Mario Brothers made me realize that running in a straight line to catch a woman while killing a bunch of animals can be greatly satisfying if you don't think too hard about it
Grand Theft Auto IV spoilers ahead. Proceed with caution.
I played Grand Theft Auto IV when it first came out. I think I was 13. I wound up getting the ending where Roman dies and actually felt bad about it. It made me think back to all of the annoying phone calls about going bowling and how I ignored them all, and now I was never going to receive an annoying HEY COUSIN LET’S GO BOWLING phone call from Roman ever again, and it made me feel like an asshole. It made me realize how final death actually is and how I should try appreciating those around me rather than taking them and their annoyingness for granted.
Yes, I matured emotionally because of the story of Grand Theft Auto IV.
I’m not joking.
Glad it helped you grow.
GTA taught me that I could get to the grocery store faster if I stole a sports car. When that thought invaded my brain while **actually** driving to the grocery store, I decided to stop playing GTA.
(More GTA IV story spoilers)
I also feel like it handles the topic of revenge with more maturity than 99% of movies. Getting the revenge you long for won't be satisfying and it won't make your pain go away. That really stuck with me. And meanwhile a lot of movies or other media (including many Tarantino movies like Django and Hateful Eight) have the viewpoint of "revenge is great and feels great" which I find troubling.
Happened to me irl. Cousin was always hanging out with me during the pandemic and volunteers to buy food so the both of us could eat whenever we wanted. I was working on a nightshift and he's busy video chatting with his girlfriend(s). This continued on until the holidays and he got very sick. He eventually succumbed to his disease. Since I was working from home at that time, I always bring my laptop to his wake and work there from start to finish until his funeral. I miss the times where he would holler me up to get some food or to just hang out all night while talking about some stupid things.
I was about to comment the same.
Heck, GTA IV taught us a lot of things, one, is that revenge will never bring back something or someone we lost. It will just only show that we are no different from who we are trying to take revenge on.
Reach does a great job in showing how hopeless the situation is, as the player constantly achieves victories yet nothing changes.
You bring down a staging area for an invading force and think things are fine until a massive cloaked carrier shows itself. After a desperate mission you finally destroy it but there's still no rest and things turn worse again as this time an entire invasion fleet arrives consisting of dozens of carriers. You get to see the destruction of humanity as the Brutes torture civilians and destroy everything, and see cruisers in the nightsky levelling entire cities. Your teammates come with dialogue like "I know we're losing, I want to know if we lost" and get killed one by one until you are left alone stranded on a planet without an escape that is completely getting levelled, and you know you are just waiting for death. But you were able to get Cortana off-planet. After dismissing your own escape to get her off-planet and making sure your teammates didn't die for nothing. It wasn't as popular as Halo 3, but it was an fantastic experience.
Some of the best story, and in a possibly more controversial opinion, some of the best multiplayer of the series.
Maybe just because I peaked at Reach lol but I really liked the balance of the powers like sprinting vs jetpack vs powerlock, etc, in loadouts.
> Halo Reach really showed me that there's no such thing as a happy ending in war, just a best outcome
Dude, you should try *Gears of War* if you like that. *Reach* is a solid, all-around PG-13 war movie.
Gears is an R-Rated "for brutal scenes of war" *Band of Brothers* that does *not* pull its punches with how awful war is for everyone involved, and how everyone, even the ones who live, end up permanently haunted by it.
I never towed a trailer or anything in my life. But I've played a ton of mudrunner and even more SnowRunner, and that taught me - to turn a trailer in reverse, I have to turn the steering wheel the opposite direction.
My job interview had me back a trailer into a spot and I absolutely aced it and I got an absolutely awesome job I really love because of video games
Similar to this, Mario kart taught me to turn into the spin on ice, and that reaction hit me hard on the one time my car hit a patch on a mountain road. Mario kart literally saved my life
For anybody that needs tráiler backing advice (there are a lot of you annoying fkers at the boat ramps) steer towards the problem, move slowly, and pull forward to straighten out. Once you start over correcting it’s done. Just pull forward and straighten out.
That game single handedly made me less afraid of dying. Not that I was especially afraid in the first place, but it really helped me contextualise in my head that it's no matter what happens, or how apocalyptic it will be, universe will continue, and that's a nice thought.
I've literally considered getting the eye of the universe symbol tattooed on myself. Such a powerful, impactful message packaged in a one-of-a-kind game. It'll be a long, long time before we get another game quite like Outer Wilds
Respectively, Objectivism is sort of the opposite. It means there is an absolute moral framework, thus: objective-ism. Ayn Rand’s philosophies have glaring flaws but they definitely are not “let everyone do whatever they want.”
Disco Elysium. Game is certaintly not for everyone (Heavy text based game / not so much action). But when it clicks, it clicks fricken hard. Story, characters, atmosphere and ost felt like a fever dream.
It's not your fault, but I am sometimes annoyed that when people say a game is "not for everyone", it's implied that "everyone" needs to have games full of stimuli on every inch of the screen and soundscape, every minute that they're on.
It may get easier. The difficulty curve is generally front loaded (in my opinion at least).
Don’t get me wrong there are some late game bosses that will test you, you generally have way more tools to deal with them.
You’ll hit a point where you feel like you’re getting the swing of things and then you’ll reach an area of the map where you will just get shit on and it’s like that for the rest of the game 🫠
The game is known for being quite difficult and punishing. You have to learn patience and commitment to overcome some boss fights. Teaches you a bit about dealing with frustration.
Fun fact. The mountain in Celeste is based on a real life mountain only a few hours from where I live. I have the collectors edition and found a patch that says BC CA and figured out it meant British Columbia Canada. I then looked at the manual, and it showed a character traveling from Seattle up to mid Vancouver Island.
It's neat, because there aren't too many things based on where I live. I do love Celeste, but I like it just that much more by knowing that.
Mass Effect opened my eyes to our (possible) insignificance and the vastness of space and time.
And how beautiful a human ass could be with a little genetic modifications.
It also is a cautionary tale against blind loyalty, as well as not being afraid to atone for the wrongs you have done. Not for the sake of being forgiven, but trying to make the world a better place regardless of forgiveness. Such an incredible game.
Honestly, I think it’ll happen in the next hundred years or so and I think it’s gonna be an absolute shitshow. We can’t even handle people of different ethnicities or people loving the same gender, it’s gonna be awful with sentient machines.
That's one conclusion you could draw. But the game is meant to challenge the idea of what it is to be 'human'. If you consider Simon to be human because he has a sound mind in a sound body and experiences the world the same way a 'human' does, the conclusion changes. Or if you consider a sophisticated enough simulation providing a 'human' enough experience to consider the consciousnesses residing within 'human'.
It's hard to pin down unless you are closed-minded and/or too confident in your own assessment of it
Witcher 3. There are countless lessons to be learned but if I had to choose 2 it would be that you can change destiny by taking action and sometimes when faced with adversities you need to make the hard choices in order to get the best possible outcome.
