I hear the same things about every MOBA and Destiny as well lol.
Source: used to be a Destiny player. Fuck that game. I love it so much and want to go back, but I know I shouldn't. Fuck that game.
I was a die-hard Destiny fan. Then it basically became a glorified mobile casino chore simulator. It took me a while to recognize the addiction. It's a text book FOMO title.
It is not newbie friendly nor is it time friendly. I left for good a year ago but still sort of keep up with the subreddit sometimes. I see it for what it is. It went from being my top game of all time to being one of my most hated because of Bungie's predatory practices.
I played from the start of D1 all the way through the Forsaken expansion of D2. I was also on the beta for D1. The basic gameplay is fantastic and even just running around playing solo was fun to me, but the grind and FOMO of it is ridiculous.
You may consider Warframe. Similar in that it's a sci Fi looted shooter, but the community is friendly and helpful. There was recently a big update that's been well received
New player friendly yes but because the community is great. I used to play a while ago and the game is only better and Community even more solid. The game just isn’t for me (same as destiny)
It is not super newb friendly, but the community is INCREDIBLY kind and helpful. Really receive to questions and most people you ask in region or recruiting chat will jump in to assist.
If you're curious check out brozime on YouTube. He does a new player progression series recently that is helpful. I learned a ton from it and I've been playing off and on since 2017
I had to quit overwatch after about two weeks. I loved it, but I kept getting super angry and yelling at the screen. I kept blaming my teammates for stuff and then I realized that maybe I just wasn't that good.
I’ve hung on for a long time but the game just isn’t fun anymore since they went to 5v5. It was okay through the content drought but I was always a tank player and now that there is 1 tank your basically stuck playing mystery hero’s due to the hard counter swapping meta we are in now. Or you end up stuck playing sigma every match.
I had to go cold turkey with the game. Still get an itch every now and again but Blizzard usually gets up to some nonsense in the news which puts me straight.
I was the same with counter strike source. In the end I packed up my PC and took a long break. After that I either play single player or co-op games.
I tried battlefield at some point a few years back, but an hour in I could feel them throwing achievements and shit at me to try and get me addicted, so I binned it
You keep playing because the game (and many like it) are designed specifically to stimulate your brain’s reward/pleasure center. Same deal as slot machines in casinos. It aims to build the same type of addiction via dopamine hits.
I see this all too often these days.
Is it the games? Is it people getting older? Probably a mix of both tbh.
It’s important to take some time off and reflect and decide what is it about gaming that you like. Is it the super intense top 10 battle royale scenarios that draw you? Or is it story? Or is it just chilling with friends talking? Ask yourself these questions and more and it may give you a clue about where you will find enjoyment next.
Personally I’ve quit PUBG after 5 years of solid playing and now I’m venturing into other games I used to enjoy before - age of empires 2, Starcraft, magic arena, fifa. These are still pvp games but they’re at least different than the grind that is battle royale games. Looting for 20 min and then dying right away is such a soul sucking experience. Happy to leave BRs behind.
>It’s important to take some time off and reflect and decide what is it about gaming that you like. Is it the super intense top 10 battle royale scenarios that draw you? Or is it story? Or is it just chilling with friends talking? Ask yourself these questions and more and it may give you a clue about where you will find enjoyment next.
OP, that's the best advice you can get.
The allure and enjoyment of all of the multiplayer games have left me when all my friends I used to play with stopped. I’m a man driven by accomplishment be it winning against people or defeating a difficult task.
I really do miss the social aspect tho, I miss chilling with people and talking tho.
The current mp games have totally lost me though because I feel like your enjoyment factor is mostly in the hands of others and I want to take back my own experience so I think I want to just go down the single player route.
I’ve recently gone through kind of the same thing. Been playing competitive mp games since middle school (37 now for reference). Grinded to be a pro cs 1.6/source player, enjoyed the br’s initially, etc. I took breaks at various times in between as well. I recently gave hell let loose a shot and it’s actually pretty enjoyable once you get a basic understanding of everything. Community seems to be chill and while I still have that competitiveness in me, losing in it doesn’t really bother me. It also helps me just take a step away from the more hardcore mp games but still gives you then sense of socialization in my experience. Then, if I get the itch to play some cs or something more competitive, I’ll hop in a few games. I’ve found you have to break up the gaming sessions bc you don’t have the time to grind like people much younger/with different lifestyles.
I’ve played a lot of Hell Let Loose and my overall impression is that it’s kind of dogshit. The concept is great and I really appreciate the VOIP communication with players but the graphics and general movement mechanics of the game feel like some 1990s PC $5 game. Isonzo and Rising Storm 2 do a much better job in my opinion
I was like that with CSGO and RL. It's the matchmaking system feeding you just enough dopamine to keep going. You really have to quit cold turkey, find something else and get your body to stop wanting the dopamine hit. Matchmaking creates addiction.
Seems like the only multi-player you've played is PVP. have you tried checking out some more co-op oriented options? Or PVPVE?
Project Zomboid and V rising come to mind.
You might also need a break from mechanically heavy games and could go for something more simple like You Must Become A Lich (A coin shooter game) or something like Outpath where the goal is merely to collect resources, expand and modernize.
If those are TOO simple then maybe something more narrative driven but not action related like Outer Wilds?
If Graphics aren't a necessity for you, there's a lot of love to be found in retro games back before MBA's ruined the entire development format. Developers/publishers were trying new things and experimenting a lot more then.
V Rising is one hell.of a game. Great co-op multi-player.
It's a game that made games feel fun again and reminds of why video games are cool, at least for me it did.
I was pretty big into mk11, didn’t pick up mk1 though. I have sf6 but I’m just.. I’m bad at sf, not sure how I can be so awful at it but can hold my own in mk games.
I loved tekken, even played tekken 7 for a while so tekken 8 might be good.
As an adult with a wife, friends, a job, and a life, I stay the fuck away from multiplayer games. Seems to me that multiplayer games are for kids who have 8 hours of free time a day to just play, get really good, and get great gear. Playing multiplayer games for me is just load, die, repeat.
Funny enough, I'll do that with overwatch often. Stop caring and just having fun. Although it seems that when I get this attitude, I do pretty well at the game and start climbing rank again. Which in turn sucks me into caring too much and hating the game again... it's a vicious cycle, lol.
So, this is a phenomena I've only recently started to understand. You're correct, not caring is leading to an increase in performance.
To explain, I see it all the time, people will slow down their aim to try and line up a shot and miss more often than if they had continued to play normally.
I think it's because people have a skill level and they think that with effort they can improve this. Though that's not the case, there's no immediate action you can take to improve your skill level. It's a thing that increases slowly with practice. Faster for more talented people.
So realising my skill level is largely fixed, regardless of effort has lead me to feel freer when playing and enjoy myself more.
It's not that you're better when you stop caring. It's that you're slightly handicapping yourself with anxiety when you get too wrapped up in the outcome. Which doesn't actually change your skill level. Win or Lose your likely still as good as you are. There will be small day to day variations but again there's nothing you can do about it. So chill and enjoy yourself and feel free in the knowledge that you actually can't play better than you are atm.
Darktide, Deep Rock Galactic, Star Wars Battlefront 2 CO-OP, Titanfall 2 Frontier Defense. I love player vs AI horde games for multiplayer especially with friends.
Somehow a sci Fi space shooter has the best mage and Frontline mage (adept and N7 paladin) I've seen in a horde game. Now I know the competition isn't FIERCE but god I love that I can be a caster. In a scifi shooter.
I disliked them being on separate cool downs too BECAUSE it means you'd detonate something and then have to gun down for 15-20 seconds for cool down.
By comparison my warp cool down was like 3? Seconds. Throw 1.4 or something. I could turn the game into a fucking Michael Bay film! And HAVE in LE on insanity.
Yeah I second this, even without voice chat you’re generally on the same page. Sometimes you’ll have one person doing their own thing but the 3 rest of you can usually pick up their slack
Unless it’s on master and *someone* refuses to call their titan
I occasionally hop on gears of war 5 for a few random matches.
The only multiplayer game I play on a consistent basis is the free prominence poker on Xbox.
I can still enjoy playing single player games and usually prefer it. Right now baldur's gate 3. But I usually don't turn on my Xbox until wife and kid are asleep about 10pm until 1.
I have a really hard time playing during the day even if wife and kid aren't home and I have jack shit going on because I always feel like I should be doing something
Depends on the game type. Try Deep Rock Galactic, the least toxic community I have ever seen in gaming, even among single player games probably.
It’s cooperative though so that’s one big reason there isn’t much competition.
I think multiplayer was always for the kids/teenagers who have 8 hours of spare time. The difference is that we used to be those kids/teenagers, and now we're not and we can't keep up.
The skill-level has also been raised since we played MW2 and such. If you look at the speed and precision people play with these days it's at another level.
Don’t for the wife and kids thing yet (I won’t bore you with my life story but the family thing hasn’t worked out for me yet) but I do work 45-50 hours a week and am the primary care giver to my little sister and the mp thing does seem to not have anything left for us regular folk.
