I haven’t made a new thread weekly exactly, but with the amount of activity it might need to be fortnightly, here’s another recommendations thread.
Let everyone know below a game (6+ months old), that you have played recently, are currently playing or intend to play soon.
I’m going to play Sleeping Dogs next. Bought it during steam sales for like $2. I heard it’s pretty good. I remember liking its predecessor, True Crime.
It’s really good and fun, and also as someone who grew up with HK movies and drama, captures that flavour very well!
Best GTA-like I’ve played. Completely ignored the driving part and focused on the beat-em up part. I wish Yakuza was a fraction as good in the fighting department, because otherwise I feel like it would be a perfect fix for me.
So wish there was a sequel! T_TI loved SD when it came out, think I have played it through 3 times now. I have all of Yakuza but just can’t get into it to the same extent, only managed to finish Zero so far.
Ori and the Blind Forest and Ori and the Will of the Wisps.
Enjoy. Two of the most beautiful games to exist, although weird Owl obsession from creator.
Katamari reroll, which is just katamari damacy again… which is just so much fun and relaxing and the songs are funny. Go play it again, it’s great.
Played and completed Return of the Obra Dinn a couple of weeks ago. It’s a walking logic puzzle wrapped in a very distinct art style. I have to say despite my worries on the style causing motion sickness, that never happened. It’s a really well-done game. It rarely goes on sale too!
I felt so proud when I finished that whole game without any hints. I was close to giving up a few times, but I’m so glad I kept pushing. It was so absolutely satisfying to walk off the boat knowing I’d done it all myself.
Won’t lie, towards the end when a lot of the identities were crossed off I started guessing and made random checks to see what worked. xD
I tried this a couple of years ago, The story seems intriguing but after hours and hours playing I feel like I’m not really good at this and my eyes are tired with the monochrome pixel style. I mean I can play Game Boy games for hours but honestly to use the same visual style in a genre where you need to read a lot and to look at things really hard, it’s really tiring.
Sorry to hear, I do think it’s not for everyone. I’m just glad I didn’t have an issue in the end and got to enjoy the game for what it is, which luckily is something (logic puzzles) that I do enjoy normally.
I’m still playing Elder Scrolls Online, which means I am not playing much atm while I upskill in Linux/docker etc.
I just hop on, do my 15 minutes of daily writs between two characters with addons and hop off.
How is the community over there? I played a lot of WoW during Wotlk (very cliche, I know), but not so many MMOs in the past years.
Outside of free weekends or perhaps peaktime weekends in general, it is probably the nicest community I’ve ever played with.
Very nice community. I try to contribute to that in and outside my guilds.
That’s nice, I might give it a try at some point in the future.
ESO is free on EGS now, think it’s going to end in under 18 hours, so grab it when you still can if you’re interested.
Thanks for pointing this out!
Tried it out a long time ago. Leveled up a bit but realised I could spam one dungeon over and over and level real fast… and after that I felt lost and eventually quit. How is the controller support?
I’m about 4600 hours into ESO, but I’ve been paying for the subscription for half of that time. I only raid. Very challenging at the high levels, which I really enjoy.
I just hop on for my scheduled raids and log off. I don’t do any kind of grinding.
I’ve never bought ESO subscription, I have 200 inventory / 240 bank on my main character and manage my items with addons, I own the 6 previous expansions with the $20 bundle and intend to play what I own before wanting DLC I don’t have.
I trade Gold for other DLC I want.
That’s fair. I just have hundreds of thousands of crafting items so the craft bag is a big one for me. I also actually go through every single DLC. I’m almost done getting every single trifecta in the game (arenas, dungeons, and trials).
I could probably make do with how you go about it, but since this is basically the only form of entertainment I pay for, I feel like it’s justified. My lifestyle is otherwise incredibly frugal.
I’ve been replaying disco elysium: the final cut lately. beautiful narration and voice acting, amazing art. love the feeling of being dropped into a completely different world.
I suggest that patient gamers put Aliens: Dark Descent onto their wishlist and wait for a good sale. It already had a small sale but the game only came out in June.
They really nailed the vibe, just all around, check out some Youtube plays of it to see if you like the gameplay. It looks like XCOM in screenshots but plays in real-time. The story takes place in a Weiland-Yutani mining base, of course isolated in an unwanted corner of the universe. A mysterious infection has appeared on the planet! I wonder what it could be? Better send some soldiers from your crashed ship to check out the situation and look for survivors. The characters are all new.
I’d say that the game benefits from all the comics and other less-known canon that fleshes out the world, and has the flavor down pat. They haven’t forgotten that the original movie was about a conflict between two powerful women, one of whom really doesn’t want to fuckin be here, and the gameplay does a great job of being a balancing act between making you fuckin sweat at the mercy of xenomorphs while also feeling like a badass. It’s a lot of people’s Game of the Year already, so I’d look into it, even though it’s gotten kinda lost in the shuffle.
Just finished Psychonauts 2 (haven’t played the first game) - it’s a solid 3D platformer with great art direction that trends on the easier side, though I appreciated having something that was somewhat relaxing to play for a change. I would highly recommend.
The first one was even better I feel!
Picked this up in the most recent steam sale… it’s installed on my desktop and steam deck, still haven’t booted it up.
Thanks for bringing it back to the surface. May have to start tomorrow.
