Advice a handicapped, but excited, noob.

[LadyDay]

Hi guys.

I could use some advice on what games to play. I'm pretty new to video games. Except for the Sims franchise. I've played some Borderlands and Left4Dead 2 with a friend, but that's a pretty long time ago (that was so much fun, but I don't think I'd enjoy playing them alone). However, recently I've fallen in love with Skyrim. I'm having so much fun, and that has made me want to explore more games. Browsing around for other games I might enjoy I've come across The Witcher 3 and Assassins Creed Oddyssey. Both look so beautiful and sound amazing. My worry is that they'd be too hard for me to have fun with. The thing is, because of the treatment of a chronic disease I have, my reaction speed is bad. I also easily lose overview over situations and don't multitask well. Skyrim on normal (Adept) mode is perfect for me, hard enough to be a challenge, but not hard enough to get me frustrated with my own limitations. I can charge in with a two hand weapon and bash the baddies to death. However it sounds to me like these two particular games I've gotten my eyes on may be too hard to be fun for someone with my particular challenges, even on easy mode. I don't enjoy getting killed 20 times in a row, I like to feel like I'm making some progress with the game and not just sucking. The obvious answer is to just try the games and see what happens. Problem is that to play these (gorgeous) new games I have to invest in new CPU and graphics cards, so that suddenly becomes a big investment for the sake of two particular games, when I could just have stuck with old games (I plan on trying out Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning once I'm feeling done with this play through of Skyrim). However if I feel confident I'll have fun, in the long run, with these and other new games I'm willing to make the investment. What do you guys think? If I can handle Skyrim on normal mode, can I also handle these two games without getting defeated? I'm not opposed to easy mode. 

I'd also love to hear other suggestions for games that I might enjoy. They need to be single player and available for PC. I am not comfortable playing with complete strangers, I don't like having to constantly share my whole illness history with random people so that they'll understand why I suck compared to them, and I don't have gaming friends. I like the open world and freedom to explore of Skyrim. It's nice to be able to chill with some smithing between fights, get the adrenalin down a little :D I don't enjoy puzzles (the ones in Skyrim annoy me, despite not being hard). 

Alright, this post is getting long. Sorry about that. Thanks for helping.

[StaceyPowers]

I recommend Fallout games for a couple of reasons. First of all, you said you love Skyrim, and playing Fallout is more or less the same overall experience, just in a different setting with a different mythology. 

Secondly, Fallout has a system for combat called "VATS."  It's a little hard to describe, but basically, when you spot an enemy, you click on the VATS button (I think it's R2?), and combat pauses, and the game zooms in on your enemy. You can then select a body part to target, and you see the percentage likelihood of a hit. You select what you want, give your OK, and the game does the shooting for you. 

Since there is nothing "real time" about this, it's a great workaround for slow reaction times (and/or bad aim).

In general, any game where you can pause combat (like Skyrim or Fallout) is a good option if you struggle with reaction times and multi-tasking. I have poor executive function skills myself, and these games are great for me. 

My favorite Fallout game is New Vegas. Obsidian developed it, and did an excellent job with the characters and factions.

[LadyDay]

Hi Stacey.

Thank you for the recommendation. I've just watched a couple of reviews and it looks great! Exactly like a game I'd enjoy. You're definitely right that it's good to be able to pause mid-combat. Then you can take a deep breath and re-focus. And the VATS system looks like a super tool. Super way to feel bad ass and kill all the baddies, despite struggling to do a bunch of things super fast at once while dodging other super fast things. I also like that it's first person (if you chose so), I think that's a nice immersive feeling. And my computer should be able to handle these games, so I don't have to spend a fortune on upgrading to try them out. Excellent. I also imagine that with more gaming experience, from more different games, I'll slowly get better at playing. It's probably even good training for my brain. 

Thank you for the suggestion!

 

[StaceyPowers]

5 minutes ago, LadyDay said:

Hi Stacey.

