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People seriously have to stop being so superficial. First, here is the image that seems to have cost everyone thier calm; IMO, he still looks badass However, this might actually be the closest depiction of Thor when compared to actual myth that we've seen in modern media. The accepted image of Thor has been pretty much spoiled by modern media that insist he has to be a chiselled dreamboat of yum yum. Most notably of those being Chris Hemsworth as Marvel's Thor. The truth is Thor was usually described as strong, but none the less large, ugly, sweaty bearded man. Even Marvel's blond hair is all wrong, Thor's hair is red. I have a book of illustrated Norse myths at home and having read them, let's just say Thor could eat his grub. A lot of men in strong-man coemptions have a similar boy type as well, don't forget. Some of ancient images of Thor from the time period and region also support this. Dualshockers also did some research. Here is also the Wikipedia on Thor for good measure. Now, Thor as a Germanic Deity is portrayed as a more muscular man; But we're obviously talking about Thor in Norse mythology. In the end, though, what's important in the new God of War game is the how the character and that his actions relatable and understood and is the story itself interesting. Just because this Thor has a gut, doesn't mean it's not going to work. That doesn't gaureente that it will work either, but that's the point, it's a non factor. This what I like to call "nontroversy" does, sadly, expose how vain and superficial gamers can be, something that happens a little too often. I don't understand why people are so desperate to hate this game, but they're digging for excuses to do so. There's a thing with people loosing thier shit over a re-used animation of Kratos jumping into a boat. I mean, come on!

I’ve discovered you can learn a lot about a person by watching them game, especially if they are frustrated. For example, I was watching a friend raging while trying to get around an obstacle course in a game he was relatively new to. He kept raging about an obstacle he was having a hard time with, which was resulting in him falling and having to do the whole course over. But he didn’t notice that he was learning quickly and getting past previous obstacles in the course almost without effort that were driving him crazy before. It made me realize a lot of his anger results from where he puts his attention, and failing to notice his own growth.

I seem to have a hard time properly lining up/timing jumps across gaps in multiple games. Does anyone else?

I feel the FPS games of today are radically evolved versus their early counterparts. But the open world game format is still “newer” by comparison. Do you think there are equally radical ways in which the format could be redesigned and improved?

Mass Effect 1,2,3, DeusEx, DeusEx Human Revolution, DeusEx Mankind Divided, FarCry, Crysis, Crysis Warhead, Crysis 2, the Splinter Cell games. I'm not sure if all. Possibly others I don't remember right now. I think from these Mass Effect games are the least challenging on the insanity difficulty. Not saying they are easy but manageable, I had much more success with specific builds. As for open world games Ghost Recon Wildlands and Breakpoint. I'm a fan of quasi realistic tactical shooters. Playing on the hardest difficulty where you can get killed in 1 or 2 hits elevates these games to a whole new level. It's an exhilarating experience. Instead of running around like a flying monkey you have to be aware of your surroundings all the time, and play a cat and mouse game instead of open warfare against dozens of enemies. To me this is the only way to play these games. It is much more immersive.

What follows is venemous and hardly constructive because I'm up past my bedtime. If you continue, please read at your own peril. I think the best thing they can do right now is go back to basics. The open world now exists as a feature to put on the back of the box. It's not there for the player's enjoyment because all they do is follow a trail telling them where to go, and it's not there because developers like filling their game with repeating low-quality assets. Every open world is exceptionally beautiful, that's why nobody's exploring them once all the obligatory boxes are ticked off. The basics I'm talking about are roadsigns, journals and rumours. Not every roadsign is relevent, not every journal entry is complete, not every rumour is true. The problem with that is it's time-consuming. It's time-consuming for developers who could be programming content people can play, and it's time-consuming for players who are just following something because the game says they can. It would be a massive undertaking for this idea to go mainstream in a post-Morrowind world, and the money isn't there to do so. This only seems like a grognard problem until you see why Fable III got the schtick that it did, and that in itself is the problem: everyone was looking at the problem, but nobody saw it. It was a waypoint that didn't guide you to any side quests, any of the cool NPCs or features. It's why the story was so nonsensical, because as far as anyone was concerned the game consisted only of that map marker. Having to pay attention to the world by looking at it rather than the UI is crucial to an open world, otherwise why not just make a linear game, which is better in every single other way? Another thing would be having places that, for all intents and purposes, don't matter. Not every landmark exists to net you experience points or a poster you have to tear down. It exists because it's relevent to the world, not the player. I mentioned this before but Fallout does this well: a school doesn't exist as a place to be looted, it exists because education was once a thing. A cave doesn't exist to be the home of a Sword of Bifercating, it exists because that's how this natural formation has come to be in this setting. Anything I suggest about looking at an open world can't really happen in the mainstream market, it'd have to be made for the fringe players who like Gothic, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and whatever weirdos reside between those two.

I already worked through at least a dozen crunch times, some longer, some shorter, albeit not on games. We rarely got paid anything above standard OT pay. Sometimes not even that. There were bad bosses, who would go home and phone us up at 10pm from the comfort of their home to ask for status updates. And there were those who stayed with us through the thick of it. And even those who would bring food to the office for free. You see it all depends on mutual respect, not just money. If employers respect you you are much easier convinced to put in extra work.

Honestly most of the time I barely notice.

