I am utterly shellshocked by how much I'm enjoying Helldivers 2. It's been a very long time since I've daydreamed about going home to play but I just can't wait to blast some bugs with friends most days. It's like I'm 10 again
I just want to let people with lower spec hardware know about "Earth defense force 5". It's better than hell divers in my opinion. Bigger scale, more aliens, more destruction but lower graphics to compensate.
This is me right now with RDR2, almost feverish with it for the last two weeks.
Currently on my second full playthrough. This time I'm changing it up by playing with a controller, and doing a low honour run - role-playing as the disillusioned dickhead that hates the world, antagonises almost everyone and gets bounties left and right. I have been avoiding story missions for the last 5-10 hours just because the world is so engrossing, so rich with experiences and possibilities that the thought of returning to the story starts to feel restrictive. But I've added a good 20+ mods to enhance the experience in a lore-friendly way, too.
But man is it fun. God, what a pleasure it is to experience that world, and to know just how much of it I still have left to discover. I love it so much.
I'm still playing Starfield. I'm 120% the targeted audience. It helped me go through depression.
I'm a 45 years old dude, and I started creating a comic with my character in Starfield, by taking screenshots and adding speech bubbles with Figma. I didn't know I had it in me.
I really enjoyed that game, despite its faults, and despite the loud folks yelling about how it was the worst game ever. I put around 150 hours into it.
Was just telling my friends, had one of those instances where I lost a run, so I closed the game with the intent of going to go so something else, then found myself opening it again 2 minutes later.. so addictive
I really enjoyed the game, until it came to beating it on the harder difficulties. I lost steam when I had all the decks unlocked except for the ones that require bearing the higher difficulties. I did normal, and the next harder one.
Helldivers 2, currently. I'm hooked on the progression and acquisition of all of the unlockables, but it's the moment to moment gameplay that keeps me wanting to hunt all the loadout options I probably won't use anyway.
I finished SE not long ago. I like the added complexity of logistics, but I found that SE was a bit too repetitive for my taste, as every new resource requires pretty much the same setup but on a new planet.
Baldur's Gate 3. I just can't get enough. When I'm too tired to play myself I'm watching streams of other people playing. Sometimes I get fed up for a few days but so far it has always pulled me back in.
The "worst" for me was in 2006 with the release of Gothic 3. I had saved up for a powerful new PC and taken two or three weeks off work to play. I played deep into the night. Then deep into the morning. Then deep into the day. Then deep into the evening. Until my sleep schedule was aligned with my regular schedule again at the end of my holidays.
Bus simulator: Ultimate
Android game that will toast your phone, but it's pretty nice. It has a multiplayer too and a 2nd hand market where people bid on used buses. Naturally this means it's best to attempt to put a bus for auction in specific hours, and bid in others.
Some of the longer routes take well over an hour in real world.
One effect on me, which is also true for trains and busses in real life, is that it makes me sleepy pretty quickly.
Low frequency sound of the engine, trees moving past, road lanes quickly zipping past, you're just staring in front while doing minor adjustments and falling asleep.
I should not drive in real life.
Completely hooked on would be Dark Souls 3. Right now I'm playing The Witcher 3, and while it's good, it makes me want to boot up DS3 - less talking more fighting
Have you not seen how big number can be? Number can just get so big. I don't even care that I'm ADHD and I'm playing into all the worst stereotypes about us:
I couldn't say why it got me so hooked. I like roguelikes/rogue-lites as well as deckbuilders, and I think it hits a really good balance of the things that make them fun - challenge, randomness, a variety of strategies that can make different runs feel very different. Also good achievements and unlockables.
I got so hooked on Factorio for years that after trying Satisfactory for a few hours I had to stop since I had things to do in the next year and a half. One day I hope I’ll have time to give it a real shot.
yeah that is a good idea I have almost 1000 hours in satisfactory and have a real problem of telling myself I will go to bed after I finish this production line then I blink and it's 4am.
factorio is one of the best automation games ever, and also has just about any quality of life feature you could think to add to a game.
i'm in my first ever modded playthrough with space exploration and i'm blown away by the increase in complexity. the vanilla game is great but the mods are definitely worth trying if you want an exponential jump in complexity.
