Tag Archives: Fallout

The Spotlight – 03

Games

Stardew Valley

An agricultural pox has taken control of my household, which has led to an inordinate amount of time being spent playing Stardew Valley between my partner and I. For two years, I have tried to get my partner to play Stardew Valley because I knew it would be extremely their shit, but they were resistant for one reason or another. It wasn’t until I saw how much time they’d been putting into the Nintendo Switch’s online service version of Harvest Moon that I knew this was the time to push the issue once more — and this time it worked.

To be completely clear, I’ve never been a fan of Stardew Valley, but I had seen rumblings from people lauding the recent 1.6 update and figured I’d give it another shot. I thought it could also be a fun cooperative game for us to play, but the split-screen experience is really rough for people who enjoy being able to see and read the many necessary tool-tips in the game.

Our split-screen experience ended quickly, but since then we’ve both poured in dozens of hours into our respective farms. With this being the first time I’d really gotten into the game, I’ve been kind of shocked to see how different the PC version (that I’m playing) is different from the Xbox version, solely because that coveted 1.6 update is only on PC for the time being. But not having all of the extra bits of content I have hasn’t stopped my partner from engrossing themselves into Stardew Valley. And while we aren’t playing cooperatively, I am able to sit on the couch beside them and boot up the PC version on the ROG Ally and still play together in a manner of speaking.

Stardew Valley is very good, and I’m really happy it’s moved into our home.

Overwatch 2

I don’t know, man. This just kinda happened. My friend was streaming Overwatch 2 in our Discord, and it looked so colorful and vibrant that I just decided to install it. Having dumped a lot of time into Overwatch and ultimately falling off of it in a major way, it’s been kind of nice to occasionally return to this familiar world I had spent so much time in at one point.

Not having played for six years I was struck with the sensation of, “everything feels different,” and, “nothing has changed.” I still remember the broad strokes of playing certain characters, while others I used to play have been completely retooled. The player select screen is comprised of about 40% unknown characters, while most of the maps I played were old standards but at a different time of day.

I don’t know if I would say that Overwatch 2 is a good game, but I will say it’s built on the bones of a good game, and that still shines through. The shooting feels good, the levels are well designed, and the characters are fun and endearing. But none of that is exclusive to Overwatch 2, and it was all true of regular ole Overwatch. I think it’s best that Overwatch 2 remains a “sometimes food” for me and not something I play regularly, because I’ve burnt myself out on Overwatch before and I’d prefer not to do it again.

Open Roads

It is really difficult to talk about Open Roads because of how weird of an experience it was. For the uninitiated, Open Roads is an adventure game that follows the journey of a mother and daughter who take a road trip to unravel the mystery of a potential secret affair the daughter’s grandmother may have had.

On paper it’s a really interesting premise, and after completing the game I can confirm that the story is well executed and compelling. The main issues I had with Open Roads however, revolved mostly around the fact that you’re not really doing anything throughout the game, and the voice acting actively got in the way of “playing” the game.

You don’t really do anything in Open Roads aside from slowly walk around an environment, picking up notes and objects that may or may not be plot relevant, and waiting for your character to comment on them. Collect all of the plot relevant objects and you can move to the next scene where you do the same thing, and that’s it.

But you can’t do that too quickly because you have to endure the characters commenting and bickering over every little item you find, even if it’s not relevant to anything. Kaitlyn Dever and Keri Russell play the daughter and mother respectively, and they do a really good job with it even if the writing isn’t always top-notch. I understand that this is an adventure game, but at some point it felt like since the studio paid these actors to record lines, they overwrote the script.

Ultimately Open Roads is fine. I still think the story itself is neat, but it could have been told in half the time it takes to actually play the game. Regardless, for fans of games like Gone Home and the like, I’m fairly certain you’ll find something worthwhile here.

Botany Manor

Botany Manor is a pretty straightforward first-person puzzle game that, at its core, is about organizing and deciphering clues in order to correctly grow fantastical flowers. You’ll spend most of your time plodding through the grounds of the titular manor, interacting with every scrap of paper, book, and painting you can find in order to obtain the clues you need and add them to your ever-expanding book of horticultural facts.