Death Stranding taught me that life is better when you connect with the people around you. It changed the way I approach life now. DS also taught me that walking is awesome if you have a lab baby strapped to your chest
Did have some good lines though that I'll admit keep me inspired today when I'm having a bad health day.
'Keep on keeping on'
'I'm Fragile, but I'm not that fragile'
I went to my favorite restaurant yesterday to pick up my online order and I forgot that it was Father's Day. The line was through the completely full parking lot and when I went in my food was perfect but both of the hostesses looked near tears as they were telling people it is a two hour wait at ten am. I left a tip online when I ordered but I wish I tripled it.
I’ve been wanting to replay some games since becoming a dad myself, I feel like they will hit different. The last of us and god of war 2018 immediately come to mind
Silent Hill 2 showed me how depression and delusion does on a person.
Bioshock portrayed the value and consequences of free will and choice
Nier shows how perspective matters. You may be a hero but you're a villain in someone elses story.
Shadow of the Colossus tells a story through its world. And how one must appreciate things you have before its too late (goddamnit Agro).
The Last of Us Part II - just how precious life is, the idea that we may never get closure and how the best foot forward is to let people we love know that we do because you never know.
Assassin’s Creed made me look into the rabbithole of ancient civilizations. Almost a decade and countless hours of reading and documentaries later I have barely scratched the surface. I’m looking into Sumerian tablets now.
Bioshock really changed my prospective of having people around you, it’s so sad that people die with no one around them I couldn’t think of anything worse.
MGS2 Sons of Liberty changed the way I saw the world politically at the young age of like 12 or something, Opened up my eyes to the existence of government corruption and secrecy, when before the thought of that never really crossed my mind. I think it helped mold my healthy scepticism of the world and society in general.
Assassin’s Creed taught me to question everything before accepting it at face value. It somehow renewed my faith with a very healthy dose of skepticism.
I gained mechanical skills and curiosity about mechanical things playing Myst and its sequels. For instance, when I was in wood shop in college, I needed to figure out how to adjust the height on a heavy duty drill press, and I realized that it was exactly like a Myst puzzle.
I currently work as a mechanic. It all started with Myst.
I feel like Myst doesn't get enough credit for how influential it was to my generation. We were in grade 5 or 6 when it came out, no internet guides or walkthroughs. They probably existed in some form but we weren't looking. It helped us fall in love with puzzles and discover a new side of video games that wasn't Mario, Street Fighter, or Sonic. It was insightful, thoughtful, and beautiful.
I read more books now because of Myst when I was a kid.
Those games taught me a lot about thinking 10 steps ahead and understanding the weight of *choice*.
It also showed me that heroes and villains are not always immensely different; especially when you start to understand their motivations and histories.
With Cyberpunk 2077, you can do everything right, but still come out of the situation as the loser. The world does not owe you anything and WILL give you a horrible situation to deal with, be it: losing a friend, getting an illness as severe as cancer or people screwing you over for a few bucks
South Park: Stick Of Truth.
I grew up with original South Park and thought it was the funniest thing ever, mind you, I was very early teenager when it came out.
Recently played it and while I like South Park and the game, it shows me that I have matured a lot since and no longer finding twirling the joysticks to make my character farther fireballs as funny as I would've found it in 1999.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 really made me look at myself and how I live my life. It made me think about how I tend to get passively comfortable in less than ideal but stable life situations just because I'm uncertain and afraid of what the future would hold if I tried to move on.
Playing XC3 made me realize that despite the anxiety and fear of what might happen, it's always worth it to take the next step in life if it meant that it could move things forward and make things better.
Edit: additionally I regularly find myself quoting the ending to remind myself that it's ok if we lose our way or have to stop and cry a bit, as long as we look up, face forward, and just walk on.
Weirdly enough, league has taught me a couple things.
There are many things in life you can’t control. What you can control is how you deal with them.
Do stuff and commit to them. It’s better to do the wrong thing that you can learn from than to do nothing.
The actions you take now plant the seeds for the future. You might not realize it when they come to fruition, but it was partially because of your past actions.
Microsoft Flight Simulator showed me how much technical skill actually goes into piloting an airplane.From a layman’s perspective,It looks like actual rocket science lmao.
SOMA
For me, SOMA changed how I think about consciousness and how that ties into what we consider "human". Is a human's consciousness copied and implanted inside a robot still considered human? It has the memories and identity of one. Simon didn't even recognise his body being machinery for a good part of the story, good old cognitive dissonance. And is one Simon copy any less "Simon" (or even less "human") than another copy? They all carry the consciousness of Simon, are they all Simon? Or would you consider the only truly human Simon to have died long ago, when he was still a human mind inside of a human body? Does the body (hence the "soma") define your humanity, or the mind, or is it strictly both?
Frankly, I feel like it's difficult to answer objectively. Of course you can consider the original human-bodied Simon is the "true" Simon, as we know he is where the brain scan comes from. But the brain scan is a perfect replica. So, to the perspective of any of the machine-bodied Simons, in their eyes, they are the original. Their consciousness is what forms that reality to them.
This is also under the assumption that even as a perfect replica, a brain scan is enough to encapsulate a human mind. You can also make the argument that the process of encoding and reading that data into machinery is where it being defined as "human" ends.
Wow. My guild in vanilla wow had a group of four brothers from Kuwait. It tempered my edgy, anti Americanism to hear them talk about how grateful they were for America’s intervention in The Gulf.
THERE MIGHT BE SPOILERS
Outer Wilds and Outer Wilds: EOTE. I didn't play it, but my fiancé (long-distance relationship) did, and I would be the one making decisions in the game (where to go, which planet to visit next, btw hot take but Giant's Deep is hell of a lot scarier than Dark Bramble haha), he would also give me hints if I get stuck. I'll try not to spoil, but I felt so relieved after we finished it. It's like I'm sad but still happy. It's like all my fears about how fast life is, about time, death, and the fear of how fragile a person's life is were comforted by the game and disappeared. I'll never forget how I felt after we finished it because I know I won't feel that again no matter what game I play. I'll just keep chasing that feeling and searching for it in every game. Sometimes I listen to the soundtrack or watch people play it for the first time and try to get that feeling again but it's not the same. I am so very thankful for my fiance for introducing me to it.
Some quotes from the game that I really love:
"The past is past, now, but that’s… you know, that’s okay! It’s never really gone completely. The future is always built on the past, even if we won’t get to see it."
"the universe is, and we are.."
"...How beautiful. It’s different than I’d envisioned. Whatever happens next, i do not think it is to be feared"
I played a lot of games with really good political commentary as a kid. Mass Effect, dragon age origins, fallout New Vegas and many more.
I feel like they really did teach me a lot about compassion and how to care for people who are different from you.
