Topic: Welcome/Introduction Thread

Hey all, I guess I've been a bit active here for a month but I never saw this thread before so here's a quick introduction

My name is Islam, I'm from Egypt but I'm living in Germany. Dad of two adorable kids and I've been gaming since I was a kid. Still trying my best to have like 2 hours per day in evenings when the kids are sleeping to play but most of the times I play less than that xD.

I've owned different consoles and at one point used to have all consoles of the same generation but last year just decided to sell my Series X and gave the Switch to my 7 years old daughter and I mainly now play only on PS5.

My favorite games of all time are Dragon Age, The Witcher and God of War.

Also, here's my PSN so feel free to add me even if I'm not playing that much multiplayer games nowadays : Khwarezm_89

@Khwarezm89 hey buddy, yeah have seen you about here as it goes but have a late welcome all the same 😉

@Khwarezm89 Yo dude, I can tell your passion form your posts! Welcome!

@Khwarezm89 the fact you’re from Egypt explains your username. Al-Khawarzmi الخوارزمي is one of the greatest Arab scientists in history. Great username. Welcome to the threads, friend.

Thank you all for the welcome

@Yousef- yes you're correct. Actually my friends was calling me Khawarzmi back when I was in the college and that's why I had my username as Khwarezm89 everywhere

@Khwarezm89 Welcome to the forum!

And thanks to all for welcoming me too!

Howdy!
Just wanted to officially introduce myself. Been lurking for ages and somewhat recently became a member.

I'm a Norwegain man who grew up as a Sega kid until I got the PS1 and have enjoyed every Sony console since then. Enjoy most kind of games, but RPGs and Tactics games are a fav for sure.

I can be a bit sarcastic, opinionated and snarky, so I might ruffle some peoples feathers now and again. Such is life I guess. 😋 I'm passionate about gaming, have an offensively bad sense of humour and try to enjoy life as much as I can.

Thanks for reading, have an amazing Thursday. 😁

@LuXifer welcome!
Pleased to make your acquaintance!
In a similar boat, lurked since 2015 but became a member recently. I recognize basically all the regulars lol including ones who deactivated their acc
Cool to meet a Norwegian person! Im from kuwait myself.
Nice meeting and hopefully this is start of a wonderful companionship. Looking forward to your time on the threads! Everyone here is super nice!
Except me boo 👻

@LuXifer Heya! Hope you enjoy your time here! I also did like to lurk around PX and its sister sites a lot for years but I only just made an account months ago. Interacting with others on these sites is so fun, and I hope you come across lots of fun and nice people here

@Yousef- Thanks! 😃 Sadly never been farther south then Spain, but fun to meet some from Kuwait. Gaming is worldwide after all. 🎮

@Pastellioli Thanks a bunch, I'm sure I will. Always fun interacting with fellow gamers. 😀

@LuXifer hey dude, welcome aboard!

@colonelkilgore Thanks!

@Malaise You're obviously a scholar and a gentleman, thanks a lot. 😁

Yeah, that's what drew me to this site. As long as you're not batsh*t crazy you an vent your opinions, so refreshing.

Wishing you an awesome weekend!

Hello y'all! I've managed to catch the ever-elusive gaming bug again, so I've predictably found my way back here as I'm itching to discuss the latest and greatest with y'all. I see some new faces amongst you, which is great, as well as some old faces having seemingly left, which is unfortunate, but I'm happy to make your acquaintance and hope to be active for a bit. Or well, as long as the gaming bug lasts this time around.

For anyone who hasn't seen me around before (and to give a proper introduction for the first time I believe): I'm Matt, from the Netherlands but living in Berlin currently, 24 years old and the cold weather has inspired me to turn my attention back to hobbies I can do inside instead of going out constantly. Just my luck that an interest in gaming is always lurking beneath the surface waiting for the perfect moment to reveal itself then.

I'm a big fan of anything that's story-driven and probably way too critical with the types of games I decide to give a chance. If I remember correctly however, I made a New Year's resolution earlier this year on our thread where I promised myself to at least play two games that are out of my limited comfort zone and I intend to keep that promise now. Some of my favourite games of all-time are the Mass Effect trilogy, BioShock Infinite, Life is Strange 2, the Dreamfall saga and Dishonored, among others.

Started my gaming journey with the SNES thanks to a gaming grandma and am now a full-time PC player. I don't even actually have my Playstation 3/4 anymore ever since I moved to Berlin and I'm currently not intending to buy the latest one. As long as my PC can run the games I want to play, I'm good, but I still love to be on this site thanks to its great community and discussion. Hope you'll still accept me now that I've exposed myself as a faux-Playstationer! (Site ban incoming.)

