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US video game sales have record quarter as consumers stay at home

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Re: US video game sales have record quarter as consumers stay at home

#151

I'm not a gamer, but I want to play something to maintain connection with family and distant friends. What should I play? I was once given a copy of Civilization and after playing it for a day, decided it was too much work and I already lose to many things IRL no need to add the Assyrians to my vanquishers as well. I also played Zelda, by "play" I meant wander around the landscape looking for goodies and trying to ch…

You could give the new Animal Crossing a go. It's a super relaxed game with no real "goal" and it let's you interact with friends in-game.

Re: US video game sales have record quarter as consumers stay at home

#152

I hope there is a resurgence of couch co-op games after the lockdown. I have been playing a LOT of games, most of them of just mediocre quality, with my kids. Co-op makes mediocre games fun most of the time. I wish there were more options available for local co-op games. PS: Don't try to play Outward with your novice gamer kids.

What do you recommend for co-op with kids?

On the switch Luigi's Mansion 3 is great. Got close to 10 hours of play working on the main story with my 5 year old playing as gooigi. With everything unlocked my 5 year old and 3 year old have fun roaming around the hotel catching ghosts. Plus there's some fun mini games.

Re: US video game sales have record quarter as consumers stay at home

#153

I hope there is a resurgence of couch co-op games after the lockdown. I have been playing a LOT of games, most of them of just mediocre quality, with my kids. Co-op makes mediocre games fun most of the time. I wish there were more options available for local co-op games. PS: Don't try to play Outward with your novice gamer kids.

What do you recommend for co-op with kids?

Check out this site too: https://www.co-optimus.com

Re: US video game sales have record quarter as consumers stay at home

#154

I hope there is a resurgence of couch co-op games after the lockdown. I have been playing a LOT of games, most of them of just mediocre quality, with my kids. Co-op makes mediocre games fun most of the time. I wish there were more options available for local co-op games. PS: Don't try to play Outward with your novice gamer kids.

Co-Optimus is a good resource for finding couch co-op games. https://www.co-optimus.com/games.php?type=couch Some co-op games ones you might enjoy are Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, Magicka, overcooked, hammerwatch, Trine, Rayman Legends or human fall flat. There's also a really big back catalog of arcade or earlier console emulatable local multiplayer co-op games, many of which have gotten ports like Chronicles of…

Portal 2

Re: US video game sales have record quarter as consumers stay at home

#155
post #151

I'm not a gamer, but I want to play something to maintain connection with family and distant friends. What should I play? I was once given a copy of Civilization and after playing it for a day, decided it was too much work and I already lose to many things IRL no need to add the Assyrians to my vanquishers as well. I also played Zelda, by "play" I meant wander around the landscape looking for goodies and trying to ch…

You could give the new Animal Crossing a go. It's a super relaxed game with no real "goal" and it let's you interact with friends in-game.

I did check it out, no lie, I find the art work not very engaging, bordering on creepy. For context I liked all the Mario/Wario/Peach/Yoshi etc incarnations and found them to be really cute.

Re: US video game sales have record quarter as consumers stay at home

#156

I hope there is a resurgence of couch co-op games after the lockdown. I have been playing a LOT of games, most of them of just mediocre quality, with my kids. Co-op makes mediocre games fun most of the time. I wish there were more options available for local co-op games. PS: Don't try to play Outward with your novice gamer kids.

Co-Optimus is a good resource for finding couch co-op games. https://www.co-optimus.com/games.php?type=couch Some co-op games ones you might enjoy are Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, Magicka, overcooked, hammerwatch, Trine, Rayman Legends or human fall flat. There's also a really big back catalog of arcade or earlier console emulatable local multiplayer co-op games, many of which have gotten ports like Chronicles of…

Yep, you mentioned a bunch of games that I have and forgot about.

Re: US video game sales have record quarter as consumers stay at home

#157

I'm not a gamer, but I want to play something to maintain connection with family and distant friends. What should I play? I was once given a copy of Civilization and after playing it for a day, decided it was too much work and I already lose to many things IRL no need to add the Assyrians to my vanquishers as well. I also played Zelda, by "play" I meant wander around the landscape looking for goodies and trying to ch…

Definitely Animal Crossing. It’s a pure sandbox and particularly popular with people who are not interested in competition or overcoming game challenges, but rather in wandering around in a soothing environment, having some space for creativity (expressing themselves) and “meeting” their friends online in a relaxing environment. While they could have added more to multiplayer, existing elements like sending gifts to your friends or evening walks through the in-game museum together are actually working quite well.

Re: US video game sales have record quarter as consumers stay at home

#158
post #3

I'd argue it's not just lockdown. This has been an epic release year: Animal Crossing, Half Life Alyx, Doom Eternal, Gears Tactics, Valorent, Sea of Thieves. And on and on. Paper Mario: Origami King trailer looks like so much fun there is no reason to leave the house this summer ;)

Unfortunately, I'd expect this to slow down :( Tons of companies have announced delays due to Work from Home conditions, and with E3 cancelled developers aren't under as much pressure to rush out announcements and release dates

My team doesn't seem to have lost much productivity

Re: US video game sales have record quarter as consumers stay at home

#159

I'm not a gamer, but I want to play something to maintain connection with family and distant friends. What should I play? I was once given a copy of Civilization and after playing it for a day, decided it was too much work and I already lose to many things IRL no need to add the Assyrians to my vanquishers as well. I also played Zelda, by "play" I meant wander around the landscape looking for goodies and trying to ch…

Animal Crossing might be up your alley, there's no real goals in the game, you can decorate your house and island, garden, befriend fellow villagers, craft new furniture, catch fish and bugs, and change your clothes and that's basically the entire gameplay. You can visit islands of your family and friends to swap items, shop in each other's stores, and share special events/visitors that happen in one person's island in the game. The friends and family part is interesting because each island will have different fruit and flowers available. It's literally the only game I've ever played multiplayer.

Re: US video game sales have record quarter as consumers stay at home

#160

I hope there is a resurgence of couch co-op games after the lockdown. I have been playing a LOT of games, most of them of just mediocre quality, with my kids. Co-op makes mediocre games fun most of the time. I wish there were more options available for local co-op games. PS: Don't try to play Outward with your novice gamer kids.

What do you recommend for co-op with kids?

Mame has lots of great multiplayer games. As an example, we've been playing Trog and Gain Ground lately as a family.

Bubble Bobble is another obvious choice, but really there are thousands of 2-4 player coop games.

You can usually set the difficulty directly in the arcade machine setup, or by proxy by limiting yourselves to a certain number of coins.

A warning that unlimited coins can just make a game a never-ending grind because you don't have that failure/reflection loop to skill up between attempts and you can end up way beyond your ability to succeed by just feeding coins in.

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