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Gaming was like breathing. It was the biggest part of my life as a teenager, one of my priorities as a college student, and eventually one of my most expensive “hobbies” as a young professional.
Then all of a sudden, after thousands of hours spent playing across genres and platforms, boredom hit me hard for the very first time in my early thirties. Some of my favorite games soon gave me the impression of being terribly long. I couldn’t help but notice all the repeating tropes and similarities in game design between franchises.
I figured it was just a matter of time before I found the right game to stimulate my interest again, but time continued to go by and nothing changed.
Is it that games have failed to innovate, or that real life is ultimately more engaging?
(Score: 2) by Valkor on Tuesday January 08 2019, @08:30AM
A rooted Nintendo 3DS. Hardly any load times, and access to the HUGE library of all Nintendo handheld games. Since it's small enough to go in the laptop bag, it's there for those brief ten minutes I'm not being micromanaged by some asshole or another. I'm currently playing a pir8 copy of Dragon Quest that has the proper orchestral score and proper English dubs and subs. In the slot I have a legit copy of Monster Hunter.
I ran in to the same issue as OP, and I identified the problem as being I'm too damn busy to wait for shit to patch and load. By the time PoE or Warframe finishes patching I'm already off reading or do something actually productive (heaven forbid). I gave it a think and decided a portable with zero load time and very low operating costs was the ticket. Without getting weird, I limited my search to just mainstream stuff and picked a 3DS XL because I mostly wanted to play Nintendo games, so, duh. Turns out it also does some libretro stuff pretty well, too. I've always liked portables but haven't gamed on one in fordamnever.
I would not suggest a Switch for this purpose, at all. It has updates and other crap, and I'm not sure just how much that blocks you from enjoying your collection, but I know for a fact on the 3DS a pending update won't prevent you from playing. Games still have load times; Monster Hunter Generations will give you enough time to stretch between some levels. Also I'm not sure how robust the Switch is, can it survive a backpack?
I had a PSP2000 for a while and it was pretty nice. That might be a good route nowadays, but Memory Sticks or whatever Sony calls them are $$. They have OK survivability and load times can be very quick but vary wildly. I have no clue how rooting these things goes, it's probably trivial like it is with the 3DS. The PS Vita might be an option, but UMD is so cool :)