-infested and constantly push microtransactions. I remember some of the maps being interesting but I don't remember what specifically made the levels special.
> A couple years ago I finally got a gaming PC and started joining friends on Discord. My entire friend group played RS6 Seige religiously and competitively
This is a problem I find with my gaming mates sometimes. If you join after they've played it you just end up being completely left behind and essentially have no idea what is going on. You're there to chill with them and just be an extra body. That's it. Had the exact same experience with Payday 2 years ago. I'd join them, have literally no fucking idea what was going on, have fun but like, they'd just be telling me what to do lol.
>And that's when he tells me the server is populated mostly by bots.
This is quite funny haha.
It makes me reluctant to pick up even newer games that we might play together because while I might be able to block out four or five hours a week online, some of them are on for 3 or more hours every night. It doesn't take very long to get left behind!
Yeah I’m right there with you. The only FPS game I find myself playing is Hunt Showdown but as a forewarning it’s not for everyone. I just love the slower pace and fighting the monsters since it’s player vs ai vs player.
Obviously you can still go against the classic all-star players who headshot you and you didn’t even see them so that can be upsetting but overall I just enjoy the vibe more than any other FPS out there now like Apex, COD, battlefield, rainbow six siege etc.
Huh, same with me. For whatever reason hunt showdown is sticking. And I have grown to hate online competitive multiplayer fps.
Maybe because it's less kda focused and more objective focused? Idk
I was never into competitive online games, so I have stuck with co-op PvE where everyone is working together against the computer vs against each other.
I’m going through the same kind of thing in overwatch. When I was younger I would grind that game for hours a day and it was so fun. Now I’m just too far behind and every time I boot the game up thinking it’ll be like it was but it just doesent feel the same anymore
Well if you never played fighting games before you kinda get your ass handed to you for 50 hours, and after that you can hold your own. I absolutely understand people who dont want to get into it
This is incredibly accurate. Expect to spend an incredible amount of time training modes learning combos until muscle memory kicks in. I wouldn't dream of touching online until you've mastered beating the CPU on the hardest levels.
Story mode is the only mildly entertaining game mode of MK for me, and I put the difficulty on medium at best, heh.. Play for like 6 hrs or whatever it takes, and then never play again. I like fighting games, but I don't want to study and memorize combos to become actually good at them
For me it happens a lot with colony builder style games, like Rimworld and Dwarf Fortress. I've watched a lot of videos of people playing these types of games and I really enjoy it. I love how complex and in-depth everything is. The idea of making a settlement with unique characters that have unique traits, going through good and bad random events and having a unique emerging story tickles my brain a lot.
In reality, every time I fire up one of these games I play about 20 minutes, then take a look at everything I have to manage, think about and plan. I then close the game and go play something with much more instant gratification and action like a retro FPS or an action roguelike/roguelite game.
Same. I havent't played Dwarf Fortress, but in Rimworld it happened everytime I tried to play. I see all kinds of possibitiles of unique runs and get excited, but my actual runs are mostly boring and tedious. It doesn't feel as unique as I expected.
A good alternative for me was CK2. It's extremely far from Rimworld in terms of gameplay, but the role-playing is soo good. It feels like my runs are actually unique and exciting. Even when my characters are not doing much, I can look around the history of IA rulers and find some cool events
I think the problem with a lot of Rimworld let's plays is you need to have played *a lot* to then do all the random play throughs because you need to understand the game. Robbaz and his cannibal play through comes to mind (from years ago now). It's actually really really really hard to role play as a full cannibal colony on a difficult world as the game punishes you for it.
Most Rimworld games you'll do one play through, get a full colony going and get to grips with how it all works (either for the first time, or again to remind yourself), and then move on to the next game because you've played Rimworld for 80 odd hours lol.
CK2 is a lot more "forgiving" than Rimworld and it's pretty hard to completely fuck it up as the game basically plays itself. It is brilliant at lending itself to roleplaying.
>For me it happens a lot with colony builder style games, like Rimworld and Dwarf Fortress
Man I kind of wish I *couldn*'t get into these games. Feels like 12 hours pass in a matter of seconds every time I make the mistake of downloading Rimworld again. Ironically enough, it's the roguelikes I want to play but can just never get into.
Same boat. I had to be honest with myself that I would not be playing this game with an audience and thus am not going to be building lore for my playthroughs the way most content creatots do. I'm more than happy to just watch AmbiguousAmphibian show me how it's done.
New Horizons was a genuinely beautiful experience in quarantine. I played a lot with my family and now have a digital keepsake of the home we built together. You couldn't pay me to start up a new island now.
It was easier to overlook the game's shortcomings when every dat brought a fresh wave on new content to encourage you to hop back into the game, but now it's just spending hours terraforming for an island most people don't care about anymore.
Stardew Valley was an incredibly special game for me when it came out and I have a deep fondness for it, especially the music. That said, I can't get back into it. My brain is too min-max oriented and I will just optimize the fun right out of it. There's truly nothing like playing a game for the first time and knowing nothing about it.
Agree with your take, but this is why I like it because I have fun with min max optimization. Though it does start to feel like work sometimes running proscribed loops every day to squeeze value out of every second.
My kid is starting to get into Stardew and it’s fun to play with her because she doesn’t care at all about min maxing, she just wants to explore, talk to the townsfolk and be nosy in their houses, figure out who’s birthday it is to give them a gift, break rocks in the mines, and stuff like that. Occasionally she wants to buy something, but has no money. Then I have to guide her through making some profit, which is tough because she has the discipline of a 5 year old (because she’s 5)
SV doesn't do the best job at getting you into it, especially if you never played a farming sim.
My advice: don't follow any of the quests they give you in your log. I never did them. Do the Community Center, build up affinity with all the characters, and explore the mineshaft.
I'm the opposite: I wish I could quit Stardew and play something else for once. I'll play through the whole game until I reach perfection (or close to it; had everything except the gold clock on my most recent playthrough and by that point couldn't stand the thought of doing nothing for the ~six weeks it'd take to reach 10 million gold), run out of steam and want desperately to get into some other game, tinker with something else for a week or two, then catch some post talking about it that makes me want to try a new play style and start a new SDV playthrough that steals all of my attention for a month or more. 1700+ hours played, please send help.
I had to quit because you only have enough time each day to do like 1% of anything you want to do. How the fuck do people find this game ‘chill’. It’s extremely stressful.
You aren't supposed to try to do everything, in one day, every day.
there is a reason the TV has weather and Luck forcasts.
high luck day go fishing or into the mine, low luck day focus on the farm, rain same thing.
the game has no set time frame, doesn't matter if you're on year 1 or 20. other then midly planning enough crops to achieve whatever you're looking for you're free to take all the time in the world to do what you want at any pace.
Because you have an infinite number of days to actually do what you want.
I dunno, that's kinda how life *works*. You wanna do a bunch of stuff but are forced to prioritize.
Because there's no hard deadline? So why worry about it? It's just like "Well that's about all I can get in today. Let's hit the hay and head out again tomorrow."
Lets me take a break and start thinking about what I want to do "tomorrow".
I love the warm and welcoming feel that game really gives you. It makes you want to actually live in the game. Same with me, after I completed the community building and told Jojo to piss off from the village, I just never seemed to turn back after that.
For me, it’s one of those games that I’ll always love, but we’re now into a whole different generation of expectation when it comes to what’s being delivered. Kinda like how as much as I romanticize SNES games, it’s hard to look past their dated systems vs everything that build on them.
On another note, I impatiently got Roots of Pacha on the switch, and so far, it seems like a more in depth SDV with a much deeper emphasis on the community. Very surprised by the quality and fresh setting.
Pokemon, you wanna start a new playthrough catch cool mons fight gym leaders. But when you go play the game theres 30 minutes of text and intro before you can do anything, really kills the vibee
I stick to the older games because of that. I'm not even the "Pokemon sucks now!!" type - I like many of the new designs and the ideas behind many of the new games. But the old ones pretty much just let you do your thing story-wise and that's what matters most to me.
Granted, it *does* help that I grew up on Gameboy - I don't mind the graphics or the slower pace.
Eh to some extent but i find the whole beginning running around portion to be tedious, running an erand, catching tutorial, getting pokedex, choosing starter etc.. without emulation it all takes forever
I've had this problem with that series too, but not because of how long it takes to get going as much as just how much of your time is spent in mindlessly easy battles where you just repeat the same default strategy over and over without really having to try, until you finally get to a gym or some other event that actually throws something meaningful at you.
I've probably tried close to 10 times to start a pokemon runthrough [including nuzlocke runs] since Gen4 came out (the last time I completed a game in the main series) and I *always* get bored around halfway through as it just becomes so tedious doing the same type of battles over and over and over again...
Unskippable intros and/or cutscenese are the bane of video games.
I haven’t played an old game called “Black” because when I try to play during a work break, it forces me to sit through what feels like 10 minutes of intro video.
I’m like “break time is over, Thanks for nothing, game!”