It was satisfying to pore over newspaper clippings about weird natural phenomena that took place in a specific region of a country, and then apply that to what temperature some seed would best grow at. It gets a little more confusing when the game has you juggling several plants at once, meaning you have to figure out which clue is relevant to which plant, but I think that’s a good part of the challenge and not necessarily a knock against it.

What is frustrating about Botany Manor is how much backtracking you’ll inevitably end up doing because your clue book isn’t as helpful as you need it to be. For instance, I’d find a document about how different plants require different temperatures to grow, and one of the listed flowers happens to be the one I’m working on. When it’s added to my clue book however, it just adds the name of the clue itself rather than the information I need. Having “book of temperatures,” in my clue book isn’t helpful because the information I need is actually on the document, and to see that information again, I have to hike back to the location of the document.

There are a lot of little frustrations in Botany Manor that all boil down to either tedium, or arcane nonsense, which I suppose is par-for-the-course with a lot of adventure games. Ultimately, I did enjoy a lot more of Botany Manor than I disliked, but I cannot emphasize enough how much help it will be if you just keep a notepad by your side when you play.

Fallout 4

I’ll be talking about Fallout more in a later segment of this article, but like everyone else, watching the Fallout series on Amazon Prime emboldened me to once again attempt to play Fallout 4. On this (seemingly final) attempt at playing it, I’ve realized that I prefer watching a story told in the Fallout universe way more than I enjoy playing around in it. I’ve also realized that it is still a painful process to attempt and play Fallout 4 in a modern computer setting.

I don’t like the Fallout games very much for a lot of reasons that range from genuine issue with how janky they (and most Bethesda games) feel to play, especially when they first launch, to thinking it absolutely ridiculous that bottle caps are the fucking currency in this world. As if everyone turned into children when the bombs dropped, somehow bottle caps were the thing they valued the most. And I’m sure there’s some great lore reason for it, but you can save it for someone else.

As of writing this, the modernization patch for Fallout 4 hasn’t released yet, so understand where this next criticism comes from. I tried two approaches to playing Fallout 4, the first of which involved using the PC Gamepass version, and the second of which was on Steam. Both versions could not cope with the fact that I had more than one monitor, and refused to let me play at modern resolutions until I tricked them into thinking one monitor was my primary one, while disabling another. That alone was a enough of hurdle for me to not want to play the damn game, but there was more. For some unknown reason, the Gamepass version of Fallout 4 ran at about 15 frames a second regardless of what monitor or graphics settings I had selected. Pivoting to Steam helped, but the game still didn’t run great on a modern PC.

But even if I could play Fallout 4 properly, I know the first few hours of that game pretty well, and it’s fairly dull. My understanding is that the “good stuff” doesn’t really show up until after you get your feet under you, which in my opinion, takes a longer amount of time to happen than I’m willing to spend on stuff that I’m not enjoying. I’ll probably pop back in once the patch is released, but technical issues are only half of why Fallout games and I don’t get along.

Update: The patch didn’t really do anything. It still runs like garbage.

Celeste

Celeste is a very difficult platformer with a killer aesthetic that was more than able to power me through the more frustrating bits of this phenomenal game. I feel like lauding the accomplishments of Celeste is well-worn territory at this point, so I’ll just say that I also think it’s a fantastic game that’s more than earned every piece of praise its received. If you’re a fan of screaming at your television in anger, then you’ll love Celeste.

Role for Initiative

Updates from the Campaign

I’ve been running a modified Keys from the Golden Vault themed campaign for a few months now that’s been going splendidly. My players are engaged in my story, combat is challenging but not unfairly so, and my players are slowly but surely leaning into the role-play elements of D&D, even if most of them don’t do character voices. It’s remains one of the most rewarding creative endeavors I’ve ever participated in, even when you factor in some of the speed bumps and such that we, as a group, have had to navigate.

I hesitate to say too much, but a prime example is a recent session where my players got a lot of evidence about a broader mystery that’s been unfolding throughout our many sessions, and watching them piece together the different clues into something coherent was an absolute treat for me. It was this justification moment for me, where I had successfully written a compelling story that my players weren’t just letting wash over them, but they were actively perplexed by and trying to solve.