Caesar III is a 1998 Windows city building game, so it’s like SimCity, but more fast paced, focused on efficiency, and set in Ancient Rome. You can get it from Steam or GOG. But the game is old, and clearly aged software and gameplay wise.
Then someone created a reimplementation named Julius project, adding some QoL improvement and compatibility with other OSes. And then someone else forked the project and added gameplay changes as well, incorporating features from later games.
Now I can play it in my Android phone in my bed.
On my android? Holy shit brb.
Last time I played a caeser game it was C1 and I was a kid who had no idea which sound card setting to use and would choose different settings every time I booted the game. Sometimes it worked. I had no idea how to play but I loved it.
+1 for the wiki link to check it out.
I’vebeen playing Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2 while I wait for Baldurs Gate 3 and how did I sleep on these?? They’re great
Solasta. It gives me that D&D joy, and it’s so much fun to make and playtest characters. Runs great on steam deck, too.
I recently finished Yakuza 2 and NieR: Replicant, so I’m starting some new games:
- Blasphemous - weird setting, so I’m interested to see how it progresses; I had a hankering to play an indoe game, so that’s scratching the itch ATM
- Mass Effect Legendary - first time, but unfortunately I’m not super invested yet so I’m taking it slow
And some games I’ve taken a break from but will pick up again soon:
- Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky - got a bit tired of the gameplay loop
- Ys - Memories of Celceta (near the end) and Oath of Felghana (probably 2/3); stalled for whatever reason
And some games I’m interested in starting soonish:
- CrossCode - I have that Ys gameplay hankering, but I don’t want to start another just after finishing the above
- NieR: Automata - really enjoyed Replicant, but I want to give myself some time so the world feels fresh
- a bunch of indie games
Blasphemous is a disgusting game, I bet you’re going to love it. There’s a sequel out now. It might be time for me to fire up the original again.
I really loved Blasphemous. Great setting, and hard enough to be very challenging until you get into it.
Just played System Shock 2, it was pretty good.
Who can recommend me some similarly good games, similarly able to run on a bog-standard laptop? I’ve no interest in buying a gaming PC or any of that stuff, you never needed one to play Theme Hospital or whatever.
I know I’m asking for 3D games but you know what I mean. I just want to fuck around on the laptop I use for work, not drop a grand on hardware just to game for a few hours.
Edit: going to try Far Cry (the original).
I didnt play seither of the system shock games, but i would recommend Prey (2017) (Currently on 75% Sale) - SciFi / Alien setting with gorgeous gameplay due to the almost perfectly implemented Immersive Sim (Same genre as the System Shock games) mechanics. Its one of those games, that make you feel smart and creative while playing & also gives you such a high degree of freedom, that almost nothing feels forced - there is always another way! Got be one of my all time favourites, currently preparing for my 4th playthrough.
Should also be able to run on weaker hardware.
I’ve heard of it, thanks for the recommendation. I’ll put in on the wishlist. Struggling through STALKER at the moment - can’t decide if I like it or not.
STALKER is also on my wishlist, sitting there crammed between ~60 other games i’ll probably never get to buy/play xD
What do you dislike about it?
I can’t find a way to successfully play it that maintains enough realism to be properly satisfying.
The controls are awkwardly difficult in a way I can’t properly explain, I’m finding it interferes with the immersion a bit. Particularly the aiming system and the fact a headshot doesn’t kill unarmoured human characters in the early game. Also there’s a lot of running from point A to point B and back again.
Even so, I think I probably like it. I’m just finding that frustrating in a way that isn’t particularly fun. You’ll get a bunch of people online saying the difficulty is somehow meant to reflect the mood of the game, personally I don’t think that makes much sense.
Yeah, I usually don’t like the difficulty/depth either if it breaks the immersion and feels artificial/forced. Maybe there are some community mods/official settings to change that?
A lot of games unfortunately tend to increase the “difficulty” by making the tasks more tedious, rather than changing the actual gameplay :/ Stalker seems to fit the bill in terms of your criticism.
I think I’ll give it a try anyway, thanks for the insights!
Heroes of the Storm! Pick one out of over 80 heroes to fulfill your role in a team of 5 and try to destroy the other team‘s core.
Blizzard‘s take on the MOBA genre is something I come back to from time to time.
The character and map design is awesome and one match allows you to level up your character to counter enemy strategies and be become the kind of healer/tank/mage/dps/supporter your team needs.
It‘s awesome. And free.
How’s the learning curve for someone who is somewhat familiar with MOBAs, but has never played HotS before?
The game offers a short tutorial and an AI mode. There you can get familiar with the first heroes that are available to you and the maps. Find a character you like and mess around with his abilities and skill trees. You have all the time in the world.
It‘s considered a beginner friendly MOBA. You have your standard attack, 2-4 special abilities and an heroic attack at level 10 (20 is the max level).
As soon as you feel ready to play competitively, there are several game modes available for you.
Since it’s free just give it a try. Becoming good in this game is part of the journey!
I’m currently enjoying the evil within. Nice survival horror, plays almost like resident evil 4/5 but more slightly creepy and more dreamlike in its design.
Factorio. If you enjoy problem solving or simulation or management in your games. Factorio will scratch that itch endlessly. And then when you complete it, the mods will make you want to start over again!