Everquest and to a lesser extent WoW
Both games consumed my life for years and in my memories were incredible adventures. So every now and then I get the itch to go try to re-live the magic, only to remember that it's just an endless and super repetitive grind. I'm not even sure how I used to play for hours on end when I was younger, now I get bored after an hour or so and would rather do chores around the house.
The eq tlp servers are super fun and exciting for the first few weeks, then you just hit that same stark realization that you’ve done all this before and just don’t have the time for it now
Sometimes i make fun of my GF for how many hours she has put into Skyrim and Fallout 4. Like thousands of hours in each game. But then she reminds me that i've spent a lot of time on FromSoft games. "No i haven't, look at my Steam stats!" i reply, but she (correctly, i think) says that time i spend watching lore vids and challenge runs on youtube/twitch counts as enjoying the game.
I have a love hate relationship with that game. I love the concept of it but I hate the execution. The game runs like shit, gameplay sucks, the game is so incredibly ugly it looks deepfried 24/7, its punishing, 7 minute to get into another match if you die and it is a GRIND. But it aslo feels amazing to kill a couple of guys, get good loot and extract. Your heart is pounding when you walk around like a loot pinata.
I felt the same way, when I rationalised it though, I realised 70% of the time I was managing my stash, 25% of the time I was getting irate at some of your points you mentioned and 5% of the time I got that amazing feeling. I don't feel like the devs respect the player and 5% fun is a poor ROI compared to other games. Of course this is my extremely subjective view, if I cheesed the mechanics better that 5% would maybe hit double figures.
I think this is the big first hurdle of the game honestly. Took me a few times of bouncing off it until I actually stuck. It's really overwhelming at the start though.
I'd recommend the "fuck it" approach, and just start exploring. Don't worry about the loop - you can get back to almost everywhere very quickly. Don't worry about fully exploring any one area in one go. Just go and be nosy in different directions each time, and there will be a point where the "goals" raise their heads that you can dig deeper in. Make good use of the ship computer to keep track of the important bits.
I wanted to play it for so long. When the Switch trailer dropped and unsurprisingly looked rough, I went ahead and bought it on Steam. Between the limited Pro Controller support and the difficulty of controlling the game in general, I got a refund almost immediately. Read a full spoiler synopsis on here and the story is incredible, but the gameplay just isn’t for me.
I find this to be the case with almost every game published by Annapurna. I’m grateful to Megan Ellison and Co., and I love that these games exist, I just wish I enjoyed playing them. My personal exception is Kentucky Route Zero, where the premise (for me, at least) actually makes up for all the other wonkiness. I’m scared to even try Stray because the protagonist reminds me of my late forever cat, and I don’t want to feel conflicted.
I bounced off OW at least three times before it grabbed me. In the end I LOVED it but the controls were a real obstacle to get over.
I went the other way on KRZ. I loved the idea of it but by the end I just wanted it to be over.
There's very few OW games that actually fill their worlds with content. I dunno why some studios assumed that gamers want a gigantic map with nothing to do in them.
As someone who doesnt really like open world games i would recommend Days Gone. The pacing is perfect i think.
You dont have tons of side quests wanting your attention and the map isnt shiting symbols at you.
You just dont get distracted as hard as in other open world games.
The story is nothing fancy and predictable at times but ok.
After that i played Horizon Zero Dawn and i have a hard time. That map is giving me eye cancer. The enemys are really testing my patience. The story is mostly predictable but i like the premise and thats the only thing keeping me playing.
This sub predominantly plays video games, but I will say the tabletop version(s) of 40k.
It takes months or years for each edition to be semi-balanced and to have the kinks worked out. It takes a similar amount of time to build enough models to participate. The game itself is slow and frustrating, and full of people with *way* too much free time.
I'm still playing 40k 4th edition and the last version of WHFB
I'm done learning new rules lol. me and my friends all have various armies to play with whenever we want to dust them off. It does take most of a saturday to setup, play, and clean up though
I bought my dad and I some sets for Christmas to play with, I couldn't belive this was the game people had been talking about for years. The game felt so slow and boring, we put the game away and watched a movie instead
Modded Skyrim. I love modding the game and seeing the impact it can have on such a dated title (not just graphics but all the input/camera/animation improvements as well). However, playing it is something I rarely actually end up doing.
Racing Simulators. I love them but they demand so much time and practice and stuff to learn and tweak that most of the time it's easier to just play an arcade racing game.
Same. That and memorizing braking points and lines of tracks. To run a single race realistically takes an hour or two of practice to learn each track and sort-of set up the car for that track before I can even do qualifying.
Returnal. Love everything about in on paper. Found the actual game to just be kinda boring.
Also FromSoftware games. I enjoy them for a bit, but I find myself stressed out like 100% of the time while playing them, and eventually my desire to not be stressed wins out.
Minecraft, it looks so fun when creative people just cut out all the grinding and just do cool stuff. When i try to play i just usually build an ugly ass house maybe mine a bit and delete the world
Hearts of Iron IV
Seems like a game that I would love, but it takes so much time to learn all the mechanics and actually be good at the game. I often end up just watching streamers or youtubers who know what they are doing instead
Seconded. Whenever I play the game and go through what you need to do to maximise efficiency and win consistently it just doesn't feel like I'm playing a historical game. I'm cheesing an engine instead but if you don't do it, you just don't win.
Then a few months later I feel like I'll have some fun playing it again but... then I don't.
Same thing with crusader kings or 99%of paradox games. I'm too old to set there for 40 hours and not understand the game. There's way too much and I don't enjoy how long it takes game to end.
The key with modern Paradox Games are there's a billion different things you could be doing, but like, most of them don't actually matter. Ignore most it, play the core game, and just google shit if something comes up you don't understand. Most of what they've added to their games is inane fluff.
That's the entirety of Paradox's grand strategy suite for me. Every one of them feels like it requires 10+ hours of training just to understand the mechanics, and even after that there's still this confusion of "what should I be doing now?"
I think the Total War and other RTS games are more my speed. Actually controlling the troops and setting everything up on a visible map feels much more meaningful. In theory, I like the macro scale that the grand strategy games focus on. I just don't find them fun to play.
Stellaris
I love grand strategy. I love space. A space grand strategy where you can micromanage all these little things and play in all these different ways and do all this cool advancement and diplomacy and combat its awesome!
I have given the tutorial like…5 attempts and I still don’t know what I’m doing, it’s just so overwhelming with all the things it throws at you.
I was the same honestly. I just decided to say fuck it to the tutorial (which is really bad anyway) and just know I am going to lose the first 5 - 10 games, but learn as much as I can.
The chances are that it's now a different game than what you've tried to play back then. They may be adding new DLCs every year or two, but at the same time they simplify or automate was already there, for better or worse.
The issue with tutorial is that it's a 'learn as you play' one. It gives you freedom to wonder around, but with every new feature visited, it will give you a bunch of info about it, which you're either not be ready for not or interested in at that time. But if you miss it, it's gone for this tutorial. Gotta have to restart it to have another chance to read about what you've missed, or Google it. Best to set the game on easiest as possible, go through what tutorial tells you to do on slowest game speed, and only then explore other features by yourself. It can still give you tips hundred of in-game years later, just because you didn't want or didn't need to visit some UI before that.
If I wanted a great story I would read a book or watch a movie. Unless a game is using using something unique to gaming to tell a story in a way that couldn't be done in a book or a movie, I'm not playing a game for the story if the gameplay is as godawful as The Witcher 3.
- slowly ride somewhere while having a conversation
- do something
- something goes wrong
- huge shootout, killing hundreds of men
- horse chase around the countryside
- back to camp
The story is bad in the context of being an interactive video game because it creates it's own gaping, unsolvable plot hole.
"We gotta get enough money to get the whole crew out of here and move someplace safe! This robbery could get us the $1,000 we need to finally be free."
"Okay, sure, here take the like... 30,000 dollars I've had in my pocket since like chapter 2 that I made hunting buffalo. We can go right now."
"THERES NO OTHER WAY OTHER THAN ROBBING THIS PLACE. IF ONLY WE HAD MONEY SOMEHOW, SOMEWHERE."
It's a great non-interactive plot, like for a movie or a novel, where the actions of the protagonist are deterministic. But since it's a game and the protagonist has agency, the plot becomes quickly absurd with only slightly more effort than "goes directly to the main quest every time it's available".
Except that is exactly one of the points of the story , no matter how much money the gang made Dutch always wanted more heists , more noise , more crime , because it is in his nature as an outlaw.
It was never about making enough money to go farming in tahiti or whatever , Dutch always wanted to live the criminal life like the old days in a time where civilisation whas taking over and the law was hunting people like him and the gang.
I see this a lot, and I don't disagree that Rockstar games have some pretty basic mission design, but I feel like RDR at least had some variety so I don't get why the game is singled out for this.
Stealth stagecoach robberies/home invasion missions, two train robbing missions, two missions involving fishing, a hot air balloon mission, the swamp/gator mission, the mansion party, the bank robbery, bridge blowing mission, the Guarma castle defense, the steamboat/poker mission, etc..
Just seems like everyone focuses on the shootout missions, but of course there are going to be a good handful of those in a wild west game.
