That's pretty much all I play too. There's still some good stuff in that area, but the esports thing is pretty out of control for sure.

The eSports "community" is 98% racist, sexist little shits blaming everyone else when they lose.

it's not 98% but it's definitely large enough to always be running into some

It's also worth noting that they're typically not racists, either - they're shitty, immature children or, even worse, shitty, immature adults. A racist is someone who holds beliefs about the superiority or inferiority of people given their ethnicity or treats people differently because of their ethnicity. When someone screams "JEW NIGGER KIKE" at everyone indiscriminately, racist isn't really the best fit.

Yeah, I guess it's more spoiled brats and trolls than real racists ... but does it really matter? The end result is the same.

I'm tired of "racist" losing all meaning.

The final spark went out last gen. These days gaming is all hand holding, quick time events, horrible DRM, forced online interaction, recycled mission objectives, and huge, empty maps with nothing to do but play golf and tennis. Occasionally someone will put in effort that creates appeal beyond simple fan loyalty, but more of than not it's just several million dollars sunk into a thing that looks pretty but does nothing.

I could quit and grow up already, but there's still a mountain of older games lying around, from back when games were about having fun and shooting things and actually working to win. Fuck playing online with undisciplined children who were born in 2005.

I really enjoyed Metal Gear Solid 5 but found myself thinking that "this will be the last enjoyable single player game you ever play" the whole game. And yep.. these days I pretty much load up Steam to play a quick game of Medieval mode in TF2 or good ol' Goldeneye Source with the 10 other people who still play it.

Oh yeah N64 Goldeneye is 20 years old too. Our generation had the best games, not your generation of.. 2 years later.. :)

@All

Games nowadays are just like music and films. Theres more being made then ever, and more great stuff than ever also. Just the great stuff is all indie and you need to go look for it.

I also am a single player game person (though i dont think things like story and character and so on (elements of drama) make best use of the medium) and there are more, better, and original, games coming out for me than ever atm.

eg.

Knytt
Naissancee
legend of grimrock (1 & 2)
frozen synapse
infinifactory
factorio
spacechem
botanicula
machinarium
banner saga
obduction

Also HL2 was amazing. But admit it, episode one and two were fairly crappy. Mainly rehashes of HL2, and missing the epic quality of HL1 and 2 through their episodic nature.

Ep3 or HL3 or whatever probably wouldnt have been that good.
Portal on the other hand was magnificent. We got that.

Tf2 will always be there for you

I just want to chime in that I picked up Hollow Knight on Steam and damn, if you like Metroidvanias and/or beautiful traditional-animation-style graphics, check it out.

I loved Half-Life as much as the next person, but the weird obsession everyone seems to have over the fate of the series is beyond me. Yeah, MOBAs and esports and everything aren't for me either, but like... it's just a video game series?

Well, I guess it was because HL3 wasn't the only thing culled over the recent years mid development because esports. I thought maybe at least something would survive to be released (The fate of Silent Hills still depresses me.) but the single player era isn't even allowed to go with dignity. It was more or less beaten to death with a shovel. And with it go pretty much all the writers. Because you know longer need to have them on the payroll with the kinds of games being released.

At lest they didn't turn Half-Life into a pachinko or slot machine.

naw that's a Garry's mod thing

There may not be a HL pachinko machine, but they *did* let Taito turn it into a shitty on-rails arcade shooter.

If you go back and watch Gabe talk about HL3 he doesn't sound all that enthused about making a third game.