wheelhouse

I have no desire to ever play a Gears of War (and I meant God of War by GoW).

I picked the PC gamer response, because that was the closest one that applied, but it wasn't really accurate.

I enjoyed my PS4 for about 3 years, but something changed with ME that meant I didn't want to play on a console on my TV anymore. I've always enjoyed some games that are PC-only (strategy games like Civs and lately Anno and Crusader Kings and such), but Fall Guys being on Plus made me realize that I hadn't played a game on my PS4 between God of War (April '18) and Fall Guys (August '20), and before God of War it had probably been 9 months back to the last one.

Bloodborne is my "game of the gen", so there's that. But I wasn't interested in many PS4 exclusives (or Xbox - didn't get one this past gen, and I don't think I'm going to mind not playing the next GoW), and I have a good PC. So I just started buying my "console" games (basically games that are controller friendly) on PC and using a controller there. And still buy my mouse/keyboard games on the PC.

I think I just came to the conclusion that I'll always have a gaming PC and most console exclusives aren't that interesting to me. The past year in my gaming has been Warframe, CK 2/3, No Man's Sky, Fall Guys, Raft, Ark, Anno 1800, a bit of Kerbal, Sea of Thieves, a bit of F1 2020 and some Football Manager 2020. Only Fall Guys (because it was free) was not on PC. I should probably stop my Plus subscription.

Overall I've found myself watching more GB content during lockdown than prior to it - but they've been putting out more content.

I find the solo streaming, for the most part, incredibly dull. But that depends on the game. Jan's Bloodborne streams are great, and Jeff will play something interesting to me occasionally (though I personally can't stand the overlay he's using). But mostly I find that solo streams are just...uninteresting. Most of the personalities just don't really seem very entertaining alone (as, for me, most streamers as well). I would put Jan, Vinny and Jeff as the only ones that seem like they can carry a 2 hour stream alone and keep it interesting. And maybe Ben.

Games that have stood out for me are Bloodborne, Astroneering, Minecraft and the Sea of Thieves (I'd like more) videos. And the Quest for St. Vincent. Glad they are still doing Mass Alex (though it's 3 and I don't have fond memories of that game, so I'm behind a few episodes). The trucking videos are not at all interesting to me, but the one where Vinny joined was entertaining. I'd watch Alex play more Civ, but not drum or drive more trucks. I wish Rorie talked slower and finished his thoughts, because I generally am interested in the games he plays, but I'm finding his speech patterns distracting in pretty much everything he's in.

There's a lot of stuff they are putting out that I have zero interest in (as it was before Lockdown), but I'm sure others enjoy those videos.

Basically - anything with Vinny is a watch. Jan and Bloodborne is a watch. Any group thing with Vinny, Jan and/or Jeff is a watch. Well any group video, really. Anything solo is most likely NOT a watch (game dependent, though).

I second this. And the best produced (multiple perspectives, editing, etc) of anything I can think of on GB.

Very similar to my favorite Youtube channel - Neebs Gaming.

@ak1mbo: I don't really think any of those choices really reflect my feelings.

I don't mind solo content if it's a game I'm interested in.

But ultimately a solo stream has the problem with the host trying to play through the game AND monitor chat. Generally, most people aren't good at that. Or their personality isn't good enough to carry 2 hours alone. It's why some streamers on Twitch, no matter how good at games they are, don't ever grow their viewership. It's also why most big streamers tend to play multiplayer/group games (though they can carry solo streams) - conversations are inherently more entertaining.

But generally the videos GB puts up aren't about games I personally would enjoy, so conversations make up for that.

For example: I could watch Jan solo Bloodbourne until he platinum's it, because I love the game. But I don't ever watch Jan's Pokemon videos. About to watch Nioh 2 and see how that goes.

There's no way I could suffer through an Animal Crossing video, though. Or any fighting game with only 1 person there.

