StaceyPowers

You know how sometimes developers release a game that is essentially unfinished until you get the DLC that wraps up the story? What are the most common reasons this happens? I am assuming developers/publishers do not plan for this situation.

I recently learned how to connect my DualSense with my laptop to play games. But there is absolutely no way to get the sensitivity and precision with the joysticks on the gamepad that I get out of a mouse, which makes shooters hard to play. Is this a limitation inherent to joysticks, or are PlayStation controllers just crappy with sensitivity and precision? Before you ask, I am not using the mouse for ergonomic/pain reasons.

What open world games have the best voice acting? I have been pretty impressed with some of the acting in The Outer Worlds, especially Ashly Burch (Parvati).

What are some games where you had to work at empathizing with/understanding the characters? It took me a while to empathize with a lot of the characters in The Outer Worlds (more the NPCs at large—shipmates were pretty easy) due to how indoctrinated they are.

Phew. For a moment there, I was wondering if "molding" was a word for "modding" and I was out of the loop.

I love open worlds, but I feel one of the things that is usually lost when playing them is a sense of “urgency”. Linear games keep us moving forward; there is often a rising sense of urgency built into the pacing. But open world games seem to lack this. Is there a way to embed that sense of dire importance/urgency into an open world format?

When you play a game with civilians running around everywhere (i.e. open worlds especially), do you go out of your way to try not to accidentally kill civilians, or do you just not care if they get friendly fired?

Do you ever have “what if I cannot beat this game” anxiety the first time you play a game? If so, does the loss of that anxiety after successfully beating the game make it more relaxing and fun on a replay for you?

Are there any series you used to loyally play, but have now abandoned? Why did you jump ship? Did you get burned out by it, or did you just get distracted and forget about it?

When you were new to gaming (or a particular type of game), were there any silly, weird things you did as a completionist because you just didn’t know any better? For instance, when I first started playing open world RPGs, I tried to loot everything. Every single item.

I do not think there is one “best” medium for storytelling, but that each has strengths and weaknesses. But what I think video games do better than other mediums is create fast empathy between the player and the character they play. What aspects of storytelling do you think games do best?

Sometimes in games, one visits an area, then something happens that changes that area a bit (i.e. destruction), and then the game brings you back there. It is the same, yet different. I seem to find these situations more disorienting than visiting brand new locations. It is like there are two conflicting maps in my head at all times. Does anyone else experience the same?

What games are the hardest to learn/get into as a newbie? I seem to have the most trouble with games that involve building, i.e. Minecraft or No Man’s Sky.

While watching the Dragon Age: Origins end slides again the other night, I realized how weird it is that there is not a slide for every companion—or even most of them! Only two companions got slides. What other games are missing key ending slides?

I was laughing last night when I realized a DA: Origins DLC I replayed forgot completely to conclude the stories of the temporary party members. What are some other games that drop major plot points and provide no resolution?

TLOU, since you'd likely end up infected.

Anyone know the pricing?

How do you feel about the default audio balancing in most games you have played? Either I have really outdated speakers, am really bad at hearing dialogue, or I think default balancing is really bad. I am not sure which is the case.

What real life cities do you want to be featured as open world settings in video games? Why those particular cities? What features would make them compelling to explore?

Is there a game that mot people swear is pretty easy, but which you personally find to be hard?

The Last of Us: Part 1 remake is retailing at $70, with no discount for owners of previous versions of the game. How do you feel about this sort of thing? Even a nominal discount in situations like this would be nice, I think, to say thank-you to fans who have already long supported games.

What are your favorite trailers for games that are coming out later this year?

At first, I could not stand the loudness of my gaming laptop fan. But now I realize every time it “randomly” gets loud when I am not gaming, it is because stuff is updating. Now I actually appreciate knowing this, so I won’t overtax my system when updates are hogging resources.

Has anyone ever experienced such a bad crash/error/problem that your console ended up bricked?

Can it be white noise? If so, white noise and/or other unobtrusive ambiance that blocks the ringing in my ears. I'm not even sure what silence is. I always just hear the ringing.