There’s probably a lot of nostalgia in the choice, but my all time favorite game is Quest for Glory: So You Want to be a Hero. The game was just the right mix of fantasy, adventure and humor for a young me, and I still go back an play it about once a year. A close second is Valheim. It’s kinda my “cozy game”. I find building and exploring relaxing, and there’s enough fighting to keep the game from getting boring.
Oh my god. I NEVER see someone else suggest Quest for Glory in this kind of post, and I am SO HERE FOR IT! I was introduced to it when it was still Hero’s Quest (and EGA) but have played and replayed the entire series many many times over the decades since. Once I managed to get 500/500 puzzle points, by playing a thief that had every skill unlocked and doing all the various side quests.
Perhaps it comes as no surprise that Valheim is also my close second. I’ve got over 4K hours in that one, spread across many characters and worlds, and I just keep going back for more. Heck, I once found a patch of Meadows surrounded on 3 sides by Mountains, and with a narrow strip of Black Forest connecting it the the rest of the island and I build an homage to Spielburg in the middle!
I was introduced to it when it was still Hero’s Quest (and EGA)
This is the version I always play. There’s something just “right” about the EGA graphics and text parser. A clicky interface will never replicate:
Hut of brown, now sit down
I can‘t really pinpoint one game, it‘s easier for me to list a top 5ish in no particular order (but even then I‘ll probably answer differently in a month from now when I remember games I‘m forgetting about right now). It goes something like this:
Crusader Kings III
Monster Hunter World/Wilds (the latter if it didn‘t run like shit)
Nioh 2
Rocket League (haven‘t played it in years though)
HITMAN
maybe League of Legends if it still was season 7 lol (haven‘t played that in a while either)
Counterstrike 1.6
Dark Souls II (my first soulslike that I played on release with an active online population, so I have the fondest memories of this one, DS1 and its awful PC port was nothing to make fond memories with for me)
Seems like I‘m a competitive/challenging game enjoyer, but not the „1v1 no-hit bosses“-kind, I enjoy all of these games most in coop if they support it. Overcoming challenges together is my thing.
CK3 is really cool. It’s completely spoiled me on games like Civilization now. Being able to play as a person instead of some abstract concept of your empire is so fascinating to me. Things like worrying about how your child’s holdings will look once you die based on succession is fun.
I always thought CIV was „that game“ for me until I played CK3 and realized that what CK3 does was what I had looked for in CIV but had never really gotten
For me it was seeing people say that the character mechanics of Total War: Three Kingdoms were like a watered down version of CK. I hadn’t heard of it before. CK2 was the latest at the time and the UI in it is awful. Luckily CK3 came out soon.
My nostalgia faves are still The Longest Journey and Grim Fandango. My love of stories told with games started here. I do need to think about what my all time favorites are, though. That's a big question.
oh man, The Longest Journey has been on my todo list for eternities. Ages ago I was being a pixel-peeping-perfectionist and I hated the aliasing on the character models - but now that ScummVM does the game perfectly I really have no reason to wait… but… here we are.
Since the game is dear to you, how about some motivational sales pitch for it? Why should I drop everything else and go play the game right now? :D
One thing I really loved about it was even though the character models were as weird looking as you'd expect from the era, the backgrounds were beautiful and when i played it years later with more modern sensibilities, I still was fond of them. The story took advantage of the fact that the main character was an artist, so there were a number of colorful or visually interesting segments.
The whole experience felt so vast, and even not being a child any more (which can make stories seem vast because of your own imagination), there still feels like there's a lot to both worlds. And history to characters, just out of view.
It also lives up pretty well to its name. There's a lot of it. A lot of lore and locations and puzzles. Some of the puzzles are obtuse to the extreme, and silly. There's one that's almost legendarily bad, so it has that bit of history if you're interested lol.
It's tough to say what's nostalgia and what's my preference and what's genuinely great. You'd probably have to play it to find out!
the character models were as weird looking as you’d expect from the era
Oh sure! Love the lowpoly/pre-rendered backgrounds aesthetic. The aliasing thing I mentioned earlier is just a “petpeeve” of mine, I can’t stand the jagged edges / lack of antialiasing. The rough pixel edges of the modes look so out of place when the pre-rendered backgrounds are so smoothly antialiased.
Though, there’s an argument to be made that when playing in modern high resolution, the character models are a lot sharper than the upscaled/blurry backgrounds :D
Some of the puzzles are obtuse to the extreme, and silly. There’s one that’s almost legendarily bad, so it has that bit of history if you’re interested lol.
I guess same goes for pretty much every point&click adventure game, sometimes you just need to be in the same “headspace” as the puzzle designer to get it, otherwise you just don’t.
But, sure I’m down for some history of a bad puzzle! I love obscure tidbits of old games.
