The newer Deus Ex games had something like that, the loading screen would be a "Previously on Human Revolution" sequence like with a TV series

I wish every game had an ultra easy/explorer mode for this reason. I have zero interest in having to become “good” at a game in order to move forward. I’d love to give Elden Ring and such another try but I’m just a regular dude with a job and a family. I’m not trying to make video gaming a new “skill”, I just want to play the stupid game for a bit, put it down, maybe forget about it for a month before I have time to pick it back up again…

The solution is to have dynamic personalized tutorials.

Lets take Death Stranding 2 for example, since I think its played a lot by working adults.

Death Stranding has a lot of story, relationships, and game mechanics they slowly throw at you. But when you take a break for 1-3 months it can definitely be difficult to remember what you were doing and how to do it.

They already have tutorials in their VR system, but that just goes over the basics. It would be neat if the game took the metrics they collect on you, to teach you how to use your most common moves and such.

It would also be neat if they could have a mentor system where the tutorial would then teach you new mechanics you ignored if it would help you out immediately (totally optional of course).

I don't care. I play helter-skelter anyway. Just jumping around to whatever is fun, forgetting where I was, repeating stuff I liked. Never finishing the game. It's all good.

Kim's dialogue in disco elysium is pretty much this dressed up as a conversation

I miss tutorials on the start screen.

Also minecraft books are a good idea, but lack the "hey btw youre gonna get busy and drop this game for 6 months and have no idea what your goals are. Care to take a note?"

My solution is a captains log after video game sessions, but i forget sometimes

This is a must have feature in today's world. My busy adult life taught me to avoid anything with a steep learning curve and almost anything with open world

Dragon Quest XI does this, you also can talk to party members that will remind the player of different aspects of the story. It's actually quite well crafted

Is that the Nine Inch nails Guy?

Death stranding 2 does this perfectly. Gives a summare of the story so far when it seems like it has been a while since I played last time.

I quite liked this in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II

Also grinding should be less difficult. Like we get twice the exp or money

Pokemon FireRed (and LeafGreen) does this!

By the way, these "flashbacks" aren't static images. Your player sprite would be animated doing the last thing it did in that frame!

Also, the controls are simple enough in this game. No need for any tutorials.

Too real. Was really hard coming back to Celeste and any of the Witchers.

Doesnt the gba line of pokemon games have a feature like this? I think it recaps what you did last time.

This is why i never finished Bloodbourne.. twice. Fantastic game. Take a month off. Load in, walk around in a few circles. Absolutely nothing to reference for what my goal or progress toward it was. Probably taking notes would help, yeah.

Press [X] to reload muscle memory

(Tho it's a hella good feeling putting old 1k hours of training to good use & finding that you can still play effortlessly-ish. You are just 10+ years older now, no biggie. You'll be dead soon, so play the damn game.)

Steam overlay has a "Notes" feature to keep your thoughts and allows you to resize however you want and optionally overlay it on top of your game instead of having it hide when you minimize the steam overlay, for quick referencing recipes/guide info etc. it also persists through sessions. I frequently use this in survival games or rogue like games to write myself a debrief before I get off at the end of the night knowing that I won't remember certain details tomorrow.

Honestly, we need more ADHD-friendly accessibility features in life overall.

I really hate that ADHD doesn't get taken seriously as a disability, because having it certainly makes me feel disabled compared to most people.

This is the main reason I hate quests. I would start something, not play for a month or so, come back and having to figure out where I had left off. By the time I was caught up, my gaming time was over.

This is my biggest hurdle to No Man's Sky, NGL. Thankfully, there's an option to reset a quest to a more local star system, but that can be tedious if one's near the end of said quest, as it completely undoes any progress before moving the marker to a spot closer to me.

Maybe I'll get to it this time, maybe I'll get distracted and run out of playtime.

That's the real game, ya know? 🤷🏼‍♂️

This would be the best gift

This is me when I come back to the Witcher 3, until I remember that I just need to follow the arrow to the quest marker and do a super basic version of the Arkham Asylum combat until I get bored again.