Computer games are fucking awesome

[Barry Admin]

My XBOX live storage is full, so I've been trying to delete stuff so I can upload new clips. This has basically meant me going through all these highlight clips of games like DOOM, Overwatch, Rainbow Six Siege, Super Meat Boy, Elite, Blops 3 etc... And it's been a blast! I find I really want to get back to some of them, DOOM and R6 in particular, but its striking how overwhelming games can be now, in their all-out visceral sensory assault.

So yeah, no real point here other than to say: yay games. I absolutely fucking love them.

[Barry Admin]

Just to sort of add to this, I had a few clips of CoD: Advanced Warfare, and it was a blast seeing those again, me pulling off some mid-air quick-scopes and stuff. But it was hearing the sound fx and seeing the movement and different guns again that triggered a really odd sense of nostalgia. Memories of sitting playing it with guys in West Belfast. Just all these related feelings and thoughts that also come up with music and such.

Anyway yeah, I know people can be jaded, but gaming really is a remarkably enjoyable pastime, and there is just so, so much great stuff out there.

[madhair60]

They really are.

Okay, so I've wasted my life on videogames. I know absolute fuckloads about them, all formats, everything. And recently I've been going through my MAME romset and re-discovering all manner of absolutely insane arcade games that I had barely put any time into.

Like this beautiful game

Videogames just never end. There's so much to dig into.

[Twed]

Games are indeed good. It's interesting how people gravitate towards different kinds of games (it's extremely rare for me to care about a AAA release these days when there's so much imaginative indie stuff coming out; although Nintendo is sure to change that for me). There's so much I want to find the time for to make, as well.

[Shay Chaise]

I'm gonna do a gaming podcast. I'm gonna be inviting you fuckin guys on it. Nothing more to say but great thread, games are the best, telly is AIDS, everything else is AIDS.

[Kelvin]

I was thinking something similar recently. With my other passions, like films, TV and comedy, I find it next to impossible not to deconstruct the work. To analyse what does and doesn't work, and why. To see the failings, even in things I really enjoy. In games, especially Nintendo games, I just utterly love the experience and immerse myself in it completely. I'm not reviewing them in my head. I'm not picking them apart. I'm just loving the speed, the freedom, the visuals, the music and sounds, the joyful tone, the wonderful controls. I really do think Nintendo games are the "purest" pleasure I get from art. Just the thought of them fills me with joy.   

[Van Dammage]

My XBOX live storage is full, so I've been trying to delete stuff so I can upload new clips. This has basically meant me going through all these highlight clips of games like DOOM, Overwatch, Rainbow Six Siege, Super Meat Boy, Elite, Blops 3 etc... And it's been a blast! I find I really want to get back to some of them, DOOM and R6 in particular, but its striking how overwhelming games can be now, in their all-out visceral sensory assault.

So yeah, no real point here other than to say: yay games. I absolutely fucking love them.

Rainbow six siege really is excellent. Playing that was the first time in a long time that I felt a real sort of tension, on the attacking or defending side. I also love how no two games are ever the same, regardless of if it's on the same map. There's so much variation in play styles etc that it always feels fairly fresh.

[Barry Admin]

Nothing more to say but great thread, games are the best, telly is AIDS, everything else is AIDS.

Yeah, for many years now I've found it very hard to sit and watch telly, or Netflix or whatever. I go through periods of basically forcing myself, and usually enjoy it a lot, as I knew I would. But I just end up itching to get back to whatever games are currently on my radar.

So, depending on how much concentration is required in what I'm playing, I do end up putting YouTube on a lot in the background, and basically using it as a podcast. Or a bit of 6 Music, should do that more often really.

I agree with Twed that it's interesting to see what sort of games people gravitate towards. With me, it's always multiplayer, really. Ever since I took a microdot and played QuakeWorld, I have been hooked.  I love a good single-player game as well, but nothing beats MP for the challenge of improving, of outwitting real people, of learning systems and how best to use them.

