I have about 50 days played in my current server I have hosted… That server has only been up for about 1 years and 8-9 months. A good bit was AFK at farms though.
Jokes aside, imo, Skyrim, Starbound and Final Fantasy XII are great games to sink a long time. Of those, Skyrim I played the least due to life happening, but was enough to sink a few dozen hours already. Starbound easily surpassed the 600 hours for me, even if I barely use mods or played multiplayer. And Final Fantasy XII, on my first save I got to the final boss, I was nearing 300 hours already, and for a game originally on a 4.7 GB disc, it has a lot to do, so much so that, in that save, I was just starting to scratch past the surface.
I’d argue FF12’s content is primarily grinding, though. I liked the game, actually just beat it this summer. But, I was definitely ready to be done with it by the time the credits rolled. I finished with around 70 hours, I think. There are a lot of secrets and whatnot, I just wish their crafting/bazaar system wasn’t so tedious with its requirements.
Lots of good suggestions already, but what first came to my mind is Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. I’m not even into Final Fantasy and have only played a few tactical RPGs, but I fell into FFTA hard when it came out. The battle system was fun, with a little twist that there’s random laws you have to follow each fight (e.g. no attacking with staves) that can get a character arrested and taken out of the action after a warning. Nice music, cute art style, and a pretty good story as I recall.
Was my answer too. Absolutely phenomenal game. Don’t really have anything else to add to your points other than to encourage people to play it if they haven’t already. Great story, great gameplay, just an absolute classic.
Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap for GBA is my all time favorite from the series. It was made late in the gameboy development cycle, and feels miles ahead of other gba titles. Imo it’s the pinnacle of 2d Zelda.
Another great title is Fire Emblem. It’s not the first one, but a lot of them can be played out of order, and it’s tons of fun if you like turn based strategy.
Other mentions: Pokemon FireRed/LeafGreen, Pokemon Yellow/Blue, Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Legend of Zelda Oracle of Seasons/Ages, Link’s Awakening, Fire Emblem Sacred Stones, Final Fight One, and the Elden Ring demake
No love for Against the Storm? Technically it released 8th of December last year, but that’s not enough time for it to be able to get GotY for 2023, so it’s got to fit in here. (also I only played it after new years)
Other than that Balatro has got to be a strong contender for me. PoE2 is looking more and more likely to take it home next year for me.
Brighter Shores! It’s a new game by Andrew Gower on his new game engine (just came out last month).
It’s a point and click game similar to RuneScape that’s mostly a second screen game. It’s in early access and a lot will probably change in the coming months based on feedback (they’ve already confirmed they’re rethinking some of their combat design and adding action queuing).
Unlike RuneScape it’s been designed out of the gate to provide people with a way to engage without sinking a ton of time. You can do fully offline training in this game, so you can be gaining XP while you sleep.
The game runs like a dream, has a very well done sound track, tastefully simplistic graphics, and just generally is a cozy/feel good MMO with light humor and puns.
No micro transactions, generous amount of free to play content, and a $6/mo subscription for all content.
The last MMO I properly played was Black Desert Online. It is an absolutely amazing game but with disgusting monetisation. It did however also become a dangerous addiction in my life. It is currently free on steam I believe though!
Since that experience I haven’t really played any MMOs, I tried out Throne and Liberty a few weeks ago and that was the most boring couple of hours of my life this year.
As a huge Guild Wars 1 fan, GW2 was one of the biggest disappointments ever.
devs think Gen Z or whoever their audience is has no time to admire the view.
They are right about that. Most people these days, and especially young people, have zero attention span. They must always be doing something, lest they have a moment to examine their own thoughts. Go check out a big budget movie these days and observe how often the scene cuts. Compare it with something from 20 or even 10 years ago. Attention spans have been shrinking for decades now.
This is an interesting take because I would expect the complete opposite. I find it extremely tedious when AAA games force the player into situations where they have to climb or walk slowly so they can pan the camera to whatever fancy graphical set piece their art team made, and more time doing that then any gameplay. Why not just watch a movie at that point?
When playing a game I want a game. It’d be incredibly frustrating if every time I solved a square in Sudoku I had to then watch an episode of a TV show. Heartening to hear AAA is swinging back the other way and wasting less time.
bin.pol.social
Ważne