Topic: Welcome/Introduction Thread

@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!

@Yousef-

Yes that is me

@Tjuz

1. Aww, man. That's a shame 😢 I feel you. Maybe you could still try and use gaming as a way to stay in touch, even if it is harder having moved away. It's always sad when it happens, and moving can be a b**** when it comes to friendships and routines.

2. Only the very wisest of people purchase KCD, so you've made the first step on a journey to joy there. (Hopefully) my one tip, is to not think like a gamer when playing, as it almost punishes game tropes and expectations in favour of realism and logic, to some extent, anyway.

Elden Ring has a bunch of ways to make a lot of bosses pretty easy, it will still slap you from time to time, but I was like you, going in. I didn't like failing or struggling with difficult, but it taught me to play way more chilled out, even though it seemed like stuff that would stress the old me, it crafted me into someone that enjoyed it even when I was failing, a combination of world design, enemy design, bat sh** craziness, music, lighting, it just felt awesome even if you had to go and do it again. And that in itself was the reward, rather than beating an enemy. It alsobhas a cool mechanic where you can hop into other people's games to help them, which, at launch, was a very cool way to quickly redo bosses you'd beaten to help others, and probably still is, as the game remains pretty popular, I guess.

@Yousef- @JohnnyShoulder @Ravix Well, how can I resist all of you telling me not to worry about the difficulty as much, haha? I'll trust you all over its reputation then, but it's unfortunate that it would keep people like myself away because of it! I'll let you all know when I do try it out. I'll still wait a bit for a good sale to get it during.

@NapoleonDynamite vote pedro buddy 👋

Hello, my name is L4GANN, I'm italian and I play at the videogames since the fist PlayStation.
I consider myself like a obnivor gamer.. I had Ps2, Nintendo GameCube, Xbox, Xbox 360, ps3, Nin Wii, Ps4, Ps5 and now a laptop with the 4060.

@L4GANN benvenuto

Thanks guys.

@L4GANN @NapoleonDynamite Welcome to the forum!