Games you really want to play, but can't or won't?

[ameancow@lemmy.world]

I'm also waiting for it to hit a low-enough price to justify the amount of time I will lose just trying to mod the thing into a playable, enjoyable state.

[jiri@mendeddrum.org]

@cyberpunk007 @Abundance114 that is if you play on PC. other platforms might require subscriptions of some kind in order to enable multiplayer feature(s).

[ameancow@lemmy.world]

I keep trying Civ VI and keep uninstalling it before finishing a single game.

I can't put my finger on exactly what's changed since earlier games, but it's lost a lot of the addicting charm and intuitive flow that made me play prior versions for days. Also, the goofy-ass style and overly dramatic narrative starts to irk me.

If that's the trend of the franchise I sure won't be touching any of the later ones.

[atropos@lemmy.world]

I couldn't find conclusive information for Wolfenstein 3D or Doom, but it seems to point toward bobbing being present for those as well.

If it really seems like a game that might be otherwise fun, I'd recommend giving it a shot with bobbing/sway (however it is
called) turned of.

This also affects my wife, she has to have it off in order to enjoy any 3d, first person game.

[garretble@lemmy.world]

Counterpoint: Someone can play up through Stormblood without having to buy anything.

But, yeah, I agree. I don't really want to think about how much I've spent on this one game over the last 12 years. But roughly spitballing:

• ARR, Heavensward, Stormblood, Shadowbringers, Endwalker, Dawntrail...I'll say that's 6 x $40 (not accurate since I bought special editions for some and moved from PS3 to Pc so that's an extra cost there, too): $240
• $13/m for 11 years (I've played ARR since launch but there have been some times where I turned off my sub for a little bit so I'll just knock off 12 months): 13 x 12 x 11 = $1,716
• Various Mogstation purchases, roughly $40?
• Total for me with this napkin math: $1,996

Woof. But, I do love the game and spent all weekend playing it just now. So there's worse things to spend money on.

[ameancow@lemmy.world]

I know a number of people who have motion-sickness issues with games like this, it's almost entirely first-person games that cause this.

Some things to consider from my years of assisting managing it:

• You get motion sick because your eyes tell your brain that you're moving, but your inner-ear gyroscopes say you're not, so your brain assumes you must be infected with something so it starts measures to evacuate your stomach of potential poison.

• View bobbing, screen-shaking, depth-of-field, motion-blur and frame-rates have a huge impact on your sense of balance and visual processing of motion, so try to always turn those off. (Minecraft has had view bobbing since early on, it's always "step one" to turn it off for everyone.)

• Framerates also can make you sick. If you're playing an first-person game and the field of view isn't moving smoothly it will be more likely to make you start to feel nauseous. Turn graphics settings down until your frame-rates are at least 40 or so. (You would have to look up the game and/or platform to figure out how to turn on FPS display on your screen to see where you're at.)

• The brain is highly elastic for learning new things, but also learns negative associations. This means sometimes you have to train it like a toddler or puppy. Patiently and with persistence. This can take the form of only playing for 15 minutes instead of waiting until you start to get nauseous. You need to train your brain that the viewing experience isn't actually harmful by disconnecting the association with feeling sick, by getting used to the game without triggering the motion sickness. So frequent, short sessions, not letting yourself get sick. (This is the most effective method anyone I know has tried.)

• Medication. Seriously, anti-histamines work pretty effectively. Motion-sickness pills are literally just anti-allergy medication. It will make you very quite groggy though so don't plan on staying up late playing. Chewable nausea tablets also help a lot. Again, you're just trying to let your brain adapt to a new perspective/activity without getting fully sick, so think of medications as a temporary measure to get to that adaptation point.

• Field of view is also a huge factor. Try turning it up or down, most 3D games give you the option. Additionally, playing on a smaller screen can help a lot too. Play in windowed mode and gradually work on making the screen larger and larger until you've adapted.

• Engagement in the game also helps. Once you start having fun you will often forget about the negative sensations and give your brain more time to adapt. If you're not enjoying a game, don't force it. Try a different one until you find some mechanic you enjoy that hooks you.

• After adaptation, you would likely also need to periodically "refresh" it and play a 3D game for a little while every day or you will slip back into motion-sickness triggers again easily.

[ameancow@lemmy.world]

It was marketed as a game, when really it's an interactive novel. If you don't like that kind of experience, you won't like it.

(But as far as novels go, it was one of the best, the story continues to open up paths and deep-dives into lore and philosophy branching ever deeper and further, while telling a story of personal tragedy.)

[ameancow@lemmy.world]

Arc Raiders took this trope and turned it on its head. The game is entirely about being a loot goblin around other people in a no-rules environment but if you don't pick fights, you will gradually get matched to servers with other people who don't pick fights, and you start to meet people and have adventures together, it happens very organically and pleasantly, and if you ever DO run into a PvPer the game doesn't really give a huge advantage to sweaty try-hards, a newb with a basic gun can defend themselves just as well as some well-equipped player hunter.

