Long post warning.
TL;DR at the bottom.

I’ve been trapped in a terrible cycle for months. Every night, I turn on my PS5, mindlessly scroll through a massive library of games, feel completely empty, and turn it off after 10 minutes. Gaming felt dead to me. The last game I actually finished was Assassin's Creed 2 months ago. Everything else—from endless EA Sports FC manager careers to critically acclaimed titles like Celeste and Dead Cells, just felt like a chore. No magic. Just shallow dopamine mining.

Yesterday, I woke up feeling terrible, called in sick to work, and went back to sleep. My wife and son stayed home too. After waking up a second time, showering, and having breakfast, I decided to boot up INSIDE by Playdead. I had played a tiny bit the night before just to escape the mindless scrolling of social media.

As I sat down, my 3-year-old son climbed onto my lap. He just wanted to sit with me while I played.

And suddenly, everything clicked. The magic came back.

If you’ve played INSIDE, you know how masterfully eerie the atmosphere is. We were sitting there, completely absorbed in this massive, broken, subterranean research facility. There are no mini-maps, no quest logs, and no cheap numbers flashing on the screen. It’s pure, visual storytelling.

I just passed the section with the underwater "anti-gravity" layers and the hall of inverted people hanging upside down. What struck me the most was the attention to detail, seeing heavy office chairs perfectly anchored to the floor while biological matter floated toward the ceiling. Then, the water creature drags you down into what you assume is a game-over screen, only to "infuse" you with the ability to breathe underwater infinitely. The puzzles suddenly scale up, encompassing massive, interconnected rooms. The game doesn't give you cheap dopamine hits; it scratches a deep itch of gradual unraveling and understanding.

But as I was playing, watching this dystopian world built on human mind control and biological modification, a bizarre and profound realization hit me.

I noticed how fast I was typing a message on my phone. I realize that nowadays, I can type faster with my two thumbs than I can write with a physical pencil.

Think about that: This is the first time in the history of mankind that billions of human beings are using their thumbs as the primary physical conduit to process their deepest thoughts, emotions, and communication.

For thousands of years, humans engaged completely different fine-motor neural pathways to write. Now, we use our thumbs at blistering speeds while simultaneously absorbing rapid-fire digital stimuli. We are forcing a prehistoric brain to handle a hyper-connected, high-speed reality. We are rapidly changing our physiology and mental architecture in real-time. It’s a form of rapid "evolution," but the psychic toll is devastating—it’s exactly why people are becoming more emotionally unregulated, anxious, and cognitively fragmented. We are living inside a real-world version of the corporate facility in *INSIDE*, structured and managed by systems we don't fully comprehend.

It made me realize why ancient wisdom, like Hindu philosophy, is more necessary now than ever. When the modern world becomes an overwhelming, rapi-fire maze of technology, the only antidote is to get back to basics. True fulfillment doesn't come from the next notification or grinding another seasonal pass; it comes from mindfulness, presence, and stripping away the external noise to just *be*.

Taking a sick day today felt like a forced biological hard reset. Breaking my gaming drought with my son on my lap while diving into a deeply intellectual, atmospheric masterpiece was exactly what my soul needed.

For those of you stuck in that awful menu-scrolling burnout phase: step away from the live-service grinders. Find an indie game that treats you like an intelligent observer. Sit down with someone you love, slow down, and let the mystery unravel.

**TL;DR:** Was stuck in a severe gaming slump where turning on the PS5 felt exhausting. Called in sick, sat my 3-year-old son on my lap, and played *INSIDE*. The brilliant, clinical, atmosphere broke my burnout and triggered a deep realization about how thumb-typing is altering human psychology, and why ancient mindfulness is the only cure to modern digital exhaustion.

For me, it's Transformers Fall of Cybertron

I played the first two levels and holy shit...

That game surely knows how to get your attention by the action.

I like the attention to details in this game like how you can see small parts on Optimus or Bumblebee move a bit. And that animation for the gun when you're switching from right to left side is also amazing.

