Calling someone "freezing" is stupidly cringe, yes. German verbs generally make for bad and very confusing names. Stroheim is also wrong, it would be Strohheim since it is a compound word of Stroh (straw - as in the dry grass type) and Heim (home, or asylum, depending on the context). In this case here it is even Denglish, as it says "stone gate" but with one word being German - and within German, a space separating a compound word like this, is a "Deppenleerzeichen" (fool's space). And don't even get me started on Japanese trying to pronounce German words, especially vocalists in their songs... It's like little kids singing along to Japanese lyrics. It's usually not understandable by native speakers. Jäger in Japanese media is often used for Nazi-esque characters btw, like Eren in AoT
As a German, I don’t mind it at all. I guess it can be a bit confusing when watching German subs/dub. But I always think of it as a neat little easter egg when I come across a German name.
Perhaps RPG’s with a party, like Mass Effect, Baldurs Gate 3, Fallout New Vegas (many companions with their own stories to find and tag along), Star Wars: knights of the old republic, dragon age.
Some shooters like the later Band of Brothers games, valkyria chronicles or the Mafia series you may enjoy as well.
In Indiana Jones and The Fate of Atlantis, there are multiple paths to choose to complete the game, and one option is to choose a fun companion come with you to help you throughout.
Since OP likes open world games, in the later Bethesda RPGs like Skyrim and Fallout 4 you can have companions. not the same level of interaction as Bioware-like parties, but it’s something.
also not really an open world game, but in Midnight Suns you’re a mystical hero in a party with some of the avengers, other marvel heroes, and even some villains. there’s a lot of personal interactions with all the members between missions.
Ads are not required to play the game. If you want to watch them, the incentive is coin. There is no battle pass or anything. It’s genuinely a fun game.
I mean, it could be very fun and perhaps even worth playing, but surely you understand that a game that on-paper doesn’t require the viewing of ads, but heavily incentivizes just that is still problematic?
It’s like one of those “free-to-play” particularly grindy MMOs, sure, you don’t have to pay, just grind the “kill 10 goblin rats in a basement quest” for 250 hours and you’ll have all the loot you need to get to level 2, but the option to pay is there if you so-choose it.
In such a case it is fairly obvious that there is not actually a choice when you are heavily incentivized towards one end.
Not really because it’s not one of those “you need to watch ads to get coins to advance” kind of games. It’s ability to enjoy without ads is still amazing. I also believe that ads in games are OK with minimal disruption, a perfect example is this game. Non intrusive, no banners, no season pass, no ads after or before a round, etc.
I feel this. In some ways it was a relief discovering that I didn’t need to keep up with gaming anymore. I would just play what I want want to play, when. But unfortunately I’ve missed (or even forgotten) about a lot of games I really wanted to play.
Every time I lose in online 1v1 games. I have Rejection sensitivity dysphoria and it’s probably what’s making me extremely salty on loss. I literally cannon bring myself to say ‘gg’ in most cases but I I’m mostly angry at myself. I avoid saying ‘gg’ only when I win either as I feel like like a hypocrite.
Funnily enough, this doesn’t affect me in boardgames
Dragon’s Dogma is pretty good at making you both the center of the world and being surrounded by people that want you to succeed with how the pawns constantly talk, and even out in the middle of nowhere, you’ll run into people just walking around between settlements so the world never feels empty, even in places it maybe should.
Echo
Have you tried Adastra? That story can make you feel pretty good… Until it ends…
Which typically culminates in rolling up everyone on Earth by the time you get to the final stage, no less. If that’s not a group hug, I don’t know what is.
Edit: I’m also going to second the Psychonauts recommendation, especially the second game. Despite the gameplay itself inevitably lending itself to the protagonist performing every little bit of work by himself, there are strong themes of teamwork all throughout the game’s story and the excellence of its final sequence cannot be understated:
To your edit, similarly the final sequence of Nier Automata is so deeply rooted in not being alone, and encouraging one another, and being there for one another. A chance to break the cycle.
I guess you’re looking to spend time with interesting characters.
Endearing party of playable characters:
Bug Fables — A big tiny adventure of three cute insects, with Paper Mario-inspired turn-based combat
Cassette Beasts — Creature-collecting with heart. You bring one of several interesting companions with you.
Moonlight Pulse — A metroidvania set on a planet-sized creature. You play as a team of planet-creature denizens fighting off a parasite infestation.
Encountering interesting NPCs:
A Short Hike — A very small but dense open world game. You encounter characters on your way to find a cell signal in a remote mountain park. With no quest tracker or minimap, you just wander and do what you want.
Inscryption — Card game with an immersive, spooky atmosphere. The game is hiding secrets from you, though, and you’ll meet plenty of shady characters before you can get the truth.
CrossCode — Action RPG set in a fictional VR MMO of the distant future. You wake up as a player character with no memories of real life, unable to log out. You quickly make friends, go do MMO stuff together and get to the bottom of why you’re stuck in-game.
Parasocial weirdness:
Hypnospace Outlaw — You are a janitor on a Geocities-like service in a simulated 1999 internet. You learn about all the users through their personal websites. This game expresses a large emotional range with just website updates (or the lack of them).
I was going to suggest CrossCode, it has some great characters. And while the game is balls-hard on default settings it has many adjustable options to bring it in line with whatever your skill level may be.
Honestly, my issue with it is that it gets mired in real MMO tedium when it didn’t need to simulate that. Stuff like running between NPC traders to trade your supplies up for good equipment and other stuff like having a gigantic pile of consumables.
And of course, I finish the final boss with all the best consumables still in my inventory. The game never pressed me to use them, so I always saved them for something more important. “Oh, that was the final boss. Guess I should have been eating more sandwiches.”
The plot and worldbuilding are still really cool. Just don’t get into MMOmaxxing.
I like a lot of singleplayer games, but I also play games that can be played multiplayer (open world survival crafting games).
Borderlands is pretty good imo. You can play alone, but you never really feel alone with all the characters constantly asking you to do stuff for them.
Someone else said Kenshi, which is strictly singleplayer but you can build up your party and have multiple squads running around, taking care of things. And there are generated conversations between them. And there’s tons of mods that can change or add things to the game; personally I’ve added a couple new subraces to the vanilla ones, a couple new whole races of characters to play with, new building and weapon types and such.
Edit: Untitled Goose Game and Thank Goodness You’re Here, or even any cozy game really.
The new Star Wars: Jedi games like Fallen Order and Survivor are great singleplayer games without making you feel alone. Mostly cause of BD-1.
I keep seeing aa lot of neat things about Kenshi, but when I tried it out I felt completely lost and lost interest before I really figured anything out.
I don’t like when games baby you, but I do like a little hand-holding to get me started.
Maybe I’m just a big dum and turned off the tutorial/tips/skipped something I shouldn’t have? Not sure but your comment definitely makes me want to give it another go when I have a couple of days free.
bin.pol.social
Aktywne