My latest game is with Krastorio, and I've been loving the added complexity, though I've heard it's lighter than some other mods. Definitely doing a Space Exploration run next I think.
Probably WoW tbh. I don't play anymore and don't recommend it, but WoW with friends/guildies at its peak is unparalleled. You can't wait to log on and reconnect with everyone.
I gotta go with Cyberpunk : i waited until very recently to start playing (didn't have a beefy enough computer before) and man am I hooked.
The universe feels complete, and the characters feel real to me : truly a fantastic game
I love this game. I got it at launch and never had a problem, and I've played like two complete 100% games already before the dlc, now on my third one.
I also had it at launch and had very, very few bugs. The ones I did were very easy to work around. I think my favorite part is the amount of philosophy some of the side quests had!
Played original game about a year after release and loved it. Expansion came out and didn't get far. Enemies take 80 rounds to kill. All weapons seem like junk. The crafting and "loot" drops are too much maintenance for me to really enjoy.
It's a good sign. Usually, the project I work on (no matter what they are, be it an edited video, a website etc.) just get boring in the end because of how much time I spend on them.
I totally binged Alan Wake 1 in like 2 days. Then spent a while enveloped by Alan Wake 2! Part 2 really got the AAA treatment. It was funny, spooky, actiony. Lots of stuff to explore, the characters play differently.
I also didn't realize Control was part of the story, so now I gotta go play that!
Kenshi. Just the sheer dynamic ant-farm nature of it made the grind somehow all the more the worth. Even if you cheat and max out all your stats, you can still invent your own narrative in your head for what you think is happening.
It's not the most complex game, but you're given control to build your own set of universities, trying to accomplish the goals given to you. You have a limited amount of time before the Great Evil comes and you have to start over.
Each location has its pros and cons, different graduation classes can give benefits that persist through the run, and all the building is done through picking one of 3 cards themed around what they focus on(Gold for general improvement and random magic things, Mana of particular types for rooms/items focused on that school of magic).
It definitely hits that "Simple on the outside, addictive on the inside" itch. Even playing on Marathon, a School goes by fairly quickly, so you get in that "just one more" mentality.
I watched a 14 hour silent walkthrough of it. It's a game that I actually don't enjoy playing (I played the first), but I do love the plot so much. Fuck Ted Faro
Noita! I've stopped playing it now as I more or less achieved everything I wanted to with it, but it really got a hold of me with how much it rewards creative approaches to problems
It has a special place for me because a long time ago, when I was younger, I had R&C Size Matters as the only game on my PSP and that's because I bought the PSP in a bundle
And that was the only R&C game I played until Rift Apart and that shit hit me like that scene in the end of Ratatouille mfer
Ignoring digital releases of card games, which I've loved since I was a kid, it has to be Valheim. I would spend hours and hours making structures like castles and villages, with their own defense mechanisms against monster invasions. It's a wonderful indie game, very pretty for only taking 1GB in storage.
Same. I rocked that game for a year before Pokemon Go came out. It was insanely addictive. I would walk like 3-5 miles a day and I'd take way too many breaks at work to go hit the portals by my office.
I was trying to think of a PC game until I saw your comment. It's totally Ingress for me too. I was hooked and my area (Chicago burbs) had a very active player base. The ops and competition were intense! I really enjoyed the real-world tactical shit, closest I'll ever get to feeling like I was part of a military operation.
I still play it too, but not like before. It's a great way to kill time and explore new places. I think I'm level 12, almost 13, and I'm lazily working towards more badges. I don't understand what the red faction is all about and the other new stuff.
Monster hunter world. I bought it to have a replacement for genshin and it worked a little too well.
