I can't tell if I don't like Starfield, or playing games anymore.
I don't know your tastes, but it's probably the latter if you only stick to the AAA realm of games. I sure as hell have burned on them - the indie and mid-budget space is where you'll find games focused on simply being fun. Hi-Fi Rush, Pizza Tower, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk to name a few that came out this year.
My issue with that achievement is that it's strictly an enormous time sink - it stands in stark contrast to the other elusive achievements in the THPS remaster that are genuine tests of skill.
It doesn't help that the game caps the max XP you can earn per session, so even if you are a THPS savant you still can't earn XP any faster than everyone else who has to cheese it past level 80.
As someone who regularly uses CRTs for gaming, I can say with confidence that there's a ton of poorly done scanline filters out there. I have to question if those implementing them even know what a CRT looks like, because there's a whole lot more to it than just a blank line every few pixels.
Sonic Mania has an excellent set of scanline filters if you want to see them done right.
Completely agreed. Seriously, if anyone genuinely feels like gaming has become stale, go play Hi-Fi Rush and Pizza Tower (both having come out this year).
AAA games are more interested in keeping you on a virtual engagement treadmill than simply being fun.
Now this is a hot take - I tend to agree with you. MGS has always felt like more B-movie than game, featuring a convoluted story that doesn't justify the enormous amount of cutscenes. The stealth gameplay that's there pales in comparison to titles like Splinter Cell too.
Personally, the best Metal Gear game in my mind is Rising: Revengeance, and it's not even close. Highly recommend you play that one if you haven't already.
Most audio in video games is irrelevant at best and irritating at worst (especially for retro games). I listen to podcasts over 95% of the games I play and don't feel like I'm missing much. In fact, the multitasking aspect of it makes it feel like a more efficient use of time than just keeping the game audio on.
There are exceptions to this when I know there's important audio cues in gameplay. Admittedly, I don't care much at all for narratives in games either, so i know I'm probably in the minority with this take.
Games are designed like this because too many gamers still subscribe to the extremely flawed "dollars per hour = value" assessment. XP systems and bloated open worlds cater exactly to this fallacy, because more is always better...right?
Games like the Tony Hawk 1+2 remaster for example did not need an XP system shoehorned in (not to mention an "achievement" for reaching level 100). Games can have inherent value that isn't tied to how many hours you have to interact with them.
I have a stickied post on the hobbyist subreddit I frequented, highlighting fediverse and Discord alternatives. I'm not even a moderator there, but they deemed it worthy enough to sticky.
Just hanging around in case anyone comes forward with questions.
Contrary to what most people assume, the Gamecube was actually more powerful than the PS2 (the RE4 differences help illustrate this). The OG Xbox was overall the most powerful of that gen but even then the Gamecube had it beat in terms of memory speed iirc.
brilliant Game Boy Interface which vastly improves the video quality.
It cannot be overstated just how massive of an improvement GBI is. If you're using the stock Nintendo Gameboy Player disc/software, you're playing with an enormous handicap.
Bears getting booed at home?