Moments like that, where I can watch my players try and figure out things and have genuine revelatory moments where something clicks, is just pure satisfaction for me. I honestly think it’s why I enjoy being a DM so much more than just being a player. I absolutely relish the moments where I can make them so flummoxed by a mystery, or feel genuine emotion about something good or bad happening. The best explanation I can offer is that it’s the ultimate form of feedback, better than someone just telling me they enjoyed something, when I can produce something people actively want to engage with.

There’s nothing quite like playing TTRPGs, and I cannot believe it took me so long to get onboard with this genre of game.

Watch List

Fallout

I don’t want to set the world on fire with my “hot-takes,” but I thought the Fallout show was really good. That’s right, I said it. But for real, the Fallout series managed to tell several extremely compelling stories in a universe that I historically have not enjoyed.

I really have nothing but good things to say about the series. I did find myself in the weird position of having to explain Fallout lore to my partner, despite being an unreliable narrator at best. It was kind of remarkable to see how much lore I had absorbed through osmosis, and most of it I got right — probably. I just assume the nastiest version of a thing is true in this world, like, “sure, they definitely drink their own piss.”

You can find dissections of the plot and such all over the internet, but I wanted to highlight my favorite one. I’m sure other people have pointed this out, but I had a realization while watching the story line dedicated to the Brotherhood of Steel, wherein there was a Knight who wore the silly looking Power Armor, and a Squire who followed them around with a bag of supplies. The Knight was clearly supposed to represent the player character in any given game, but the story focuses on the Squire, which in-game, is an NPC that’s more than willing to haul your shit around for you. Having the default knight be this murder-hungry try-hard was just icing on the tongue-in-cheek cake.

Once again, not a unique take, but I just thought that was a fun little nod to fans of the games. But the Fallout show is filled with fun little references to the games that all manage to avoid feeling pandering somehow, although I’m sure there’s someone who would vehemently disagree with that. As I’ve stated this earlier, but I’m not a fan of the games, but I really enjoy this show and cannot wait to see a second season.

Listening Party

Good Luck, Babe! – Chappell Roan

Pulling Teeth – Slow Joy

Savior Mode – Balance and Composure

Firewalker – Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

News

Target to Stop Selling Physical DVDs

It was only a matter of time before big-box stores started shuffling physical media out the door and barring them from returning. It’s weird to see it actually coming to fruition though, and not just persistently living as this looming threat. While it’s probably a prudent business decision, it still sucks.

Little Big Planet is No More

Admittedly, I never was a big fan of the Little Big Planet games, but even I know how beloved these games and their creation tools were. While sad to see the community have the plug so unceremoniously pulled, it’s not entirely unexpected considering the last mainline Little Big Planet game came out a full decade ago. Hopefully something new is in the pipeline to fill the void, but it doesn’t change the fact that so many creations are now lost to time.

Deck Nine and its Toxic Workplace

It sure feels like a lot of these kinds of stories have been cropping up over the past few years, yeah? This stuff is so over-the-top and would seem comical were it not actually impacting actual people’s lives, but that’s kind of the reality of things these days. Still, we need to constantly call this kind of horrific bullshit out at every opportunity until there is real, systemic change.

Thanks for checking out The Spotlight. We’ll be back at the end of May with another installment. Consider subscribing to The Bonus World so you can get an email updating you whenever we publish something new.

2023 Seems Cool So Far

Leave a reply

While malformed and incomplete, 2023’s release schedule is already looking pretty impressive full. In the first few months alone we’re getting highly anticipated titles like Forspoken, the Dead Space remake, Atomic Heart, Octopath Traveler 2 and Destiny 2: Lightfall. While I don’t necessarily care about those games, other people seem pretty jazzed about it. But hey, let’s take a look at the announced titles that I actually am looking forward to thus far.

Hogwarts Legacy

I’ll be honest, I’m not the biggest fan of the Harry Potter films or books, but even I can appreciate the atmosphere of the source material enough to want to play a game set in that universe. Considering Hogwarts Legacy is set around 100 years before the events of the film, I feel like I can get away with playing this game and not feel like a sucker for not being a diehard fan.

Based on the trailers, Hogwarts Legacy is visually impressive and certainly nails the feeling of kicking it in that old, wizardly castle that we all know and love. It also looks like its got a speedy and mechanically satisfying combat system coupled with some cool in-world RPG trappings, mostly surrounding making and learning new wizardly abilities by taking their respective classes, which to clarify all sounds pretty rad to me.

