The last boss in Jotun made me irrationally angry to the point that I gave up on the game.
Then I made it to the last boss on Steamworld Dig 2 and gave up on her as well.
Now I've been playing Saints Row 3, which I'm digging more than 4.
I feel like when I was a kid, those games wouldn't have been any trouble for me. I used to blow through games like Megaman and similar titles... but I guess my motor skills are just worse or I can't react like I used to. I dunno. Made me feel dumb.
After finally getting a new PC I tried going back to my old haunt - online FPS. Tried Counter Strike, which I used to play pretty hard, and I just can't do it anymore. Tried Overwatch, same result. Getting old sucks.
When does this happen?
It happened to me slowly across my 30s.
I beat MegaMan 9. By MM10 I couldn't finish the final castle. I haven't beat a single boss in MNo9.
In my early/mid30s I beat pretty much all of Borderlands games and dlc, (including the final broken piece of hot garbage boss of Big Game Hunt). It only seems like a few years ago. I recently played through Claptasic Voyage (the only major dlc I hadn't touched yet) and have pretty much noped out at the final boss. I don't have patience for a bullet sponge that gets full shield regen mid fight.
Then there was the Overwatch free weekend. I had a great time the first night. Was close to buying it. Fortunately the free weekend went on long enough for me to get wrecked quickly, repeatedly, and relentlessly.
I mostly play Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes (and recently started playing Mario Run) on my phone.
I have to take in to account I have a 6 week old, but I turn 40 this year and earlier this week found my self day dreaming of having the time to repaly Mass Effect in my retirement.
SteevLWhat can I do for you?Registered Userregular
It's still quite possible to play through those tougher bits, at least in the old school 2D single player types of games. It mainly takes patience and practice, the former of which I personally feel I've lost a lot of as I've gotten older. OK, and my reflexes aren't what they were, but I don't think those matter as much as we think (but they do need to be overcome!).
Just recently I've been watching Dan and Vinny from Giant Bomb play through Contra: Hard Corps for the Sega Genesis, which is notoriously difficult. On Friday, they finally made it to the last level on their 17th attempt, and I could easily see them beating the game next week. Dan is in his early 30s, but Vinny is roughly my age, so it's inspired me to give a similar game on my Xbox 360 another chance.
It changes every year as Mike gets bored and tries new styles of drawing the characters.
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anoffdayTo be changed whenever Anoffday gets around to it.Registered Userregular
If you're getting bad at SP games, I wouldn't blame it on age. It sounds like you're getting burnt out. Those don't change. You're battling the game. The more you play a level or boss you're struggling with, the better you'll get even if you don't feel like it.
MP games though, yeah, I can't keep up much anymore. Maybe my reflexes are getting worse, but I know I just don't have the time to learn maps, strategies, weapons, etc. like I used to and playing against people that do have that time just doesn't work for me. Games like Splatoon and TF2 help me scratch that multiplayer itch though because I can contribute to my team in other ways than just headshots, kills, or KD ratio.
When I got old I discovered all the games of my youth are crap. I tried breaking out Ultima1 ( the 1986 remake) a few weeks ago and what I remember of a huge world to explore turned out to be a grind of going back and forth between every shrine to max out my stats. I quit once I got to space.
The really odd thing was that I remember how tedious I thought space was in 1988! So why did I keep playing it then?? Maybe because 12 year olds have better patience for boredom, or perhaps limitless free time. (Or both.)
DisruptedCapitalist on
"Simple, real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time." -Mustrum Ridcully in Terry Pratchett's Hogfather p. 142 (HarperPrism 1996)
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KalnaurI See Rain . . .Centralia, WARegistered Userregular
When I got old I discovered all the games of my youth are crap. I tried breaking out Ultima1 ( the 1986 remake) a few weeks ago and what I remember of a huge world to explore turned out to be a grind of going back and forth between every shrine to max out my stats. I quit once I got to space.
