[How old to start gaming?]

5 hours ago, Mr.SaVo said:

atleast 18+ 😉

I find that's far too old to begin someone to allow gaming (and even then, as with anything else, people will find ways to experience it before then), but I find your opinion interesting. What makes you say that, or am I missing a joke here?

PS: As it's my first time seeing you here, welcome to VGR!

[Question about hunting games and wheter are not to play them?]

I think the last hunting game I played was Duck Hunt on the NES, at Sheffield's National Gaming Museum. I was quite adept at it if I may say so myself, and with rather old tech no less. Goes to show how well the curators have been looking after the exhibits.

Before that though I'd only really played theHunter: Call of the Wild. A decent enough game that seems authentic, but it requires a lot of time and patience that I don't have, especially chasing after an animal I was only able to wound.

In terms of keeping them sealed I doubt they're that rare or collectable, so you might as well give them a try. None of them have had such rave reviews that you need to break the seal to find out for yourself before anyone else here gives their own insights, however.

[This is pure bullshit]

I'll go through their reasonings and see if we can find some sense out of it. Here's hoping I can save people a click, but if you feel the need check out the video itself, be warned of how utterly hyperbolic it is. It uses evocative imagery and haunting music to disturb the viewer, which is not an argument for anything they're talking about.

Quote

Low Self-Esteem: "People like to dress up as their favorite video game characters to attend conventions or to share pictures of their costumes on the Internet. Professional cosplaying has even become a legitimate way to make money. Researchers from Michigan State University and the University of California at Santa Barbara decided to explore the following question: What happens when players get too attached to video game characters?"

So first of all, they don't cite their source which is an immediate red flag. Statements from these questionnaires include 'I can see myself getting into a relationship with my character' and 'I consider my character a friend of mine'... but we're not told how that relates to the questions. They're flimsy quotes that may not even be real.

Players of higher character attachment apparently had lower self-esteem. So are these characters causing them to have lower self-esteem, or is it that they can't get attached to people in real life because of low self-esteem (perhaps brought on by bullying, abuse, trauma, etc.?)

Quote

Aggression: "Several studies have shown that violent video games can contribute to increased levels of aggression. Some have even blamed video game violence as one of the factors behind several mass-shootings. Researchers from the National Science Foundation attempted to provide a more elaborate context for such claims. They found that players of morally ambiguous gameplay situations were more violent than those in prosocial situations, such as helping another character. Participants were divided into three groups. One played a zombie game where they protect a character another had to hunt zombies for sport and lastly a puzzle game similar to Tetris. They were told they were up against other players, when they were actually playing against a computer."

It's true video games have been blamed for mass shootings... but blame mercifully does not automatically mean proof. This person does not provide any proof.

The National Science Foundation has often praised video games and has been in favour of them, discussing accessability options for blind gamers who wish to play racing games, and discussing creativity. I've seen no such article for this person's claim though.

Quote

Avatar Effect: "Customizing and personalizing an avatar is for many players one of the best parts about video games. Players will customize their characters to look like themselves or to make the experience more personal. According to a joint study by the University of Innsbruck and the University of Sussex, in violent video games, personalizing a character raises a person’s level of aggression. Participants were divided into four groups. One group played a nonviolent video game with a personalized avatar and another played a violent game also with a personalized avatar. The other two groups played the same games but with generic avatars."

Not much to say on this one. It's one thing to ask someone to pour hot sauce into a bowl for someone who doesn't like it; it's another to, y'know, murder someone.

Epileptic Seizures: "The link between video games and epileptic seizures began to cause concerns from the early 1980s. The first documented case of a video game triggering epileptic seizures came in 1981. Shortly afterwards, console manufacturers required game publishers to include epilepsy warnings in the manuals, for games released on their devices. Seizures occur when a lack of neuronal regulation causes nerve activity to sync up."

I think this video has lost all credibility with me when they quote the British hate-rag, The S*n. Yes, video games have been known to cause photosensitive seizures. This has been a disclosure in most games for at least a decade.

