One of the ways I’m know I’m getting older is that I just can’t get into any of the last 15 years of third-person action games. There is something that just feels deeply disconnected about pushing the trigger 4 times with maybe a jump in the middle, and having my avatar do a 360, swing their weapon or throw punches three times, judo flip one opponent, and somersault behind another to decapitate him. I feel more like the director of a film than the hero. I’ve tried a few assassin’s creed games, the Spider-Man Miles Morales game, Jedi Survivor, and a couple of other,s plus running across other footage fairly regularly. Just not my genre. Oddly though, if you abstract it another layer or two more and make it an RPG, suddenly I’m back with you. Go figure. Maybe I just need to git gud.

For anything actiony, I’m more engaged when the universe of what I can do is more limited, but I’m in complete control. I haven’t been gaming much at all lately (i.e. a few months or so), but it’s one of the reasons I still love Minecraft when I do. Whatever is there to be done, I’m the one making it happen directly from the inputs I provide.

Oh well. No reason not to enjoy your favorite games, but that’s my get-off-my-lawn griping for the day.