Thank you for the recommendation. I've just watched a couple of reviews and it looks great! Exactly like a game I'd enjoy. You're definitely right that it's good to be able to pause mid-combat. Then you can take a deep breath and re-focus. And the VATS system looks like a super tool. Super way to feel bad ass and kill all the baddies, despite struggling to do a bunch of things super fast at once while dodging other super fast things. I also like that it's first person (if you chose so), I think that's a nice immersive feeling. And my computer should be able to handle these games, so I don't have to spend a fortune on upgrading to try them out. Excellent. I also imagine that with more gaming experience, from more different games, I'll slowly get better at playing. It's probably even good training for my brain. 

Thank you for the suggestion!

 

I prefer first person too--we have a lot in common with our preferences.

With my own executive function problems, if I can't pause combat, there are so many situations where I die simply because I hit the wrong button (often it's muscle memory from a different game taking over). The option to pause combat prevents most of those episodes.

Don't forget there are other Elder Scrolls games you can check out as well, btw, like Oblivion, etc.

[LadyDay]

2 minutes ago, StaceyPowers said:

I prefer first person too--we have a lot in common with our preferences.

With my own executive function problems, if I can't pause combat, there are so many situations where I die simply because I hit the wrong button (often it's muscle memory from a different game taking over). The option to pause combat prevents most of those episodes.

Don't forget there are other Elder Scrolls games you can check out as well, btw, like Oblivion, etc.

Sounds like we do have a lot in common yeah. What else do you like playing?

I've considered Oblivion too. It's an old game, but that doesn't mean it'll feel too much like a "step back" from Skyrim. I'm a sucker for pretty graphics, but must admit that I haven't actually looked too much at what Oblivion looks like. And fancy graphics isn't the be all end all of making a good game anyway I'm thinking. I'm also keeping my fingers crossed that The Elder Scrolls VI isn't toooo many years in the future (I know it's not exactly around the corner).

It's nice to not be the only one with the video game bug who faces a few extra challenges towards rocking all the games. From spending time on YouTube it's easy to get the impression all gamers naturally have super-human reflexes and can do a billion things at once just like that! But people showing of their game on YouTube have probably also practiced a lot to look so sleek. 

[StaceyPowers]

3 minutes ago, LadyDay said:

Sounds like we do have a lot in common yeah. What else do you like playing?

I've considered Oblivion too. It's an old game, but that doesn't mean it'll feel too much like a "step back" from Skyrim. I'm a sucker for pretty graphics, but must admit that I haven't actually looked too much at what Oblivion looks like. And fancy graphics isn't the be all end all of making a good game anyway I'm thinking. I'm also keeping my fingers crossed that The Elder Scrolls VI isn't toooo many years in the future (I know it's not exactly around the corner).

It's nice to not be the only one with the video game bug who faces a few extra challenges towards rocking all the games. From spending time on YouTube it's easy to get the impression all gamers naturally have super-human reflexes and can do a billion things at once just like that! But people showing of their game on YouTube have probably also practiced a lot to look so sleek. 

I have OCD and am likely on the spectrum as well, both of which feed into my executive function challenges.

I picked up Oblivion, but haven't started it yet. I'll update you when I do. I've heard many people say they like it more than Skyrim.

Other games I'm playing right now are the Dragon Age series, Red Dead Redemption, and Bioshock.

Dragon Age is sort of a "mix" in this regard. The menus are ludicrously complicated ... but you can pause combat. And if you play it on casual, you can pretty much gloss over the technical details of tactics.

Bioshock is entirely in real time, but when you die, you actually get some health and salts/eve back, so you almost are rewarded for dying, lol. This makes it low pressure.

I love The Last of Us, but it can be a challenge when crafting during combat.

So far, RDR is challenging to me too with respect to this stuff, but I'm enjoying it.

