Okay, so I finally got my hands on a PS5 after all this time. I’ve been playing the big exclusives, but honestly, I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed by the sheer scale of them all. Has anyone else found themselves just kind of bouncing between these massive open worlds without really sinking into any of them? I start one, get a few hours in, and then the next shiny thing distracts me. I miss that feeling of being completely absorbed.
Yeah I get that. Open world games can feel endless and shiny in the moment. You bounce from one big world to another because each promises that one perfect moment. Maybe set a tiny goal for a session like finding a landmark or finishing one side quest and then log off. Do you think narrowing focus for a while might help you settle in somewhere?
From a design angle the scale is not accidental. The brain gets a hit from the next big map and the loop keeps pulling you back. Try a constraint like stay in one region until you hit a milestone or turn off fast travel for a session to slow the flow.
I wonder if the problem is less the worlds and more the hype around them. Maybe your brain is trained to expect a single glossy moment and keeps chasing it across games. It might be fine to not sink in and just dip in and out.
Instead of chasing absorption consider using the form to tell a small story each night. Pick one game and pick a constraint like play as a certain class and pretend you are writing a diary entry. The world becomes a background for personal ritual rather than a conquest.
One thing I do is mute the voices and just wander trying not to check the map every ten seconds. That tiny change can slow things down enough to feel like you are in it even if you only have an hour.
These big worlds poke at the idea of a personal myth you are building around a character. Sometimes the best move is to pause and decide who you want to be in that world before you start chasing missions again. open world is a label not a guarantee