For minigames as "games within the game" (e.g., GTA has a lot of these like pool, golf, etc.,) throw another one up for Witcher 3's Gwent!
For minigames as representations of some other mechanic (e.g., hacking, lock picking,) I remember liking the hacking in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Reminded me of hacking in EVE: Online.
Probe scanning was awesome in EVE too—at least...it was a decade or so ago. Who knows if it's still the same now doe? Not me.
I always found the GTA ones pretty lackluster, even bowling was more fun in the Yakuza games. The videogame arcades and consoles in San Andreas were the only ones that I had fun.
Now the status is silver, I don’t know if it was an update from them and they didn’t announce it, if it’s a Proton Experimental thing or just luck, but now it’s running.
I spent way more time than I should have playing Dice in Kingdom Come: Deliverance.
Edit: I also just remembered the hacking system in BioShock had a very mini-game feel to it. I had a lot of fun with those too.
@chloyster Guild Wars 2 World vs World and Ghost Recon Breakpoint (which was on deep discount). The latter appears to have been mostly turned around with regards to its release bugs but I am still in the process of gauging the capability of the enemy AI.
The fact that you can tweak the gameplay details on a scale of "the division Style looter shooter" right up to "almost mil-sim" levels is quite impressive to me.
Basically everything old. There’s such massive recency bias in game discussions. It’s very much an explicit marketing strategy to promote the new thing as more everything but somehow it’s infected almost all discussions.
Sure ok, playing an old game requires a bit more investment and effort than watching an old film or even reading an old book but mostly it’s just about lack of familiarity. Especially outside of fps style games where I’ll admit prior to halo 1 things were pretty all over the shop many older games are still approachable.
Coupled with the general dismissal of strategy and simulation genres (which were comparatively bigger in the past) and many things get forgotten outside of cult classic status.
If I'm rattling down a list of my favorite games ever, they're heavily concentrated in the last decade, with a couple of stragglers from earlier than that. I don't think that's recency bias; I think developers have just, in general, gotten better at honing in on what people like, especially in the age of rapid patching. There's plenty of negative that comes along with this too, but for every game like Diablo IV that patches out builds because they were too much fun and impacted their live service retention rate, there are plenty of games coming out of early access after learning what worked and didn't work with their players, much more rapidly than the old days of iterating on yearly sequels.
Old is relative though. Age doesn’t hit movies or books nearly as hard as it does to games and gameplay mechanics, and where exactly that acceptable limit happens to be differ for each individual - with no doubt a large correlation based on your age.
It’s just really hard to imagine yourself in the shoes of someone who didn’t grow up with them and doesn’t have the appreciation and nostalgia of those times. Heck, back when I was a kid with my PSX, anything on the NES felt like an ancient unplayable relic.
Idk, it’s pretty difficult to get my peers to check out black and white film, let alone silent, and yet most enjoy what they see.
I came to gaming after the NES (although I was alive at the time) and have recently been emulating games and have been surprised by how good some are.
There are still modern games that expect you to read a manual before playing, there are still modern games where it takes about 2 hours to learn the UI. There are older games with 3 page manuals and simple controls too.
You’ve got to remember you’re not immune to marketing tactics either. Like part of the resistance to checking out older stuff has been placed in us all by gaming companies training us to interpret stuff like low framerate as bad, or controls that aren’t fluid as bad.
Best game doesn’t necessarily mean most enjoyable now, or even an enjoyable experience at all. Some of the greatest art is difficult, unpleasant, and challenging. Some of the greatest video games are those that set trends, or do something unique despite rough edges, or are even straight up hostile to their player.
ooblets and fire watch are not difficult or lengthy games, but both were so enjoyable. i think casual games often get the short end of the stick unless there’s some online element a la animal crossing.
I was really into the game before the end of the first island but really started hating that there was a mongol group every 100 feet on the roads, and that even if you roll to dodge an attack if they’re mid-air lunge they will seemingly change direction mid-air and still hit you.
I took a break partway into the 2nd island and I’m still skittish about restarting because of how repetitive the game seems.
Honestly, I fixed this for myself by seeing each Act as a separate game (and DLC as game 4) and playing other games for a while after “finishing” each one. This way it feels fresh again :)
Marathon Infinity - The whole Marathon trilogy did a lot for defining the story-driven FPS (as did System Shock), but since the first and last title were Mac only for years, they didn’t get the credit they deserved among the pantheon of FPS greats.
Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP - For years, whenever someone asked me what the must-have game was for iOS, this was always my answer. It shows up on a fair number of iOS lists, but doesn’t get the same level of recognition on PC. One of the most well-crafted experiences ever.
Clash at Demonhead - Despite having an Easter egg in Scott Pilgrim, this NES game is largely forgotten. It was one of my favorites in my youth and I am always surprised by how few people have played it, let alone finished it.
PC gaming isn’t that expensive right now anyway, depending on the level of performance that you want. I have a computer presumably without a dedicated graphics processor that runs Fallout 4 well. It will run Fallout 3 at consistent 60 fps at 720p.
Depending on how new the game is and whether or not you turn down the graphics, it’s not that expensive to get a gaming PC.
Your comment remind me how many games just wouldn’t run on my PC or how install would break my OS. Maybe I had no idea what I was doing. But PC gaming back in the days was very tricky. It got better in recent years.
I really mostly play on PC. But PC master race people are very snobish. Console gaming is a very important part of the market for very good reason.
Civilization? PC all the way. Ratchet & Clank? God of War? I had a lot of fun playing them on consoles. IDK whether they would have worked as well on PC.
Knights of the Old Republic? I played on PC in spite of the awful UI port from console mode.
I think the rare missed game via patience is very worth the ability for all of us to keep pressure on game companies to keep gaming prices down/lower, by waiting for sales/out-of-early-access, etc.
I get that to some degree, but also look at it this way.
Developer A spends 10 years and lots of people’s time developing a heartfelt, memorable game, and prices it at $25 - keeping it at that price no matter what changes. Meanwhile, Developer B develops dozens of cheap games chasing crummy junk trends, and charges $60 initially for them, and discounting them down to $10 after two months. Theoretically, Developer A should deserve more of their money. But, many people will often see “83% off” and go for Developer B, even though the game refusing discounts is worth far more of people’s time.
I do think some people only really focus their wallet-voting in one direction. It should be not just avoiding expenditure on bad games, but also volunteering it on good games.
Neverwinter Nights on my phone. Third or fourth playthrough (first ones were on PC). Absolutely cooks the battery, but entertains for hours while travelling as long as I can plug in. I really wish BeamDog would have spent a little more time optimizing it.
Next will be Icewind Dale and will be my first playthrough I think. Then I might go back to NWN for some of the community quests.
Do the NWN games offer better combat feedback than the 2e Infinity Engine games? It was a real pain point in Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 (especially 2) that it would just tell me something didn't work without telling me why it didn't work, and modern RPGs will show you the full dice rolls so that you can understand why.
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