constantk

Friend of the site and Borne to Run coach, Tamoor Hussain, did a write-up of his time with the network test, in case anyone's interested.

I haven't watched the Nextlander video yet, but I'm encouraged by Tamoor's comments. Sounds like there's enough in the open world to make exploration interesting. Personally, I'm glad the combat design is more in line with a traditional Souls game as I never quite clicked with Sekiro, but he also describes encounters which require new tactics from the player. Maybe this will be the Souls game I stick with. I recognize their influence and respect their design, but I haven't been able to finish one yet.

@alistercat: I don't have a lot to suggest, beyond what was said above but I wanted to offer some support for your situation. I've worked in public and academic libraries in America for about 15 years so most of what I suggest below is from that perspective. Internationally, your mileage may vary. Many public libraries offer low-vision resources. Everything from a variety of pocket magnifiers that you can select from and keep to closed-circuit, screen-based magnifiers used by vision-impaired folks to fill out paperwork, sign checks, etc. Of course, some of those needs can also be served by technology now, but most libraries will bend over backwards to put you in touch with other local services that you may not be aware exist. Most states also have specialized libraries dedicated to low-vision or blind services. They specialize in acquiring, or in some cases creating, material that is otherwise hard to get in large-print, audio or braille (things like textbooks, niche publications, etc.) I know I've helped get magnifiers for people who have said it's changed their lives and made them able to function more independently.

Anyway, hopefully you don't need those services for a long time, but now you know they're there.

I experience this all the time, so any advice I can give will likely veer into hypocrisy a bit. I've mentioned elsewhere on here that I've got a huge PC backlog and I also have Game Pass. You're right, it can be daunting to not feel like you're "wasting" your gaming time on something that isn't as enjoyable as something else that's just waiting to be played. I'd be surprised if this feeling isn't pretty common. I think it's also what a lot of people were concerned about with subscription services like Game Pass when they were first being conceived: the gradual devaluing of games. If we don't perceive an investment, will be continue to sink time (and for game companies, money) into a thing?

The only way I've been able to manage this feeling myself is making lists or tiers of games and trying to stick to them. Of course, the important thing is to make peace with the fact that you can't play everything, so attempting to do so is a fool's errand.

I am also working on a plan to go through my extensive backlog and make it an experiment I do with my kids. They all like to play video games to a certain extent. So I'm considering playing through my backlog with them by just playing 30 minutes or so of each game and then keeping track of the ones that stand out for us and we want to go back to. My hope is that I can whittle down the list a bit and introduce the kids to a few things they wouldn't have tried otherwise. At the same time, I can maybe quiet that voice that's reminding me how many games I've purchased and never played. I've also thought about blogging this experiment here, but there's already several duders going through large lists of games, so I'm not sure how much of an appetite there is for more of that.

Overall, remember it's a leisure activity. If it stops being fun or feels like work, it's probably time to re-evaluate or take a break from it.

Played through most of Butcher in one sitting over the weekend on a whim (a rare thing for me, but it's a short game). That game is pretty good but the difficulty definitely ramps up pretty steeply at the end.

I've only tried it once, but it was definitely a less-than-perfect experience from my semi-rural area of middle-America. Of course, I was trying to play Hades, which has to be a tough one to get working on a cloud service. Maybe I'll give it a shot again sometime with a turn-based game. As has been said above, I'm fine with it not being perfect as long as it's an add-on to something like Game Pass which still amazes as a value proposition.

I'll just add myself to the chorus of people advocating for exercise. I feel dramatically better when I get out in the fresh air for a walk or exhaust myself with a good workout. It helps your sleep, your body chemistry and of course your fitness level.

Speaking to gaming specifically, I don't know that I've played any more or less to be honest, but I enjoy my time while I play a lot more. Games have always been a bit of an escape, but that used to come with a certain amount of guilt, largely a byproduct of work culture in capitalist America. I understand better now the beneficial aspect of really prioritizing one's mental health. I can't tell you how wonderful it was to start playing Minecraft at the same time as the GB crew. Not only was it a bit of zen-like, methodical progression, it's something my kids have always been into but which hadn't really clicked with me until I saw some of the projects the GB folks and the community were working on. Now that's one more thing we regularly share.

@onemanarmyy:

Sudoku & Picross is my mobile game of choice right now. I'm done with timers, puzzles are fun.

I feel like I have to relearn this every time I get a new phone. "Maybe this time I'll want to play something more complicated on the go... No? OK, sudoku, solitaire, etc. it is!" That's not necessarily saying F2P or psychologically manipulative games can't be simple, but there is some correlation between fancy graphics, catchy soundtracks and addictive behavior. Have you seen modern slot machines?!

I started playing Control when it was on Game Pass a while back on my Xbox One. The game ran ok and the setting was incredible, but I could tell I wasn't having the visually impressive experience others had had on PC. Finally it locked up on my Xbox multiple times and I decided to wait until I could play it on something that could do it justice. Just restarted it the other night on PC and holy cow were people right about this game. The atmosphere is still amazing, but visually I was missing out on so much! I wasn't sure how much I'd want to go back through the 4-5 hours I had already played, but I'm having a great time rereading every scrap of kafka-esque paperwork in the bureau. Such a good game.

Not sure what made this game pop into my head after not playing it since the time of release, but here I am. I really liked a lot about this game when I first played it on Xbox Game Pass, but like a lot of people I found it a bit too punishing. Apparently they've put out an update, called Explore Mode, that makes it slightly less so. Anyone here played it? Can you report how different it feels?

Since this became a bit of a roller coaster toward the end of the discussion, I thought I'd provide a short update to this thread. I was able to return the Alienware PC without much trouble and ended up buying a PC from MainGear. Their service has been great, they use off the shelf parts and I've been regularly checking my temps and things are staying cool!

I've been trying to catch up on some of my PC backlog and played some Back 4 Blood via Game Pass on it last night. I don't know if that game is a huge test, but I was really happy with how easily my PC handled it. In fact there was some screen tearing at first that made me a little concerned, but a quick visit to the options menu to turn on vsync took care of that.

Anyway, thanks again to everyone for your advice. In the end, I'm very happy I started this thread.