Outside of a trailer or two, I haven’t really kept up with much of the marketing blitz or promotional materials which has allowed me to live in blissful ignorance about whether or not Hogwarts Legacy is actually going to be the game for me. The one thing that does worry me and give me pause about actually buying the game surrounds J.K. Rowling being a miserable transphobe who monetarily benefits from my purchase, along with the fact that the lead designer has a history of being a shithead. I’ll wait and see how this one reviews when it eventually launches on February 10th, 2023, but I don’t know if I can justify a purchase.

Wild Hearts

On paper I really like the main conceit of the Monster Hunter franchise, but in practice I’ve found them to be clunky and unsatisfying to play. I know that I’m in the minority with those complaints but they’ve always been obstacles that have kept me from enjoying this wildly popular franchise. I’m hoping that the upcoming Wild Hearts can scratch that long unattended monster-hunting itch for me with what looks like much faster and more action-oriented combat.

The idea of teaming up with friends and setting out to hunt down some monstrous prey is extremely tantalizing as is, but Wild Hearts looks to blend in some light tower defense elements into the mix which if done well, could be a real game changer. In my mind I’m imagining a game that isn’t just about tracking creatures down, but also setting up traps and acting on what you’ve learned about said creature to use its natural instincts against it. I assume that’s something that happens in Monster Hunter, but I’ve never played long enough to know for sure. I also am well aware that this being a game about hunting legendary beasts, there might be less natural instinct to work against and more ancient magic or whatever.

If the combat and the tower defense mechanics actually deliver on their promise however, Wild Hearts might be the first monster hunting game I end up enjoy playing. Lastly, and this is a minor quibble, but if the menus in this game could be more straightforward and less of an Eldritch mystery that requires a damn cypher to decode, that would be huge for me. Wild Hearts is slated to release on February 16th, 2023, potentially becoming the second video game I end up buying in a six day period.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

While not perfect, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was one of the best pieces of Star Wars media I’ve consumed in the past few years and a fun game to boot. The characters were likeable, the gameplay was tough but satisfying, and the story, while underdeveloped, was still filled with interesting and surprising moments filled with nods to deeper Star Wars lore for the hardcore fans.

Hopefully Star Wars Jedi: Survivor will build upon its solid foundation, adding in more variety in both lightsaber and force power combat, the latter of which in my opinion should resemble the Stormtrooper flinging simulator that was Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Judging by preorder bonuses, it also looks to address the pitiful lack of customization options of the previous entry by offering more character skins that aren’t just color swaps of the tunic you’re wearing.

My only real fear here is that Star Wars Jedi: Survivor leans too much into its ‘souls-like’ or ‘masocore’ inspirations, tweaking the difficulty curve to be more inline with other games in the genre. Hopefully with it being a licensed game of one of the most popular franchises ever, the game will boast a wide variety of accessibility and difficulty options that’ll let even a casual like myself enjoy it. Guess I’ll find out when it releases on March 17th of 2023.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

I feel like I really shouldn’t have to explain why I’m excited for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom considering its predecessor is probably one of the greatest games of all time, but I’ll give it the ol’ college try.

I’ve never been a big Zelda guy, but Breath of the Wild was such a phenomenal experience that dropped you into a painterly version of Hyrule with the simple goal of ‘stop Ganon.” You could always look toward the castle to see wisps of his menace swirling around and encompassing it just begging for you to come and square off against the horrors within. But before you’d even attempt to tackle that, you could see seven other interesting places to explore, all of which led to several more.

Breath of the Wild represents the pinnacle of motivating the player to explore their surroundings and all I can hope for from a sequel is more of that. More places to see with more tools at my disposal to explore them. I’d also super love to not have to worry about weapon degradation anymore. I know that’s a common complaint and hot debate topic amongst fans, but for once I’d like to see Nintendo give a shit about their players and offer some accessibility options, specifically one that lets me use the Master Sword as much as I want without having to go through hell to do it. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom allegedly comes out on May 12th of 2023, but I won’t hold my breath.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League

I’m not gonna sit here and pretend that I’m a big fan of the Suicide Squad or anything, but I’ve certainly been won over by what little I’ve seen Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Granted, there hasn’t been a ton of gameplay or anything for me to reference, but I trust Rocksteady Studios’ ability to make compelling gameplay so much that I’d play a game solely about Calendar Man if they made it.

In Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, you play as one of 4 members of the Suicide Squad, Harley Quinn, Deadshot, King Shark, or Captain Boomerang, as you square off against a Brainiac controlled Justice League that’s doing some real nasty shit. I don’t know too much more about it other than it’s cooperative, but will fill in computer controlled allies where you need them which will come in handy when you can’t find anyone to play as Captain Boomerang, a character I know nothing about aside from his dumb name.

I’m excited to play this game because I’m a big fan of the Arkham games and trust that Rocksteady is going to make something that’s fun to play. As long as they don’t add some boring but mandatory Batmobile-tank battles to Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League like some other Batman games, I think it’ll be a great time. They say it’ll be out on May 26th of 2023, but I’ve been lied to before.

Baldur’s Gate 3

This one’s interesting because I’ve already played Baldur’s Gate 3 back when it released into early access approximately 14 years ago and liked it despite its rough, buggy busted-ness. I made the conscious decision to not play it until its full release because every major update brought with it a wipe of save files and I didn’t want to deal with that, so I just put it back on the digital shelf so it could marinate longer.

But now Baldur’s Gate 3 has a projected release window for August of 2023, and once it does I’m fully anticipating losing a lot of hours of my life to what might become the best Dungeons & Dragons video game of all time, depending on who you ask. I for one have high hopes for Baldur’s Gate 3 because it represents the first real turn-based RPG I’ve ever really enjoyed, which is a colossal feat in itself.

The biggest thing for me about Baldur’s Gate 3 is that it’s using the 5th Edition rules, and since I’m fairly well-versed in those I’ve had a much easier time playing this genre of game without essentially having to learn two games at once. I just want a good way to play D&D without having to be a DM or even finding a group, and Baldur’s Gate 3 seems like it’ll fill that void for me.

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

I really enjoyed both Marvel’s Spider-Man and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, so being excited for their inevitable sequel doesn’t seem like that much of a stretch. Insomniac Games already proved that they know how to make a mechanically sound Spider-Man game that can also deliver a compelling narrative, and that’s kind of all I want out of a sequel.

A lot of folks are clamoring for some sort of cooperative play between Miles and Peter, which would be cool for sure, but isn’t something that I need from Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. All I want from the sequel is a little more variety, both in terms of main story missions and side quests. Sprinkle in some new abilities and costumes, and you’ve got yourself a solid follow up to one of my favorite games of 2018.

But therein lies the exciting part, cause I don’t know what Insomniac could do outside of the things I’ve already listed in order to top themselves. I’m sure they’ve got something wonderful cooked up for players, but I’d sound stupid even attempting to predict what that could be. Sure I could theorize payoffs for the last game’s cliffhangers, but I’m more excited about what mechanical changes are implemented. I suppose I’ll find out at some point in 2023.

Mina the Hollower

For those unaware, Mina the Hollower is the next title from Yacht Club Games, makers of the tremendous Shovel Knight series. If Shovel Knight was their Mega-Man, then Mina the Hollower looks to be their Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past, which an incredibly exciting concept to me.

Full transparency: I backed Mina the Hollower on Kickstarter because it not only looks dope as hell, but is being made by a studio I trust. What really sold me in its initial pitch was the core mechanic of digging through the earth as a quick means of transportation, hence the ‘Hollower.’ That coupled with the variety of weapons, enemies and zones in the world made it really easy to throw 20 or 30 dollars at this unfinished product.

As I’ve mentioned, I’m not really a Zelda guy, but as I’ve essentially screamed at the top of my lungs twice already, I think Yacht Club Games could be the ones to finally make that math work out for me. It doesn’t have a concrete release date just yet, but they’re aiming for 2023 at the moment, but something tells me that date wont stick.

Starfield

Call it wishful thinking or misplaced optimism, but I really hope that Starfield is good. My feelings about Bethesda as a competent game maker aside, I would love for a good sci-fi RPG cause I haven’t had one of those since Mass Effect was set in the Milky Way. I guess The Outer Worlds was pretty good, but it didn’t really leave a lasting impression despite really enjoying it at the time.

