StaceyPowers

What is your favourite national park that you have visited? Incidentally, saw the discussion here about Yellowstone. I can highly recommend it. I spent five months there once, and I miss it every day of my life.

This is a frequent occurrence, yes =D

I can happily play an immersive game for hours at a time, and as for long-term investment, if I find a game that I love, I want to play it over and over again probably for the rest of my life. Factors that draw me in and keep me there include an atmospheric world to explore with rich lore to discover, well-developed and portrayed characters I care about, a compelling story, beautiful soundtracking and ambiance, and any type of game play that gets me into a “flow” state where I can effortlessly concentrate and be in the moment.

I could say that I lost the same friendships I built through MUDs, since in-game events inevitably were woven into the growth and decay of the out-of-game relationships. My BFF in high school also cold-shouldred me for months after she quit the game we were playing, and didn’t talk to me again until I quit too.

I used to play MUDs, but I also quit playing multiplayer games as well. The initial reason was that I was overwhelmed by all the personal issues that went with the MUD communities I was in, but the later reason was that the world of multiplayer gaming seems besieged by games that seem bereft of any in-depth in-game interaction.

I think I don’t mind collecting items if either 1-it adds to the lore, or 2-doing so is just very relaxing and enjoyable. But sometimes it can all get to be a bit much for me as it can trigger my OCD completionist issues.

I’m excited to read such high praise from you about RDR2—I’m closing in on finishing the first game, and I am already excited to play the next. I'm with @Shagger about TLOU being another in this category, and for me, the BioShock series probably most of all.

I suppose it is just the notion that so-and-so strived hard enough to get all the trophies in Game X will allow them to pre-order but not me that peeves me =D Likewise, btw, I don't find re-targeting ads online nearly as eerie as a lot of folks do. That being said, Google is a pretty nefarious company, but I have other issues with them.

What customization systems do you like best for upgrading your armor or altering its appearance? So far, I find Skyrim’s system most intuitive for practical upgrades, but I am addicted to Mass Effect 2’s easy system for altering the appearance of my armor (I am spending waaaay too much time switching up the colors).

BioShock series

I feel a bit silly in that the first games I expect to buy for my PS5 are (assuming they are compatible) PS4 Dragon Age Inquisition (cause I missed out on a DLC on PS3) and BioShock The Collection (so I can play the remasters at last). It’s made me curious how much everyone here has spent simply purchasing new versions of old games you already paid for in the pat?

Do you have a game that you are so addicted to that you cannot seem to tear yourself away from it no matter how many times you complete it? I just finished my fourth playthrough of Fallout NV, and I know I should leave the slot open to start a new game, but I’m having a really hard time not just starting it again.

I definitely prefer full length songs or at least fairly long repeating loops in game soundtracks. Super short loops (i.e. 10 seconds) actually drive me kinda crazy. What about you?

Sony is allowing users to sign up to receive a potential invite for PS5 direct pre-orders based on their past activities. Obviously I get that this is sensible for the company from a sales standpoint, but it is a bit unsettling to me to realize that Sony’s intimate knowledge of our gaming habits will determine whether or not we get a chance to pre-order early. Anyone else find the process a bit disturbing?

They look like us--at least, we look like us, and to some other species, we're the aliens 😉

Actually, if anything, your amazing depth of knowledge of classic games makes me question my validity =D If you love games, you're a gamer. Doesn't matter if they're new, old, if your knowledge is sweeping and broad or super narrow and deep. Just matters what you're passionate about.

I liked @The Blackangel's topic here asking first person gamers to explain the appeal of first person gaming, so I thought I would create the corresponding topic for third person gamers to explain why they enjoy the third person perspective so much. I really detest gaming in third person--it makes me dizzy, it isn't immersive, everything on the screen is small and less detailed, and I can't walk directly up to something to look at it like I could in real life--and I cannot fathom what its appeal is. So, for those of you who love it, can you please explain what its advantages are?

It's not a make-or-break for me, but I have to REALLY want a game for other reasons to buy it if it is in third person. Third person breaks immersion for me unless it is done very well, and it makes me literally dizzy.

Having played all the Fallout NV and Fallout 3 DLCs, here is my ranking from favorite to least favorite. I’m not including Broken Steel in the list because even though it is a DLC, technically to me it just feels like “the rest of the main game that they failed to include in the original release). 1. Honest Hearts 2. Dead Money/Lonesome Road (tied) 3. Old World Blues (not far behind at all) 4. The Pitt 5. Operation: Anchorage 6. Point Lookout (I know, I’m weird for ranking this below Anchorage) 7. Mothership Zeta (far, far below Point Lookout) How do you rank the Fallout DLCs you have played?

I’m going to be jumping straight from PS3 to PS5, having never purchased a PS4 (but I am looking forward to hopefully catching up on a lot of the PS4 games I missed through backwards compatibility). Anyone else here skipping a generation on the way to PS5 or Xbox Series X?

What are some games you have played with lots of parallels between them? For example, both TLOU and BioShock: Infinite feature Troy Baker playing a reluctant father. Another example would be BioShock Infinite and Spec Ops: The Line, both shooters which take you on a strange journey through a city in its final days of destruction where you play a traumatized soldier essentially fighting his own demons.

I think I remember reading in an interview some years back that Dan Houser was relieved not to be working on a GTA game at the time because real-life had become so bonkers it would be hard to know how to parody it since it already seemed like a parody. Well, now real life is about ten times crazier than it was whenever I read that, and hypothetically, GTA 6 is on the way. How do you think they will tackle the challenge of trying to do their usual hyperbolic parody of real life when real life is already crazier than any video game?

Third person: I'm floating over someone else's shoulder awkwardly as the world spins around me, a million miles from the action. And everything around me is so small and hard to see. First person: I'm the person in the game, seeing through my own eyes, immersed in the action, and things look like they do in real life.

Yes, that's her. I wasn't familiar with most of the cast, but her I recognized. Yes, it's an interactive video series where you can vote on what happens :)

I only just realized we have never talked about LARPing on here, at least not that I remember! I recall that could be rather adult too, at least where I was LARPing =D I agree with you about adding some anime elements drawing more viewers with this. It’d fit right in. It’s not really my “type” of thing either generally speaking, but I signed up to check it out for VGR, and I ended up finding it more fun than I’d expected :)