Withywarlock

None whatsoever. Hype does nothing for me unless I'm at a physical event, and until the general hygiene and air conditioning improves at these kinds of things, I'm in no rush to go again.

I can't think of many games besides those already mentioned, but it's quite common in the Infinity Engine games (Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale) to hear your characters say they need to rest, which incurs exhaustion penalties. This question's rather open ended because it's really just asking for games with survival elements, of which there are many. Now how many are more than just watching bars deplete is another matter entirely.

In real life, the Texas Hold 'Em variant of Poker. It would take second place were it not for the fact that Triple Triad from Final Fantasy doesn't really exist IRL; the closest thing to the official game got shut down years ago, and I'm gobsmacked that Activision-Blizzard didn't merchandise the Hell out of Skylanders' Skystone Smash with its own board game. 😭

When answering the question "What is your favourite racing game and why?" on the PC Gamer forums, Crash Team Racing was my answer. *Inhales*: To say CTR capitalised on the kart racing trend set by Super Mario Kart and its sequel, Mario Kart 64, it far surpassed its rivals up until about 2014 where it's neck and neck with Mario Kart 8. It still remains one of gaming's best kart racers, along with Diddy Kong Racing. For starters, it had a story, introducing a new character that would only halt Uka-Uka's course of becoming the leading antagonist, with Nitrous Oxide. Oxide is an alien that challenges all of Earth's best racers (or at least those of the Wumpa Archipelago, East of Australia) to contend in a series of tournaments to determine who among them can beat him, and if they do, he won't turn the planet into "a concrete parking lot." Despite living on the same planet with no means to escape, Ripper Roo, Papu-Papu, Komodo Joe and Pinstripe Potoroo will impede the player's progress. And even if Oxide is beaten, he won't accept true defeat until you've unlocked everything in the game and race him again, in true spiteful Crash fashion. The next thing it did well was make stats easy to understand, with tangible (visible and physical) differences. A driver's performance was determined by Speed, Acceleration, and Turn. Beginner characters such as Polar the Bear and Pura the Tiger had the most Turn but the least speed. Intermediate characters such as Crash, Coco, Dr. Neo Cortex and N. Gin had more acceleration for the smoothest driving experience. And finally Advanced characters such as Tiny Tiger and Dingodile had the greatest amount of speed. This is hugely important for the balance of the game because there's no bloat, and everyone has easily seen strengths and weaknesses that are made up for by items and shortcuts. When you go any further with stats like Mario Kart and CTR: Nitro-Fuelled did, you create confusion and often times incorrect information. Its cast of unlockable characters, through boss fights, relics, gems and cheat codes, fell into those three categories in some way, all recognisable and beloved characters of the franchise, from Penta Penguin to Fake Crash. Into the gameplay itself, its map selection screen was a hub like any Crash game before it. You got to drive around the maps (an idea Bears Can't Drift!? borrowed) to practice your skills, get a feel for your character, and choose a variety of challenges. Much like in Banjo-Kazooie whenever you transitioned from one zone to another, a medley would play; the music remained the same but the instruments changed slightly enough to fit the scenery. The content is very much similar to Diddy Kong Racing, requiring you to beat bosses and do all manner of side content before you can defeat the final boss proper. It doesn't feel tacked on and it provides a very difficult, but still genuine, challenge. Time challenges for relics, CTR token runs, tournaments for gems add loads of extra play time. Things begin to go downhill from here. Some of the items are familiar to Crash players; the iconic TNT and Nitro crates and the Aku-Aku/Uka-Uka invincibility masks were dependent on your character's alignment. And obtaining and keeping 10 Wumpa fruit would allow you to power up your, err, power ups, increasing their magnitude and duration. However, some of the items were uninspiring to say the least. Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped's 'warp orb' was the blue shell that damaged all opponents in front of you, and the bombs from Coco's jetski levels made an appearance. N. Brio's flasks from the first game were a stretch for stationary experimental hazards. Beyond that, the devs were clearly lacking in the ideas department. That also goes for the maps. The vast majority of them you wouldn't recognise without a character's face painted on them? What does Roo's Tubes have to do with Ripper Roo? What does Dragon Mine have to do with Komodo Joe? Why does Cortex Castle - an obvious knockoff of Bowser Castle - look nothing like the spires we'd ascended to defeat its namesake? Look to the party game Crash Bash, one of the worst Crash games, made by Eurocom. The music and aesthetics of that game are far more suitable and recognisable than Crash Team Racing. Music goes a very long way to creating a sense of familiarity, and while CTR's music is good, damned good, it's not Crash. That essentially concludes why Crash Team Racing is my favourite racing game, Diddy Kong Racing a close second. I would link video reviews to the two (as kart racers were what my channel later came to focus on) but the vulgarity makes them unsuitable for posting, and I don't want to be seen as using this forum to advertise.

