What's your level of enthusiasm for games right now (ten being the most, zero being least)?

The last few months have been pretty amazing for games (two of them probably ranking among my favorite games ever made) so I'd say pretty damn high atm.

It's hard to get quite as excited for new games as I once did, just because that's life, but for the first time in awhile I can fully support Vinny's catchphrase that this is the best time to be playing video games. The world may be shit, but video games are still pretty alright.

How can you put a number on something like that? My enthusiasm is low. The 2017 games I played were NieR (Good, but not that good.) and some of Yooka and Bayonetta. I lost my 1.5 hour save of Yooka after a power outage, because of the shitty auto-save system (All auto-saving games should have backups.), and I'm not in the mood to start over right now. It's not as good as Banjo-Kazooie. Bayonetta has dull combat (whose combos I'm never gonna bother remembering.) and too many long cutscenes. A near release I'm interested in is Little Nightmares.

Most of the time, I'd rather play L4D or watch movies/TV shows, than play new games. I want more original IPs with new ideas.

Right now? Like right this very moment? Maybe a 6. I've been playing what for me is a lot of games so far this year, so now I'm feeling like taking a short break from it and watching anime instead when I have free time.

There are some Ones, huh?

Eight.

Pretty high until last night when I hit a wall in Odallus: The Dark Call. Minecart rides are a platformer cliche that need to die.

A solid eight.

8

Even though I play every single day, it's the same game day after day that I can't stop playing - Overwatch. Some 300 odd hours and going strong.

There are LOADS of games I want to play but I.........

just.cant.stop.playing.

Right now, I'd put myself at a 7. I'm winding down on Breath of the Wild and bouncing between Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment and Yooka-Laylee. A few weeks ago, I'd be at an 8 just from Zelda.

I've been cruising on Nintendo and the occasional indie game for a while now. I don't own a PS4 (the only other system with exclusives I'm interested in) and my income a 1/3rd less what it was a year ago. Add in some "figuring out life" stuff and a lack of friends who keep up with the industry, and my overall game focus isn't as high as I'd like.

8.8

I would say 6. While I am playing through more games than I ever did as a kid and have a wealth of options, real life and other hobbies are definitely becoming more of a priority to me now.

Ten right now and also all the time.

@zeik: what are your two? :D

I'm feeling pretty good about video games in general right now. Good games are coming out. It's the best time to be playing video games. Yeah, I know that's a joke, but it's pretty true.

If you're specifically asking about new releases - I kinda don't know? I've found myself in the habit of discovering games around the time they come out, rather than knowing about stuff months or years in advance. If I spent some time thinking about it, I could probably tell you some games coming out later this year that I really want to play (that Crash Bandicoot thing, for one!), but it wouldn't be a long list and it would be missing some things.

I always look forward to coming home and playing something for an hour or two. Lately I've been replaying Skyrim and playing Persona 5. I need to pick some kind of short game to break up those two gargantuan games, though. And Counter-Strike: Global Offensive continues to fill my multiplayer/podcast/I-have-no-idea-what-I-want-to-do-right-now-so-this-is-it needs.

If I were to quantify that, I would say it's a solid 7 most of the time, 8 when something new comes out or I'm just especially looking forward to playing games. I don't know if it will ever reach the same kind of excitement for games that I had as a kid, but I've maintained about the same level of interest for several years now.

That's more than I can say for movies or TV shows or basically anything except books and music, where my interest level has been slowly but steadily going up for years now.

I feel like I've just been playing multiplayer shooters for a while now (Battlefield and recently Battlegrounds). I actually can't recall what the last meaty, 20+ hour single player game I played is. So I'd say 7. I'm content playing these shooters, but not feeling all that excited about single player games right now. I feel like I'm waiting on Cyberpunk 2077, or the next Elder Scrolls, or something. I'd like to play Zelda, but I'm not about to buy a Switch.

Currently, as in right now? Seven, I guess? Could be six as well. I enjoyed/loved just about everything I played this year, before The Parappa The Rapper Remastered kinda soured me with it's janky gameplay. I've had enough money in my PSN wallet to buy Yooka-Laylee since it's launch, but I still haven't done that, partially because of the camera issues and some other technical complaints.

But in the next two weeks there's Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap, Full Throttle Remastered, What Remains of Edith Finch and Little Nightmares coming out, with Prey joining them soon after, so hopefully my enthusiasm climbs up to 8 and beyond with those titles.

@giantlennonx_x: Nier: Automata and Persona 5.

About a 7. There's a lot of games I really want to play right now, but I just don't have either the time or the energy or the lack of anxiety required to pick them up and play them. I'd love to play more Night in the Woods or Ladykiller in a Bind, but story-based games just paralyse me with anxiety a lot of the time. I'm playing through Persona 4 with my mum right now which is nice. But as far as new stuff, there's just so many games out that I don't have the ability to download in a reasonable amount of time. It takes me about a week to download games nowadays.

Work is also currently super stressful and draining and I've got a whole bunch of personal stuff going on. I want to be excited for games, but there's just too much happening right now.

