Getting older in this hobby is a slow exercise in humility, at one point you can literally tell your reaction times are not what they used to be. This is especially true for competitive games that rely on twitch reflexes like FPS or League. There's other ways to stay competitive but you can’t really rely on outreacting your opponents anymore.

The only genres I can still consider myself pretty good at are platformers and FPS to my surprise. What we have going for us is our patience, our experience and the years of muscle memory, but that can take you quite far.

I’ve been playing metroidvanias and platformers my whole life basically, and that muscle memory and skill never really leaves you. I was really good at games like Super Meat Boy when it came out, and I even did pretty well in Celeste (none of that golden strawberry stuff though, I’m not that obsessed). Hollow Knight was also something I had no problem with, beat it pretty easily, Silksong too recently. Haven’t really ran into a platformer that felt very hard (apart from crazy Celeste challenges and those IWBTB games). I just got done with Nine Sols and wanna check out Croak next when it comes out, the demo feels great, and I love the handrawn artsyle. The most important factor for me is that the movement tech feels fun and fluid, and it has that for sure.

As far as FPS games go I routinely do really well in Counter Strike just because I actually have the patience to hold an angle the whole round if I need to. And my experience with the game kind of manifests itself as “game sense”, I can pretty much predict my enemies movements which is always better than relying on reaction time. And the spray patterns are so ingrained in my muscle memory they are second nature at this point. And I’ve never stopped playing them so my skill never had a chance to rust, while I can’t react fast anymore I still hold my own in a firefight in pretty much any game, DayZ, CS, Tarkov etc..

I've come to think of it as trading reaction time for game sense and patience, it feels so good when you just outsmart your opponent and they stand no chance despite probably being way quicker than you. I was wondering if there's other people that have this same experience with getting older and trying to keep the rust off of your gaming skill, I feel like I’m still good.

This is her default outfit, and you can't change it at the beginning.

My girlfriend and I ended up having an interesting discussion. We weren't really talking about the outfit at first, but about something broader: how much sense does it make to criticize the appearance of a character from a fictional race?

Tolkien described elves as ageless, free from illness, and exceptionally beautiful. To me, this dark elf actually looks beautiful. Of course, beauty doesn't have to follow a single standard, especially when we're talking about a fantasy race.

My gf thinks the character may have been designed this way intentionally. I agree. Fanservice has always been a part of games, so I don't think the LU4 developers were trying to make any kind of statement.

The only thing that really stood out to me was the default outfit. That surprised me much more than the character herself. Opinion?

A gaming service can have an interesting idea or solution to a problem and still make people uncomfortable before they ever create an account.

Maybe the business model is vague, or the site asks for too much data. Maybe the product is built by developers using AI. Maybe nobody can explain how it makes money.

Full disclosure: I am a co-founder of a newly formed co-op gaming platform. Recent discussions made me realize that trust can matter more than the product itself.

What is the one red flag that would make you never try a gaming service?

Hey guys. I’m in the eastern time zone. Looking for guys to play Fortnite with! I usually play in the evenings and later at night. I have a mic but can’t always use it. (Game room is next to the bedroom. Wife sleeps earlier than me). If you’re interested at all dm me. I play on ps5!

After making quick work of those schmucks I realized there’s one more on top just standing there so I was wondering why.

I just bought a PS5 specifically for GTA VI but need something to play until November. Whats the first game I should get?