When my grandma died, I went through something very similar. I was so worried that I wouldn't be able to get past it, and that everything I was doing at the time would be forever etched in mind. But I found that avoiding everything made it worse.

About two days afterwards, I realized my life wasn't going to just go back to normal and just simply "getting my mind off it" wasn't working. So, I decided to put all the games I was playing before it happened on hold. They can wait, and I started a game thinking about my grandma and the memories I had. I actually found it really cathartic to play a game specifically for their sake. To think about who they were as a person and play something that makes you think of them before they went. And I found that, for me, at least, it worked. It got me thinking about before they left me and what I had with them.

I don't actually think back on the games I was playing during that time period badly. It hasn't ruined them for me. I think it actually helped, and I was able to do one last thing celebrating them. For me, it was Banjo Kazooie and Yooka Laylee. My grandma had always meant to play Banjo and Kazooie, but she never did, so I did for her.

I'm so sorry for your loss.

I have attempted to play most of them at this point. Fortunately my friends seem to have all come to some sort of general consensus. When I was, like, 10 or 11 358/2 Days came out and that was the first one that I officially played, which would probably messed me up on the series... ehehehe

I have tried over ten times to get into Kingdom Hearts and sometimes lie awake at night wondering what all my loved ones see that I don't. At this point, any advice would be helpful because it's getting harder and harder to pretend like everything is fine when it's not... where is the magic, and how can I obtain it for myself?!

I started Stories a few days ago. It seems quite a bit like furry Bastion. There's both good and bad points to it I would say, so far. Without getting spoilery,
Good:
-storybook format is charming
-artwork is nice when it's being shown
-easy achievements
Bad:
-buggy
-not a fan of the 3D model graphics
-not being able to skip the voice-over is annoying
-combat is too simple

That's my feelings about it so far, but they may change depending on the story and whether the difficulty ramps up.

Just got done packing stuff up and moving stuff, so it's a bit messy. But I just got a wall-mount, so this is my new set-up. I like it even though it's cluttered. For me, more is always more.

Yep, someone was indeed messing with mine. Real lame, dood.

I can't even remember what I voted for anymore...

A Hat in Time is my vote.

OK, so I picked the PS1 version and it's asking me which battle system I'd like. Should I pick the one with the pauses or without them? I've only played like 1 JRPG in my life mind you.

Pauses. But just remember that what it means by pauses is that it will only pause in the item menu or in the, like, special attack menu. It won't pause during battle, which messes me up. I always just assume that it's paused and set it down to go get a drink or something and come back to a dead Chrono.

But in any case. I finally got my DS copy of the game halfway through the month, so I'm able to start my replay of it! I'm not even out of the millenium fair because my life is sad and busy. I'm looking forward to getting farther.

I'd like to add to the discussion about "Why would you buy an Xbox?"

First, I'll say that I like all platforms and am not loyal to any corporation.

I own a Switch, Ps4, Xbox One X and PC. I was exclusively on PS4/PC until about 2 years ago and here is why I switched:
- Majority of my personal friends are on Xbox. (I'm talking like a 10:1 ratio)
- 100s of 360 games available to play through backwards compat (Don't have to worry about messing with settings like PC)
- Xbox exclusives are multiplayer focused and multiplayer is where I spend most of my time. (3rd Party, Halo, Gears, State of Decay, Sea of Thieves, Forza, etc)
- Windows Store is pretty garbage and barely any PC players are actually playing Xbox games. (Outside of Sea of Thieves)
- Xbox One X is half the price of a high end PC
- Between Gold ($40), EA Access ($20), GamePass (1 Year for $60) I barely have to buy any games.

Here are the games I got and beat for "free" through these services for 2018 alone:

Assault Android Cactus
Shadow Complex: Remastered
Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown
Human: Fall Flat
ABZÛ
Tom Clancy's The Division
Assassin's Creed Chronicles: Russia
Need for Speed: Payback
State of Decay 2
Unmechanical: Extended
Assassin's Creed: Syndicate
Late Shift
BioShock
BioShock 2
Mirror's Edge
BioShock Infinite
The Witness
Kingdom: New Lands
Cars 2
Clustertruck
Dead Space 3
SUPERHOT
Dead Rising 2: Case Zero
JumpJet Rex
Double Dragon Neon
OlliOlli
Sonic CD
Soulcalibur
SoulCalibur II
Super Lucky's Tale
Madden NFL 18
Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India
Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition
Halo Wars 2
Riptide GP: Renegade
Fable Anniversary
Rime
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Fallout 4
Army of Two
Zombi
Darksiders: Warmastered Edition

As a closing, here are my preferences:
Nintendo - Best first party, pure fun.
Sony - Best story driven titles
Xbox - Best value and multiplayer
PC - Best Catch-All.

If I had to choose 1, I would always go with PC.

Edit: I also love Shenmue. It probably doesn't hold up but I & II are getting "remasters" soon.

Just saw this. Fair points, honestly. If it was just about the system itself and the games library (backwards compatibility) and all, the XBOX One would be a nifty system. Unfortunately, it has to unfairly compete with PC, whereas the others don't have to as much. Which is what I get hung up on when dealing with it.

For me, the difference in what a PC can offer me versus what the XBOX can is its downfall. Yeah, the subscription services are pretty good, and you can get lots of free games and not have to tweak settings. But I'm okay with occasionally picking up the games I would have gotten from the subscription service and having to tweak settings for the older games because it means I won't have to buy an additional system just to use them.

It's just a matter of I'm going to have a PC either way, so I can't justify, essentially, a mini one. For those who aren't PC gamers, it's fine and probably a good route to take.