The really odd thing was that I remember how tedious I thought space was in 1988! So why did I keep playing it then?? Maybe because 12 year olds have better patience for boredom, or perhaps limitless free time. (Or both.)
Or back in 88 we only had a choice of about 10 games?
I'm exaggerating for effect, folks.
It was more like 15.
I make art things! deviantART:Kalnaur ::: Origin: Kalnaur ::: UPlay: Kalnaur
When I got old I discovered all the games of my youth are crap. I tried breaking out Ultima1 ( the 1986 remake) a few weeks ago and what I remember of a huge world to explore turned out to be a grind of going back and forth between every shrine to max out my stats. I quit once I got to space.
The really odd thing was that I remember how tedious I thought space was in 1988! So why did I keep playing it then?? Maybe because 12 year olds have better patience for boredom, or perhaps limitless free time. (Or both.)
Or back in 88 we only had a choice of about 10 games?
I'm exaggerating for effect, folks.
It was more like 15.
Hmm that's a good question. How many did I have in 1988?
1. Ultima 1
2. Ultima 2
3. Ultima 3
4. King's Quest 2
5. Space Quest 1
5. Janitjoe
6. Sopwith 2
7. Advent
8. Zork1
9. Zork2
10. Zork3
11. Beyond Zork
12. Defender of the Crown
13. Sailing in the Bermuda triangle
14. International Bridge Contractors
Jeez, I can't even get to 15. Unless you count how I messed around with the A-Plus graphics editor.
Edit: oh wait, there was this 3d shareware game that was like Pac Man, but I forget what it was called. It was probably made in 85 or 86.
DisruptedCapitalist on
"Simple, real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time." -Mustrum Ridcully in Terry Pratchett's Hogfather p. 142 (HarperPrism 1996)
When I got old I discovered all the games of my youth are crap. I tried breaking out Ultima1 ( the 1986 remake) a few weeks ago and what I remember of a huge world to explore turned out to be a grind of going back and forth between every shrine to max out my stats. I quit once I got to space.
The really odd thing was that I remember how tedious I thought space was in 1988! So why did I keep playing it then?? Maybe because 12 year olds have better patience for boredom, or perhaps limitless free time. (Or both.)
Or back in 88 we only had a choice of about 10 games?
I'm exaggerating for effect, folks.
It was more like 15.
Hmm that's a good question. How many did I have in 1988?
1. Ultima 1
2. Ultima 2
3. Ultima 3
4. King's Quest 2
5. Space Quest 1
5. Janitjoe
6. Sopwith 2
7. Advent
8. Zork1
9. Zork2
10. Zork3
11. Beyond Zork
12. Defender of the Crown
13. Sailing in the Bermuda triangle
14. International Bridge Contractors
Jeez, I can't even get to 15. Unless you count how I messed around with the A-Plus graphics editor.
Edit: oh wait, there was this 3d shareware game that was like Pac Man, but I forget what it was called. It was probably made in 85 or 86.
Sopwith was fuckin' great. I played that a lot as a kid, and I remember it even being regularly played when I was a senior in high school ('94-'95) because our PCs in our computer classes weren't very powerful and also lacked hard drives. Another great game for its time was Chopper Commando 2: https://youtu.be/_bJtXVv290w
I've been playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain a lot lately, and let me tell you, D-Dog sure does like run directly into explosives.
Also doing the "Extract the Wandering Mother Base Soldiers" side ops are ezpz if you just get near one of them and equip a cardboard box. The soldier will recognize you as being Big Boss and won't run away.
I had a friend who played that on the school computers but he never let me have a try. The only time he did he wanted me to keep hitting the spacebar to heal up his team outside Base Cochise. It was very boring, but I felt honored.