Excited to get to chatting! Have a lovely day, all of you.

@Tjuz welcome back buddy, I do remember you from a couple of years ago and good to see you back around.

@Tjuz welcome back. I see your list was basically get stuck in to a long game and also something outside of your comfort zone so I will straight away jump in to the easy recommendations:

The Witcher 3.
Kingdom Come Deliverance.
Baldur's Gate 3.
Elden Ring.

That's enough game to get you through the next year or two, see you in 2026 🫡😂 also, it could be argued they contain elements outside of the comfort zone.

TW3 (well, it's part 3 of a game based on a book, so that might be a turn off to some because of not being invested already) and initially it takes a bit of getting used to. But the rewards are RDR2 like in scale, so worth every moment. And it's obvious the love and respect they have for the source material, a game made with passion.

KCD. It's a first person medieval historical fiction game that really dials in on realism in game design, which can annoy some people, and first person is hit or miss for some people anyway. But again, the rewards for playing it are so lovely and warming for the gaming soul. And if it clicks you come out the other side thinking "why don't other developers care this damn much about their vision to do it differently" and why don't other games get made with the same passion.

Baldur's Gate 3. It's turn based, which made me think it was not for me. I was wrong. I was actually won around by watching the devs talk about the game in a special presentation pre release, and boy did they care a whole lot about what they were making, it's inflections, and it comes across in the game itself. Again, pure passion from the devs and the writing of all of the "side" characters is superb.

Elden Ring. Could be off putting because of the souls reputation for being hard. It is not hard. Yes, the bosses are powerful, but you just level vigor, fight other stuff and get there eventually, and there's a tonne of help from other players, summons, powerful magics and all the like. It also has fairly generous checkpoints, and losing any souls is no big deal, as it's easy to earn them back anyway. The game itself, it's an explorers delight, never have I felt so much awe and delight in simply heading off in a direction to see what I can find, or what happens. It's packed full of wonder, and will only slap you down a few times. And once you realise being slapped down isn't gating you off from going to do other stuff, the world of possibilities opens up. Not so much on the strong narrative, it's more like a picture book with bits cut out of it, where you have to work out what's going on for yourself. There's some fingers, some bendy necks and a mystery blue witch, now work out what it all means while being trampled on by some big dude on a golden armoured horse 😁

I love chatting about games I enjoy too, so if you do start any new playthroughs bump their threads back up top and I'll probably join in at some point, and I'm sure others will too.

@Malaise @colonelkilgore Thank you for the warm welcome back, y'all!

@Ravix Thank you for the recommendations! Really appreciate it. I've actually finished The Witcher 3 already and enjoyed my time with it, though it took me a while to get through the whole game! I get pretty easily burnt out on longer games so it wasn't easy, but I'm glad I managed to push through in the end because it's definitely worth the long playtime.

Baldur's Gate 3 I've played around 10 hours of with a friend, but sadly ever since I've moved countries we've lost touch and not gamed together as often. I'd like to pick it up again some day but the thought of continuing without him saddens me and starting it all over again by myself feels like a big commitment, but maybe I'll get to it one day.

As for Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Elden Ring, I picked up the former just a few weeks ago and intend to give it a whirl in the near future. I'll report back for sure when I do! The latter... like you said, has a reputation for being incredibly hard and I'll be the first to admit that I absolutely hate it when games are hard. It just frustrates me more than anything and I never feel the sense of achievement like others more so than the sense of relief, so I'm really not sure if that's something within my ballpark. I did say I want to go a bit out of my comfort zone however, and with you saying it doesn't quite live up to its reputation on the difficulty side, maybe it would be a good one to give a shot since it is heavily praised by many! I'll add it to my wishlist and see if I can pick it up for a good price at some point.

Thanks again, and I hope to have fun discussions with you in the future! Always happy to have a sparring partner to share each others thoughts with.

@Tjuz you seem quite passionate, pleased to make your acquaintance! Welcome back to the PS topics and looking forward to whatever we shall discuss!
Best of wishes.

@Tjuz I would not let the claimed difficulty of Elden Ring put you off. Apart for some of the main bosses, I do not think it was that difficult. As i've played the previous Souls games and their brethren, maybe that is the reason. However, my mate at work popped his cherry with Elden RIng and managed to complete it. Getting used to the more measured combat was what took the longest to get his head around. It definitely From Software's most accessable game so far, and there are a few tools to assist players. Plus as it is open world, their are more options to the player to go off and explore if they do come across a stumbling block.

@JohnnyShoulder I agrr!