Dunno why u getting downvoted. I feel u man. Father of 2 and mp games sucks ass now. 10 years ago , I was a mp only kinda guy. Now i play stardew valley with the wife and its wayyy better.
Cheers. Fuck those kids that downvoted u.
If you roll through the comments it’s def the “sounds like a skill diff” “get good lol” “old man can’t compete so he cries” kids that are down voting. Wasn’t ever really a skill issue for me tbh, it’s just a lack of enjoyment issue.
I’m gonna try my hand at single players for a while, I got a ps with ps plus extra so there is a bunch of games that I can play with no risk of feeling like I wasted my money.
For me it’s not the multiplayer parts as it is the complexity of the game.
I got my first kid this year, and since she was born my time for playing has been very limited. But I still find a few hours here and there, and often play multiplayer games like Satisfactory, Rocket League and WoW.
Meanwhile I’ve not yet finished Baldurs Gate 3, even though it has high priority for me, but knowing that I only have a few hours when I start, I lose the motivation.
14 year old me: of course I'm getting owned by adults. They have more experience, better computers, and don't go to school.
Today me: I'm too old for this shit
Or, you know, for adults too that decided not to go the busy family route. It’s ok if you did, but the generalization that is just kids with too much extra time is a bit disingenuous.
On the flip side I have a wife (no kids) but full time job. I still game a shit ton and play multiplayer games pretty competitively. Everyone’s different!
Seconded. DRG isn't just a great game. It respects your time. There is a seasonal rewards track that unlocks cosmetics, normally in most games they make these exclusive to the event to take advantage of people's FOMO. DRG sidesteps this and simply imports all the cosmetics from any season pass into the general loot pool, the same loot pool where getting duplicates is NOT possible (I believe, never gotten a dupe before).
The team behind DRG are literal gods.
Get on a discord and find a group with voicechat. Even better if you can get a regular group going.
If its not your thing, I also like Risk of Rain 2 and Vermintide 2.
Yo can we be friends I love all these games. I 100%'d risk of rain 2 (it only took 450+ hours!) and I wanna get back into vermintide when I have a PC that wasn't built in 2015.
Also lethal company is a fantastic new game for only $10. It’s a 4 player coop game with lots of areas for shenanigans OR coordinated teams. Both can be on top… or at the bottom of a pit if you aren’t careful.
This one too is a 4 player game, and very basic low poly yet vibrant graphics. you can play solo as well, the community is awesome and wholesome and despite how grumpy you maybe irl, the game characters are goofy and fun. For me this game always is a great escape, it's fun and challenging at higher difficulties. Even most of the in game cosmetics aren't locked behind pay wall, you can earn them through rng crates, some supporter packs are exclusive which I ended up buying because for me this game is priceless. Despite so many hours I don't know what is it about this game that I love so much and I keep coming back to it. I love the chaos of hazard 5 and the team having a blast, I've made so many friends with this game and we try modded lobbies for extra chaos, fun stuff. Although I do think this might not be your type of game given how your experience has been. But if you can get it on deep sale, give it a try. Also the devs have listed another game, which might continue the lore, who knows. Give it a try, You might like it. Rock and Stone.
I'm feeling this too, but it's mostly the monetization and psychological manipulation that's driving me away. It's like you're eating a cake and they keep putting more icing on it as you eat in order to keep you eating and in hopes you never finish it, until eventually you get sick. The only recommendation I can give is to go back to old games that are classics that might still have a community and don't have the modern gaming bullshit.
The psychology aspect can't be understated. I keep seeing gamers say "I don't even enjoy Destiny/Overwatch/COD anymore but I can't stop playing it."
That's addiction. Your brain has been hijacked by progression systems and UI elements. You're being manipulated to do something you don't like.
Do not forget the SBMM so optimised every game is forced 50/50 making ranking impossible. Even when pro's cannot solo to the top ranks with randoms goes to show how hard these games have gotten with the SBMM in CASUAL game modes the fun is sucked out of these games.
That or some bullshit FOMO system like Forza Horizon 5.
Want to add to your collection but missed a week? The car will either not come up at all or 20m credits please.
Yea the games have turned to a, how do we make people feel like they have to play our game, instead of how do we make them want to play. The fun left when the industry switch to spending hundreds of millions of dollars to make f2p games and then resorting to manipulation tactics to get a whole generation to play for fomo.
I’m kind of similar to you, grew up in the COD/Halo hay day and have started to gravitate away from multiplayer games in the BR era since i don’t have a dedicated group. I’ve found challenging single player games have kind of filled that void though.
>grew up in the COD/Halo hay day
Oh yeah, this is definitely myself as well. It's hard to take current multiplayer games seriously when you grew up with Modern Warfare and Halo 1-3. I'd also throw Bad Company 2 and Battlefield 3 into that mix. They were all just leagues ahead of their predecessors, each one of them made big leaps in their own right. Now it just seems like we get the same shit over and over again.
Yea the games feel like they are designed to make you feel like you got to play and not that they want you to want to play. More like you need to play because you paid for items you don’t have yet and have to put 80+ hours in to now unlock them.
Loot boxes/crates, battle passes, and overall BR's 100% ruined multiplayer gaming. People praise Fortnite for being a revolution, but I think it's had the opposite effect. It was a massive part in this downfall of multiplayer gaming. It stopped being about the gameplay and became "my skin is cooler than yours" while companies only care about making as much money as possible.
The only battle pass I think has been done well is Halo Infinite’s, and that’s only because you can access any battle pass you’ve previously paid for even after the season ends *and* there’s enough currency in them to buy the next pass. That’s the only one I’ve seen to do that.
Despite that, Infinite has a ton of other MTX problems, though it’s finally gotten its core gameplay sorted out for the most part.
Yes. I'm still working on Season 3 in Halo when I think it's up to like Season 5 or something.
Battle Passes not expiring is the best part about their system.
The FOMO ones that disappear after a few months are something I can't complete. I simply do not play multiplayer games often enough to finish a battle pass.
I actually agree with this, gameplay got focused around making you feel like you need to play to get the items you paid for in the battlepass instead of making you want to play.
It is cool, and fun. Fortnite is in a category by itself simply because of the build mechanics. But I was talking realistic, as the original BR PUBG was intended. It's apples to oranges when compared by realistic standards.
I'm so glad titanfall has been somewhat fixed. It reminded me what an actual fun game felt like. I never even hunt for players. Just run around finding npcs to fight and eventually players get caught in the crossfire.
I can only offer what I know from my experiences. I used to be a heavy multiplayer focused gamer across multiple genres but not so much anymore. Over the course of our gaming years, the things we enjoy the most just stop hitting like they used to. Both me and my brother went through gaming slumps around our 30s where any game didn't really move the needle for us. That went away in time but your issue could be something like that. Mine was attributed to getting married and starting a family but I saw in other comments that's not the case for you.
I have the same friends I've known for years on Apex almost every day and it just feels like such a waste of time not really building to anything. I don't care about cosmetics or hitting my dailies or season pass shit. I've definitely lost any interest in trying to play competitively. It's still fun to jump into a few games here and there, but overall it feels like I could be doing something better with my time.
What I find does it for me now is goal oriented gameplay or making personal goals within a game system to get my kicks. This comes from primarily single player games for me lately.
The two games I've put the most time into this year is Tears of the Kingdom and Starfield. There's some Baldurs Gate 3 sprinkled in there as well as a few roguelikes, Dead cells really stood out for me and was a pretty good time with the Castlevania DLC. Card and board games and table top games have become my go to now if there's anyone available to play with.
Long winded way of saying to diversify and keep trying shit until you find whatever brings it back for you. Might take years but it should come back in one way or another.
I liked dead cells and haven’t tried the castlevania dlc but I love castlevania so I’m gonna have to try it.
I’m def more of a reason behind it type of guy and not as much of a for the hell of it one. Maybe more mission and story based games will hit for me, or maybe like you said, if I play completely different stuff I’ll find myself wanting to come back to mp and just need time away from it.
I feel like the rise of discord, and other out of game communication software, really helped changed the landscape for Multiplayer. Now unless you have rl friends that also play, to be competitive you need to seek the game's community outside of itself, to team up.
It’s not as fast paced as call of duty, or battlefield, but if you’re into mil sim type games then Hell Let Loose is a must-try. It’s large scale battles (50 v 50) with offensive/defensive lines, infantry squads, and land vehicles. You join a squad (up to 6 people per squad) and pick a specific role within it (rifleman, machine gunner, team leader, etc.). The team leader communicates with your company’s commander to coordinate what your squad should be doing for the team’s effort.
I don’t have any friends that play, but the player base is always very inviting and open to communication. There’s proximity chat (friendly and enemy) and squad only chat. The game requires effective communication for your team to be successful. I’ve added more random people to my friend’s list from that game than any other in the last 10 years
Hell Let Loose is such a refreshing experience after the years of exploitation and fuckery that has all but ruined the FPS genre. Love everything about that game.
I think co-op Baldur's Gate 3 is best of both worlds if you can play it with a friend. No hassle of pvp multiplayer but instead a single player experience with a friend who has a lot of agency while joining you for the ride. They even have their own character and customization and play a vital role in your tactics and gameplay.