[LadyDay]

I guess I can understand a bit of what OCD is like, I have anxiety and depression. I've gotten a lot of electroconvulsive therapy (electroshocks. Don't worry, it's not torture these days and it works where nothing else does. And it doesn't turn your brain to mush.) and I get some medicine that slows reaction time too. But I can still kill dragons! 😄

Dragon Age looks absolutely awesome too! More dragons! So does Red Dead Redemption, but as far as I can see it's only on console? I just watched the trailer for The Last Of Us. What amazing facial expressions! 

Sounds like there's a whole world of games out there that I can enjoy without feeling defeated! I'm also considering trying The Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckogning. Have you played that?

[StaceyPowers]

2 hours ago, LadyDay said:

I guess I can understand a bit of what OCD is like, I have anxiety and depression. I've gotten a lot of electroconvulsive therapy (electroshocks. Don't worry, it's not torture these days and it works where nothing else does. And it doesn't turn your brain to mush.) and I get some medicine that slows reaction time too. But I can still kill dragons! 😄

Dragon Age looks absolutely awesome too! More dragons! So does Red Dead Redemption, but as far as I can see it's only on console? I just watched the trailer for The Last Of Us. What amazing facial expressions! 

Sounds like there's a whole world of games out there that I can enjoy without feeling defeated! I'm also considering trying The Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckogning. Have you played that?

I've actually found gaming is literally the best treatment for my OCD/anxiety :) If I play for 1-2 hours before bed, it's much easier to avoid racing thoughts and fall asleep.

I'm curious to hear about your electroconvulsive therapy. What does it do, and what is it like?

Dragon Age is in third person, but I've learned to live with that. The writing and character acting in the games is great.

I've never heard of The Kingdoms of Amalur. Tell me more about it?

[LadyDay]

It's awesome that you get so good effects from gaming! That's a treatment free from side effects (though quite addictive 😄 ). 🙂 I get the adrenalin going when playing, but I still sleep well after too. Though one night I dreamt I was killing draugers, in real life! 😄

When it comes to electroconvulsive therapy, it's surprisingly drama-free. You get general anesthesia, so you're completely knocked out, and you get a muscle relaxants, so you don't move. Then ten minutes later you wake back up. The idea is that you induce a seizure, just like an epileptic fit. They don't know why, but for some reason that works super effectively.  It's different how people react to it. Some lose a few hours of memory from just before the treatment, but that's not very common. I didn't have any memory loss, I was just tired afterwards. The worst side effect is that there's a risk it effects longer term memory too. That is taken very seriously though. I didn't get more memory loss than I already had thanks to the depression, except after 53 treatments, then I thought I might have a tad and then the treatments were stopped right away. It turns out that I can really thrive, comparatively, with just medication now. That's an amazing result of the treatments! I didn't get effect from medicine before those treatments. All in all, electroconvulsive therapy saved my life. It's really a life saving treatment for the people who are doing really bad and don't get effect from medicine. So I'm always so happy to explain it to people, because it has a really bad rep. People don't know how it really is, they think about One Flew Over The Cookoo's Nest and think it's torture and has terrible effects on the brain. Both are not the case for the modern version. Oh, and people aren't strapped to a bed and given it against their will like in the good ol' days! Haha. It's really an important treatment. So I'm really a big proponent! 

Do you feel the same connection with your character in third person (like in Dragon Age) as you feel in first person games? Now that you've gotten used to it. The only "third person" game I've ever tried, literally, is the Sims (2, 3 and 4). And that's hardly the same. 😄 

The Kingdoms Of Amalur is supposed to be a really good, open world, action RPG. It's also in third person though. It's supposed to have some similarities with Skyrim. (I have to try playing some games that aren't RPG's too at some point. I know I had a lot of fun killing zombies in Left4Dead with a friend. I just enjoy Skyrim so much though, I have to try more RPG's first.) Otherwise I don't know much about the game. It's somewhat old too, it's from 2012, so the system requirements are low enough for my current PC components and it's not expensive, which is always good too. I don't think my graphics card can handle the Dragon Age games, as far as I can see from a quick Google. If I get really hooked on gaming in the long run (seems like I will), I'm getting new CPU and graphics card, and a much needed bigger SSD drive,  but that's a pretty big investment, so for now I'm sticking with less demanding games. Once I upgrade I really want to buy the "latest and greatest" components, so it doesn't get old as fast and I can run whatever I want. The Sims are notoriously demanding too, so once the fifth incarnation comes out someday I'll be able to run it at the higher setting. So I have plenty of excuses for spending money on shiny, new toys eventually! 😄