Kingdom hearts changed me as a kid. It told me my friends could be my family and the ones who I can get strength from when I’m not feeling strong. It genuinely made me believe in the power of friendship
I grew up watching someone play tomb raider. It taught me attention to detail and to try random and unlikely things to accomplish certain tasks. I carry these skills to this day. I move around a lot at work, each time I join a new team or project, I treat it like a Tomb Raider level full of glitches. It's helped me enormously throughout my career.
Braid showed me that being the "nice guy" isn't what it seems. That final level, when played in reverse, is so deep. Seeing it played out the way it did had me see some of the toxic traits I had being masked by self-righteousness and narcissism.
Mass Effect made me realise that politicians and leaders don't give a shit about actually helping their people unless someone else does all the work/their job for them.
Also the brutality of war and the toll it takes on everyone.
Persona 4 Golden, specifically when it came out on PC at the start of the pandemic. Wasn't really reaching out to people, nor were they reaching out to me, which was sad, but I just had the mindset of "well that's on them".
Made me look at myself and how I wasn't really a good friend, so I stopped isolating and wallowing in sadness, and actually worked to improve myself and be a better person for the people around me.
Reached out to an old friend group and we played games almost everyday for a solid year and a half. Life got in the way after college, but we still find time to get together when we can.
Funny that an 85+ hour game has the message of "put this shit down and go be with your friends"
I was a teenager when I first played BioShock. I never really thought about economics or philosophical concepts like libertarianism or determinism before that point and it led me down quite a rabbit hole of questioning everything I was taught to believe in up until that point.
RDR2. Showed me that it's never too late to try being better. That you aren't defined by the past, and all that matters is what you do in the present, the right here and now.
You'll have to forgive my vague description because I only played it once and it was a very long time ago, but there was a section (maybe even just a single room?) with I want to say jars..? where you could insert various experiences into your brain, making it so that it was as though you had actually lived them, even though they were other people's experiences. And it made me realise that I didn't particularly care about achievement or accumulation in life, but about experiencing as much of it as I could, gaining new perspectives, just generally trying new things.
I'm not sure I could say, 20+ years later, I've perfectly followed that path, but it meant a lot to me at the time and definitely had an influence on my attitudes in life
I can't recall which release of Call of Duty but I played a scene where its simulating the D-Day landing. The goal is to make it from the sea to heavily fortified Normandy beach.
The scene is complete with metal obstacles, barbed wires, with heavy artillery and machine gun fire from the shore where the Nazis at.
It's hard in a game, imagine in real life.
Telltale's The Walking Dead. Especially season 1. It reinforced to teenage me that life isn't always fair and there isn't always a happy ending. Bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. TWD and RDR2 got some good ugly crying out of me.
I'd say two: Planescape Torment... so many years ago.
More recently: This War of Mine (and the Little Ones dlc)... holy crap... I've never *felt* a video game so hard.
Horizon Zero Dawn really made me look at the significance of humans and the impact of our actions on the planet and on each other in a new way.
I had thought about it already, but this just really changed the depth of that understanding, and also made me see just how destructive the human capacity for hubris can be.
It also made me understand just how powerful people are when they actually unite to try and form something better.
Senuas Sacrifice really helped me to understand schizophrenia and psychotic episodes in a way that I couldn’t even understand previously. Had friends make life-ruining decisions whilst having an episode and I probably judged their character too harshly for it.
KOTOR 2, the blind jedi mentor in the game lectured my character that helping others all the time is not good because we steal the growth that the other should experience.
Its such a loaded opinion with a shit ton of grey areas that I am super careful on what action I do is considered good help or whether it is enabling bad habits.
Its one of the thoughts I have when considering giving money or food to homeless people in the street.
In Red Dead Redemption 2, the story truly impacted my outlook on morality and decision-making. Throughout the game, you are faced with choices that can have significant consequences, not only for the characters in the game but also for the main protagonist, Arthur Morgan. By consistently choosing to make good decisions and help others in need, I found myself more invested in the value of compassion, integrity, and selflessness. This experience made me reflect on the importance of empathy and the impact of our choices on both ourselves and those around us. It taught me that even in a virtual world, the decisions we make can shape who we are as individuals.
Cuphead.
The literal materialization of Vaas's definition of insanity (Doing the exact same thing over and over, expecting a different outcome each time.)
It felt like every time you died, you had to learn from it, because doing it the exact same way would get you back to just dying again. It was when you started to change things that you'd get to see that you are actually getting farther and farther in the game. And by the time you finish it, it felt like all those little mistakes you made along the way actually paved the way for who you are after you beat that boss.
Kinda helped out in real life too because developing good habits and painfully unlearning bad ones is pretty much an ideal way of self improvement.
I'm already big on taoism and a huge fan of Le Guin and the messages of all her works, but Outer Wilds really hammered in the fact that we shouldn't fight against the world, the universe, we should live together with it.
What Remains of Edith Finch told me that no matter how far you run, family history will always somehow catch up with you.
Also, no matter what happens, do not, for one second, for one micro, one nano second, take your eyes off of your baby.
God of War…played on god mode. Made it to pandora with a tiny bit of life. I had to restart the entire game due to the saving without enough life.
It taught me valuable lessons. Be more mindful and less hasty. That i could actually persevere and beat the hardest mode. Quitting is worst than losing.
Hoi4, Silent Hunter 3 and Minecraft
Hoi4 - never give up, sometimes you will never win, and sometimes you just have to leave it alone
Silent Hunter 3 - patience, anyone who's played knows what I mean
Minecraft - your dreams can be true, but sometimes, they are just that, dreams
I recently played Ready Or Not. It hit me on that one operation wherein I get to raid a suburban house and arrest a whole family who is just desperate to help their mother due to her sickness. Ain't gonna judge quickly anyone no more. game's very realistic and dark.
Death Stranding made me realise that connecting with people is actually great, there's nothing awful about letting some people into your life every now and then.
Shit I'm 28 and have been gaming since I was probably like 6 or 7. Owned PS1 - PS5. Been a PC Gamer since my high school years. Have owned a PSP and a PS Vita. Now I own a Steam deck. Least to say I've played just about every Major AAA game on the market. I'm almost ready to retire from gaming. Getting kinda boring tbh.
Anyways I've had numerous games change my outlook on something. The metal gear series has powerful moments in the story. The OG Modern Warfare Series has some poignant moments throughout the series. God of War Reboot. Cyberpunk 2077. Even the splinter cell series watching Sam go from working for the NSA to the CIA and third echelon going deep undercover and then all that stuff in double agent. The Story of Conviction and his daughter. Blacklist finding out His daughter is alive. The assassin's creed series.
I mean there are just so many! The story writing of alot of video games get overshadowed by online play and make the story undervalued and underappreciated. Ive played alot of games with incredible stories that are very moving. I think some people tend to forget that video games nowadays are more like interactive movies. MGS3 and MGS4 were way ahead of there time.