I think Jeff is probably the only personality I'd attempt to watch play a solo game that I, personally, have no interest in. But even that has limits. I'm slightly older than the GB crew (mid/late 40's) and I've never understood the nostalgia for the late 80's/early 90's games at GB. It's just not my thing. But I thoroughly enjoyed the Vinny and Dan This Is The Run's due to the conversations.

Played the free Demo on Friday and (tried to) a bit today (on PC).

Only 2 technical issues. First, when returning to Tarsis after the third mission on Friday, the cutscene never played. Felt like the game froze, but was able to skip out of it and got the "You helped the Triplets" message. Stopped playing at that point. Second, today, just around the time of the "event", I was in free roam, and right at noon EST (I'm assuming this is when the event started) the game just kicked me back to the loading screen (my hands, etc). Stopped playing at that point.

Overall this game isn't for me. Tarsis is so badly done. The UI is badly done. No inventory access except at the Forge in Tarsis. Why? No way to see what you have equipped (that I could tell) out in the world. This is not, from what I've seen, going to be the next great Bioware RPG.

The combat felt fun, but didn't feel like it would hold up as interesting for long, at least for me. I did watch a stream of the Stronghold, and, combined with the encounters I did (the first 3 missions), I don't think I'm impressed with the encounter design.

I did find the open world amazing to look at. But also very boring to be in. In free roam I never got any mission to aim for (before I was booted by, I think, today's event).

I get the impression this free Demo will not help sales. I was on the fence about Anthem, and I'm definitely not going to buy it now. It seems like the kind of game I'd love (I prefer 3rd over 1st person, I generally like Bioware RPGs, and I enjoy loot games), but what Anthem offers doesn't seem to be very good. I don't know why they didn't include any sort of tutorial, or why they made Tarsis a 3d walking menu selector.

I'd posit Fornite BR as not a bad Free to Play model.

But that's because I'm an adult and have control over my wallet.

I did end up spending $10 on it for a Battlepass, which may disqualify my opinion, and played 2.5 seasons, completing every challenge in the 3 passes I purchased (2 with earned Vbucks from prior passes) and purchasing a couple skins I liked. I had fun. I most definitely got my money's worth.

Fortnite BR is massively financially successful due to, from what I can gather, children. You bring them up, and while I would agree there's an issue with marketing to children being shady, it's always been that way (and not just in games - think food, toys - really anything a child could want). And it's always been up to parents to raise their children properly and control their spending - not give them free reign and access to a credit card.

You also want to 100% blame the companies for exploitive tactics and marketing, and, sure, they deserve some of the blame. But what about holding people accountable for their own actions? If 21 year old gamer Jimmy has issues that could lead him down the path of addiction, why is it only everyone else's responsibility to coddle him? Why is it not also his (and his family) responsibility to recognize things that are bad for him, and watch out for them himself? I'm not saying that the tactics used are good, positive things for the world, but Jimmy (and/or his family) doing nothing about his potential problems is also not a good, positive thing. Without gaming, someone like Jimmy will find another hobby/addiction anyway, most likely (it's a personality thing).

The Red Dead 2 discussion reminded me of the Destiny 1 discussion from 2014. So much so that I went back and re-listened to it.

The big takeaway I took from hearing both in the same day is that Brad doesn't seem to actually HEAR what people say when he's passionate about something. Alex and Patrick were pretty active in saying that Destiny didn't belong in the top 10, with Jeff echoing their thoughts (but still stating that in a year of bad games it'd most likely be on his personal top 10), and Jason, near the end, mentioned how after the beta he was looking forward to it, and how the final product was such a bad game. Also Drew, being a Halo fan, wanted to like, but simply didn't. Dan didn't really say a ton in the discussion, and Vinny was once again the diplomatic star of the segment.

The one part in particular was how Alex and Patrick brought up that there was very little content in Destiny (and Jeff and Jason mentioned a "loot game without loot"), and the only thing going for Destiny was it had great shooting. What Brad seemed to take from that is that the only problem was that Destiny needed MORE of what it had ("you can't dismiss a game from the top 10 for not having more content" or something to that effect) and both Alex and Patrick had to stress that they didn't actually like what Destiny did have (apart from the shooting).

