The Video Game Thread v3

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

Toys 'R' Us went from being this magical place I remember as a kid to... wow. That's depressing.

For kids, it's still an amazing place, but I can't help but feel the type of wonder we experienced as children isn't the same wonder kids these days feel.

[The Yen Man]

This is REALLY dating myself, but as a kid, I used to brim with excitement going to Kmart or Consumers with my parents to pick up a new game. It was only a few times throughout the year, and I just loved that feeling. Even just browsing the cabinet whenever I'm there was a treat. I wonder what replaces that feeling for kids of today, now that you can just buy a game on-line instantly, or have all these games accessible through Gamepass.

[OutOfTheCube]

I grew up in the era where release date = the day they shipped the game from their warehouse, not the day it actually went on sale. I think I drove some Toys R Us and Walmart cashiers mad calling over and over again every 45 mins when new Gamecube games were making their way to shelves.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

This is REALLY dating myself, but as a kid, I used to brim with excitement going to Kmart or Consumers with my parents to pick up a new game. It was only a few times throughout the year, and I just loved that feeling. Even just browsing the cabinet whenever I'm there was a treat. I wonder what replaces that feeling for kids of today, now that you can just buy a game on-line instantly, or have all these games accessible through Gamepass.

The instant gratification thing is killer and I swear I see my kids have ennui even in though they're so young.

My 4 year old has been complaining he gets bored of things since he was 3 and not just media. I don't recall any form of a boredom memory until I was in Jr high. There was always something new to try or imagine.

Seriously speaking, what happens when you give a kid an NES or SNES game or even game boy to play at the same age as we were when we first played them? "meh..."? That'd be a huge difference than the "OMG WOW!" from for when we first picked them up, for sure.

That makes me sad. It's not that they can't have that feeling of dissatisfaction, but that they don't seem to have as much long term joy from the things they do.

[BlackArcher101]

Originally Posted by DoubleF

The instant gratification thing is killer and I swear I see my kids have ennui even in though they're so young.

TIL the word "ennui" and how fittingly it describes me.

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

This is REALLY dating myself, but as a kid, I used to brim with excitement going to Kmart or Consumers with my parents to pick up a new game. It was only a few times throughout the year, and I just loved that feeling. Even just browsing the cabinet whenever I'm there was a treat. I wonder what replaces that feeling for kids of today, now that you can just buy a game on-line instantly, or have all these games accessible through Gamepass.

I honestly think this is why stuff like blind boxes and pokemon/trading cards have had a resurgence.

Closest you can get nowadays to an actual surprise.

I remember there being times as a kid where even just seeing the new video game in store was a surprise - let alone actually buying it. Not like everything was actually instore for the planned release dates back then.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

I honestly think this is why stuff like blind boxes and pokemon/trading cards have had a resurgence.

Closest you can get nowadays to an actual surprise.

I remember there being times as a kid where even just seeing the new video game in store was a surprise - let alone actually buying it. Not like everything was actually instore for the planned release dates back then.

The surprise factor is an interesting point too. I guess games were always fresh and improved graphically and new things, stories and mechanics were introduced all the time.

Now, a lot of it is reskinned and the improvements are barely noticeable. I mean, we went from gaming graphics that looked like Minecraft being cutting edge to stuff that's difficult to differentiate from a movie.

I guess it also doesn't help that there's microtransaction crap in the games that annoy my kids that the cool icon they want to play is behind a paywall. But since they're used to bouncing around games, I'm not paying $20-50 to unlock it only to have them get bored potentially a few hours later (been there, done that). I've been considering paying for Apple arcade to see if it's any good. That way the games I get for the kids (supposedly) are all free of microtransactions and pay walls. But then that also adds to the instant gratification thing. It's different to scrolling through a list of games vs going into a Blockbuster and staring at the game options on the wall. That "sticking with you choice" I now realize, is a very important facet.

It also doesn't help that my kids are clever. Remember when you had those kids get excited that they were playing a game with their sibling, but holding a disconnected controller? You could entertain them for hours and days by giving them a controller and just having them watch the other sibling play. My kids are too damn smart to fall for that and have been that way since they were 2 years old.

[photon]

Finished Cyberpunk 2077, really enjoyed the game. I really liked the story.

Will definitely have to do the other endings to see how they work out.

[TorqueDog]

I’ve been meaning to play through Cyberpunk 2077 again. I played through it when it was first launched (refunded the disastrous console release and bought it on GOG instead). Since then it has had a ton of patches and updates so I am pretty curious to see what it’s like now.

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

This is REALLY dating myself, but as a kid, I used to brim with excitement going to Kmart or Consumers with my parents to pick up a new game. It was only a few times throughout the year, and I just loved that feeling. Even just browsing the cabinet whenever I'm there was a treat. I wonder what replaces that feeling for kids of today, now that you can just buy a game on-line instantly, or have all these games accessible through Gamepass.

Edited to respond to this, I f--king loved going to K-Mart with my mom when I was a kid. I'd beeline for the electronics section because they always had a Nintendo Gameboy display with Tetris or Super Mario Land, and I would basically play that from the time we got there until mom was ready to go to the checkout.

Then they switched it to the Virtual Boy and that was disappointing. And then K-Mart died.