And holy crap....that artillery strike? That's a fucking nuke.

My favorite part so far is punching the crap out of Megatron as Metroplex. That felt so good.

Hey, so a recent post gave me this idea! Tell me the first 3 games you plan on clearing out. That is if you got that backlog itch. I'll go first

-Valkyrie profile Elysium

-Rise of the Ronin

-Assassin's Creed Shadows

I just wanna know what I'm sleeping on.

got a project i need to do for school, gotta write something about a... "theme" i guess, idk the correct term rn but in german the thing i gotta do is called "Vertiefungs Arbeit" VA. its related to gaming and currently im collecting data about what devices people have, how frequently they use it and what specs they have so, PC, consoles, phone or anything you can game with, if its a laptop please list the brand and the specs it carries, on PC just list the specs it has. while im at it, can i also ask what type of gamer you are? hobby? professional (things like diamond rank in valorant (idk that game))? E-sports? competetive? MMORPG? hardcore? or perhaps a gamer type i havent mentioned?
this amount of information is worth 3 chapters, : specs : frequency : gamer type

i am currently severly behind shedule as i didnt gather any data while gaming as i was too lazy so now i would like to enlist the help of reddit.

ty in advance for anyone that answers

if anyone is interested i will make that wheel of % with the data collected to show the amount of people who have rather high tier and how many have potatos, this is a general research thingy magic

What do you guys think that the cost of the PS6 will be well over 1000$? PS just came out and said parts for the hardware will cost over 600$. I think that the PS6 will cost 1500 base model.

Does Anyone remember game where you play as Eastern type dragon? I remember that game my friend had it was around early 2010s all i can remember is blue dragon flying in Clouds

My friend has been telling me Jedi survivor is a really good game. I am a big fan of story games. Story Games I have played are Spider-Man 1 & 2, guardians of the galaxy, battlefront, and last of us part one

I have a friend who mostly plays big, mainstream games and seems to think that if a game isn’t popular or he hasn’t heard of it, it’s automatically bad.
Looking at his PSN stats, he mainly plays games like Fortnite, Red Dead Redemption 2, GTA V, Helldivers 2, ARK: Survival Evolved, Marvel Rivals, Call of Duty, Apex Legends, Rainbow Six Siege, Minecraft, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. He’s put thousands of hours into some of these games, especially Fortnite.
He also talks about GTA 6 literally every day. I get that it’s a highly anticipated game, and I’m sure it’ll be exciting when it comes out, but hearing about it constantly is starting to get a little annoying. It feels like he’s always focused on the next big release instead of being interested in anything else.
Meanwhile, I enjoy all kinds of games, including older games, JRPGs, indie games, fighting games, and more niche titles. Some of my favorites include the original Final Fantasy VII, Touhou 6, Undertale, Persona 5 Royal, and the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection.
The annoying part is that he’ll call the games I like trash, cringe, or childish without even knowing what they are. If he hasn’t heard of a game, he seems to assume it’s bad. Meanwhile, I don’t have a problem with him enjoying Fortnite, Call of Duty, GTA, or any of the other games he plays.
I’m not saying his taste is bad or that mine is better. He’s allowed to enjoy whatever he wants. I just wish he’d give other games a chance instead of judging them based on popularity or whether they’re familiar to him.
There’s more to gaming than the biggest releases and the most popular multiplayer games. Some of my favorite experiences have come from games that aren’t necessarily the first ones everyone thinks of.

I'm a software developer tell me what kind of games you like I'm gonna make it

I’m wanting to start playing sims again, what is the best and cheapest setup to play?