The Witcher 3, followed by the Mass Effect trilogy (I consider it as a whole)
And honestly, Cyberpunk 2077 could complete the top 3
But if I have to consider multiplayer games, with 3000+ hours on Warframe (considering I haven’t touched it for years), I guess it could also be considered my favorite (I think I also spent 1000h on ME3 multi)
I saw one comment on Steam: “I hope so because it really made no sense at all selling the game at its current price. I feel I didn’t really pay enough given the typical cost of games”.
Eagle Dynamics would like to have such fans in DCS.
Plenty of G*mers out there who would gladly just give their wallet over to their favorite developer/publisher. Even here on Lemmy. I even got downvoted for telling someone that no one was forcing them to buy the next new console when it comes out, and they replied that yes they will if their partner finds out about a particular new game. I was flabbergasted.
It doesn’t surprise me at all. In fact I’ve seen other similar comments on other steam games that people like riding the dick of.
Kunos has built a lot of good will in the community with the modability of AC and long term support for both AC and ACC. The AC Evo early access has been real clunky but they earned their fans and their understanding.
Reminds me of Bethesda's storefront for paid mods that they tried out for Skyrim's special edition in 2023. Hopefully they don't pull a bait-and-switch on their players and it's just a platform for free mods.
There are a lot of paid mods for the original AC, so I expect that will be part of it. However, I do think that there are two other reasons for the devs to want to host a platform of their own:
Being able to remove content ripped from other games, which will help keep them out of trouble
Giving users the option to automatically download the mods necessary to join a multiplayer game
Great list. But I love reading trough the reasoning behind the picks. What are yours?
Personally I think outer wilds is a one of a kind game which represents am artistic message about existence that cannot be conveyed the same way in any other medium.
I think the common denominator is a strong / immersive story and universe that appeals to me (big fan of sf), interesting mechanics and gameplay in a way that makes the game unique in its own way, and the artistic approach behind the game, so for each of those :
Outer Wilds was a fantastic experience that you can only live once, the freedom of exploration is crazy, the feelings you can go through in the span of a single minute make it so memorable, I connected with this game like no other
Death Stranding I played during one of the lockdowns, and after hiking in Iceland, it was a continuity of these two experiences that felt very personal. It was also my introduction to Kojima games. I found it to be such a premium experience and statement about video games, I loved the insanity of the plot, and once you dug deeper, you find all the artistic inspiration and process that went behind the game, it’s an insane work of interactive art
Disco Elysium I was already fully on board just learning about the game, I sympathise with the authors, the fact that it started as an rpg campaign, with immense lore behind it, love the art style, the narration, the story and its themes, I haven’t lived in post USSR Europe but the game make me nostalgic/melancholic for a time, aesthetic, struggles I didn’t know
They’re my absolute favourite but some games come close, Inscryption, Pyre, Spiritfarer…
Great points. One think I love about disco is how much expression it gives to the mundane. It’s not about firebreathing dragons but about trashcans. My most intense interaction I’ve had in this game was with a malfunctioning speaker on a office building.
I wish more people would play The Hex. I got more playtime out of Inscryption and loved it, but I played The Hex later on and I did not expect to like it more, but it’s fucking genius. I think it’s a legitimately better game.
I’m processing some heavy grief at the moment so I snagged a copy of Spiritfarer during the Spring sale, it gives me a cozy feeling when I play. Was pretty deep into Resident Evil Village but needed a break. Also, I’m kind of always playing Skyrim to some degree hahaha
Nostalgia and all-time enjoyment, probably Pokémon Gen 2 / Remakes (Silver / Gold / Crystal / SoulSilver / HeartGold). I consider them all one game of different “flavours”. If I had to choose one I’d probably go with SoulSilver. The remakes added some much needed modern conveniences, and having your Pokémon follow you around in the overworld was awesome.
Pure “this game is so good”, probably Elden Ring. Before the DLC I’d probably go with Dark Souls III because of Gael and Friede, but Shadow of the Erdtree blew me away.
Most hours played, Skyrim at over 5,000. HITMAN is in second place at a bit over 1,300.
Oh man, same problem. I can’t decide what I like more there are just too many good ones. The Witcher 3 is definitely up there for me too, but then I think about Red Dead Redemption 2 and how insanely detailed that world is, and I start second-guessing everything. Then there’s Elden Ring, which just blew my mind with how massive and rewarding it felt to explore. But if I want something more casual, I always go back to Stardew Valley or Hollow Knight both just have that perfect mix of chill and challenge. And of course, Mass Effect 2 still holds a special place in my heart. Also, I like to play online pokies from time to time. This page has some pretty cool no deposit bonus options if you’re into that kind of thing.
What kind of games do you find yourself replaying the most? Do you go back to the same favorites, or do you always try to play something new?
And yet they’ll grip that game right out of your library whenever they want to. The world that people complain about is the world they go wrong with. Once the fuckery started, that’s when I stopped giving these companies money. I haven’t bought a video game for probably decades.
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