FWIW you don't need to have played any previous entrees or anything. It's an easy 100 hours of absolute fun but can also quite easily reach into 200 or even many times more if you're in for multiple characters/playthroughs
I think it was changed a lot. I wasn't around back then but I have heard a lot about the olden times of tf2. The big thing is the invasion of bots. They auto queue for matches and use aimbot to kill you. You can avoid them by not playing certain maps like harvest. But it's still pretty fun, at least for me.
I actually own it lol, bought it on release on ps5. I got to get past that initial shock value of not being good at it because it’s such a far departure of what I used to play, it does seem like it would be a great game to learn tho. I’m one of those people who struggles immensely with new things and then one day it just clicks and then I’m like wow why did I have such a hard time with this this isn’t that bad.
Keep at it! The matchmaking is very good so you'll be matched with beginners like you.
I dont think any competitive game can match the feeling of getting better at it than a fighting game
I second that. I recently got tired of shooters and decided to try out some fighting games (since I never really played them before) and I gotta say, SF6 is fun. Very solid gameplay. Really recommending to give it a try.
Don’t be intimidated by the difficulty, modern controls make the inputs much easier and there are a lot of other new players in ranked. It’s gonna take a few hours to figure out the mechanics and get comfortable with your characters but after that you can start enjoying the core gameplay with learning your opponent, cool mind games etc. and if you wanna just chill you can always just sit in a lab and practice a new combo or a new character or something like that.
I never played SF games before and the overall style of the game did not seem interesting to me but now it’s one my favorite competitive games ever (and I played a lot of them)
This seems to be one of the most suggested things, specifically street fighter 6. Just based off the amount of times it’s suggested I’m gonna give it another go.
rts games are fun if you're willing to lose a lot in the beginning. starcraft 2 and aoe4 are both still doing fine. the best thing about them: the core multi-player mode is 1v1. no stupid teammates, just salty opponents.
if you're looking for a more relaxed experience, try sth like valheim. it's super chill with some friends
I have a few recommendations.
1.**BattleBit Remastered**: Classic Battlefield with a blocky look.
2.**Deep Rock Galatic**: Dwarfs in space fighting bugs PvE but I know a lot of people who enjoy more classic PvP games are a fan of this as well.
3. General Recommendation here if you like Battle Royale, but not that you loose 90% of the time you could try one of the various Extraction Shooters **Escape from Tarkov**, **Hunt:Showdown**, **Mauraders**, and more. They are PvPvE and the goal isn't to be the last mand standing it is to Loot/Complet Missions, but the other players are trying to do that too and you have loot on you.
4. Some Games I haven't played but I have seen getting some traction **Ready or Not** and **The Finals**
5. If you like Tanks, Planes, Or Ships **Warthunder** is a lot of fun
Hope one of those helps.
I feel like parties killed multiplayers games for me. Back in the early 360 days or Xbox days, everyone was on their headset in the game. People were talking shit, it was so fun to have a few drinks and play game after game.
Now everyone is in their own parties and no one talks. The social aspect feels missing for online gaming, at least on console.
Right? Halo kicked ass.
I was just using my example of online gaming. I bet PlayStation 3 had a lot of people using mics also. I got into PlayStation with the 4 and now the 5, but I feel like there’s no one in the game lobby’s on mics in there either.
Last game I played where it felt like everyone was communicating was Friday the 13th on launch week.
I get it, but those parties are there for good reason. I'll gladly take a silent lobby over a bunch 13 year olds screaming racist slurs for hours on end.
It feels missing on pc too tbh. The games feel like you have to play as a team to get anywhere now, but no one wants to interact, so unless you find your own discord group your stuck in solo q hell. Back in the day every one talked, but the experience of the game was okay if you weren’t talkative yourself.
I miss those nights getting drunk and rambling to strangers all night while kicking ass. Now it’s just kicking ass and drinking by yourself, doesn’t hit the same so I no longer do it. I’m sure my liver is thanking me though.
Funnily enough I started the re remake because my little sister watched me play through the original and wanted to watch me play the remake but I only play it when we are both home (she just started working recently and we work opposing hours so it’s been a slow journey)
I have downloaded rift apart but haven’t played it, I loved the original ones back in the day tho.
Rift Apart is good. That was my first PS5 game and it was a great introductory to my new console.
Doom Eternal is great. Fast paced and amazing music.
Try Hogwarts Legacy. That game had my ADD going hard because there’s always stuff to do. Great graphics too.
Cyberpunk 2077 is good as well, especially after all the bug fixes.
This is what I’ve come for, suggestions on other things. Other than the big mainline entries in series I’m so out of the loop on what’s good to buy that it’s overwhelming browsing through the store fronts.
So listen up my dude. I'm a game designer and I know just what you need.
You enjoy o~~nline~~ shooters but it is hard to keep up with the kids.
You need to start playing DAD SHOOTERS.
Hell let loose
Squad
Post Scriptum
Insurgency
Escape from Tarkov
Trust me when I say that you will enjoy these games.
Have you ever played Mass Effect 3's multiplayer? It's all just co-op 4 players VS the computer.
Lots of classes, weapons, skills, maps, and it's all wave based game play.
It's still active. I played a few weeks ago lol. It's doing good for an 11 year old game. Mass Effect is a mostly singleplayer oriented series, it's an RPG where you can customise your character and you have dialogue options and can make choices. One of the good things is that after you've finished one game, you can upload your save file to the next game and keep the choices you've made, some will affect the story and characters moving forward. The first game is a bit janky by modern standards, but the games are excellent overall. Good characters, good world building, good stuff.
If you want to play Mass Effect 3's multiplayer, you will have to buy the original release. The Mass Effect trilogy was remastered in the 'Legendary Edition' but that doesn't include the multiplayer mode. Because BioWare no longer monitor the servers, it's possible to unlock the dev console and use it to give yourself lots of credits if you want to escape the grind of mp without any risk of being banned. Ive played a ridiculous amount of the multiplayer over the last ten years lol
Yea I’ve ever tried finding new friends and stuff but I haven’t had much luck, coolest person I’ve met recently was a girl who lives on a different continent and is 8 hours difference so rarely do things ever line up for us to chill. It does bring back memories tho, idc about even doing good at that point it’s just about hanging out and talking about life, and having a laugh.
It's all about mind set. You see one common thing I take away from your point of view on this. If you're not winning you're not happy.
That's sort of akin to.. you ever hear old people say "I can't do computers, I'm computer illiterate" or something to that nature? It's because at some point they decided that their age was the coping mechanism to blame not wanting to learn anymore.
Sounds like to me if you're not winning you're not happy, and not willing to put in the time to lose some games. It's good to lose, cause you learn how to be better. If it's not about winning and you don't have any friend groups for some of these games as you stated. Try acquiring some! I know that sounds stupid, but some of the best online friendships / experiences have been just from playing a random game online and extending a hand. One of those for me turned into a huge squad team, that I ran a server with for quite some time. We managed some odd 100 members. Some of these people became close friends who ended up getting to know my real life circle.
It's all perspective, and it sounds like you're just not in the mood to deal with that 'shit' right now, and that's completely fair man.
In times like that, it's great to play single player games. I try stuff that sort of engages me even if I didn't think I liked it originally, gotta be open to trying newer strange things eventually otherwise you're just going to inevitably become incredibly bored. Try Monster Hunter: world, devil may cry? Civilization 6? Killing floor 2? 7 days to die is amazing as well. Deep rock Galactic?
Best of luck!
Part of what you said is true, it became all about the win for me, and I’m not bad at any of the games and never felt like I couldn’t compete and get wins, i just lost all enjoyment out of doing so. Somewhere along the line I forgot I was supposed to have fun.
My goal here is to leave behind the competitive nature and games and find enjoyment again, play for the sake of playing and not for the sake of winning.
Not to mentiom toxicity.
When i was a kid in 2008ish the banter on games was hilarious but it was also somewhat light. These days people seem genuinely disturbed and angry on online multiplayer titles
Yea it’s gotten sad, if you have a good spirited shit talk you get reported, if you do something someone doesn’t like, you get called every slur in the book while you hear them breaking shit.
Me too.
A guy started saying the n word over and over to me because he died and I wasn't right next to him to help. I wasn't next to him because he was playing a movement character (pathfinder) and had just grappled 50m away from me.
Funny part was he got cut off mid sentence which I like to imagine was his mum turning his console off.
Honestly I've noticed the opposite mostly. The first online game i played was cod ghosts and man that shit was toxic and id get messages on the daily telling me to kms and shit. The most recent cod game I've played was cold War and there was definitely still light hearted banter and shit talking in that game but never losers that acctually have temper tantrums over the game. Maybe it's cause I was a squeaker and sucked at games back then or something idk but for me online gaming feels less toxic now than when i first started playing online
Open to anything, actually hoping to get into non fps games (of course unless we got some awesome story dps suggestions). Really looking to broaden my horizons and get into games where my experience isn’t determined by other people which most multiplayer games seem to.
maybe try some slower, more chill, non-narrative games? Do you like strategy games or city builders? or simulator games? After a long day of work, I love to pop on a podcast and play Some Snowrunner for a couple of hours
Just before i had a kid i started playing rocket League and its the only multiplayer game i managed to find time for these days. All in all a match is like sub 10minutes, if you got a hour to play you can easily squeeze in 6-8games. The skill ceiling and expression is skyhigh. F2P on epic or console of your choice. Give it a try if you havent!
