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I've been wondering about this for some time. Right now I am in a gaming rut of being stuck in mostly one particular genre the retro fps/boomer shooter. Don't get me wrong these games are fun however I'd like to branch out into different genres. Growing older I feel like I'm inclined to enjoy less games than when I was a kid. Just going over my history with games my first real gaming systems were a gamecube, gba, and ps2 when I was about 8 years old. I had no preconceived notion of what were the best games ever or what the system seller games were, I played what my mom and relatives bought for me and that was that I tried just about everything. While I did get to experience some of Nintendos big franchises mario, zelda, and got a fair share of sonic I had the same experience on ps2 Kingdom hearts which I couldn't get past the third world until I was much older, tomb raider, other games from a wide variety of genres and I was bad at all of them.

I remember growing up mostly playing games based off licensed properties and actually enjoying them because that's what I liked as a kid I actually still watched TV and cartoons back then. The ds family of systems was a game changer I took my ds everywhere fell in love with the 4th generation of Pokémon despite having minor experience with the 3rd, 2nd, and even first generation. I still played a lot of licensed property games on my ds but it was mostly a Pokémon machine. I feel the series was at its peak then, best mystery dungeons, Pokémon ranger etc. My point is while I predominantly played Pokémon I played other things and enjoyed them, my ps3, wii.

Around high-school my sophomore year my friend once again changed everything for me. One day he came into school talking about a game I had never heard of called halo reach. I asked him questions and he told me about the setting, conflict, the aliens and it just sparked a fire in me. I would go on YouTube and look up walk-throughs of the campaigns to immerse myself and get the story. That Christmas it was 2012 I unexpectedly got an Xbox 360 for Christmas from my uncle along with call of duty Black ops 2. I was bad at it I was too stupid to follow the linear hallways and kept trying to go through different ways. I digress, my family asked me what games I wanted because my cousin was going to by me some. I immediately said Halo all of them, particularly halo 4 as it was the newest one at the time and I felt like getting a one up over my friend only to find out he didn't care, oh well I guess. Point being I was obsessed with halo, I did play them out of order but it was the next big thing to me since Pokémon which I fell off of for dumb reasons when x and y came out. Halo was the next big thing to me. I played all the mainline games eventually read all the novels at the time, I was immersed in the universe.

Within the next 4 or so years my xbox 360 would become a safe haven and I'd play so many games I'd seen other youtubers play: far cry 4, Prototype 2, devil may cry series etc. Some stuck for awhile some didn't like gta 5. I took a chance on Saints row 4 never having played a Saints row and it was one of my most enjoyable gaming experiences. I got back into Kingdom hearts and was all in for the next installment 2.8 so I needed a ps4. Then another spark happened it was 2016 and a youtuber I followed played the new Doom. I was hooked it was so different from Halo and cod and battlefield that I'd seen everywhere. It was fast, you had like 8 weapons, a more active and engaging combat system and more sprawling levels. It replaced halo for me the gameplay was just so much better it was like candy or crack cocaine I hadn't had this much fun since halo had begun to lose its luster.

I sold everything I owned to get a ps4 for kh and doom. I got last of us remastered for free in a bundle so I played that thought it was a fun one and done game. Doom took all my time replaying it over and over to death. In this time I did play other games finally trying some of these acclaimed titles from the last generation i had missed everyone couldn't stop raving about. Some clicked others didn't, that's how things go. I played some of the ps4s big hitters bloodborne, horizon, Spiderman. Didn't really enjoy them at the time. I did get addicted to god of war 3 remastered and went back and played all the other ones. I learn about mcc some time later and buy myself an Xbox one for the games and over time the Xbox one became my main console.

2017 was a strange in between time because yet again another major spark. I discovered another youtuber I enjoy to this day who introduced me back into retro games and mostly retro games from before my time, nes,snes, genesis, ps1 stuff like that. I watch his playthroughs of sonic 3&k, resident evil 2, mega man x, a link to the past, metroid and he gets me hooked again, mostly on metroid. I watch all his playthroughs get my hands on metroid prime games and beat them all, samus returns and prime 4 get announced so I buy a new 3ds for samus returns, and get access to snes games so I pick up super metroid, mega man x and link to the past while I wait for samus returns. These 3 games become some of my favorite games of all time. Same with other titles like resident evil 2.

