Hello, folks! Long time no see. I haven’t felt like writing til this week because of 2 very different games I played: Final Fantasy XV and A Plague Tale: Innocence both from the xbox pass I noticed something: my taste in games has changed. I fell in love with those big open world areas during my teens after playing San Andreas. I couldn’t get enough games like that. I’d spend 100h-200h+ in each of them. On the other hand, more linear games would bore me and would just consider them not worth the price.
After starting FFXV soon after Plague Tale - story-driven game with a plot that does not stray from its path - I felt incredibly disconnected from FF’s story because of the amount of extra “work” between important missions. I dreaded every single fetch side quest. TBH, it’s not entirely the game’s fault. Both are good games, but I’ve been dreading those stupid marks on the maps for a couple years now. Every single time, I have to climb a “tower” or whatever the game uses to reveal a part of the map and pin 300 more marks, a piece of me just dies. I see them and I start thinking to myself “ain’t nobody got time for that ”.
Honestly, I don’t know if it’s a lack of time or motivation, a growing concern about the size of my backlog or simply a change in taste, maybe a bit of all of them but I’m starting to avoid games when I see the “open world” tag almost as much as I already avoid the “crafting” or “survival” tags. These 3 combined are like the unholy trinity for me. In contrast, linear, story-focused, short games are becoming more and more appealing to me. (Although I’m still having a hard time to accept that paying $30 for a good 2h long game is better than spending that same amount for a game that is 10x longer, when 90% of it is just utterly boring. I guess, years and years of indoctrination are hard to erase. xD)
TL;DR: I used to love open world games and all those 300 fetch side quests where I could just get absorbed in the lore and spend 100h+ in it and I always thought linear, story-driven games were boring and overpriced. Now, I hate big areas, towers that I need to climb, pins on a map, quest markers and everything else related to open world games, meanwhile, a story that can grab my attention for 2-3h is just
Anyway, IIRC I’m supposed to post the games I’ve played these last 7(?) months. It’s not a long list, I haven’t played that many games on steam since they keep adding a lot of good stuff to the xbox pass. Looking forward to playing the new Ori game next week :D If you wanna know more about any of the following games, let me know. (expect Trails of Cold Steel, I’m still playing it)
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Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth
15 hours playtime
41 of 41 achievements
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Life is Strange 2
13 hours playtime
46 of 46 achievements
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GRIS
5 hours playtime
17 of 17 achievements
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The House of Da Vinci
4 hours playtime
6 of 6 achievements
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The Suicide of Rachel Foster
4 hours playtime
11 of 11 achievements
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The Haunted Island, a Frog Detective Game
56 minutes playtime
6 of 6 achievements
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Total War: WARHAMMER II
48 hours playtime
30 of 152 achievements
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Total War: WARHAMMER
39 hours playtime
34 of 185 achievements
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The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel
32 hours playtime
11 of 51 achievements
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Masquerada: Songs and Shadows
19 hours playtime
24 of 27 achievements
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The Talos Principle
16 hours playtime
26 of 40 achievements
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Iconoclasts
12 hours playtime
6 of 11 achievements
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Baba Is You
9 hours playtime
10 of 18 achievements
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Primordia
6 hours playtime
19 of 29 achievements
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Inked
5 hours playtime
24 of 30 achievements
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Why Am I Dead At Sea
4 hours playtime
21 of 27 achievements
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The Cave
3 hours playtime
12 of 27 achievements
I’m starting to avoid games when I see the “open world” tag
I used to do the same thing, but I recently discovered that metroidvanias like Ori also get tagged with “open world,” so I think hiding the “sandbox” tag would be more appropriate.
P.S. Think you could go into more detail on your wins? I’m interested in Baba is You, but I’m worried that the challenge may come from changing its rules beyond pushing status tiles. Basically, I want to know if this GIF is fake without getting the rest of the game spoiled:
I’m not hinding the tag yet, but I’m getting there.
About baba: this gif is fake. However, gameplay isn’t very different from that. It’s very hard to explain this game. You are given different rules in each level and you have to “bend” them in your favor, if you wanna win.
Watch a video of the first 2-3 levels. There are 100+ levels, so it not a big deal. You’ll understand it better than I could ever explain that way.