 

 

[StaceyPowers]

@LadyDay Thanks for sharing your experiences with electroconvulsive  therapy. I didn't even know that there was a modern version of it, so I was fascinated to read about it. As you said, I visualized One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest, but I figured that must be out of date =D

"Do you feel the same connection with your character in third person (like in Dragon Age) as you feel in first person games?"

Interesting question. Actually ... yes.

I feel third person is less immersive--I feel less like I am "there," and am periodically snapped out of the action by an annoyance like not being able to walk right up to something small and look right at it in the scenery.

But does it make me feel less attached emotionally to my character? Not at all--even when I am playing a character that is pre-created with his own story (i.e. Joel in The Last of Us) rather than one made from scratch by me (i.e. Skyrim). TLOU manages third person much better than other games though, kind of keeping Joel out of the middle of the frame when you're shooting. I sometimes forget I'm in third person at all in that game.

I heard someone mention once that they think third person is sometimes chosen for games where you are playing a set person, to seperate you from that person's motivations, so that you can play through decisions they make which you wouldn't. I thought that was an interesting analysis. 

That being said, when I played Bioshock Infinite, that's a game where you play a specific person (Booker DeWitt), but in first person. I was really glad that they didn't put it in third. I didn't want a sense of separation. I related to him fine anyway, and it was like having a dream where I was him.

"It's somewhat old too, it's from 2012, so the system requirements are low enough for my current PC components "

Lol, my computer runs almost nothing. Laptop, so no real graphics card. The only games I play on it are Quake III Arena and UT 2004.

 

[LadyDay]

You're welcome about the ECT stuff. It's nice to spread the word about what a treatment it is today, so the stigma is slowly lowered. A lot of people are against the use of ECT, without actually knowing what it is these days. They just assume that it's the same as it was in the 30's. Fortunately not so. It's also important to remember that this treatment is strictly used only when nothing else works and the disease is so bad that the benefits of the seriously effective treatment far outweighs the risk of side effects (effected memory). My brain functions much better now than it did before ECT, despite the number of treatments, and I've had almost no ill effects from it. I've not been turned into a tortured zombie! It's my medication that's slowing my reaction time and all that, not ECT.  Anyway, as you can see I can go on and on about it 😄

That is an interesting thought about why games are third person. It makes sense. I've been trying to "be a good person" in Skyrim, just like I try to e a good person in reality. It makes sense that it would be easier to be a more shady character when it's third person. In first person it feels like you're there, more than like you're playing somebody significantly different from yourself. Well, I really get immersed in the game anyway. Though I'm sure I would still enjoy playing as a thieving assassin with a power complex. Haha. 

Haha. My laptop also really can't run much when it comes to games. I have a stationary set up for games. My boyfriend and I got it because he thought he would be playing Guild Wars (he used to back in the days) and I wanted to be able to play The Sims 4. It's almost ten years old by now anyway, so it's not exactly up to the challenge of running these fancy new games, even on the lowest settings. 

I can't help wondering why game consoles are so popular. You're much further away from the screen than when you play on a PC yes? Or do you pull a chair up close to the TV? What is the advantage of choosing a console instead of a PC? I've never actually tried playing on a console, except for trying Crash Bandicoot at a friends place when I was a young girl back in the mid 90's. So i can't say I'm able to compare the two.  

[StaceyPowers]

@LadyDay

"A lot of people are against the use of ECT, without actually knowing what it is these days. “

I can’t stand when people assume—and it happens a lot with psychology-related topics. When you mentioned it, I was surprised, so I thought, “Time to learn about something new and interesting.”

“ I've been trying to "be a good person" in Skyrim, just like I try to e a good person in reality.”