Quote

Vision Problems: "Many studies reflect the positive effects that video games have on reaction time, spatial awareness or peripheral and even central vision. In fact, studies from 2011 came to the conclusion that occlusion therapy combined with video game therapy had proven very effective in recovering visual acuity for people suffering from amblyopia, also known as lazy eye. However, some experts argue that from an evolutionary standpoint the cornea, pupil and iris aren’t intended for extended exposure to the screens of electric devices. Playing video games for too long can cause eye strain."

...and watching television, and using computers and laptops, and using virtual reality (VR) headsets, and reading print for too long.

Problems with Bones and Muscles: "Medical journal The Lancet published a case report in 2004 which mentioned the PlayStation thumb in a 9-year-old boy. Rapid game play had caused friction between the thumb and the controller which had led to numbness and a blister. Frequent tendon injuries to the hands and wrists of Nintendo players have been dubbed ‘Nintendonitis’."

Link to the letter to the Lancet here. I looked for examples of the blisters and swelling they listed, and could find only one, which err, doesn't look all that severe. At best it shows how crap the Dual Shock 2 was.

Quote

Obesity: "It’s been estimated that children in the US spend approximately 25 per cent of their waking hours playing video games or watching TV. Since long gaming sessions basically replace physical activity a connection has been established between having an increased body mass index and video games. One study showed that boys who spend over 1.5 hours gaming are 75.4% more likely to be overweight than those spending less than 1.5 hours."

Video games don't make people fat: eating too much cake and not moving enough make people fat. It's often said "abs are made in the kitchen" because of diet's influence on your health moreso than exercise (which is still vitally important; 20 minutes of pleasant breathlessness each day, folks!)

Quote

Gamer’s Thrombosis: "Deep Vein Thrombosis or DVT is a dangerous and potentially deadly condition. It usually affects people immobilized for extended periods of time, like on long haul airplane trips. With DVT blood clots develop, typically within the leg. Since playing video games often requires sitting for a long time, the condition has also been associated with gamers. The condition has been referred to as ‘gamer’s thrombosis’ and some incidents have been fatal. Chris Staniforth, a 20-year-old Xbox player from the UK, who would spend over 12 hours online, died of DVT in 2011. A Russian teenager died from DVT after playing DOTA for several days straight. Xiao Han, a 20-year-old gamer, from China almost died of DVT after a 40-hour session."

Tragic but video games are not entirely to blame. People need to be responsible with their physical activity and leisure time. There are addictive things in video games and people are trying to clamp down on it, but this only gets in the way of those efforts.

...and that's where the video ends. No flipside, no attempts to balance the conversation, no real conclusion. Jesus wept in an RGB gaming chair.

[Could VR help mental health?]

I could see it being used in the same way sensory toys are used for disabled persons. When I was growing up I couldn't be left at home as there were no child-minders, so I had to go with my mum to her workplace at a care home. I'd often be bored so like a lot of the people there, I'd indulge in the watching and playing with the sensory gubbins. VR in a place like that would probably be great for a lot of people once the physical health kinks are worked out like eye-strain and headaches.

[Do you think Google will try VR?]

20 minutes ago, The Blackangel said:

Google Glass anyone? I see their possible attempt at a VR device following it down the same rabbit hole.

You beat me to it! Its ambition (and $1.5k price tag) brought it low, especially when VR is still having teething troubles to this day. I believe AR will surpass VR soon after the latter is ready, and maybe something else will come along in that time, but in the meantime Google need to take the time to have their products walk before they run. They're apparently trying to do this with Glass 2, but there's plenty of room in the Google Graveyard.

Who knows, if this fails they might eat some humble pie and make a VR headset, perhaps to spark some life back into Stadia's market share. Or maybe they're humbled enough to realise they can't beat the existing competition. They could however buy it out...

[Let's talk about Toy to life games ?]

44 minutes ago, Heatman said:

My brother have a big thing for LEGO Dimensions. It's quite a decent one in my opinion but the only issue or a downside that I see in LEGO Dimensions is the price. A starter pack of it retails for $100.