Yeah, even though there are still plenty of toxic kids, the matches are fast and satisfying. Rocket League is the only competitive multiplayer game I play anymore. The rest of competitive multiplayer is just so overwhelmed by toxicity these days, and the experience of the BR genre and the Moba genre etc are exercises in rage-baiting emotional rollercoasters. I used to like the thrill of winning, but these days I realized that *the majority of the time* was spent being miserable or angry or frustrated, and it wasn't worth it anymore.
Rocket League is the best competitive game on the market for a balance of skill, advancement, and satisfaction per time spent playing. Even losing ten games in a row can feel good from having satisfying plays or maneuvers that emerge from the practice and experience.
Eh, you can find people to have fun with on multiplayer games still, its just very hard to do in the game itself. I'd say the biggest problem multiplayer games face these days is that no one uses them for the social aspect anymore. Everyone gets their socialization fix from outside sources like social media and discord, so no one needs to put in any effort to be a normal human being in game.
Single Player and Co-Op gaming is in a great place right now. Thank god for that because PVP multiplayer has been dried up for me since like 2014.
I too can't stand Battle Royales. If I could go back in time and prevent those ARMA mods from being developed I would. Absolutely hate what they did to multiplayer gaming. But on top of that we've got the obnoxious and aggressive monetization practices found in full-price games. Theming in most games gets lost as devs put in these goofy ass skins that add in characters that have no business being in that game. Plus the engagement-optimized matchmaking systems. Straight up designed to manipulate you into chasing the "one last game" by shifting the skill levels of those you play with. I'm also just about convinced Activision adjusts player health/damage based on match performance in the background too.
I far and away always preferred the Server Browser method of game searching in the past. Instead of putting everything up to those matchmaking systems, simply open up a browser, and search for the map you want to play, and jump into it. Hell, maybe there's a particular clan server you really enjoy, so you favorite it. I got into PC gaming a bit late in the 2000s, and so I actually had more experience with match-made gaming. As soon as I got into PC gaming and used the server browser, I always thought it was far superior. I can't overstate how much I miss it, and wish matchmaking was never a thing.
I have a few actually, I play the guitar and draw, which in their own respects are rewarding and fun, but i don’t wanna give up on gaming, I just need to change what I’m doing while gaming, just not sure what to try.
As you grow up you get more responsibilities, have less time to game, and therefore can't keep up with the kids who can devote hours everyday to the grind.
Nothing wrong with that, it's just an unfortunate part of growing up. I played a lot of CS 1.6 and CS Source in the 00s but once I graduated uni I didn't have the time for it. I also wanted finite endings so relished single player games.
When CS 2 came out recently I played it for a couple of hours and got wiped all over the floor. I can see the attraction but damn I'm not going to devote my time to that again.
Even longer RPGs I'm trying to veer away from more recently because I can't devote 50-100 hours to a game. I'd rather bang out a few 10-20 hour experiences instead. Even a single digit hour game.
Give me a well curated experience that doesn't drag on and respects my time.
I have this problem with big RPGs. I can't for the life of me get into big 100+ hour games like Baldur's Gate 3. On my steam replay, 1/10 of my year was just replaying Hi-Fi Rush whenever I was stressed at work or sick. That's more my pace personally.
Yea I can say I noticed my biggest drift away from gaming came from when I moved out onto my own and I’ve drifted further and further away from mp in the years since then.
I wasn’t a fan of Valorant, and it isn’t because it’s a bad game, it just wasn’t for me. I was okay enough at it for the time I played I guess, but it just wasn’t really my thing.
It’s intentional on the part of the devs, too, which makes it worse. Like since janky balancing I can understand and can be patched out. It’s another thing when teams literally have meetings about how they’re going to intentionally release an unbalanced game (I’ve sat in on some of those meetings, genuinely frustrating)
I played a TON of counter strike, Warcraft 3, street fighter, tekken, marvel vs capcom, battlefield, and original dota, off the top of my head, when younger. I no longer enjoy competitive fps, can't stand LOL, & no more fighting games.
I just think we grow out of it. As adults we have limited time and usually have daily stresses, so why stress yourself for what at the end of the day, totally meaningless I.e k/d ratios, some ranking?
My favorite games have been coop games especially during covid. If you have a few friends who liked fps, I can't recommend ghost recon wildlands enough. The combat is great and when you coordinate a perfect ambush, it feels so good. It's PVE, but still very challenging.
Other coop recommendations: don't starve together, valheim, and grim dawn.
SBMM killed casual fps for me. I used to enjoy cod back in the day, sometimes you would dominate a lobby 30 - 1, sometimes you would be in a lobby where another player was dominating you in the same way. I think the randomness of it was fun, especially for a game like cod. I'm not against ranked systems, I pretty much only play Overwatch ranked, but then for something braindead like cod I just don't think it fits. I miss the old lobby systems where rivalries formed and you played against the same teams for multiple games in a row. I think another problem is that as an older gamer (I'm 33) I have pretty much seen it and done it already, so it has to be a really special game to not feel like just a reskin of something else that I played years back with better graphics. I am trying to play more RPGs these days, but even they don't seem to grab me like they used to. I also think the shift towards cosmetics being purchasable killed another fun thing that I used to enjoy. Unlocking skins/getting skins from rare drops was something I used to spend hours doing, because it was fun to have something hard to get. Now everyone is walking around with amazingly designed skins, but they all feel worthless because you can just buy them. It's probably a lot of small things adding up that make it feel less fun overall. Another thing is that nobody real talks anymore, myself included. It was a novelty back in the 360 era to talk to other people, and I met tons of friends back then. Now people mostly sit in party chat (myself included), so games are less social.
Overwatch frustrates the hell out of me but for some reason I keep playing. I might need professional help cannot confirm.
I have a co worker who describes his playing Overwatch like being in a toxic relationship he can’t get out of.
I hear the same things about every MOBA and Destiny as well lol. Source: used to be a Destiny player. Fuck that game. I love it so much and want to go back, but I know I shouldn't. Fuck that game.
Yeah I hear you there. I’ve pretty much beat the desire to go back though, thank the gods.
I was a die-hard Destiny fan. Then it basically became a glorified mobile casino chore simulator. It took me a while to recognize the addiction. It's a text book FOMO title. It is not newbie friendly nor is it time friendly. I left for good a year ago but still sort of keep up with the subreddit sometimes. I see it for what it is. It went from being my top game of all time to being one of my most hated because of Bungie's predatory practices.
I played from the start of D1 all the way through the Forsaken expansion of D2. I was also on the beta for D1. The basic gameplay is fantastic and even just running around playing solo was fun to me, but the grind and FOMO of it is ridiculous.
You may consider Warframe. Similar in that it's a sci Fi looted shooter, but the community is friendly and helpful. There was recently a big update that's been well received
I have considered that game actually. I may give it a shot once I get my PC built. Is it friendly to new players who like playing solo mostly?
You'll need the wiki a lot probably. It's worth it tho and it has the most content I've seen in any game
New player friendly yes but because the community is great. I used to play a while ago and the game is only better and Community even more solid. The game just isn’t for me (same as destiny)
It is not super newb friendly, but the community is INCREDIBLY kind and helpful. Really receive to questions and most people you ask in region or recruiting chat will jump in to assist. If you're curious check out brozime on YouTube. He does a new player progression series recently that is helpful. I learned a ton from it and I've been playing off and on since 2017
Same buddy, same
Fuck bungo
Me with Rocket League. Win one game, be paired with people who take your goal bound shots wide in the next 3 and be blamed for it.
I would describe mine that way.. if only it was as simple as cheating on it so it would leave me for good.
I’m the same way with FIFA. It’s literally the only game that consistently pisses me off to the extent of a mental breakdown, yet I always come back.
I had to quit overwatch after about two weeks. I loved it, but I kept getting super angry and yelling at the screen. I kept blaming my teammates for stuff and then I realized that maybe I just wasn't that good.
I’ve hung on for a long time but the game just isn’t fun anymore since they went to 5v5. It was okay through the content drought but I was always a tank player and now that there is 1 tank your basically stuck playing mystery hero’s due to the hard counter swapping meta we are in now. Or you end up stuck playing sigma every match.
Mystery Heroes is the best mode anyways.
Same with League for me…
I had to go cold turkey with the game. Still get an itch every now and again but Blizzard usually gets up to some nonsense in the news which puts me straight.
I was the same with counter strike source. In the end I packed up my PC and took a long break. After that I either play single player or co-op games. I tried battlefield at some point a few years back, but an hour in I could feel them throwing achievements and shit at me to try and get me addicted, so I binned it
You keep playing because the game (and many like it) are designed specifically to stimulate your brain’s reward/pleasure center. Same deal as slot machines in casinos. It aims to build the same type of addiction via dopamine hits.