EDIT: That was maybe oversharing on the question idk got a lot going on right now

Probably like a 2. I've been doing 12 hour days on Persona 5 this week, but outside of that, I haven't played a game in like a year. I grew up I guess

@zeik: Nier: Automata might be up there for me to! :D

A fucking 10 ass 10.

• I was 35 hours into Persona 5 and lost my save (long story). Almost any other rpg and that would have been the end of that. Like, screw it, I'll watch it on Youtube or something. I started over that same day and wasn't even that mad about it. Instead of throwing a tantrum, I just got more excited about how I could improve my playthrough.
• I haven't even finished Nioh and Nier and I just can't stop thinking about those fucking games. Nioh because this is this is the first Sous type game that I can say I truly loved. Nier because I wanna see where the shit that story goes.
• After I beat both Gravity Rush 2 and Horizon, I was sad because I just wanted any excuse to keep playing. After I couldn't think of one, I just said, "fuck it, I'm gonna replay through both as soon as I get the time."
• I still haven't gotten around to Zelda despite owning a copy.
• An expansion to one of my most favorite games ever, FF XIV, comes out in a few months.
• Tekken 7 is out in a few months as well and it is insane at how fun that game looks.
• They recently announced full remakes for two other games I love, Radiant Historia and SMT: Strange Journey.

I can only speak for myself, but like...video games are in a fucking mindblowing place for me right now. It's just one great release after another with tons of exciting news crammed in between.

10. I'm very enthusiastic right now. There was a bit of a slump there for a while, but since 2015 or so I've just been excited all the time.

For the past 15 months it's been "three." No good games, no good gameplay, juuuuust piles and piles of story-focused barely-interactive cinematic titles that blend in a blur.

Now with the combination of Just Cause 3, Hitman 2016, Bayonetta on PC, and the new Battlefield 1 map expansion, not to mention the news of Battlefield WW2... It's cranked up to 9.

I like videogames a whole lot, but there just isn't a huge amount of stuff for me any more. My tastes have definitely changed, become more refined, but that also leads to way less games to play.

I'm a Four.

I agree with Vinny that there's never been a better time to be playing video games. I visit GB daily and listen to the podcasts regularly.

I'm also now 30 years old with 2 young kids. What little free time I have is split between trying to get rest, exercise, watching films/tv, being lazy and just going online, playing video games, playing board games (which I love), reading etc.

On the exceptionally rare occasion that I have a chunk of spare time, I find I can't put in a long stretch of gaming like I used to. Maybe 2 hours. I can go more if it's a short game like Inside or Oxenfree and I know I'm near the end.

It's not you games, it's me.

Ten. The video game industry has been on a fucking roll since 2015

9. Way, way into them these past few years.

A few years before that, I was at a 2 or 3. It ebbs and flows, but it's been a great ride in gaming recently full of so much awesome stuff.

2. I know it's "The Best Time to be Playing Video Games"™ but I've been on a dry spell for MONTHS now, the last time that I was kinda hyped for playing something was in January when I was playing Digital Devil Saga, it's not that I don't have free time it's more like an "all the games I want to play I don't have right now" (Yakuza 0, Nier Automata, Horizon, Persona 5).

But maybe my Persona 5 will arrive this week so I hope this dry spell goes away.

8. Persona's taking up all of my time right now, but it's been an extremely strong run of releases of late, and there's enough stuff on the horizon the rest of the year that's it's not going to let up anytime soon. Just a matter of finding time for all of it.

It's the best time to be playing video games. TEN

About a three. I listen to the Bombcast and watch some video game content, but when it comes to actually playing a game I have no desire. I think at this point I'm more interested in hearing the personalities talk about games than I am in playing them. A lot of games boil down to gaining xp to unlock new abilities/new areas or picking up random loot and that feels like artificial progress to me and it's not very satisfying. There have been a lot of games that lose their charm once everything has been unlocked and then you realize the game held your interest by taking advantage of human psychology rather than interesting mechanics (Binding of Isaac) and that leaves a bad taste in my mouth. When I do put time into games it's usually something like Simcity or Factorio where the challenge comes from managing and designing systems.

Annnd I'm up again. I hunkered down and beat the snot out of this game. The final boss was Nintendo-hard. I died 20+ times. Took an hour long break. Came back and totally wrecked him second try. So satisfying. I love beating a game then deciding what to play next. I think I'll haul out a graphic adventure. Deponia has been glaring at me from my Steam library ever since I picked up the trilogy dirt cheap a while back. Or maybe I'll continue the 2D Metroidvania kick and go play Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap again in anticipation of the remake coming out. Games are awesome!

I'm about a six. I was loving Zelda but reached a main-path part I am really not enjoying and need to just grimace and force my way through it.

On the other hand I just spent about 90 minutes playing BoxBoy! and I really enjoyed that, so I can't say I'm against games or anything. I played a bunch of Project Highrise yesterday and I mostly liked that, though it was too easy to find myself backed into a corner in that game, which was annoying.