Vinny took the diplomatic approach and got to where Brad admitted it took him 15-20 hours before he enjoyed it (around the time of the first patch, IIRC), and Vinny suggested it was a tough ask to recommend a game to anyone if it's going to take 20 hours for it to "get good". As someone who played Destiny 1, and did every raid (completed once, while current), Destiny 1 doesn't "get good" until Taken King, but that's my opinion.

RDR2 seems similar for Brad (as well as others). Takes a while to "get good". Has issues that some can't really get past (controls, etc). Has bad main mission structure (Ben's points). But also has an AMAZING atmosphere and story (everyone's points, bar Jeff and Dan). When Ben mentioned the sniper story and also running into town and getting mobbed, I did feel that Alex (and to some extent Brad) dismissed that because Ben "played the game wrong" and they didn't. I know that's not what they actually said, but it's what I heard from Alex especially.

As someone who's never played RDR 1 or 2 (they are westerns, I have no interest, and hearing about the controls interests me even less), I thought there were tons of valid reasons brought up in the discussion for it being a disappointment. But my gaming habits are more in line with Jeff and Dan - gameplay comes first. I don't enjoy sitting through cutscenes, or having my movement speed crippled so the dev can be sure I hear some character's speech. Most stories in games are bad, and poorly made, IMO. Comparable to Sharknado levels of quality writing and scene framing. So I've learned to filter what various cast members say about games and apply them to my habits. For example, even though everyone seemed to love RDR 1 - I can ignore that praise because I know I don't want to play a western.

Stories in video games are almost universally poorly written, poorly told, and poorly voice acted.

Translated to movies, the best a video game can usually hope for is to be as good as a Sharknado - in story-telling quality. Occasionally one game every few years may reach Armageddon levels, but that's about as good as a "cinematic experience" a video game can achieve.

Games aren't movies, and shouldn't aim to mimic them.

Edit: Just realized I was thinking of marketing in terms of "getting me to buy a product" instead of "making me aware of a product". In those terms, sure, marketing works. But, in general, the more I hear a bout a product, the more annoyed I am at constantly hearing about a product. End edit.

I don't think game marketing works particularly well on me, honestly.

I don't watch trailers - especially for things I know I want - because trailers are nearly 100% BS (you are NOT going to play that - unless the trailer is a cutscene you are going to sit through). I rarely watch trailers for movies (like maybe 1 in 50 movies that I see I've seen a trailer for prior to seeing the movie - and almost all of those are exclusively Star Wars trailers - and disappointing movies, for the most part).

Currently I'm playing Fortnite. Only started about 4 weeks ago. I've known about it since before the Battle Royale part was known about. Nothing I ever saw got me excited to play it (starting with the 1st GB unfinished about the Save the World portion), but what got me to download it was actually playing it. Being at my sister's house and playing it on my nephew's PS4 got me to go home and download it.

Through marketing I knew about Fortnite, sure. But if I hadn't actually played it that one day, I don't think I ever would have downloaded it.

But I also don't generally buy games day 1 (or even month 1). I made an exception or two in 2012, and was seriously disappointed (ME3 and Diablo 3). I made an exception for Bloodbourne and was not in the least disappointed. I made an exception this year for God of War and, to be honest, it's a bit meh.

I assume the Unfinished and Quick Looks here on this site are a form of marketing (especially the Unfinished's), and I rarely ever buy games that I see here at GB (I wanted to buy Surviving Mars after seeing the Quick Look, but reading the reviews have made me hold off - and I wanted to buy Battletech until I saw the Quick Look - to give 2 recent examples - oh, and State of Decay 2 looks like a game I'd love, but I don't have Windows 10 or an xbox, so I just bought State of Decay 1 instead).