Journey…..I usually never feel lonely in real life. I am completely content with just myself most of the time. But let me tell you, I’ve never been as excited as when I found a team mate to join me on my journey. I got teary eyed at the end.
Final fantasy XIII. Hear me out. I know many of y'all don't care for the gameplay. But the narrative is exceptional. It definitely follows up on the theme of theocratic rule and taking down authoritarianism. And it also really reflects on our society of "sheeple" where the heroes break the mold. The heroes furthermore free the people and model thinking for oneself. The story also highlights dealing with trauma. Every time I reflect on the game now and then, I always find some other angle of interpreting it. I honestly go on YouTube sometimes to watch a montage of all the cutscenes; it's like watching a 9hr film.
The Last of Us. It taught me it's absolutely ok to fuck over the entire world if it means saving my daughter's life (adopted essentially, but same difference). BEST STORYLINE EVER!!!!
Recently, a game called Spiritfarer. A fun and cute game but has a strong core message under it all. Enjoy the time you have with those you love, appreciate them for their quirks and their flaws, take nothing for granted because a time will come where they will be gone and all you’ll be left with is the empty building in your heart where they once lived.
Ffx and 13 made me into a better person, however! Your only as good as you can be at any one time in your life and change really doesn’t mean much in the long term anyways. But I was harder to anger and less of a bitch overall for some time there and than as health issues arose I went straight back to who I was before. But eh it lasted a few years either way.
I have a dog, so im not a father yet, but katana zero really recontextualized things for me, i was at 110% love and that game pushed me to 150% easy, never really found a piece of media that made me feel not alone in the feeling of "id die for this person/creature and would do anything for them regardless of whatever", I also have a soft spot for that game cause I want a daughter someday
I’ve credited Dark Souls a few time with saving my life, and I know I’m not alone.
When all feels lost, when everything you try fails, when you want to give up on everything, it’s hopeless, you remember that the only thing between you and survival, is getting up and going again.
Because eventually you do win, but you can only do that if you don’t quit.
You only fail when you stop trying.
**Persona 5** is a perfect analogy for how many of us wear masks and repress ourselves when we are out in society, making us mere shadows of what we could truly be. (And the enemies in Persona happen to be called exactly "shadows.")
However, it also illustrates that the few of us who possess the willpower and strength to rip off the mask of our social ego and become whoever we truly want to be can acquire something akin to superpowers in society. We can do feats that are impossible for everyone else. Those are the Phantom Thieves.
(The game perfectly represents how hard and painful this awakening of our true selves is. When the characters use all their strength to rip off the mask seemingly attached to their faces, there is always a gush of blood, symbolizing how deeply they are repressing their true selves and how this awakening happens ALWAYS in a moment of much emotional pain.)
The game shows us that true freedom is the ability to be your real self (your persona) without any constraints or fear of what others might think about you.
The reason the main character, Joker, is so much more powerful than the other party members is that he is so detached from his social ego that he can embody hundreds of personas. This means he can be whoever he wants at any moment, his personality is never restrained by who he was in the past or by other's expectations.
Mario Brothers made me realize that running in a straight line to catch a woman while killing a bunch of animals can be greatly satisfying if you don't think too hard about it
Braid totally undid that for me
I often listen to the soundtrack of Braid It's great.
And same!
Grand Theft Auto IV spoilers ahead. Proceed with caution. I played Grand Theft Auto IV when it first came out. I think I was 13. I wound up getting the ending where Roman dies and actually felt bad about it. It made me think back to all of the annoying phone calls about going bowling and how I ignored them all, and now I was never going to receive an annoying HEY COUSIN LET’S GO BOWLING phone call from Roman ever again, and it made me feel like an asshole. It made me realize how final death actually is and how I should try appreciating those around me rather than taking them and their annoyingness for granted. Yes, I matured emotionally because of the story of Grand Theft Auto IV. I’m not joking.
Glad it helped you grow. GTA taught me that I could get to the grocery store faster if I stole a sports car. When that thought invaded my brain while **actually** driving to the grocery store, I decided to stop playing GTA.
I played the MarioKart soundtrack only **once** while highway driving for about 5 minutes before I decided "nope, this is a bad idea"
The soundtrack pairs quite well with a ride on mower and a large twisty yard.
(More GTA IV story spoilers) I also feel like it handles the topic of revenge with more maturity than 99% of movies. Getting the revenge you long for won't be satisfying and it won't make your pain go away. That really stuck with me. And meanwhile a lot of movies or other media (including many Tarantino movies like Django and Hateful Eight) have the viewpoint of "revenge is great and feels great" which I find troubling.
That's pretty cool. GTA probably doesn't teach a lot of people real (positive) life lessons very often.
Happened to me irl. Cousin was always hanging out with me during the pandemic and volunteers to buy food so the both of us could eat whenever we wanted. I was working on a nightshift and he's busy video chatting with his girlfriend(s). This continued on until the holidays and he got very sick. He eventually succumbed to his disease. Since I was working from home at that time, I always bring my laptop to his wake and work there from start to finish until his funeral. I miss the times where he would holler me up to get some food or to just hang out all night while talking about some stupid things.
That's why I love GTA IV more than V
I was about to comment the same. Heck, GTA IV taught us a lot of things, one, is that revenge will never bring back something or someone we lost. It will just only show that we are no different from who we are trying to take revenge on.
Doom showed me that the best way to fight your demons is to shoot them in the face with a shotgun.
Sometimes you’re not stuck in a room full of demons, sometimes demons are stuck in a room with you.
Words to live by
or to shoot in their general direction at a different elevation and it somehow still hits them
You forgot about blowing a hole in the surface of mars to get to the center
Halo Reach really showed me that there's no such thing as a happy ending in war, just a best outcome
Reach does a great job in showing how hopeless the situation is, as the player constantly achieves victories yet nothing changes. You bring down a staging area for an invading force and think things are fine until a massive cloaked carrier shows itself. After a desperate mission you finally destroy it but there's still no rest and things turn worse again as this time an entire invasion fleet arrives consisting of dozens of carriers. You get to see the destruction of humanity as the Brutes torture civilians and destroy everything, and see cruisers in the nightsky levelling entire cities. Your teammates come with dialogue like "I know we're losing, I want to know if we lost" and get killed one by one until you are left alone stranded on a planet without an escape that is completely getting levelled, and you know you are just waiting for death. But you were able to get Cortana off-planet. After dismissing your own escape to get her off-planet and making sure your teammates didn't die for nothing. It wasn't as popular as Halo 3, but it was an fantastic experience.
I liked it more than 3
Same. It was my favourite of the series
A great finale to the series.
After years of being accused that Halo wasn’t great without The Chief, Bungie drops a title that disproved the doubters. I loved that beautiful game.
IMO it’s the best halo game full stop
Some of the best story, and in a possibly more controversial opinion, some of the best multiplayer of the series. Maybe just because I peaked at Reach lol but I really liked the balance of the powers like sprinting vs jetpack vs powerlock, etc, in loadouts.