Returning to Overwatch competitive games has led to some absolutely heart-stopping moments; really super-close matches that develop into all-out wars, with each six-man team desperately using their chosen hero's skills to try and outwit the other side. Occasionally, you'll synergise so well with randoms that you just become an unstoppable wrecking machine, and steamroll over the opposing forces.

Yeah, my brain has - through decades of game-playing - become wired to seek as much stimuli as possible. Sit back and watch a movie, when I can essentially make my own on the fly? Fuck that.

[biggytitbo]

I've got right back into games lately, but a decade in the past. I bought a ps2 and stocked up a big load of old games at a quid or two a go and am having so much fun with it. They're a lot more like modern games than the ps1 era except with zero online update/download/micropayment bullshit, and crucially, everything seems a lot simpler and more enjoyable than the stuff I wasn't playing a few years ago on my PS3 which had genuinely started to bore me.

Ones I've especially enjoyed - Cold Winter, Area 51, Tomb Raider Anniversary, Timesplitters 3, Red Fsction, Second Sight and Psy-ops the mindgate conspiracy and all 3 of the ps2 hitman games (especially blood money which is amazing).


I've got so many more to play that I reckon it'll be about 2020 before I do the same thing with the PS3.

[Hangthebuggers]

Add me to the list of someone who loves this medium of entertainment. I especially love deep strategy type games that planning and musing over different decisions sometimes offers rewarding pay offs.

I don't tend to play AAA rated games (although I did enjoy GTA V). Instead sticking to Indie or small publishers.

I'm currently in the process of planning and designing a sci-fi based spaceship game.

[mobias]

Yeah I love games. I don't tend to be that adventurous beyond the big AAA titles. I really wish I could get into indie games a lot more.

Yeah, for many years now I've found it very hard to sit and watch telly, or Netflix or whatever. I go through periods of basically forcing myself, and usually enjoy it a lot, as I knew I would. But I just end up itching to get back to whatever games are currently on my radar.

Yeah thats the same for me. I think as you get older your natural attention span decreases, or at least mine has quite a bit, and gaming just to seems to fit my attention span a lot better these days.

I'm gonna do a gaming podcast. I'm gonna be inviting you fuckin guys on it. Nothing more to say but great thread, games are the best, telly is AIDS, everything else is AIDS.

That sounds good. I might be up for that.

[Thursday]

Games have definitely become my main hobby over other media in recent years. All sorts of reasons, largely that it grabs the attention in a way other media just doesn't, but it also feels to me like games are just in a more interesting place where the medium is growing. I mean yes we get familiar sequels and the same old types of game all the time, and that's fine, but games still feel so much more fresh to me.

Every big show on netflix that people rave about just leaves me unable to see what all the fuss is about. Yeah I quite enjoyed Stranger Things, Jessica Jones was alright, Daredevil was alright, but they still all felt so familiar to me. I feel like I've seen everything TV and Film can do. We know what beats the stories will hit, we know the structure, we know how the character arcs will play out.

But games can still surprise me, we're still yet to see everything they can do, because technology and artistic innovation is always moving forward. (I'm probably talking shit though, since I've spent this week, doing the same things in Destiny and replaying Bloodborne)

[Lemming]

Here to ruin the thread by saying that videogames used to be my favourite medium but in recent years I really can't be bothered with 99% of them anymore, especially with more recent titles. Some of my fondest memories of experiencing art (and probably, fondest memories of my actual life) revolve around playing videogames, though. When they actually click with you, they're an experience in a way that no other medium of entertainment could ever be. Trying to physically peek around corners in Doom and Half-Life, getting properly lost to fuck in the first three Tomb Raiders and Morrowind, having a real-life panic attack when a guard turns to see you sneaking past in Thief and Deus Ex, genuinely crying like a loser over badly-translated half-incoherent Final Fantasy plots. Great stuff.

These things go in cycles, though. A few years ago I was the most avid movie-watcher on the planet, three movies a night spanning all time periods and countries, and now I'm lucky to watch one movie a month without turning it off in the first 20 minutes. So, no doubt at some point in the future I'll be eventually devoting approx 100% of my time to videogames again.

