Do you think age affects our desire to play games?

I told myself I was gonna upgrade to a better PC when GTA5 would come out on PC, then it became Doom... ...I still haven't upgraded. Just can't be arsed anymore. Most of my gaming nowadays is done either away from home or when I'm on the toilet, both times I'm using a PSVita. Don't seem to be able to set aside the necessary time to play games when I'm at home. Usually I just mess around on the internet or watch movies when I have time to spare.

I see the kid play Battlefield 3 (PS3, ugh, controller) and it doesn't even interest me in the slightest. Minecraft neither. The younger one is always playing those crappy mobile games on the tablet, those interest me even less...

I definitely go through phases where I play a lot or not much at all.

And cop, I actually did upgrade my PC for GTAV. Haha

Yep. Those type of games (story/atmosphere driven) stand the test of time, imo. Once in a while (maybe every 2-5 years), I enjoy replaying Deus Ex, Star Control 2, KotOR, etc. for the story.

Many of the "games" that have story these days, often aren't games in terms of having good gameplay (see the TellTale series, Walking Dead & GotG, that Zombie mentioned). I've only played the "Tales from the Borderlands" and, while the story was entertaining, it's more like an animated movie than an actual game. It's decent entertainment, but it is what it is (not true gaming, imo).

"Rise of the Tomb Raider" has a good story and just enough gameplay for me to consider it a true game (and not simply an interactive movie). They struck a good balance w/ that game. It's a good one, especially if you're into adventure/exploration type games. I got stuck on one part (a cavern that rapidly fills with water, while you're trying to escape) and, after a dozen or so tries, didn't see an obvious way out. I don't have time to waste on it though, so I guess i'll have to cheat and use google.


EvilEngine,
I think it's just a normal part of getting older. We tend to have different priorities & more responsibilities as we age, so our interests change (whether we want them to or not). 

This is one of those topics where I doubt that there's a "one size fits all" answer. The best I can come up with is generalities.

Many games that I liked to play as a kid... seemingly suck today.
However, other games appear to stand the test of time, so it could be a combination of factors and/or depends on the person.

Generally speaking, from a psychological standpoint, we humans tend to get bored of things we've experience over & over and want to seek out new (stimuli). Cognitive (brain) studies have shown that to be true anyway.

The primary reason for me is kids. I don't really get to play like I used to until they go to bed, and then its only an hour or so until I'm ready to rack myself. A great game will punch through this though and I will stay up late to play it. So, I think it's three fold. Age makes me tired faster, kids hog up more time, and most games aren't good enough to overcome my desire to sleep.

I started playing Far Cry 4, bought it on sale last year. It's not bad.

Recently bought Axiom Verge, Ikaruga, Pillars of Eternity, and Tales from the Borderlands.

Played some of Pillars of Eternity, it is pretty good RPG and reminds me of Diablo. Ikaruga is a top-view scrolling shooter that looks like a lot of fun and I like the art style.

Looking forward to playing Tales from the Borderlands, it got very good reviews. 

Axiom Verge is very similar to Super Metroid, I played some of it at a friend's house and it was pretty awesome. Also looking forward to playing that.

I feel the same way about movies - nothing seems to excite me anymore and I feel like I'm forcing myself to sit through a bunch of mediocre movies. With regards to gaming, I'm kinda in the peak of my gaming days going on 40. I have more gaming platforms than I've ever had in my life from 80's arcade machines to multiple game consoles to a gaming PC and my favorite sport/game genre just got the best game to date (MXGP3) with things looking bright in the future with a new release already planned for 2018. Around the 8800GT days I went into a gaming dry spell where I wasn't playing anything or had the interest in playing anything and I went about 6 years without upgrading. I also agree what was said above about story/atmosphere driven games - I bought a PS4 just for Two Souls because the story/atmosphere interested me and I'm really looking forward to the companies next game Detroit: Becoming Human although they're more interactive movies. I also liked Life is Strange.

I also ran into a long dry spell with one of my oldest and favorite hobbies/sports- dirt bike riding and racing. I went about 7 years without a bike and wasn't even watching the races on TV anymore and then next thing you know last year I went in person to a record amount of the TV broadcasted pro races in one year than I ever have before and bought a new bike and started riding and watching every race again. Sometimes you just get burned out or bored of something and have to give it a break and then you come back to it and it's fun and exciting once again. Kinda how I am about amusement parks right now. I used to have season passes to multiple parks from NJ, to PA, New England, and all the way out to Ohio and now I'm just totally burned out on them and the rides don't excite me.