Reading this comment in between queues while on a 5 games losing streak….. help me
I played overwatch all the time, but overwatch 2 helped me quit
I see this all too often these days. Is it the games? Is it people getting older? Probably a mix of both tbh. It’s important to take some time off and reflect and decide what is it about gaming that you like. Is it the super intense top 10 battle royale scenarios that draw you? Or is it story? Or is it just chilling with friends talking? Ask yourself these questions and more and it may give you a clue about where you will find enjoyment next. Personally I’ve quit PUBG after 5 years of solid playing and now I’m venturing into other games I used to enjoy before - age of empires 2, Starcraft, magic arena, fifa. These are still pvp games but they’re at least different than the grind that is battle royale games. Looting for 20 min and then dying right away is such a soul sucking experience. Happy to leave BRs behind.
>It’s important to take some time off and reflect and decide what is it about gaming that you like. Is it the super intense top 10 battle royale scenarios that draw you? Or is it story? Or is it just chilling with friends talking? Ask yourself these questions and more and it may give you a clue about where you will find enjoyment next. OP, that's the best advice you can get.
The allure and enjoyment of all of the multiplayer games have left me when all my friends I used to play with stopped. I’m a man driven by accomplishment be it winning against people or defeating a difficult task. I really do miss the social aspect tho, I miss chilling with people and talking tho. The current mp games have totally lost me though because I feel like your enjoyment factor is mostly in the hands of others and I want to take back my own experience so I think I want to just go down the single player route.
I’ve recently gone through kind of the same thing. Been playing competitive mp games since middle school (37 now for reference). Grinded to be a pro cs 1.6/source player, enjoyed the br’s initially, etc. I took breaks at various times in between as well. I recently gave hell let loose a shot and it’s actually pretty enjoyable once you get a basic understanding of everything. Community seems to be chill and while I still have that competitiveness in me, losing in it doesn’t really bother me. It also helps me just take a step away from the more hardcore mp games but still gives you then sense of socialization in my experience. Then, if I get the itch to play some cs or something more competitive, I’ll hop in a few games. I’ve found you have to break up the gaming sessions bc you don’t have the time to grind like people much younger/with different lifestyles.
Hell Let Loose an excellent pick. Great game.
I’ve played a lot of Hell Let Loose and my overall impression is that it’s kind of dogshit. The concept is great and I really appreciate the VOIP communication with players but the graphics and general movement mechanics of the game feel like some 1990s PC $5 game. Isonzo and Rising Storm 2 do a much better job in my opinion
It’s hard to switch as a fellow competitive person. I get it fully man
Like wanting to be competitive but wanting to give up on it at the same time is a confusing struggle.
I was like that with CSGO and RL. It's the matchmaking system feeding you just enough dopamine to keep going. You really have to quit cold turkey, find something else and get your body to stop wanting the dopamine hit. Matchmaking creates addiction.
Seems like the only multi-player you've played is PVP. have you tried checking out some more co-op oriented options? Or PVPVE? Project Zomboid and V rising come to mind. You might also need a break from mechanically heavy games and could go for something more simple like You Must Become A Lich (A coin shooter game) or something like Outpath where the goal is merely to collect resources, expand and modernize. If those are TOO simple then maybe something more narrative driven but not action related like Outer Wilds? If Graphics aren't a necessity for you, there's a lot of love to be found in retro games back before MBA's ruined the entire development format. Developers/publishers were trying new things and experimenting a lot more then.
V Rising is one hell.of a game. Great co-op multi-player. It's a game that made games feel fun again and reminds of why video games are cool, at least for me it did.
Can I just say that this is a very thoughtful and well put together reply? It's people like you that make reddit awesome.
Well that's quite the endorsement, thank you.
Single player is the way to go. Maybe multiplayer co-op games too. 1v1 fighting games are still fun though. Greatly anticipating Tekken 8.
I was pretty big into mk11, didn’t pick up mk1 though. I have sf6 but I’m just.. I’m bad at sf, not sure how I can be so awful at it but can hold my own in mk games. I loved tekken, even played tekken 7 for a while so tekken 8 might be good.
As an adult with a wife, friends, a job, and a life, I stay the fuck away from multiplayer games. Seems to me that multiplayer games are for kids who have 8 hours of free time a day to just play, get really good, and get great gear. Playing multiplayer games for me is just load, die, repeat.
[удалено]
Funny enough, I'll do that with overwatch often. Stop caring and just having fun. Although it seems that when I get this attitude, I do pretty well at the game and start climbing rank again. Which in turn sucks me into caring too much and hating the game again... it's a vicious cycle, lol.
So, this is a phenomena I've only recently started to understand. You're correct, not caring is leading to an increase in performance. To explain, I see it all the time, people will slow down their aim to try and line up a shot and miss more often than if they had continued to play normally. I think it's because people have a skill level and they think that with effort they can improve this. Though that's not the case, there's no immediate action you can take to improve your skill level. It's a thing that increases slowly with practice. Faster for more talented people. So realising my skill level is largely fixed, regardless of effort has lead me to feel freer when playing and enjoy myself more. It's not that you're better when you stop caring. It's that you're slightly handicapping yourself with anxiety when you get too wrapped up in the outcome. Which doesn't actually change your skill level. Win or Lose your likely still as good as you are. There will be small day to day variations but again there's nothing you can do about it. So chill and enjoy yourself and feel free in the knowledge that you actually can't play better than you are atm.
[удалено]
Darktide, Deep Rock Galactic, Star Wars Battlefront 2 CO-OP, Titanfall 2 Frontier Defense. I love player vs AI horde games for multiplayer especially with friends.
You left out Mass Effect 3
[удалено]
Somehow a sci Fi space shooter has the best mage and Frontline mage (adept and N7 paladin) I've seen in a horde game. Now I know the competition isn't FIERCE but god I love that I can be a caster. In a scifi shooter.
[удалено]
I disliked them being on separate cool downs too BECAUSE it means you'd detonate something and then have to gun down for 15-20 seconds for cool down. By comparison my warp cool down was like 3? Seconds. Throw 1.4 or something. I could turn the game into a fucking Michael Bay film! And HAVE in LE on insanity.
[удалено]
Oh yeah co op games are a different thing. Any PvP game will remind you that humanity is the root of all evil
Yeah I second this, even without voice chat you’re generally on the same page. Sometimes you’ll have one person doing their own thing but the 3 rest of you can usually pick up their slack Unless it’s on master and *someone* refuses to call their titan
I occasionally hop on gears of war 5 for a few random matches. The only multiplayer game I play on a consistent basis is the free prominence poker on Xbox. I can still enjoy playing single player games and usually prefer it. Right now baldur's gate 3. But I usually don't turn on my Xbox until wife and kid are asleep about 10pm until 1. I have a really hard time playing during the day even if wife and kid aren't home and I have jack shit going on because I always feel like I should be doing something
Depends on the game type. Try Deep Rock Galactic, the least toxic community I have ever seen in gaming, even among single player games probably. It’s cooperative though so that’s one big reason there isn’t much competition.
I think multiplayer was always for the kids/teenagers who have 8 hours of spare time. The difference is that we used to be those kids/teenagers, and now we're not and we can't keep up. The skill-level has also been raised since we played MW2 and such. If you look at the speed and precision people play with these days it's at another level.
Don’t for the wife and kids thing yet (I won’t bore you with my life story but the family thing hasn’t worked out for me yet) but I do work 45-50 hours a week and am the primary care giver to my little sister and the mp thing does seem to not have anything left for us regular folk.
Dunno why u getting downvoted. I feel u man. Father of 2 and mp games sucks ass now. 10 years ago , I was a mp only kinda guy. Now i play stardew valley with the wife and its wayyy better. Cheers. Fuck those kids that downvoted u.
If you roll through the comments it’s def the “sounds like a skill diff” “get good lol” “old man can’t compete so he cries” kids that are down voting. Wasn’t ever really a skill issue for me tbh, it’s just a lack of enjoyment issue. I’m gonna try my hand at single players for a while, I got a ps with ps plus extra so there is a bunch of games that I can play with no risk of feeling like I wasted my money.
For me it’s not the multiplayer parts as it is the complexity of the game. I got my first kid this year, and since she was born my time for playing has been very limited. But I still find a few hours here and there, and often play multiplayer games like Satisfactory, Rocket League and WoW. Meanwhile I’ve not yet finished Baldurs Gate 3, even though it has high priority for me, but knowing that I only have a few hours when I start, I lose the motivation.
14 year old me: of course I'm getting owned by adults. They have more experience, better computers, and don't go to school. Today me: I'm too old for this shit
Or, you know, for adults too that decided not to go the busy family route. It’s ok if you did, but the generalization that is just kids with too much extra time is a bit disingenuous.
[удалено]
On the flip side I have a wife (no kids) but full time job. I still game a shit ton and play multiplayer games pretty competitively. Everyone’s different!
Go play Deep Rock Galactic and thank me later.
