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  • Satisfactory. It's so fun automatizing stuff for 4 hours that could have been done manually in 30 minutes. I like looking at all of my work in the game and thinking "how, this is impressive".

    If you like building I guess Minecraft is an epic choice. I have sunk hundreds of hours into the game, easily

  • Skyrim. I know, it's been re-released a dozen times now, it's buggy as fuck, etc etc, but fuck me if it isn't an enjoyable game, even without mods.

    Fallout New Vegas. It doesn't treat you like mr savior of the universe, you're a (un)lucky nobody caught in the middle of a power struggle. No essential NPCs, you can kill everyone you come across.

    Age of Empires 2. Old as fuck, still enjoyable. Thank god the remaster lets you play with higher screen resolutions.

    • I'd recommend Morrowind over Skyrim and FONV. It gives you total freedom.

      As opposed to FONV, where you can kill most people, unlike what you said, you can kill anyone in Morrowind. FONV always has the fallback of Yes Man. Morrowind you can nearly lock yourself out of progress in the main quest if you kill the wrong people. There is always a way to finish it, but it requires much more from the player and most people probably would never figure it out.

      It also gives you a lot more ways to play. There's no fast travel from the map, but there's tons of travel options. There are several places through the map that take you from one place to another, but there's also two spells (that can also be on scrolls) that teleport you to the nearest of a type of structure. There's mark and recall to mark a place and be able to return there. Then there's magic like fortifying athletics to jump really far, combined with featherfall or something to land safely, or levitation, or so many other options. You can also use these things on followers, so escorts quests can be accelerated by buffing the NPC. There's just so much more freedom they started removing after Morrowind.

      The world is also designed as a lived in world first seemingly and a video game second. Skyrim especially is designed like an amusement park. Every dungeon is a roller-coaster with a very designed path and no freedom. Morrowind they feel like places, and there are so many ways you can navigate them usually. This can be frustrating, because you can get lost, but it isn't that bad and feels more interesting than the same thing over and over.

  • Tunic - at face value it is a gorgeous, brilliantly fun soulslike. Beneath the surface, however, it becomes apparent that the "souls like" part of it is a facade for the true game. Probably one of the single greatest gaming experiences of all time.

    The Witcher 3 - it often goes on sale for like... £3 or something ridiculous, and its a standout example of an excellent open world RPG.

    Celeste - possibly the single greatest (2d) platforming game ever made, with a soundtrack that is truly unforgettable by the great Lena Raine. Also if you play it you'll find out you're trans*

    *(your mileage may vary)

  • Xiii shooter (original on PS2, not the remake)

    Metal Gear Solid 1, 3, and 4. 2 is okay but it's the black sheep. 5 is a good game but doesn't fit the series great imo. We don't talk about Survive. Revengence is okay.

    Maneater. Basically a remake of the old Jaws game from PS2 era gameplay-wise

    FF7 original. If you're bored with it, try the New Threat mod by SegaChief. Absolutely worth a look.

    If you're into pokemon rom hacks, Emerald SeaGlass and Crystal Legacy.

    Crash Bandicoot 1-4. Ignore any titles from PS2 era.

    Spyro 1-3. Also ignore any PS2 era titles.

    Castle Crashers

    If you have a non-gamer around that does like movies, give Beyond: 2 Souls and Until Dawn a look.

    Spec Ops: The Line

    Doki Doki Literature Club

    Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 1 + 2

    I'm sure I'll add more.

    • I don’t feel Spec Ops: The Line aged well at all. I had it on my to-play list for years and finally got around to playing it. I was rather disappointed in what I experienced. The gunplay and cover system is middling at best, and the story wasn’t anything like the hype led me to believe. Graphics are also way behind its contemporaries. It may have been groundbreaking when it came out in a very pro-war, pro-military time, but it wasn’t anything special by the time I played it 2023. I finished the game wondering what people felt was so special about it. The lack of decision making removed impact from what my character was doing, namely the infamous white phosphorus part. You can’t advance the game without performing the worst possible action, which is the only thing to do at that point in the level. Lame.

      Music was good but overall I felt it was a 6/10 game. I think watching YouTube commentaries on the game is much more enjoyable than actually playing it.

      • Right there with you. (Uh oh, accidentally spawned a rant lol)

        It's definitely a game that put way more thought into clever artsy storytelling and "subversion" above most else. I didn't enjoy the "forced" element either.

        I liked that it tried something different. I like that it tried to be a bit meta, but it did so in a "high on their own farts" kind of way.

        All the clever storytelling is really good though! The "You always seem to keep going down no matter how high you start from, past points of no return" aspect, lots of spirals (I think?), the voice lines becoming more unhinged. (He goes from "Target that tango!" to "KILL THAT SUNNOVAremoved!"), their gear gets gradually more destroyed. A lot of really deep thought put into those aspects!!

        But yeah, the infamous "Whisky/(Willy?) Pete"

        For the WP part, the creators themselves say something like "At that point, you could have just turned off the game, but you had to keep playing."

        Which I feel felt SO CLEVER in the writing room, but it is rather insulting. Like, man, how pretentious can you get?? Basically to them, it would have been some kinda moral achievement if their game product had a 95% refund rate and their studio got shut down because players refused to follow a forced narrative to hurt digital people in a video game they bought with very real money.

        So, yeah, it felt clever, but also like some really dark prank that kinda just cheats the player and calls them a horrible person for having the good faith to expect a good time out of a videogame. If "There's always a choice" and quitting is an ending, why wasn't there a cutscene-credits ending there? THEN you have slightly more ground to berate your player's choices.

        HOWEVER, I also think there's a valuable commentary here on how, unlike players, soldiers can't just walk away. They're oath-bound to be blunt instruments of their handlers, and, like the player, they might be compelled to keep making horrible decisions that help nobody, hoping some heroic good might come out of it.

        So uh, the moral is "Don't pay recruiters any mind if you value your personal autonomy, kids."?

        BioShock I felt did a much better job with making the player consider the "follow the objectives to progress" assumption, and Metal Gear Solid was a fantastic anti-war game without beating you over the head for it.

        I'm as sick of US-Mil funded propaganda games as the next person, but I feel like a game designed to emotionally manipulate players and berate them for giving it a chance is ultimately...cheap.

      • Instead of firing into the crowd, you can fire in the air.

        Sounds like the game worked :p

    • Doki Doki Literature Club

      If you've never heard of this game, I envy you being able to play it blind. Don't do research, just play it and you'll get more from the experience!

  • Pikmin (any instalments of the main series) - though I must admit I'm incredibly biased since this is coming from someone who cried her eyes out when she saw the Pikmin 4 trailer 😭 yes I cried over a game trailer that's about weird bugs. It is my fave franchise ever it's like my baby.

    Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild - this is a game that makes me wish memory wiping technology existed. I would love to play this for the very first time again!

    Final Fantasy X - the first Final Fantasy game I played and it is still my fave!

    Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Sunshine - the most fun I've ever had with 3D platformers by far, Super Mario Galaxy's visuals are still so impressive.

    The first game I EVER played gets a honorary mention - Super Mario All Stars for the Super Nintendo! The very first game I played on it was Super Mario Bros 3! 😃

  • Vintage Story.

    It's indie Minecraft-alike that expand survival element 100 times. With various unique lore and semi-realism gameplay.

260 comments