Seeing as I can't find any faults with Spyro 2: Gateway to Glimmer, I'll go to my second choice, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back. My least favourite thing about it has to be the jet-pack levels, which are unfortunately subject to Time Attack modes in the N. Sane Trilogy, but the less said of that the better. It's the very antithesis of Crash Bandicoot, which is the pinnacle of tight platform game controls. Movement axes are reversed unless you change it in the options (for the two whole levels they appear), Crash drifts meaning you're much more likely to hit hizards, and there's a buildup of momentum that doesn't mesh with the hazards like lasers or cloned goons. Munchers. I'm with you on that. I think my least favourite thing about that game was either the sun, the quicksand, or the sun and the quicksand.

I tend to try and uncover the entirety of the map, then clear out the zones one-by-one. This usually doesn't work out as intended because Lady ADD takes the wheel and puts me back on the road to the main quest. In Elden Ring similar things have been happening, except the next main boss I need to kill is a wee bit too powerful for me, so I'm going after optional ones to level and gear up first.

Did that legal fiasco between the developer Frogwares and publisher Nacon about who owns the IP rights to this ever get resolved? Whatever the case, I hear it's quite a decent middle-shelf/B-game of Lovecraftian-esque horror. I keep meaning to play it myself, and at $11.99, it's a steal. Get it before it disappears again, I say.

I see the same trend with Saints Row that I do a lot of game series I enjoy: the first game is great in that it's raw and unrefined; the second perfects the formula; and the third adds more but not to the series-as-a-whole's benefit. Saint's Row 2 is easily my favourite and most replayable out of the three, but I'd easily find myself hopping into the first game if it was easily available on PC.

I was never really one for Tomb Raider, save for locking the butler in the freezer, but then who didn't do that every chance they could get? I played what was going to be called Tomb Raider: Reborn, but is now simply known as Tomb Raider: The 2013 One, and didn't really think much of it, and I have zero desire to play their sequels save for the odd bit of achievement hunting. The first film was decent though, and I may see the newer one at some stage. I've not given Lara Croft much thought until she recently became a subject on Russel Kane's Evil Genius. I genuinely didn't expect the result to swing the way it did. How's that for clickbait?

I think it varies from game to game. I've been loving Hell Let Loose lately but I would abhor playing that in total darkness; I've only recently adjusted my eyes to seeing enemies as little pips in the distance (hitting them's another matter entirely). And yet I love World of Warcraft's Inky Black Potion (see below). Most of the time I like darkness to be pitch-black, on the proviso there's a reasonable means of tackling it (being able to craft/buy torches, lanterns of different kinds, light spells, and so forth). Don't get me started on what was and wasn't the old D&D games' 'infravision'. The problem with that comes when you can only play at certain times of the day, or your climate dictates that the game gets brighter/darker earlier/later. This was one of the major debates that took place in World of Warcraft: how dark should the world be? There were few arguments against darker nights, but that was mainly from self-confessed daylight players. To compromise, the developers added the Inky Black Potion, which would darken any sky for one hour for the imbiber. I like IRL day-night cycles in MMOs but I wouldn't want it for any other sort of game, especially at the cost of artistic integrity. Ain't no way the symbolism of midnight in Spyro 2's Winter Tundra - a metaphor for Ripto's reign and the player's quest reaching its zenith - is going away for realism.

