StaceyPowers

For those of you who have purchased many consoles over the years, what do you do with them? Have you kept them all? Have you sold some of them? Have you given some of them away? What makes you decide to sell/give one rather than hang onto it? @The Blackangel @DylanC @skyfire @killamch89 @kingpotato @LadyDay @Alyxx @Crazycrab @Shagger

I’m playing Dragon Age Inquisition, and it is a very fun game with which I am overall satisfied, but it seems to have a lot of “distracting” content. I usually am all for “game of a million side quests,” and don’t mind gathering resources, etc. yet somehow the million side quests in DA:I seem more distracting/tedious than interesting/fulfilling. So, I find myself ignoring more and more of them as I play so that I am not spacing out important plot events and character interactions so much. Thus, the game flows a bit better and I feel more connected to the world. Are there games where you find yourself ignoring content on purpose in order to make the game, well, better?

I like the DualShock 3, though not its price or apparent fragility, but it handles smoothly and that is nice. My least favorite controller I ever remember using was the one with my original NES when I was a kid. Something about the lack of thumsticks I think made it almost unusable for me. I thought I was terribly uncoordinated and just a horrible gamer when I was a kid, but sometimes I think if the NES had come up with a completely different kind of controller, I probably would’ve played significantly better (but still been pretty bad). @The Blackangel Especially interested in what you have to say on this topic since I know you have used a lot of different systems over the years.

It is possible to cheat at poker in RDR, of course, but I am wondering, is the player the only person who does? Or do the other gamblers ever cheat at poker? I am guessing the answer is “no,” but sometimes I wonder. Occasionally an npc seems to be on an unbelievable run of luck. @kingpotato

I don't think my family had any original recipes.

Not knowledgeable enough to answer.

Favorite item of clothing you own?

You're going to be on Jerry Springer. What person will you be fighting with on the show?

Bitch owes you answers! What are you gonna do about it?

What species of crab are you?

What did single cell protozoa taste like?

Has anyone here ever become invested in a game, played through a significant portion of it (i.e. not like me giving up on Dark Souls by my third day), only to hit an impassable difficulty barrier that made it impossible for you to continue at your skill level? I always have this fear of this happening with any game which is at the edge of my skill level, especially (obviously) if I am playing at it at the most casual/easy level. I worry I’ll run into a boss I can’t kill or find myself up a creek without a paddle with resources. Thankfully, I think game designers are pretty good at giving us multiple routes through any given scenario, so this is unlikely to happen. But nothing ever gets rid of my angst about it, which I deal with by creating a LOT of save points. So, has it ever actually happened to anyone? If so, what was the game, and what was the hurdle which forced you to give up forever? @The Blackangel @LadyDay @killamch89 @kingpotato @Crazycrab @Shagger @skyfire @DylanC

In another thread, @LadyDay, @killamch89 and @kingpotato all mentioned that they do not use the Clear Skies shout in Skyrim very often, whereas I do so compulsively to get rid of all the clouds and bring more color to the game. So, I thought I would mention here in case others are not aware, the Clear Skies shout not only can be used to get rid of the clouds, but also to bring out the aurora at night. I am pretty sure that you usually only need to shout a single time to get this to happen, but if it doesn’t work on one go, two should do it. So, that is a way to bring a lot of color to the game while you’re on a night time walk. It has gotten to the point where I think of this as the shout’s primary use. After all, I am pretty sure you only need it on one or two occasions otherwise for the main questline.

Me too--always hanging out in The Rift with its perpetual autumn and sunlight.

Are there any movies which you think would have worked/would work better as a video game? I don’t just mean “which movies should be made into video games,” but which stories/experiences told in a film format would be improved by a video game format. I got to thinking about this because the idea of a TLOU movie has been thrown around, but it almost sounds like it would be redundant to me next to the video game experience of the story, which is so visceral/immediate. So now I am wondering if there are any existing movies which would feel redundant in the same fashion had they been video games first—or even if they were made into video games now. Nothing is coming to me off the top of my head, but I know while watching some movies I have had this thought before, especially about those which maybe featured stories that felt either shallow or rushed, but interesting action scenarios or worlds to explore.