Good grief. They're still quite pricey here: £45-50 isn't bad especially for a Toys-to-Life game, but that's the thing: this came out seven years ago. At launch they never tried competitive pricing either, so confident in their product that they'd charge the same or more as their competitors for the starter packs and additional figures.

It's hardly any wonder they died, and charging $100 continues to show why it's unlikely they'll come around again any time soon.

[Favourite and least favourite genre?]

1 hour ago, NightmareFarm said:

Cool. I've always planned on getting into more kart races besides the mario kart series but never got around to it. It can be quite fun especially with friends.

There's not many that I know of on consoles, but I strongly recommend Tabletop Racing: World Tour, Meow Motors, Coffin Dodgers, All-Star Fruit Racing, and even Garfield Kart: Furious Racing (the original had some technical issues). I don't play the online multiplayer of such games, let alone the local multiplayer, but there are some terrific games out there for single-player at least.

Mario Kart's always good, even MK Tour on mobile's a decent game despite its mobile controls and more limited/cycled content.

1 hour ago, NightmareFarm said:

Hack n Slash games are 3D action games like Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, Ninja Gaiden, etc where you fight hordes of enemies with weapons. It's basically the same thing as a beat em up but a few things set it apart from beat em ups like combo lists, weapons being the norm rather than fists, deeper combat systems and more stylish moves/abilities. Unlike ARPGs there is more of a focus on deep melee combat with combo lists and some sort of meter which ranks how efficiently you dispatch enemies instead of deep customisation systems and XP. 

My favourite in the genre would have to be Bayonetta 2 but Devil May Cry 3, 5 and Metal Gear Rising are very close.

Thanks for the clarification, I can't believe none of those games came to mind. Your choices are good: I've heard nothing but good things about Metal Gear Rising, which may be the first hack-n-slash I play!

[What are your favourite and not so favourite videogame mascots?]

Yet again I nominate Crash Bandicoot, the unofficial mascot for the Playstation (let's face it: who wasn't?). He featured in some solid games, had a lot of personality for an unvoiced character (again, at the time, who wasn't?) and featured no overly-ambitious mechanics that were at the detriment of him and his games. Much like Sonic, he's not all that great on his own: he needs a good cast to bounce off, and enemies and allies he has in spades.

My least favourite... that's a toughie. I'm not sure it counts because the line between official and unofficial mascot is quite blurry here, but I'm going to say the the eponymous Overlord of his own games. He's just not very good (har har) at what he does: he's rather squishy, doesn't move particularly fast, and requires his minions to do his heavy lifting. The premise is that he doesn't need to, he chooses them to do trivial things but it doesn't work out in reality. He's easily vanquished, and if he has any minions summoned he loses them and all their equipment, so he sort of has to do things on his own in order to save his minions. A true leader for all the wrong reasons.

[Alone in the Dark]

51 minutes ago, Clasher said:

Well, I feel this game has a lot of potentials though.

I ask this of anyone who says something has potential, just so you know I'm not picking on you, but what potential does it have? Without further elaboration it falls under the term I coined, Roberts' Razor: a game can only be reviewed on what it is, not what it could be based on its 'potential'. In fairness, the game isn't out yet but the principle remains.

As @Empire states, and in answer to your second sentence, it's based on the Resident Evil renaissance that started with 4 (which the REmakes are based on), and sort of went downhill with 5 & 6 (as Resident Evil games have done before). It appears as though the developers have chosen to take two of the bad Resident Evil games in what I call the second mainline series (the first being 1, 2 and Nemesis, and the third series being 7, Village, and the inevitable 9th numbered game). I say there's three different series, not counting the spin-offs, because as an outsider looking in they don't really have all that much in common beyond Jill Valentine or Chris Redfield being playable or making a cameo.

If they'd only said it was inspired by Resident Evil 4 and hadn't mentioned the less popular 5 & 6, I don't think I'd bat an eyelid. However, I am confident in the SOMA writers' ability to offer a game oozing with atmosphere despite their unpopular taste in influences.

[What makes for good and bad side quests?]