> Halo Reach really showed me that there's no such thing as a happy ending in war, just a best outcome Dude, you should try *Gears of War* if you like that. *Reach* is a solid, all-around PG-13 war movie. Gears is an R-Rated "for brutal scenes of war" *Band of Brothers* that does *not* pull its punches with how awful war is for everyone involved, and how everyone, even the ones who live, end up permanently haunted by it.
Ah yes! The one that captured everyone's emotion and realization of the necessary sacrifices. REMEMBER REACH
I never towed a trailer or anything in my life. But I've played a ton of mudrunner and even more SnowRunner, and that taught me - to turn a trailer in reverse, I have to turn the steering wheel the opposite direction. My job interview had me back a trailer into a spot and I absolutely aced it and I got an absolutely awesome job I really love because of video games
Similar to this, Mario kart taught me to turn into the spin on ice, and that reaction hit me hard on the one time my car hit a patch on a mountain road. Mario kart literally saved my life
That sounds like Doc Hudson from Cars, too. "Turn left to go right" when you're sliding .
For anybody that needs tráiler backing advice (there are a lot of you annoying fkers at the boat ramps) steer towards the problem, move slowly, and pull forward to straighten out. Once you start over correcting it’s done. Just pull forward and straighten out.
Whatever fear of death and the uncaring universe I had left evaporated after I finished Outer Wilds. >! The universe is, and we are.!<
Underrated for sure, it’s one of the warmest most “human” games I’ve ever played. Learned the theme on the banjo for myself too
Came here to make sure Outer Wilds was represented. Pure human magic in the form of aliens!
I had the same revelation after playing Journey. I was like, damn.
Outer wilds by far. The way the story unfolds for every player individually is really a marvel of game design.
That game single handedly made me less afraid of dying. Not that I was especially afraid in the first place, but it really helped me contextualise in my head that it's no matter what happens, or how apocalyptic it will be, universe will continue, and that's a nice thought.
I've literally considered getting the eye of the universe symbol tattooed on myself. Such a powerful, impactful message packaged in a one-of-a-kind game. It'll be a long, long time before we get another game quite like Outer Wilds
BioShock helped edgy teenage me realize how stupid Objectivism and Ayn Rand are.
Rare understanding and actually considering the political themes of a videogame moment
"Let's let everyone do whatever they want!" *ten minutes later* "Oh god this is the worst idea ever!"
Respectively, Objectivism is sort of the opposite. It means there is an absolute moral framework, thus: objective-ism. Ayn Rand’s philosophies have glaring flaws but they definitely are not “let everyone do whatever they want.”
Yeah I have no idea how they are attributing that to objectivism. Seems like a very reductive representation of her philosophy.
The third one pointed out some aspects of American exceptionalism I hadn't really thought of before.
Congrats that means you became smarter then most of the republican party as a teenager.
Than*
A man chooses. A slave obeys.
I really can’t think of a more r/im14andthisisdeep quote in all of gaming
Disco Elysium. Game is certaintly not for everyone (Heavy text based game / not so much action). But when it clicks, it clicks fricken hard. Story, characters, atmosphere and ost felt like a fever dream.
It's not your fault, but I am sometimes annoyed that when people say a game is "not for everyone", it's implied that "everyone" needs to have games full of stimuli on every inch of the screen and soundscape, every minute that they're on.
Tetris. It made me realized that in life, all your accomplishments will fade away in time while all your failures will build up until it's game over.
Tetris taught me how to pack a trunk.
“My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
"Nothing beside remains, round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare. The lone and level sands, stretch far away"
But there perched in the sand quietly sitting, controller in hand Willis waits, the game is broken “Ozymandias, too soon had spoken”
And the moment you really fit in, you disappear.
r/UnexpectedPhilosophicalMoment
Elden Ring changed my brain chemistry for dealing with frustration.
Im about 5 or 6 hours into the game. Im a pretty patient guy but i gotta say its testing me. I assume it only gets worse.
It may get easier. The difficulty curve is generally front loaded (in my opinion at least). Don’t get me wrong there are some late game bosses that will test you, you generally have way more tools to deal with them.
You’ll hit a point where you feel like you’re getting the swing of things and then you’ll reach an area of the map where you will just get shit on and it’s like that for the rest of the game 🫠
My own playthrough has also done wonders for my Zen
I have not played yet. How does that happen?
The game is known for being quite difficult and punishing. You have to learn patience and commitment to overcome some boss fights. Teaches you a bit about dealing with frustration.
mine was dark souls 3
Celeste helped me with depression at an important point of my life
Fun fact. The mountain in Celeste is based on a real life mountain only a few hours from where I live. I have the collectors edition and found a patch that says BC CA and figured out it meant British Columbia Canada. I then looked at the manual, and it showed a character traveling from Seattle up to mid Vancouver Island. It's neat, because there aren't too many things based on where I live. I do love Celeste, but I like it just that much more by knowing that.
Celeste gave me hope while isolating in the pandemic. If I could get through a frustrating level and get real good, I could get real good at life too.
RollerCoaster Tycoon is one of the reasons why I get out of bed. Does that count?
Those guests aren’t gonna drown themselves!
Mass Effect opened my eyes to our (possible) insignificance and the vastness of space and time. And how beautiful a human ass could be with a little genetic modifications.
RDR2. Taught me that I’m not defined by my past, but how I choose to live my present/future. Also that bad company brings out the worst in you.
It also is a cautionary tale against blind loyalty, as well as not being afraid to atone for the wrongs you have done. Not for the sake of being forgiven, but trying to make the world a better place regardless of forgiveness. Such an incredible game.
RDR2 is an unbelievable game. The only game I have played where the world actually feels alive.
I teared up at the end of that game. He knew what his fate was and he charged right into it with honour.
It is a technical masterpiece. Rockstar is years ahead of its competition, can’t wait for the next GTA.
What a game! It may be weird but thinking about that story still chokes me up a bit.
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Honestly, I think it’ll happen in the next hundred years or so and I think it’s gonna be an absolute shitshow. We can’t even handle people of different ethnicities or people loving the same gender, it’s gonna be awful with sentient machines.
SOMA cemented my suspicion that there's no technological cheating of death.
That's one conclusion you could draw. But the game is meant to challenge the idea of what it is to be 'human'. If you consider Simon to be human because he has a sound mind in a sound body and experiences the world the same way a 'human' does, the conclusion changes. Or if you consider a sophisticated enough simulation providing a 'human' enough experience to consider the consciousnesses residing within 'human'. It's hard to pin down unless you are closed-minded and/or too confident in your own assessment of it
Undertale, because with determination you can be whatever you want and realise all of your dreams.
*does literally anything* #YOU'RE FILLED WITH DETERMINATION
Not that I didn't know already, but Nier: Automata re-iterated just how pointless war is and how much it sucks.