So I'm at a point where I'm definitely playing some games, and enjoying them, but I'm not caught up by anything and passionately wanting to play it at all times. If I can make myself get past this Zelda sequence and go back into the main part of that game I might be able to get back to a nine. I was really loving that game.

It's hard, it's either a 9 or an 8. I'm going 8, because needs to be pretty damn exciting. But yeah, I've played a lot of video games over the last two years.

10

I've played the least games I have in a *very* long time because of school, minus the odd Titanfall 2 match, but I'm attending game jams, studying game design, and saving up for Persona 5, so the future's super exciting.

How do you mean? What kind of game do you play now? What's the last game you sunk a lot of time into?

Outside of the 650 hours I have put into CSGO in the last year? I played through Legends of Hero: Trails in the Sky in February. That was 65 hours, and I enjoyed it all. Now I have to play SC before they release the third one in May or whenever it is lol.

I don't mean I can't enjoy games or anything, I just am a lot more specific with games than I used to be.

Last year I was at a six. This year NINE for what is out and what coming. Horizon Zero Dawn, Yakuza 0, Persona 5, and Detroit, Vampyr, and Red Dead coming soon...some I have time for some I don't... but my excitement for games in general is very high.

Five this year has been underwhelming to the say the least I just been playing old games alot I'm really hoping E3 deliverers and there is some good games calling out this fall or this might be the worst year of gaming for me since 2014 TV series is the highlight of entertainment so far this year.

Considering RE7, Nier, Nioh, Zelda, Persona, Horizon, and Yooka Laylee have come out this year?

11

It only goes up to 10? This is, in my opinion, one of the best years of gaming ever! And we have so much time left in the year, and quite a few awesome known games to come, that the excitement remains strong.

Also I get 2 Yakuza games this year so...yep! 10++++++

Two. Not saying that to be "that guy," but hype for games died down a lot since my teens and early 20's.

Also, backlog. I really don't need to add more games to my Steam wishlist just to buy them and have no hours spent on them.

I'm at a 10.

On account of the fact that I know that when I get tired of my current rotation of games (Nioh, MLB 17, NHL 17), I can go back to what I was playing before those came out (Titanfall 2, PES 17), and when I get tired of those I can dig into Horizon.

Those 6 games will fill up the next 3 months at a minimum.

Maybe a four.

Apart from Red Dead Redemption 2, there are no as-yet announced games hitting in the future that I'm interested in and very few unannounced games I can think of that would get my blood pumping. All the other big sequels that I spent years anticipating have already hit and (with the notable exception of Breath of the Wild) wound up being either good but not super great (e.g. Fallout 4), pretty disappointing (e.g. Battlefront) or flat-out dreadful (e.g. what I played of ME:A). With the increasing creep of "games as service" and all the shitty business practices associated with it, plus the unnecessary bloat and technical issues in modern AAA development, I'm pretty "meh" on the future of the industry as a whole.

On the plus side, I've got a lot of untouched great games in my backlog that I look forward to getting into...eventually.

I'm extremly, extremly hyped for Mount and Blade 2 - Bannerlord. The last time I felt a similar hype was shortly before I've gotten my hands on Warcraft 2 when I was like 12.

So its probably 11/10 or something like that I guess.

9.

I'm really hyped for Switch's future and hopefully having all Nintendo development on 1 system. There are also plenty of major Xbox/PS4/PC games to keep anyone busy for a lifetime and I really love the long tail on many games nowadays. Though, it means I'm ultimately playing less games even if my engagement level is higher per game. I also feel like retro accessibility is better than ever before, with both official emulation and ports, and new "old" hardware like the Analogue NT becoming available.

5

2017 has been a very frustrating year for me in that all these big games are coming out but practically none of them are of any interest to me. Zelda looks like a good game, but the art style and world look dull. Nier just looks straight-up bad to me. I didn't like Persona 4 so I've no interest in 5. Horizon: Zero Dawn looks boring. etc. etc.

I'm a naturally picky person with everything, but this year in particular has left me feeling like I can't relate to most people.

On the other hand I've started playing the Ys series and am liking it quite a bit, so maybe I just need to play more older games.

I am surprised at some of the super-negative comments here!

2017 is becoming the best year for games in history.

@undefined:

Ten. I was very much ready for ffxv but patch concerns made me hold off not too far into the story. I wasn't playing a ton of new or crazy releases; then the year started.

I beat nier with all main endings in a fever; I love the original. I'm 30 hours into persona and going extremely strong. I love watching Yakuza 0 and wish I was playing. I want to buy gravity rush 2. I really want to get back to horizon and Zelda but it seems a strong constant narrative is more coaxing for me(nier, persona).

There's at least a dozen other newish games I want to get back to/start from 2015 and 16 not to mention a huge backlog. Beating nier automata put a fierce fire in me to get to some very "Japanese" games from last gen I want to know more about and beat. Fucking bayonetta came out on pc and it is, until I possibly play 2 which will be longer now, my favorite character action game to date.

I won't even get to half that shit I mentioned this year most likely but I'm super hyped. I was probably a 6-8 range late last year but right now I just need the games; melt them down and put them in an IV and hook me up.