I was never fan of open world games. I did like GTA Vice City, San Andreas. But I was doing main quest, a bit of side objectives and that’s all. I never saw appeal of sunking hundreds of hours into the game, just because I can run for whole day between gym and punching elderly in the face.
Nowadays though I avoid games you described like fire. Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry etc. I don’t have time to run around, “climb the tower”, just to see swarm of new fetch quests around. My OCD to “do everything” does not approve. Heck, I even installed mod for Witcher 3 to explicitly hide those useless “?” markers on the map. Even this game could not avoid making big, mostly empty world, and fill it with this junk.
I think it’s because some people get bored. How many times can you re-play the same game, with the same gameplay, only with different plot? It’s like with Bold and Beautiful “watch / play one, know them all”. While short linear games offer something new most of the time.
Exactly my problem. Every time I see a new mark on my map I have to fight my OCD, if I don’t wanna do another fetch quest or open the 100th chest filled with useless stuff (and I know it won’t matter because I barely use consumables. I always save them for when I might need, but I never really do). T_T
I’m always baffled when I head that a friend replaying Skyrim or some other open world game for the 10th time. Why would they do this to themselves?
Sameeee.
I was collecting all this useless junk in Pillars of Eternity, you know generic swords that give 5 gold on sell. Then selling this junk one by one. Hoarding money. And never use it, as I did not see single thing that was worth buying apart for interaction items like camps or grasping hook xD I also always hoard consumables (part of why I hate checkpoints, with F5 / F8 combo I can “recover” health in case of any mistake :eyes:), and never use them as later I am strong enough to not need them.
Why would anyone decide to move from one side of the Skyrim map to another without fast travel, record it and think it’s awesome?? xD 2h wasted for this alone.
I think I replayed KOTOR 2 / Mass Effect at least 10 times xD To the point that in 4th consecutive run I was remembering every single dialogue. But it gave me feeling of knowing something very well, which was calming :thinking:
I did try to “truly” 100% Skyrim, but when I learned that fetch quest are randomly generated and limitless I lost interest. Problem with open world games is also that they want you to spend “all the time” in them, esp with spread of lajf serfices (live service). But it’s not possible to give all the time to all the interesting games. So I wonder how people try to manage their time between replaying old open world games, and beating new ones.
I also realized that over the years some games created my “gameplay mechanic canon”. Inventory in Gothic 2 is sorted by type and rarity by default? I will be annoyed it’s not happening automatically in any game with inventory system. Game has checkpoint system without manual save? I will be constantly annoyed if can’t find mod to save-anytime. Game has a bow? I will stick to using it, even when it’s underpowered.
what is this F5/F8 combo I’ve never heard about? o.0
Well, you named yourself MsKOTOR, I didn’t expect any less :P But seriously, a speedrunner friend said the same thing. That the repetition was soothing and satisfying. I honestly don’t get it and I probably never will. Even games like San Andreas and Ocarina of Time that are all time favorites of mine, I could not play them more than twice.
I thought I was the only one with this crazy habits. I also always use a bow in RPGs or go for the ranged character whenever possible. It’s incredibly satisfying to kill enemies from afar. xD
Edit: Amen for auto-saves.
F5 / F8 combo means you quick save game very often, and if you lose health or make mistake you press F8 for quick reload xD That way you know there is a monster or trap somewhere, so you can progress without losing health, or losing way less than when you were surprised.
In my current Prey walkthrough I save game before I start to “clean” every new corridor. Sometimes every room if it’s bigger area.
“Don’t want to lose health” is also reason why I started to use bow or ranged in general. I can send someone else as a bait, and be safe in the distance :blobevil: I do use different weapons in like Tomb Raider, but only to get achievements. When achievement pops up I go back to bow. I like it for two reasons: ranged and quiet. So you can headshot enemies while still undetected. Yes, I also always go for headshots, and will wait if head is not visible before killing.
Look :eyes: Game with bow :eyes:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1151640/Horizon_Zero_Dawn_Complete_Edition/
Very happy about that. I just wishlisted it a couple minutes ago. Hopefully, Epic won’t try any shenanigans to make it an exclusive for a year. I’ll be cautiously optimistic until I see a release date. I’ve been hurt too many times before. looking at you Detroid Become Human, Control and Metro: Exodus T_T
Now , if only PS would let Bloodborne and Persona 5 come to PC as well… A man can dream. xD