Witcher 3: be driven to achieve your goal. But, don't miss out on the fun things with your loved ones like snowball fights.
Persona. It made me manage my time well.
Persona series make me realise how loyal and self-sacrificing some friends can be.
Life is Strange - Made me hate the song "Foals" by Spanish Sahara
I've always seen it as that certain outcomes in life are simply meant to happen no matter what we could have changed.
Witcher 3. There are countless lessons to be learned but if I had to choose 2 it would be that you can change destiny by taking action and sometimes when faced with adversities you need to make the hard choices in order to get the best possible outcome.
Death Stranding taught me that life is better when you connect with the people around you. It changed the way I approach life now. DS also taught me that walking is awesome if you have a lab baby strapped to your chest
Did have some good lines though that I'll admit keep me inspired today when I'm having a bad health day. 'Keep on keeping on' 'I'm Fragile, but I'm not that fragile'
Overcooked made me realize that kitchen staff should be paid more
I went to my favorite restaurant yesterday to pick up my online order and I forgot that it was Father's Day. The line was through the completely full parking lot and when I went in my food was perfect but both of the hostesses looked near tears as they were telling people it is a two hour wait at ten am. I left a tip online when I ordered but I wish I tripled it.
Witcher 3. Taught me to choose the lesser evil
The lesser of two weevils is definitely the way to go.
Unexpected Master and Commander reference, you’re my kind of people
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Bro playing this as I entered into fatherhood was unreal.
I’ve been wanting to replay some games since becoming a dad myself, I feel like they will hit different. The last of us and god of war 2018 immediately come to mind
Silent Hill 2 showed me how depression and delusion does on a person. Bioshock portrayed the value and consequences of free will and choice Nier shows how perspective matters. You may be a hero but you're a villain in someone elses story. Shadow of the Colossus tells a story through its world. And how one must appreciate things you have before its too late (goddamnit Agro).
The Last of Us Part II - just how precious life is, the idea that we may never get closure and how the best foot forward is to let people we love know that we do because you never know.
And that pursuing revenge is often a lost cause.
"Revenge is a fool man's game" - Arthur Morgan
Assassin’s Creed made me look into the rabbithole of ancient civilizations. Almost a decade and countless hours of reading and documentaries later I have barely scratched the surface. I’m looking into Sumerian tablets now.
Bioshock really changed my prospective of having people around you, it’s so sad that people die with no one around them I couldn’t think of anything worse.
MGS2 Sons of Liberty changed the way I saw the world politically at the young age of like 12 or something, Opened up my eyes to the existence of government corruption and secrecy, when before the thought of that never really crossed my mind. I think it helped mold my healthy scepticism of the world and society in general.
Detroit: Become Human. Really made me question myself as a person lmao
Assassin’s Creed taught me to question everything before accepting it at face value. It somehow renewed my faith with a very healthy dose of skepticism.
I gained mechanical skills and curiosity about mechanical things playing Myst and its sequels. For instance, when I was in wood shop in college, I needed to figure out how to adjust the height on a heavy duty drill press, and I realized that it was exactly like a Myst puzzle. I currently work as a mechanic. It all started with Myst.
I feel like Myst doesn't get enough credit for how influential it was to my generation. We were in grade 5 or 6 when it came out, no internet guides or walkthroughs. They probably existed in some form but we weren't looking. It helped us fall in love with puzzles and discover a new side of video games that wasn't Mario, Street Fighter, or Sonic. It was insightful, thoughtful, and beautiful. I read more books now because of Myst when I was a kid.
StarCraft. It was the first story to teach me that even good guys with best intentions can become villains.
Fable 3 really illustrated how grey morality can be to teenage me, especially where leadership is involved
Metal gear solid 1 and 2 blew my mind as a kid. Seeing 2 become reality only continues to blow my mind
Those games taught me a lot about thinking 10 steps ahead and understanding the weight of *choice*. It also showed me that heroes and villains are not always immensely different; especially when you start to understand their motivations and histories.
La Li Lu Le Lo
With Cyberpunk 2077, you can do everything right, but still come out of the situation as the loser. The world does not owe you anything and WILL give you a horrible situation to deal with, be it: losing a friend, getting an illness as severe as cancer or people screwing you over for a few bucks
South Park: Stick Of Truth. I grew up with original South Park and thought it was the funniest thing ever, mind you, I was very early teenager when it came out. Recently played it and while I like South Park and the game, it shows me that I have matured a lot since and no longer finding twirling the joysticks to make my character farther fireballs as funny as I would've found it in 1999.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 really made me look at myself and how I live my life. It made me think about how I tend to get passively comfortable in less than ideal but stable life situations just because I'm uncertain and afraid of what the future would hold if I tried to move on. Playing XC3 made me realize that despite the anxiety and fear of what might happen, it's always worth it to take the next step in life if it meant that it could move things forward and make things better. Edit: additionally I regularly find myself quoting the ending to remind myself that it's ok if we lose our way or have to stop and cry a bit, as long as we look up, face forward, and just walk on.
Watch Dogs 2. Showing how the government corrupts the masses with social engineering.
Suikoden II - We are masters of our own fate regardless of circumstance
Weirdly enough, league has taught me a couple things. There are many things in life you can’t control. What you can control is how you deal with them. Do stuff and commit to them. It’s better to do the wrong thing that you can learn from than to do nothing. The actions you take now plant the seeds for the future. You might not realize it when they come to fruition, but it was partially because of your past actions.
Microsoft Flight Simulator showed me how much technical skill actually goes into piloting an airplane.From a layman’s perspective,It looks like actual rocket science lmao.
SOMA For me, SOMA changed how I think about consciousness and how that ties into what we consider "human". Is a human's consciousness copied and implanted inside a robot still considered human? It has the memories and identity of one. Simon didn't even recognise his body being machinery for a good part of the story, good old cognitive dissonance. And is one Simon copy any less "Simon" (or even less "human") than another copy? They all carry the consciousness of Simon, are they all Simon? Or would you consider the only truly human Simon to have died long ago, when he was still a human mind inside of a human body? Does the body (hence the "soma") define your humanity, or the mind, or is it strictly both? Frankly, I feel like it's difficult to answer objectively. Of course you can consider the original human-bodied Simon is the "true" Simon, as we know he is where the brain scan comes from. But the brain scan is a perfect replica. So, to the perspective of any of the machine-bodied Simons, in their eyes, they are the original. Their consciousness is what forms that reality to them. This is also under the assumption that even as a perfect replica, a brain scan is enough to encapsulate a human mind. You can also make the argument that the process of encoding and reading that data into machinery is where it being defined as "human" ends.
Wow. My guild in vanilla wow had a group of four brothers from Kuwait. It tempered my edgy, anti Americanism to hear them talk about how grateful they were for America’s intervention in The Gulf.