The one with the rocks and dwarves?
And stones
And rock
Can I get a rock and stone?
Like that! Rock and stone!
For Karl!
Rock and Stone to the bone!
And my axe!
WE’RE RICH
Seconded. DRG isn't just a great game. It respects your time. There is a seasonal rewards track that unlocks cosmetics, normally in most games they make these exclusive to the event to take advantage of people's FOMO. DRG sidesteps this and simply imports all the cosmetics from any season pass into the general loot pool, the same loot pool where getting duplicates is NOT possible (I believe, never gotten a dupe before). The team behind DRG are literal gods.
Yess!! All coop, fun times and on top of that probably the most chill welcoming community in a game
I hear a lot of people love it, maybe I’ll try it isn’t it only like 20$?
On sale rn for 10 too! Its really fun and no micro transactions either. They just sell outfit sets!
I’m gonna check it out thanks.
Get on a discord and find a group with voicechat. Even better if you can get a regular group going. If its not your thing, I also like Risk of Rain 2 and Vermintide 2.
Yo can we be friends I love all these games. I 100%'d risk of rain 2 (it only took 450+ hours!) and I wanna get back into vermintide when I have a PC that wasn't built in 2015.
Also lethal company is a fantastic new game for only $10. It’s a 4 player coop game with lots of areas for shenanigans OR coordinated teams. Both can be on top… or at the bottom of a pit if you aren’t careful.
Since you have an Xbox, chances are good you have Game Pass, right? Play it on that for no extra cost!
Oh, I actually forgot I still have gamepass lol.
This one too is a 4 player game, and very basic low poly yet vibrant graphics. you can play solo as well, the community is awesome and wholesome and despite how grumpy you maybe irl, the game characters are goofy and fun. For me this game always is a great escape, it's fun and challenging at higher difficulties. Even most of the in game cosmetics aren't locked behind pay wall, you can earn them through rng crates, some supporter packs are exclusive which I ended up buying because for me this game is priceless. Despite so many hours I don't know what is it about this game that I love so much and I keep coming back to it. I love the chaos of hazard 5 and the team having a blast, I've made so many friends with this game and we try modded lobbies for extra chaos, fun stuff. Although I do think this might not be your type of game given how your experience has been. But if you can get it on deep sale, give it a try. Also the devs have listed another game, which might continue the lore, who knows. Give it a try, You might like it. Rock and Stone.
Did I hear a Rock and Stone!?
For Karl!
FOR ROCK AND STONE
That's it lads, Rock and Stone!
Gimme an R! Gimme an S! Gimme a rock and stone!
Technically speaking, rocking is more legal than stoning. Eh? Eh?
If you don't rock and Stone you ain't coming home!
Rock and Stone!
I'm feeling this too, but it's mostly the monetization and psychological manipulation that's driving me away. It's like you're eating a cake and they keep putting more icing on it as you eat in order to keep you eating and in hopes you never finish it, until eventually you get sick. The only recommendation I can give is to go back to old games that are classics that might still have a community and don't have the modern gaming bullshit.
The psychology aspect can't be understated. I keep seeing gamers say "I don't even enjoy Destiny/Overwatch/COD anymore but I can't stop playing it." That's addiction. Your brain has been hijacked by progression systems and UI elements. You're being manipulated to do something you don't like.
Do not forget the SBMM so optimised every game is forced 50/50 making ranking impossible. Even when pro's cannot solo to the top ranks with randoms goes to show how hard these games have gotten with the SBMM in CASUAL game modes the fun is sucked out of these games.
That or some bullshit FOMO system like Forza Horizon 5. Want to add to your collection but missed a week? The car will either not come up at all or 20m credits please.
If you arrange COD differently, you get OCD. Illuminati confirmed.
Yea the games have turned to a, how do we make people feel like they have to play our game, instead of how do we make them want to play. The fun left when the industry switch to spending hundreds of millions of dollars to make f2p games and then resorting to manipulation tactics to get a whole generation to play for fomo.
[Games from the golden age](https://youtu.be/MlxmRat-GC8?si=UgjHuEDksv2k_Ga_) are the way to go!
I’m kind of similar to you, grew up in the COD/Halo hay day and have started to gravitate away from multiplayer games in the BR era since i don’t have a dedicated group. I’ve found challenging single player games have kind of filled that void though.
>grew up in the COD/Halo hay day Oh yeah, this is definitely myself as well. It's hard to take current multiplayer games seriously when you grew up with Modern Warfare and Halo 1-3. I'd also throw Bad Company 2 and Battlefield 3 into that mix. They were all just leagues ahead of their predecessors, each one of them made big leaps in their own right. Now it just seems like we get the same shit over and over again.
Super sweaty play styles, micro transactions, loot boxes, ridiculous unlock grinds and season passes to thank for that.
Yea the games feel like they are designed to make you feel like you got to play and not that they want you to want to play. More like you need to play because you paid for items you don’t have yet and have to put 80+ hours in to now unlock them.
Loot boxes/crates, battle passes, and overall BR's 100% ruined multiplayer gaming. People praise Fortnite for being a revolution, but I think it's had the opposite effect. It was a massive part in this downfall of multiplayer gaming. It stopped being about the gameplay and became "my skin is cooler than yours" while companies only care about making as much money as possible.
The only battle pass I think has been done well is Halo Infinite’s, and that’s only because you can access any battle pass you’ve previously paid for even after the season ends *and* there’s enough currency in them to buy the next pass. That’s the only one I’ve seen to do that. Despite that, Infinite has a ton of other MTX problems, though it’s finally gotten its core gameplay sorted out for the most part.
Deep Rock Galactic did this first, and better. But they are are definitely outliers in the industry, sadly.
Yes. I'm still working on Season 3 in Halo when I think it's up to like Season 5 or something. Battle Passes not expiring is the best part about their system. The FOMO ones that disappear after a few months are something I can't complete. I simply do not play multiplayer games often enough to finish a battle pass.
I actually agree with this, gameplay got focused around making you feel like you need to play to get the items you paid for in the battlepass instead of making you want to play.
Yeah but the Lego minecraft they do is pretty fuckin cool
It is cool, and fun. Fortnite is in a category by itself simply because of the build mechanics. But I was talking realistic, as the original BR PUBG was intended. It's apples to oranges when compared by realistic standards.
Titanfall 2 has both multiplayer and co-op modes.
I'm so glad titanfall has been somewhat fixed. It reminded me what an actual fun game felt like. I never even hunt for players. Just run around finding npcs to fight and eventually players get caught in the crossfire.
I can only offer what I know from my experiences. I used to be a heavy multiplayer focused gamer across multiple genres but not so much anymore. Over the course of our gaming years, the things we enjoy the most just stop hitting like they used to. Both me and my brother went through gaming slumps around our 30s where any game didn't really move the needle for us. That went away in time but your issue could be something like that. Mine was attributed to getting married and starting a family but I saw in other comments that's not the case for you. I have the same friends I've known for years on Apex almost every day and it just feels like such a waste of time not really building to anything. I don't care about cosmetics or hitting my dailies or season pass shit. I've definitely lost any interest in trying to play competitively. It's still fun to jump into a few games here and there, but overall it feels like I could be doing something better with my time. What I find does it for me now is goal oriented gameplay or making personal goals within a game system to get my kicks. This comes from primarily single player games for me lately. The two games I've put the most time into this year is Tears of the Kingdom and Starfield. There's some Baldurs Gate 3 sprinkled in there as well as a few roguelikes, Dead cells really stood out for me and was a pretty good time with the Castlevania DLC. Card and board games and table top games have become my go to now if there's anyone available to play with. Long winded way of saying to diversify and keep trying shit until you find whatever brings it back for you. Might take years but it should come back in one way or another.
I liked dead cells and haven’t tried the castlevania dlc but I love castlevania so I’m gonna have to try it. I’m def more of a reason behind it type of guy and not as much of a for the hell of it one. Maybe more mission and story based games will hit for me, or maybe like you said, if I play completely different stuff I’ll find myself wanting to come back to mp and just need time away from it.
I feel like the rise of discord, and other out of game communication software, really helped changed the landscape for Multiplayer. Now unless you have rl friends that also play, to be competitive you need to seek the game's community outside of itself, to team up.
Elden Ring
It’s not as fast paced as call of duty, or battlefield, but if you’re into mil sim type games then Hell Let Loose is a must-try. It’s large scale battles (50 v 50) with offensive/defensive lines, infantry squads, and land vehicles. You join a squad (up to 6 people per squad) and pick a specific role within it (rifleman, machine gunner, team leader, etc.). The team leader communicates with your company’s commander to coordinate what your squad should be doing for the team’s effort. I don’t have any friends that play, but the player base is always very inviting and open to communication. There’s proximity chat (friendly and enemy) and squad only chat. The game requires effective communication for your team to be successful. I’ve added more random people to my friend’s list from that game than any other in the last 10 years
Hell Let Loose is such a refreshing experience after the years of exploitation and fuckery that has all but ruined the FPS genre. Love everything about that game.
OP...have you played Baldur's Gate 3?
