Bored of gaming

[Stu]

So, in the past three or four months, i just don't find myself getting that excited for videogames anymore. In fact i sold off ALL of my games and am happy to rent from Blockbuster, or buy from Games On Demand.

I'm just bored of being let down by games i've been so excited about, just couldn't be bothered anymore. Hell i've barely spent anytime discussing games lately on here or the 'Haze. I think the only games i'm really looking forward to right now are Gears 3 and Fallout:NV, can't remember a time i've ever been so less enthused by gaming!

So what i need...is inspiration! PLEASE?!

Can anyone recommend me some Mega Drive, SNES or GBA games that are worth checking out? Games that are off the beaten track (no Marios, Sonics etc) that you think might not have the love they deserve? Anything goes other than turn based RPGs or sports games really.

[DONNIemo]

I feel the same sometimes, i get so bored easily with todays games, there all graphics and nothing else, like todays crappy movies. You just get annoyed after a while. Don't get me wrong tho I still game heaps but its usually with old fav games, not always the new games.

So don't worry your not alone

[Guest]

I feel the same sometimes, i get so bored easily with todays games, there all graphics and nothing else, like todays crappy movies. You just get annoyed after a while. Don't get me wrong tho I still game heaps but its usually with old fav games, not always the new games.

So don't worry your not alone

Why would he be worried?

So, in the past three or four months, i just don't find myself getting that excited for videogames anymore. In fact i sold off ALL of my games and am happy to rent from Blockbuster, or buy from Games On Demand.

I'm just bored of being let down by games i've been so excited about, just couldn't be bothered anymore. Hell i've barely spent anytime discussing games lately on here or the 'Haze. I think the only games i'm really looking forward to right now are Gears 3 and Fallout:NV, can't remember a time i've ever been so less enthused by gaming!

So what i need...is inspiration! PLEASE?!

Can anyone recommend me some Mega Drive, SNES or GBA games that are worth checking out? Games that are off the beaten track (no Marios, Sonics etc) that you think might not have the love they deserve? Anything goes other than turn based RPGs or sports games really.

Looks like you're feeling my pain as well haha. I just tend to enjoy booze and relax watching sports.

Though I still have SOME gaming spirit left in me considering I am stuck with just diablo 2 LoD left though probably be on hiatus to video games afterwards. I will try Fallout:NV though if it can rejuvenate me.

I haven't honestly tried red dead redemption if that's your type of gaming or still play some sports game like NBA 2k10/Live 2010 or some madden in case of sports as well as Fight Night. If you're a Metal Gear fan and you have psp(haha I surely don't) then Peace Walker is gonna be released which is now.

[Pikminister]

I got over that phase as soon as I realized that there were other genres out there. I realized that FPS were just the tip of the iceberg and that there were other type of games that weren't so contrived and so damn repetitive.

So a couple of months ago I re-discovered adventure games. Point and clickers where you solve mysteries by way of puzzles. Made me used the old noggin again. Good times.

Now I'm going back to playing on consoles again. Not touching any FPS games but playing some platformers, racing and sports games. I might try an RPG game or two.

The thing is, I got bored when I played too much of the same thing. So maybe that helps.

[Member_of_STARS]

Solid multiplayer game on PC = clans, communities, people = thousands of hours of entertainment and lulz.

I doubt you can keep your gaming hobby feeling fresh and new with modern single player games. Mostly because good games dont come out frequently, and average games become a completionist chores. Thats why a good multiplayer game is necesary, to fill the gaps between the SP games releases.

[Carnivol]

Hopefully, Crackdown 2 wont let me down!

@Stu, know exactly how you feel.

I tend to follow a lot of games, but find myself disappointed by mostly everything. Only a few of the big productions ends up surprising me and most of my fun is found in budget titles these days or stuff that was released onto the market in such a broken and unhyped state that the reviews couldn't help but take a giant leak on it and not even give it a fair chance. I've been mostly happy with Lost Planet 2 myself now, though, but I can't stomach full days of it. I play some random mission in the morning or a few in the evening. That's it. Anything more than that and it just feel like I'm doing it as if it was a job or something. (I do find multiplayer w/friends to be quite awesome, though. Pretty much for the reasons Member_of_STARS listed, but, to be honest, the multiplayer in a game doesn't have to be solid. It's all about the company. We used to even spend countless hours in the most shitty of games back in the day.)


Last game I probably played in an unhealthy manner must've been The Last Remnant on the 360. Once I got a grip on the battle system I was back in that creepy JRPG heaven that I felt was completely missing last gen. (I did follow a side-quest checklist to ensure I didn't miss any of those.) I was also surprised to see that Alan Wake wasn't a complete train wreck (it was more like the game we all wanted Alone in the Dark 2008 to be.)