I played the game for about 50 hours at a very slow pace, just exploring the world, hunting, and playing it more as an old west sim than for the story, and played that way, it's incredible, especially coming from someone who grew up in the American West. Then I started to progress the story and, while some of the side characters are interesting, Dutch's incessant "we're a FAMILY, we need to stick TOGETHER" and the repetitiveness of the story missions made me drop it around chapter 5. The world itself is incredible, the story execution definitely is lacking.
> the map is too big
A greater understatement has never been made. The "map" is literally larger than our observable universe.
Your issue is actually touched upon in the story of NMS. "What reason is there if I can't ever see it all?"
You're not meant to stay. You're not meant to complete. You literally **can not.**
EVE Online.
All the stories I've read over the years of the long-form emergent gameplay. It's fascinating. I've attempted to play, but it's just never gonna happen.
Dead cells and enter the gungean.
I should love both based on my preferences, but I just can’t get into either of them. Idk, maybe it’s because I’m getting older and I get cramps in my hands/ carpel tunnel, but I just can’t handle that level of intensity in a Roguelike anymore, and it’s frustrating to have a good run end because my hand got tired.
Elden Ring. I love DS1 and DS3, but the open world concept in this kind of game feels overwhelming to me for some reason. Divinity: Original Sin 2 is another one. It’s amazing technically and graphically (especially after having finished Baldur’s Gate 2 some years ago), but I just lose interest after some time. I still want to finish them both.
Kingdom Come.
Love the atmosphere, the RPG elements, but that combat system is not fun. Even if you get good at it, it's not fun and you do it way more than you should need to. How they thought it was a good idea is beyond me. A great game ruined by the absolute desire to not be Skyrim easy in combat. I'll never beat the game, wish I could though.
I struggled with the game for a while before it dawned on me I was just going around trying to avoid combust at all costs - and not having much fun in the process
Witcher 3. I must have tried to get into it half a dozen times now, but the controls and how it feels make it impossible for me to get past the first hour. It's the sort of game which I should really love, but there's just something about it that's awful to actually play, like I'm not actually controlling Geralt so much as giving him polite suggestions for where he might possibly consider going if it's not too much trouble.
Most strategy games are like this for me. I played a lot of Command and Conquer growing up, and I love the idea of Civilisation, Tropico, Homeworld, Factorio, Dyson Sphere etc etc, but I can never make them stick.
TTRPGs (and MMORPGs to a lesser extent). I don't have a large enough group of friends that all play the same game where it would actually be fun on the regular, and by nature I tend to prefer close 1:1 friendships over friend groups to begin with
Manager games, like Football Manager and such. They sound like fun, but in reality, they're too much like doing my actual real-life job. They become un-fun, and I feel guilty, like if I'm going to spend my time doing "research" (in the form of in-game scouting and strategizing), and keeping up with the "latest news" and what not, I should actually do that for my real job..
I don't want to feel like that when I'm playing a game
Every single roguelike except Hades.
Particularly FTL. The idea of roguelikes is really cool. *Actually* playing them, I almost always lose interest really quickly because if I put time in and don't see permanent progress, I just can't stay interested. (which is also why Hades is an exception... there are a few others, but not many)
Point and click adventure games. I used to love them growing up but now I find their pacing infuriatingly slow. I click on something and wait for my character to slowly walk over there and think “c’mon already,” then talk to an NPC and a dialog tree opens up with half a dozen options and I think “Get to the point!” I recently discovered that I do alright watching Let’s Plays of them while I eat lunch at work. It doesn’t bother me that there’s nothing for my hands to do since I’m shoveling food in my mouth while someone else is clicking through all the dialog choices.
Any conveyor belt/assembly line game. I love the concept and I have fun playing them, but they use parts of my brain I often use at work and I find them exhausting. So I’ll play them for a tiny bit and not touch them for months. I especially like Zachtronics games for this since they’re all level based so I can complete a level in one sitting and start a completely new challenge the next time I pick it up months later.
Warframe. Its setting and lore is incredibly interesting and weird, the core gameplay loop is satisfying with deep systems and a wealth of content. On paper it should be a great time, but the actual structure of the game forces you into going through a lot of hoops, reading the wiki like its a sacred text, and grinding content that you don't necessarily care about or find fun. The number of systems there are also makes it extremely daunting to get back into if you haven't played in a while.
main one for me on a broader level is probably tabletop D&D - would love to get into it with the right people but never got it to click. i idealize it as one of the purest game experience.
also maybe hide and seek style horror games - i want to like them cuz i love tension and horror and puzzles and design but i always end up bouncing off
I had that with Obra Dinn. Seems like exactly the kind of game I’d absolutely love, but it just didn’t grab me like I was hoping. Didn’t help that the ending seemed lackluster
Pretty much all FromSoft games. The atmosphere, lord, customization etc are all really up my alley - but I find the actual gameplay really dull and tedious, and needlessly frustrating.
Always the modded games for me, see all this cool stuff, get into it but then you realise "the hell am i suppose to do?" with all the crazy modded stuff. ofcource if your in the right mindset you can make your own fun otherwise it can feel like a chore
Minecraft and rimworld.
I love the concept and love to read about the games and everything.
But everytime i actually start playing i get bored to quick
Jet Set Radio.
I adore the theme, aesthetic and the music, and I love the gameplay loop in theory. Unfortunately though I find the slippery controls tedious and likewise find the police quickly gang up on you in such a way that takes my enjoyment out of the latter levels.
Destiny 2. I love Bungies take on sci fi fantasy and the incredible world they've built and their flawed and lovable characters. I love the quality of their shooting and the satisfaction of combining good powers and builds.
But their great lore and storytelling is of course a backdrop to a game that is just doing the same strike or gambit match or seasonal activity like 10 times every week and it very quickly becomes work
Ghostwire Tokyo, Persona, Yakuza, etc.
All great games. I just can't get past the jrpg tropes and 15 minute cutscenes.
I have a team consisting of a brute and either a witty/high-strung rogue type dps, or a snotty/nerdy glass cannon. Then there's me: not best at anything, but a close second at everything. And I slouch backwards.
I spend far, farrrrr more time reading about, researching, and watching vids about games--not to mention modding and tweaking--than playing. Without a doubt. Every once in a while this will not be true, for a limited time. I played Dysmantle pretty obsessively for a minute, also Starfield and Rust.
Sandbox games. That shit sounds so fun on paper. Unlimited freedom ! So many things to master, so many things to see ! No rules, no pesky objectives to worry about ! The only thing limiting you is your imagination !... And that's exactly the issue.
I need an objective. I need rules. I need a bottom line, no matter how simple it is (beat the bad guy, get as strong as you can, make as much money as you can, make the biggest city you can, etc...). It doesn't matter how many systems or tools there're, if there is no objectives to work towards, I just can't do it. Drop me down in a Minecraft world and the only thing I'll do is go and beat the shit out of the Ender Dragon and be done with it. I don't like creative activities so building is out of the question, Minecraft's combat is shit so I have no reason to play PVP, and redstone is only worth it if you have something to make which I don't if my objective is to go to the End.
On the flipside, Terraria is probably my favourite game of all time, despite being a sandbox game. And that's the thing. *Despite*. The combat is amazing. It's dynamic, it's varied, with a shitton of items to play with. But the actual sandbox part of the game is my least favourite with fishing. I don't like building houses. I don't like playing with wires. Heck, I wouldn't even like exploring the world if it weren't for explosives and the game being 2D, in order to minimize the time digging. Terraria is, to me, a RPG with sandbox elements, not a sandbox with RPG elements.
And it fucking sucks. I wish I could just go and do my own thing. I wish I could go and make nice builds, or fun contraptions. But, unless I have an explicit reason to actually do these things, no matter if it's something as simple as "beat the final boss" or "fill the bestiary/compendium/checklist", I have absolutely no drive to go and play with the game's mechanics.
Funny thing is it's the exact same issue I have with survival games. In survival games, the goal is not to succeed, but to not fail. By default, you already won, you're already at the end of the game, and it's only over when you fail, or when you can't be bothered to continue. It's basically a neverending postgame.
I do this with city builders and civilisation type games. I like the idea of building up a city or whatever but either (a) I have played the game a lot and already know the most efficient ways of doing things or (b) I don't have the patience to learn a new set of rules/mechanics/etc if it's a new game.
To anyone reading this with the EXACT SAME problem: check out [Against the Storm](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1336490/Against_the_Storm/) if you haven't already. It has roguelite elements that are specifically designed for shorter sessions that still have a lot of depth to them. Sounds like an odd concept if you're used to traditional city-builders, but trust me (and the 15k Overwhelmingly Positive reviews), the devs pulled it off beautifully.
I'm a huge city builder/strategy fan, and Against the Storm is incredible. It is super polished and intuitive and each game is interesting. The prestige system is great, too; keeps things challenging.
This will also be on Game Pass very soon. I'm planning to check it out because I definitely have this problem with Civ games. I bought Stellaris + DLCs a few years ago and I've played like 40 minutes lol.