I was reading @killamch89's thread concerning the ongoing woes of Fallout 76, which sounds like it continues to be disastrous in many respects long after launch. @DC made a quip about No Man’s Sky. I gather that No Man’s Sky is a game which has led to pretty divided opinions. I know a lot of people still don’t like it, but I was almost surprised to see it referenced in this light, as I have heard a lot of folks mention it has made a considerable recovery/improvement since its initial rocky launch. I havent played it, so I don't have an opinion about the game either way. So, that made me wonder about games that fit into that category alongside (possibly?) No Man’s Sky, and which serve as an example of what Bethesda should be aiming to do to increase support and improve Fallout 76. First of all, to those here who have played No Man’s Sky, what are your opinions on how the game has evolved since its release? Has this game gotten a lot better since launch, as I have heard, or do you feel that it is still weak? What are some other games that were rocky at release but which you think have improved significantly now and which you can contrast with Fallout 76’s issues?

I love the mini-games/gambling in Red Dead Redemption. My favorite is probably poker, but liar’s dice is starting to catch up, and I have been spending a lot more time with blackjack lately as I learn about basic strategy. But I am guessing poker will always be my favorite. I like the horseshoes game in theory, but I never really seem to get into it. What are everyone’s favorite mini-games in RDR? What about in RDR2 (which I have not played)? @kingpotato

What is your preferred breakfast?

In this post, we were talking about how wobbling while walking or a bit of wobble aiming down a gun sight can add a more realistic flavor to a game. @The Blackangel mentioned that smart enemy AI makes a big difference in how realistic a game feels as well. Both @killamch89 and @Alyxx mentioned that realism is most important to them when a game is in first person. In fact, we could just add first person to the list of what makes a game feel realistic, I suspect--though there are some exceptions (TLOU feels very real to me, to the point where I can forget I am perched over Joel's shoulder). What are some other factors that can make a game feel more realistic? Off the top of my head: Graphic and sound quality (obviously). Little details--like when wet ground makes a different sound than dry ground, or when you can see subtle kicking up of dirt or snow when walking. A minimalist soundtrack (cause real life has none). Solid dialogue and strong voice acting. Complex characters with well developed backgrounds and motivations. What can you come up with?

I'm thinking of buying a set of dice just to try this.

After many hours of gambling in Red Dead Redemption, I am more or less breakeven on blackjack and poker, but I seem to win with more consistency than I would expect at liar’s dice. I have made quite a bit of money on it. I notice in the stats that it only seems to track liar’s dice losses, and not liar’s dice wins. It also has a trophy (which I just got) for winning a game of liar’s dice without losing any dice. All of this makes me wonder if liar’s dice is simply an easy game against computerized opponents rather than that I am oddly good at it. Who else here seems to find liar’s dice in RDR easy? @kingpotato @skyfire

I have been learning about blackjack basic strategy, and decided I would try it while playing blackjack in Red Dead Redemption. So, I opened it in front of me last night and played for a while. But I have not figured out yet how many decks of cards are being used, and haven’t run nearly enough trials to figure out which form of the basic strategy is getting me the best results. Does anyone know how many decks are used for this card game?

Neither.

I restarted Skyrim recently with a new char, and I don’t have Clear Skies yet, and I suddenly realize how bleak and gray most parts of the map are most of the time without it. Apparently I walk around almost unconsciously using Clear Skies anytime the sky starts getting cloudy as a regular habit. Does anyone else obsessively Clear Skies in Skyrim? It’s not that I have anything against cloudy weather—it is just that it brings more color to the game. I do kind of hope for a sunnier location for the next Elder Scrolls game. @kingpotato @LadyDay @killamch89

I was enjoying a dramatic sunset IRL yesterday which reminded me of a specific sunset in a video game—namely when you’re at Soldier’s Field in BioShock Infinite, and everything is sort of luminous lavender. It is a static sunset, but still one that sticks with you, not the least because that warm glow fits with some of the fleeting moments of peace and hopefulness in that section of the game. As far as dynamic sunsets go, I think my favorites are those in Skyrim, but Fallout also does a good job with sunsets, and so does RDR. What are your favorite sunsets in video games? And on that note, what about your favorite sunrises? @kingpotato @killamch89 tagging you both because I think we've talked about video game weather before, and this topic is in that area.