Old age? Is 40 considered old? Man I sure don't feel it and many people tell me that I look a lot younger than I am. I think I stopped aging at 32....must of been bitten by a vampire. Oh one thing that made gaming refreshing for me was thinking outside of the box. I like used to play FPS games hardcore to be competitive among the best. I was top ten in the UT2004 deathmatch stats during the games peak and it was such a chore and energy drain to stay at that level...hell, I had the man Stryfe himself playing on my server and man what an aggravating person to play 1v1 against, lol, it just became too hardcore and the fun totally faded away I got to the point where I totally stopped playing all games online.

I started having fun again when I stepped outside the box and started trying games I normally would not even give a look at. Like with Life is Strange I never had heard of it before and had discovered it on a demo download binge downloading random game demos on the Xbox360 on the whim and fell in love with the store/atmosphere. Tomb Raider Underworld was the same, I never gave those games a chance and downloaded the demo on the whim and have been a big Tomb Raider fan ever since. I think evilengine is just in a dry spell/burned out and needs to take a break from gaming and come back and try something different, different genre, different gameplay, etc.. and the excitement and fun-factor will all come back...

BTW, first post on the 75" 4k screen....hehe.

I started playing Mass Effect Andromeda more in-depth and like the reviews say, it does get better as it gets later in the game. I have 46 hours total playing time so far and I'm only 33% through the main story. As far as exploring and combat go, it is definitely Mass Effect but everything else (especially characters and story) definitely isn't up to par with the original trilogy. Also recent patches have improved character faces and animations but they're still far from perfect.

One of the best things they did was add this weapon in one of the patches: de.masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/X5_Ghost

Previously it was just placeholder that appeared in cutscenes, usually wielded by mercenary or outlaw type characters. Due to popular demand, they actually added it to the game. It's a pretty awesome assault rifle too.

As for the game, when you see the entire scope of it and how much there is to do in it, it gets easy to overlook its minor imperfections. My only complaint is that the game might actually be too big, maybe if they hadn't worried about making it such a huge game, they could've concentrated more on things like characters and story. The planets are done very well though.

Here's a great looking VR game for PC.

Yep, check out the reviews.

www.metacritic.com/game/pc/lone-echo


Note, the ppl at metacritic screwed up by posting a vid to different game, "Echo Arena". Evidently, it's a multiplayer action/sports spin-off of the "Lone Echo" (single-player, story-driven) game.

It looks like most of the VR games are on sale at the Playstation Store, so now's a good time to take a look, if you own a PS4 and really want to get into VR.
store.playstation.com/#!/en-us/ps-vr-celebration-sale/cid=STORE-MSF77008-PSVRSALEG

Word of warning in regards to current gen VR, I read many games (but not all) give lots of people motion
sickness. Something to do with the tech not being fully developed (games have to hit a certain fps) and/or many Developers aren't skilled enough at properly implementing VR in their games.

The Sony VR headset was $400 the last time I checked. Personally, I already spent enough on toys/games recently, so the VR isn't on my wishlist in the near future. Maybe I'll get into VR when PS5 and its version of VR is out, or when the next generation of Oculus Rift/HTC Vive gets released... and the tech is better developed so that motion sickness isn't as big of problem.



Other PS4 non-VR games are on sale too (very brief Flash sale that ends tomorrow though, 10/16 10:00AM CST).

The only 2 that interest me (and aren't already in my library) are "Wipeout Omega Collection" (40% discount to all shoppers) and "Tekken 7" (40% discount if you subscribe as a Playstation Plus member).

I can't figure out why anyone bought PS4 VR other than bragging rights. There just isn't enough under the hood to make it worth while. I'll howl laughing if Sony makes it incompatible with their next console.

For stuff like this, it's much safer to grab it for the PC.  Although PC hardware has known to go obsolete, it generally has a longer shelf life than consoles.  That's especially true when the equipment costs just as much, if not more than what you can get a console for.

Certainly, better hardware helps (since good VR benefits from high fps). However, I think Cop's also right (even joking) and alot of it has to do with devs understanding the tech, and using proper algorithms & effective programming techniques. 

Having said that, i don't disagree in the slightest about PC. By far, the majority of games I own are for PC (on Steam and GOG).


Regardless, Sony has put their money where their mouth is, and they've done a commendable job of backing their VR platform (many of the games look great, at least judging from the screenshots).

www.wareable.com/sony/best-playstation-vr-games-2016