Are you good or bad at games?

[Replies From View]

Bad at them.  They are mostly too stressful for me.  I'll have a go for a few minutes and then when I realise I'm not getting the hang of it, either because I find the controls too fiddly or I'm bored, I just stop.  This goes for classics including Earthworm Jim, which I think is great in its energy and humour but the platforming and shooting aspects drive me spare.

Some computer games I quite enjoyed recently using OpenEmu emulation were Animal Crossing and Simpsons Hit and Run on the Game Cube, and Ultimate Spiderman and Warioland 4 on the Game Boy Advance.  I tried the Game Cube versions of Spiderman 2 and Ultimate Spiderman but there are too many buttons to master.  Press to shoot a web, press a different one to release it and I'm already going off to one side and bumping up against a wall - I'm swimming in treacle with my ineptitude - then on the ground you get spider-sense stuff but I can't figure out how to manipulate the camera to see where the distress signal is coming from, and then apparently someone has fallen from a building so I failed that challenge. 

I found Animal Crossing quite relaxing, and the rest were enjoyable up to the point where the difficulty suddenly ramped up and then I couldn't be arsed.  Simpsons Hit and Run became defined by trying to win races that I couldn't master, which is a shame as I really enjoyed the world the game had set up.

I think the tipping point with a game I am enjoying is when I fail a certain number of times and I realise I'm repeating it over and over again, like a process of revision, and it's a kind of knowledge or skill that I don't need in my long term memory or muscle-reflexes.  If I'm going to repeat something for hours to get good at it, I'd rather develop real-life skills like learn the piano or something. 

[ImmaculateClump]

No matter how hard you practice, there will always be someone with far more spare time than you.

Yeah, if you consider the input device (whatever that might be, mouse and keyboard, gamepad, arcade stick, steering wheel etc.) to be the instrument then the more you practise, the better you get and then you've get people with natural born talents who will take to an input device or a certain genre like a duck to water.
Then on top of that you've got those mad lads who are more than happy to play the same game over and over again for 30 years, sometimes sacrificing relationships and jobs to do so, learning a game inside out and finding little glitches and strategies that push them to the top of the leaderboard.

I grew up playing games from quite an early age but I introduced my nephew to gaming really early and he's amazing! I was nowhere near that good when I was his age.

[oustropique]

Simpsons Hit and Run became defined by trying to win races that I couldn't master, which is a shame as I really enjoyed the world the game had set up.

I was playing this on PC until recently. I also really like the level design, the world and the writing and stopped on the last level (also skipping a race on level six) because it's just too punishing.

This seems like a common complaint, and I had the same problem when I first tried it. Turning cheats on like 'cars you touch explode on one hit' can make the game actually beatable (the mod launcher on PC can also turn off time limits to stop your head exploding on the last mission),  but at that point there's no fun involved because you're playing the game's systems, not the game. I wish more games had a mission skip function, though.

I've dropped it in favour of GTA 3, which has it's moments of difficulty but also moments where you can complete a mission in 30 seconds, so I never feel like it's cheating me.

This has been a very good thread to read.

[mobias]

They are mostly too stressful for me. 

There's definitely an element of that for me too. I've had a strange relationship with gaming through lockdown. When we first went into lockdown back near the end of March I knew I was going to be off work for quite some time. I thought to myself this will be a good time to play a whole load of games I've always wanted to try. With that in mind I subscribed to Sony's Playstation Now subscription service. Almost immediately with lockdown I started getting quite stressed out with it all and as the situation quickly got worse I started feeling more and more anxious (like a lot of people I guess) but this had a knock on effect with my enjoyment of gaming. I just couldn't enjoy anything that was making me stressed out. I downloaded Spiderman on PS Now and even playing that stressed me out.

The only games I could enjoy during the first half of lockdown were simulator games. I always loved Farming Simulator but I played that to death through most of April. Its just so relaxing and therapeutic. Not a boss battle in sight. The closest you get to that is bad late summer weather ruining your wheat harvest.

[Replies From View]

I've recently downloaded some Colecovision games for OpenEmu and have had a few goes at this:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.C.%27s_Quest_for_Tires


I've decided it's more my level of game.  I find the art style quite charming, it reminds me of childhood, and it's all just a matter of jumping and ducking at the right time as obstacles appear at feet or head level.  I'm sure it'll get too difficult for me by level 5, but for the moment it sits quite well.

[Replies From View]

Other games I don't mind are ones where you can't die, like the (first couple of) Monkey Island games or Day of the Tentacle.  The Warioland games are also quite fun in this regard.  I've had Kirby recommended to me by someone on CaB but I got bored after a few screens.  A bit too "cute" and repetitive for me.

