What do you want out of a video game?

FlytrapLife On The Big Blue Marble (News)

Image result for video game

While I wait the 6 hours or so for Star Wars Battlefront II to download, let me reflect on my history with pixel play-times, to see if we can understand what games have for us that we want.

 

As with many old farts, such as myself, our first encounter was Pong.

Image result for pong animated gif

Then that morphed into Breakout and Super Breakout

Image result for breakout animated gif

There were a plethora of variations on these games. But, then things got interesting quickly:

Image result for space invaders animated gif

Image result for pac man animated gif

and led to this:

Image result for donkey kong animated gif

I still cannot walk by a Donkey Kong Machine without dropping a couple of quarters in it.

The arcades scenes of the ’80s and ’90s were OK, but I could not afford the time or quarters, so I got back into computing, and ended up with one of these:

Image result for commodore 64

Remember the Commodore 64? It is still the best-selling model computer of all time. This was capable of playing all of the arcade games and some next level stuff, like this, my first real RPG:

Image result for pool of radiance (Did anyone else play this?)

Then PCs and modems and broadband came along, and with them came this, the first really big Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (you can see why this is usually abbreviated to MMO)

Image result for everquest

Ahh, that one was my downfall. I will admit, I played every non-sleeping, non-working hour in Norrath, teaming up to slay vicious beasties, meet interesting people, and often kill them. I never called in sick to play, but if I was home sick anyway…

I won’t go on and on, but I have played a wide range of video games, mostly on a PC (console controllers sux rox). I have played FPS (first Person Shooters), RPGs (Role Playing Games), SIMs (Simulations), Fighting – Punching – Kicking games…am I missing a category?

So, what do I want out of a video game? After several years of playing, I have developed some minimum requirements:

  1. I prefer RPGs. They are more immersive than the other types. Most MMOs will fulfill the following requirements. But my main problem with online games is that there are a LOT of assholes online.
  2. I want an open-world. Progression games that have you do this, then this, then that, start to bore me very quickly. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus I bought just recently and I’m already bored with it.
  3. I want a fully customizable character. If I want to play a female punk rocker with pink hair named Raspberry Truffle, then I’ll be happy.
  4. I want good, solid graphics. I have the machine for it; I want it to strut its stuff and dazzle me.
  5. I want a variety of things to do. Sure, shooting folks and blowing things up is fun for a while, but I like to craft and build stuff.
  6. I love to explore, find new places in the game. And new adversaries are fun, unless they rip me to shreds. Although, that’s OK ’cause I get to go back and return the favor.

So, open-world, good graphics, some variety in crafting and world-building and a lot of exploration. I did find one game that gives me all of that:

Image result for fallout 4

AND I get a dog. I’ve been playing this for a couple of years now. There are diverse methods of game-play and I’m on my fourth character right now. If you haven’t tried it, give it a go. It will help you waste hours and hours of time.

If anyone has any recommendations that fit my requirements, let me know. Shadow of Mordor was pretty good, as was Skyrim. Elder Scrolls Online, Guild Wars 2 and Final Fantasy XIV are all pretty decent MMOs.

And if you want to play some arcade games, but don’t have any quarters, you can go here:
Home In The Hill games

Sorry, but it won’t save your high scores.

So, that’s what I want to waste my time on. Thoughts?