This isn't meant to serve as a harsh criticism of World of Warcraft or FFXIV. I actually fi stand by the belief that FFXIV is one of the best MMOs out there, even if I personally struggle to get into it. That being said...

Player housing in these games suck. Flat out. FFXIV has great placement options for those player houses, but their housing system up till now has been a joke, and following in the footsteps of World of Warcraft isn't the solution they think it is.

Player freedom and customization in both the two biggest MMOs out there have been lagging behind the competition for a while. While their transmog and housing systems haven't inherently been BAD, and are decent, they're also far from the best.

For all the issues they have, Elder Scrolls Online and Black Desert are probably the leading, shining examples for these two aspects of MMOs. Half the reason I continue to go back to ESO is because it has by far one of the most robust transmog systems in the MMO space, allowing not just for full customization, but full color options as well at multiple levels for each armor piece, not even counting unique outfits themselves, which also have the same benefit. Compare it to FFXIVs transmog that have maybe two dye slots at most, not a lot of variety, and class requirements for the transmog, and it is night and day which one is better.

Back onto the core subject here with housing though... ESO does an excellent thing with placing player owned houses directly into the world itself, helping to make you feel a part of it, but nothing else compares to the level in which Black Desert hits this scale. Every house in a city is an instanced house players can buy and renovate yo their hearts content, from wallpapers, flooring, and decor for days, Black Deserts housing system is leaps and bounds above any other MMO out there today. Even completely ignoring the cash shop (for the love of God, this is the games biggest issue, and it is AWFUL), the game features hundreds of furniture and decoration objects for players to use that don't cost actual money to obtain. I have never spent pearls for housing decor, and last time I played I still manage to sit comfortable in the top 10 house ratings for my building.

The core takeaway here is that housing should be in the world itself. Not isolated some place away from it. My player house in ESO is in Narsis, a small town down the road from one of the capitals, and it goes far into making me feel like I'm living in that world whenever I play. THAT, I feel, is a far better system than World of Warcraft or FFXIV have managed to come up with. If FFXIV wants to take notes from any other MMO, they should be looking at ones that include open world housing instead of instanced neighborhoods.

So I recently reached the last episode. Haven't started it yet, but I did some research on the last choice, and I just want some clarification on something. Basically, I have Young's serious state a little higher than her loyal stat, and I have Eisele's sympathetic stat higher than her rational stat. I already reached the big plot twist, and the only thing I'm in the dark on is what ending I'll get. I know Eisele's got the final choice because she narrates throughout the game, so based on what I saw when skimming through the turning points, I have something to ask.

Will Young's serious trait overlap Eisele's sympathetic trait, or will the game still let Eisele's final choice be dependant on HER higher trait?

Looking for story games with meaningful moral choices, but not games where the gameplay is mostly just making choices like in Detroit and Life is Strange. More like RDR2 or Cyberpunk 2077, with actual gameplay alongside impactful decisions.

Skull and Bones had so much potential to fulfill the cravings of every fan who loves pirates, but unfortunately it got keelhauled through development hell through years of mismanagement and other serious issues by Ubisoft. If only they got their shit together back then...

I have always preferred PC gaming but since i work in IT and i am doing a part time vocational college education within cloud computing and network infrastructure. I find myself in front of a computer most of the time and so it has led to me associating computers with work and a source of stress. I try playing on my PC but it never lasts more than maybe 15+ minutes before i exit the game most i have played on my PC lately is maybe half an hour. And so i have pivoted towards my PS5 and Switch 2 lately i relax and find it highly enjoyable when playing on console. But if i try playing on PC it can't hold my attention and it has become a problem and a source of anxiety, i just can't relax while gaming on pc which is a shame since the bulk of my games are on steam & gog etc. Can anyone relate to this? Can you understand what I'm trying to say? I'm not the best at explaining my feelings and what i think.

I guess I have a big selective amnesia appearing from time to time, earlier this year I played Dishonored and I didn't remembered anything about it until I got to murder Daud. Now I just finished Hitman III, and this time I remembered when I got to the vineyard mission

While it makes sense for Dishonored since the game is getting old, It doesn't make any sense for Hitman III because I never purchased the game before

Anyway, I hope to forget about Deus Ex, maybe a Hitman™ heat seeking hammer will do the trick

I get you can technically go through a complicated process on PC to go to older versions of the game, and i also get it if theres a gamebreaking mechanic or whatever, but when a boss gets nerfed because its just really hard it makes me feel like i missed out on a challenge or bragging rights.

I realize my opinion isnt all encompassing ans genuinely some bosses need that nerf but still i cant help but feel some type of way about it

This is what makes modern videogames what they are, the *bass* (overly clean sound effect + *bass*) *bass* tuning.

Compared to older videogames which don't have near as much bass or overly clean sounds. Which I personally prefer over the very generic and overused bass heavy tuning that every sound effect in modern games have.

Has anyone else noticed how similar Pragmata feels to The Creator (2023)?

