I really dislike being set back far when I die or mess up. I can handle a fair bit of repetition, but replaying the exact same thing over and over because I died is frustrating and boring.
Which means that I particularly dislike when games have lousy checkpointing or save systems. I also dislike when games are too difficult and I can’t turn the difficulty down to at least get past whatever is giving me a hard time. And of course, unskippable cut scenes right after a checkpoint are a classic pain in the ass.
Examples:
I just finished Outer Wilds and found that game’s checkpointing to be pretty frustrating. So many boring trips to Brittle Hollow because I lost my footing. I almost gave up because it was so bad.
I never finished GTA 4. I got stuck in some mission where there was like a 5 minute drive and then some difficult combat. I kept dying and having to redo the very boring drive over and over killed my motivation. I don’t even know why it was so hard. I played GTA 5 twice with no issues.
I tried Dark Souls once. Lol, lasted maybe an hour before giving up. Now I’m very wary of any game that doesn’t have configurable difficulty levels. Thankfully, most games these days are actually progressing to more granular or meaningful difficulty levels.
GTA 4 is definitely such a big motivation-killer because of these issues. Apparently it used to have no checkpoints, but then when the PC port was released they added just one checkpoint per mission apart from the bank robbery which has a whopping two checkpoints. And in typical rockstar fashion like 99% of the missions start with really long walking or driving sequences, so I agree that it got really tedious on the harder missions.
The worst thing is that it’s often just that one specific mission that has shitty checkpoints. The rest is generally fine, but then you hit that wall and you want to do PHYSICAL VIOLENCE. At least that’s been my experience.
I’m actually new to this whole “Federated” thing, so I did not hear about it here, but it’s good to see people discussing it. How do I access that link from the instance I’m currently in? I click it and it asks me to make a Beehaw Account.
The way I did this was going to Communities, searching Gaming so I would get gaming@beehaw.org, and clicking Next until I found the post. That’s how I found the post on Beehaw, too.
There may be a more efficient way to do this. That’s just how I did this.
I just want a high quality horse game. Is that so much to ask? :( Apparently so.
And I mean, specifically focused on the horses, not an adventure game with unusually well done “horses as cars” like RDR2 or Zelda BOTW. A “girly” horse game, like one where you take care of and breed horses and participate in horse jumping or whatever, or one where you ride a horse around a forest and it has an actual personality and acts like an animal and not just a mode of transportation (Shadow of the Colossus is the one game I can remember feeling anywhere close to this, and even that was very minimal).
It’s maddening because the minute someone makes one it’ll sell like hotcakes - there are so many horse enthusiasts dismayed by the lack of quality horse games just waiting in the wings - aaaaand yet here we are. Sigh.
I’m not sure if you’re bringing this up because of the new Sims 4 expansion, but I thought Sims 3 Pets did a pretty good job with the horses and comes close to what you’re describing, but I’m guessing you want something more in line with a traditional RPG.
Have you seen www.themanequest.com? It’s aimed at people like you trying to find a high-quality horse game. Tons of reviews of horse games on that site. I’m not even into horses but the website captivated me anyways.
I’m old enough that I remember when 28FPS @ 320x200 was considered a target, and my vision isn’t as hot as it used to be. So long as I’m not noticing any obvious issues, I don’t really care enough to check.
I think the better question might be what series should you start from game 1, brcause thats a much tougher question. Just about all the long running ones you can hop in wherever and be fine. Where you wanna start with Mario? Don’t matter. Whats the play for Final Fantasy? Probably whatever the recommenders first one was. Megaman? X, 0, or basic its nbd.
Yakuza is one I’d say you either start from the beginning (Technically Kiwami, but 0 is fine) or start at Like a Dragon (7, as it has a new protagonist)
Black Mesa, if you are playing through the half life franchise. Also, probably one of the best remakes ever. I can’t think of a remake better than the original, and I played HL and Black Mesa back to back to be sure.
You’re just upset because I dared to be critical of something you and the bandwagon enjoy.
“my opinion is unpopular, therefore i must be right” will never not be hilarious to me. but hey, go ahead and enjoy the metal gear games. i heard they are a bit underground, but that seems to suit your style
Okay but really I agree that Starfield is a mess. The thing is, nobody else has really delivered on the whole package yet. Ground and space combat, trading, and a narrative.
Mass effect and Freelancer gave two different sides of the coin and I think they’re the next closest.
+1 for that. One of the best space sims, despite its age, and my first contact with actual zero-g dogfighting (boost, turn off engine, rotate ship to try and hit the enemy)
I can’t believe (actually I can) that Microsoft didn’t base starfield’s space mechanics (and overall everything else) from Freelancer. The template to improve upon was right there.
Considering all the problems Bethesda had with simply making space work at all, I’m not surprised they didn’t even try to look into better games to copy from
I forgot to mention that part – yeah, the series is still alive, and fans have been waiting for that sequel from the original creators for what, 30 years now?
A game that meaningful should always be given a look, even if it can feel a bit “dated” in some ways.
I often see Star Control 2 mentioned as an inspiration for Mass Effect. How does Star Control compare to Mass Effect? Is there a set story or is it more of an emergent narrative?
There’s a set story, but it’s discovered. The world is wide open, and the player can go anywhere right at the start of the game. There’s minimal railroading at any point.
Unless I misunderstood what you meant by emergent narrative. The progression through the game requires the player to learn what to do by interacting with aliens and also exploring a bit. There is an in-game hint system (an alien dialogue tree with prices), but there are often multiple solutions to each “problem”. The player can even get through the game being good or evil – whatever they choose!
The game plays very differently than ME, but you’ll probably find the dialogue trees very familiar. And I think SC2 actually does them better than ME.
I too wish for a game like this but apparently it's impossible to do it, either due to lack of vision, budget or expertise (or all of the above). Starfield sounded perfect on paper and it was a good studio to attempt it but in the end it was just a bland, soulless, boring mess of a game.
As for my suggestions, I just got smaller games, not larger ,and in that vein honestly: FTL. It's a 2d sprite roguelike and yet it's the best game at giving me the feeling of being a scrappy starship captain on the run, trying to scrounge together resources in order to complete my trip despite overwhelming odds.
The second closest game is Starbound but your mileage will vary, it feels unfinished and there is no real story to speak off, although the ship you continually improve and build in over time as you explore the universe does start to feel cozy and homely. It is also basically a worse Terraria in space so if you don't like gameplay like that, skip.
If you like Mass Effect you ought to try KOTOR1 and 2, oldies but goldies, but they do have the same weaknesses you already outlined for ME, it's very much a set story.
Faster Than Light’s my jam! For me, it was dethroned from the throne of roguelite games by Slay the Spire.
Starbound was the first and last game I pre-ordered. I wish they would have stuck to the original vision with the survival mechanics. Thinking about it, Starbound is basically a proto-Starfield. The both promised an experience based on a different game (Terraria in space vs. Skyrim in space) that was undercut by the overuse of procedural generation. (Someone please create an 8 hour video essay about this.)
Yep, there are definitely many comparisons between Starbound and Starfield, it is why I was excited about SF in the first place - it looked like a big budget SB made by an experienced veteran team! The joke's on me I guess lol
In a similar vein, if you want to try something new check out starsector. You have to get it from their website currently but it’s a great game, lots of potential, lots of mods.
You can try to revive the sector, build your own mega corp, become a pirate, be a slaver, be an anti-slaver, gun running.
I've heard of it and tried to get into it a few times but I think I just lack the time/patience of my youth to get into something like that anymore, its a steep learning curve and you have to make most of the fun yourself / RP.
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