[Custard]

I love games, but it's so hard to find the time it needs to put into them!

I've got a big case, full of games I've only played in small doses, or worse, never at all. Skyrim, the Batman Arkham games (never finished them, after about 50 new starts), Saints Row 2 and 3, Tomb Raider reboot.

Even games I absolutely loved and spent hours and hours playing, like Red Dead Redemption, Fallout: New Vegas, GTA 5, I've never finished. I'm a bit OCD, so I think of these games as hanging strands, unfinished business. It's just finding the time to bash em off

Very very tempted to get back into RDR this coming week!

[Replies From View]

I completed 'Day of the Tentacle' last weekend.

[biggytitbo]

I love games, but it's so hard to find the time it needs to put into them!

I've got a big case, full of games I've only played in small doses, or worse, never at all. Skyrim, the Batman Arkham games (never finished them, after about 50 new starts), Saints Row 2 and 3, Tomb Raider reboot.

Even games I absolutely loved and spent hours and hours playing, like Red Dead Redemption, Fallout: New Vegas, GTA 5, I've never finished. I'm a bit OCD, so I think of these games as hanging strands, unfinished business. It's just finding the time to bash em off

Very very tempted to get back into RDR this coming week!

I've found that in this era where there are so many games so easily available it's still important to play one at a time and not dip in a out of multiple ones. The latter, for me, just kills my attention span and I end up with a stack of games I never play properly.

[Custard]

I've found that in this era where there are so many games so easily available it's still important to play one at a time and not dip in a out of multiple ones. The latter, for me, just kills my attention span and I end up with a stack of games I never play properly.

Agreed. I don't think I've ever played more than one game at a time. I'd find it too confusing switching between the two

I have a bad habit of starting a game, getting quite far in, then for some reason never going back to it. Then years later, when I finally do, I feel like starting a new save game is the thing to do

Then you can guess what happens next... ;-D

Gonna force myself to properly go through RDR this coming week. That's one itch that needs to be scratched

It's Skyrim I feel really bad about. Bought it on release, loved reading the thread on here, but couldn't for the life of me sit and play it for more than half hour. I'd get past the dragon bit, then instantly lose interest. And this is from a knob who has wasted months of his life twatting about on Fallout. So that needs to be corrected too, soon!

[Bhazor]

I have to say I think AAA is slowly overtaking the indies in terms of inovation. The last couple years indie developers just seem to be stuck in a handful of ruts either with faux retro pixel action games, truly dreadful first person horror games and awkward attempts to make "Like Dark Souls but..." games. Even the handful of great indie games tend to fall into one of those categories. Meanwhile any original indie is going to be subjected to hordes of lazy clones. Early Access is just crammed with cash grabs and attempts to clone Minecraft or DayZ. Its like a return to the amiga days.

In contrast we have major studios spending a ton of money on quite brave games. Even the biggest most notorious AAA games are going wierd. Call Of Duty going into super powers with Black Ops 3 and Infinite Wars. The big EA sports franchises all seem to be going towards these big ambitious campaigns with big name movie directors attached. Sure they aren't as crazy as the craziest Indies but with the money involved these smaller gambles have a lot more riding on them. Meanwhile mid tier publishers like Paradox and Devolver may be the best hope for original content. Niche games for niche audiences with the occasional break out hits like Cities Skylines or Hotline Miami.

[Brundle-Fly]

I'm very much a small fry casual single player gamer compared to most of you here. I ration myself because I know I could spend hours immersed in my X-Box 360.  Yes, that old thing.  I prefer morally dubious open world games mostly so currently on Far Cry 3.

The only problem I've been having recently is the effect these games are having on my sleep and dreams after a long night time session. Recently, I've been playing the MarioKart type racing game, Blur for a couple of hours before bed.

I turn in at 2am, creep under the cover, shut my eyes and then for the next hour feel like I'm trying to get to sleep on the Magic Mountain ride at Disneyland. Is this common?

[Mr_Simnock]

I can't imagine life without them