Video Games...Discuss Them

[D_Davis]

I'm getting diminishing returns on fun each time I fire up Dragon's Dogma. As a matter of fact, even after putting 500 hours into Dark Souls, I still played DS more this past weekend.

I loved Dragon's Dogma for about the first 20 or so hours, but I'm just not feeling it any more. I'm tired of running around the same looking areas (various, slightly different looking forests and caves), and the NPC dialog ("Masterworks all. You can't go wrong." repeat one billion times) is totally getting on my nerves. Not to mention how lame the loot is. I've found dozens and dozens of treasure chests, and all I have to ask is: why are the people in this game putting their most boring items in these treasure chests? I'm also super tired of fighting the same groups of goblins and bandits over and over again while I walk around the dull environments, hoping to get to some new area.

I also don't like how your character level is far more important than your skill as a player. This leads to having to grind the same enemies over and over to level up and purchase skills, rather than simply improving at the game.

I probably won't put much more time into this game. Major bummer.

I still love the pawn system, and the combat is fun. Capcom has a good foundation on which to build, but I'm struggling to remain interested. I've got like 25 quests in my log, and I don't want to do any of them because they're either too far away (it takes forever to get anywhere), or they're Kill X of these or escort missions (my two least favorite things to do in RPGs).

[Irish]

OH MY GOD, BUT THE PAWNS! WON'T SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE PAWNS!

[D_Davis]

OH MY GOD, BUT THE PAWNS! WON'T SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE PAWNS!

Some guy hired my pawn for almost the entire game. I guess he beat the game with her, and then I got something like 75k Rift points.

[Irish]

Some guy hired my pawn for almost the entire game. I guess he beat the game with her, and then I got something like 75k Rift points.

You know, she's out there RIGHT NOW, working her little virtual butt off and earning you the scratch. And you? Bored now! Time to move on, honey!

Did you ever REALLY care about her, or were you just saying that to get what you wanted?

That's cold, man. Really. Freakin'. Cold.

[D_Davis]

I'll just let her work for like a year, and then log in.

[Irish]

And that, my children, is how the man came to be known as Pimp Davis, A-K-A The Super Pimp Daddy of the Double D, Dragon's Dogma.

[D_Davis]

I think I'm simply going to have to come to terms with the fact that I don't like those kinds of open world games. I've never been able to get into one, even though I always think I will, and I always really want to. I just don't like how those games are basically single-player MMOs, where you hunt for the NPCs, usually with the glowing thing above their head, and then head out and do tasks for them.

I want to LOVE Skyrim - I'd love to be able to get lost in that massive world. And I'd love to LOVE Dragon's Dogma, but I just can't.

[Irish]

I know what you mean. Speaking to previous posts, I've played exactly half of almost every GTA release. (I spent most of my time in Vice City driving around listening to the radio).

The big open world does seem better suited to MMOs, where at least there's a chance at random surprise (especially if you're on a PvP server).

It may seem odd to say so, but I think there's something profoundly lonely about wandering a vast world where you're the only real in habitant, moreso if you got companions spouting scripted dialogue at specific trigge points.

[D_Davis]

What's funny is that I like games the focus on feelings of loneliness. That's why I love the first Tomb Raider so much. Exploring those caverns totally alone is haunting. Same goes for the Metroid games. But those games are far more focused and directed, there are "levels" although the games are somewhat open. The areas feel like they are designed to be levels in a video game, as opposed to open world games which feel more "realistic." I like gamey-ness in my video games. I like the game to feel designed for me to play, and I'm not so much interested in worlds that exist for me to "live" in.

[Irish]

What's funny is that I like games the focus on feelings of loneliness. That's why I love the first Tomb Raider so much. Exploring those caverns totally alone is haunting. Same goes for the Metroid games. But those games are far more focused and directed, there are "levels" although the games are somewhat open. The areas feel like they are designed to be levels in a video game, as opposed to open world games which feel more "realistic." I like gamey-ness in my video games. I like the game to feel designed for me to play, and I'm not so much interested in worlds that exist for me to "live" in.

I'm right there with you on games that look & feel "video gamey" (especially in RPGs; the more realistic approach to the world of Dragon's Age just highlighted, to me, how stupid that world was).

