Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@ThanosReXXX ....the accident involved a bus, didn’t it?

I enjoy the tenseness and spooking myself, as long as the game is good and paced well. But some are so good I can’t play too much at a time. I’m not the same with books or movies.

I retired from survival horror and super violent/bloody games a while ago. I warped my brain long ago with horror movies and can watch about anything without getting too jumpy or squeamish; but vidya games trick my brain into a whole other level of immersion, and it’s just too real. I think I actually became aware of this while playing Manhunt 2, hiding in the slaughterhouse from the awful pig mask chainsaw guy. I had a moment of clarity and realized that I wasn’t even having fun because I was hiding in a locker, nervous and scared, with no idea what to do, and no real power against him one on one.

@ThanosReXXX - Careful there, I’ve heard those types of games can make you psychotic. If you play them long enough, you could turn back into a monkey.

My brother had a moment like that playing Alien Isolation.

The poor main character has been in that closet for about a year now.

@ThanosReXXX I can relate to that. I'm claustrophobic, pretty badly too. Anytime in a movie or game where people are crawling in a cave, only on their elbows and something is chasing them, gives me horrible anxiety.

Haha, yeah those are my break moments. And I don’t always fault the game. Heck, often I consider it to be a kudos to the crew making something that can put me in such a terrorized state that I have to walk away. I don’t think I ever made it past nightfall in a Dead Rising game, or halfway through Alien Isolation. Once I had to repeatedly go into thick building and hallways with friends online in Dead Island, I said nope. I beat Eternal Darkness, screaming and cry-laughing all the way. Alan Wake was a stressful journey to the end of an awesome experience. Left 4 Dead.... my friends told me the lady crying in a corner was a survivor I had to slowly approach. They lied. They’re filthy liars. I made it past the tutorial in ZombieU.

All this talk makes me think I’ll go play some Labo VR now. Happy thoughts. 😛😂

I’d dip back in survival horror if the right kind of game came along and caught my eye, but most of the time I’m steering clear. I don’t like even getting a gun or a healing item in those games because I’m then completely obsessed with not using them, haha. I’m a beat em up fan, but I’ve continually passed on Mother Russia Bleeds at ridiculously low sale prices because the trailer is revolting. If the ridiculous violence was comical, I could do it, but since it takes itself seriously; it becomes a joke.

@ThanosReXXX Well, it's like that troll who was all over the site yesterday with the borderline racist username. Saying how dumb it was to use the Switch as a portable gaming device when we could use a gaming laptop... like, yes a 2000 dollar gaming laptop is both as portable as Switch and a fair comparison to a 300 dollar device. Totally.

I like survival horror, but I also like to have enough ammunition/weapons and healing items to make it thru. So I'm not a purist by any means. I usually play re games on easy If there's any option. Doom3 was the perfect amount of ammo and scary for me. Always had just enough to get by as long as you weren't trigger happy at walls and floors for no reason.

@Heavyarms55 is he/she on today still?

@NintendoByNature Not that I've seen. But I only just showed up myself.

@NotTelevision Well, like you haven't played Xenoblade, I haven't played Red Dead, but also like you have heard good things about Xeno, I've heard good things about Red. Even the best games have a few points that aren't great. I consider Xenoblade Chronicles probably my favorite game of all time, it's certainly very high on my list! But it does have a decent few dull "collect 9 of this random item for me" quests - Though doing all the side quests in the game completely eliminates any need for traditional level grinding and splashes in some world building.

I've a mixed opinion on Rockstar games. I can really respect the technical aspects of their games and the raw game play. But I am often really not a fan of the story and characters. I'm not the kind of person who thinks we should shelter ourselves from bad people doing bad things, but frankly I don't like vile people being held up as the heroes. And honestly many of Rockstar's games feature murderers and even rapists as the protagonists. From a story telling view, the existence of these types of characters are interesting but I don't want to play as them unless the actual story is meant to be that of a villains' story. From my experience with their games, that's not the case almost ever. I'm sorry but if I learned my best friend, whom I've known for over 20 years was a rapist and a killer, I'd not stand by them and I'd not maintain that friendship. And yet, that's often the kind of characters you get from their games...

Again, I actually dislike the "white knight" perfect flawless hero approach - but at the same time I don't want a game that holds up vile people in that same sort of spotlight. If the game is about playing as a bad person, treat it that way.

About the only Rockstar game I've played why I actually liked the protagonist was GTA 4, where at least in the beginning, it seemed like a decent man placed into an impossible position. Then we got GTA 5 with one of the protagonists being an outright rapist and killer and the game even made a mini game out of torturing a prisoner... I'll be honest though, I know zip about the Red Dead stories/cast. Maybe I'd like them more.

I'd love to see what Rockstar could do with different writing. All that detail work into a game maybe with a blank slate protagonist where you could make them a monster or a hero or mixed up as you choose. Or a protagonist more in line with GTA 4 where they are a decent person who is forced to do bad things because not doing them places them in a worse position - which honestly I think is the more common reason why anyone resorts to crime.

Part of why I like Xenoblade so much is because the hero initially isn't trying to save the world or anyone, it's revenge. Openly so.

Pffff.... crazy Anti playing multi-player games with himself again...
How can anyone be happy with or proud about any achievements acquired in that way? Oh, look: I beat myself... (shakes head)

@HobbitGamer Haha, no it didn't. I've only combined buses and accidents in recent years.

@bimmy-lee Hm, makes you wonder about all those hentai-loving boys and girls, huh? Some commenters on here certainly act like monkeys, and like other animals ending in "onkeys"...