The innovations and hardware improvements are indeed noteworthy, but they're only as good as the games they're in. Remember when LAIR single-handedly killed the gyro controls for the Playstation 3? If you don't, that's precisely my point. And while there's undoubtedly some great software out there, from Horizon: Forbidden West to Elden Ring, those games are unfortunately infrequent drops in a fairly large ocean of bad practices. I'm going to notice the adverts, pop-ups and disruptions in online services far more than I will haptic feedback and load times. The novelty of the SSD has long worn off for me, it's now a requirement for my PC builds, but I appreciate how good these things are for consoles. But it's early days yet. Then again, it was early days when horse armour reared its ugly head.

Likely an unpopular opinion, I loved the Max Payne movie. The games themselves are pretty cheesy in the sense of "I'm 14 and this is deep," but I like to indulge in that every now and again, and the film, though nonsensical at times (not unlike one of the game's dream sequences), did capture a lot of that if unintentionally. You could probably make a much better movie, but you couldn't make a more authentic one than the one we got. It's badly produced enough and takes itself seriously enough to be perfect. That said, my girlfriend loves the Assassin's Creed movie. Now whether it's because it's a 1:1 adaptation of the game(s) or because it's just a good assassin movie I can't say as I've not seen it. It came and went from the gaming public's eye in a flash, which is quite appropriate given that's what the games are all about. Still, it reviewed well from what I vaguely remember about it. And another one I haven't seen but must for movie night is Silent Hill. I'm told that's very close to the games, right down to the puzzle elements and render distance fog.

I tend to swap out of necessity; a controller breaks, a game requires KB&M, I'm using a handheld, but I appreciate the change. I've been resuming a Spyro Let's Play series, and honestly I can't tell you how much I needed an Xbone controller in my hands again.

Sitting front of my television commentating my gameplay of Playstation One games, I didn't know that 1) that was essentially what was going on in the gaming magazines my dad bought, and 2) I'd be doing that on YouTube a decade later for kicks (and realising I'm not the first and only to do it.) I'd become a reviewer of digital and print mediums, a self-styled author, songwriter, and music from video games inspired me to look into taking up bass guitar. I find myself loving video games a lot less than I used to, but I cannot deny the profound impact the medium has had on my ability to create.

Not gonna lie, I think the default skins are my favourite. Penny in particular was a favourite, if she's in the Battle Royale mode. I only really played pre-BR, so I can't speak to how the characters look now. That's one thing I have to give to post-PvE Fortnite though, the artstyle is clean and consistent.

Very rarely. I either play to keep up with current ones outside of D&D, or to keep up with friends I met in said online games. I'm only as sociable as I need to be for that particular game though, as I don't have the energy for it.

I've spoken about it on a number of forums so I apologise if I've already done so here (I've been away for a while too so I've some catching up to do), but Dragon Age: Origins' Zevran made me realise I'm bisexual. I'm going through all my reviews and I can't think of a game that had such a profound impact on me. The last time I felt anything similar was when I'd reviewed Yes, Your Grace, where I was overwhelmed by my love of the family the story is about.

I wish I had this when I played on a TV, my desktop PC halfway across the room, my mouse resting on my table to my right, and my keyboard on my lap. Would've made for a lot more comfortable an experience, and my Razer Naga wouldn't have cracked open one too many times as I got up. I'm not sure if I have much use for this nowadays, but I'll keep it in mind, discount or otherwise. EDIT: Come to think of it, my dad who works from home might benefit from it. He prefers sitting on the sofa with his laptop but needs an ergonomic mouse, and perhaps a keyboard soon. I'll show this to him, see what he thinks.