[OutOfTheCube]

Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line has a demo out, not that I needed it but damn it's so good. Looks and runs fantastic on Switch. 30 songs in the demo, the amount of content is staggering (385 songs in the base game, plus more through DLC) and tons of unlockables and videos. Really excited for the full version to make it's way out!

Man if this and Advance Wars both land this month I'm set until Zelda comes out, lol.

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by OutOfTheCube

Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line has a demo out, not that I needed it but damn it's so good. Looks and runs fantastic on Switch. 30 songs in the demo, the amount of content is staggering (385 songs in the base game, plus more through DLC) and tons of unlockables and videos. Really excited for the full version to make it's way out!

Man if this and Advance Wars both land this month I'm set until Zelda comes out, lol.

Theatrhythm is great. I have scratches on my 3ds screen protector from playing the games. I'm sad they didn't bring over the Dragon Quest one from Japan, had to get a copy of it on my last trip.

[ComixZone]

Originally Posted by photon

Finished Cyberpunk 2077, really enjoyed the game. I really liked the story.

Will definitely have to do the other endings to see how they work out.

I also just finished Cyberpunk 2077 in the last few days. Absolutely loved it. I'm currently going back through to see the different endings, and finish up some of the other side quests as well.

I'm really enjoying my time with the game. 5/5

[PepsiFree]

Cyberpunk is probably my second favourite game of the last five years, behind Death Stranding. Both of those games I feel I could just keep playing. Great stories (especially Death Stranding), super fun, addictive mechanics, just overall great games. Both I also feel are incredibly underrated and misrepresented for what they are currently.

It’s been a pretty good decade or so for the open-world format. Even Assassin’s Creed put out an unusually great game. But with RDR2, Ghost, and the Horizon games there has been a lot of selection of really memorable open-world games lately.

[Buff]

Originally Posted by Winsor_Pilates

Finished The Last of Us part 1 last night.
It was good but definitely feels 10 years old, not as epic as I expected. It played on the easiest mode and got through it really quick, I was actually surprised when it ended as I thought I was just getting going.

I started playing it over Christmas 2021. I picked it up this past Christmas, wondering why I didn't try to finish the game.... I got stuck on one part and I was still stuck on that part. I'm now old and bad at winning games on easy mode.

[zukes]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Cyberpunk is probably my second favourite game of the last five years, behind Death Stranding. Both of those games I feel I could just keep playing. Great stories (especially Death Stranding), super fun, addictive mechanics, just overall great games. Both I also feel are incredibly underrated and misrepresented for what they are currently.

It’s been a pretty good decade or so for the open-world format. Even Assassin’s Creed put out an unusually great game. But with RDR2, Ghost, and the Horizon games there has been a lot of selection of really memorable open-world games lately.

I was excited about this game but when it was a mess post release I kind of gave up on it. It seems that they fixed it and sounds like it might be worth playing now?

[Huntingwhale]

Originally Posted by ComixZone

I also just finished Cyberpunk 2077 in the last few days. Absolutely loved it. I'm currently going back through to see the different endings, and finish up some of the other side quests as well.

I'm really enjoying my time with the game. 5/5

I bought in the day it was released and played it for about 5 mins and gave up due to the glitches. Haven't touched it since. However every few months I read up on the updates and bit by bit it seems to have stabilized. But I also still am using my XB1 console....

Think it's worth it to try again? Or should I just wait until I upgrade to an XSeries? Not that I'm short on games to play with Gamepass chugging out game after game. But Cyberpunk is not something I want to live my life without playing at some point. If it still sucks on XB1 I'll pass for now.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by zukes

I was excited about this game but when it was a mess post release I kind of gave up on it. It seems that they fixed it and sounds like it might be worth playing now?

It’s definitely worth playing now. I never had issues (played on PS5) but afaik they’ve fixed everything that was causing problems for people and the game is actually playable for everyone regardless of system now.

It’s an incredible game.

[photon]

The only major issues I had were quests not advancing when vehicles were involved 3 or 4 times... Whomever and I would just sit there looking at each other, presumably I'm supposed to get a leave vehicle prompt but it didn't show.

Once reloading fixed it. Once I had to forego riding with the person and get to the destination myself.. and once I thought I was truly hooped but turns out the game thought I was in a discussion with someone.. once I ran away from the area for a few minutes I got a "Ok talk to you later then" comment from one of the people in the area and then I went back and the car stuff progressed normally.

Still a few smaller glitches here and there but the rest were cosmetic.

[oldschoolcalgary]

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

This is REALLY dating myself, but as a kid, I used to brim with excitement going to Kmart or Consumers with my parents to pick up a new game. It was only a few times throughout the year, and I just loved that feeling. Even just browsing the cabinet whenever I'm there was a treat. I wonder what replaces that feeling for kids of today, now that you can just buy a game on-line instantly, or have all these games accessible through Gamepass.

One of my favorite memories as a kid was me and my brothers and sister eagerly awaiting the Consumers Distributing catalogue, flipping to the toy section to see what was on offer, and dog earing pages for our Christmas wish list.

Good times.

[Inferno]

Two video game memories for me as a kid:

- Going through the Sears Wishbook to pick out the games I wanted for Christmas.
- Buying/my parents buying the NHL games through the mail by filling out an order card I think were in game magazines and paying with a money order. Since I didn't live in a city there was no way of just walking into a store to buy it.