Video Game Rut
I'm still playing Dark Souls 3 and on NG+15, SL449. I can actually see myself going to NG+70, which will lead to max level ( SL802) as you get 5 levels each time you talk to Yoel of Londor. I stopped grinding the Angels (unless Souls are very close to leveling up where you just need to grind 1 round) because it's taking about 2.5 million souls just to level up once, and you get almost 290K souls from grinding the Angels each time. Grinding 9 to 10 times is a bit much just to level up once, which is why Yoel's side quest is absolutely brilliant.
So, I can definitely see myself cranking through the levels, even though it's getting a bit tired, because I simply don't know what video game I want to play next. I can't put my finger on what I feel like playing, despite all the superb games on my backlog. Just for the PS4 alone, there's Final Fantasy 12: The Zodiac Age, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, The Last Guardian, Mirror's Edge Catalyst, Nier: Automata, Uncharted 3 and 4, Until Dawn. This is off the top of my head, and I'm sure I have more PS4 titles, not to mention games on other platforms!
Further, even though going through NG Cycles gets a bit old, it's rather soothing and meditative given the familiarity, but at the same time, I do want to move on, but I'm not sure with which game. This happens all the time when I play my favorite games, where you just want to stay in the world, and even after prolonging and finally finishing the game, it's still hard to move on.
Perhaps this may be a reason to not be so upset about a large backlog, because you then have many games to chose from when you don't know what you want to play next? I'm not sure if this is just rationalizing.
This leads into my favorite games that have made it very hard to move on:
My Favorite Games
Here's a list of my top 10 favorite games/franchises in alphabetical and in no particular order: Chrono Trigger, Eternal Sonata, Final Fantasy VII, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Kingdom Hearts series, Persona franchise, Monster Hunter franchise, SoulsBorne series (duh!), Tales of Berseria, and Wild Arms 3. Games rounding the top 10 are Gravity Rush series, Ori and the Blind Forest, Valkyria Chronicles Remastered, and Xenoblade Chronicles X.
I find it interesting that almost all of my favorite games happen to be RPGs.
Have you ever been in a rut, and if so, how did you get out of the rut? What are you favorite video games?
The How of Happiness Review
I'm still playing Dark Souls 3 and on NG+15, SL449. I can actually see myself going to NG+70, which will lead to max level ( SL802) as you get 5 levels each time you talk to Yoel of Londor. I stopped grinding the Angels (unless Souls are very close to leveling up where you just need to grind 1 round) because it's taking about 2.5 million souls just to level up once, and you get almost 290K souls from grinding the Angels each time. Grinding 9 to 10 times is a bit much just to level up once, which is why Yoel's side quest is absolutely brilliant.
So, I can definitely see myself cranking through the levels, even though it's getting a bit tired, because I simply don't know what video game I want to play next. I can't put my finger on what I feel like playing, despite all the superb games on my backlog. Just for the PS4 alone, there's Final Fantasy 12: The Zodiac Age, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, The Last Guardian, Mirror's Edge Catalyst, Nier: Automata, Uncharted 3 and 4, Until Dawn. This is off the top of my head, and I'm sure I have more PS4 titles, not to mention games on other platforms!
Further, even though going through NG Cycles gets a bit old, it's rather soothing and meditative given the familiarity, but at the same time, I do want to move on, but I'm not sure with which game. This happens all the time when I play my favorite games, where you just want to stay in the world, and even after prolonging and finally finishing the game, it's still hard to move on.
Perhaps this may be a reason to not be so upset about a large backlog, because you then have many games to chose from when you don't know what you want to play next? I'm not sure if this is just rationalizing.
This leads into my favorite games that have made it very hard to move on:
My Favorite Games
Here's a list of my top 10 favorite games/franchises in alphabetical and in no particular order: Chrono Trigger, Eternal Sonata, Final Fantasy VII, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Kingdom Hearts series, Persona franchise, Monster Hunter franchise, SoulsBorne series (duh!), Tales of Berseria, and Wild Arms 3. Games rounding the top 10 are Gravity Rush series, Ori and the Blind Forest, Valkyria Chronicles Remastered, and Xenoblade Chronicles X.
I find it interesting that almost all of my favorite games happen to be RPGs.
Have you ever been in a rut, and if so, how did you get out of the rut? What are you favorite video games?