9 minutes ago, Clasher said:

That's true, a side quests that doesn't influence the outcome of the main mission in anyway possible isn't worth it.

I can't spend 30 minutes on a side quests and afterwards return to the main mission and it feels like nothing actually happened that isn't a good side quests in my opinion.

I disagree, at least with it affecting the main quest. Most games these days are about saving the world, when really I just want to help someone whose son fell down the well. I would however like the townsfolk to react to good deeds rather than just the bad ones, which oftentimes has far greater consequences like guards chasing and attacking the player, or being flat-out refused service.

While too many side-quests happen solely in their own vacuum, I don't necessarily want everything to be like Mass Effect where every quest contributes to the final confrontation.

[Microsoft accuses Sony of paying developers to keep some games off Xbox Game Pass]

2 hours ago, NightmareFarm said:

MS has the money to buy pretty much every third party AAA studio under the sun and it would cost a very small fraction of their net worth. Which is why either haven't made such power moves. 

I don't think it's that easy for Microsoft, or rather Xbox Game Studios to do that (as amusing as it would be to think Microsoft buying studios like Bruce Wayne buying a hotel with a cheque). Without knowing the full details I'd hazard a guess that there's contact, contractual negotiations, all the admin sealing the deal and then making the games and hoping to turn a profit on those games before shareholders ask too many questions. And when we look at the list of acquisitions they've made already, it's not as scary a list as I originally thought it to be.

Then there's the handling of these studios. So far XGS have failed to put out many noteworthy titles from their acquired studios. Rare have made Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, released Perfect Dark and Banjo-Kazooie on XBLA and make Kinect games. Double Fine have mostly been remastering their classics and released Psychonauts 2. InExile made Wasteland 3 and remasters the old Wasteland and The Bard's Tale (also a VR game, The Mage's Tale). Obsidian have made Grounded under their Xbox tenure and have Pentinent looking to be their latest upcoming title. Ninja Theory released and exited development of Bleeding Edge to no fanfare and we're waiting on Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, which I think loses a lot of its novelty because it's backed by a massive publisher.

I don't think Xbox division's acquisitions of mostly decent-ish or worse studios is that big a concern to Sony (though I'm sure they would've loved to have Ninja Theory and their mocap experience), who seem to only buy studios if they've proven themselves to be capable. Given in another thread it's mentioned that the acquisition of Call of Duty isn't profitable as an exclusive, I doubt their leverage of intellectual property rights is that strong.

There is however plenty of room for observation about a console cold war. What will be the next weapon brought to the arms race, I wonder?

[How do you feel about paying full price for new versions of games you already bought?]

4 hours ago, Yaramaki said:

Take the upcoming Persona 5 royal as it's getting an xbox release, as xbox is my platform of choice and best above all it's apperently getting a physical release aswell, i'll be the first in line to spend 60 bucks on it, i already have the regulair ps4 version but never got around playing it. So here is my second chance to play it, why spend another 60 bucks on a game you already own, because i want to support these jrpg physical releases that are coming to xbox aswell as much as possible. So that is another solid reason for opening my wallet again.

I'm not normally one of those people who accepts 'support' without elaboration as an answer to an action, but given Xbox's handling of Japanese games and userbase, I'd say any support can only be good. The only JRPGs on their systems that come to mind are Eternal Arms, Blue Dragon, Eternal Sonata and Lost Odyssey. And from what I understand Persona is one of those must play games, so good on them for agreeing to a port or remaster or whatever it is.

4 hours ago, Yaramaki said:

and as a last note to come full circle this brings me back to my first post that Nintendo sucked the wii u dry of it's exclusives to release them as full priced versions on switch, nobody seemed to care or mind that, If for one is to blame for full priced remasters it's nintendo and they keep getting away with it.