A politician dies. Instead of going straight to heaven or hell, a spirit appears to him. The spirit tells him that, rather than being judged for his sins, he gets to choose whether he goes to heaven or hell. The politician replies that of course he wants to go to heaven. The spirit tells him that before he chooses, he has to visit both places so each one will get a fair chance. First they visit heaven. It looks pretty nice. Big fluffy clouds, angels singing and playing harps, everyone seeming to enjoy themselves. The politician is pleased, if a bit underwhelmed. Hell, on the other hand, is magnificent. It’s the most beautiful place the politician has ever seen, and everyone there is having the time of their lives. It has a buffet table filled with delicious-smelling food, a beautiful garden, a pool with a water slide, a dance floor, a massage parlor, and innumerable other attractions. It makes heaven look dull and boring and comparison. “I can’t believe I’m saying this,” says the politician, “but I think I’d rather go to hell!” “Very well,” says the spirit. “Turn around.” When the politician turns around, though, hell appears to be completely different than it had been less than a minute ago. All of the attractions are gone, everything is on fire, and the people are screaming in agony. “I don’t understand!” cries the politician. “This isn’t what you showed me before!” “Well, that was the campaign,” replies the spirit. “Now you’ve voted.”

I was abducted by aliens. They took me to the intergalactic council. I spoke for the Milky Way galaxy and now it's a popular vacation spot, especially for the guys from the Andromeda galaxy. Also our depiction of "the grays" really pisses everyone off. There are no "grays" out there. They are all actually a form of blue, and they are pets like how dogs are for us. They don't fly crafts. The "flying saucer" thing is another one that pisses everyone off. No one has ever used a craft like that. They gave me alien food, that was surprisingly really good. I didn't ask what it was, I just ate with them. Afterwards they took me to the chief of the council, and it turned out to be none other than Vrillon himself! I was both shocked and honored. I told him that we had received his message, but had not heeded it. He was really disappointed. He was however happy that I had however. He even gave me a device to use that would get me and everyone I care about off the planet when it all goes to shit. Then he said it was time for me to go back, and they beamed me down, like Star Trek. That was a weird ride. After that they were gone.

That's the main reason I never got into them, they were so fumbling and awkward. Thankfully the latter games improved on this dramatically.

Same here - I find that it helps me to unwind when I get home and it also makes the perfect time to start a brand new game.

When it starts to impact your life, then you need to take a step back which you did. Most parents wouldn't understand gaming as it still has a stigma of being unproductive.

The old Tomb Raider games were particularly guilty of this. The jumping mechanic was so awkward because you had to line up a jump perfectly - one degree off and the jump will fail.

Habañeros.

Yes there is life out there. Whether we will ever encounter is is irrelevant. It is there. Anyone who says it's not is a narcissistic arrogant fool. When you realize that the Universe is infinite, and that there is an uncountable number of galaxies out there, with an uncountable number of solar systems and an uncountable number of planets, it is 100% impossible for there to NOT be life out there. The only life that we're publicly aware of, is the life that comes from this planet. yet our habitable zone could be the deadliest zone to other life forms. Some may require the furthest depths of Jupiter to survive. There may even be creatures near the core of Jupiter. We don't know, because as a species we have neither the technology nor the capabilities to reach that far. Others may require the conditions of Venus to survive. Their version of water may be sulfuric acid. A temperate day to them could be 900°. There may even be life that lives inside a star. We simply haven't met that life. Remember that scientists are discovering new life every day. It's almost always insects or new forms of bacteria. And when you consider that the Universe is infinite and compare the size of our planet, Earth doesn't even exist. Earth is a very small planet. But in the grand scheme of things, it's not even an electron on an electrons ass. We simply don't exist, nor does our planet in comparison. Especially when you consider planets like HD 81817 b, which is more than 27 times the size of Jupiter. Thus making it the largest exoplanet we have discovered to date. But it could be irrelevant as well. There could be a planet out there beyond our sight, that is bigger than our entire solar system. That would be interesting. And like I said, whether or not we ever encounter alien life is irrelevant. It is still out there.

I'm inclined to agree. It looks like a lot of fun, and it's a breath of fresh air to not be a Zelda clone, as there are far too many of those.

Here's another one from NFS heat. P.S. picture is not mine. I had the similar pic captured which I think I deleted mistakenly. 😅

Depends on the camera angle in the game among other factors. In old Tomb Raider games and some platformers as well, the camera was so clunky that you'd tend to misjudge your jumps and fail all the time.

When I was 13 I saw a girl I liked swearing up a storm because she was losing at a game. How she didn't get tossed from that Toys 'R Us is a mystery to me.

How about those ones from Need for Speed Heat 🔥..

Why go with that many TVs. You can simply have a large mammoth size TV covering all your wall. That would be amazing to play racing games with controls by steering and gears . 😊

I would go with the best projector system out there with great speakers. It would be like playing a game in a movie theatre. I would turn a one story into a two story room just to have bigger wall space.

That's a dream come true, I have an RTX 3090 just for the streaming PC 😛 The works, everything 😛

I would have installed a mammoth Tv that would cover all my wall. The size would have been 10ft X 14ft. Imagine, playing racing games on that big-screen and selecting the front camera view. 😁 Fascinating.

It’s a puzzle game. Why is there a god and devil there? If you need a story to explain why you have to fix the puzzle, it could be natural disasters and all different ones too for each world. Hard pass