And you're right on multi-player. It just doesn't apply to me.

Shenmue is the greatest, and everyone owes it to themselves to at least try it.

This might be the excuse I needed to order the DS version of the game. My sister took mine, so I've been meaning to replace it for years.

What did you have to do to fix it? I found that in my case installing the patch I posted fixed evarything and is now running great.

As for the feeling sick while playing I do find some stuff useful. The biggest problem for me is Field of View, especially when it is too low. It makes it look like you are wearing horse blinders. But it may vary depending on the size of the monitor, aspect ratio and distance you are playing at, so set it as you feel is best.
Obviouslly the framerate keep it as high as your monitor supports, low framerates tend to make me feel pretty sick too.
And remember that there is a walk button. It may not be an option in combat; but cruising the maze-like levels at full speed can be nauseating.
Also lowering the mouse aim speed, will make you play a bit worse, but slower camera movements can help with not feeling sick.

As my actual thoughts on the game: I am enjoying it a lot so far.There is not too much enemy variety, but they do feel really different from one another. The same way that the weapons feel really different. Also the enemies actually trying to avoid your shots is something that we don't see much even in newer games. I'm currently aproaching the middle of tha game, and have enjoyed most of the levels thus far. I got lost in a couple of them, but I am shit at navigation and was expecting that.

EDIT @knalb You can change the translator size in the options menu. The default size is far too small if you are playing it even below 1080p

It sounds silly and kind of obvious, but I had to upscale literally everything to get it to run... the problem with that, though, was it would crash every time I changed a single setting, so it took, like, twelve restarts to get it up to snuff.

I didn't apply the patch, either, but things are still running well now.

Yeah, the field-of-vision is certainly a contributing factor to the agony.

Just started it. I'm not sure how far I'm going to be able to make it, but the atmosphere in it is really nice and spooky. I've literally just left the prison ship.

Unfortunately, the game required a LOT of tweaking to make it not run like piss and also happens to make me incredibly sick when playing... so I really don't think I'll be able to finish it. But it was a nice refreshing experience, despite that.

May Final Update :

Sonic Adventure DX (GCN) - Completed
Hotline Miami 2 (PC) - Completed
Dragon's Quest II (SNES) - Completed
NieR (PS3) - Completed

June games :
NieR Automata (PC) - 2 hours in. It looks as awesome as NieR.
The Legend of Zelda - Breath of the Wild (Switch) - Currently playing. I started it last year, but I dropped it during a few month so I preferred to start over. I will take my time so I don't think I will be able to finish it this month.
Okami (Wii) - Not started. I also started it last year and like BOTW, I will probably start over.
Final Fantasy XV (PS4) - Not Started

Woah, your games are ambitious this month! Good luck to you!

Tentatively,

God of War II (PS2)
Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)-replay
Kira Kira (PC)
Picross 3D (DS)

I'm confident about finishing them all but A Link to the Past. I've played the game many times before, but only finished it once. I'm afraid I've gotten in the habit of treating the game as a casual throwaway game to play when I'm bored.

Agreed, although now I know who isn't voting for what I nominate and it makes me sad. Now I know how Shangela felt during the finale of All Stars 3.

Anyway, Unreal Gold is the clear winner of both polls.

Hallelu

I'll nominate Stardew Valley, since I'm already playing it and it just came out with a multiplayer patch, which could be interesting for the group.

Single-player games. Games are a way of recharging myself mentally to prepare for socialization with people again. So, multiplayer games or streaming has the opposite effect, and I always end up feeling exhausted after just a little bit of playing. Can't stand it and probably won't ever.

Good luck with your endeavor.

I myself will descend farther down into the depravity that is 15+ games in my playing tab, with only one of them being played still. Mwahaha!

Yeah, I did think it kinda strange WindWaker went from, like, two votes to like six in an hour.

I am still playing the game, but it is slow-going, seeing as I have played this game numerous times now. Not only that, but nearly anyone who would have any passing interest in playing the game is likely to have done so already.

If the game has good art, regardless of whether I enjoy the series or not really, I'll buy the collector's edition if it has an artbook and is a reasonable price for what it is. Artbooks for games are invaluable as resource material. It's one thing to see a finished product, it's another entirely to see the character development and initial sketches. I love when games just include them in the actual game too, but it's super handy having a physical copy of it so I can put it on shelf next to the others.

Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly arrived in the mail the other day!!

Oooh, let me know if that game is any good.

Wololololo! Excited for this month!

Heileen 04/16/18
G-Senjou no Maou 04/23/18
Tropical Liquor 04/30/18

Best: G-Senjou without a doubt. But it's a replay, so I knew it would be good. I love Usami Haru as a character. She might honestly be my favorite female vn character. She's just this perfect, realistic blend of bad-ass and vulnerable.

Worst: Heileen. Tropical Liquor was terrible too, but Heileen took awful to new levels. At least the art in Trop Liquor is good to look at and had well-polished CGs. Heileen had none of that. It didn't even really have a story to speak of either.

Just listened to the last 2 episodes, good stuff!

It's clear the gang is getting more comfortable which makes for a fun listen.
Glad there some other Earthbound lovers on the site.
Poor Ric, always getting picked on.

I added the podcast to my favorite podcast site:
https://player.fm/series/howlongtobeat-podcast

Awesomeness! Seeing our podcast like that makes it look so pretty and official. Thanks for all you do, Everdred! Wolololo

It's just Earthbound. Earthbound and their adventures. Earthbound, forever and forever, a hundred years Earthbound, s... things. :)

First God of War, and because RNGjesus told me to Ef: a Tale of Two, which is a Minori game, so I'm expecting high production value. Or else. >:)