I concur, but if I were in Satoru Iwata's place I'd do the same: people will continue paying for it. Gamers are often their own worst enemies by perpetuating issues they complain about. Quote the man himself from his book, Ask Iwata: "After a piece of hardware is released, the price is gradually reduced for five years until demand has run its course. But since the demand cycle never fails, why bother reducing the price this way? My personal take on the situation is that if you lower the price over time, the manufacturer is conditioning the customer to wait for a better deal, something I've always thought to be a strange approach. Of course, this doesn't mean that I'm against lowering prices entirely, but I've always wanted to avoid a situation where the first people to step up and support us feel punished for paying top dollar, grumbling, "I guess this is the price I pay for being first in line." Emphasis my own.

Unlike PC game publishers and Steam as a platform, Nintendo have trained their customers that there's not going to be that better a deal or steep a discount. I suppose the problem PC faced was piracy (though piracy numbers have always been unhelpfully exaggerated), what with Gabe Newell wanting to offer a better safer service than illegal sites, and that likely meant selling games for a lot less.

I don't like Nintendo's approach as a customer of theirs myself, but I appreciate at least where Iwata was coming from nonetheless.

4 hours ago, Yaramaki said:

For the two people that read my entire post, my thanks you're absolute legends.

Always a pleasure, never a trial!

[Favourite and least favourite genre?]

My favourite is casual racing games. Kart racers and the like. There's something satisfying about breezily making my way through oftentimes creative track designs, especially the assets lining them if you're playing as a toy car or whatever. Plus they're not restricted to the rules and formalities of more serious racing games with branding, getting the vehicles perfect, and the controls to boot. Rather they can feature powerups of various effects, different terrain like winding paths or great leaps or even hazards such as fire-breathing statues or bottomless pits. The final thing I'd say is that because they're mostly made for children they're oftentimes easy to pick up and feature some really catchy beats. I've find guilty pleasure for the music of Toybox Turbos! Despite two platform games ranking as my favourite games of all time, it's this genre that's at the top.

My least favourite genre would be sports games. Nothing against them personally, I just don't like sport. I'm not bothered about the rehashing and I don't know enough about the additional monetisation to criticise it, but it would probably annoy me if it was to be the game that was supposed to last me the entire year.

51 minutes ago, NightmareFarm said:

Favourite - Hack n Slash. 2D fighting games are close though.

You'll have to forgive me, I'm not overly familiar with what Hack 'n' Slash means. Is that like arcade games like Altered Beast and Gauntlet, or Diablo (which I know to be an ARPG, or a hack-n-slash informally)? Do you have any particular favourite games in the genre?

53 minutes ago, NightmareFarm said:

Least Favourite - Interactive Film(like Beyond Two Souls).

I'm with you there. Whereas early cinema tried to mimic theatrical performances before finding its own thing, a lot of video games try to be more like films even if it's at the cost of what video games do well. People like David Cage seem to have an attitude toward gaming of cutting their nose to spite their face: they'll break and twist the medium to suit their vision, even though it would probably work better as a film.

Granted I do like the camp factor of Fahrenheit: Indego Prophecy, and I wouldn't have come across it if it weren't a game, but I can't help but wonder how much better it would be if they didn't beat around the bush and just make a movie.

[The Official video game spin-off thread]

4 minutes ago, Yaramaki said:

Makes me wonder if i coulden't have come up with a better topic title but ohwell if you have any better suggestion please tell so i can edit the topic title, it's fucking hot out here and my balls have been cooked nearly a couple of times already today so what do you expect.

I told my partner earlier in the week about this Troll Bat Rider quote from WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos. And they say it's too early to have chestnuts roasting on an open fire...

~

I think the best spin-off game I played was Crash Team Racing. I've spoken at length about it before, but to sum up it's the greatest kart racer I've ever played and few rival it. However, it's not a very good Crash Bandicoot game: its music is catchy but doesn't quite capture the same style; the tracks are great but have little in relation to the mainline games; the adventure mode is decent but makes less sense than even the wackiest antics of the core of the series. But it controls well, is as rewarding as you make it, and is not at all over-designed like a lot of modern racing games today.

I would like to say Crash Bash is the worst spin-off I've played but it understood what it was supposed to be. It just didn't execute it very well. I did a very lengthy write-up on it on this here forum for those who have nothing else better to do.