The loneliness thing ... not so much. I get to a point in certain games like Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, or Bioshock and think, "What am I doing? This is pointless. I should go call up a friend & grab a beer."

[megladon8]

I think I'm simply going to have to come to terms with the fact that I don't like those kinds of open world games. I've never been able to get into one, even though I always think I will, and I always really want to. I just don't like how those games are basically single-player MMOs, where you hunt for the NPCs, usually with the glowing thing above their head, and then head out and do tasks for them.

I want to LOVE Skyrim - I'd love to be able to get lost in that massive world. And I'd love to LOVE Dragon's Dogma, but I just can't.

Wasn't "Fallout 3" like among your "best games ever" list? At least while you were playing it it was.

[D_Davis]

Wasn't "Fallout 3" like among your "best games ever" list? At least while you were playing it it was.

I like it. Not everything I say is an across the board thing, but I don't want to always add "in general..." to everything I post, either.

With that said though, I never even came close to finishing Fallout 3. I put ~60 hours into it, and made it to Rivet City, where I completely lost interest. Definitely got a lot of value out of it, though. However, it also suffered from a case of diminishing returns for me.

[D_Davis]

Oh, and I FINALLY actually got Gravelorded in Dark Souls. Can't believe this hadn't happened to me yet. Of course it happened to me in NG+, in the Undead Parrish, and now my world has a red phantom Tower Knight and Balder Knight. Holy crap are they hard. I searched all over for the Gravelord's sign, but I couldn't find it.

[Irish]

Eh, one of the things I appreciate about you, Davis, is your unbridled enthusiasm for a thing while you're experiencing it, whether that thing is a game, movie, or book.

It makes sense that Fallout 3 might have been the best game you ever played while you were playing it, but isn't now.

[D_Davis]

I love loving things!

I do often get caught up in the moment, though. That's why this whole Dark Souls thing is so weird to me. Things with this kind of lasting appeal are the things that end up on lists.

I am a very practical person when it comes to entertainment. I look at the money I invest, and how much fun I get out of it. So $60 spent on Fallout 3, which gave me about 60 hours of entertainment, is money and time well spent.

[Irish]

Haha yeah, that's the way I feel about stuff like Warcraft, SWTOR, and small games like Legend of Grimlock.

The MMOs cost me 50 cents a day while I was playing them, and for $15 bucks I squeezed 70ish hours out of Grimlock.

[Thirdmango]

I think I'm simply going to have to come to terms with the fact that I don't like those kinds of open world games. I've never been able to get into one, even though I always think I will, and I always really want to. I just don't like how those games are basically single-player MMOs, where you hunt for the NPCs, usually with the glowing thing above their head, and then head out and do tasks for them.

I want to LOVE Skyrim - I'd love to be able to get lost in that massive world. And I'd love to LOVE Dragon's Dogma, but I just can't.

Fallout 3 ruined me because now the only kinds of games I do want to play are open world exploring games. Mainly because I want to play games while watching tv and those are the perfect games to do it, where I can pause the show I'm watching when I need to pay attention, but then resume when I want to go out and kill something. I've dumped 200 hours into Fallout 3, New Vegas, Oblivion and Skyrim. I need more open world games.

[Winston*]

What's funny is that I like games the focus on feelings of loneliness.

Doesn't every game focus on feelings of loneliness?

[D_Davis]

I'm doing a zero poise run through Dark Souls now. I always end up making tank-like characters, so this time I'm going all Dex and speed.

[[ETM]]

[youtube]hE9ZBlSSNWw[/youtube]

[Morris Schæffer]

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3...ro-last/730549

Metro: First Light looks great!

Sorry, Couldn't find youtube version.

[Spaceman Spiff]

What's funny is that I like games the focus on feelings of loneliness.

Play Silent Hill 2 immediately.

[D_Davis]

Play Silent Hill 2 immediately.

Played it, but never finished it. It's part of that SH HD collection, right?

[number8]

Doesn't every game focus on feelings of loneliness?

Yeah man, I like games that focus on feelings of virginity. Har har har har.

[D_Davis]

Forever alone level: Dark Souls