The Hot Topic Returns

[HandsomeDead]

I don't think it's correct because reading the question it does say "console's library".  I took it as meaning excluding backwards compatibility too.  It's like you can be locked in a room for the rest of your days with a specific console's library and a system capable of playing them.

 

PC isn't a console and BC needlessly muddies the question.

 

The PS2 can technically play PS1 games but I picked the library of PS2 games, so that is the choice, it doesn't matter what the system is capable of playing.

 

That's how I read it at least (accurately)

[Nag]

44 minutes ago, DANGERMAN said:

has anyone said pc?

 

You just did.

[radiofloyd]

You could make a case for a lot of consoles/handhelds, certainly the PS1, PS2, PS4 and DS.

The Final Fantasy trilogy on the PS1, GTA and Guitar Hero on the PS2, the PS4 and DS’s endless great libraries.

 

In the end, the winner has to be the Steam Deck.

[Nag]

 

Quote

Readers admit the game concepts and moves that they can never get right, from flying a plane to special moves in a fighting game.

 

The subject for this week’s Hot Topic was suggested by reader Razzledazzle, who used the example of web-swinging in Spider-Man. It could be any element of a game though, from a general concept to something more specific.

 

Everyone was surprisingly happy to admit their blind spots, although the most common by far was rhythm action games and, to a lesser extent, QTEs.

 

[one-armed dwarf]

I don't really have this problem. Not cause I'm godlike or anything but just that it naturally takes more time to develop muscle memory to do certain things than others, so it's usually a case of me maybe taking longer than usual but getting there at some point. It's mostly just a question of time, imo

 

To offer some sort of example I guess I didn't manage to get good at the way neutral works in KoF, with the 4 different types of hopping and stuff. But that's cause I gave up pretty quick

 

edit actually there is something else I put a lot of time into and never got good at, so not completely accurate. DMC4 Dante, probably the most complicated character in a single player game. He's got a weapon called lucifer which is used for setups, like a fighting game. Never worked it out despite effort, so that

[OCH]

Combo driven games like DMC and Killer Instinct. Give me a movelist and I'll learn it. Expect me to string successive hits together into high numbered attacks. Does not compute🤷‍♂️

[Nag]

I agree with flying planes that's mentioned in the question, helicopters fine but throw me in a plane and I lose all coordination... and if it forces inverted controls forget about it.

 

I'm also pretty shit at reading tells in games... part of the reason I suck at Souls type games.

[Craymen Edge]

I've never been able to progress far past medium in rhythm games like Guitar Hero/Rock Band. A few songs into the hard level you reach a tier where I just can't visually process the patterns coming at me.

[spatular]

4 hours ago, Nag said:

I'm also pretty shit at reading tells in games... part of the reason I suck at Souls type games.

yeah im rubbish at this too, i quite like some of those games (well not souls, more like dmc) but only if i can button mash through it, or some games make the tells really obvious to make it a bit easier

[shinymcshine]

I know it's a slight aside, but for me it's reading (or not bothering to read) the swathes of lore and background that come with the majority of CRPGs.

 

TBH it doesn't often hinder the gameplay - but I recall a few times more recently in 'Pathfinder:Kingmaker' and 'Pillars of Eternity 2' where you were questioned, for plot progression, on things your character should know (based on in-game text) but I hadn't bothered to read.

 

From a gameplay mechanics point of view - actually learning to play the game fully is my failing. I'm amazed when many of you 100% games/ trophies/ achievements, when I'm content just to get through to the end !

[one-armed dwarf]

Oh but that's the best stuff shiney. 

 

Next you are going to say you throw away all the chicken skin off of KFC 👎

 

Also wrt reading tells I'm really slow at learning that stuff also, reason number 1 that I cheat at roguelikes and find them impossible to enjoy. That's the one genre that just feels to completely disregard anyone who takes a long time to learn things

[shinymcshine]

15 minutes ago, one-armed dwarf said:

Oh but that's the best stuff shiney. 

 

Next you are going to say you throw away all the chicken skin off of KFC 👎

 

 

Well okay I read "The Lusty Argonian Maid", but when you get reams of political history and magical theology I tend to hit the skip button.

 

Surely no monster ever throws away the KFC skin (& coating) !?!?

[OCH]

6 minutes ago, shinymcshine said:

Surely no monster ever throws away the KFC skin (& coating) !?!?

My Dad does. He claims he loves KFC... but hates the skin🤔

[Nag]

Tbh I think you're a monster if you enjoy KFC... fucking muck.🤮

[OCH]

33 minutes ago, Nag said:

Tbh I think you're a monster if you enjoy KFC... fucking muck.🤮

Maybe it's a "back in my day" thing, but (when I could still eat*) KFC. I think it is a franchise wherein the food taste and quality definitely got worse over the years. The fries in particular, are horrid.