[donantoniomagino@europe.pub]

I played Wolfenstein 3D at a friend’s house as a kid. It made me sick exactly like Minecraft does.

I’ve never had any issue playing CoD, Medal of Honor or any other fps, it seems to specifically be this kind of first person in a boxy environment.

But I might try it again.

[rooty@lemmy.world]

I've bought the Witcher 3 for two different platforms, and I have neither the time or the patience to play it to completion.

[umbraroze@slrpnk.net]

There's like a boatload of really classic Xbox 360/One era games that I'd love to play on PC.

Problem is they were made by Ubisoft or EA. Repurchasing them is already dubious from the get-go, but chances are the versions in Steam, if they're still there at all, are old neglected buggy builds. And things are not much rosier on the Uplay or Origin! They may have gotten a patch or two, but old shit's janky. These need the GOG treatment.

I did get the Mass Effect trilogy rerelease for a pittance. Also found out I somehow had Dragon Age Origins already. These should keep me occupied for a while, as (to paraphrase a certain video game villain) at this very moment, EA burns.

[kazerniel@lemmy.world]

I understand their reasoning, but still, it soured me on the game. GenAI models being built from non-consensually mass-scraped art was known from the very start, and yet the devs thought it was ok to put it into their game... They could have just used stock textures as placeholders like developers have been doing for decades.

But anyway, we are free to just not agree and draw the line in different places on what we consider ethical conduct

[chunes@lemmy.world]

Silksong. My muscle disease has progressed too much to physically play it. That really stings because Hollow Knight was one of my favorite games ever.

[chunes@lemmy.world]

Sometimes I think it's nostalgia talking, then I go back and play Civ II or Civ IV and confirm that no, no it is not.

[dustydata@lemmy.world]

the devs thought it was ok to put it into their game

That's the point. They didn't thought it was OK and didn't.

They could have just used stock textures as placeholders like developers have been doing for decades.

That is exactly what they did, any texture left in the first version of the game was a mistake that was promptly fixed as soon as they noticed it. We have the advantage of judging four years later with new info something they did back then and have since corrected. Ethical considerations must include intent and context, and here there was definitely no intent to harm.

[atropos@lemmy.world]

Interesting, it may be more than simply turning off bobbing then. I wish you luck!

Also, @ameancow has some great suggestions as well.

[fatalicus@lemmy.world]

I'll have to look at the mod to increase the block/parry period, to see if that is my issue.

cheers!

[plzgivhugs@sh.itjust.works]

Fallout 1 or 3, is not 99% combat

By time spent, I wouldn't be suprised if nearing that (99%) is either going to be walking to the next location (quest or not) and fighting enemies to clear the path. Yes, you'll spend a bit of time talking to NPCs to retrieve the quest, and on some of the better designed quests, there might be some alternative routes, but traversal and combat are still usually the focus and/or the default. When you do have a reason to use other mechanics, or make meaningful story decisions, its good - but those chances are rare.

Pokemon is a strange one here too, because that series is built around a rock paper scissors system such that you should be regularly be switching up which attacks you're using.

I did oversimplify, but I still find it, and other JRPGs I've tried way too shallow. In Pokemon's case, while there is the typing, theres is still usually an one obvious best move at any given point. I do find Pokemon better than many others, in that there is much more ability and reason to customize your party on an ongoing basis, although they largely negate this benifit by making the games so easy.

I'd love to see if your complaints hold up to Larian's games on tactician difficulty.

Honestly, I would be interested too. The format with a larger party does interest me, and like I said, I do like a lot of tactics games like XCom and Fire Emblem, which are bordering on RPGs mechanically. I just don't have the money to spend on new games for the time being, so I probably won't be trying it until its price goes way down.

[ampersandrew@lemmy.world]

Larian's party size is only 4, so it's not much larger. Your breakdown of your spent time in Fallout sounds a lot like you're trying to speedrun it compared to how I play it (I'd be surprised if you stood much of a chance in late game Fallout without giving combat more thought), so the differences in how we play it is probably somewhere there, and I think Larian's games will probably force you to engage in more of those aspects in order to get through them. Divinity: Original Sin II regularly goes on sale for quite cheap these days, but I'd be lying if I told you it was anywhere near as good as Baldur's Gate 3 despite having a lot of the same DNA. For one, the D:OS games just about encourage the genocide of every monster on the map in a way that BG3 doesn't, but at least I'd strongly doubt your ability to play through the combat thoughtlessly.

[darkmetatron@feddit.org]

There are a few games that I would like to play but can't because they have awefull cellshader graphics. I really don't give anything about graphics most of the time (I play lots of retro games after all) but for some reason is cellshader problematic. I can tolerate it when it is a very light cellshader effect, but some games like Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom have such a thick cellshadering that it is unbearable for me.
Which is a shame, because I would love to play the games but can't.