Hello!
I am old.
Been playing video games since the late 1970s and though I play a current game for multiple hours per week (Escape From Tarkov) I don't keep current with all that's going on in the field.

I would love to play a game where I simply design sweet looking cottage houses and the landscapes they sit on, maybe a neighbourhood with streets and creeks and bridges...
Simply trying to create something that is idyllic and soothing--a place that I'd like to visit as an escape--not trying to gain points or hit goals to unlock progression.

Is there such a thing?
If not, should there be?
Should we make it???

Thank you in advance for your knowledge.

So there is an interesting artistic movement in the history of photography that I think can be useful to understand why AAA want their games to feel and look like interactive movies and not videogames. If you're not interested in or TLDR stop here

In 1880s/1990s when photography was popularized into the official art scene, it was seen merely as a "fake art" as at the time art was seen as a romantic ideal of the artist subjectivity which didn't go well with the cold automation that photography had. To fight against this idea that photography wasn't art, the phographers at the time tried to imitate what the actual painters were doing, and so they started putting up vasilne in front on the lens to try and imitate the effect of the impresionist brush. If photography could imitate painters were doing, then of course it must have been high art, right? And the subjects of these photos were the same that you would find in a impressionist painting. They weren't trying to find the essence of the new artistic medium, they were trying to fit in the rules of another one because they tought "that was the real art". I think game devs today have the same problem with movies.

It's not until 1920-40 where a new wave of modern photographers arise like Walker Evans that are actually modern, mature and conscious that they recognise objectivity and "being there in the moment" as the main features of the photographic medium and take advantage of it. Its called New objecvity.

After The last of us trend in videogames it seems pretty obvious we are stuck in on these moments of "video game pictorialism" with games rejecting what we always loved about them. When will we get a new wave of game devs that are conscious that they're not chasing a story or a character arc but the videogame insane hability to make you be inside a world that is real and forget about real life? Or sometimes just the arcade fun of a simple gameplay loop?

Mine was this moment in Outer Wilds. The game is usually pretty chill, even though it can be terrifying at times. It plays a lot with cosmic horror, like the fear of falling into a black hole or the uncertainty of exploring an unfamiliar planet. But holy shit, this moment genuinely scared the hell out of me.

You're just peacefully exploring this solar system, taking everything in, and then you suddenly enter THAT thing. It felt like I had somehow glitched out of reality and stepped outside the Matrix, you know what I mean? It was such a bizarre and terrifying experience.

whats your favorite line from a game in you have playec? here are some of mine:

Silent Hill 2: this town is full of monsters, how can you just sit here and eat pizza?!

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots: war has changed. its no longer about nations, ideologis or ehtincites. its an endless series of proxy battles...

Red Dead Redemption 2: dont be two people at once

Half Life 2: welcome, welcome to city 17. you have chosen or been chosen to relocate to one of our finest remaining urban centers...

Silent Hill 3: they have come to wittness the Beginning. the rebirth of Paradise. despoiled by mankind-if a thing has no meaning, there is no reason for it to exist

Postal 2: no way you freaking pinko!

Silent Hill 4 The Room: ouch damnit!

those are some of mine. what are yours? have a nice day, bye!

Weighing the pros and cons of each ecosystems offerings and would like to commit to just one ecosystem this next generation due to raising hardware prices and time commitments but can not decide between PC/Steam and Playstation.

Im 30+ so grew up with Playstation and had every generation until the PS4 Pro came out I instead built my own PC and gamed on that for about 10ish years until the PS5 Pro came out I then switched back to Playstation due to the ease of use and physical game collecting. But with all the terrible decisions Playstation is making Im reconsidering going back to PC for the openness of the ecosytem which I believe will be very important in the coming future for ownership.

Although, I do work in Tech and at the end of a work day refuse to sit at another desk and to do the bare minimum if at all when troubleshooting or optimizing settings at my age.

My Wife has gotten into gaming as well so I'd like to maintain two gaming systems, one for me one for her. This is were the cost comes in as maintaining two decent PCs is alot more than two Playstations as her PC is going to need an upgrade or replaced with a Steam Machine. So I would also need to troubleshoot/optimize two gaming sytems.

