StaceyPowers

What video game sequel was the most disappointing you ever played? Not necessarily the worst even—just the biggest letdown versus your original expectations and hopes.

Thank you! Nominating you right back, @DylanC for being a consistently amazing contributor.

Sometimes I hear people complain about endless side quests in games. What’s weird is that I usually seem to enjoy side quests more than main quest lines in many cases. I’m not sure why. Maybe they just have a “slice of life” quality in some cases that makes the world feel more real and lived-in. In any case, I’m not sure why folks complain about them as they can usually be skipped. Do you like side quests?

Kinetic. That's a good word for it. You nailed it.

I am currently on my first playthrough of DA II. On the whole, I like it. There are some changes that annoy me, but others that I feel are improvements. Anyway, one thing that annoys me—and I don’t understand—is the approval system. I swear it is completely illogical. I felt it was reasonably easy in many cases to predict how companions would react to things in Origins after I got to know them, but that doesn’t seem to be the case in DA II. Like for example, a lot of interactions will go like … Aveline: “We should deal with this situation in a lawful manner.” Me: -deals with the situation in a lawful manner- Aveline: +5 rivalry Me: ??? Can anybody shed any light on this issue?

Assuming you’re not playing a game mode which supports a zillion players, and you just have like 5-20 people on a server, how do you feel about massive maps in FPS games? Personally, I can’t stand them. I find them endlessly frustrating. It’s extremely annoying to run and run halfway across a huge map with the flag for example only to get killed and have to run all the way back to get it. And getting lost on a large map is a nightmare.

What FPS game modes do you enjoy the most? Aside from basic team death match, I really like the freeze tag and clan arena modes added with the Excessive mod in Q3A. You can tell how behind the times I am, lol.

What video games have you played with the most anticlimactic/disappointing endings?

There are a lot of conversations about RPG-style games and FPS games on here, but not a lot about sports games. Does anyone here play them, and if so, which ones are your favorites?

I thought I’d start the customary thread to discuss the portrayal of women in video games, since I don’t think anyone has. How do you feel about how women are portrayed in games? Does it bother you, or are you largely okay with it? Why or why not?

What video game have you replayed the most number of times? Not necessarily the game you have sunk the most hours into—just the one with the highest number of complete playthroughs.

What's a moment in a video game that struck you as profound?

I have a cat, and a large selection of plushies. You?

When you play an RPG-style game, do you tell yourself detailed stories in your head about your character and what is going on their life, filling in all the little details the game doesn't? Or do you just play with what takes place literally on the screen?

The first time I played a video game where I could customize my character's appearance, I sped through it as quickly as possible, because I just didn't care, and wanted to get to playing. I wondered why other gamers took like an hour to design their characters. But now I take my time on it too, but I can't really explain why it went from not mattering to me to mattering to me. How much time do you spend designing your characters' looks? Do you just speed through the screens, or are you really painstaking with all the little details?

I didn't know about the cardboard ones! That is a big help! I do have neck problems.

What video games have you spent the most time thinking about when you’re away from your console? For me, it would be The Last of Us and Bioshock Infinite. Which is interesting when I think about how few hours I’ve put into those relative to the big open world games that I play.

Subjectively speaking, how heavy is your VR headset, if you have one? I don't mean how much does it actually weigh ... I'm just curious if you find it comfortable to wear, and for how long.

When you play a new game, do you have an “adjustment” phase? I don’t just mean learning the new controls, but also an overall adaptation to how the game world looks, feels and behaves. For me, it’s almost like a form of culture shock, but it’s more like “universe shock.” Like I’ve landed on a new planet and feel discombobulated for a while. I even will have dreams for the first night or two where my brain is trying to adjust to the new “reality” it has been interacting with. It’s kind of weird and annoying … but kind of cool too. Like when I started Bioshock Infinite, for the first couple nights, I was dizzy from everything moving up and down, and overwhelmed by the crowds in the starting area. But after a few nights, being in Columbia felt totally natural and normal. I imagine adjustment phases like this are even more dramatic with VR, and have always wondered if that is so.

How many games are you currently playing, and how do you distribute your play time? Right now, I am playing four games. I play each one for about a week, then rotate to the next, and so on. If I play more than that, I lose track of the flow of events in each, which reduces immersion/involvement for me. At the same time, if I were to rotate through them more quickly, I’d have the same issue, just in a different way. I need enough time to get immersed in each game world, but not so much time between visits to those worlds that I forget what I’m doing.

Are video games a form of art? To me this is an obvious "yes," but I have very broad definitions of what constitutes art, and have noticed a lot of people take video games less seriously than they do books or movies, all because they are, ... well, games. But I don't see why that makes them less significant. Bringing interactivity into a story can make it even more compelling than the passive act of watching a film or reading a book.

We all know what a pain microtransactions can be. Anyone have any examples of games which actually handle them right?

What are some of the best games to play in terms of being driven by a solid narrative and compelling characters? I really love The Last of Us and Bioshock Infinite in this regard, and am looking for other games to match them in terms of quality of story. In the case of The Last of Us, the story is surprisingly simplistic when you think about it, but it is just so well told and the characters are so great that the entire thing blows you away. Bioshock Infinite is obviously a great deal more complex, but once again, beautifully told. I walked away from these games feeling like I’d had these whole other lifetimes.

I really like games which force you to make complex choices and explore their ramifications, especially if those choices are morally gray. What are some of the best games to play in this regard?

Did you ever play any games which you actually thought were helped along by their technical limitations, especially classic games? A lot of people here probably have figured out by now that I recall Myst with great fondness. That game was decidedly one of the creepiest games atmospherically I ever played, despite the fact that one was utterly safe through the entire game and totally alone. In hindsight, I think part of what made it creepy was that it was made in the days before you could fluidly walk around in a game world. You couldn’t really look behind you in real-time … so you always thought something might be there. Even though you knew better, it was hard to shake the feeling.