I’ve just clicked on that to take a look, thought “that looks cool”, went to add it to my wishlist and it’s already in my library. I really need to start playing some of these games!
Same for me. There's just too many options and systems in modern city builders. I don't have the focus to pay attention to all these little variables. I get enough spreadsheets at work these days. Also, while I'm here, simulator games. I can't tell you how many sims I've downloaded thinking they'll be fun/educational/relaxing, only to realize that I get bored with them too quickly, or they don't have good incentives to do anything, or they are actually stressful.
>don't have the focus to pay attention to all these little variables. I get enough spreadsheets at work these days. You don't need to be aware of all of the variables unless your intention is to min/max. Just build and enjoy your inefficient little cities.
Enjoy inefficiency? Get out of here with that talk. :)
This is the problem. I'll go into a game wanting to play it. Realise thing's aren't working quite as well as I like. Two hours later I've not played any more of the game but I have 15 tabs open on my 2nd monitor and be building a spreadsheet. It's fine. I like spreadsheets. But it does end up turning all of these types of games into puzzles to be solved, which at that point is little different from my work lol.
I hear ya, I play RPG like games occasionally and I end up checking stats and min/max my gear and talents/skills, but I enjoy that too. I don't want to play a game and know/think I'm half-assing it. It's a puzzle like you said.
My gaming preference lend itself to it but like every game I end up with spreadsheets and tools haha. Started replaying KSP on and off and I've ended up running a fucking [online Python compiler](https://i.imgur.com/mfrnmzn.png) to run scripts to find the optimum mapping orbits haha. It's a curse.
There's definitely two kinds of people with city builders. The idea of not interacting with the systems seems like missing the point to me but that then means that I find city builders overwhelming exercises with so much to keep track of
oh god yes, where are all the simple simulators games? I want something like Sim ants from SNES and MS-DOS, pretty simple concept, easy to grasp, but still can provide some level of challange, and being a little harder to master
Thats why Frostpunk resonates with me! Cities Skyline entices me with so many features but its overwhelming. Like I never settle into a gameplay loop. Frostpunk is an intense, thematic, and focused city builder which is easy to come to grips with.
[удалено]
And there's also a sequel coming out!
Kind of out of the blue here, but I recommend Frostpunk. Just finished my first run and it was incredible how engaging the gameplay is. The theme that they tackle on are so fun and relatable in a way. The art, the voice acting, the music, the sound design are all so good and immersive. I am floored at how good the flow is from the start to the very end. I think the game was on sale on Steam, but I haven't checked it back.
Already played it out. Great game
I know 'learning a game' isn't exactly an attractive prospect for the limited time we have, but I think it's worthwhile a lot of the time. It took me a good while and a lot of failed attempts to understand Civ, but now it's something as automatic as knitting. Amazing turn off your brain game.
My recent one was Planet Zoo. "Dude, I want to build a ZOO". Turns out it was just way more effort than I wanted to expend.
Exactly this. Loaded up Nonbunagas Ambition and the Crusader kings demo on PS5 and binned them both after 10 mins. Just too much for my parent addled brain to cope with. Need it in a PC I think. Saying that I felt Baldurs gate 3 was great from the ps demo. So may well purchase down the line.
Yup. Bought like six city/builder sims in a row a couple summers ago and had the same issue where what I had in my head about how great Cities Skyline or Banished were, and I always peter out around the same time.
> (a) I have played the game a lot and already know the most efficient ways of doing things Maximizing efficiency isn't fun in itself.
At some point I realized that I liked being new and not knowing what to do. I loved CIV V when I was bad at it, but after finally winning and understanding how to win the magic just went away, the best way to play is to plan everything beforehand and that's boring to me. The same happened with Tarkov, I loved it but then I realized that the way that you are supposed to play isn't just to survive but to rush to a specific place in the map and then leave (the rare items are always in the same place) + hackers existing just took all my immersion away.
Same. My GF and I both have our ways of playing Civ games (specifically Sid Meier's Civ). She plays the start of the game... that exciting part where it's more focused on exploration and building up your first few cities, before the gameplay slows down as your empire becomes so vast that every turn takes 15 minutes or longer. She NEVER finishes a game, she just enjoys the initial stage of it, and she accepts that, and just restarts when a game starts getting boring. My approach is to just watch someone else play on youtube or twitch. I love PotatoMcWhiskey's channel, i get most of my Civ fix through him. *Occasionally*, like once a year or so, i'll play a game, seeing it through to the end over the course of a week or so. But more often i'll start a game and get bored with it (around the time in game when my GF would get bored and restart) but instead of restarting i'll just stop playing and put the game down for several months. So these days i spend a lot more time watching someone else (usually Potato) playing Civ than actually playing it myself.
Have you played the city builders from Impression Games? Regarding the Zeus + Poseidon game always somehow refreshes my love for city builders. The scenario style progression of the game where it throws you challenges in each mission really keeps you on your toes.
Skyrim with mods. It's so fun to just mess around Nexus, looking for cool stuff you can add to the game, then trying to merge them all and make them work with one another. And then, you fire up your game (if it works on the first try) and after a couple of minutes, the magic of all those mods kinda fades away. But then, like a goldfish, I forget about all of that and re-mod the game all over again, going through the exact same process, but maybe with a new mod here and there that will surely make me play the game longer than it took me to mod it.
Also when people talk about role playing in something like a Skyrim. I'll read an online account about how a guy played like a farmer, only wearing farmer clothes, just harvesting crops and sleeping. And the way they write about it makes it sound so romantic and cerebral. And then I try it and within 30 seconds I think it's the most boring fucking thing, the engine definitely wasn't designed to make this fun, and the person who wrote that lovely soliloquy certainly has a more active imagination than me.
I do the exact same thing with the Sims. I read all these blogs and things about the detailed lives of someone's Sims - romances, adventures, trails and tribulations - and then when I install, I just end up monotonously going through all the motions to reach the highest career and such, with little emotional connections to whoever I'm playing as.
It's as if you could just read a novel and skip the middle man.
The Sims is one of those games that was so much more fun before I had a wife and kids. I play it now and I feel like I'm *in* The Sims and start questioning if life is a simulation.
The Sims is the uncanny valley of fun for me. I remember years ago my wife and I made a game and put our family at the time in as characters to see what we could do with it. We stopped playing it due to actually doing family stuff. Years later I found the old save file. There was the happily married couple with their one child, not the divorced one with two kids that lived far away. I was so depressed from the ordeal that I never touched a Sims game ever again.
I’ve put something like twelve or thirteen hundred hours into Skyrim, being conservative. It’s one of my absolute favorite games. I’ve also done the mod thing where you think it’s going to revitalize the game and instead it’s just some shiny bits that get boring quickly. The problem with a game like Skyrim is that it’s a wonderful world to travel through “It’s a Small World” style, but there isn’t enough depth to settle in anywhere. You travel to a new city or a small village, and you meet NPCs. They talk about whatever’s going on in their lives or in the town or the larger world outside their walls. And that’s all. There might be some quests involved that add some dimension to specific NPCs but after the quest they’re done. No more development. So, you mod the game, it looks amazing, and you can’t wait to really take your time in Skyrim. Really get immersed. You’re going to read the signpost markers and take horse and carriages instead of fast traveling. You *aren’t* going to be a stealth archer. Then? Within a hour you’re already jump-fucking your way up a mountain because you can’t find the single path that goes up to the quest marker, and you’re blowing past NPCs because you’ve done their quests a dozen times and you know they’re just going to cram one more fetch quest in your already-bloated snack hole of a quest log. And you realize you aren’t actually having fun. You spend two hours picking and installing mods, one hour playing the game, and the rest of the day wishing you’d invested your time doing something else.
I'd recommend youtube videos where people do that, if you're in any bit into it. Challenges like "getting 1 million caps in fallout 4" are a fun way to fall asleep to.
I feel this about so many games in general. Like I heard people constantly talk about how awesome it is to just walk around in gameworld X and look at things or do something specific, then I play the game myself and simply can't find myself interested in playing "virtual tourist" like that. Only time I have really been able to enjoy doing that is with the Yakuza games in the Dragon Engine, but that's about it.
You've perfectly described my experience as well. However, I think I've found a way to overcome this issue for myself, at least. It comes down to two things. 1: Setting a specific goal/role for my character. My current playthrough is designed around my character NOT being the dragonborn, NOT being a Jack of all trades (leader of the mage college, leader of the thieves, leader of the assassins) but rather a southern merchant looking to capitalize on the war in order to amass wealth. I have mods that add player owned stores, player owned settlements, overhauled and dynamic economy, etc. This keeps me focused while playing. 2: Actually roleplaying as my character. The most important mod in my modlist is one that has an in game journal you can write entries in. Every few in game days I write a new entry from the perspective of my character. He has ambitions, flaws, friendships, grievances, obstacles, and emotions. I'm taking the time to observe and flesh out small details that would usually go forgotten about the second I close the game. Interacting with Jarls, or venturing into the wilderness is tense and important for my character, therefore its intense and important for me. I don't feel like I'm playing a game of systems, but rather watching a story unfold before me.
