Power Games
Let's say, hypothetically, that you had a frustrating day. For example, you spent all day working on a bug, but made little forward progress... and then, someone backed up traffic for an hour by talking on their cell phone and getting in a fender-bender without even having the decency to smear themselves across the road and at least give me something to look at while I wait around getting my RDA of carbon monoxide...
[/rant]
Let's say that you'd fallen victim to these frustrating circumstances. What would be your game to cheer yourself up? A little mindless blowing up, with zero (or at most a very little) frustration involved.
In college I had Delta Force (Squad?) 2. Most of the time I didn't enjoy the game so much. The weapons were so ridiculously overpowered and AI so moronic that you could wade in, guns blazing and single-handedly level an entire level without taking a scratch. It made for a pacifying experience.
I've found that multiplayer games don't work so well. I just spent all day being sh*t on, and don't want to spend my recreating time being beat up by strangers on the internet. Also, too many asshats.
So what is your game?
Games that don't work:
-Halo2 (asshats + people WWWAAAY better than me)
-Counterstrike (more asshats than Halo2, but fewer people better than me)
-World of Warcraft. My patience for stupidity is low at the best of times, let alone when I'm already frustrated
-Most strategy games
Games that do:
-Doom (any one, really) + Chainsaw + God Mode
-Counterstrike with bots set to "retarded"
-Peggle (I know, not violent... but soothing regardless. I guess if you need explosions you could pick the space-ship guy or the dragon)
-God of War 1 or 2
Actually, God of War 2 sounds so soothing that I'm going to have to go play it right now...
Well since non-goodjer multiplayer usually equates to asshatmania...I usually stick to a good single player experience. Whenever I have a day like you described, I pop in a good sandbox game like Saint's Row or GTA where I can do whatever the hell I want any way I want. Sometimes I'll hit the corner store in SR, smoke a blunt/drink a 40, hop in a car, and drive around the city doing crazy stunts. Othertimes, I'll stand at a busy intersection with a rocket launcher and see how much chaos I can cause. Anyhow, this is a good stress reliever as I'd really like to run over peds in real life a lot of the time and this way I can do it safely from my couch!
Lag used to be a lot worse back in the day. Hell, it took Jesus 3 days to respawn.
Quintin_Stone wrote: The typical American eats 3.5 bigfoots in their sleep each year.
PSN: x93_confirmedx (message me for Socom!)
If I actually have the time, it's Guild Wars. Even though it's multiplayer, it's easy enough to play single player and you can put your brain on cruise control often.
Semper Delectatio
Xbox Live - Cannibal GWJ XFire - cannibalcrowley
http://cannibalcrowley.blogspot.com/
Destroy All Humans. Hell, the title of the game says it all. Plus, beyond just human destruction, there's anal probing. So you got that going for you, which is nice.
"I'm absolutely retarded. Not 100% sure why." - atom
"Dhelor + intarwebs = Great ideas." - wordsmythe
"Do I what I do: hate everyone." - Quintin_Stone
For a while my game of choice for this was Soldier of Fortune. Turn on a couple of cheats and just run through the first couple of levels with the shotgun. Soothing. My favorite was always running into the men's room where the merc is pissing against the wall. That man DESERVES to die.
The GTA and Carmageddon games are great too. For me Saints Row is less so. For some reason it feels less... consequential? Sure, it's prettier, and the ragdoll effects are oft-hilarious... but after standing on the bridge taking out dozens of helicopters there is never any real danger to your character until the FBI starts spawning. And even then I never really feel like getting away is too difficult. San Andreas and Vice City provided me with many many more 'CRAP! Time to get out of Dodge' moments. Maybe it's the fact that death doesn't really matter in Saints Row. I don't know. Either that or I've just gotten too good at it.
Politely rude. Briskly vague. Firmly uninformative.
Any game where you can do some open map racing like NFS: Most wanted. I used to love just jumping in a fast car and putting it in first person mode (where you dont see the car at all) and tear off and see how many cops I could get away from.
I don't think I've ever said this sentence before, but man would I love to hump that butterfly.-- KrazyTaco
One phone call and you're melting like butter over my kettle pop. -- Edwin to Mex
2005 GWJFFL2 Champion
For me, it's one of two things.
1. Guitar Hero. I can be all the badass I want, plus bask in love and adoration of my fans.
2. Something that's a complete disconnect from what's aggravating me. If I just spent 9-10 hours trying to run down a bug in code, or figure out how to make a query do something that the database wasn't designed to be able to do, the last thing I want to do is play anything remotely electronic. I"ll read, cook, play pool, go for a run, something that's not electronic in nature.
Coldstream wrote:
Oddly, the SiN Episodes game. There's something strangely cathartic about running around with the pistol and blowing everyones' head off with laser-like precision.
Muahaha. hahaha. ha.
Mystic Violet wrote:
Counter-Strike for me actually. Asshats are not a problem if you can laugh everything off, and really, I get in verbal fights with them to vent some steam too. Plus, the satisfaction of shooting somebody in the back is too good to pass off.
"Three blokes go into a pub. One of them is kind of stupid, and the whole scene unfolds with a tedious inevitability." - Bill Bailey
Hitman. A crowded level, like the hotel. Twin silverballers. No one gets out alive.
Love thyself (just not in public)
Love thy neighbour (remember to ask first)
Certis wrote:
BF2, with 5 bots as teammates and 55 bots as opponents. Bots set to Stone Intelligence. Just take the support gun and plow away.
I don't watch, I interact!
Painkiller is good. Nothing like pinning some zombies to the wall with a giant stake to take the edge off.
NOTE: This is not a doodle bug.
Spore
Games with sweet physics like HL2, Garry's Mod, & F.E.A.R. are also fun to take some steam off.
Lag used to be a lot worse back in the day. Hell, it took Jesus 3 days to respawn.
Quintin_Stone wrote: The typical American eats 3.5 bigfoots in their sleep each year.
PSN: x93_confirmedx (message me for Socom!)
There's nothing like throwing cars at people and causing massive explosions to soothe the pain away. My new favorite for unwinding is Crackdown.
Xbox Live Gamercard - bennard
Beer For Ben
Vice City
Civ 4 on an easy level
Fedaykin98 wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:
Seconded any GTA or FPS game, especially if you have a sniper rifle.
And Auto Assault. Drive off a cliff at 100 mph, bouncetumble safely at the bottom, then get up to speed again and plow through some scavengers--machine guns optional.
RIP ChronicNecrosis
Fight Night 3 is usually it for me these days.
Elysium: The democratization of the web ... has installed an illusion of a digital first amendment that protects speech no matter how poorly spelled or stupid.
XBL: E Munnie
elementsofmeaning.blogspot.com