Anyway;
If you want some SNES stuff, go to the romhacking.net translation database and look for some games that have been translated by various people. Usually a good way to find some random platformers or something that you've never played before and which must have *something* going, since someone actually bothered with a translation. (Can say that I was happy when I saw someone finished up Jelly Boy 2. You could go pour some hours into playing Star Fox 2, I do that on my Wii/Snes9x every now and then, or maybe try GS Mikami, although there's no translation available for that one.)

Or maybe a bit of QUACK SHOT on the Mega Drive will do the trick! (or, if you modernize a bit, the Klonoa games on GBA shouldn't be that bad. Or, well, you might want to stay away from the RPG-ish one. But the platform/puzzle ones should be pretty nice. Which reminds me, I finally got around to booting up my copy of the Wii port of the PS1 classic "Klonoa - Door to Phantomile")

There's always the Mega Man Zero games too (but you've probably been there already, right?) The NDS Compilation of all 4 should be out in the US and Japan now.


Alternatively, you could just bump all the way down to NES and just play some SunSoft games! (Blaster Master, Spy Hunter, Batman, Gremlins 2, Journey to Silius, Ufouria, Return of the Joker or Gimmick!).

[VirusPunk]

I'm the same way, that's why I've taken more of an interest in music. To be quite honest I'd much rather return to the year 1996 or before, at least games back then had soul. Now it's all about graphics this - graphics that. In 1996, Biohazard/Resident Evil was released and felt new and fresh. And without Internet access to look at guides, back then it took me ages to finally complete it which was a good thing. I can safely say the same for practically any old school game for that time or before. You weren't inclined to ruin the game by looking at guides in those days, at least I wasn't. I always felt the need to figure the game out for myself.

These days it doesn't matter if we have guides or walkthroughs, it seems like games have become too easy and short. Though at least Fallout 3 and Oblivion provided a good long fun experience, but that's no excuse. I remember the days playing on my dad's NES in the early 90's and watching my dad play Willow or The Legend of Zelda, it took him weeks to months to complete those games.

I often thought about selling my 360 to put towards a record label deal. But there's always some hope of a great game soon to be released that might catch my attention.

I think what I'm trying to get across is - video games just bore me now in general. Even hooking up and connecting my old console doesn't really satisfy my hunger for a fresh game experience. I think the only thing that can REALLY get me back into games is if Resident Evil 1.5 gets released or some other rare beta.

Solid multiplayer game on PC = clans, communities, people = thousands of hours of entertainment and lulz.

I honestly don't see the hype in online multiplayer games. I played L4D for quite some time and it didn't entertain me really at all. I got kicked from almost every game by groups of kids, calling me a "n00b" despite the fact that I was the only one doing good in the entire game. Online games are more frustrating than entertaining, at least for me. I've tried other games online, like Gears 2, and pretty much everyone there is better than me, so I didn't even bother.

From 2008 to 2009 I played Metal Gear Online on the PS3 and found it to be quite fun for that year while it lasted. Sold my PS3 due to gradual lack of interest though.

My advice is to either pick a new hobby or try playing some oldies. I personally can't see any future for video games anymore so that's why I chose music. There's other great fun things out there besides video games, something that I'm just barely finally starting to realize.

[Rombie]

I'm indifferent. I've fallen in and out of gaming a few times over the past decade. Generally the lull is caused by a glut of games that just don't inspire me even though I may have originally been interested in them. Then you get the one game you weren't expecting and it pulls you back a bit. But then again, that's me. Not everyone. Right now I'm having a crisis about the 200+ games sitting on my shelf, and what I should keep and what I should get rid of. So I'm going through and working out what I never finished and starting there.

I don't know whats on your shelf, but looking at what you have is probably a good start to if you care to even continue gaming. If you can see potential for things in the future that are like the stuff there, then you'll eventually come back. But if all of that no longer interest you at all, then you're definitely over it.

[Sephiroth]

Well when my last PS3 died I was bored out of my mind 2 months with nothing to do I was so bored.

[Zombie Fred]

I have been quite surprised with a few titles this first half of the year, but I do have moments where I have not been in the gaming mood for single player experiences. As Vass's said above, playing with friends is the best way to do. There's nothing better than playing LAN/system link at a friends place (having a projector screen on the wall and playing some great co-op and vs games over the genre, while you hear your friends jeer and come up with some of the best laughs you will have for the week <3) and just spend hours doing this.
I tend to try and mix a few things up in my play-time at the moment though; PC (Starcraft hamachi goodness is a good way of crushing hours through the week!), 360 and handheld fun times You could even go back to your backlog or hit some nostalgia and see what you might fancy.

[Member_of_STARS]

I honestly don't see the hype in online multiplayer games.