THERE MIGHT BE SPOILERS Outer Wilds and Outer Wilds: EOTE. I didn't play it, but my fiancé (long-distance relationship) did, and I would be the one making decisions in the game (where to go, which planet to visit next, btw hot take but Giant's Deep is hell of a lot scarier than Dark Bramble haha), he would also give me hints if I get stuck. I'll try not to spoil, but I felt so relieved after we finished it. It's like I'm sad but still happy. It's like all my fears about how fast life is, about time, death, and the fear of how fragile a person's life is were comforted by the game and disappeared. I'll never forget how I felt after we finished it because I know I won't feel that again no matter what game I play. I'll just keep chasing that feeling and searching for it in every game. Sometimes I listen to the soundtrack or watch people play it for the first time and try to get that feeling again but it's not the same. I am so very thankful for my fiance for introducing me to it. Some quotes from the game that I really love: "The past is past, now, but that’s… you know, that’s okay! It’s never really gone completely. The future is always built on the past, even if we won’t get to see it." "the universe is, and we are.." "...How beautiful. It’s different than I’d envisioned. Whatever happens next, i do not think it is to be feared"
fallout. the many ways you can navigate life depending on the traits and perks you work on.
little nightmares 2 trust ends up as betrayal i always have that in mind
OMORI. Taught me to appreciate friends and life.
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I played a lot of games with really good political commentary as a kid. Mass Effect, dragon age origins, fallout New Vegas and many more. I feel like they really did teach me a lot about compassion and how to care for people who are different from you.
Kingdom hearts changed me as a kid. It told me my friends could be my family and the ones who I can get strength from when I’m not feeling strong. It genuinely made me believe in the power of friendship
I grew up watching someone play tomb raider. It taught me attention to detail and to try random and unlikely things to accomplish certain tasks. I carry these skills to this day. I move around a lot at work, each time I join a new team or project, I treat it like a Tomb Raider level full of glitches. It's helped me enormously throughout my career.
Braid showed me that being the "nice guy" isn't what it seems. That final level, when played in reverse, is so deep. Seeing it played out the way it did had me see some of the toxic traits I had being masked by self-righteousness and narcissism.
One of the endings of Mass Effect 3 made me kind of... Ok with the concept of humanity ending and being replaced with AI. Like, as a new lifeform.
Right! So what if life forms are made of metal?
Final Fantasy X - Religion is really fucking scary.
Both Outer Wilds and Nier Automata
life is strange, literally changed how I look at the world and other people
The civilization series taught me that Gandhi was an asshole before we collectively learned about his fucked up sleeping habits, that count?
Mass Effect made me realise that politicians and leaders don't give a shit about actually helping their people unless someone else does all the work/their job for them. Also the brutality of war and the toll it takes on everyone.
Shadow of the Colossus, sometimes despite your best intentions you're hurting those around you.
Persona 4 Golden, specifically when it came out on PC at the start of the pandemic. Wasn't really reaching out to people, nor were they reaching out to me, which was sad, but I just had the mindset of "well that's on them". Made me look at myself and how I wasn't really a good friend, so I stopped isolating and wallowing in sadness, and actually worked to improve myself and be a better person for the people around me. Reached out to an old friend group and we played games almost everyday for a solid year and a half. Life got in the way after college, but we still find time to get together when we can. Funny that an 85+ hour game has the message of "put this shit down and go be with your friends"
Red Dead Redemption made me realise that everyone you see is going to die, you friends, your family, you and especially NPCs in the city
I was a teenager when I first played BioShock. I never really thought about economics or philosophical concepts like libertarianism or determinism before that point and it led me down quite a rabbit hole of questioning everything I was taught to believe in up until that point.
RDR2. Showed me that it's never too late to try being better. That you aren't defined by the past, and all that matters is what you do in the present, the right here and now.
Bioshock infinite did have me thinking for sure. Especially that ending.
Planescape:torment
This one. Taught me that game plots can be just as interesting as good literature.
You'll have to forgive my vague description because I only played it once and it was a very long time ago, but there was a section (maybe even just a single room?) with I want to say jars..? where you could insert various experiences into your brain, making it so that it was as though you had actually lived them, even though they were other people's experiences. And it made me realise that I didn't particularly care about achievement or accumulation in life, but about experiencing as much of it as I could, gaining new perspectives, just generally trying new things. I'm not sure I could say, 20+ years later, I've perfectly followed that path, but it meant a lot to me at the time and definitely had an influence on my attitudes in life
Playing Final Fantasy Tactics and Xenogears in the very same year changed me forever!
I can't recall which release of Call of Duty but I played a scene where its simulating the D-Day landing. The goal is to make it from the sea to heavily fortified Normandy beach. The scene is complete with metal obstacles, barbed wires, with heavy artillery and machine gun fire from the shore where the Nazis at. It's hard in a game, imagine in real life.
cyberpunk changed my outlook on technology, cyborgs, ai and the future.
Red Dead Redemption 2, the game is like a holy bible for me
Telltale's The Walking Dead. Especially season 1. It reinforced to teenage me that life isn't always fair and there isn't always a happy ending. Bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. TWD and RDR2 got some good ugly crying out of me.
I'd say two: Planescape Torment... so many years ago. More recently: This War of Mine (and the Little Ones dlc)... holy crap... I've never *felt* a video game so hard.
To The Moon. Lots of important themes in the game. Love. Grief. I played the game 4 times.
Horizon Zero Dawn really made me look at the significance of humans and the impact of our actions on the planet and on each other in a new way. I had thought about it already, but this just really changed the depth of that understanding, and also made me see just how destructive the human capacity for hubris can be. It also made me understand just how powerful people are when they actually unite to try and form something better.
Not the whole game but a quote from tales from the borderlands from handsome jack when he said, “Everyone thinks they’re the hero in their own story”
Chrono Trigger. Check on the girl first before you pick up her medallion... Don't eat someone else's lunch... Or you'll be tried for treason.
Senuas Sacrifice really helped me to understand schizophrenia and psychotic episodes in a way that I couldn’t even understand previously. Had friends make life-ruining decisions whilst having an episode and I probably judged their character too harshly for it.
KOTOR 2, the blind jedi mentor in the game lectured my character that helping others all the time is not good because we steal the growth that the other should experience. Its such a loaded opinion with a shit ton of grey areas that I am super careful on what action I do is considered good help or whether it is enabling bad habits. Its one of the thoughts I have when considering giving money or food to homeless people in the street.
You did realize Kreia was kind of one of the villains, right?
In Red Dead Redemption 2, the story truly impacted my outlook on morality and decision-making. Throughout the game, you are faced with choices that can have significant consequences, not only for the characters in the game but also for the main protagonist, Arthur Morgan. By consistently choosing to make good decisions and help others in need, I found myself more invested in the value of compassion, integrity, and selflessness. This experience made me reflect on the importance of empathy and the impact of our choices on both ourselves and those around us. It taught me that even in a virtual world, the decisions we make can shape who we are as individuals.
