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I am running a video ad on VGR Forum for the next 2-3 days. I know it's a bit annoying but it helps pay the bill and it is at least video gaming related. Thanks for understanding and thanks for helping make VGR the best gaming community on the net! 🙂

It feels like, with every new release and every new advancement in technology that comes around, the specifications for that game seem to be slightly more excessive than the game which came before it, and so on and so forth. Now it seems like every massive budget title that gets released doesn't typically look or perform well with even a mid-range GPU in place. This means a lot of money on upgrades and other essentials to get to the point where you meet the recommended settings. Is this a good thing for gaming, or do you feel the constant pushing of the envelope is getting to be too much for the average consumer? I think we need to plateau a bit, enjoy what we have before we move onto what we don't have. Step back from the bleeding edge a bit.

I think it's overburdening fetch quests. When a game thinks it's reasonable to ask the player to collect 20 Boar Skins and chop down 50 trees to make a quiver and a few arrows that's just taking the piss. Also Metal Gear Solid 2's entire plot.

This is what always happens in PC gaming when next generation consoles come out. This is why I always say to anyone considering building a PC around that kind of time that's it's better to wait until a year or two AFTER next gen comes out to build a PC. That's not however, taking into consideration that high demand, low supply and the subsequent scalping has still kinda fucked the market a bit. So it might be better to wait even longer now.

Do you ever find yourself rushing while gaming for whatever reason? Sometimes this happens to me after a long, tedious quest, or if I am eager to get to another game, and I have to remind myself to slow down.

Here is an essay on the concept of “ludonarrative dissonance” in games that I found very interesting: http://www.fredericseraphine.com/index.php/2016/09/02/ludonarrative-dissonance-is-storytelling-about-reaching-harmony/ I guess this really bothers a lot of people. Ironically, I feel most of the games that have really impacted me have deliberately featured this dissonance and made it part of the experience, rather than trying to avoid it. In some ways though, I don’t even get why this bothers people. A gap between what I am trying/want to do and what I can/must do IRL pretty much is the essence of my normal human experience. Life, at its core, features this “dissonance.” When it features in games, to me it actually makes them more lifelike.

The only game I've played that features permadeath is Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice and that game handled it in it's own, unique way, so I'm not really the one to ask. Still, it's a brave choice for a developer to take because, as a developer, you have to get things like the difficulty balance, difficulty consistency, how the character upgrades and improves along with difficulty progression absolutely prefect. The margin for error for these things that exists for other games just isn't there if a developer chooses to include a permadeath. Another thing that needs to be perfect is the save function. Getting this wrong can literally break a game if's not not done right. Going back to Hellblade, I believe this very thing happened to Jim Sterling when he first reviewed the game. He hissed something he had to do, the game autosaved after the point he could go back, and because he missed this thing he couldn't go forward. To accommodate the game's permadeath, the game only loads from a single save file. In short, he was fucked and couldn't finish the game. Because of it, he actually gave the game a 1/10 at first, but once he had calm down and realised he has given the score out of pure anger and was being unfair to the game, he eventually changed it. Can't say I blame him though. Just because you missed one torch a game should punish you with an inability to complete it, but it does go to show how important getting this right is in such a game. Full scope on the Jim Sterling incident in this video.

That's totally fair. And like you said, it is gaming related, so it's appropriate. There is one really annoying thing about it, though. If one closes down the pop-up without muting it first, the audio will keep playing until the add has finished it's play cycle in the background with no way to shut it off. I don't know if that's a fixable problem or not or if it's even worth fixing given the add will only run for a couple of days, I just wanted to point that out to everyone in case they do what I first did.

I'm an introvert so would prefer to work alone. Even with my husband, we tend to be off on our own. Having the other's help if we need it. We do however work well together, just when you work by yourself, you can go at your own pace without peer pressure or anything inhibiting you.

