@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.
I’ve owned every PlayStation generation since the original. I don’t consider myself a Sony stan, but with the exception of the Xbox 360, I’ve felt each generation of the various PSX’s have had a better lineup for my tastes. (Halo is great, though)
This time around, not so much. After three years, I have purchased five titles for my PS5. And, by FAR, the game that gets the most play is my PS4-version of Minecraft, so my kids can play multiplayer.
If you’ve got money to burn, I’d recommend a Steam Deck + Dock and a Bluetooth controller of your choice instead. Most of the same games will run on either platform, with the advantages of PC gaming - mods, forward compatibility, access to the MASSIVE Steam store and library…
Alternately the Switch has had a great lineup of first party titles - as usual. Just pickup a pro controller too, the “joycons” develop drift so fast it’s not even funny. Every single joycon I’ve purchased (six pairs over five years) has developed drift in under a year. I know I can get them repaired, but at this point, I’m over it. Just buy a pro controller and have done with it.
(If anybody is curious, my five PS5 titles are
Spider-Man: Miles Morales
Spider-Man 2
Sackboy’s Big Adventure
Jedi Survivor
Diablo IV
All but one are available on PC. I bought the Spiderman games before the PC ports arrived. Jedi survivor had a bad port at launch and I really wanted to play it. And Diablo IV I was able to pick up used for cheaper than the PC price. …let’s just say that after hundred plus hours in D3, I’m glad I didn’t pay full price for D4.
I do also pay for PlayStation Plus, where I’ve downloaded and played a few dozen indie titles, all of which are also on PC.)
Let’s put it this way. Split screen was a mostly console exclusive feature before some genius decided to kill it off. Locking multiplayer behind a pay wall at some point was also the stupidest idea I’ve ever seen.
Most new titles for consoles are exactly as enjoyable on PC. The experience is almost identical. Companies prefer it this way too.
They can make a nice exclusive and release it for PC 2 years later to reap double the profit.
The above has me thinking that consoles are becoming a niche. I’d just get a steam deck for portable gaming and a play pass for the exclusives not yet available on PC.
Diablo 3: Season 30 - Season 30 started this week, so I've been working on leveling up my monk and completing Chapter 1 objectives.
Alan Wake 2 - Finished the game, and now I'm debating on going thru again on The Final Draft (aka new game plus) instead of moving on to Dead Space. I heard the beginning and end were slightly different and that there were extra manuscripts and videos to be found, plus I only have two achievements left, so why not go for 100%? Besides, I loved it. Remedy has been building a universe, and I can't wait to see what they come up with next. There's nothing that I've played from them that I haven't loved so far.
::: spoiler 🔦💥
There is a bit towards the end where you play as Alan and you're going through the forest and it had the original music from the first game. I didn't think this game would make me tear up, but it did during that section. I would love to see the original Alan Wake overhauled with the new engine. It would be phenomenal.
:::
I've only just started doing the dungeons, since I've only been playing for two weeks, but so far I'm not a big fan. It feels like there's only a few environments, not enough monster density, and the occasional backtracking is also boring (pretty short though, to be fair).
Diablo 3 has technically even less variety with its rifts, since it's just kill demons until a boss spawns, but it's just packed, and I loved blasting through tons of enemies. Although in a multiplayer session, when one player is just destroying everything at mach 2, and you're just waddling behind them, that's arguably worse (I played mostly solo or some friends, doing public sessions to farm bounties or materials).
The open world events, Helltide or Blood Harvest are a bit like the D3 rifts, just not as many enemies, but still really fun. It's a bummer that you can't just keep doing that, if you want to keep progressing your character.
Getting better Sigils is kind of a pain, since it's just RNG drops. I could easily do higher tier dungeons, but have to wait for them to drop. At least you're kinda guaranteed to get at least one Sigil on your current level I guess, so you don't have to move down. Now that I'm writing this, I gotta check if I can craft some higher tier ones, last time I was missing some materials, maybe it's not as bad.
Yeah I'm not a huge fan of the Nightmare Dungeons myself; the only reason to go through them is get glyph upgrades. It seems they rotate which dungeons become Nightmare ones each season, so I've been slowly working on a list of which I can go through the fastest so I can focus on other stuff.
iirc the Tree of Whispers is a guaranteed drop for sigils, but from what I've found they're usually lower tiered then what I want so I end up salvaging them anyway.
I was also dumb with getting higher level Sigils. The first option at the crafter was for some special thing, where I didn't have all the mats back then, and the next one was 20-25 (incidentally my own tier, when I first looked), but I just didn't scroll down. I can in fact craft up to tier 100, so at least that part doesn't seem as bad. Skipping a bunch of these lower tiers should speed up leveling the glyphs at least a bit.
bin.pol.social
Aktywne