It just feels different from any other game for how many things it does so well: from enemies to armor design to music to mechanics to weapon variety, everything is amazing.
Dragon's Dogma 2 really has me like that now. I've waited years for this, and for the most part it's everything I expected. I love the new playable race, and I'm excited to try out the new vocations. I have a lot of fun just hunting monsters for other players' followers' quests, and finding things for them to potentially tell their own players about. In some ways it feels better than traditional multiplayer.
Also loving Helldivers 2, but now that I've unlocked almost everything it's no longer all I think about all day.
If you liked Commandos you should check out Shadow Tactics, Desperados 3, or Shadow Gambit. They're very similar to the style you like with modernized map designs and addicting gameplay.
I've had this sealed on my shelf for nearly a year until about 4 days ago. Not bad. Some games take me a bit to get into. Just got the fire ability. Seems interesting so far but the combat at this point is monotonous to me. There's also a ton of garbage quests. "collect me carrots. Run me an errand". No thanks.
It's bleak and definitely isn't for everyone but I really get sucked into it. The permadeath aspect usually turns me off a game but in this case it completely breaks me of my habit of save scumming. Every zombie encounter is tense, a single mistake can leave you infected. Sometimes there are long quiet periods where I just survive holed up somewhere safe, reading books, exercising or sorting/building. Other times it's extremely intense trying to drive through town with a horde on my tail trying to lure them away and double back so I can loot an area.
I find myself looking up the world map at work and planning a route towards a new area or trying to find a suitable spot for a base that meets my survival needs.
Well, Skyrim is already 12 years old. Most people played it obsessively a long time ago. Of my 1000s of hours spent in Tamriel, only 100 or so were in the past year.
The studio that makes those games, makes the best in their genre and is somehow punching above their weight. I got Elderborn too after playing Postal Brain Damaged and was impressed.
Everybody likes different genres, and this one probably wouldn't be mine, but it was entrancing and I basically immediately poured all my free time into it too. Totally worth the buy.
These days I'm more of a boomer shooter dude, but the trailer hooked me and I regret nothing. Haven't tried the newest Postal yet. Played postal 2 back in the day. blood west is likely next up for me.
Devs like Hyperstrange and New Blood are killing it these days, in a time when the big devs are laying off entire teams. It's amazing what happens when you have smaller devs who are focused on the games and not chasing number-go-up.
The most recent game I was completely captivated by and just obsessed with was Subnautica. I was deep into it in 2022.
The most recent one I spent a long time playing is Satisfactory, I started my most recent run in mid-December and completed it a week or two ago. Satisfactory didn't quite grab me the way Subnautica did in terms of loving this world, but I get into it. I had a goal of 100% full clearing it including buying all the trophies before it was out of early access, so I did.
Space Engineers. I played that shit for at least one ten hour session and a bunch of six your sessions.
Then I got to a certain point in the game and there was just … no goal. And I sorta lost all my steam.
Technically I still have the goal of “kill as many drones as possible in the never surrender thing”, but I’m focusing on work which I neglected while playing.
Cyberpunk 2077 when it was released. And then panam made me cry ( ._.) And that scene inside the robo is burnt into my brain xD
I kinda didnt even realise alot of the bugs, cause I really enjoyed the story. I remember seeing the trees through the walls but the immersion/ my imagination was strong enough to mask them .D
I really enjoyed Absolver and was looking forward to playing that but didn't get around to it until very recently. I did enjoy it, but it ended up making me want to go back to Absolver.
Thanks for sharing this, I actually also have Absolver thanks to PS Plus (same for SIFU) and didn't know they shared game mechanics... Gonna try it, but not right away, for my sanity.
The last game that truly gave me the feeling you described is Lies of P. It was my favourite game of 2023 and the 60 or so hours I put into beating it were very well spent.
I have some spoilers (including the gist of the ending) but am playing as blind as I can manage. It’s nice to just play and discover without having a guide by my side.