Ive converted so many people into MP gaming that its not even funny. People generally "come in" with a certain misconception and ideas about people being assholes, game being unfair, competitive atmosphere being either too difficult to handle (not fun). In order to enjoy a good multiplayer game, first find a good game. It doesnt have to be the best game ever made, but it certainly has to be solid (in the sense that there arent any gamebreaking exploits used by experienced players to feast on newbies, it has to be fun, and not a grind/frustration).

Left 4 Dead certainly is not the best multiplayer title ever, and Gears 2 isnt either. Considering you mentioned Gears 2, I assume youre playing MP games on a console through matchmaking. And thats a big no-no unless you have a lot of actual buddies or long time game-friends. Matchmaking is anonymous, unless the game is completely and utterly, from ground up, developed for teamwork, then you can only enjoy the COOP portion of the game, for a couple of hours. You need friends to play with, not "random people to play against", thats where the fun and hype is.

My SWAT4 days and BF2 days in a well established communities where people knew each other, played with each other for hundreds of hours, and servers (dedicated, 24/7 up and running games/lobbies, if youre unfamiliar with "servers") which feel like home. You say you dont see where the hype is? My man, you havent tasted the addictive fruit yet.

My advice is to either pick a new hobby or try playing some oldies. I personally can't see any future for video games anymore so that's why I chose music. There's other great fun things out there besides video games, something that I'm just barely finally starting to realize.

On the countrary. At a certain point either technological advancement is going to revolutionize gamemaking, making the process easier, simplier and cheaper (wishful thinking or inevitability?), or developers are going to start going back to the roots, now thanks to digital distribution and very simple online connection mechanics. Yeah, Im usually the most depressed and negative person when it comes to modern games, but I believe the last straw is going to come down soon.

But getting a new hobby isnt a bad choice either.

[Carnivol]

Considering you mentioned Gears 2, I assume youre playing MP games on a console through matchmaking. And thats a big no-no unless you have a lot of actual buddies or long time game-friends. Matchmaking is anonymous, unless the game is completely and utterly, from ground up, developed for teamwork, then you can only enjoy the COOP portion of the game, for a couple of hours. You need friends to play with, not "random people to play against", thats where the fun and hype is.

I generally get the feeling that a lot of people are a tad bit unfamiliar with the structure of online gaming on the 360.

So here's the ABC (incase you, or anyone else, didn't already know)

A. Game Functionality.Spoiler:

show spoiler

Pretty much all games with online functions have their online modes split into 3 types.

-Ranked Match: This is ranked play, leaderboards, yadda yadda. Generally, the user has little control over things here. This is the whole "randoms" deal, basically. You can also usually not send out invites to people for games like this (though, some games permits it as long as there are free slots after the initial matchmaking roll). If the game has a game/lobby browser you can also easily still join the same game(s) as whoever you wanna play against by just browsing the game list and joining before the host (or countdown timer) starts the game.

-Quick Play: This is the same as above, but basically just drops you into a game. No pre-game menu for what game type you wanna play, player counts, etc.. It just takes your current matchmaking data and grabs the first available game it can find.

-Player Match: This is where you're in control. You get to set privacy settings (lock X amounts of player slots to invites/friends/password only), some games lets you kick people you don't like (if you're hosting), you can send game invites to your friends and other recently met players, etc.. Most games has a game browser for player matches. Depending on the game, you also have access to a whole lot of more game settings when you use Player Matches (usually related to game customization)

B. LIVE Functionality:Spoiler:

show spoiler

-Reporting, Reputation and Player reviews: Any person you have played against, you can put certain pieces of feedback on, if you'd like. You can leave both positive and negative feedback on a player, report them for various form for cheating or LIVE TOC violations, flag them as preferred/avoided players, etc.. If a ball gets rolling on certain individuals, they'll get reviewed/investigated by LIVE staff and action might be taken.


-Matchmaking: It is generally based on some sort of player skill information recorded as you play (win vs loss, kill count, death count, level, etc.), but is also supposed to utilize data related to your preferred/avoided settings and reputation. It'll along with your preferred game type settings (unless quick play is selected) be utilized to find opponents.

C. Dashboard Functionality:Spoiler:

show spoiler

-Friends and Players list: Xbox LIVE currently lets you keep 100 people on a friends list. You can see their online status, their games, their current activity, when they were last online, their friends lists, their bio/profile, etc. (unless their privacy settings are set to not share certain types of info). The current 100 people limit will most likely vanish with the next major dashboard update. The limit existed solely 'cause of the legacy LIVE backwards compatibility, since original Xbox games used their own in-game interfaces for the friends list features that're now part of the dashboard. Additionally, the dashboard also keeps track of the 100(?) most recent non-friends you've played against in various online games. Giving you the same type of features information features you'd have on your friends (including the ability to invite them to games, voice chats, etc.), only thing is that they're on a separate list of recent players and are likely to vanish off of it if you don't encounter them again soon-ishly. The list is based on order of appearance, starting with most recently played.

