check out Supreme Commander, it’s a game from the erra of good RTSes, and I think has some of the features you’re taking about, e.g. beforehand of multiple bases, automation… you can do things like produce x units, send them to this area, have them start doing this patrol, etc. You can pause the game, to make these orders too. My favorite gimmick though, is that the map is zoomable, from a classic here’s your dudes and tanks view, up into a strategic view with icons representing everything. This also opens up the ability to have units be different sizes. vehicles are appropriately larger than infantry, and you can have giant mechs to which other units are literally ants.
Going to go out of the shooter box here and say Valheim. I am pretty sure it’s cross compatible with xbox and pc/steam deck. Might not be the thing though if you are just all wanting to pvp, but thought I would throw it out there.
one thing i’d be interested in: is it possible to make a fun 4X-style game that challenges the very premises of 4X (which are mostly patterned after the models of expansion we’re familiar with in the West)?
I think it would probably become “2X” in that case, given the “exploit” and “exterminate” parts. :P
Against the Storm is sort of a citybuilder/ 4X hybrid, that’s all about a bunch of fantasy species (humans, beavers, lizards, foxes, and harpies) working together to reclaim the world from this (un)natural blight.
The Bustling World is an RPG/ Citybuilder/ 4X hybrid that looks pretty interesting, but is not out yet.
I can’t really think of a 4X that leans towards the Grand Strategy side, that isn’t pretty combat-heavy. Distant Worlds: Universe can be played without focusing on combat, but it’s definitely still there.
If you want pausable combat and a logistics focus, the Hearts of Iron games might be interesting to you. They're pseudo-real-time in that things happen on an counter that ticks forward once per in-game hour of the day (so the results of two units fighting, a diplomatic message being sent, construction on a building), but you can speed up, slow down, or pause however you wish. If you want to zip along at a few seconds of real time per day in game, cool. Want to slow things down to a few seconds per in game hour instead? Also fine. Need to pause while you read a description? Also fine.
I’ve recently noticed that the tactical shooter genre has kinda fallen out of favor. Games like ghost recon, socom navy seals etc. Aren’t being made anymore. I think it’s a shame that some genres go dormant for a while.
But more than that, I just want to see developers take more risks again. Indie games have been the exception here, but I remember there being so many unique games in the early 2000’s.
Ready or Not is a thing and quite popular, although I haven’t tried it myself. As far as I know, it’s the closest to the old SWAT games and not exactly a low-budget Indie title. Similarly, covering the military side of things, there’s Six Days in Fallujah, which is considerably more aggressive and action-heavy than the titles of old, but similarly punishing.
And, although not as thoroughly fleshed out as Ready or Not, and not multiplayer, Black One : Blood Brothers looks interesting enough to follow. It’s basically the bones of the first Ghost Recon with modern assets. I’ve not played it yet but it’s in my library.
I’ve played 8.2 hours of BO:BB according to Steam, and it feels much closer to the OG Ghost Recon ( +Desert Siege and Island Thunder)… BUT right now the AI is pretty mediocre (and often breaks entirely and enemies just sort of stand there), and the shooting doesn’t feel as good as Ready or Not.
Incursion: Red River is a singleplayer + co-op extraction shooter that feels very Ghost Recon.
Bring back versus puzzle games. Puyo Puyo is more or less the only surviving IP today, and even that is only barely on life support now that Sega has banished it to Apple Arcade exclusivity.
The whole damn genre lies in ruins now and I miss it so much. Someone, anyone, make a new game please.
You will need games that have crossplay between PC and Xbox One so you can play together across different platforms. Multiple people have suggested Left 4 Dead 2, but that doesn’t have crossplay. Most of the shooters I personally play don’t have it, but there definitely are shooters with crossplay.
Here are my recommendations that have crossplay:
Borderlands 3 — Collect wacky guns, travel the universe, and shoot bad guys together. The previous games in the series don’t have crossplay.
…Yeah, that’s it for crossplay shooters I recommend. For crossplay games that aren’t shooters:
Overcooked! All You Can Eat — Chaotic co-op cooking. Work together to prepare, cook, and serve food in increasingly absurd scenarios: in the middle of the highway, on an iceberg, in a hot air balloon that crashes into a different restaurant.
Ultimate Chicken Horse — Platformer where you build the levels together and then race to the finish. You only score if someone died, so you need to make the level extra dangerous.
Moving Out 2 — Goofy co-op game where your group plays as a ridiculously reckless moving company. Carry furniture from the house and shove or throw it into the truck. No one will notice if you break all the windows.
If everyone is on PC, things will open up a good bunch. Old-school networked games generally still work. You can go FFA deathmatch in your old favourites or in newer arena shooters, like Warsow or Disco Dodgeball.
The Borderlands 1 GOTY Enhanced edition has cross play I believe, and so does Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, which imo is actually incredibly fun to play. Halo has cross play now, MCC and Infinite.
I believe Sea of Thieves has cross play, but I’m not entirely sure how much mileage they’ll get out of it.
I want a VR shooter that actually uses the tech interestingly. Give me sections of Zero G with full 6dof. Give me quirky weapons with panels you slide open when they overheat and barrels that twist to change firing mode. Give me abilities that I could only use with a virtual pair of hands, like slingshotting grenades without dropping my primary or reaching into things to grab loot. And make the gunplay feel like Pavlov because it’s the best.
Easy enough, right? 😅
Edit: also use eye tracking to make the horror better
More minecraft open source clones. or a modded community version of mc that works without microsoft. The game belongs to the community and I think we should take it back from the corporation.
Most of them are cash grabs or cheap knock offs. I want more voxel games that are built with passion that can stop microsofts monopoly. An alternative I think would be cool is the community modding microsoft out of minecraft with special accounts that do not rely on microsoft. Luanti aka Minetest looks promising as an alternative.
VoxeLibre is a game that can be installed in Luanti engine. It will make sense once you open Luanti since the first thing it prompts you to do is install a game from its game library. VoxeLibre is one of the first listed.
I’m a huge fan of Borderlands so would recommend that and I’m also a huge fan of Halo, the Master Cheif Collection is an absolute bargain considering what you get. Your brother with the Xbox will need to get Game Pass of some sort to join in for any games that are not free to play. Halo Infinite is free to play and has a PvE game mode, if that tickles your fancy.
If you want to play against each other, there's always fighting games, if you're into that. I'd recommend Guilty Gear Strive, Street Fighter 6, and Tekken 8, which are the most popular fighting games right now. There's also Mortal Kombat 1 but I haven't played it, so I can't comment on it.
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