I do that too =D It just breaks my immersion to not try to be at my best as an in-game person. Plus, I derive most of my satisfaction from the catharsis that comes with being able to do something right in a game and sometimes get some sort of in-game justice. I mean, that almost never happens IRL.

“Though I'm sure I would still enjoy playing as a thieving assassin with a power complex. Haha. “

Being “good” hasn’t stopped me from doing the thieves/assassins quests. I justify the thieves guild more or less by recognizing that as a group, they are oddly functional and pretty decent to one another, and I only take jobs that entail stealing from people I have an issue with. My wife Mjoll, lovely, accepting woman that she is, doesn’t seem bothered by it =D

I’m an assassin as one character who is essentially furious that Markarth got traded to the Stormcloaks during negotiations (as that is horrible for the populace), and is out for revenge against the emperor. That is more like being a well-intentioned extremist than actually "evil" =D

“You're much further away from the screen than when you play on a PC yes? Or do you pull a chair up close to the TV? What is the advantage of choosing a console instead of a PC? “

Laziness … honestly. And lack of space. I have a laptop, no room for a desktop, and no time to spend re-developing the computer knowledge to care for and upgrade a desktop. Plus, running games on a console = less stress on my computer. I am not far from the TV on my couch, and the screen is large. It’s perfect.

Edited March 21, 2019 by StaceyPowers

[LadyDay]

""

9 hours ago, StaceyPowers said:

I can’t stand when people assume—and it happens a lot with psychology-related topics. When you mentioned it, I was surprised, so I thought, “Time to learn about something new and interesting.”

Exactly. I think it's common these days that people insist on having an opinion on everything, even things they know nothing about and can't be bothered to research.

9 hours ago, StaceyPowers said:

I do that too =D It just breaks my immersion to not try to be at my best as an in-game person. Plus, I derive most of my satisfaction from the catharsis that comes with being able to do something right in a game and sometimes get some sort of in-game justice. I mean, that almost never happens IRL.

We seem to have a lot in common 🙂 It definitely feels good to get to be the great fixer of everything wrong with the world, even if it's just a game. 😄

9 hours ago, StaceyPowers said:

Being “good” hasn’t stopped me from doing the thieves/assassins quests. I justify the thieves guild more or less by recognizing that as a group, they are oddly functional and pretty decent to one another, and I only take jobs that entail stealing from people I have an issue with. My wife Mjoll, lovely, accepting woman that she is, doesn’t seem bothered by it =D

I’m an assassin as one character who is essentially furious that Markarth got traded to the Stormcloaks during negotiations (as that is horrible for the populace), and is out for revenge against the emperor. That is more like being a well-intentioned extremist than actually "evil" =D

That's the thing with RPG, you get to create your own story around the game, so you can come up with a story where it's right to be an assassin. Or "Robin Hood".

9 hours ago, StaceyPowers said:

Laziness … honestly. And lack of space. I have a laptop, no room for a desktop, and no time to spend re-developing the computer knowledge to care for and upgrade a desktop. Plus, running games on a console = less stress on my computer. I am not far from the TV on my couch, and the screen is large. It’s perfect.

I have the oposite situation going on. Our TV is small and from an era before the invention of flatscreens (I'm not even kidding!).  And at a pretty good distance from the couch. So I'd very much struggle to see the details with a console! And we're fortunate to have the room for a desktop (with a really big screen). It's good that most games seem to be released for both, so there's the choice. 

[LadyDay]

@StaceyPowers Have you played Fallout 4? Sounds like the VATS system doesn't stop time, only slows it down. But otherwise it looks like such a cool game.

[StaceyPowers]

9 hours ago, LadyDay said:

@StaceyPowers Have you played Fallout 4? Sounds like the VATS system doesn't stop time, only slows it down. But otherwise it looks like such a cool game.

I only have a PS3, so I haven't. I've played Fallout 3 and New Vegas. Honestly though, I've heard most folks say that Fallout 3 and NV are superior games.