What excites me about Starfield is the fact that it’s a fresh start in terms of lore. Despite enjoying some of the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, I could not tell you much of anything about that world because of how dense the lore was. I can’t say for certain, but it definitely felt like I was missing a lot of context for the universe by not following the series since its inception. Starfield represents a chance to get in on the ground floor and have Bethesda introduce not just myself, but everyone to this new setting.

Aside from lore, I just hope that Starfield isn’t as buggy and busted as some of its predecessors, a thing that most fans seem to find endearing for some reason. I also wouldn’t mind if the shooting was good. I get that it’s an RPG first, but there has never been anything less satisfying to me than shooting a character in the head being met with them just losing slightly more health. I mention this because as a sci-fi game, I would expect Starfield to rely more on gunplay than Fallout did, which I would hope would result in weightier combat, but what do I know? Those and other questions are bound to be answered when it releases sometime in 2023.

This list could have been a dozen or so more entries long, but these are kind of the big ones that I could think of from where I’m at in 2022. I’m sure a bevy of things will be announced and released as the year progresses that I’ll be equally excited for. There’s also the possibility that something on this list will slip into 2024 which would be insane considering most of these games already have been delayed. But hey, I’m sure we’ll talk about that stuff as it comes up during the year.

Exploring My Biases Against Certain Genres and Mechanics

2 Replies

Have you ever seen a trailer for a game and immediately knew it wasn’t for you? This happens to me consistently, and all it usually takes is a trailer or screenshot for me to see the mechanics at play to know a game isn’t for me. While I try to keep an open mind about every game, it’s a challenge for me to look at certain mechanics or genres and still feel compelled to play it despite what the critical reception is.

There’s been a lot of great games that have already come out this year, but I honestly haven’t played most of them because of this inherent bias I have against certain mechanics. It isn’t a qualitative judgement about the game or the mechanic in question, it’s just something I know won’t jive with me.

I guess you could just chalk it up to personal taste and knowing that every game isn’t made with me in mind, but sometimes I feel like I’m doing myself a great disservice from not giving these games a fair shake. That’s why I wanted to do a deeper dive into the elements and genres that immediately rebuff me, and try to get to the bottom of why that might be the case.

STRATEGY & TACTICS

It’s weird to start this list off with something so broad and nebulous as “tactics,” but allow me to make my case. There are phenomenal tactics games out there that people have raved about for years that I’ll never play. Games like the X-Com series, Starcraft, and even the Divinity series all seem so interesting from a distance, but rebuff me the second I get a little too close. It’s hard to nail down exactly what it is about these games that’s kept me away, but honestly it’s less about an inner conflict with the mechanics themselves and more about me being incapable of properly strategizing a coherent plan of attack in these kinds of games.

Quite frankly, I’m miserable at these games to the point where they just feel overwhelming. Usually I end up walking away from these games feeling like an idiot because I’m just so bad at applying foresight to these combat encounters. There’s also the issue of learning the internal mechanics that make things work in these games. For instance, when I played Divinity: Original Sin II, not only was I having trouble figuring out a good plan of attack, but I was also trying to learn what spells and attacks were effective against the enemies and the environment. It felt like I was learning two games at the same time and failing at both.

*Divinity: Original Sin 2 – Larian Studios*

I’m not great at strategizing in general, which is why real-time strategy games like Starcraft and Warcraft never appealed to me. My only tactic is to build my army as fast as I can and click on enemy troops and buildings in the hopes something happens that I like. There’s also a lot of plate spinning in these games, where I’ll have to contend with a multi-pronged attack plan, while managing the defenses at my base, while making sure troop and supply production lines are working and so on and so forth. It’s a lot for me to focus on at once, and I inevitably fail miserably at each of them whenever I try to play one of these games.

There is one glaring potential exception to this however. At some point in the next few weeks, Baldur’s Gate III is supposed to enter early access. Now, I’m incredibly excited for the game for numerous reasons, but the main one at this point is because I know the inner working mechanics it’s going to be using. It’s running off of the Dungeons & Dragons 5e rule set, something I’ve become very familiar with over the years. It’s led to me looking at Baldur’s Gate III as less of a strategy or tactics game, and more of a way to play D&D by myself. There’s a lot of mental gymnastics going on in my head to make me feel at peace with Baldur’s Gate III, and I completely acknowledge that.

