Not really a “stinker” but I was disappointed with Tears of the Kingdom and have dropped it after 100 hours.

I don’t think it helps that I’ve been playing this whilst sat next to my fiancee playing the Witcher 3 on our Steam Deck. The difference between the two games is like night and day, despite the Witcher 3 being almost a decade older.

Tears of the Kingdom is just okay, in my opinion. I enjoyed it enough to get 100 hours out of it. I dropped Breath of the Wild after a similar amount of time too. They’re just not for me I guess, they don’t immerse me like other RPGs do.

There is! Donating to certain charities and/or charity funds is an effective way to fight climate change. Keep in mind some charities are more efficient than others at using their money.

I’m not sure this one is one that qualifies as effective but it is an example of what kind of things are out there: https://www.founderspledge.com/funds/climate-change-fund

Has anyone here ever thought “I would like this game more if it had encumbrance in it”? Or “I would like it if I couldn’t pick up this item right now?”

Admittedly these might not be the right questions I’m asking here as I understand there’s a “realism” and “challenge” aspect to this debate (which honestly are two things I’m just not that interested in when it comes to video games I play).

Maybe it’s a delayed gratification thing…?

I’m not trying to be accusatory, I’m just genuinely curious. Everyone has different tastes after all.

There’s something about Saints Row the Third that just tickles my funny bone.

It’s just the perfect level of absurd humour for me. It’s the first Saints Row game I played. I’ve since gone back and played Saints Row 2 and it wasn’t absurd enough for me. Saints Row IV on the other hand felt too absurd.

It’s a guilty pleasure of mine for sure.

Yeah there’s certainly a debate to be had regarding whether the realism/emptiness is actually implemented well.

I haven’t played the game and am not planning to (I’m in the camp of the “realistic haunting empty space” vibe isn’t one for me, therefore this game just doesn’t interest me at all) so I won’t comment on it. But I am interested in following the discussion, so thank you for sharing your thoughts with me.

The point about planets in general being boring and empty is an interesting one to me because ultimately I think this is either going to be a positive or a negative for people based on their personal preferences. Video games don’t have to be realistic after all. It’s fine for someone to enjoy Starfield because they like the “realistic haunting empty space” vibe, but it’s also okay for someone to not like that.

I can’t remember much of how Starfield was marketed but I remember the “1000 planets” thing being parroted a lot. Was the fact that these planets were going to be realistically portrayed and mostly empty wastelands something that was made clear during marketing? If not, that might explain a lot of people’s frustration and disappointment.

I agree on your point regarding games that are rated 6 or 7 out of 10. I’m frustrated with people always jumping to a game either being “perfect” or “terrible”, and anything lower than an 8/10 being considered as a “terrible” rating. I remember with the first lot of Starfield reviews people were talking about how they were shocked one outlet gave the game a 7/10 when that rating communicates to me they thought that the game was great?

When doing game reviews, I’d like to see an outlet who doesn’t prioritise getting out a review on day one or before a games release.

I don’t think it really makes a review more objective if you invest tens or even hundreds of hours into a game before you review it if all of that playtime is done in the space of a few days. This gives the reviewer little time to reflect on their experiences, little time to discuss their experiences with others, or to let their initial “hype” die down so they can step back and look at the game as objectively as it’s possible for any single human to do.

I would call myself a “patient gamer” these days. I do not preorder anything. I don’t get anything on day one of release. I’m not in a rush. Therefore there is no value to me in reviews which are rushed out, if anything I’m less likely to trust it. I especially do not trust any review where review copies are involved.

Therefore, your idea of covering “older titles” gels with me. I’m usually buying older titles on Steam sales anyway. I also like the idea of having numerous potentially conflicting perspectives regarding a game presented together like Giant Bomb does.

Oh… I’m not sure but I had a really hard time beating him… maybe I just sucked.

Just before you fight Alduin there’s some dude you have to beat up if I remember correctly, I think Tsun guarding the bridge to the Hall of Valor? I remember him just one-shotting me so I had to crawl into some terrain he couldn’t hit me from and I just very slowly killed him with a bow and arrow when I had absolutely no proficiency in archery.

I heard that Skyrim had a story which was hundreds of hours long. Therefore, when I played it I only played the main story missions and ignored all the side quests and locations.

I was horribly underleveled for the final boss and had to cheese it and I only realised I had played the game completely wrong when the credits rolled and there were no more story quests to do…

I was also surprised to see the leading favourite here is mint chip. I thought for sure it was going to be a fight between strawberry and vanilla

Chocolate seems to be more popular than strawberry and vanilla combined 😆

Shiver is awesome! Personally I’m a Big Man fan but mint chip is probably my least favourite of these three haha

I’m a vegetarian.

I was, and still am, surprised by how often people will go into a long rant justifying why they eat meat to me as soon as they find out I’m vegetarian. All the while I’m just sat there, not saying anything, because I literally do not care whether or not they eat meat.

Me being a vegetarian is a personal choice for me and myself only. You do you. I don’t care. You don’t need to explain yourself to me. It makes me feel so awkward.

People will often ask me why I’m a vegetarian too. But it feels like a very personal and heavy question to ask someone immediately after finding out they’re vegetarian… I don’t especially want to talk about animals dying all the time and how it makes me sad especially to strangers.

Edit/Addition: It feels like a lot of focus is brought on how vegetarians/vegans force their views onto other people but my experience personally is non-vegetarians/vegans trying to force me into conversations about this topic.

I’ve been playing Slay the Spire recently for the first time and I’ve been having a lot of fun with it!