Stepping Out of Your Comfort Zone

This has been such a strange year for gaming. Not only do we have COVID leading to delays, but it’s also the wind down period before new consoles hit. I found myself in bit of a rut, so I decided to step out of my comfort zone and try out games that I otherwise would’ve passed by.

Forager-I never play crafting/survival games. Once I got in the groove of the loop with this one I just couldn’t stop playing. It’s light-hearted and has a great look to it. I probably put 30-40 hours into it messing around with its systems.

Deep Rock Galactic-Multiplayer-focused games are a no-go for me. I heard this one can be played solo, so I figure I’d take the plunge. What a fantastic game! It’s as polished as can be. I’ve been playing exclusively solo and I’m halfway through the leveling the Gunner class, and there are still 3 more classes to play with. I’m enjoying it so much that I’m going to dip into some multiplayer sessions soon.

SnowRunner-I’ve always felt that the fun of a driving game is inversely proportional to its level of realism. This game, though... It’s so slow and methodical. While you play, you get into a trance trying to feather the accelerator over rugged terrain. I’m still in the first area and I feel like I have 10s of hours of exploration left before moving on.

Have any of you tried any games that you would normally overlook while you’ve been stuck at home? If so, how was it?

I've just kinda stopped playing games entirely. They bore me to tears, and I try a lot of different games. I think a large part of it is having a lot of money nowadays. Back when I was a babber, a £50 game had to last, because it was all I had for 6 months.

To compare, I've bought Breath of the Wild, Xenoblade 1+2, Fire Emblem and Pokemon Shield, and maybe have....7 hours on them combined? The ease of obtaining games nowadays means that none of them mean anything anymore

@sombre: I can relate to that. I bought FFVIIR, a full-price game that I would normally devour, and I didn’t play it enough to even leave the first area. It’s still sitting on my HDD unfinished.

The good thing about the games I’ve been playing (and enjoying) is that they are all smaller, cheaper titles.

The Game Pass model is pretty great for rounding these types of games up and letting you try them out without any real consequence.

If Sony’s strategy is going to be continuing to churn out samey big single-player games, then I dunno if I’m onboard for that.

COVID-19 has not been the reason why i would consider this year of gaming strange. My drive to play new games have been close to zero. I honestly don't know why that is.

The first 6 months of this year i have played very few games, and the ones i have have been very short experiences. Then for some odd reason this months i got the itch to play Black Mesa. Which i finished in 2-3 days, before i knew it i completed all the Half-Life games within a week (except Alyx). I have now moved onto Master Chief Collection and have gone though Reach and Halo CE.

The weirdest part of this is that i haven't really enjoyed these games that much. They have big glaring issues these days that i did not really see back when i first played them. I guess its some sick sort of experiment i have going where just want to see how these games hold up.

I could be playing Resident Evil 2, Detroit Become Human, HADES, Disco Elysium ect. But no, I'm on some mindless run down memory lane.

Ghost Of Tsushima, honestly. I haven't played an open world ubisoft game since Assassins Creed 2; I generally dislike the open world jank, repetitive "climb tower to unlock map" and repetitive checklist of dull side missions and collectibles. I think Tsushima gets a pass exclusively because it's capitalising on my extreme longing to return to Japan, and at a time when I'm literally not allowed to leave my house.

Credit where it's due, the combat is pretty satisfying and it looks gorgeous. But it's definitely out of my comfort zone, having avoided every Far Cry, Watch_Dogs, Assassins Creed and etc etc Open World games for the last 10 years

Was not conscious but starting to think it was very much part of this:

Right around the time when lockdown started (business switching to WFH, concern over supply chains, probably recovering from contracting covid on business travel, kissing my bidet every day, etc) I finally checked out Yakuza 0 because it was on gamepass. It is actually very much in my wheelhouse (open world game with action RPG mechanics and a stupid as hell plot) but I still thought Yakuza and Shenmue were basically the same thing. Ended up being an amazing decision that made me find one of my new favorite series and the story of 0 (Kiryu and Majima having to decide what kind of men they want to be, a world that seems to solely exist to hurt the vulnerable, and the sense of nothing ever being the same again) REALLY resonated in the "I'm useless in the rain" kind of way.

On a more conscious note: I tried to find a new competitive online team based FPS and pretty much failed entirely. Although it was a nice reminder that my "I don't want to interact with Gamers" instinct/behavior was correct.

I've tried to get into Street Fighter a couple of times throughout the years and never had much success but after watching Hi-Score Girl I had a real urge to play at least one of the games from the franchise. So, I bought the 30th Anniversary Collection on the Switch and have been looooving it. I've never gotten that deep into a fighting game before (aside from Smash) but I can definitely see why Street Fighter is so popular. I've been playing mostly Alpha 3 and 3rd Strike, and while I haven't gotten my ass beat this hard by CPU in a while, it's still fun learning all the different characters.

I started playing Kingdom Hearts sort of as a joke and then wound up beating the whole thing. It broke me.

I have also been weirdly enticed by SnowRunner after seeing Alex play it. I'm not usually into driving games but it seems to have a combination of relaxing exploration and rewarding problem solving that I need to try some day.

The only game I'm currently playing that's mildly outside my comfort zone is Faeria. I've been trying out some card games before but always ended up feeling frustrated and stupid. Faeria is a bit more beginner friendly (so far) and I like it a lot.

I generally play quite a wide scope of games, so I've not noticed a big stepping outside my usual types of game but I have definitely moved towards much more upbeat and bright games. I love me some post apocalypse usually but I feel no desire to wander through a wasteland at the moment funnily enough.

I have found that I have been playing games in a way they they maybe aren't specifically made for to cover for a real life thing I miss. Long walks aren't really feasible for me and my partner right now so I've found myself using games like theHunter: Call of the Wild, RDR2 and some of the Assassins' Creed games to just go for a walk from one place to another without interacting with the game parts. Basically, I'm turning anything I can into a walking simulator, particularly if they have a nice photo mode, a great skybox and decent draw distance.

At 39 years old I have been a console gamer since the NES. In 2020, I stepped out of my comfort zone by building my 1st gaming PC (Ryzen 7 3700/RTX 2070 Super). At first, playing on mouse and keyboard felt like starting from zero. I never thought I would get use to it. Now its my preferred way to play and I see what I have been missing.

On this new PC, my group of friends introduced me to survival games. I avoided these like the plague, but now realize the group dynamic makes it very enjoyable. We are currently playing Scrap Mechanic and it consumes my thoughts while at work and I can't wait to get through the days responsibilities so I can get back to it.

At my age this new experience has revitalized my love for gaming and made me realize I don't need the big budget triple A titles(although I will still play them).

Stay safe GB community.

Present day me doesn’t necessarily have a comfort zone. I legitimately will play any genre or at least dip a toe into anything the GB staff gets really excited about.

Past me was strictly a sports game enthusiast. One year I’m pretty certain I bought 5 different baseball games along with all the other sports franchises.

Then everything changed once I tried the new demo disc in the PlayStation Magazine. Granted I’ve tried plenty of demo discs before but nothing ever stuck with me. Until this one. It was the Final Fantasy X demo. My mind was blown. I hadn’t know what a turn based fighting system was or even what an RPG was for that matter. It’s was all new and very entertaining. Then I saw Yuna summon, and the monster use the overdrive move. It was spectacular. I must have replayed that demo in the double digits. But that was my “break free” moment into the wide world of video games.