-Party: Xbox LIVE initially only allowed for 1-on-1 private chats (or global chat in pre-game lobbies and in-game) on a dashboard/OS level (ie. cross-game and all that). After the NXE update, the party function was added. It allows for up to 8 people to group up in a single voice chat room, share game information and quickly join the same games 'n' lobbies. Some games also allows for parties to join ranked matches as a team and always get paired on the same team. Some games also automatically disable party chat when you join ranked games (incase people are on opposing teams, to prevent cheating-ish behavior. Modern Wrfare 2 was the first game to do this, I believe.) (With ZUNE being added to the 360, parties can also synchronize video/movie watching on the movie marketplace, allowing people to watch movies/shows together with synchronized movie timing.)

As for the other platforms;

Sony, via PSN, is trying to build a similar system, but is still lagging far behind on the functionality and compatibility. You'll probably have to wait for another generational leap before they're on the same page as Microsoft currently are.


The Wii and NDS are using a system that's a bit like a phonebook. You add friends to it, and if they add you, you can see their current online status, exchange messages/game data with them, and get matched up for games if you're both searching for friendly games. Some games also allows for chatting/communication when playing with friends. (Pictochat, VoIP or normal text chat). The system requires both ends to exchange codes with eachother, one person is not enough and the other end does not receive any form for confirmation or accept invite type of message. The biggest drawback with the system is that it relies entirely on external methods for exchanging of friend codes and your friends list is entirely game specific (but you have a dashboard/OS friends list on the Wii and DSi that allows for text, Mii and picture sharing. So if you're able to stay in touch via the dashboard, or a specific game w/chat functions, exchanging new codes isn't a problem.)

In most games you can't just play against someone, then somehow just acquire their friend code (or give them yours). In most games you have no communication when playing randoms on the Wii and NDS. Meaning you'll have to find that player through other means (google their nickname, check community sites for that game, etc.) if you want to add them as a friend.

Some NDS games also has a "Rival" function. It allows you to set your NDS in sleep mode, but with the ad-hoc WiFi activated. The WiFi will collect the names of all other NDS systems it detects in a similar state, to then add them to a rival list. Like with friends, you can see a rival's online status and more or less intercept their online games and go head to head with them. I believe Metroid Prime Hunters was the first game to add this feature.

It's pretty archaic, but still fool proof and straight forward.

[Enrico Marini]

I'm having a similar problem with games. Just not finding them fun. Thinking about grabbing a load of PS1/PS2 games I haven't played and blasting them.

As for Xbox Live, I gave up on that. Got to love people who misuse the report/review player functions. The number of times my younger brother has won a game fair and square only for people to give my account "unsportsmanlike conduct" then there was the really funny COD3 glitchs, which my brothers team only used because the opposition team were blantantly using them as well and because they lost tried to get everyone banned for cheating. But hey thats Xbox Live. Got to love how in Bioshock 2's multiplayer I was chucked in with a bunch of Rank 20's got owned the first match and in the 2nd match (with rank 1 skills and no knowledge of the maps) was in 2nd place for the first 3/4 of the round. I know its been said time and again but I hate Xbox Live multiplayers for the whiners/trash talkers.

[Member_of_STARS]

Oh shit... I either posted a response to your post to some other forum or (luckily) something just went south and it didnt go through. Multitasking sucks.

Anyway Carn, Im familiar with how matchmaking and multiplaying on console works, a bit less on the whole player administrating/moderating on XBL, but dedicated servers offer a lot more. Considering the fact that a "server" (lobby, room, match) is up 24/7, and has a static adress/name, its going to get "regulars" in, its moderated by "admins", so reaction to A-holes is instant, and the whole playerbase is the same for weeks, months, years even. This is why theres a lot more longetivity and more fun- youre playing with dozens of same people.

[Grem]

I don't like videogames now. They look like big blockbuster movies or something.

All these so called huge games like COD, GTA or GOW are all about production value, but when you play them you don't have as much fun as when you were playing goldeneye on N64 or SF2 on SNES.
I don't know, I'm not that much of a gamer, honestly.

I love RE so I continued to buy consoles to play them, but UC and RE5 were not very good in my opinion....I guess I won't play videogames much longer.

And I don't like the spirit on XboxLIVE. I remember when I was winning a battle against a so called "hardcore gamer" at RE5 versus and he interrupted the game just because he didn't like the fact he lost and send to me lots of insults. Seriously, WTF?! This is a GAME! Lots of people take videogames too seriously and this is just not fun at all.

Maybe I could feel much more fun if I was playing good multiplayer games like member of STARS suggests, but I'm not sure I want to give it a try.