The first computer game I ever played was Fantasy World Dizzy on the Spectrum; I played it when I was about 10 at my friend's house, and I found the puzzle solving great fun.  The deaths were infuriating but it was better by being a shared social experience.  Plus apart from the water and fire all the death hazards are puzzles that disappear once you've solved them.  So even though you need to revisit screens many times, you're no longer dealing with the same hazards that killed you on contact the first time.  This isn't the case with many of the Dizzy games, which feature bats and mice and other wankers you can't get rid of.  I hate those timed jumps that either lop a chunk off your energy bar or take a life off you in one swoop.


So I guess this means my preferred genre of game is puzzle-adventure-platformer.  This is especially true when they involve franchises I'm a fan of.  The Telltale Back to the Future series, for example.  And there's a Game Cube Wallace and Gromit game but the emulation of it crashes after a few screens.  And Doctor Who hasn't done a decent one but I'd graciously play it for free if it existed.

Oh yeah I forgot to say I don't think I've ever paid for any computer games.  I remember the days of NES games being £45 or something and being astonished.  At school kids had tons of these games each, costing their parents a fortune.  Amazing.

[Bazooka]

And there's a Game Cube Wallace and Gromit game but the emulation of it crashes after a few screens.

Utter desolation.

[Replies From View]

Utter desolation.

Wallace and Gromit, mate.  With the real Peter Sallis doing the voice, not that Ben Whitehead bloke.

[Marner and Me]

I think I'm pretty shit, I certainly don't have much interest in online other than Fortnite to chat to friends and PES 20 to chat to mates. I put no time into online PES other than clan v clan matches.

RD2 I'm on my 3rd story play though, however am I arsed at golding out all missions and studying every single animal. Na I'm not, I don't mind going and spending days hunting however I'm not interested in trying to max it out. Same with the fucking Joker tasks in Arkham Knight, if I haven't managed it in 3 goes I'm YouTubing it. Which makes me wonder what sadact managed it in the first place to put it on the internet. If it looks insanely difficult, YT it straight away. Really don't have the time or patience for something which should be fun and relaxing.

[Marner and Me]

Can I also add FM, who has the time to scout Ukranian 2nd division, then tinker around with tactics and training. Then I thought why not Google the right formula, then what is the point in playing the game.

[Wonderful Butternut]

Can I also add FM, who has the time to scout Ukranian 2nd division, then tinker around with tactics and training. Then I thought why not Google the right formula, then what is the point in playing the game.

CM0102 winning strategy:

1) Download iodyneCF tactic
2) Buy Bakirciouglu, Thompson, Kallstrom, Moukoko, Kerr, West, Madeira/Samba/Tsigalko[nb]You probably won't need all 3[/nb]
3) Cigs and let the computer win for you

That being said I did get Cork City to the Champions League Quarter Final in FM13 without downloading any bullshit tactics (were there bullshit tactics for that one?) or Googling the wonderkids. Haven't really played one properly since that.

[Blue Jam]

Has anyone here ever had a Chicken Dinner in PUBG? Anyone? I think the highest I ever got was #10.

No chance for me to git gud at PUBG. I had to stop playing because, great as it is, it totally shredded my nerves.

[MikkiDisco]

I am rubbish at driving games. I wonder if it's partly because I can't drive.

My thought process is the other way round, I have never learned to drive partly because I am so rubbish at driving games.

I'm a fairly mediocre gamer, I have my moments but I tend to stick to solo games because I just get kicked to shit whenever I try to play anything online against real people.


That said, I really wish there was online play when I had Sensi World of Soccer on the Amiga back in the mid 90s, because I'm pretty certain I was the best player in the world at it. If anyone wishes to dispute this, I'll just say right now that you're wrong.

[The Culture Bunker]

CM0102 winning strategy:

1) Download iodyneCF tactic
2) Buy Bakirciouglu, Thompson, Kallstrom, Moukoko, Kerr, West, Madeira/Samba/Tsigalko[nb]You probably won't need all 3[/nb]
3) Cigs and let the computer win for you

That being said I did get Cork City to the Champions League Quarter Final in FM13 without downloading any bullshit tactics (were there bullshit tactics for that one?) or Googling the wonderkids. Haven't really played one properly since that.

One of my proudest gaming achievements was taking Workington Reds all the way up the Premiership, and while I didn't win that, I did snap up a League Cup, then the FA Cup and Europa League the following season. It was a source of some strange joy that I was able to bring on a sub in those finals who'd been with me since the non-league days and in my head, I could visualise the interview on the Wembley turf, with me arm round the lad: "we've been on some journey, the two of us..."

I think that was FM15 and I've barely touched the franchise since, as I know I'll never top that.

[Blue Jam]

Re: the nerve-shreddingness of PUBG: I think I got to #3 one of the first times I played Fortnite, before it got more popular and all the more skilled players discovered it. A cutesy, colourful, non-nerve-shreddy version of PUBG was what I really needed back then, unfortunately the pointless crafting system tacked onto it spoiled my enjoyment.

[evilcommiedictator]

Playing normal online game I'm like in the top 55% or so? Entirely average, so why bother, let's stick to single player stuffs.