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video games vs idle hands: recommendations?

simco

simco

Bluelight Crew
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Aug 20, 2014
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I'm trying to ditch a heroin habit, and not surprisingly, it's tough going. During my months of slow progress and multiple relapses I've found that a big problem for me is free time alone in my house. I cave when I find myself alone with nothing much going on. Many times I can find something to get my mind occupied, but sometimes not. A friend of mine from NA said that during his early recovery he played a shit-ton of video games.

So... I'm thinking of adding some video games to my arsenal of stuff to do besides drugs.

I have access to a PS3 and a PS4 but I know absolutely nothing about video games. Any recommendations on games for either of these platforms that are good for chewing up time? I'm hoping to find something that can immerse me when the cravings get bad and I find myself alone.

Probably some kind of first-person shooter...the more violent the better. But I'm open to almost anything.
 
Call of Duty or the Tom Clancy games. Call of Duty for the first person shooter, and because these games are series games. If you get into them there are tons to choose from. I am not a first person fan, wish I could give a better recommendation. I spent 4 months of methadone withdrawal playing Bejeweled!!! I think that's all my brain could handle at the time.
 
Get some PC games

are you into FPS, MMORPG? I am big on these two types of games for PC. Counter strike, half life, opposing force are great FPS. Global Offensive came out recently.

If you ask me though, take up reading. :) Not enough people read anymore, and it's so vital to the intellectual mind. I'm a fan of War and Peace, and Atlas Shrugged. Great starting grounds for any individual.
 
Thanks, both for the recommendations. I'll check them out...shit, I got the time.

And, CH, you're right of course. I used to love reading. I even went to grad school in medieval literature (wow, that was another lifetime). And I do still read some. Right now I'm reading PD James' Children of Men, which is dopey but entertaining. I should challenge myself a bit more in terms of reading; I've just gotten lazy over the years. Been ages since I cracked a 19th-Century Russian novel. Do you like Dostoyevsky as well as Tolstoy? All of his novels are brilliant.

Thanks again!
 
You can invest a LOT of time into RPGs (Role Playing Games). I recommend any of the Elder Scrolls games (Skyrim) or one of the games from the Fallout series. Both games are developed by Bethesda and are easy to get into especially if you've never played any RPGs.
 
Call of duty, gears of war and believe it or not, tiger Woods golf will keep you busy for hours.
 
The Witcher 3 or Shadow of Morodor... both are pretty easy to pick up and provide bang for your buck.
 
^ I second that.

I'm surprised no one said Arkham Knight. It apparently has only about 12 hours of story, but it has a lot of side missions. I'd say given how well-designed the game is, it would give you a solid 20 hours before you would want to put it down.

I'd also recommend Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic I & II. Those games are usually on sale through Steam for a measly amount. Though they're ten years old or more, they kept me busy for about 60 hours each! And because they're old they are playable on computers that don't have recent graphics cards/processors.

That reminds me that Arkham Asylum and Arkham City and Arkham Origins (the last of these three isn't an A-grade game but it's still good) are usually on mega-sale. Arkham City in particular is almost surely worth it.

Also, the Total War games, though they need some decent computer firepower, may be worth your money. I spent hundreds of hours playing one of them.

Lastly, probably for the PS4 you have access to, is Alien: Isolation. If you liked the Alien movies a lot, this game will beautifully re-create that setting for you. The campaign can take 20 hours or more. There are some things in it that could be better; the guns you get maybe should be more powerful for instance. But it's more of a survival game than anything else, so in some sense this is understandable. You get to make your own items. And the Alien is top-notch. I've read that playing on the hardest mode (I think it's called "Nightmare" mode) is too hard, as in the Alien hears the tiniest sounds from far away. I basically bought the game at a low mark-down from the MSRP because I wanted to support the franchise. Expect to not succeed a lot in the beginning. There is a learning curve. But literally almost every second of that game instills feelings of thrill/horror. Critics didn't give it that great of a score, but such happens a lot when it comes to comedy and horror movies/games.

Actually the last recommendation is The Witcher 2. It doesn't need a super computer to play, it's usually fairly cheap, and it provides tens of hours of fun.

Happy Searching!
 
OP, did you try other hobbies? painting? reading? just asking.

I love video games though, did you try the Disgaea series? There's one episode on ps3 and one on ps4 iirc.

Fallout New vegas is good, and GTA4/5.
 
Love the Fallout suggestions... Really liked New Vegas. I love just being able to roam around endlessly with no particular objective and just exploring expansive maps. I have to play the new GTA... I played briefly on my friend's PS4 last night. Video games are great time killers for me and give me something to do while trying to stay sober.
 
@Bluesbreaker... yes, LOTS of hobbies! But most of them require concentration/patience that's sometimes hard for me to sustain when I'm fighting a craving.

fwiw, I got a copy of The Last of Us and so far am loving it. I've tried several of the games folks have recommended...thanks!

-Sim
 
Captain.Heroin said:
Get some PC games

are you into FPS, MMORPG? I am big on these two types of games for PC. Counter strike, half life, opposing force are great FPS. Global Offensive came out recently.

If you ask me though, take up reading. :) Not enough people read anymore, and it's so vital to the intellectual mind. I'm a fan of War and Peace, and Atlas Shrugged. Great starting grounds for any individual.
Click to expand...


Haha. You and Counter-strike.
You won't 1 v 1 me on de_dust2 though.
 
Uh oh, Ayn Rand fan CH, we might have a little proooooooooblem :p ;)

j/k

Is the book really that good? War and Peacr is a classic. Have you ever read All is Quiet on the Western Front? I love that book, Remarke is one of my all time favorites.
 
Fallout New Vegas and Skyrim are the 2 easiest to get into and get lost in from their respectives series. Fallout 3 and 4 were both better, but New Vegas is more newcomer friendly. Same with Skyrim vs Elder Scrolls Online, the later is much better with a crew but if you're new on the console the first few online friends are few and far apart usually (especially if you don't have a headset). And Dragon Age Inquisition is great too. All of the games I just listed you could play for 200 hours each and not even discover the whole map! I'm 100 hours into DA:I and 200 into Skyrim and haven't completed half the main story line for either. With you liking FPS I'd definitely recommend you start with Skyrim. COD is good, but again needs a crew and also is a money pit (new $60 game every 6 months, new $50 DLC for each, most of the good players have the newest game and all DLC.)
 
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