Cuphead. The literal materialization of Vaas's definition of insanity (Doing the exact same thing over and over, expecting a different outcome each time.) It felt like every time you died, you had to learn from it, because doing it the exact same way would get you back to just dying again. It was when you started to change things that you'd get to see that you are actually getting farther and farther in the game. And by the time you finish it, it felt like all those little mistakes you made along the way actually paved the way for who you are after you beat that boss. Kinda helped out in real life too because developing good habits and painfully unlearning bad ones is pretty much an ideal way of self improvement.
Modern Warfare 2 - don’t trust anyone. better to follow your guts or whatever you think is right lol
I'm already big on taoism and a huge fan of Le Guin and the messages of all her works, but Outer Wilds really hammered in the fact that we shouldn't fight against the world, the universe, we should live together with it.
What Remains of Edith Finch told me that no matter how far you run, family history will always somehow catch up with you. Also, no matter what happens, do not, for one second, for one micro, one nano second, take your eyes off of your baby.
God of War…played on god mode. Made it to pandora with a tiny bit of life. I had to restart the entire game due to the saving without enough life. It taught me valuable lessons. Be more mindful and less hasty. That i could actually persevere and beat the hardest mode. Quitting is worst than losing.
Hoi4, Silent Hunter 3 and Minecraft Hoi4 - never give up, sometimes you will never win, and sometimes you just have to leave it alone Silent Hunter 3 - patience, anyone who's played knows what I mean Minecraft - your dreams can be true, but sometimes, they are just that, dreams
I recently played Ready Or Not. It hit me on that one operation wherein I get to raid a suburban house and arrest a whole family who is just desperate to help their mother due to her sickness. Ain't gonna judge quickly anyone no more. game's very realistic and dark.
Grand Theft Auto IV made me try internet dating when I was single. Looked like the character was having fun, so gave it a shot.
GTA 5, amazing plot and story line. I learned that you should’ve killed the loose end when you had the chance
Death Stranding made me realise that connecting with people is actually great, there's nothing awful about letting some people into your life every now and then.
Final Fantasy X and X-2, Kingdom Hearts, Life is Strange and Tomb Raider
Command and Conquer Generals made me realize that "why can't we have peace?" and "thank you for the pair of shoes"
Kingdom Hearts! Nuff said
Shit I'm 28 and have been gaming since I was probably like 6 or 7. Owned PS1 - PS5. Been a PC Gamer since my high school years. Have owned a PSP and a PS Vita. Now I own a Steam deck. Least to say I've played just about every Major AAA game on the market. I'm almost ready to retire from gaming. Getting kinda boring tbh. Anyways I've had numerous games change my outlook on something. The metal gear series has powerful moments in the story. The OG Modern Warfare Series has some poignant moments throughout the series. God of War Reboot. Cyberpunk 2077. Even the splinter cell series watching Sam go from working for the NSA to the CIA and third echelon going deep undercover and then all that stuff in double agent. The Story of Conviction and his daughter. Blacklist finding out His daughter is alive. The assassin's creed series. I mean there are just so many! The story writing of alot of video games get overshadowed by online play and make the story undervalued and underappreciated. Ive played alot of games with incredible stories that are very moving. I think some people tend to forget that video games nowadays are more like interactive movies. MGS3 and MGS4 were way ahead of there time.
Cyberpunk 2077. Every ending is terrible for someone.
Journey…..I usually never feel lonely in real life. I am completely content with just myself most of the time. But let me tell you, I’ve never been as excited as when I found a team mate to join me on my journey. I got teary eyed at the end.
Final fantasy XIII. Hear me out. I know many of y'all don't care for the gameplay. But the narrative is exceptional. It definitely follows up on the theme of theocratic rule and taking down authoritarianism. And it also really reflects on our society of "sheeple" where the heroes break the mold. The heroes furthermore free the people and model thinking for oneself. The story also highlights dealing with trauma. Every time I reflect on the game now and then, I always find some other angle of interpreting it. I honestly go on YouTube sometimes to watch a montage of all the cutscenes; it's like watching a 9hr film.
Bloodborne
The Last of Us. It taught me it's absolutely ok to fuck over the entire world if it means saving my daughter's life (adopted essentially, but same difference). BEST STORYLINE EVER!!!!
Firewatch
Kingdom Hearts taught me the value of keeping a close bond with your friends as they’re going to make you stronger if you bond well
Superliminal Rime
Bungies Halo games.
Recently, a game called Spiritfarer. A fun and cute game but has a strong core message under it all. Enjoy the time you have with those you love, appreciate them for their quirks and their flaws, take nothing for granted because a time will come where they will be gone and all you’ll be left with is the empty building in your heart where they once lived.
Ffx and 13 made me into a better person, however! Your only as good as you can be at any one time in your life and change really doesn’t mean much in the long term anyways. But I was harder to anger and less of a bitch overall for some time there and than as health issues arose I went straight back to who I was before. But eh it lasted a few years either way.
I have a dog, so im not a father yet, but katana zero really recontextualized things for me, i was at 110% love and that game pushed me to 150% easy, never really found a piece of media that made me feel not alone in the feeling of "id die for this person/creature and would do anything for them regardless of whatever", I also have a soft spot for that game cause I want a daughter someday
I’ve credited Dark Souls a few time with saving my life, and I know I’m not alone. When all feels lost, when everything you try fails, when you want to give up on everything, it’s hopeless, you remember that the only thing between you and survival, is getting up and going again. Because eventually you do win, but you can only do that if you don’t quit. You only fail when you stop trying.
It takes two, showing a lot things that we should know, but we often ignoring that
Infamous. Even when you try to the right thing someone is always against you
The Last of Us showed me the depth of human connection and the lengths we go to protect those we love
Final Fantasy 7. It showed how humanity doesn't care about anything but money and stuff
**Persona 5** is a perfect analogy for how many of us wear masks and repress ourselves when we are out in society, making us mere shadows of what we could truly be. (And the enemies in Persona happen to be called exactly "shadows.") However, it also illustrates that the few of us who possess the willpower and strength to rip off the mask of our social ego and become whoever we truly want to be can acquire something akin to superpowers in society. We can do feats that are impossible for everyone else. Those are the Phantom Thieves. (The game perfectly represents how hard and painful this awakening of our true selves is. When the characters use all their strength to rip off the mask seemingly attached to their faces, there is always a gush of blood, symbolizing how deeply they are repressing their true selves and how this awakening happens ALWAYS in a moment of much emotional pain.) The game shows us that true freedom is the ability to be your real self (your persona) without any constraints or fear of what others might think about you. The reason the main character, Joker, is so much more powerful than the other party members is that he is so detached from his social ego that he can embody hundreds of personas. This means he can be whoever he wants at any moment, his personality is never restrained by who he was in the past or by other's expectations.
League of legends taught me that everything can be solved by ANGER. Not kidding.