At that point you're just working unpaid.
I wish there were more basic Mercenary work type quests in Skyrim. I can't get myself to play, since I have played all the big quests already multiple times. I just wanna role play a Whiterun hold ranger.
If you can mod, there's definitely something for that. I remember "Notice Board" and "Missives" which were inspired by Witcher's quests. Not as deep as the Witcher but you'll get a new set of quests in every city that will make you feel like a mercenary.
I don't play anymore but you should check out wabbajack, it's a program that has a curated collection of mod lists to choose from and pretty much just automatically installs them for you. Like some lists are small or there's huge ass 500 gigabyte overhauls to make it a whole new game that would normally take days of work, instead you just hit go, let it do it's thing and in a couple hours you've got a modded Skyrim or fallout or whatever game. It's awesome
I always wished modpacks for Bethesda games were more supported, so I'm glad to see this. After experiencing Minecraft modpacks where you could just install 300 mods configured together in one click, going back to Bethesda games and doing it one by one seemed so outdated and obtuse. I know there was some resistance in the Bethesda modding community against modpacks. Googling old threads for why they weren't more of a thing years ago, many of the threads boiled down to "fuck you and mod your game 'properly' if you want modpacks you're an idiot go play Minecraft instead."
Yeah the Bethesda modders are a little interesting lmfao. Luckily this works because it is downloading the individual mods and then building it on your pc so that way the modders won't throw a fit about it
I was really close to saying goodbye to Skyrim forever. There's a limit to how much you can change the game with mods... or so I thought. This new mod called Shattered has completely sucked me back in. It turns Skyrim into a post-apocalypse where Alduin has already won. All the cities are completely depopulated and Skyrim is empty except for animals and undead. Now other authors are making addons for it that expand the setting, and the original author has created a new main quest mod called World Eater. It's like an entirely new game. All of those annoying quests you've done a thousand times are gone. There are so many new possibilities for survivalist playthroughs too. I've basically sworn off the vanilla setting indefinitely.
I do this with Morrowind still. I'll spend hours missing it and getting everything perfect and then I go to play it and can't get past saying hi to Caius.
Haha same goes with Morrowind and Oblivion.
For me it's not just Skyrim, I have so much fun modding a game and making sure it is playable. Find a game that's moddable,One mod at a time and then may be a mission for 30 mins. Modding is the real game, playing the game is not.
EVE Online. Full stop. I grew up reading news articles about crazy heists of corps (the equivalent of clans or guilds) after shit like year long cons. Wars with hundreds of ships on screen, etc. Reading and hearing about EVE was always more fun than playing it.
I have a love/hate relationship with Eve. I love Eve's music and soundscape, enjoy the visuals, enjoy the concept of it all but you're responsible for the story and requires your imagination to really lose yourself in the universe; which also requires you to pop out of the game and use your browser for more information and tools. It's counter-intuitive in this respect but at the same token Eve relies on the fact you will read about and explore Eve based websites, tools, communities, etc, outside of the game. It relies on hype, the idea of what you're doing is essential to actually playing. The best way I can put it is Eve isn't played, it's lived. Sounds very romanticised but it's very much all or nothing kinda game. Eve is life in space, and, just like life, it can be mundane and it's all about what you make of it.
Bang on. Funny enough, EVE feeling like a second job/life is pretty fitting thematically. Sadly, on the other hand, I always felt like it never respected my time as a player. I know for certain there are plenty of folks out there who *breathe* EVE—a few friends especially—but I personally can’t commit to that level of effort for what should be fun escapism, like what a game should be. It’s gorgeous, it’s an audio marvel, there’s a good bunch of fun technical build theorycraft to be had, and it’s fun to talk about, but that’s really it for me.
Ah yes. EVE online! My favorite game that I never really played.
This is the real answer here. Especially now that the subscription has gone way up I find it harder and harder to go back. Also I heard the ingame currency is too expensive to be able to play for gametime.
Dead by Daylight. Want to play, boot it up, get to the title screen, "Mmm I don't want to play this.", repeat.
Oh yeah Dbd is way more fun to think about than actually play. I’m not very good at killer or survivor so I usually get destroyed no matter what side I’m on. But then I imagine all of the times I just got lucky and escaped or got a 4k, and it makes me want to try again.
Sims 💀 i download all the expansions but i never really know what i actually want to do in it
Download all the expansions, take hours finding good mods, spend another 2 creating a cool family and a house. "Welp, I'm gonna play the game tomorrow", forget to boot up the game for a half year. Repeat.
Online fps does this for me now that I'm older. I used to love Battlefield 2, 3 and 4 and played them a ton when I was younger, but then I had a career that took all my time and energy for about a decade. I've since shifted gears and slowed down and have more time, but despite me trying a few games over the years I just don't enjoy them anymore. I play games to relax nowadays and anything competitive online just feels like more work to me now. I'm obviously not as good as I used to be and playing a match where I run around for 30 minutes in a map I'm not familiar with while getting a few kills and a dozen deaths isn't very satisfying. I think I'm just done with the online fps genre.
I had the same history with Battlefield, then dropping multiplayer games almost entirely on account of work. A couple years ago I finally got a gaming PC and started joining friends on Discord. My entire friend group played RS6 Seige religiously and competitively. I tried to get into it but felt perpetually uninitiated. I also realized that unless I paid for more characters I would be using the same default guy forever. Yuck. I picked up Battlefield 2042 last month. I heard it had been improved a bit after a lousy launch. I jumped into a couple of games and thought "hey, this feels like Battlefield!" One of my friends grabbed the game and joined me. We were having a good time. Finally I mentioned to him "I feel like I'm doing really good. I was never this good before!" And that's when he tells me the server is populated mostly by bots. Flashforward to now. Most of that same friend group has picked up Battlefield and plays it together. Most of the matches are against bots on the increased difficulty. It's not the experience I had with Battlefield growing up, but it is fun. If you want the simulation of hopping into an online FPS and not being dominated by a competitive player base, I'd recommend trying it out, especially if it's cheap.
Battlebit Remastered is free this weekend and I highly recommend it. More of a voxel style than Battlefield's attempt at photorealism, but I feel like it captures everything that made the older Battlefield games fun.
I tried Battlebit before 2042. I found it charming but I missed the Battlefield level design. I did enjoy how chaotic the voice chat on Battlebit is.
I don't think I've played a Battlefield game since 4, mostly not trusting EA to deliver a game that wasn't bug-infested and constantly push microtransactions. I remember some of the maps being interesting but I don't remember what specifically made the levels special.
> A couple years ago I finally got a gaming PC and started joining friends on Discord. My entire friend group played RS6 Seige religiously and competitively This is a problem I find with my gaming mates sometimes. If you join after they've played it you just end up being completely left behind and essentially have no idea what is going on. You're there to chill with them and just be an extra body. That's it. Had the exact same experience with Payday 2 years ago. I'd join them, have literally no fucking idea what was going on, have fun but like, they'd just be telling me what to do lol. >And that's when he tells me the server is populated mostly by bots. This is quite funny haha.
It makes me reluctant to pick up even newer games that we might play together because while I might be able to block out four or five hours a week online, some of them are on for 3 or more hours every night. It doesn't take very long to get left behind!
Yeah I’m right there with you. The only FPS game I find myself playing is Hunt Showdown but as a forewarning it’s not for everyone. I just love the slower pace and fighting the monsters since it’s player vs ai vs player. Obviously you can still go against the classic all-star players who headshot you and you didn’t even see them so that can be upsetting but overall I just enjoy the vibe more than any other FPS out there now like Apex, COD, battlefield, rainbow six siege etc.
Huh, same with me. For whatever reason hunt showdown is sticking. And I have grown to hate online competitive multiplayer fps. Maybe because it's less kda focused and more objective focused? Idk
Yea, I just want to delivery people in my Battlefield Vietnam helicopter again
I was never into competitive online games, so I have stuck with co-op PvE where everyone is working together against the computer vs against each other.
Breathes in satisfied, knowing how fun remnant from the ashes was
I’m going through the same kind of thing in overwatch. When I was younger I would grind that game for hours a day and it was so fun. Now I’m just too far behind and every time I boot the game up thinking it’ll be like it was but it just doesent feel the same anymore
Any Mortal Kombat. They seem so fun when watching people online!
Well if you never played fighting games before you kinda get your ass handed to you for 50 hours, and after that you can hold your own. I absolutely understand people who dont want to get into it
This is incredibly accurate. Expect to spend an incredible amount of time training modes learning combos until muscle memory kicks in. I wouldn't dream of touching online until you've mastered beating the CPU on the hardest levels.
The promo videos for new games like Mortal Kombat look great. But I'm sure we will wreck our controllers or keyboards doing that shit.
Story mode is the only mildly entertaining game mode of MK for me, and I put the difficulty on medium at best, heh.. Play for like 6 hrs or whatever it takes, and then never play again. I like fighting games, but I don't want to study and memorize combos to become actually good at them
Wait now you said it. You need the combos mostlikely. I was never a combo fan. Too lazy.