We don't do gifts for birthdays, holidays, but to answer, I'd say Cash. Unless it’s a well-thought out handmade gift. It never made sense to me. I buy you something for your birthday, you buy me something. Let's just keep the money & buy what we REALLY wanted! & focus on the time with each other instead.

The ending itself I’ve grown to accept, hell, even appreciate in some aspects. I think the criticism about the game not reflecting your decisions is valid, but I’d actually argue that’s more of a problem with the Priority Earth Mission. Had characters from the series and factions appeared in that mission, based on your choices, I think the game would’ve had a far better regarded finale. I very much applaud the Priority Earth Overhaul Mod for actualising this in many ways.

This is exactly why, despite what the so called "PC Master Race" will say, we need consoles. Consoles effectively "tie down" game development so it doesn't run too far forward out of control. Without them, dev's would push games too far and too fast towards running on top-end hardware that a lot of people can't afford. Thus the install base is lowered. Combine that lower install base with the fact these games would cost even more to make, games would have to be even more expensive to buy and/or filled with more monetisation bullshit than they already are. This would push even more people out of gaming, lowering the install base even more creating even more expense for all parties, thus lowering the install base again. Basically, it would be a massive negative feedback loop that would cause the ecosystem of the gaming world to pretty much collapse. Look at Cyberpunk 2077. That game was developed to get the best out of PC's then they made console ports, and we remember how well that worked. That's why developers usually design their multiplatform games primarily as console games the further develop a PC version. Like it or not, that's the way it needs to be done.

I'd be annoyed of course but then I'd just get on with it because that's all part of the gaming experience.

It's the progression of graphical technology that causes the requirements of games to increase. Every time a new version of technology is launched such as NVME 2.0, it has a domino effect where every manufacturer will start making their devices require NVME 2.0 because they'll make a lot of money for implementing more modern tech standards and the competition will do the say and as such, the creep in requirements happens.

Yeah, your personal responsibilities should come first then you can consider games as secondary option and others.

Completing a particular game missions means you stay and learn and study how to master the gameplay and make it your favourite.

EA and Ubisoft are simply doing what's more pleasing to them more especially and not considering the wish-list of those playing the works of their hands (video games). Let's watch how the future will be around this two gaming companies, if they'll improve or not.

Yes just hold current phone upto 2022. And then migrate to the 5G compatible phones. this way you can pretty much be in ready when the network does.

Prejudice plots downfall of any society of organisation. If a nation truly wants to take it higher then they should eradicate feelings of prejudice and divided mindset work as one in unity and harmony, that's exactly what I've learned in Deus Ex video game.

I do it for RP reasons such as my character is a traveler who is just starting out so staying at inns is part of the adventure.

I used to be like this once but over time, I just grew out of it. Mind you, I still like completing things in-game but that shouldn't be the only objective of playing a game or else it'll get boring really quickly.

Sadly there won’t be real change until the general gamer demographic stop buying from companies that push these practices. While many gamers do complain and point out these issues and encourage others not to buy, there are still many who still buy these games and happily support micro transactions. This practice still makes money, so the industry has no real excuse to change.

Vice City is my favourite GTA game. Everybody gives the props to San Andreas, but I actually prefer Vice City. I like it's setting I like the pogromist, love the soundtrack and the side missions are much more rewarding that GTA3. Set in the 1980's, about 15 years or so further back than GTA3, you play as Tommy Vercetti, a mobster recently released from prison. The "family" in Liberty City don't want Tommy in town because his crimes are too fresh in the mind of the local population, so they send him to Vice City to set a drag deal to quietly make some money in this bustling trade that Vice City has to offer. They want to do this quietly because the family doesn't want to deal with drugs openly. However, the deal is a set up and both the drugs and the money is stolen, so now Tommy has to track down whoever it was that set them up and recover the drugs and cash. Thus begins his quest to build his own little empire for the mob in Vice City. I think it's superb. It's the good old goofy days of GTA, but with a compelling story in there as well.