It's here I believe there is another paradigm shift for me. I see and understand the appeal of retro games now, seeing the value of mostly dead or dying unique genres, appreciating the classics. Then the remake train begins. Re2 remake, ffvii remake which I was excited for as I loved the original ffvii when I played it on ps4. However now we get into the negatives. These remakes are nothing like the originals they don't preserve the characters, they change story beats, cut content, play completely differently to appeal to people who wouldn't dare touch the originals because they're "old and outdated ". This phenomena keeps occurring even without remakes. When hollow knight was making the rounds it got all the hype all the praise and I tried it, I didn't like it, I didn't like the setting, the moment to moment gameplay was more akin to a souls game wanting to be megaman rather than a metroid. People were saying it dethroned super metroid. I thought they were crazy super metroid is the peak of the genre, the exploration, environmental design and story telling just the whole package its as close to perfect as one can get. Over time I grew disdain for the genre as a whole it taking more inspiration from dark souls and castlevania rather than the pure fun exploration of metroid.

Time goes on Doom eternal comes out and it's my new favorite game, Dmc5, Metroid dread. I go back and try more classic games. Everyone hyper the next big generic aaa game breath of the wild took Nintendo players by storm because they never played skyrim before. I think you can tell from my words where I'm going with this. As I play more retro and retro inspired games or old classics I developed this psuedo intellectual and elitist attitude that games of today are worse and generic and can't compare to the golden age we left behind.

Fast forward a few years to the day we're in now. The current trends of the industry don't help my current disdain or elitism. Right now I'm in such a rut because I replayed my favorite games to death and am now looking to branch out into different genres I left behind in my childhood. I'm not sure how to anymore I feel so stuck in my ways that now I just watch other people talk about games and recommend them or browse reddit when I'm not at work. It's not fun in the slightest and I feel I hate myself sometimes. I'm still young (25) but I feel not a midlife crisis coming but that with introspection I've lost my inner child and love for exploring and discovering new things. To where now I don't know what my favorite genre is anymore. I only play established titles in franchises I love (sequesls) or a fps yet can't say they're my favorite genre.

After this wall of text I get to the question. How do you determine what games you actually like and how do you branch out to genres you've never played or once did, or different tiers of games Indie, AA, AAA?

On the top of my head I can think of No Man’s Sky/ Cyberpunk and Battlefield 2048.

Warner bros got a patent for it, but isn't doing shit with it, but I love the system so much.

I was curious if there were any games were you can do realistic damage to enemies, examples include Metal Gear Rising where you can slice enemies to pieces, or how Doom Eternal shows damage on enemies based on where you shoot.

An example for me is Sonic Frontiers. I remember when the game was first teased in 2021, and was super excited to see all the new stuff and all the pieces lining up. It was exciting, and it felt special being able to speculate what could be, and what's in store for release. I'm nostalgic over it.

The game came out and... meh, admittedly I was underwhelmed. Almost disappointed. Not that I didn't enjoy it, but I do feel like I had more fun during the speculation and marketing period than I did during and after the actual game.

I was wondering if there was a game that made you feel similar.

Didn’t realize how much of a completionist I was until I started gaming

Just found an awesome looking indie game called wargroove. Note, I haven't played it yet because I don't have the cash atm but it's currently 70% off on steam and it is basically advance wars in a fantasy setting.

It has very positive reviews and a sequel in development with a pirate theme. I just wanted to share because as soon as I saw it I was so amazed that there was something out there to scratch that itch.

I understand the survival horror genre was in a weird place for a long time, but EW did a great job of bringing it back to the publics attention, and while RE7 really brought it home, EW2 still holds its own.

Artistically I love it, the transitions, the level design, the story is great as it directly confronts the fact that Sebastian has PTSD from his own life but also the events of the first game, and having him confront said trauma is, in my opinion, better than any writing we’ve got from RE.

Gameplay wise, yeah, it doesn’t break the mold but I’ll be damned if someone says it doesn’t have a nice difficulty and focus on the survival and crafting aspect.

I ain't talking about length or map size. Storage. Games are anywhere between 50-90 GB these days. I have 4 games that are around 110 GB. Fan of Call of Duty? Gran Turismo? Doom? Gonna be able to fit like 7 games on your console without an SSD.

I just played Gat Out of Hell for the first time and I've noticed something with Volition games. It's a sandbox but the kind where everything the game has to offer is unlocked at the start of the game. Its design philosophy "Here's the whole game. I don't really give a shit what you do. Just pick whatever looks fun and do it."