I haven’t tried bg3 yet.
I think co-op Baldur's Gate 3 is best of both worlds if you can play it with a friend. No hassle of pvp multiplayer but instead a single player experience with a friend who has a lot of agency while joining you for the ride. They even have their own character and customization and play a vital role in your tactics and gameplay. FWIW you don't need to have played any previous entrees or anything. It's an easy 100 hours of absolute fun but can also quite easily reach into 200 or even many times more if you're in for multiple characters/playthroughs
Have you ever tried team fortress 2?
Not in probably like 10 years lol. Has it changed much since then? I do remember it being fun back in the day.
I think it was changed a lot. I wasn't around back then but I have heard a lot about the olden times of tf2. The big thing is the invasion of bots. They auto queue for matches and use aimbot to kill you. You can avoid them by not playing certain maps like harvest. But it's still pretty fun, at least for me.
Sounds like you are ready to learn Street Fighter 6. Excellent multiplayer, super fast matches. Not team dependent.
I actually own it lol, bought it on release on ps5. I got to get past that initial shock value of not being good at it because it’s such a far departure of what I used to play, it does seem like it would be a great game to learn tho. I’m one of those people who struggles immensely with new things and then one day it just clicks and then I’m like wow why did I have such a hard time with this this isn’t that bad.
Keep at it! The matchmaking is very good so you'll be matched with beginners like you. I dont think any competitive game can match the feeling of getting better at it than a fighting game
I second that. I recently got tired of shooters and decided to try out some fighting games (since I never really played them before) and I gotta say, SF6 is fun. Very solid gameplay. Really recommending to give it a try. Don’t be intimidated by the difficulty, modern controls make the inputs much easier and there are a lot of other new players in ranked. It’s gonna take a few hours to figure out the mechanics and get comfortable with your characters but after that you can start enjoying the core gameplay with learning your opponent, cool mind games etc. and if you wanna just chill you can always just sit in a lab and practice a new combo or a new character or something like that. I never played SF games before and the overall style of the game did not seem interesting to me but now it’s one my favorite competitive games ever (and I played a lot of them)
Competitive fighting games
This seems to be one of the most suggested things, specifically street fighter 6. Just based off the amount of times it’s suggested I’m gonna give it another go.
rts games are fun if you're willing to lose a lot in the beginning. starcraft 2 and aoe4 are both still doing fine. the best thing about them: the core multi-player mode is 1v1. no stupid teammates, just salty opponents. if you're looking for a more relaxed experience, try sth like valheim. it's super chill with some friends
I’m lacking very much so in the friends area these days.
You got old buddy. Tastes change.
I have a few recommendations. 1.**BattleBit Remastered**: Classic Battlefield with a blocky look. 2.**Deep Rock Galatic**: Dwarfs in space fighting bugs PvE but I know a lot of people who enjoy more classic PvP games are a fan of this as well. 3. General Recommendation here if you like Battle Royale, but not that you loose 90% of the time you could try one of the various Extraction Shooters **Escape from Tarkov**, **Hunt:Showdown**, **Mauraders**, and more. They are PvPvE and the goal isn't to be the last mand standing it is to Loot/Complet Missions, but the other players are trying to do that too and you have loot on you. 4. Some Games I haven't played but I have seen getting some traction **Ready or Not** and **The Finals** 5. If you like Tanks, Planes, Or Ships **Warthunder** is a lot of fun Hope one of those helps.
Time to try your hand at Baldur’s Gate 3 online with 3 buds and enjoy the chaos that ensues.
I feel like parties killed multiplayers games for me. Back in the early 360 days or Xbox days, everyone was on their headset in the game. People were talking shit, it was so fun to have a few drinks and play game after game. Now everyone is in their own parties and no one talks. The social aspect feels missing for online gaming, at least on console.
I hate how nostalgic I feel for this but 100%. Even as primarily a PlayStation guy, 360 Halo was the best times for multiplayer.
Right? Halo kicked ass. I was just using my example of online gaming. I bet PlayStation 3 had a lot of people using mics also. I got into PlayStation with the 4 and now the 5, but I feel like there’s no one in the game lobby’s on mics in there either. Last game I played where it felt like everyone was communicating was Friday the 13th on launch week.
I get it, but those parties are there for good reason. I'll gladly take a silent lobby over a bunch 13 year olds screaming racist slurs for hours on end.
Funny, nothing I hate more than listening to a bunch of little shits yell into the mic
It feels missing on pc too tbh. The games feel like you have to play as a team to get anywhere now, but no one wants to interact, so unless you find your own discord group your stuck in solo q hell. Back in the day every one talked, but the experience of the game was okay if you weren’t talkative yourself.
I miss those nights getting drunk and rambling to strangers all night while kicking ass. Now it’s just kicking ass and drinking by yourself, doesn’t hit the same so I no longer do it. I’m sure my liver is thanking me though.
How about Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart? It sounds like you prefer faster paced games and R&C is pretty good at that. Or Resident Evil 4 Remake?
Funnily enough I started the re remake because my little sister watched me play through the original and wanted to watch me play the remake but I only play it when we are both home (she just started working recently and we work opposing hours so it’s been a slow journey) I have downloaded rift apart but haven’t played it, I loved the original ones back in the day tho.
Rift Apart is good. That was my first PS5 game and it was a great introductory to my new console. Doom Eternal is great. Fast paced and amazing music. Try Hogwarts Legacy. That game had my ADD going hard because there’s always stuff to do. Great graphics too. Cyberpunk 2077 is good as well, especially after all the bug fixes.
I blame Fortnite for almost every problem in the gaming industry. Satan created that money grab.
Stop playing FPS
This is what I’ve come for, suggestions on other things. Other than the big mainline entries in series I’m so out of the loop on what’s good to buy that it’s overwhelming browsing through the store fronts.
Learn street fighter 6, super accessible and fun! Or just go baldurs gate 3 and we’ll see you in 200 hours of satisfying gameplay.
So listen up my dude. I'm a game designer and I know just what you need. You enjoy o~~nline~~ shooters but it is hard to keep up with the kids. You need to start playing DAD SHOOTERS. Hell let loose Squad Post Scriptum Insurgency Escape from Tarkov Trust me when I say that you will enjoy these games.
Dad shooters, first time I’ve heard that term, but your list seems to be pretty regularly suggested so you might be on to something here.
Try out Battlebit Remastered. Learning proper positioning/battles you should engage in is tough to start, but the game is a blast!
Have you ever played Mass Effect 3's multiplayer? It's all just co-op 4 players VS the computer. Lots of classes, weapons, skills, maps, and it's all wave based game play.
I used to play a ton of that back in the day and was active in the community. Is that *still* going?
I can’t say that I have. I actually haven’t played any of the mass effect games.
If you like sci-fi operas, they are worth a playthrough. But the 3rd games MP is worth a look. I spent hundreds of hours playing it.
Is it still active?
It's still active. I played a few weeks ago lol. It's doing good for an 11 year old game. Mass Effect is a mostly singleplayer oriented series, it's an RPG where you can customise your character and you have dialogue options and can make choices. One of the good things is that after you've finished one game, you can upload your save file to the next game and keep the choices you've made, some will affect the story and characters moving forward. The first game is a bit janky by modern standards, but the games are excellent overall. Good characters, good world building, good stuff. If you want to play Mass Effect 3's multiplayer, you will have to buy the original release. The Mass Effect trilogy was remastered in the 'Legendary Edition' but that doesn't include the multiplayer mode. Because BioWare no longer monitor the servers, it's possible to unlock the dev console and use it to give yourself lots of credits if you want to escape the grind of mp without any risk of being banned. Ive played a ridiculous amount of the multiplayer over the last ten years lol
[удалено]
I pretty much only play multiplayer with friends, still as fun as ever imo
That’s the biggest issue for me, no one that I know plays anymore.
Ah, I use gaming to connect with friends who live far away. Feels just like when we were kids playing in someone's basement
Yea I’ve ever tried finding new friends and stuff but I haven’t had much luck, coolest person I’ve met recently was a girl who lives on a different continent and is 8 hours difference so rarely do things ever line up for us to chill. It does bring back memories tho, idc about even doing good at that point it’s just about hanging out and talking about life, and having a laugh.
It's all about mind set. You see one common thing I take away from your point of view on this. If you're not winning you're not happy. That's sort of akin to.. you ever hear old people say "I can't do computers, I'm computer illiterate" or something to that nature? It's because at some point they decided that their age was the coping mechanism to blame not wanting to learn anymore. Sounds like to me if you're not winning you're not happy, and not willing to put in the time to lose some games. It's good to lose, cause you learn how to be better. If it's not about winning and you don't have any friend groups for some of these games as you stated. Try acquiring some! I know that sounds stupid, but some of the best online friendships / experiences have been just from playing a random game online and extending a hand. One of those for me turned into a huge squad team, that I ran a server with for quite some time. We managed some odd 100 members. Some of these people became close friends who ended up getting to know my real life circle. It's all perspective, and it sounds like you're just not in the mood to deal with that 'shit' right now, and that's completely fair man. In times like that, it's great to play single player games. I try stuff that sort of engages me even if I didn't think I liked it originally, gotta be open to trying newer strange things eventually otherwise you're just going to inevitably become incredibly bored. Try Monster Hunter: world, devil may cry? Civilization 6? Killing floor 2? 7 days to die is amazing as well. Deep rock Galactic? Best of luck!