"Simple, real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time." -Mustrum Ridcully in Terry Pratchett's Hogfather p. 142 (HarperPrism 1996)
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SteevLWhat can I do for you?Registered Userregular
I watched my little brother play through that game on the Genesis, although from my understanding that version is a bit different from the PC version. It had a pretty cool twist in its story, though! I have it on GOG and its sequel and keep meaning to try out those versions.
KalnaurI See Rain . . .Centralia, WARegistered Userregular
I believe I was playing Super Mario Bros 3 and Adventure Island?
I mean, all of my game playing up until 98 was on a console (excluding a few games on the computer my friend had), and then it was still mainly console on at least a generational gap of one until 2013.
This is, for the most part, why my expectations of what PC gaming should feel like is more closely aligned with how console gaming felt.
I make art things! deviantART:Kalnaur ::: Origin: Kalnaur ::: UPlay: Kalnaur
Yeah, '88 for me was Wasteland, OG Bard's Tale, the Ancient Art of War, and a ton of Infocom text adventures. My sister and I spent a lot of time figuring out some of the detective-y ones, and I was particularly fond of the Lurking Horror; later tried to make the map for it in Duke3D's build engine. So many puzzles that I bumbled through, finding the many ways to die until I finally got it right, it was great.
In recent stuff, finally getting around to trying out the Vagrant. You could easily convince me this is a Vanillaware title, and I say that as someone that's never played their stuff - fanservicey as hell, but nonetheless gorgeous, well animated, and fun to play. There's something more to it though; typos notwithstanding (I am choosing to believe that 'antitode' is intentional) there's a strange quality to the presentation that's growing on me. It's charming without being cheerful, but neither is it dour, moving too quickly to linger on darker moments for long. It has a storybook quality to an otherwise fairly sparse story, and I'm looking forward to spending more time with it
Speaking of which, back to breaking open people's pots and boxes and selling the stuff I find back to the owners. A time-honored practice of adventurers everywhere!
OOoooh Ancient Art of War AT SEA. That was the other game I had in 1988. 16!
"Simple, real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time." -Mustrum Ridcully in Terry Pratchett's Hogfather p. 142 (HarperPrism 1996)
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KalnaurI See Rain . . .Centralia, WARegistered Userregular
*Me, looking through my sniper scope in Fallout 4*
"Wow, that place is pretty well defended. Fence all around, guard stations, turrets, I'll have to . . . wait. Wait a minute. That's my place. That's one of my own damn settlements."
I make art things! deviantART:Kalnaur ::: Origin: Kalnaur ::: UPlay: Kalnaur
I had started it up in February but put it on hold to finish the Backlog stretch goals from the winter gale.
Great gameplay, superb music, sound design, and visuals, an engaging story and fun mechanics. A nice dollop of humor as well that made exploring the depths simultaneously fascinating and terrifying. Really recommend it to any survival fans and keep an eye out for time campsules.
Only hiccup was near the end that a fetch quest just felt like it lacked real direction and so I puttered around the map for an hour looking for the last piece I needed.
Still not enough to sabotage the joy of this game.
1988 for me was mostly NES based as I don't think I got my first pc until the following year (prior to that I had a C64). However I did play a ton of KQIV The Perils of Rosella at my cousin's house.
A friend of mine has been doing Let's Plays/Reviews of kinda niche (and often early access) horror games if that's anyone's cup of tea. Most of them are off Steam, though a few are from Game Jolt. She also has some more main stream stuff on there, but the play throughs and reviews of horror games are becoming her focus lately. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTXMqD5Rx56GePToQpzDRfw/videos
When I got old I discovered all the games of my youth are crap. I tried breaking out Ultima1 ( the 1986 remake) a few weeks ago and what I remember of a huge world to explore turned out to be a grind of going back and forth between every shrine to max out my stats. I quit once I got to space.
The really odd thing was that I remember how tedious I thought space was in 1988! So why did I keep playing it then?? Maybe because 12 year olds have better patience for boredom, or perhaps limitless free time. (Or both.)
12 year olds have no preconception of what good and decent are.