But no, to me, they're just harmless fun, and recently, I happened to discover a Western effort, that is actually pretty good with a more than decent story, in a setting taking its cues from all the various American screwball and high school comedies and mixing that in with a more adult theme, and characters looking far more realistic and in 3D, instead of the blue-haired anime girls with the saucer-sized eyes and alien chest sizes.

Here, take a look for yourself. It's on Steam for a decent price, just remember to not check that at work.

@NintendoByNature Yeah, that can literally be quite a constrictive sensation. Luckily, I managed to get rid of it over the years, mainly also because I never had any of these feelings before the accident, so for me, it was just a matter of getting back to my former self.

@Heavyarms55 A new troll with a decidedly racist name? Well, I must have overlooked that one, because I've now gotten rid of all the back log concerning the articles I hadn't read yet, and to be honest, I can't remember seeing anyone like that.

By the way: the Red Dead games are great, so I can easily recommend them to you, especially if you like games that take place in a Wild West setting. It isn't simply "GTA in cowboy land", if that's what you're wondering.

@ThanosReXXX it's gotten worse for me over the years actually. Some fun haunted houses around Halloween have you crawling thru small openings. I know it's fun, but it still gets to me. Even getting my kids out of tubes in play places can somewhat bother me. I dont hyperventilate. But it's still enough to make me feel uneasy.

@NintendoByNature I can imagine. All I can say is that I sincerely hope that you have it in you to not transfer that anxiety or fear onto your kids, because that would be the worst thing of it.

@ThanosReXXX nah. I trek thru it for haunted houses and so on. It Would have to be extreme for me NOT to do something with them because of my fear.

@ThanosReXXX Said troll was all over the Nintendo Switch forums spouting all kinds of nonsense. And I know there's a lot of reasons why the Red Dead and GTA games are popular. And even with all I said about GTA, I don't hate the games - I think in terms of pure gameplay and technical design, they're extremely fun and impressive games. I just don't really like the flavor and writing - which is why I rarely ever played much of the stories beyond enough to get access to features I wanted - then I'd just run around the world blowing stuff up and messing with glitches or actually pretending to be a bad guy.

I once broke San Andres. I found a hill where you could drop down and land on a ledge just wide enough to stand on, above a tunnel, and the AI just didn't understand how to deal with that. So I could just stand up there blowing up cars until the police brought in helicopters which could only come straight at me and were easy to shoot down.

Well played, Labo VR, well played indeed.

So there’s a mini game in the VR plaza called Big Blue Book. Simple enough, book on a table with a lock. Open the lock, turn the page...”LOOK BEHIND YOU”. So I did.

Now I’m going to play New Leaf. Until my Switch stops reading my posts.

Playing one of most Wiinderrated and high Wiintellect games, Opoona!

Not big into turn based RPGs (I enjoy action ones a lot more), but this one is so unique in terms of gameplay, visuals, soundtrack and atmosphere. Not to mention I'm always happy to discover a new Wii title, haha.

Got a UV light for future family vacation reasons, but before such a thing could rev up, I flashed the light around the house for future family vacation reasons. By one of the rugs was a very old Tootsie pee stain, but the light revealed that it was in the shape of a heart. For me, that had to be the most bittersweet thing I have ever saw, even after two years (IT'S BEEN THAT LONG ALREADY!?!) after her passing. Also, said rug was sprayed and washed shortly afterwards.

Also that UV light really made the glow in the dark funko pops really glow!....REALLY!

Whew. Have I mentioned this week for me has been crazy work-wise? If not, it has been CRAZY! Good news is I haven't had a ton going on this evening, so I assembled the new gaming chair I picked up last weekend. It was surprisingly easy to do with the straightforward directions. It only took me about 45 minutes or so.

@bimmy-lee I'd say it's worth a shot as long as it wouldn't be too crazy to pull off, both out of pocket or otherwise. It would definitely make for an interesting project!

Better let @NEStalgia know about those Frozen stencils....

@ThanosReXXX They could make a pretty in-depth superhero origin movie, but that would take many hours and more than likely more than one movie. Not many people are as patient as I am when it comes to screen time lol. It's amazing what they DO condense into a 2 1/2 hour movie sometimes, but that material widely varies.

What is this "reasoning" you speak of? I've heard it's the Holy Grail of the internet.

@Heavyarms55 You bring up a good point with GTA 4. Reflecting on it, I think you’re right. It’s not like a bad guy/criminal protagonist has to be unlikeable. There are countless crime movies and shows like Breaking Bad that invite the viewer to face moral dilemmas from the perspective of the bad guy. It’s not like we totally side with them, but we better understand the various components that cause someone to make these choices and identify with them as human beings in a struggle. You’re right about GTA 4 doing that better.

GTA 5 had the harder task of making these deplorable characters relatable, and frankly they didn’t really succeed . I didn’t understand the motivations of why these characters acted this way. Trevor and Michael just seem like they want to sit on a large pile of money and Franklin is a bit of a stiff for most of the game. So I think the problem is the story, like you, left me cold with no one there to identify with and barely any moral stakes to contend with.

I know they could’ve done better because there are other open world games where the choices you make are constantly “hitting you in the feels”, so my criticism isn’t an indictment of the developers but just a wish they try a little harder. They obviously wanted to create a mature satire of the state of post- Great Recession US at times, but it comes across as childish and them just picking the lowest hanging fruit levels of easy spoof. It lacks insight in other words. And causing mayhem on the street doesn’t have the same level of joy it had in the earlier games.

Ohh boy. This is starting to look like a post on the “Unpopular gaming opinions” thread 😟. I’ll reserve further commentary for that thread. These are just my thoughts on my experience with GTA 5.