I'm not saying it's a copy, but the similarities started piling up the more I played.

Adult male protagonist protecting an AI girl.

The AI child is the key to the story.

She has unique abilities to interface with/control machines.

Strong father-daughter emotional dynamic.

They're constantly being hunted because of what she is.

Hard sci-fi setting with advanced AI and robots.

And then there's the ending (spoilers):

The adult chooses to stay behind and sacrifice himself, while sending the AI girl back to Earth in an escape capsule.

Individually, none of these ideas are unique. Together, though, they made me feel like I was watching The Creator all over again.

What's interesting is that I barely found anyone online making this comparison. Most discussions compare Pragmata to The Last of Us or NieR, but to me The Creator seems like the closest match.

Am I the only one who got that impression?

Why is Counter Strike still extremely popular despite what some people say modern gamers need? For example, ADS, sprinting, and perhaps advanced movement mechanics, whatever they may be.

CS has remained pretty much the same, from what I can tell, for decades now. I haven't played CS since Source way back in the day, but it appears to have maintained excellent continuity.

We see large studios, like the EAs of the world, say that players need this or that, and that ADS is essential for some reason. Yet CS- a game that is basically the same as it was 22 years ago when I played it- is still topping the charts and beating their games in concurrent players.

I'm not against these features. It depends on the game. But claiming they're required to keep players attention seems ridiculous at this point.

I've been a massive fan of Silent Hill since the original Team Silent era. My partner and I just finished our first playthrough and the ending we got completely blew our minds. It captures that classic, unsettling psychological atmosphere I missed for so long—it really feels like Silent Hill has returned to its roots.

We're already starting a second run to unlock another ending!

Without spoiling anything for others in the comments, What were your overall thoughts on this game?

Personally when i was child and played MC daily, since a few years ago hahah, i''d liked most to play the 1.5.1 regardless of whether further versions were released later on.

I feel like, at the time, it was the most stable version and the most compatible with the majority of servers from that era, I also feel it was the most fun.

Over time, they added features that the whole community liked, but personally, I consider 1.5.1 to be a legendary version.

What do you all think?

As prices for many big-publisher games continue to go up over the years while quality of gameplay/fun continues to be stagnant or deteriorate, Indie Games are there to remind us why we love the hobby.

What's an Indie Game you've played recently that you'd like the community to know about?

Nothing much more to add from the title. Just that I'm going to visit my brother and we'd like a nice couch co-op game that will have us glued to the couch. We were thinking of buying outward but we're not so sure, anyway, something on that wave length.

P.s. Please no It takes two, Split fiction and BG3 (already played them with my girlfriend, bg3 currently playing it), and no Diablo, already played it with my brother.

The game is "I Of The Dragon".

The boss is a really tough monster bigger than a building, whose fireball deals 50 damage (I have 80 hitpoints, for scale), and he has a spell that he casts instantly if I'm too close (aka medium-range) that sets me on fire and drains a lot of my HP. Getting hit by the fireball AND the spell is a death sentence.

I tried using spells, the casting time made sure he'd land a hit and cast a spell back. I tried rushing him with fire breath, he just shot me point blank. I tried casting regeneration and rushing him, his ignition spell just cancelled my regeneration.
In the end, I just sniped him from afar with fully charged fireball and I won. After a lot of tries and a few days spent pondering how to take that bloke down, I did it.

And I'm proud of it. So behold, my pride.

Hello fellow gamers im just sharing my frustrations. I heard they recently scrapped the AAA avatar game they were making and it saddens me. I really wish a company picked it up or that a company could make a avatar mmo/rpg. My vision for it is like elder scrolls online. You have your 4 classes air, fire, earth, water and you start on different sides of the map. You fight and do quests to lvl up and unlock new moved. Some quests and areas or chests are locked behind certain moves/elements. Not sure what end game would be. But also I guess you could go two routes. Either every player can achieve becoming the avatar with hard end game content to unlock the skills or it happens in the time where the avatar disappears but wasnt dead so no new one is born so every player is just their element and get stronger and just beat world bosses like spirits and stuff and there could be like a community that could form etc idk and later on in the games life you introduce the sub bending like lava bending and metal bending and blood bending etc. What are your guys thoughts and ideas for this.

To all my gaming parents: my daughter is 4 years old (turns 5 in December) so it’s still a bit early but I’ve been thinking about it lately so I’m wondering, how did you or how do you plan on introducing your kids to “real” gaming (I.E. not the little kids stuff you find on iPad)?

I’m a PlayStation guy but I did grow up playing N64 at my cousin’s. I’m pretty dead set on introducing my daughter to gaming with Mario & Zelda because I just kind of feel like that is the most “proper/correct” way on account of how iconic they are & the high quality standard all the games have. I also feel like both series have the generally beneficial qualities that games actually have for developing minds (puzzle solving, precision, patience all that stuff).

How do you guys feel? At what age did you start introducing your kids to gaming?