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

[cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca]

Ya maybe one day. I also morally don't want to support that behaviour.

Elden ring is the gold standard for me in multiplayer. It's optional. It just requires you to be online. No account creation bullshit. And it's a quality game also.

[ameancow@lemmy.world]

I'd love to play Baldur's Gate 3 with a diverse group of real people and share an adventure together, but have no friends who enjoy games that aren't mindless slop.

Same with other slow-burn games like Project Zomboid and other survival/crafting games.

I learned to do slop to hang out with others, I even got good at slop like Rivals just to keep social contact alive. But I can't drag anyone into a game that doesn't have 2-minute matches filled with flashing lights and colors and gambling mini-games.

[johnnixon@lemmy.world]

I watched a friend beat TOTK so I just ran around and tried to 100% the game rather than beating it. Slower times too.

[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!