Wrist pain and me
The wrist pain that I mentioned in my last post did not actually get better so I finally went to a physiotherapist after work one day. It wasn’t really surprising when she told me I had carpal tunnel syndrome; I was beginning to suspect that’s what I had already. So now I have wrist braces on both arms and stretches that I do 3 times a day to help me get better. I can still use a computer but it’s a little unwieldy and it can still hurt after a time.
What this means for this blog is that I won’t be able to post as much as I would like for the foreseeable future. What it means for gaming is that anything that uses a keyboard and mouse will have to be something that’s slower and requires less precision. So Borderlands 2 (which Lord Crumb and I were playing) and any other FPSs are out. Same for any games that use a lot of keybinds. Even something like Trove is difficult to play due to all of the movement in it. I discovered that 20 minutes of daily caches I can do, 1 1/2 hours I cannot.
My saving grace are games that have built-in controller support or are simple enough to use a controller to play using third-party software. Although due to me generally sucking at using controllers, FPSs and the like are still out. Luckily, switching to Big Picture in Steam gives you an option to filter for games that support controllers so I have an idea of what sort of games I can still play.
For our co-op gaming, Lord Crumb and I have switched to Torchlight 2 after finding a program that lets you play with an Xbox 360 controller. I managed to play for about 7 hours without having too many problems. I had tried to play the game solo twice before and only managed to get as far as level 6-7. Now I have a level 18 engineer with an awesome wolf pet (of course).
The controller was a little tricky to get used to but I think I’ve gotten used to it now. For solo games, I’ve been playing some Sunset although I think it may be even too slow paced for me. ARK: Survival Evolved is supposed to have full controller support but I think it lies because for the life of me, only half of the buttons seem to do anything. There’s no keybinds list for the controller either, at least not one that I can find anyways. I found a program that should let me play The Sims 3 with a controller, I just haven’t had the chance to try it yet. The Long Dark has built-in controller support so I may do some of that. It’s also occurred to me that Assassin’s Creed: Liberation probably has controller support so I may give that a try. I think Elder Scrolls Online might be playable with a controller too? I’ll have to find out.
Does anyone have suggestions for other controller-supported games?
So sorry to hear about this! I’m a bit in the same boat at the moment, I can’t use my arms and hands at the moment due to a chronic disease and it sucks!! Should not type too much (unfortunately, I can’t do controller games either, but watching my bf play through Kotor 2 is fun as well).
As co-op controller games go, I quite like the Lego games. They are not hard, but silly and much fun to play together on a casual base. I’ve played the Lord of the Rings, the Star Wars and the Marvel Heroes version so far and they were all fun. You can pick a universe that suits you, I’m sure there is one.
For the rest I’ve mostly played Assassin’s Creed as a solo game with a controller.
That really sucks! The carpal tunnel should be temporary for me (although it can always come back) and at least I can use a controller sometimes.
The Lego games are a great idea, I had completely forgotten about them. It’s too bad they’re local co-op only, but Lord Crumb and I will be seeing each other soon so maybe we’ll play them then.