I've noticed Ubisoft games are somewhat like this. Sure, you unlock sections of the map as you progress through the main story, but everything in that district/island/city is fully available to you. E.g I'm replaying Black Flag right now and I completed all the bonus stuff in Havana (assassin contracts, collectables) before I even did any of the story there. Just done the same in Nassau. Done a playthrough of Far Cry 4 in around November and I remember completely wiping the south island clean of things to do before I even did any of the main story on it.

Personally, I'm conflicted. It's great that you can just do whatever you want in any order you want. But this comes at the cost of quality of the missions. Rather than a side story to do, it's really just a glorified diversion. Diversions are fun, but the don't feel important. It's more like a minigame than a side campaign. I wish developers were like "Okay, so we know exactly which order the player is going to do these missions in, because we've forced that structure into the missions. So because they're linear, we can flesh out the story a bit more". It would also be great if there was less things to do, but more meaningul things. I'd rather have 5 lengthy, fully fleshed out side activities than 19 diversions that is just go to x rescue y hostages rinse repeat.

Tl;dr I like the freedom, but the freedom is a double edged sword because lack of structure = less focus on plot. What do you think?

I will preface this by saying that I have always had an Xbox, from the original that I won in a hitting derby when I was 8 in little league and still proudly play it today.

I also have a ps4, and love it to death. The Sony exclusives are some of the best games I’ve ever played, but I struggle to go back to them instead of turning on my box.

Why, you may ask?

The controller. I don’t know if it’s just that the Xbox controller is more ergonomic, fits my hands better, or if the PS controller is just bad.

I have never enjoyed the feel of a PS controller, even playing games I love on Xbox feel foreign on PlayStation. Not because of the buttons, just the entire feel of the controller. It doesn’t sit correctly in my hands, the triggers feel off, it just feels unnatural.

Anybody else?

Looking for a new shooter that isn't your standard new release every year. I've tried Enlisted and didn't get on with the AI system, and Hell Let Loose is okay but I don't have a reliable squad or teammates to play with.

Any ideas on what I should be playing? I'm on Series X if that narrows my options.

It's like every RPG or adventure game needs to include a desert section. They're always the worst sections. No one likes them. Sand sucks.

EDIT: Yes, water sections are better. Although I'd rather put sand and water together and have a beach section.

Well, we at /r/LinkCable remember. And we're encouraging each and every one of you to come together once again with your retro handhelds and start playing classic titles locally again.

Out there, we know that there's some of you who may still carry classic handhelds like the Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS family, or even forgotten favorites like the Game Gear.

Well, the time is now. It's time for a resurgence in getting to make new friends and play locally. Newcomers to the handheld scene are just as welcome as the grizzled vets, so all you Steam Decks, Switches, Vitas... (who actually has one of those, again?) Everyone is welcome at LinkCable. Stop on by, host a meet up and see if you can't meet some new friends along the way.

Hello! This may be a tall order, but does anyone have any youtubers they recommend (maybe ones that have smaller followings/arent famous) that specifically post playthroughs of games with commentary (without their face is even better). I'm not a fan of twitch streaming because of how distracting the chat can be from the game. I used to love Cryaotic before everything came out about him. I especially love playthroughs of horror games. Other old favorites are super best friends play, press heart to continue, rooster teeth/lets play, etc

Though I will persevere, it's Crusader Kings 3 for me.

Let’s say that every upcoming or recently successful AAA title was repriced in the following way:

• 6 months to release, game costs an additional 6 times release cost (which we’ll call 40 for ease) currency doesn’t really matter here, so let’s say Monopoly notes? So at 6 months to go it’s 280 monobuckos.

• 5 months to release its 5 times release cost. So 240 monopolonies

Etc etc down to release cost of the game.

How do you think this would change players spending habits for games and when they buy them? Do you think more people would buy “early” and if so, how far before release do you see being the most popular?

If you think people wouldn’t pay early, what about a similar post release system. That after a set period of time the game drops a set percentage, going up to being free after however many years. In this scenario; would “free to play” become more common with people waiting potentially years for titles to enjoy the system. I know I have strayed towards waiting for a while after release to see reviews and hopefully a sale for a few titles, I just don’t know how this system may effect that awareness/ frugality.

I know this does happen to an extent with sales, reductions etc, but I’m talking if you knew that “4 years after release this game will be exactly 15 monopennies, and in 6 years it would be free” would you wait and if so how long?

I’ll add that early access in this wouldn’t be testing etc, the game will not change based on feedback from Early Access players. You’re literally just getting exactly what you would get at any point over the next 6 months, you but now you’re setting a potentially ridiculous price point for yourself.

Edit: sorry my maths was really shit the first time