Unfortunately, the 'honour' of worst spin-off goes to Overlord: Fellowship of Evil. It's a completely forgettable mixture of uninteresting characters, lacklustre minion usage, ARPG combat and overusing the great voice actor Mark Silk. Being a spin-off is no justification for being bad, and while spin-offs often get flak for the wrong reasons, Fellowship of Evil deserves the scathing review I gave it some years ago.

When talking about spin-offs, I tend to use a quote from an old review I did: Warhammer cannot make a bad game good; it can only make a good game great. In the case of Fellowship of Evil, being Overlord only elevated it slightly enough to be worth looking at.

[How do you feel about paying full price for new versions of games you already bought?]

This is getting back into chat-style messages with little content, and is talking about the used console/games market which doesn't really have anything to do with the topic at hand, nor do the companies making the games really care about it any more. If you want to discuss the used games market, that's a topic I'm more than happy see discussed elsewhere.

The question remains the same: how do you feel about paying full price for new versions of games you have already bought? I'd like to read the opinions of those who haven't already contributed to this topic, or something not already said pertaining to the topic by those who have contributed.

[Alone in the Dark]

I'm not normally into survival horror but this looks and sounds pretty good so far. I'm cautiously optimistic, as Alone in the Dark is no stranger to neglect and THQ Nordic are no strangers to a lot of misses in their catalogue. Thanks for sharing this one, Candy Stick!

[What does your Username mean?]

My friends and I used to live in a place where 'Withy' was common in the naming of places, and one of them coined the term 'Withywarrior' for the alliteration. I wanted something similar: Withywizard didn't quite do it. By the time I'd settled on Withywarlock, it was too late to be able to afford to change my Gamertag on Xbox Live. I've only recently readopted the name, and have since used it wherever I can.

[What film/TV actors do you imagine would do well with video game voice-over work?]

@Clasher You may be pleased to know that Jason Statham was in the first Call of Duty and Red Faction II. His voice work wasn't impressive if I'm honest; you could hardly tell it was him, and I'm of the opinion he has a rather distinctive voice. He projects himself much better through motion, especially his facial expressions. Maybe if he had a role where he did his character's motion capture and was based on his likeness, that'd work.

[Solo and multiplayer]

33 minutes ago, Nebulous said:

How condescending.  Instead of "tagging" you should insert the word harassing.

I'll say now that tagging every comment was and is too much, and I apologise for handling this in the way I have. But I'm not going to be grateful for threads that don't say much of anything to begin with. It's one thing to not respond to comments, that's fine: many a time I'm satisfied with answers that I'm given in the few threads I create; but this thread doesn't begin to pose a quality question. There's nothing to bounce off of, it just encourages listing things for points.

33 minutes ago, Nebulous said:

That's up to me. 

That is your want, but don't be surprised if you're asked to elaborate (which I do of all users creating threads that don't have any commentary of their own). This forum exists for discussion which this thread - nor the four others I've commented on - doesn't promote. If you have the time to make five threads, you have the time to make at least one where you can lead the discussion with examples. And again, I know you can given your Ask Nebulous thread.

All I'm asking for is in addition to the information you've posted is perhaps a reason why you want to know, or what your own opinions are. VGR has a major problem with post farming, leading to conversation resulting in only two parties clogging up the thread, and points being so inflated that only so many users can realistically bid on prizes. Now I hope I'm wrong about you being one of those people, but I would like to see that for myself.

In future, and I ask this of all users however long they've been here, please can we try to improve the quality of discussion in the opening comments?

[Video Game Streaming Sees Significant Drop In Audience Over Last Quarter]

I don't know much about streaming, but I do know how quickly the novelty of lockdowns wore off, and now people are desperate for physical interaction. For example, no longer is D&D something just done over Roll20 and Discord and Twitch; people are buying physical box sets. Board games boomed in about 2017 and naturally would've halted unless they could be delivered to the house or played through Tabletop Simulator, but just today while out with my partner I've seen so many board games in stores that don't normally stock them like they do now (namely HMV, GAME, and Waterstones).

