Summer offline gaming!

Partially because of nostalgia these past few years during summer season I’ve gotten back into offline gaming in which I choose and play games that don’t require any internet connection. The other reason is because turning on my home consoles like the ps5 heats up in this hot weather even more so than it normally does. So, I choose handheld consoles. On the switch lite I purposely keep the internet connection disconnected as I game anyways but it’s not at all necessary since most games I have in it don’t require it. 

Although recently I’ve been enjoying playing my handheld emulator specifically for gba games like Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s stone and Harry Potter Quidditch World Cup. 

Playing handheld games I guess remind me of summer vacation from school and playing with my classmates on the last day of school. This form of social gaming feels better than online gaming where anyone can pretend to be anyone whilst in person I can see if the other person is genuinely enjoying the game for the sake of gaming. I hope this form of social gaming doesn’t become obsolete in the future. 

So, anyone currently playing some offline games either solo or in person with a friend or two? 

Im not sure if it counts but over this summer me and my younger brother have been doing a replay through of LEGO Marvel Superheros, its been really fun going through classic levels and unlocking new characters. the save file we used like  5 years ago was bugged and we never could 100% it so we made a new one.

I've been actively playing Balatro over and over it's genuinely so addictive once you get the primary wall of not having anything unlocked; it's quite literally calm chaos I keep finding myself screaming in lowercase over the game 😭

I've been replaying a bunch of older EA racing games (NFS Most Wanted, Burnout, etc) on my Xbox 360. They're great games, but unplayable online anymore because the servers are long defunct (typical EA). I'm sure I could find some fan communities out there to play them online again if I really wanted to, but I'm enjoying the offline experience for now and going for achievements.

I bet literal social gaming is coming back because social media is kind of toxic not going to lie. Like if you can remember correctly back in like 2008 onwards the call of duty voice chats were really toxic and they probably still are no matter how hard they try they're probably going to stay that way. Heck even fortnite when you get into proximity chat is probably the same thing no matter how hard they try to moderate it. 

Do you play a lot of Pokemon by any chance ?? I'm obsessedddd with the retro and 2D games specifically.

in 2021 there was a time where we were mostly offline due to financial struggle at the time and i spent literally a thousand hours in animal crossing offline because that was like the only game i had on my switch lite aside from minecraft. there was also those nintendo switch online NES/SNES emulators? and sometimes that'd work for like a week if i had a slight internet connection (i think it's just there to check for the subscription???) and id play earthbound offline when i could. nowadays ive been emulating games on PCSX2 now that i have a laptop. my top picks are sims 2 and parappa the rapper 2. i played a lot of katamari and bioshock offline as well (not emulated, i have these on steam). nearly all my games don't require an internet connection and i wouldn't have it any other way