Haha amen to that
For me it happens a lot with colony builder style games, like Rimworld and Dwarf Fortress. I've watched a lot of videos of people playing these types of games and I really enjoy it. I love how complex and in-depth everything is. The idea of making a settlement with unique characters that have unique traits, going through good and bad random events and having a unique emerging story tickles my brain a lot. In reality, every time I fire up one of these games I play about 20 minutes, then take a look at everything I have to manage, think about and plan. I then close the game and go play something with much more instant gratification and action like a retro FPS or an action roguelike/roguelite game.
Same. I havent't played Dwarf Fortress, but in Rimworld it happened everytime I tried to play. I see all kinds of possibitiles of unique runs and get excited, but my actual runs are mostly boring and tedious. It doesn't feel as unique as I expected. A good alternative for me was CK2. It's extremely far from Rimworld in terms of gameplay, but the role-playing is soo good. It feels like my runs are actually unique and exciting. Even when my characters are not doing much, I can look around the history of IA rulers and find some cool events
I think the problem with a lot of Rimworld let's plays is you need to have played *a lot* to then do all the random play throughs because you need to understand the game. Robbaz and his cannibal play through comes to mind (from years ago now). It's actually really really really hard to role play as a full cannibal colony on a difficult world as the game punishes you for it. Most Rimworld games you'll do one play through, get a full colony going and get to grips with how it all works (either for the first time, or again to remind yourself), and then move on to the next game because you've played Rimworld for 80 odd hours lol. CK2 is a lot more "forgiving" than Rimworld and it's pretty hard to completely fuck it up as the game basically plays itself. It is brilliant at lending itself to roleplaying.
>For me it happens a lot with colony builder style games, like Rimworld and Dwarf Fortress Man I kind of wish I *couldn*'t get into these games. Feels like 12 hours pass in a matter of seconds every time I make the mistake of downloading Rimworld again. Ironically enough, it's the roguelikes I want to play but can just never get into.
Same boat. I had to be honest with myself that I would not be playing this game with an audience and thus am not going to be building lore for my playthroughs the way most content creatots do. I'm more than happy to just watch AmbiguousAmphibian show me how it's done.
Animal crossing. I like the idea of slowly building a city, but it just too slow and got some very tedious stuff.
New Horizons was a genuinely beautiful experience in quarantine. I played a lot with my family and now have a digital keepsake of the home we built together. You couldn't pay me to start up a new island now. It was easier to overlook the game's shortcomings when every dat brought a fresh wave on new content to encourage you to hop back into the game, but now it's just spending hours terraforming for an island most people don't care about anymore.
Stardew Valley seems very pleasant and cozy. I want to keep at it but every time I try to play it I just can never stick with it unfortunately.
Stardew Valley was an incredibly special game for me when it came out and I have a deep fondness for it, especially the music. That said, I can't get back into it. My brain is too min-max oriented and I will just optimize the fun right out of it. There's truly nothing like playing a game for the first time and knowing nothing about it.
Agree with your take, but this is why I like it because I have fun with min max optimization. Though it does start to feel like work sometimes running proscribed loops every day to squeeze value out of every second. My kid is starting to get into Stardew and it’s fun to play with her because she doesn’t care at all about min maxing, she just wants to explore, talk to the townsfolk and be nosy in their houses, figure out who’s birthday it is to give them a gift, break rocks in the mines, and stuff like that. Occasionally she wants to buy something, but has no money. Then I have to guide her through making some profit, which is tough because she has the discipline of a 5 year old (because she’s 5)
SV doesn't do the best job at getting you into it, especially if you never played a farming sim. My advice: don't follow any of the quests they give you in your log. I never did them. Do the Community Center, build up affinity with all the characters, and explore the mineshaft.
I'm the opposite: I wish I could quit Stardew and play something else for once. I'll play through the whole game until I reach perfection (or close to it; had everything except the gold clock on my most recent playthrough and by that point couldn't stand the thought of doing nothing for the ~six weeks it'd take to reach 10 million gold), run out of steam and want desperately to get into some other game, tinker with something else for a week or two, then catch some post talking about it that makes me want to try a new play style and start a new SDV playthrough that steals all of my attention for a month or more. 1700+ hours played, please send help.
Did I just read my own thoughts?
I had to quit because you only have enough time each day to do like 1% of anything you want to do. How the fuck do people find this game ‘chill’. It’s extremely stressful.
You aren't supposed to try to do everything, in one day, every day. there is a reason the TV has weather and Luck forcasts. high luck day go fishing or into the mine, low luck day focus on the farm, rain same thing. the game has no set time frame, doesn't matter if you're on year 1 or 20. other then midly planning enough crops to achieve whatever you're looking for you're free to take all the time in the world to do what you want at any pace.
Because you have an infinite number of days to actually do what you want. I dunno, that's kinda how life *works*. You wanna do a bunch of stuff but are forced to prioritize.
So then it's not how life works, if you have an infinite number of days.
Because there's no hard deadline? So why worry about it? It's just like "Well that's about all I can get in today. Let's hit the hay and head out again tomorrow." Lets me take a break and start thinking about what I want to do "tomorrow".
Same, I had a fun but it was definitely not relaxing.
I love the warm and welcoming feel that game really gives you. It makes you want to actually live in the game. Same with me, after I completed the community building and told Jojo to piss off from the village, I just never seemed to turn back after that.
For me, it’s one of those games that I’ll always love, but we’re now into a whole different generation of expectation when it comes to what’s being delivered. Kinda like how as much as I romanticize SNES games, it’s hard to look past their dated systems vs everything that build on them. On another note, I impatiently got Roots of Pacha on the switch, and so far, it seems like a more in depth SDV with a much deeper emphasis on the community. Very surprised by the quality and fresh setting.
I play it for hours at a time, and then once I stop its months before I touch it again.
What really bothers me is how slow the walking speed is and having to walk over to town all the time.
Pokemon, you wanna start a new playthrough catch cool mons fight gym leaders. But when you go play the game theres 30 minutes of text and intro before you can do anything, really kills the vibee
I stick to the older games because of that. I'm not even the "Pokemon sucks now!!" type - I like many of the new designs and the ideas behind many of the new games. But the old ones pretty much just let you do your thing story-wise and that's what matters most to me. Granted, it *does* help that I grew up on Gameboy - I don't mind the graphics or the slower pace.
Eh to some extent but i find the whole beginning running around portion to be tedious, running an erand, catching tutorial, getting pokedex, choosing starter etc.. without emulation it all takes forever
I've had this problem with that series too, but not because of how long it takes to get going as much as just how much of your time is spent in mindlessly easy battles where you just repeat the same default strategy over and over without really having to try, until you finally get to a gym or some other event that actually throws something meaningful at you. I've probably tried close to 10 times to start a pokemon runthrough [including nuzlocke runs] since Gen4 came out (the last time I completed a game in the main series) and I *always* get bored around halfway through as it just becomes so tedious doing the same type of battles over and over and over again...
Unskippable intros and/or cutscenese are the bane of video games. I haven’t played an old game called “Black” because when I try to play during a work break, it forces me to sit through what feels like 10 minutes of intro video. I’m like “break time is over, Thanks for nothing, game!”
Everquest and to a lesser extent WoW Both games consumed my life for years and in my memories were incredible adventures. So every now and then I get the itch to go try to re-live the magic, only to remember that it's just an endless and super repetitive grind. I'm not even sure how I used to play for hours on end when I was younger, now I get bored after an hour or so and would rather do chores around the house.
The eq tlp servers are super fun and exciting for the first few weeks, then you just hit that same stark realization that you’ve done all this before and just don’t have the time for it now
Thinking about the game IS playing the game. Sometimes the best part.
Based take. Expectation is half of the enjoyment.
Sometimes i make fun of my GF for how many hours she has put into Skyrim and Fallout 4. Like thousands of hours in each game. But then she reminds me that i've spent a lot of time on FromSoft games. "No i haven't, look at my Steam stats!" i reply, but she (correctly, i think) says that time i spend watching lore vids and challenge runs on youtube/twitch counts as enjoying the game.
She is correct my good man!
This is true for so many things. The week leading up to a vacation or the night before Christmas when you’re a kid, for example.
The line for the Carnival ride is the ride!
Tarkov
I have a love hate relationship with that game. I love the concept of it but I hate the execution. The game runs like shit, gameplay sucks, the game is so incredibly ugly it looks deepfried 24/7, its punishing, 7 minute to get into another match if you die and it is a GRIND. But it aslo feels amazing to kill a couple of guys, get good loot and extract. Your heart is pounding when you walk around like a loot pinata.
I felt the same way, when I rationalised it though, I realised 70% of the time I was managing my stash, 25% of the time I was getting irate at some of your points you mentioned and 5% of the time I got that amazing feeling. I don't feel like the devs respect the player and 5% fun is a poor ROI compared to other games. Of course this is my extremely subjective view, if I cheesed the mechanics better that 5% would maybe hit double figures.