Looking to give a new set to my boyfriend for his birthday. I don’t understand anything about gaming so need help. He currently has an Astros A40, and it connects to his Xbox controller by a little cord. I found out online that the A40 has been discontinued So I was looking into getting the same brand since it seems like he likes Astros? Saw the A50 5th gen. Looks awesome and it’s wireless. Would it work with his Xbox?? I casually asked him and he said he has an Xbox 1. Whatever that means. Is this a good gift, and will it work? Thanks!!

i’ve already been in the space for awhile; she’s played really only horror games (ex fnaf/poppy playtime) and we’re currently doing a minecraft playthrough, would baldurs gate 3 be acceptable for our second game together? it’s my favorite ever, and it’ll be a co op run but i’ll play solely in the background and let her explore/make decisions since i know the outcome

I've been seeing the term "Ball & Gun Gamer" go around and it makes me wonder if the "Gun" part of term only refers to FPS games or TPS games for guns are just any game that features guns prominenty but aren't FPS or TPS like Command & Conquer

This is my list of 5 star and half star games. Perfectly balanced, as all things should be. Would be interested to see other people's lists.

I played a lot of licensed garbage as a kid, yeah.

bro some game trailers make the game look like the greatest thing to ever exist

then you download it, play for 2 hours and realise the trailer was basically the entire experience.
I've started checking Reddit before getting into a new game. Not just reviews, but what people are daying after they've actually put some hours into it.

couple of things that seem to help:
- Search the game's name with “after 20 hours” or “is it still worth it”
- Check the complaints, because every game's fanbase will tell you it's a masterpiece
- Look at recent updates. A review from 2 years ago might be completely useless now.
- Watch actual gameplay instead of a trailer with cinematic shots every 3 seconds.
The funniest part is when you find a thread from someone explaining exactly why the game gets boring
halfway through. Saves you hours of finding out yourself lmao.
But I'm curious, do you guys actually research a game before buying it or just see a cool trailer and say
“yeah, this is the one”?

Would it be crazy to give it to Embark?

I already explained-ish why I dislike DICE having Battlefront again in a previous post, and why if they do make another I likely won't be excited, up until I see the game for myself.

TLDR of this post & overall opinion.

• Besides DICEs Trooper/Hero core gameplay and mechanics, I believe they just didn't live up to their predecessors.
• Unless DICE explicitly says BF3 is being made using the 10-year old BF2 as their rough starting point, I have doubts in them making something from scratch with a new DICE team UNTIL I see it released.
• Arc Raiders got hurt A LOT, many in ways we probably don't even think of on the surface, because of the time lost switching from PvE to PvPvE.
• Considering that, Embark impressed me with their team-based gameplay, equipment, movement & map designs.
• With Battlefront, they'll have 4 previous games and an entire 30+ years of franchise history to study for all of their inspiration and direction needs.

An alternative studio could just get me hype during development stages.

I believe ARC had a pretty incredible launch with a great team behind it, but their game was doomed for long term play to the masses just simply based on both their sudden jerk from a PvE game to PvPvE, and the decision to have extraction as their entire game loop (I just think extractions are less enticing for casual players, but probably discussion for another time).

I'd be lying if I said Embark hadn't proven themselves to me that they had the skills for Star Wars. ESPECIALLY when you factor in Embark switching their entire game from PvE to PvPvE midway through development, and nearly working from the ground-up again.

Also, Embark is partly made up of Battlefield/Battlefront devs. Even better! Guys who know about Battlefront and what works, have learned more about developing since then and have most likely learned from micro-transactions (wasn't Arc praised for giving away free stuff?)

From well-made ballistics, throwables that are all uniquely useful, their gameplay vs larger NPC entities, their movement-tech, all the way to map creation. For the most part, I truly believe it was really well-done, and their style of development could jive with big-team-battling.

Even the skins were clearly fun for the developers to make. Sure a lot of the skins weren't tacticool or very protective looking, but they were far from bland or lacking in character. Give them an IP they're interested in, and it looks like they'll do good work.

So, what if Embark had a chance at a title with the same design philosophy (PvP focus with PvE on the side, like DICE) throughout their ENTIRE dev-cycle? With an IP that was already fleshed out, and their general background already story-boarded for them to create something within? Then they can just put their creative juices towards better gamemodes, trooper armors & equipment creation, map creation, vehicle expansion.

If you disagree, feel free to let me know why. I'm all for discussing.

Spent way too long thinking about this lmao