 

 

*Now being aware of my Gluten intolerance. Over night it took a lot of take away options off the table. 

[Sly Reflex]

Most of what's been said already, but long button combo's in tight windows in fighting games or Tony Hawks. I can do them in training, but put me against an AI that's fighting back, or a real person and I just can't do it. Back when I was doing 20 Questions the game that come up that most people would like to be good at was fighting games, so I think the sentiment is there that a lot of people are just incapable of doing that shit on a level where they are competitive.

 

Music games is a bit different because the inputs are there, but it can still be overwhelming. There's defo that part where you can see the notes, but your hands just doing whatever it wants. That carried through to the harder difficulties, it's never a feeling that goes away.

 

Lore dumps are just shit game design. I'm not saying if you pick a book up and read it on your own time as extra curricular stuff, but just making you sit through never ending story and expecting you to remember ever last part of it is unrealistic.

 

Reading tells I'm fine at, reacting to them is a completely different thing though.

 

Controlling planes and choppers in 3D space is fine for me, but some games have terrible controls for them. The way Just Cause does aerial vehicles is shocking for example, it can make quite a simple thing a bitch to control. I think to some extent the blame falls on the game in these instances.

 

KFC, you eat the lot. It's hit and miss though, depends which one you go to on the quality of what you'll get. The chips are horrible though

[one-armed dwarf]

The point I was making previously was mainly made mainly in reference to the fighting game part of the question, and not reading tells/learning mechanics which I do struggle with a lot. There's a concept in those games called the 'mental stack', which is basically the building blocks you're piecing together in your own head that govern your second to second decision making. Then there's the acceptance that building it out isn't a A->B linear path. There's labbing the combo in a training room but there's also understanding what's going on in the actual match and eventually having a stable 'mental stack' of different things that it feels less like spinning plates and more of a stable juggling act. 

 

The fact is if you can do it in training you can do it in a real match as well, in terms of having the skill to do it. But it's much harder on the emotional level to consistently pull it off, which is the thing which feels insurmountable but maybe is not. It also gets affected by what's going in your real life, your diet, how you sleep and what your stress level is like, even when you have the execution down in training. Real life distractions occupy a space on the mental stack. I think that's the thing that gets missed a lot and why it can become for some people like a non-worthwhile form of self abuse (which at the very least means it's important to take breaks, if not to walk away from the game entirely). It's often a case that it feels like your brain is being bounced around trying to understand what the other dude is doing but that also reduces over time with exposure and it starts to make sense, which stabilizes the 'mental stack' even more for the future. Does take a lot of time tho, as someone who's gotten whupped pretty bad this weekend in SF6. The real grind is keeping a handle on that, none of the mad shit I wanted to do today came out in a real match, in fact today I played even worse than yday, it be like that sometimes

 

 

[HandsomeDead]

Thinking about long combos is completely the wrong approach when you're new anyway, you don't even need to be considering them.  The start should be "what's my anti-air?" and it'll be one button and a direction, "what's your quickest button and what can I get after it?" and in Strive you can combo into down Dust after which leads you into a hard knock down, then you figure something after that.  It's a two move combo but anything more than that is what you work on long term, and you don't even need to engage with it too much for simple fun and even wins.  It's what you grow into and combos aren't as scary once you have experience from more basic stuff.

 

Learning how to block well and punish with basic stuff will get you further than you expect too.

 

Or play a grappler.

[Sly Reflex]

My issue is with those games is I am going in as a bottom rung on skill so it's already an uphill climb, and the people that are on my level are getting churned to fuck and leaving. Ergo I'm left with facing off with opponents that are killing me in ways I cannot comprehend. That gap gets greater every day.

 

Closest comparison I can give is when you start playing something like Rocket League and see someone flying for the first time, of the first time you see someone pinch or whatever, there's a billion mechanics and when all you can do is clumsily hit at the ball in hopefully the right direction and you see people doing a musty air dribble reset double tap, it's like "Why the fuck am I even playing this?".

 

It's partly why I stopped playing Rocket League as well, along with the time to practice felt like work, but there's a level you get to and it might as well become magic as to what other people are capable of because that hurdle is insurmountable.

 

I think, and I'd like to omit present company because I'm sure you are lovely people, but the FGC as a whole are utter cunts. Playing Street Fighter IV ranks pretty high up on the hate mail I got during my tenure with xbox. It's not a pleasant community to find your feet in.

[bellow]

I've never got used to the idea that, in online games, other people are trying to hit/shoot/beat me. Why don't they just let me win. Bastards.

 

I did get reasonably good at 2 online games, Splatoon and Mario kart 8, and notched up a fair few wins. I did find it was hard to go back after a couple of months off. It was like my paltry skills had been left behind by the community.

 

I have this mad idea that I'm going to play sf6 for years and become a killer. You can all help this ambition by allowing me to beat you if there are any forum tourneys. Thanks in advance!