So I definitely think it's mostly down to Covid restrictions being reduced. They've played their games, they've watched people play games and now they perhaps crave interaction in some form or another, physical or digital.

It's all just guesses on my end, but I'm not surprised streaming has come down from its high.

Thanks for sharing the article, it's an interesting read.

[Microsoft accuses Sony of paying developers to keep some games off Xbox Game Pass]

18 hours ago, The Blackangel said:

However, if Sony really wanted to fuck Microsoft, they could revoke their license of being able to put their games on Blu-ray discs. Sony owns that patent, so Microsoft better play nice or they could be in a world of hurt.

I didn't realise that. I'd go as far as to say that changes my opinions on the whole security of physical media dramatically: what would happen if Sony just pulled the license? I don't want to derail this topic, but it makes for an interesting thought exercise: what would Microsoft do, and how quickly could they come up with and implement a solution?

Thanks for telling us about this, it'll be interesting to see if these two ever escalate to such fierceness of competition.

[Solo and multiplayer]

5 hours ago, Nebulous said:

What type of games are good for playing alone?

What else other than single player games? Can you give me something to go on, please?

5 hours ago, Nebulous said:

Which are good for playing with other people?

I was going to just say 'multiplayer games', and while that's the amount of care that reflects the original post I'm going to make an effort and provide something to discuss. I don't think it even necessarily has to be a multiplayer game. I personally would love watching my partner on the few times she plays video games, namely Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds for all the secrets in the levels. Testing my gaming instincts for destructable doors, moveable surfaces, or hidden passages and the items they may have tidied away.

If I had to choose a game where a number of people can play, I prefer shorter bursts where you're not waiting long to get back into it should you reach a fail state (i.e death, knockout, etc.) I'd struggle to play Hell Let Loose with my mates because while it would be entertaining to listen to them and chat over comms, I don't really want to go at least ten seconds before jumping back into the game then running to where they are. Similarly I wouldn't really like playing Battle Royale: if I'm dead I'm just observing and thanks to the locked first person cameras I usually can't see anything that the player I'm observing can't.

I think I defer back to my original answer: any game you can play locally. The experience is so greatly enhanced, especially when you're working toward a common goal.

~

@Nebulous I'm going to keep tagging you until you put some effort into your posts, which I know you can do given your Ask Nebulous thread. This is the fifth topic you've churned out in almost as many hours without really any contribution to the topic.

If English isn't your native language I understand. I know at least three users here who don't speak English as a primary language, but they still try to contribute. All I ask of you, and anyone else on this forum as politely as I can muster the first time or so, is to give us something to on: an example, an opinion, an idea or a story.

[How old to start gaming?]

Whenever their parents decide they can, it's none of my business. As a former child myself though I was playing video games at around the age of 3 or 4, playing a rather unhealthy amount of frustrating games from Super Star Wars to the Super Scope's unreliability (it was an early light gun, you can't expect much from it; well, at the time you could because it cost a fortune). I'd like to think that were I to introduce my hypothetical children to video games they'd be at an age where I can get them to play responsibly: a certain distance from the screen with a set amount of time, and looking after the systems they're playing on.

This is the fourth time I've had to ask this morning and I can only hope this helps with your further contributions to the forum @Nebulous, but what age do you think video games are acceptable to play, and why?

[Do video games help develop skills?]

Essentially what @killamch89 says. I think they can help with empathy, teamwork (coordination), problem solving, and in some instances creative writing.

This is the third time I've had to ask this morning, @Nebulous, but what are your thoughts on the subject? Please put in as much effort in your original post as you would like others to do, so we can have a discussion and bounce ideas off one-another.

[What device do you game on?]

This thread is being moved to the Platforms subforum, where there's plenty of discussion to be had about one's preferred platform as is. So far though this thread appears to be fine.

As for me, PC, but I do miss what few arcade machines I've been able to play in my years. I'm hoping my local arcade has improved since it has been built here.

Also, because I ask everyone to contribute to the threads they make: @Nebulous, what device do you game on?