Currently obsessed with BG3 and getting back into Hyper Light Drifter. It just feels too satisfying to go sicko mode on a room full of assholes and then grumpily stick my sword in the ground.
I have a lot of trust in Heart Machine, at the same time I wasn't that into Solar Ash. HLD has such a tightness of vision and execution in terms of aesthetic, world building, and gameplay. How that translates to a procedurally generated open world BotW-like is beyond me, but I'll probably give it a go.
spent forever writing scripts to do all the farming. i kinda miss it, but its no fun without other users and no one else would ever want to play it again
Games really have to strike a chord with me to stick around in my memory. The last ones that truly left an impression were from when I first got into gaming. I can still vividly remember the impact of Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven, GTA 3, and Vice City and San Andreas—they consumed my thoughts entirely. The allure of uncovering hidden secrets, areas left unexplored, that's what really drew me in. Half-life 2 was a mind-blowing breakthrough with its physics and storytelling. But nowadays, that spark just seems to be missing. The closest I've come recently was with Blizzard's Heroes of the Storm. The thrill of snatching a victory against the odds, the sense of connection with total strangers—it was something special. It's the only game that still gets my heart racing these days. However, I've found myself drifting away from HotS more and more; it feels like the game is losing its luster (or maybe it's Blizzard who's letting it fade... or perhaps MOBAs in general are falling out of favor). As for recent gems that really struck a chord with me, I'd have to mention Hollow Knight, Control (seriously underrated in my opinion—easily one of the best metroidvanias out there, if not the best), and Baldur's Gate 3, which was unexpectedly captivating.
Age of calamity is most recent. Not so much for the gameply but i got hugely into the BOTW lore and seeing everything before it got nuked to shit latched onto my obsessive little heart.
Palworld! Couldn't stop playing it with my friends, it was such a blast! I say "was", because we quickly all got to level 50 and now we're waiting for a big update that'll make the game fresh again!
I got back on the Warframe wagon with the Whispers in the Walls update. After a long break, I'm impressed how much better it is, and it's hooks are firmly back in my brain. The new location and the throat chanting type soundtrack from the semi-hidden boss regularly flash into my brain at awkward times.
There is no help. The factory is the only thing there is.
I am not even on 1500 hours yet but sometimes i just need a mental break from the game and that period varies... Greatly. I always come back and longing so much for the expansion.
Edit: I went back to look at the reception of this game from at its release. It did great at the VGAs, but general consensus on Reddit and other forums negative. I also remember how much The Giant Beastcast shat on that game (I stopped listening to them pretty soon after that too, but for unrelated reason).
Desperados 3. I've put in close to 100 hours on it and I'm just 4 achievements away from completing all its challenges. I'm so bummed its developer had to close down a few months ago because their games are criminally underrated and are from a very niche genre.
I usually play on easier difficulty. The fun in the game for me is trying to optimise everything, and not having to worry about money running out at all times makes that a lot easier.
HoloCure out of all things. It's a more advanced Vampire Survivors clone centered around HoloLive vtubers. Being so simple yet cute and addictive is what made me hooked. Even now I still play once in a while on my breaks, althought there is nothing to surprise me left in this game.
Previous to that, I remember being absolutely blown out by Fallout 1. I'm young enough not to be on the wave of games of that era and the game design amazed me. I look forward to playing the 2nd game fo the series but I will have to do some tinkering since I'm Linux-only now.
One sandbox that recently grabbed me was in Automation: The Car Tycoon game. You can make custom cars and engines and export them to BeamNG and I got pretty into that and made my first ever mod or two.
Meet Your Maker was probably the last one. I would day dream about the bases I could make and stuff. I think there's a community for it here but it's a lot more dead than the one on Reddit.
Tough one, somewhere between Sonic Superstars and two SEGA AGES titles Phantasy Star and Alex Kidd in Miracle World. I like playing Sega games even on the Nintendo Switch. I’ve played all three of these.