StaceyPowers

This kind of reminds me of my complaints about DA Inquisition's million fetch quests. They really disrupt the flow of the game, but I know on my next playthrough I'll just ignore most of them and the game will be much more enjoyable.

I'm on my first ME playthrough and started ME 2 a couple months back. so far it seems a huge improvement over ME 1 to me. less busy work, better music and graphics, more fleshed-out characters, more crew-related missions, etc.

Some of the books are literally game-changing too. After I read the Bear of Markarth, I lost most of my sympathy for the Stormcloaks. It's crazy the details you miss if you don't read in these games.

Like you, I am trying to decide whether to play Fallout 4. But I can recommend Fallout 3 and especially Fallout NV. But NV is very very buggy on my PS3, so I'd suggest a different platform for it.

Can you elaborate? I'm also trying to decide whether to get Fallout 4.

One of the biggest weaknesses of Elder Scrolls games in my opinion is that the characters seem really stiff and wooden. What do you think could be done to improve this in ES VI? I think fewer companions with more lines and backstory would help (more like Fallout NV), and so would letting them roam around and do random stuff (like Serana in Skyrim—but taking it further) rather than just standing there stiffly waiting for you all the time.

I cannot sit at my PC and game because it isn’t ergonomic for me to use a mouse and keyboard. Both my back and neck seem more comfortable on the couch, and a gamepad seems a lot less likely to cause headaches. Can anyone recommend a relatively inexpensive but decent gamepad for a Win 10 laptop?

Ever since Microsoft bought Bethesda (and Obsidian), all I can think is that they are planning on making the next Fallout game as well as ES VI exclusives for Xbox and PC. They’d get a ton of criticism for such a decision, but I think it might still pay off enough for them to consider it. Do you think it will happen?

For those of you who enjoy open world games, which open worlds are your favorites? And I don’t mean the games specifically—I mean the worlds themselves and their lore. For me, I think the world I find most fascinating is Fallout.

I’ve been really curious about Watch Dogs Legion ever since seeing the first trailer for it. The sense of humor really appealed to me, and the overall concept seems potentially cool—but also potentially repetitious. Has anyone played this game yet, and if so, do you like it?

I expect you were alluding to construction, but since it was you who said it, I immediately thought, "Their art is death!"

Most games are built around objectives, tasks, goals and achievements, but there are some games that either leave these up to the player, or don’t really take on a goal-oriented approach at all. Do you like games without clear goals or objectives?

Recently I read a philosopher saying that if we lived forever, we’d get sick of even the things we love and inevitably want to go away. Underlying assumptions of his argument aside, it did make me think about repetitious experiences in gaming, particularly with respect to open world games I’ve been playing for years. I do sometimes bore of doing the same quests over and over, but I don’t find I ever tire of another sunrise or sunset in Skyrim, or just spending time with places and characters I care about. What about you?

For example, I finished my first playthrough of Spec Ops: The Line a few months ago, but as recently as last week, I realized whole new layers of meaning in how the game dealt with matters like cognitive dissonance, unconscious behavioural scripts, and limits to perceived choices. Even though it’s been a while since I finished this game, it just keeps amazing me.

Oh man. This is going to be painful 😞 I'm the same exact way you are.

I still haven't had my chance to play this yet, and have resisted looking up spoilers, but I appreciate the fair warning that the ending is going to kick my arse :/

Alas, "conventional wisdom" tends to be from and toward a neurotypical population, and generally doesn't account for an abusive upbringing either.

I think I'd add that sometimes it's a LOT easier to empathize with characters in a video game or TV. We're given a way to look inside their heads and actually know their motivations and feelings. We rarely get that insight from real people, even those we are close to. So it can be easier--at least for me--to process emotions when there is more clarity. With a story, it is just easier to know what to feel. Real people are confusing, even when they mean a lot to me.

Someone who was ostensibly my friend (not a great friend, but still someone I liked) killed herself while I was on Skype with her a few years back. I barely reacted outside of reassessing my own life. It wasn't that her death didn't matter to me--it made me angry. But I wasn't really broke up about it. But I've been a bawling mess over a TV show all week. Did you ever read The Stranger by Camus, btw? It's about a guy who has a kind of meltdown and kills another guy, and his subsequent trial. They decide to execute him, but not because he murdered someone--but because he didn't cry at his mother's funeral. It was what he was that they hated, more than what he did.

I can relate. This happens with me with both video games and TV series. I've actually been full-on depressed this week after I finished watching The Good Place. Ah well, better overly emotionally invested in things than numb.

Yes, this was what I was asking =D I think I've managed that one-shot melee thing like ... twice. But I still almost always have a brick instead of a bottle. Just in case.

I am thinking about purchasing Fallout 4 once I get a PS5, since I expect it will be backwards compatible, and I have not yet had a chance to play it. I love Fallout 3 and love Fallout NV even more, but I have heard a lot of people say Fallout 4 is not as good as either. For those who have played all three, is Fallout 4 worth it? @DylanC

I think this might be a daft question, but does anyone know whether backwards compatibility on the PS5 will encompass PS4 games on disc, PS4 games purchased digitally, or both? I keep thinking maybe the answer is an obvious “both,” but then I wonder if I am making a huge assumption. I keep wanting to grab PS4 digital deals to play on my eventual PS5 (I am on PS3 now), but then I worry they may not be compatible because they are not on a disc.

Is there a game you have completed that you expect never to play again? If so, what was the reason? Did it break your heart, bore you, frustrate you, or do you have another reason?

What moment in a video game utterly devastated you emotionally? Did you recover? Have you played the game again since, or was the heartbreak so bad that you still haven’t repeated the game?