The How of Happiness Review
One decision a lot of people get confused about regarding my computer, even though I have a monsterous rig which I've poured a hell of a lot of money and manpower into, is that I've decided to only get a small 500gb hard drive for storage. It was actually a downgrade from the 1 TB drive I was using before, but I found when I had that much space, I found myself in the same predicament you're in. So many games, which one do I decide on? Downsizing my harddrive limited that from the start, I only had so much space, so I could limit how many games I had installed, and it makes that decision that much easier. The book "The Paradox of Choice" by Barry Schwarz discusses this quite well, how people can feel anxious if they're offered too much choice, they can feel overwhelmed.
ReplyDeleteFavorite games is a tough one, I have played so many that it's tough to really seperate them all, so I'll just give 5 I liked, I'll undoubtedly miss a lot of them. To The Moon was a fantastic story driven puzzle game. It really hits me with how perfectly the game symbolises autistic people. As someone who suffers from it myself, it was nice to see an actual representation of the disorder, rather than the shitshow that the internet has turned it into (as hilarious as it may be.)
American McGee's Alice, is a fantastic series of games, that kind've have a mad genius behind them. Similarly to how Vincent Van Gogh was so impressive for drawing inspiration from his depression and psychotic episodes to create something beautiful, American McGee had a hell of a backstory before he got into games, and it's provided him with a very unique viewpoint to create from, something which personally, I think it absolutely amazing.
the Borderlands franchise is simply fantastic. They hired a hell of a lot of talent to make the game as fantastic as they could, especially in the writing department, and it paid off. The developers spent an impressive amount of time on the characters and stories, even parts that the player themselves doesn't hear about. A good way I like to describe it, is the question "What is your favorite colour?" A question rarely asked when you get older, one you might not even know about yourself, you might need to take a moment to think about it (midnight blue btw.) But it's a question I'm sure if I was to ask the people who wrote Borderlands, they'd be able to answer it about every character. Because they know their characters down to their very core.
Age of Empires 2 was probably the greatest example of an educational game I have ever seen. It wasn't a classroom curriculum with a game attached, it was a game first and I think that was really important. You could play it, completely ignore the story and the history lessons, and have a good time. Then you learn subconciously, being surrounded in that environment you learn about it without thinking about it, and it's something a lot of educational games developers need to learn from.
Hilariously, it's kinda hard to choose a 5th, there's so many to choose from it'd tough to decide, I guess I'll go with the Fire Emblem franchise. I love pushing myself, challenging myself. There's nothing that makes me happier than when people tell me I have room for improvement, sadly it doesn't happen often enough. This game doesn't fuck around. If you make a big mistake, there is no "Oh it's ok, better luck next time, it's no big deal." You fuck up, and your healer just died. Permanently. You liked them a lot? Well tough shit you shoulda thought about that before you moved her into that archers range shouldn't ya? I can see how some people might find that kind of gameplay frustrating, but for me personally I adore it. The game gives you plenty of reason to like the characters, they are very fleshed out, and so you play the game very carefully, you make sure not to let your friends die on you. You strive for perfection, for the sake of the characters you care about.
That's very wise of you to get 500 GB storage, so you're limited to the amount of games! I'll have to look into that book, and you're now making me more determined to donate more video games to the library to shrink the back log, as I believe I'm at the point where too many games can be overwhelming!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your favorite games! To The Moon and Alice seem particularly interesting, and I only heard spectacular things about Borderlands. Unfortunately it's FPS, which is a very hard perspective for me.
I'm assuming Age of Empires 2 is on the PC? I vaguely heard about the game.
I do have a couple of Fire Emblem games, but only played a few minutes of one, so that's yet another franchise I have to look into as well!
Thanks for sharing your favorite games!
Age of Empires is a PC game, it's a really REALLY old PC game, we're talking late 90's old. I'd recommend checking it out (it'll run on anything, though it might be tough to get working properly. I'm surprised you have Fire Emblem games, the older ones specifically uhhhh... aren't cheap... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fire-Emblem-Radiant-Dawn-Nintendo-Wii-SEALED-GRADED-90-MINT-UK-PAL-/201559741139
ReplyDeleteI may not get Age of Empires as it may only work on older version of Windows. I have Fire Emblem Awakening for the 3DS and I believe another Fire Emblem game for the DS that my friend let me borrow!
ReplyDeleteAnd yikes! that's very pricey for just one game. It makes no sense for Nintendo to NOT put this on their virtual console, especially given the lack of Switch games!