When I got old I discovered all the games of my youth are crap. I tried breaking out Ultima1 ( the 1986 remake) a few weeks ago and what I remember of a huge world to explore turned out to be a grind of going back and forth between every shrine to max out my stats. I quit once I got to space.
The really odd thing was that I remember how tedious I thought space was in 1988! So why did I keep playing it then?? Maybe because 12 year olds have better patience for boredom, or perhaps limitless free time. (Or both.)
12 year olds have no preconception of what good and decent are.
That's true, perhaps it's more a sense of loss then that I can no longer feel the wonder and excitement at exploring the simple tilesets of Ultima 1 that I did at 12.
"Simple, real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time." -Mustrum Ridcully in Terry Pratchett's Hogfather p. 142 (HarperPrism 1996)
When I got old I discovered all the games of my youth are crap. I tried breaking out Ultima1 ( the 1986 remake) a few weeks ago and what I remember of a huge world to explore turned out to be a grind of going back and forth between every shrine to max out my stats. I quit once I got to space.
The really odd thing was that I remember how tedious I thought space was in 1988! So why did I keep playing it then?? Maybe because 12 year olds have better patience for boredom, or perhaps limitless free time. (Or both.)
You had a higher tolerance for a lot of the dumb jank that video games had at the time because that's all there was at the time - that was your whole frame of reference for what good gameplay was.
When I got old I discovered all the games of my youth are crap. I tried breaking out Ultima1 ( the 1986 remake) a few weeks ago and what I remember of a huge world to explore turned out to be a grind of going back and forth between every shrine to max out my stats. I quit once I got to space.
The really odd thing was that I remember how tedious I thought space was in 1988! So why did I keep playing it then?? Maybe because 12 year olds have better patience for boredom, or perhaps limitless free time. (Or both.)
When I was 12 I could play Moonlander or Pac-man or those janky old Atari games endlessly. I played a ton of Raiders of the Lost Ark despite never knowing what to do and being terrible at it. I tried doing some retro gaming a couple years ago on my old PowerMac..6500? Something? It was still running OS 7.5.5 or something. Ancient computer in a really bulky but nice looking tower case. I fired up Doom and realized there was no mouse support which wouldn't have been so bad but it wasn't using WASD and it wouldn't let me remap the keys. I tried Civ2 next. That didn't go well. I tried playing Marathon which was a precursor to Halo. I loved that game back in the day but looking back now the graphics are just....ugh. And as much as I loved X-Wing and Tie-Fighter back in the day there's no way I'm going to play them now. I still remember how terrible some of those old missions are(I used to be a Rebel pilot like you until I had to scan one too many bulk freighters before they warped out).
Then I had the idea of hooking up my old Commodore 64(which lemme tell you seeing the Commodore bootup screen on a modern 19" monitor is kind of hilarious). Anyways, I tried firing up some of my old rpg games. Couldn't do it. The disk drive(which drove me nuts even when it was contemporary) was unbearably slow. I'm thinking it's time to find my C64 stuff a new home. There are plenty of emulators now if I ever want to revisit some of those games(not likely given my Steam backlog!).
Speaking of old games I was looking at the release dates for a few of my old favorites. X-Wing, Wing Commander, Star Control, and Chuck Yeager's Air Combat came out in the early 90s. I thought I was a bit younger when those came out. Now I'm trying to remember what exactly I was playing in the 80s. I guess Atari and Texas Instruments(and later NES/SNES and the C64) and the occasional trip to the arcade.
Posts
I beat MegaMan 9. By MM10 I couldn't finish the final castle. I haven't beat a single boss in MNo9.
In my early/mid30s I beat pretty much all of Borderlands games and dlc, (including the final broken piece of hot garbage boss of Big Game Hunt). It only seems like a few years ago. I recently played through Claptasic Voyage (the only major dlc I hadn't touched yet) and have pretty much noped out at the final boss. I don't have patience for a bullet sponge that gets full shield regen mid fight.