*Magic: The Gathering Arena – Wizards of the Coast*

DECK BUILDING

Like most kids in the 90’s, I was a big fan of Pokemon and would consume everything it touched, from the show, the games, the toys, and of course the cards. The thing is, despite owning a ton of the cards and organizing them into a nice binder, I never actually did anything with them. I’ve never once actually played Pokemon as a card game before. I just wanted cool little pictures of them to collect.

That mentality has shifted as I’ve gotten older, but not in the direction of actually playing card collecting games (CCG) whatsoever. I’ve moved in the other direction, away from collecting cards and even further away from playing CCGs. There is something incredibly boring to me about building a deck of cards filled with spells, monsters and other stuff, and playing against other people with it. I’ve had people try to get me into Hearthstone and other games before, but I just don’t have the patience for any of them.

The CCG genre is incredibly popular and beloved by so many people, and I’m not trying to take anyone’s enjoyment of these games away from them. Focusing on games like this are extremely difficult for me because of just how slow and methodical they inherently are. You’re supposed to take your time and strategize, but as we’ve discovered earlier, I’m bad at that.

You might ask, “why not learn to play them so you can get better?” A good question to be sure, but I’ve only got so much time on this planet, that I’d rather not try to force a square block in a round hole for more of it than I already have to. CCGs are great fun for the people who can focus and really wrap their minds around them. Hell, my Discord channel is currently filled with Magic: The Gathering Arena optimal deck links and people constantly playing it. While I’d love to be able to engage my friends on this topic, I know it just won’t happen and I’ll end up just grousing about how much I dislike everything about CCGs to them.

HORROR

To be completely honest, I don’t know why people enjoy the horror genre in any aspect, whether it be games, movies, TV shows, or even going to haunted houses on Halloween. I don’t like any of it, and it’s because I don’t enjoy being scared. Nothing about the emotion of fear seems fun to me at all, and I don’t get how some people are so eager to get frightened.

I get that some people get a great adrenaline rush out of a scare, or can appreciate a nice haunted tone in a movie or game or whatever, but I’m not one of those people. To me, fear was something I wanted to avoid and steer clear of as best I could. I don’t enjoy feeling on edge, I don’t admire the artistic talent it took to evoke that spooky tone, I just don’t like any of it.

Call me a coward or whatever, but fear was just never something I actually wanted to experience. That’s why when people clamor about the latest Resident Evil game or talk about the masterpiece that P.T. was, I can’t even begin to have that conversation with them. They might be stellar games through and through, appealing to everything a horror fan wants, but to me they’re just an expensive way to feel uncomfortable and have nightmares.

Once again, you can enjoy and praise the horror genre all you want, but none of it is going to make me willingly pay money to be scared. We haven’t even talked about games that like to throw in a jump scare in it just to shake things up. Bioshock Infinite had one of those and I’m still angry at it for including it.

*Final Fantasy VII Remake – Square Enix*

JRPGs

If I’m being honest here, JRPGs combine two things I’m really not that crazy about into one package that I don’t have any reverence for. As far as anime goes, I think I’ve enjoyed maybe one or two of them in my life, and they’re pretty mainstream if I’m being honest. I know that people really enjoy anime, and I’m not here to take that away from you because I truly believe that certain anime media can be really cool, particularly in the badass fight scenes that I’ve seen posted online. Anime can be cool is what I’m saying.

But the other half of that equation, the turn-based RPG part of it? That’s the part that I can’t handle as much. In my life, I’ve played part of one Final Fantasy game, and watched a childhood friend blast through large sections of Final Fantasy VII when it came out. Both of those experiences were pretty agonizing for me. And I know it’s unfair to target the Final Fantasy series here, but they’re one of the few touchstones I have in this genre of games. I never had the urge to play anything in this genre, so I’m well aware that there might be something that I might find interesting somewhere out there.