Lastly I do like to Trophy/Achievement hunt, I love that Steam Achievements only have one list since there is one verison of the game. Where Playstation has started introducing multiple Trophy lists for the same game due to multiple verisons. Ex. Witcher 3 now has 4x Trophy lists that do not sync. And Steams cloud saves are just miles better than Playstation's.

Current setup both PCs hooked up to TVs/couch gaming and rough estimate costs factor in Monitors, TVs, PS Subcription, Prevails, over the lifetime Ive had the devices not including games:

PC - i7-12700k, 3080ti - with Steam Deck Oled ($7000 5years)

PS5 Pro - with Portal ($2500 2years)

2nd PC - i7-6700k, 2x 1080s in SLI (Wife's) ($4000 10years)

PS5 - with Portal (Wife's) ($1500 4years)

TLDR: What platform do you find yourself gravitating towards spending more time Gaming on in the future with all the current raising hardware costs and anti consumer decisions consoles may go through with next generation?

I always played on easy any time I get I don't really like challenge or getting lost or doing puzzles and I play games for strange small reasons others find boring or get old. I also never play multiplayer because I don't like being competitive. and I'm starting to wonder if I'm dumb or just lesser then other people especially when people Make fun of me for it or just tell me too stop playing games if I don't like challenge. everyone doesn't struggle but I do. and since I have level 2 autism I already feel like I'm less capable then others since I'm also in special needs class. I just asking does playing difficult games Relate to intelligence? should I be embarrassed or ashamed when I play on very easy or story mode

I’m curious if I’m the only one. I don’t mean speedrunning or trophy hunting — I mean playing a game very slowly over months/years, taking long breaks, and periodically returning to the same playthrough. Not trying to finish ASAP, just enjoying the long-term process. Anyone else play like this? How do you keep track of where you left off, and do you feel pressured by the whole “finish fast, get platinum, move on” culture?

I’m wanting to play a post apocalyptic/ zombie game with at least a relatively open world and survival/ crafting aspects. I would love something that’s atmospheric, that I can really sink into, but not SUPER punishing. A satisfying progression pace would be nice too.

Dying Light and Days Gone were the first two that popped up on Google. Should I go with one of these or is there a better option out there? Thanks!

Edit: I’m on ps4

I know that a lot of people consider the ps1 era of graphics nostalgic or eerie which makes it fit for horror games and also is easy to replicate, especially if they're aiming for the nostalgic feeling. One thing I'm curious about though is how I don't see any modern projects trying to mimick the 2000-2010s era of games. it's hard for me to explain it exactly since I didn't experience it so I'll give a few examples of games whose graphics really caught my attention: Re4, Silent Hill 3, Shadow of the Colossus or like CoD Mw2 or Gta IV. One more notable example are the "piss filter games" or "fuckload bloom games (I'm looking for some games with fuckload bloom if anyone could recommend some.)". It just seems like a really cool looking and unique era of graphics to me and I wish I would've experienced it but my point is that a lot of people definitely experienced those during their childhood or teenage years and I'm surprised I don't see anyone trying to recreate the looks of those games in current times.

I'm sorry if it's a stupid question but it has been stagnating in the back of my mind for some time and I had to get it out. If there are modern indie projects or just more old game recommendations in general that fit my bad description I'd love to hear them aside for an answer to why people aren't trying to replicate the feeling of that era.

so ive been looking for some fun shooter games as i have played fortnite for a long time but its getting really boring, and ive heard amazing things about marvel rivals, so i tried it but it doesnt feel fun, it feels really clunky with slow movement. what are youre guys recommendations for fun shooter games with great movement?

Now for me personally I have this weird habit of only playing,reading,or watching entertainment that I’m in the mood for. When I mean in the mood for I mean if I I’m craving that specific genre. For example if I’m in the mood for a zombie apocalypse game I’ll boot that up even if I’m in the middle of a hack and slash game like God of War III or something. This leads to me having like 10 or more active games I’m playing at one time with cycling between them when the mood strikes me. Sometimes I’ll play one game consistently but most of the time I’m cycling through many. This could lead to sometimes not finishing a game but that’s rare as I usually come back to it at some point but it definitely has happened unfortunately.

