Doing things in games because it simple felt good.

I’ve been thinking about the PS1 game ‘Driver’ a lot recently. It’s a game I spent a lot of time on during my youth, and whilst I’m sure it doesn’t hold up some 20 years later, it was still a highlight from my ‘gaming youth’.

As much as I know I enjoyed it however, I don’t remember all that much about it. Aside from pulling the perfect reverse hand-break-turn in order to leave the garage/lockup area and begin the game proper. I didn’t need to pull this manoeuvre of course, I could just, you know…drive out, but something felt so incredibly satisfying about it that I couldn’t stop myself.

Which brings me to this point of this thread. What’s something you do in a game for no reason other than it feels damn good?

uninvitedguest,
@uninvitedguest@lemmy.ca avatar

I would always play AVP2 as an Alien. I loved the mobility of being able to traverse walls and the unique challenges/opportunities it presented. I played it a lot and got quite good at it (would easily be the top player in most games I played), but would more often focus on making use of those unique mechanics for novelty situations.

One map (the forge, or something similar) had high ceilings with ridges built in to it, perfect for hiding an Alien. Instead of running around the map tearing up victims and moving up the leaderboard, I would cling up on that ceiling and wait for an unsuspecting human to pass underneath. I would drop down like a spider, paralyze them with my tail, and immediately headbite them. The glee that I would get from perfectly executing that surpassed any MVP received from high scores. It was fun to just play an Alien like an Alien.

CynAq,
CynAq avatar

I want to play that so bad right now. The cat like movement with wall-climb, plus the alien vision is easily one of my top 5 unique gaming experiences.

joelfromaus,
@joelfromaus@aussie.zone avatar

Easily one of my favourite PvP games because of the species dynamics and the lobby options. Used to play it at LAN parties now and then, up to maybe 8 players. Once you had enough players it was great to have 1 Predator vs 2-3 aliens and the rest humans. Species were selected at random so sometimes you’d get a derpy predator or a one hunter killing machine. It always lead to interesting games that sort of naturally lead inadvertently to roleplay scenarios like the humans keeping an eye on vents and banding together.

Oh and alien life cycle was always on for more challenge to the alien players. Trying to find a facehugger victim in and trying not to get blasted straight out of the chest as a chestburster to become the ultimate killing machine.

Easily one of my top PvP games.

TheOakTree,

By the time I started playing Forza Horizon 5, I had already completed a vast majority of the content in FH4. Once I started FH5 I found myself doing a lot less missions/races and instead just hopping in a pretty sounding or nicely handling or gorgeous looking car and seeing if I can drift some corner or launch myself off a ramp and land on a piece of road.

It just feels good.

reverendsteveii,

I used to like to get gently stoned, fire up GTA 5, put on FlyLo FM in the car and just drive around. My brother and I would sit for hours, and it was basically like we were in a real car. I didn’t drive super fast, took most reasonable precautions against wrecking and killing people. It was just…nice. A sort of cut-rate flow state where the thing I’m doing is something that I have to pay attention to, but not something I’m occupied by to the point of not being able to bs with somebody.

ricecake,

With the spiderman games, I almost always swing around instead of using fast travel. I’ll do the little tricks and stuff too.

They did such a good job making the basic traversal mechanism satisfying that it’s almost weird they included fast travel.

BigBananaDealer,
@BigBananaDealer@lemm.ee avatar

going from reverse into forward with a 180 turn in stuntman ignition felt so fucking good to pull off

beefcat,
@beefcat@beehaw.org avatar

Running over pedestrians and crashing motorcycles in Sleeping Dogs.

I completed every mission with an insanely low cop score because I killed so many civillians. This game is the poster child of ludonarrative dissonance in 7th gen AAA games.

The game tracks how many people you run over in a “combo” and assigns a high score. Mine is 647.

NaoPb,

I never got through the first mission, sadly. It seems like there is never enough time.

hascat,

I enjoyed the ship battles in Assassin’s Creed 4 way more than the platforming and main story. I probably spent twice as much time at sea as I did on land.

Guntrigger,

This was such a good game because the sea stuff was definitely more interesting than the assassins creedy stuff. Letting the men finish their sea shanty before getting into something was always a personal pleasure!

DebatableRaccoon, (edited )

So long as you don’t care for graphics, Driver still holds up in the feel department. Get a PSX emulator, rip/“acquire” the game and you’re good to go.