Then there was the Overwatch free weekend. I had a great time the first night. Was close to buying it. Fortunately the free weekend went on long enough for me to get wrecked quickly, repeatedly, and relentlessly.
I mostly play Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes (and recently started playing Mario Run) on my phone.
I have to take in to account I have a 6 week old, but I turn 40 this year and earlier this week found my self day dreaming of having the time to repaly Mass Effect in my retirement.
Steam ID: Good Life
Just recently I've been watching Dan and Vinny from Giant Bomb play through Contra: Hard Corps for the Sega Genesis, which is notoriously difficult. On Friday, they finally made it to the last level on their 17th attempt, and I could easily see them beating the game next week. Dan is in his early 30s, but Vinny is roughly my age, so it's inspired me to give a similar game on my Xbox 360 another chance.
My Backloggery
It changes every year as Mike gets bored and tries new styles of drawing the characters.
MP games though, yeah, I can't keep up much anymore. Maybe my reflexes are getting worse, but I know I just don't have the time to learn maps, strategies, weapons, etc. like I used to and playing against people that do have that time just doesn't work for me. Games like Splatoon and TF2 help me scratch that multiplayer itch though because I can contribute to my team in other ways than just headshots, kills, or KD ratio.
The really odd thing was that I remember how tedious I thought space was in 1988! So why did I keep playing it then?? Maybe because 12 year olds have better patience for boredom, or perhaps limitless free time. (Or both.)
Or back in 88 we only had a choice of about 10 games?
This wasn't at all ominous
Ya know, these games would be a lot more palatable for some people if they were called women instead of girls.
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16534
Hmm that's a good question. How many did I have in 1988?
2. Ultima 2
3. Ultima 3
4. King's Quest 2
5. Space Quest 1
5. Janitjoe
6. Sopwith 2
7. Advent
8. Zork1
9. Zork2
10. Zork3
11. Beyond Zork
12. Defender of the Crown
13. Sailing in the Bermuda triangle
14. International Bridge Contractors
Jeez, I can't even get to 15. Unless you count how I messed around with the A-Plus graphics editor.
Edit: oh wait, there was this 3d shareware game that was like Pac Man, but I forget what it was called. It was probably made in 85 or 86.
My timing is off but.... Keep bracing.
Sopwith was fuckin' great. I played that a lot as a kid, and I remember it even being regularly played when I was a senior in high school ('94-'95) because our PCs in our computer classes weren't very powerful and also lacked hard drives. Another great game for its time was Chopper Commando 2:
My Backloggery
Steam | XBL
1988 also gave us the fantastic Chase HQ:
Steam | XBL
Also doing the "Extract the Wandering Mother Base Soldiers" side ops are ezpz if you just get near one of them and equip a cardboard box. The soldier will recognize you as being Big Boss and won't run away.
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16534
I had a friend who played that on the school computers but he never let me have a try. The only time he did he wanted me to keep hitting the spacebar to heal up his team outside Base Cochise. It was very boring, but I felt honored.
I watched my little brother play through that game on the Genesis, although from my understanding that version is a bit different from the PC version. It had a pretty cool twist in its story, though! I have it on GOG and its sequel and keep meaning to try out those versions.
My Backloggery
I mean, all of my game playing up until 98 was on a console (excluding a few games on the computer my friend had), and then it was still mainly console on at least a generational gap of one until 2013.
This is, for the most part, why my expectations of what PC gaming should feel like is more closely aligned with how console gaming felt.
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16534
Because why not.
Steam | XBL
In recent stuff, finally getting around to trying out the Vagrant. You could easily convince me this is a Vanillaware title, and I say that as someone that's never played their stuff - fanservicey as hell, but nonetheless gorgeous, well animated, and fun to play. There's something more to it though; typos notwithstanding (I am choosing to believe that 'antitode' is intentional) there's a strange quality to the presentation that's growing on me. It's charming without being cheerful, but neither is it dour, moving too quickly to linger on darker moments for long. It has a storybook quality to an otherwise fairly sparse story, and I'm looking forward to spending more time with it
Speaking of which, back to breaking open people's pots and boxes and selling the stuff I find back to the owners. A time-honored practice of adventurers everywhere!
