Definitely the Remaster. I would go for DS1 first. Yes gameplay will feel odd but you‘ll get used to it. It‘s a fantastic introduction to the series and you‘ll see how much Fromsoftware learned and improved since then. Fair warning: DS1 might feel easier for you. DS3 on the other hand is more similar to ER.
I think you've just played too many games. You know how they work now, you have a sense of what's behind the curtain. You can see the way the dev is trying to talk to you through specific camera angles and lighting placements, and you resent it and wish for the days you didn't notice that stuff.
I get it. It's valid. But it's a personal thing. Games didn't get less fun, you just aren't enjoying them anymore. They've always been like that.
May I suggest cheating? No, seriously: Download some mods, cheat tables, or trainers. Play the game the way you want to play it. Break out of the devs' carefully-packaged little box, even if it makes the game easier or makes people sneer at you. Go out of bounds. Give yourself infinite health and see how long it takes to beat the last boss naked and unarmed or using a DDR pad.
Don't cheat in multiplayer though. There's a special hell reserved for those who ruin others' experiences.
Mods are great! I’m really interested in projects like Skywin or Skyblivion. Recreating the whole modern Elder Scrolls franchise within Skyrim is just crazy.
This is a common thread and question that I've seen pop up all over the internet since I first joined message boards in the early 00s. It's you and I dont mean that in a judgmental way, but it sounds like you're probably burned out or being brought down by other factors in your life.
I said it in 2002 on gamefaqs, I said it in 2005 on my small local game message board, I said it in 2010 on reddit, and I'll say it again. The best time for gaming is now. Because there are still good games coming out regardless of the bad contemporary trends, and the indy revolution of the 10s has only made that more true. On top of that all the classics you know and love are still behind us and playable.
I think you need to take a step back and try to figure out exactly what it is about gaming that you used to enjoy and try to figure out why you may not be enjoying games anymore. It could be the type of game youre playing, it could be that you're just burned out, and it could be external factors in life.
Did you used to play games with friends and family that have drifted apart as you got older? Does work leave you drained and with little time and energy to play your long playsession single player experience? Is the game that you're playing one with a toxic community? Do you feel unfulfilled in other parts of your life and feel guilty that instead of working on that you're engaging in your hobby? Are you experiencing other mental health issues like depression or anxiety that might be tinting your enjoyment of things?
There are a number of reasons you might fall into and out of gaming. I'm in my 30s and I personally go through seasons and times when I play a lot of games and when I focus my hobbys on something else. Ive felt like "maybe I'll never get that immersive feeling again like I did at 18" a bunch of times in my life and then picked up games I couldnt put down. Once you find out the why you can try and tackle the problem.
I’m not OP, but I feel like I want to add on to this if that’s alright. I think it’s often easy to get into this mindset when a trend seems to overtake a lot of the industry. For instance, personally I’ve noticed a common game that seems to get churned out a lot in recent years: it’s open world, but has nothing in it and is given light RPG elements that don’t really add anything. That doesn’t mean every game is like that, of course, but I think it can be easy to fixate on what we’re tired of seeing. Eventually, someone will come up with a new trend, and the empty open world games will fade out, and the cycle will continue as it always has. It’s also interesting to point out that humans tend to remember the past more fondly, so it’s easy to remember old gems and ignore the flops. Anyway, thanks for entertaining my ramble.
I started avoiding games that make it hard to play without choosing the meta. I look for indie games where solving mysteries about the game made it more interesting. Its not for everyone but it could be a breath of fresh air for anyone looking to get away from games that expect you to play a specific way or to grind for new stuff.
I understand where you're coming from when you look at the games with the most marketing, but we also live in the age of Minecraft, not to mention the countless games and genres it inspired. The stuff you're looking for is out there.
shrug I play mostly single-player RPGs and similarly story-heavy games, so while the mechanics are different and the graphics much prettier, the structure is the same as it's been for the past 30+ years: Follow the story to get anywhere, or just wander around in your current area if you want to grind.
Play indie games. There are still a lot of fun games out there. AAA games are all "live services" nowadays and designed to maximize your play time, not fun.
Yeah, it's a golden age for indie development. I struggle to find AAA games I want to play, but when it comes to games as a whole I have far too many I want to check out thanks to the current vibrancy of the indie scene.
Absolutely. This is how I discovered games like Hollow Knight and Spiritfarer, two of my absolute favorites. Can't bring myself to play very many AAA games outside of some multiplayer ones like Mario Party and Mario Kart.
People are going to be pedantic about this one, because it’s not ALL games, but what you’re seeing is real. Game design, especially corporate design, has changed to accomplish two things:
Engagement
Accessibility
Games are designed to be playable by as many people as possible for as long as possible. Some would say this is just Western AAA games, but lots of anime games have been doing this nonsense for decades - games with 10 hours of baby’s first JRPG tutorial and 80 hours of grinding and filler. Many of them critically acclaimed games that fans would flog me for if I actually named one of them.
There are indie games that help you escape this, but many take that accessibility-first approach that requires everything to be very structured and corral you toward the right direction.
Again, I think people are going to be dismissive, but you’re right. It’s a tough world out there for someone who just wants to play a game and not be suckered into a live service engagement trap, or ladder system that hides your real MMR to keep you grinding up an imaginary points system. It’s not like the old days when you can just pick something popular, you have to discriminate and carefully judge what you buy now.
I should put “accessibility” in sarcastic quotation marks. Here, it doesn’t mean adding options or features to assist someone with different handicaps or needs. It means making the game so easy that anyone, even a toddler or game journalist, can finish it without having to learn from mistakes or think about what they’re doing.
Particularly with regard to excessive guidance. Varying degrees of “mobile game that makes you click exactly what it says for 30 minutes to prove you played the tutorial.” Those games may be the worst offenders, but less-dramatic hand holding happens in console and PC games too.
That's a sweeping generalization, there are many indie games that are hard, obtuse, hostile or all of the above. Even a walking sim's difficulty is higher than just "beating" it, just like the point of a museum is higher than going through all the rooms and saying you "went"
I played SimCity 2000 before I understood how taxes worked. All I knew playing it was that if I lowered them, the game played cheering sounds and booed me if I raised them. I had no money and my cities failed, but the people were happy, ostensibly. I guess I'm saying that SC2000 radicalized me.
It's not "just you", but it's simply burnout from the genres you play these days. A lot of people experience it from time to time. Either stop playing for a while, or expand your scope to different genres. Not only are some amazing indies coming out all the time, but you'll also find incredible older games that way.
If mods are allowed, Stardew Valley. Heck, even if mods aren't allowed. I've probably put nearly 600h into it between PC and Switch, so if I'm playing one game exclusively, I'm going to design the best damn farm I can!
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