From a very thinly optimistic viewpoint this could be seen as good given Covid-19 continues its spread, and it's good on the Entertainment Standards Authority (ESA) to recognise that as one of the reasons (at least, for the physical event). There will of course be less benevolent reasons behind this such as the costs, competition and coverage not working in their favour, but the ESA has other revenue streams to keep them afloat. I wonder if journalists are still feeling the sting from the ESA's leaking of their personal information, which will lose the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3)'s traditional media coverage. More on that later. E3's definitely become more entertaining for gamers than investors, but having to split those interests makes it difficult for E3 to survive as an expo and a con; the latter type of event goes smoothly because they know their audience and how to cater to them without compromising. And what would E3 look like today? Just over 40 companies would've attended the 2020 expo, compared to previous years where over 100 would attend. I can't imagine E3's numbers ever going back up, even if/when the current pandemic becomes a distant memory. They've really missed a trick with the lack of digital coverage though; Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest announcement is the slam-dunk on E3 that the Playstation 4 announcement was to the Xbone, as remembered above. It's not a particularly impressive 'called it' but I had suspected 2020/1 would be E3's final year. It's all but confirmed that it's done for. Whether it comes back in some form or another in years to come I don't know, but E3 as we know it has gone the way of the official console print magazine. The closest thing I can see to E3 continuing is a greatly toned down digital show that will only retain name value.

I generally think the more populated a game, the worse its community will inevitably get. There are exceptions to the rule, of course: the users of Halo Waypoint, an official forum, is absolutely abhorrent to 343 Industries (the current Halo devs) and just about anyone who feels positive about Halo: Infinite. Meanwhile a lot of other Halo: Infinite sub-communities, or communities for Halo in general, seem quite fine despite it being a very popular game. I suspect it has to do with people feeling as though their voices aren't heard as well or much, and they have to claw their way to the top for attention by any means. That their opinion is the one that truly matters most, especially more than those who have joined the community recently. You used to see it a lot in tabletop roleplaying and wargaming, not so much these days I don't think.

The website you've linked doesn't show enough details for me to be fully convinced. When I go on r/fatlogic I make a point of linking studies to prove my point, such as those on the National Centre for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) site, as part of my argument. Having read this article, and one piece of the same information linked twice, here are my questions? What are the demographics of those playing video games globally? What is the age range of depression sufferers? How many of the 250 volunteers aged 60-85 (not a great sample size) play video games already? What commercially available games were being played by the sample size? How long were the video games played for? What other hobbies and interests did the volunteers partake in, and how much enjoyment did they get out of those versus video games? This is by no means criticism levelled at @StaceyPowers, but I'm baffled at the point of this article. We have known for a long time the good video games can do, as well as a lot of other hobbies. I don't think it's being debated to any great extent that video games are evil!!1!1!!!1one! or words to that effect. Thanks for sharing this though, it's nice to hear people are getting help with their depression.

The only over-excitement I see is the idea of VR taking over the standard interfaces of gaming. It won't for two reasons: one being that it has a lot of hurdles to overcome versus the numerous inventive and perfected means of playing already, and two, it has to overcome them before its evolution is invented like Augmented Reality, which is currently far more impressive and practical. Like many inventions, especially in gaming, its first iteration is rarely the successful one or the one people point to and say "that's what got this where it is today." Stadia wasn't going to be the future, but that doesn't mean streaming can't one day be the future. A different interface or dimension to the gaming space will no doubt come about, but it won't be Oculus leading the charge.

I distinctly remember the demos, so I might well be remembering full games for a non-food based promotion elsewhere or the were a much more limited promotion.

While the below video is more about NFTs in general, I strongly recommend people watch it because it goes so far into all the different ways NFTs are awful. It's two hours long, but it's two hours of sensible, sourced information that goes beyond the environmental impact and multi-level-marketing (MLM.) Some of the best two hours of watching I've done recently.

When people think of brand games on Playstation One, their first thought is likely to be Pepsiman. However I recall M&Ms: Shell Shocked as a very clumsy Crash Bandicoot knock-off that at least tried to be decent. Reviewing that one was rather fun. Doritos Dash of Destruction was kinda neat; you played as a car picking up Doritos evading dinosaurs, or you'd play as a dinosaur destroying the town and eating up the cars before they collected the Doritos. Beyond that there's not many that I remember playing. There's loads of them out there, the 7-Up game "Cool Spot" for instance, but few that I've played.