Similar to my issues with tactics and strategy games, I’m just a poor planner when it comes to gaming… and probably everything else in my life. So making sure I’ve got the right party members, items and buffs never really appealed to me in video games. I used to point to the fact that taking turns in combat made no sense to me, but that’s a pretty juvenile argument that I no longer use especially considering my recent reverence for D&D.

The reasons I won’t play those games today has changed significantly since I was younger, but they basically boil down to the fact that a lot of JRPGs are way too long and dense for me. Those games usually have so much going on in them that I can’t keep up. It’s the same way I feel about intense classic RPGs like the old Fallout games or last year’s Disco Elysium. They’re highly regarded games that I just don’t have the patience for.

PLATE SPINNING

There’s the concept of “plate spinning,” or the idea that you need to manage and keep tabs on a lot of moving parts at once. I notice this mostly in survival games where you need to worry about your food, thirst, stamina, temperature and so on. Both this and time limits feel like two sides of the same coin that I want to just throw into a storm drain.

Sometimes these mechanics are intrusive and steal the focus away from anything else in the game. When that happens, a switch flips in my head that instructs me to stop any forward progression and just hoard everything I can find for the next few hours. Maybe that’s how you’re supposed to play the game, but it just feels like paranoia-fueled busy work to me.

There are some exceptions to this rule however, and it only occurs when a game isn’t too intrusive about it. For instance, Minecraft has a hunger and stamina meter, but it’s such an afterthought that you really don’t need to do much aside from carry a few steaks on you at all times. The ‘survival’ portion of the survival mode in Minecraft mostly applies to you not dying in whatever monster-filled chasm you inevitably arrive at.

Even Red Dead Redemption II had some light survival mechanics that were easy to fulfill. If you find yourself in town, you might as well snag a hot meal and a bath and refill your dwindling meters. Both of those last for days as well, and you’re never really in danger of starving to death or passing out from exhaustion. It’s that kind of light touch approach that I can deal with when it comes to plate spinning, but games that are designed around your ability to multitask efficiently just stress me out.

*PLAYERUNKNOWN’S Battlegrounds – PUBG Corporation*

BATTLE ROYALES

Remember back in 2017 when we could go places and do stuff but ultimately decided to stay inside and play PLAYER UNKNOWN’S Battlegrounds instead? I do. In fact, I played a whole lot of PUBG, to the point where it started to get tiring which ultimately led to me falling off of it about a year later. It was a marginally better time.

But now if you asked me to play a battle royale game with you, I’d probably find any excuse I could to avoid doing so. I don’t necessarily have anything against the genre itself, but I have played enough of one of the most popular ones out there to have had my fill with the genre entirely.

This feeling was cemented when I tried to play Fortnite a few times, and bounced off of it almost immediately. From PUBG, to Fortnite, to Apex Legends, Ring of Elysium, Radical Heights and The Culling, I’ve played a lot of these games, and I think I’ve had my fill of the entire concept itself.

These games can still offer up a lot of entertainment and satisfaction, but they can also be sources of immense anxiety and stress. I’ll never forget the tension that would fill the air when you’d hear a gunshot ring out in the distance during a round of PUBG. Hell, everything in PUBG was incredibly tense when I think about it. The sound of a car, the sight of already opened doors, the literal ring of death that’s slowly closing in on you, it was all designed to be stress inducing.

Stress inducing as it was though, it was a lot of fun. But I just don’t think I need that in my life at this point. I like having stakes in games, I like tense moments, but battle royales seem to luxuriate and bask in these moments to the point of sensory overload for me.

A lot of what I’ve talked about here are just some personal examples of things that turn me off when looking into new games. They’re not value judgements or statements about the product itself or the people who actually enjoy them, they’re just my personal proclivities and nothing more.

Something also interesting to note is that just about everything I’ve listed here plays into my personal issues with anxiety and attention span. It’s weird how you can know all these various facts about yourself, but not be able to see how they’re all intertwined until you actually write them out and try to find a connective thread.

Ultimately I’d like to impress upon you that liking these things is totally valid and I want you to keep enjoying whatever it is you’re playing. If everyone felt the same way as I did, then these games wouldn’t be made anymore because people would stop buying them. The world is filled with different people with different tastes, and while some of these mechanics and genres aren’t for me, I celebrate the people who garner enjoyment from them in my place.