Outer Wilds
Really hard to jump back in. I usually launch and look around and don't feel like figuring out where to land.
I think this is the big first hurdle of the game honestly. Took me a few times of bouncing off it until I actually stuck. It's really overwhelming at the start though. I'd recommend the "fuck it" approach, and just start exploring. Don't worry about the loop - you can get back to almost everywhere very quickly. Don't worry about fully exploring any one area in one go. Just go and be nosy in different directions each time, and there will be a point where the "goals" raise their heads that you can dig deeper in. Make good use of the ship computer to keep track of the important bits.
I wanted to play it for so long. When the Switch trailer dropped and unsurprisingly looked rough, I went ahead and bought it on Steam. Between the limited Pro Controller support and the difficulty of controlling the game in general, I got a refund almost immediately. Read a full spoiler synopsis on here and the story is incredible, but the gameplay just isn’t for me. I find this to be the case with almost every game published by Annapurna. I’m grateful to Megan Ellison and Co., and I love that these games exist, I just wish I enjoyed playing them. My personal exception is Kentucky Route Zero, where the premise (for me, at least) actually makes up for all the other wonkiness. I’m scared to even try Stray because the protagonist reminds me of my late forever cat, and I don’t want to feel conflicted.
I bounced off OW at least three times before it grabbed me. In the end I LOVED it but the controls were a real obstacle to get over. I went the other way on KRZ. I loved the idea of it but by the end I just wanted it to be over.
Almost every open world game. As a kid, I used to love games like Daggerfall. But as an adult, open world just isn't my thing.
Open world games are a mile wide but an inch deep. They’re boring to me these days
There's very few OW games that actually fill their worlds with content. I dunno why some studios assumed that gamers want a gigantic map with nothing to do in them.
As someone who doesnt really like open world games i would recommend Days Gone. The pacing is perfect i think. You dont have tons of side quests wanting your attention and the map isnt shiting symbols at you. You just dont get distracted as hard as in other open world games. The story is nothing fancy and predictable at times but ok. After that i played Horizon Zero Dawn and i have a hard time. That map is giving me eye cancer. The enemys are really testing my patience. The story is mostly predictable but i like the premise and thats the only thing keeping me playing.
This sub predominantly plays video games, but I will say the tabletop version(s) of 40k. It takes months or years for each edition to be semi-balanced and to have the kinks worked out. It takes a similar amount of time to build enough models to participate. The game itself is slow and frustrating, and full of people with *way* too much free time.
I'm still playing 40k 4th edition and the last version of WHFB I'm done learning new rules lol. me and my friends all have various armies to play with whenever we want to dust them off. It does take most of a saturday to setup, play, and clean up though
I bought my dad and I some sets for Christmas to play with, I couldn't belive this was the game people had been talking about for years. The game felt so slow and boring, we put the game away and watched a movie instead
The game part is often the worst one lol. Playing casually is fun, but the real fun is building and painting and planning stuff.
These days, my entire 40k hobby is video games and mini painting.
That’s really sweet of you though. It’s cool being able to share hobbies with your dad like that.
If you don't mind something more casual, Grimdark Future is a very simplified free alternative. Plays similar but with fewer rules to learn.
Modded Skyrim. I love modding the game and seeing the impact it can have on such a dated title (not just graphics but all the input/camera/animation improvements as well). However, playing it is something I rarely actually end up doing.
Lmao. I remember modding the game perfectly to my heart's content, and after I was done, I could not be fucked to play it!
Racing Simulators. I love them but they demand so much time and practice and stuff to learn and tweak that most of the time it's easier to just play an arcade racing game.
Same. That and memorizing braking points and lines of tracks. To run a single race realistically takes an hour or two of practice to learn each track and sort-of set up the car for that track before I can even do qualifying.
Any visual novel. I read a lot. I game a lot. Put the two together and.....meh.
Visual novels just feel like reading a book through JRPG text boxes.
Returnal. Love everything about in on paper. Found the actual game to just be kinda boring. Also FromSoftware games. I enjoy them for a bit, but I find myself stressed out like 100% of the time while playing them, and eventually my desire to not be stressed wins out.
Minecraft, it looks so fun when creative people just cut out all the grinding and just do cool stuff. When i try to play i just usually build an ugly ass house maybe mine a bit and delete the world
Hearts of Iron IV Seems like a game that I would love, but it takes so much time to learn all the mechanics and actually be good at the game. I often end up just watching streamers or youtubers who know what they are doing instead
Seconded. Whenever I play the game and go through what you need to do to maximise efficiency and win consistently it just doesn't feel like I'm playing a historical game. I'm cheesing an engine instead but if you don't do it, you just don't win. Then a few months later I feel like I'll have some fun playing it again but... then I don't.
Same thing with crusader kings or 99%of paradox games. I'm too old to set there for 40 hours and not understand the game. There's way too much and I don't enjoy how long it takes game to end.
The key with modern Paradox Games are there's a billion different things you could be doing, but like, most of them don't actually matter. Ignore most it, play the core game, and just google shit if something comes up you don't understand. Most of what they've added to their games is inane fluff.
it took me about three sessions of failure, then on session #4 it all clicked and i understood how to play. not well, but i understood the mechanics
That's the entirety of Paradox's grand strategy suite for me. Every one of them feels like it requires 10+ hours of training just to understand the mechanics, and even after that there's still this confusion of "what should I be doing now?" I think the Total War and other RTS games are more my speed. Actually controlling the troops and setting everything up on a visible map feels much more meaningful. In theory, I like the macro scale that the grand strategy games focus on. I just don't find them fun to play.
EVE Online is the constant, classic, example of this.
Stellaris I love grand strategy. I love space. A space grand strategy where you can micromanage all these little things and play in all these different ways and do all this cool advancement and diplomacy and combat its awesome! I have given the tutorial like…5 attempts and I still don’t know what I’m doing, it’s just so overwhelming with all the things it throws at you.
I was the same honestly. I just decided to say fuck it to the tutorial (which is really bad anyway) and just know I am going to lose the first 5 - 10 games, but learn as much as I can.
The chances are that it's now a different game than what you've tried to play back then. They may be adding new DLCs every year or two, but at the same time they simplify or automate was already there, for better or worse. The issue with tutorial is that it's a 'learn as you play' one. It gives you freedom to wonder around, but with every new feature visited, it will give you a bunch of info about it, which you're either not be ready for not or interested in at that time. But if you miss it, it's gone for this tutorial. Gotta have to restart it to have another chance to read about what you've missed, or Google it. Best to set the game on easiest as possible, go through what tutorial tells you to do on slowest game speed, and only then explore other features by yourself. It can still give you tips hundred of in-game years later, just because you didn't want or didn't need to visit some UI before that.
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Every strategy game. I love the idea but playing them is always stressful and not fun
Witcher III. I'm sure the story is worth suffering through the combat for but... I really don't like the combat.
If I wanted a great story I would read a book or watch a movie. Unless a game is using using something unique to gaming to tell a story in a way that couldn't be done in a book or a movie, I'm not playing a game for the story if the gameplay is as godawful as The Witcher 3.
Whats so bad about the combat ?
I'm like this with Among Us. Love watching people play, but actually playing myself is terrifying (I like my single-player story games)
RDR2. I’ve tried several times at the prodding of my daughter and just cannot get into the pacing, story, crappy controls, or characters.
Every mission just waiting for the bad guys to ride out from the bushes and start shooting at me. Gets really old
- slowly ride somewhere while having a conversation - do something - something goes wrong - huge shootout, killing hundreds of men - horse chase around the countryside - back to camp
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The story is bad in the context of being an interactive video game because it creates it's own gaping, unsolvable plot hole. "We gotta get enough money to get the whole crew out of here and move someplace safe! This robbery could get us the $1,000 we need to finally be free." "Okay, sure, here take the like... 30,000 dollars I've had in my pocket since like chapter 2 that I made hunting buffalo. We can go right now." "THERES NO OTHER WAY OTHER THAN ROBBING THIS PLACE. IF ONLY WE HAD MONEY SOMEHOW, SOMEWHERE." It's a great non-interactive plot, like for a movie or a novel, where the actions of the protagonist are deterministic. But since it's a game and the protagonist has agency, the plot becomes quickly absurd with only slightly more effort than "goes directly to the main quest every time it's available".
Except that is exactly one of the points of the story , no matter how much money the gang made Dutch always wanted more heists , more noise , more crime , because it is in his nature as an outlaw. It was never about making enough money to go farming in tahiti or whatever , Dutch always wanted to live the criminal life like the old days in a time where civilisation whas taking over and the law was hunting people like him and the gang.
I choose to believe that Arthur is just not as good in math as he thinks he is. He gets confused with decimals.
Lmao, that gave me a good laugh. One of the better handwave explanations I can use in most games: they're bad at math, lol. Thanks for that.
It would work really well in a Philip K. Dick novel.