For me, it’s any game moment where the player is given manual control over a function that is usually automated or simply blocked off. For example: any game that gives you control over sheathing/holstering your weapon instead of waiting for your character to do it for you (a boon for RP in RPG games) or in GTA V when the right d-pad(?) button gives control over the gun’s flashlight or a car’s headlights and convertible roof. I’m not sure about earlier games in the series but Test Drive Unlimited even let the player roll down the individual front side windows of the car you were driving.

Edit: screw ups.

reverendsteveii,

any game that gives you control over sheathing/holstering your weapon instead of waiting for your character to do it for you

I recently bought red dead 2 and that feature took some getting used to. Especially because the controls are context sensitive and the button that starts a conversation when your gun is holstered is the same button that points that gun at a stranger if it’s out. I’m used to it now and compulsively holster my gun as soon as the shooting seems to be done, but for a while there was a lot of “Howdy partner. Fine weather we’re having ain’t…no wait wait sorry I didn’t mean…ah shit” and suddenly I’m in a shootout with the law and out $50 for my bounty when I just wanted to buy a bottle of whiskey.

DebatableRaccoon, (edited )

I know the exact problem and unfortunately that’s just a staple of contextual buttons. I generally found I had a lot of problems with RDR2 so I can’t say too much inbiased and it’s not to bash R* (this time) but when button layout is handled well, it’s manual controls like I was talking about that make the experience feel that much better.

On the subject of contextual button commands, Gavin from Achievement Hunter made the joke comparison during a Hitman video (pretty sure it was Hitman). To paraphraae because it’s been so long, “Don’t you just hate it when you walk up to a window in real life and jump out of it instead of opening it because your angle was slightly off?”

jordanlund,

I spent an inordinate amount of time driving a forklift around in Shenmue, moving crates.

seathru,

Red Dead Redemption 2. The guy in St Dennis selling his white supremacy books… The police look the other way. Just sayin.

dire_rhea,

traveling on horseback across the state also feels so good that I don’t use fast travel a lot

SaddlerFan,

Drive all around the map in GTA V’s multiplayer (invite only session, of course) when the weather is nice. Or just walk around the city. Browsing tattoos or clothes etc. Just doing ordinary things instead of riding around on a flying motorcycle and whatnot.

Kolanaki,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

I kinda hate that I am targeted because what I have fun doing in GTA5 is stunting with the Oppressor Mk1. People see it on the map and immediately start trying to fuck with me when I’m just in the mountains doing flips and ignoring everyone. :/

I don’t even have the guns unlocked for it!

Kolanaki,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

Man, I have a buncha people giving me shit on my thread for BG3 asking if one of the encounters can be cheesed because the way it would be cheesed is hilarious. It’s a clone fight and I was curious if you could make the clone spawn naked and make the fight a non-issue. Now some people are upset and tell me I should just “play the game.” Is that not what I am doing? I was gonna do it anyway, I just wanted to know if I should save before hand if it fucked me over completely.

I like breaking games. It’s fun. I’ll play them the way they were “intended” once or twice; but after that I’m doing everything but that. Just to see what I can actually get away with. I thought that was the point of an interactive experience. Why the hell would I want to just do the canned ‘canon’ shit? I want to do all the things you can’t do in reality because they would hurt yourself or others. I want to test the limits of the game designer’s imagination. If I can think of it and they missed it or if they actually put that little detail in.

hascat,

While I do enjoy cheesing fights in BG3, I’ve run into a few which seemed impossible if I didn’t find a way to cheese it, which is kind of a bummer. Shoving the big bad off a cliff should be a strategy, but shouldn’t be the only one.

Kolanaki,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

I don’t even really want to push the BBG off a cliff. I can’t loot him if I do that!

Skua,

You may already know this because it's a big and recent game, but you can do this exact thing to a clone fight in Elden Ring

Kolanaki,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

That was what gave me the idea. I love Fromsoft games. :)

storm_koala,

Riding around in GTA San Andreas. Like taking a truck and making long trips while listening to K-DST radio.

kratoz29,

K-DST formed many of my current favorite musical genres lol.

Ormulum,

Flying around in the birdsuit in Pilotwings 64. I could do that for hours. Except I usually eventually try to fly through a cave and crash. Gosh I’d love a new Pilotwings

llii,

I’d also love a new pilotwings in the N64 style. With the music it was so relaxing.

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