I have absolutely no attachment to Final Fantasy in any way, I have yet to play any of the games. But I feel pretty much the exact same way about the Half Life remake that's on Greenlight right now. I was SUPER late to the Half Life party, but the actual game engine and most of the really old mechanics pretty much ruined the game for me, but I loved the story. So I am seriously looking forward to getting to actually play the game and story without all that frustrating decade and a half ago game weirdness.

Hey give me a little credit.

It was like 6 months ago.

But I wasn't really talking about the "longing" aspect of it, just the game mechanics part. I was never a gamer growing up, so I don't really have anything comparable anyways.

You make a series of good points, points I see, and agree on most of them.

But your remark about all the good games being Indie games? I kind of disagree with that, so here's a few elaborate examples of good games in this, and the previous generation of consoles.

1. Heavy Rain (2010, PS3)
If there ever was a game with choices that matter, this is it. There's a very solid story, with an engaging plot, and a mystery to solve. One could argue that the whole game is a series of QTE, and, to be fair, it sort of is. Most of what you're doing, when you're actually doing something, is a series of QTE, but then again, these all matter. For instance, you're faced with a question, to which you can reply 4 things. None of the choices are wrong, but one or two of them will give you the answer you're hoping for, one could just be brushed off as nonsens, and the fourth might actually get you killed. There's a plethora of interesting characters, and you can kill off most of them, resulting in a game with 23 different endings. The mystery may never be solved, and your first playthrough might actually downright suck, as you've not solved anything, and all the characters are dead. But solving it is a fucking grade A pleasure.

2. Dragon Age: Inquisition (2014, multi-platform)
A vast, epic and diverse RPG. Dragon age is played like a traditional RPG, with lots of choices, a rich world with genuinely interesting characters, a great plot and fun gameplay. It's a sequel to "Dragon Age: Origins" and "Dragon Age 2", but you don't have to play either of them to enjoy it. I certainly didn't, and I wound up clocking in over a 100 hours in about 2 weeks. Which doesn't come along often. There aren't any QTE, as far as I recall, but the choices you're presented with can make or break characters, kill them, or have them join your ranks. There's drama, war and love, and of course, great and fun combat. And, obviously; dragons.

3. The Last of Us/The Last Of Us Remastered (2013, PS3/PS4)
Naughty Dog has a pretty perfect rep when it comes to making games. From "Crash Bandicoot", to "Jak & Daxter" and "Uncharted", "The Last of Us" puts you in a world filled with good gameplay, and a VERY good story. It's hard to describe this game without spoiling anything, but the characters are where it's all at. Some might say it's a zombie game, one could argue for hours how it's not, and how they're not zombies, but fungus-infected humans, but in the end, they play out as zombies anyway, so it's not important. If you own a PS3/PS4, this is definitely one of the must-play titles.

4. Final Fantasy X/Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster (2002/2014, PS2/PS3)
In the history of JRPG games, this one is definitely something worth playing. It's an interesting world, with parallels to our own, but has great characters too. As you'd expect from a JRPG, there are sidequests, weapons, armour and items to collect(perfect if you've OCD), and hidden bosses to kill. The gameplay is pretty straightforward, in which it's usually pretty obvious where you need to go next, sure, but that aside, it's a fun game, with a very good combat system, one you can't win by just spamming powerful attacks. If you've never played a Final Fantasy game before, this is the one you should play, if you're looking for a game that wasn't made in the 90s. Of course, VII and VI are better titles, but X is a pretty solid title.

So, there's a few good examples. I could go on, but those may be the best of them anyway, and I'd have to do some digging to find great games the last 10-15 years. Which further proves your point, but I've played some REALLY good games this last decade and a half, dude.

*Also, I've never owned an Xbox, and I hear the main reason to get one; Halo, is pretty much a series of FPS games with vehicles. Which I loathe.*

Skyrim's faulty in that an NPC will give you a quest to do something, and then there's a GPS telling you EXACTLY where to go all the time, which renders the need for said NPC completely obsolete. "Oh, man, I lost my knife in a drinking game last night. Swell if you could go fetch it for me. I'll pay you, of course, hehe, but you might need to take care of some bandits. Here's the exact location it's at, as I've put a tracking device in it. I'm just too lazy to do it myself, and you're the only damn person in this entire country brave enough".

Instead, it could've gone down a little something like this: "Oh, man, I lost my favorite knife in a drinking game last night. I'd like to get it back, but I don't know where the guy I gave it to is. Judging by his accent and appearance, I'm thinking somewhere near Riften. Here's some money to pay him back for the knife. Good luck, and thanks!"

Now, this quest would tell you it's possibly near Riften. It may not be, but at least you've a clue. No GPS, but a clue. It would certainly make the game more interesting.

There's a point in FFVII where the main protagonist just disappears, and unless you pay attention, you're gonna go look for a while.

Granted, when I played it the first time, I was 13, and not 100% fluent in English, but I spent days looking, without as much as a clue.

And yes, this wasn't a side quest, but there's always gold chocobos and Knights of the Round.

DUUUUUUUDE. Portal 2 is FANTASTIC.

And if LucasArts/Disney/Whoeverdafuck owns the rights now weren't so douchey over the whole youtube thing, I would totally be playing KOTOR. But as it is, it will have to remain unplayed Maybe one day.

The issue is that no one really knows who to talk to, LucasArts doesn't exist in any real fashion any more, and I'm not even sure if Disney knows they own the responsibility for this stuff. I'm gonna talk to my network about it, but there are tons of rumours and stories of people getting their stuff pulled even for having something Star Wars video game related.

It's not like Nintendo where they outright said "LOL, no, we'll claim that shit like it's gold". It's just a cluster of confusion for anyone trying to get permission legit, and there's to many stories for me to just say f- it and go for it.

Yeah, I have no idea how much of the Star Wars news in unsubstantiated and just people hearsaying. But it's a big enough concern that I'm not testing it. Plus I don't like to put anything up without some solid version of a release.

Nintendo has gotten better... sorta. They'll generally leave you alone if you're not monetizing videos (Again, some people say yes, some say no), and a while back they introduced their partner system where you could register with them and monetize their content but they'd take a cut of the earnings. Which I and a lot of other people rightly consider a giant pile of horse shit. But it's better than it was.

And yeah, I just got hit by the Valve thing, I just put up my first episode of a revisit of Portal yesterday. It got hit by some assholes claiming the Portal menu screen. Luckily I disputed it and they had the claim released in time for me to release it yesterday morning with monetization intact. But it still sucked.

Also funny you bring your whole thing up Squiggy. I'm rewatching eXistenZ literally as I'm typing this and that deals with the whole idea of a video game that replicates real life (ish) in terms of making choices and discovering where you need to be and what you need to do. Really interesting Cronenberg flick if you've never seen it. I love the hell out of it.

Here's the thing. I put out daily content. I spend ~2 days a week during the day playing games, to record enough content. So any time I have that I'm not doing that, is spent doing the 15 million other projects I do on a regular basis.

The amount of time I've spent playing video games and NOT recording (Or doing prep work to record something) in the past few years could just about fill a teacup. If at some point in the future I have the additional time to play a game I'm not recording then, A, it'll be a gawddang miracle, and B, I will.

So no, these days, if I'm not recording a video game, I'm not playing it.