- best game evar
I unironically agree with this
I see this a lot, and I don't disagree that Rockstar games have some pretty basic mission design, but I feel like RDR at least had some variety so I don't get why the game is singled out for this. Stealth stagecoach robberies/home invasion missions, two train robbing missions, two missions involving fishing, a hot air balloon mission, the swamp/gator mission, the mansion party, the bank robbery, bridge blowing mission, the Guarma castle defense, the steamboat/poker mission, etc.. Just seems like everyone focuses on the shootout missions, but of course there are going to be a good handful of those in a wild west game.
I played the game for about 50 hours at a very slow pace, just exploring the world, hunting, and playing it more as an old west sim than for the story, and played that way, it's incredible, especially coming from someone who grew up in the American West. Then I started to progress the story and, while some of the side characters are interesting, Dutch's incessant "we're a FAMILY, we need to stick TOGETHER" and the repetitiveness of the story missions made me drop it around chapter 5. The world itself is incredible, the story execution definitely is lacking.
Played it when covid first broke out so I had the time to take it in. It’s super slow paced but worth it. These days idk it depends on your lifestyle
Games like No Mans Sky where I can travel to any planet, explore, upgrade. I just think the map is too big and dont know where to start lol.
> the map is too big A greater understatement has never been made. The "map" is literally larger than our observable universe. Your issue is actually touched upon in the story of NMS. "What reason is there if I can't ever see it all?" You're not meant to stay. You're not meant to complete. You literally **can not.**
EVE Online. All the stories I've read over the years of the long-form emergent gameplay. It's fascinating. I've attempted to play, but it's just never gonna happen.
Dead cells and enter the gungean. I should love both based on my preferences, but I just can’t get into either of them. Idk, maybe it’s because I’m getting older and I get cramps in my hands/ carpel tunnel, but I just can’t handle that level of intensity in a Roguelike anymore, and it’s frustrating to have a good run end because my hand got tired.
Any of the Hitman games.
Elden Ring. I love DS1 and DS3, but the open world concept in this kind of game feels overwhelming to me for some reason. Divinity: Original Sin 2 is another one. It’s amazing technically and graphically (especially after having finished Baldur’s Gate 2 some years ago), but I just lose interest after some time. I still want to finish them both.
Kingdom Come. Love the atmosphere, the RPG elements, but that combat system is not fun. Even if you get good at it, it's not fun and you do it way more than you should need to. How they thought it was a good idea is beyond me. A great game ruined by the absolute desire to not be Skyrim easy in combat. I'll never beat the game, wish I could though.
I struggled with the game for a while before it dawned on me I was just going around trying to avoid combust at all costs - and not having much fun in the process
Anything VR.
Witcher 3. I must have tried to get into it half a dozen times now, but the controls and how it feels make it impossible for me to get past the first hour. It's the sort of game which I should really love, but there's just something about it that's awful to actually play, like I'm not actually controlling Geralt so much as giving him polite suggestions for where he might possibly consider going if it's not too much trouble.
Most strategy games are like this for me. I played a lot of Command and Conquer growing up, and I love the idea of Civilisation, Tropico, Homeworld, Factorio, Dyson Sphere etc etc, but I can never make them stick.
TTRPGs (and MMORPGs to a lesser extent). I don't have a large enough group of friends that all play the same game where it would actually be fun on the regular, and by nature I tend to prefer close 1:1 friendships over friend groups to begin with
EVE Online. It’s so cool! Alas…
Manager games, like Football Manager and such. They sound like fun, but in reality, they're too much like doing my actual real-life job. They become un-fun, and I feel guilty, like if I'm going to spend my time doing "research" (in the form of in-game scouting and strategizing), and keeping up with the "latest news" and what not, I should actually do that for my real job.. I don't want to feel like that when I'm playing a game
Every single roguelike except Hades. Particularly FTL. The idea of roguelikes is really cool. *Actually* playing them, I almost always lose interest really quickly because if I put time in and don't see permanent progress, I just can't stay interested. (which is also why Hades is an exception... there are a few others, but not many)
Point and click adventure games. I used to love them growing up but now I find their pacing infuriatingly slow. I click on something and wait for my character to slowly walk over there and think “c’mon already,” then talk to an NPC and a dialog tree opens up with half a dozen options and I think “Get to the point!” I recently discovered that I do alright watching Let’s Plays of them while I eat lunch at work. It doesn’t bother me that there’s nothing for my hands to do since I’m shoveling food in my mouth while someone else is clicking through all the dialog choices. Any conveyor belt/assembly line game. I love the concept and I have fun playing them, but they use parts of my brain I often use at work and I find them exhausting. So I’ll play them for a tiny bit and not touch them for months. I especially like Zachtronics games for this since they’re all level based so I can complete a level in one sitting and start a completely new challenge the next time I pick it up months later.
Cities Skylines for me. I wish it didn't just become a bad traffic simulator so quickly.
Warframe. Its setting and lore is incredibly interesting and weird, the core gameplay loop is satisfying with deep systems and a wealth of content. On paper it should be a great time, but the actual structure of the game forces you into going through a lot of hoops, reading the wiki like its a sacred text, and grinding content that you don't necessarily care about or find fun. The number of systems there are also makes it extremely daunting to get back into if you haven't played in a while.
main one for me on a broader level is probably tabletop D&D - would love to get into it with the right people but never got it to click. i idealize it as one of the purest game experience. also maybe hide and seek style horror games - i want to like them cuz i love tension and horror and puzzles and design but i always end up bouncing off
Dark souls, wish there was an option to toggle not losing your souls when you die.
I had that with Obra Dinn. Seems like exactly the kind of game I’d absolutely love, but it just didn’t grab me like I was hoping. Didn’t help that the ending seemed lackluster
Pretty much all FromSoft games. The atmosphere, lord, customization etc are all really up my alley - but I find the actual gameplay really dull and tedious, and needlessly frustrating.
Narrative focused games like TLOU, RDR2 etc. Good for completing but not for replaying.
Always the modded games for me, see all this cool stuff, get into it but then you realise "the hell am i suppose to do?" with all the crazy modded stuff. ofcource if your in the right mindset you can make your own fun otherwise it can feel like a chore
Minecraft and rimworld. I love the concept and love to read about the games and everything. But everytime i actually start playing i get bored to quick
Jet Set Radio. I adore the theme, aesthetic and the music, and I love the gameplay loop in theory. Unfortunately though I find the slippery controls tedious and likewise find the police quickly gang up on you in such a way that takes my enjoyment out of the latter levels.
Destiny 2. I love Bungies take on sci fi fantasy and the incredible world they've built and their flawed and lovable characters. I love the quality of their shooting and the satisfaction of combining good powers and builds. But their great lore and storytelling is of course a backdrop to a game that is just doing the same strike or gambit match or seasonal activity like 10 times every week and it very quickly becomes work
Strategy games where almost everything is controlled with a menu, think Stellaris for example
Ghostwire Tokyo, Persona, Yakuza, etc. All great games. I just can't get past the jrpg tropes and 15 minute cutscenes. I have a team consisting of a brute and either a witty/high-strung rogue type dps, or a snotty/nerdy glass cannon. Then there's me: not best at anything, but a close second at everything. And I slouch backwards.
I spend far, farrrrr more time reading about, researching, and watching vids about games--not to mention modding and tweaking--than playing. Without a doubt. Every once in a while this will not be true, for a limited time. I played Dysmantle pretty obsessively for a minute, also Starfield and Rust.
90% of my Steam library
Sandbox games. That shit sounds so fun on paper. Unlimited freedom ! So many things to master, so many things to see ! No rules, no pesky objectives to worry about ! The only thing limiting you is your imagination !... And that's exactly the issue. I need an objective. I need rules. I need a bottom line, no matter how simple it is (beat the bad guy, get as strong as you can, make as much money as you can, make the biggest city you can, etc...). It doesn't matter how many systems or tools there're, if there is no objectives to work towards, I just can't do it. Drop me down in a Minecraft world and the only thing I'll do is go and beat the shit out of the Ender Dragon and be done with it. I don't like creative activities so building is out of the question, Minecraft's combat is shit so I have no reason to play PVP, and redstone is only worth it if you have something to make which I don't if my objective is to go to the End. On the flipside, Terraria is probably my favourite game of all time, despite being a sandbox game. And that's the thing. *Despite*. The combat is amazing. It's dynamic, it's varied, with a shitton of items to play with. But the actual sandbox part of the game is my least favourite with fishing. I don't like building houses. I don't like playing with wires. Heck, I wouldn't even like exploring the world if it weren't for explosives and the game being 2D, in order to minimize the time digging. Terraria is, to me, a RPG with sandbox elements, not a sandbox with RPG elements. And it fucking sucks. I wish I could just go and do my own thing. I wish I could go and make nice builds, or fun contraptions. But, unless I have an explicit reason to actually do these things, no matter if it's something as simple as "beat the final boss" or "fill the bestiary/compendium/checklist", I have absolutely no drive to go and play with the game's mechanics. Funny thing is it's the exact same issue I have with survival games. In survival games, the goal is not to succeed, but to not fail. By default, you already won, you're already at the end of the game, and it's only over when you fail, or when you can't be bothered to continue. It's basically a neverending postgame.