My girlfriend and I looooove Sidereal Confluence, and it is probably our favorite board game. She is not as much into video games, but it can be hard to get enough people together to play Sidereal Confluence regularly, so I'm looking for a video game that is similar that we could both play.

It being competitive or cooperative are both fine, just wondering if you guys know of anything that scratches a similar itch!

How do you rate my Epic Games library (I got everything for free (from discounts)) and wich games should I play, because I can't find enything entertaining:

1. Agent A: A puzzle in disguise

2. Bad Cheese

3. EA SPORTS FC™ 27 Lite

4. Out of Sight

5. TerraScape

6. System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster

7. Mechabellum

8. Astrea Six Sided Oracles

9. Luftrausers

10. Astral Ascent

11. ROBOBEAT

12. Citizen Sleeper

13. The Ouroboros King

14. Warhammer 40K Speed Freeks

15. Discord

16. Rogue Waters

17. Songs of Conquest

18. Down in Bermuda

19. Tomb Raider I-III Remastered Starring Lara Croft

20. Sunderfolk

21. Telltale Batman Season 1

22. Telltale Batman Season 2

23. Trash Goblin

24. Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure

25. Oddsparks: An Automation Adventure

26. Firestone – Idle Clicker Online RPG

27. Isonzo

28. Cozy Grove

29. Turnip Boy Robs a Bank

30. Wildgate

31. Total War: THREE KINGDOMS

32. Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power

33. Trine 2: Complete Story

34. Trine Enchanted Edition

35. Trine 4: Definitive Edition

36. Viewfinder

37. Cassette Beasts

38. We Were Here Together

39. Disco Elysium - The Final Cut

40. The Callisto Protocol

41. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

42. Paradise Killer

43. Blood West

44. Eternights

45. Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel

46. Hogwarts Legacy

47. Universe for Sale

48. Godzilla Voxel Wars

49. Zoeti

50. Bendy and the Ink Machine

51. Five Nights at Freddy's: Into the Pit

52. The Battle of Polytopia

53. Monument Valley 2

54. Ghostrunner 2

55. Strange Horticulture

56. Kamaeru

57. Ogu and the Secret Forest

58. Tiny Tina's Wonderlands

59. Sifu

60. Deliver At All Costs

61. Touch Type Tale

62. Deadtime Defenders

63. The WereCleaner

64. EA SPORTS FC™ 25

65. Super Space Club

66. Jurassic World Evolution 2

67. F1® Manager 2024

68. Undying

69. Turmoil

70. Marvel Rivals

71. Apex Legends™

72. World of Warships

73. Brawlhalla

74. Fishing Planet

75. Olympics Go! Paris 2024

76. Raid Shadow Legends

77. Rocket League®

78. League of Legends

79. Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy

80. Fall Guys

So it was just brought to my attention that New York Rep Ritchie Torres is proposing a bill called the Power to the Players Act

Tldr: its a bill that would make it so ANY digitally purchased game would be considered permanently OWNED and can be resold/transfered just like physical not a revocable license, additionally any online dependent games MUST have a way to play offline once support and servers shut down

So my question is what do you all think of this and if it'll actually go anywhere given that certain major developers are already trying to heavily lobby against this?

And if anyone has more information if you could provide it?

A link to Torres' page about it

https://ritchietorres.house.gov/posts/rep-torres-announces-power-to-the-players-act-legislation-to-ensure-gamers-own-their-games

I think so. It reminds me so much of Issin, the sword saint, in Sekiro.

It's brutal, but also fair. he doesn't have a single move that's unfair, and you can learn how to counter it. It's also a really long fight, making it a test of stamina. He also has a really fun personality.

We’ve all had that one game—the one that completely blew our minds, the one with the twist we never saw coming, or the world that felt so real we never wanted to leave.

​For me, I’d give anything to experience the feeling of stepping into Elden Ring (or Silent Hill 2) without knowing a single thing about it.

​So, what’s that one game for you? The one that left a "void" in your soul after the credits rolled?