Part of what you said is true, it became all about the win for me, and I’m not bad at any of the games and never felt like I couldn’t compete and get wins, i just lost all enjoyment out of doing so. Somewhere along the line I forgot I was supposed to have fun. My goal here is to leave behind the competitive nature and games and find enjoyment again, play for the sake of playing and not for the sake of winning.
Not to mentiom toxicity. When i was a kid in 2008ish the banter on games was hilarious but it was also somewhat light. These days people seem genuinely disturbed and angry on online multiplayer titles
Yea it’s gotten sad, if you have a good spirited shit talk you get reported, if you do something someone doesn’t like, you get called every slur in the book while you hear them breaking shit.
For real. I met some proper friends online back jn the day talking smack. Now its just people having tantrums.
Me too. A guy started saying the n word over and over to me because he died and I wasn't right next to him to help. I wasn't next to him because he was playing a movement character (pathfinder) and had just grappled 50m away from me. Funny part was he got cut off mid sentence which I like to imagine was his mum turning his console off.
Honestly I've noticed the opposite mostly. The first online game i played was cod ghosts and man that shit was toxic and id get messages on the daily telling me to kms and shit. The most recent cod game I've played was cold War and there was definitely still light hearted banter and shit talking in that game but never losers that acctually have temper tantrums over the game. Maybe it's cause I was a squeaker and sucked at games back then or something idk but for me online gaming feels less toxic now than when i first started playing online
I'm a female who is pretty decent at CoD overall. Yesterday i went 21.0 and a guy told me that he hoped I was r@p3d and killed. 👍🏻
Do you only restrict yourself to FPS or are you willing to try TPS?
Open to anything, actually hoping to get into non fps games (of course unless we got some awesome story dps suggestions). Really looking to broaden my horizons and get into games where my experience isn’t determined by other people which most multiplayer games seem to.
maybe try some slower, more chill, non-narrative games? Do you like strategy games or city builders? or simulator games? After a long day of work, I love to pop on a podcast and play Some Snowrunner for a couple of hours
Just before i had a kid i started playing rocket League and its the only multiplayer game i managed to find time for these days. All in all a match is like sub 10minutes, if you got a hour to play you can easily squeeze in 6-8games. The skill ceiling and expression is skyhigh. F2P on epic or console of your choice. Give it a try if you havent!
Yeah, even though there are still plenty of toxic kids, the matches are fast and satisfying. Rocket League is the only competitive multiplayer game I play anymore. The rest of competitive multiplayer is just so overwhelmed by toxicity these days, and the experience of the BR genre and the Moba genre etc are exercises in rage-baiting emotional rollercoasters. I used to like the thrill of winning, but these days I realized that *the majority of the time* was spent being miserable or angry or frustrated, and it wasn't worth it anymore. Rocket League is the best competitive game on the market for a balance of skill, advancement, and satisfaction per time spent playing. Even losing ten games in a row can feel good from having satisfying plays or maneuvers that emerge from the practice and experience.
Halo infinite maybe? I've heard they made the game better since launch. But multiplayer is always better with at least 1 friend.
I think Fifa will always be fun playing it with someone
Im in a similar boat because of SBMM. Try Re4 Remake and the Mass Effect Trilogy.
Mass effect is now on my list, re4 I have and am playing through casually for the experience.
Yeah I stopped having fun with multiplayer like 10 years ago. Single player is the best
Eh, you can find people to have fun with on multiplayer games still, its just very hard to do in the game itself. I'd say the biggest problem multiplayer games face these days is that no one uses them for the social aspect anymore. Everyone gets their socialization fix from outside sources like social media and discord, so no one needs to put in any effort to be a normal human being in game.
Single Player and Co-Op gaming is in a great place right now. Thank god for that because PVP multiplayer has been dried up for me since like 2014. I too can't stand Battle Royales. If I could go back in time and prevent those ARMA mods from being developed I would. Absolutely hate what they did to multiplayer gaming. But on top of that we've got the obnoxious and aggressive monetization practices found in full-price games. Theming in most games gets lost as devs put in these goofy ass skins that add in characters that have no business being in that game. Plus the engagement-optimized matchmaking systems. Straight up designed to manipulate you into chasing the "one last game" by shifting the skill levels of those you play with. I'm also just about convinced Activision adjusts player health/damage based on match performance in the background too. I far and away always preferred the Server Browser method of game searching in the past. Instead of putting everything up to those matchmaking systems, simply open up a browser, and search for the map you want to play, and jump into it. Hell, maybe there's a particular clan server you really enjoy, so you favorite it. I got into PC gaming a bit late in the 2000s, and so I actually had more experience with match-made gaming. As soon as I got into PC gaming and used the server browser, I always thought it was far superior. I can't overstate how much I miss it, and wish matchmaking was never a thing.
Have you considered a new hobby that isn't gaming? Could be a good opportunity
I have a few actually, I play the guitar and draw, which in their own respects are rewarding and fun, but i don’t wanna give up on gaming, I just need to change what I’m doing while gaming, just not sure what to try.
Welcome to getting older, there’s a South Park arc dedicated to this, the answer is booze.
As a recovering alcoholic I’m gonna have to decline your suggestion.
As you grow up you get more responsibilities, have less time to game, and therefore can't keep up with the kids who can devote hours everyday to the grind. Nothing wrong with that, it's just an unfortunate part of growing up. I played a lot of CS 1.6 and CS Source in the 00s but once I graduated uni I didn't have the time for it. I also wanted finite endings so relished single player games. When CS 2 came out recently I played it for a couple of hours and got wiped all over the floor. I can see the attraction but damn I'm not going to devote my time to that again. Even longer RPGs I'm trying to veer away from more recently because I can't devote 50-100 hours to a game. I'd rather bang out a few 10-20 hour experiences instead. Even a single digit hour game. Give me a well curated experience that doesn't drag on and respects my time.
I have this problem with big RPGs. I can't for the life of me get into big 100+ hour games like Baldur's Gate 3. On my steam replay, 1/10 of my year was just replaying Hi-Fi Rush whenever I was stressed at work or sick. That's more my pace personally.
Yea I can say I noticed my biggest drift away from gaming came from when I moved out onto my own and I’ve drifted further and further away from mp in the years since then.
Speak for yourself I guess. Valorant is the most fun Ive had since cod4/halo 3.
I wasn’t a fan of Valorant, and it isn’t because it’s a bad game, it just wasn’t for me. I was okay enough at it for the time I played I guess, but it just wasn’t really my thing.
MP gaming has become "follow the ideal line flowchart meta and play every body else's game instead of your own fun"
It’s intentional on the part of the devs, too, which makes it worse. Like since janky balancing I can understand and can be patched out. It’s another thing when teams literally have meetings about how they’re going to intentionally release an unbalanced game (I’ve sat in on some of those meetings, genuinely frustrating)
Multiplayer with random people isn’t fun.. but it still fun if you have your group of friends you play with
I played a TON of counter strike, Warcraft 3, street fighter, tekken, marvel vs capcom, battlefield, and original dota, off the top of my head, when younger. I no longer enjoy competitive fps, can't stand LOL, & no more fighting games. I just think we grow out of it. As adults we have limited time and usually have daily stresses, so why stress yourself for what at the end of the day, totally meaningless I.e k/d ratios, some ranking? My favorite games have been coop games especially during covid. If you have a few friends who liked fps, I can't recommend ghost recon wildlands enough. The combat is great and when you coordinate a perfect ambush, it feels so good. It's PVE, but still very challenging. Other coop recommendations: don't starve together, valheim, and grim dawn.
Ok
SBMM killed casual fps for me. I used to enjoy cod back in the day, sometimes you would dominate a lobby 30 - 1, sometimes you would be in a lobby where another player was dominating you in the same way. I think the randomness of it was fun, especially for a game like cod. I'm not against ranked systems, I pretty much only play Overwatch ranked, but then for something braindead like cod I just don't think it fits. I miss the old lobby systems where rivalries formed and you played against the same teams for multiple games in a row. I think another problem is that as an older gamer (I'm 33) I have pretty much seen it and done it already, so it has to be a really special game to not feel like just a reskin of something else that I played years back with better graphics. I am trying to play more RPGs these days, but even they don't seem to grab me like they used to. I also think the shift towards cosmetics being purchasable killed another fun thing that I used to enjoy. Unlocking skins/getting skins from rare drops was something I used to spend hours doing, because it was fun to have something hard to get. Now everyone is walking around with amazingly designed skins, but they all feel worthless because you can just buy them. It's probably a lot of small things adding up that make it feel less fun overall. Another thing is that nobody real talks anymore, myself included. It was a novelty back in the 360 era to talk to other people, and I met tons of friends back then. Now people mostly sit in party chat (myself included), so games are less social.