Now playing: Teardown and Baldur's Gate 3 (co-op)
Sunday Spotlight: Horror Tales: The Wine
"Wow, that place is pretty well defended. Fence all around, guard stations, turrets, I'll have to . . . wait. Wait a minute. That's my place. That's one of my own damn settlements."
I had started it up in February but put it on hold to finish the Backlog stretch goals from the winter gale.
Great gameplay, superb music, sound design, and visuals, an engaging story and fun mechanics. A nice dollop of humor as well that made exploring the depths simultaneously fascinating and terrifying. Really recommend it to any survival fans and keep an eye out for time campsules.
Only hiccup was near the end that a fetch quest just felt like it lacked real direction and so I puttered around the map for an hour looking for the last piece I needed.
Still not enough to sabotage the joy of this game.
Thanks again to @Antoshka for this gift!
Pictures, minor spoilers, both from early access and release:
I like the cut of this guy's jib.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
You answered yourself?
Starflight I and II are the games I keep hoping someone will remake. Like No Man’s Sky, but with a plot, diplomacy, trading and humour.
Goodreads
SF&F Reviews blog
PSN: SirGrinchX
Oculus Rift: Sir_Grinch
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTXMqD5Rx56GePToQpzDRfw/videos
12 year olds have no preconception of what good and decent are.
Steam - NotoriusBEN | Uplay - notoriusben | Xbox,Windows Live - ThatBEN
That's true, perhaps it's more a sense of loss then that I can no longer feel the wonder and excitement at exploring the simple tilesets of Ultima 1 that I did at 12.
You had a higher tolerance for a lot of the dumb jank that video games had at the time because that's all there was at the time - that was your whole frame of reference for what good gameplay was.
Dangit @CroakerBC now I have to play more games! *huff* Fine.
When I was 12 I could play Moonlander or Pac-man or those janky old Atari games endlessly. I played a ton of Raiders of the Lost Ark despite never knowing what to do and being terrible at it. I tried doing some retro gaming a couple years ago on my old PowerMac..6500? Something? It was still running OS 7.5.5 or something. Ancient computer in a really bulky but nice looking tower case. I fired up Doom and realized there was no mouse support which wouldn't have been so bad but it wasn't using WASD and it wouldn't let me remap the keys. I tried Civ2 next. That didn't go well. I tried playing Marathon which was a precursor to Halo. I loved that game back in the day but looking back now the graphics are just....ugh. And as much as I loved X-Wing and Tie-Fighter back in the day there's no way I'm going to play them now. I still remember how terrible some of those old missions are(I used to be a Rebel pilot like you until I had to scan one too many bulk freighters before they warped out).
Then I had the idea of hooking up my old Commodore 64(which lemme tell you seeing the Commodore bootup screen on a modern 19" monitor is kind of hilarious). Anyways, I tried firing up some of my old rpg games. Couldn't do it. The disk drive(which drove me nuts even when it was contemporary) was unbearably slow. I'm thinking it's time to find my C64 stuff a new home. There are plenty of emulators now if I ever want to revisit some of those games(not likely given my Steam backlog!).
Speaking of old games I was looking at the release dates for a few of my old favorites. X-Wing, Wing Commander, Star Control, and Chuck Yeager's Air Combat came out in the early 90s. I thought I was a bit younger when those came out. Now I'm trying to remember what exactly I was playing in the 80s. I guess Atari and Texas Instruments(and later NES/SNES and the C64) and the occasional trip to the arcade.
Never to be heard from again, as Mr Grinch spends the remainder of their time in VR,