miketheratguy

Points for mentioning the masterpiece that is Silent Hill 2.

I'm a pretty casual gamer... ....actually wait, that doesn't describe me at all. I've been playing video games for 33 years and they're my favorite hobby ever, so I guess I can be considered more of a hardcore gamer. ...Actually, forget these stupid labels altogether. Let's start over.

I love playing video games, but I love playing them for the sense of comfort, excitement, immersion and fun that they provide. I generally don't go in for challenge. That's not to say that I don't like to be challenged (I refuse to lower the difficulty of Alien: Isolation to anything below expert and will probably never pass the first encounter with the Xenomorph as a result), but so many people look at challenge in different ways. Some gamers view multiplayer competition as the only true challenge. Others look at a game like Dark Souls, with its legendarily merciless difficulty, as the best kind of challenge. Others like to have their brains massacred by puzzlers. Me? Idunno. I just like to have fun.

What makes me come back to a game usually isn't the sense of challenge, but rather the sense of atmosphere, exploration, and the sheer joy of gameplay. While I definitely felt a rewarding sense of accomplishment when I completed the %&^#% water temple in Ocarina of Time, what I take most from my experience of playing the game was the joy of my first 3D open world, the satisfaction of technical advances like the lock-on camera, and the fun of navigating creepy dungeons. While I felt undeniable excitement upon figuring out what to do next in my beloved Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island, what thrilled me most about both games was the sense of location and the degree of interaction that I was allowed to have with them. The puzzles of Silent Hill 2 make it a more interesting and challenging game, but it would still be a landmark of atmosphere and storytelling without them. I've played all of these games many times over, well past the point at which I'd become familiar with what to do and how to do it, because the experiences are just that entertaining.

Toejam and Earl has hardly any challenge at all. Mega Man 2 can be beaten in an hour. The Sims is.... ...I don't think there IS such a thing as challenge in The Sims. But what all three games have in common is the sheer presence of "it", that intangible quality that makes a game just plain fun to dive into. And at the end of the day that's what will keep me coming back to a game, even if my membership in the red-blooded American male club would prefer that I attribute it to the rugged victory of dudely conquest instead.

Challenge can be a really good thing - it's nice to feel like you've accomplished something or overcome an obstacle, after all - but for me, challenge is just one of the many building blocks that can be used to make a great game. If it's there then great. Some people want as much as they can handle, and more power to them. But at the end of the day none of it will amount to anything if the game isn't fun.

Totally agree on all of these films. Even before the page loaded I was thinking "I wonder if The Thing will be on the list". I didn't expect New Nightmare, though I don't know why. That's about the best example of a horror movie that was ahead of its time that I can think of. And The Mist? Another excellent choice. I love it as much as I love The Thing, which is very much.

Good choices all around. Oh, and The Blair Witch Project (which I absolutely hated) was preceded by still another sort of "found footage" film, that being The Last Broadcast. It was thematically more similar to Blair Witch (people investigating the Jersey devil disappear into the pine barrens, only for one of them to resurface and face murder charges) but Cannibal Holocaust was the better example for this list.